ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 128 of 234

RX140 microcontrollers bring advance touch sensing to home and industry

Thu, Sep 30, 2021

Renesas Electronics has announced low power RX140 microcontrollers which are claimed to improve noise tolerance and sensing accuracy, with improved performance and power efficiency than the company’s RX130 group of microcontrollers.

The low power, 32bit microcontrollers are the latest addition to the entry-level RX100 Series. They are built around Renesas’ powerful RXv2 CPU core, and operate at up to 48MHz with a CoreMark score of 204, equivalent to approximately twice the processing performance of the RX130 group. The RX140 MCUs also boost power efficiency by over 30 per cent compared with RX130 microcontrollers, achieving power consumption as low as 56 microA/MHz when the CPU is in active mode and as low as 0.25 microA in standby mode. The RX140 microcontrollers can be used in home appliances, industrial and building automation.

The RX140 microcontrollers have capacitive touch sensing units, offering customers an enhanced user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). They also fulfill the IEC EN61000-4-3 level 4 (radiated) and EN61000-4-6 level 3 (conducted) capacitive touch noise tolerance requirements. This proves they are less susceptible to electromagnetic noise, allowing them to detect changes in water level by directly measuring changes in capacitance through high-precision sensing.

Built-in multi-scan functionality and automated sensing enable customers to improve sensitivity through simultaneous measurement using multiple electrodes. This allows for automatic touch detection even in standby mode, for touchless operation or proximity sensing.

The RX140 microcontrollers are part of Renesas’ RX capacitive touch microcontroller offering and are suitable for use in home appliances such as microwave ovens, refrigerators, and induction heat cooking stoves, as well as manufacturing equipment, building control panels, and devices that can detect remaining quantities of water or powder on surfaces.

The RX140 microcontrollers also feature improved peripheral functions. For example, the number of I/O ports has been increased to allow control of more sensors or external components, and CAN communication support for real-time operation has been added. A built-in AES encryption accelerator and true random number generator (TRNG) reduce the risks of security threats such as data leakage or manipulation.

The RX140 microcontrollers maintain pin compatibility with the RX130 for ease of upgrades.

Renesas also introduced the Target Board for RX140, which provides access to all signal pins, for initial evaluation work. The board is equipped with a Pmod connector to allow easy connection of sensor modules. To simplify evaluation of capacitive touch applications even further, Renesas plans to introduce the Capacitive Touch Evaluation System for RX140 (Note 1). Customers can use the RX140 devices with the e2 studio integrated development environment (IDE), the Smart Configurator code generation support tool, and the QE for Capacitive Touch support tool to shorten development time, reduce the total cost, and improve software quality.

The RX140 group of MCUs is available now in 32- to 64-pin packages with 64kbyte of flash memory. Mass production for additional configurations and memory sizes over 128KB will be available starting in February 2022.

http://www.renesas.com

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LoRa may hold the key to zero carbon tracking technology

Wed, Sep 29, 2021

Maintenance-free, energy harvesting can be used for zero carbon asset management. Analogue and mixed-signal semiconductor company, Semtech,

Ryoden, a LoRa ecosystem and network provider have used the RE microcontroller family from Renesas to connect directly to the LoRa Cloud using Semtech’s LoRa Edge platform (LR1110).

LoRa Edge allows for geolocation capabilities driven by energy harvesting, the battery-free energy solution. It also has security features, making it suitable for tracking of personal valuables, transportation and logistics, animals, and healthcare equipment and assets.

Dr. Shiro Kamohara, senior principal specialist from Renesas’ low power product department, says: “The energy harvesting RE family represents the evolution of microcontroller products that have the advantages of being maintenance-free while keeping top-class efficiency. Through our collaboration with Semtech, we are able to offer a cost-efficient green energy solution for our customers.”

The energy-efficient RE family microcontroller is based on the Arm Cortex M0+. It has a built-in controller which can make a battery-less, maintenance-free product. It also has security capabilities that are critical to the IoT and can help protect IoT embedded devices from viral infections and eavesdropping.

When integrated with Semtech’s LR1110, the power consumption of the product is reduced, reports Semtech. Semtech’s LoRa device-to-Cloud platform enables the rapid development and deployment of low power, cost-efficient and long range IoT networks, gateways, sensors, module products, and IoT services worldwide. Semtech’s LoRa technology provides the communication layer for the LoRaWAN standard, which is maintained by the LoRa Alliance, an open IoT alliance for low power wide area network (LPWAN) applications that has been used to deploy IoT networks in over 100 countries. Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance.

“With the low power nature and end-to-end security of the LoRa Edge platform, the embedded LoRa Basics Modem-E native modem software operating on the LoRaWAN standard, and the LoRa Cloud geolocation and device and application services, the Renesas RE Family is one of the most power-efficient MCUs available on the market,” says Sree Durbha, director of product management in Semtech’s wireless and sensing products group.

Target applications for the LoRa Edge platform with Renesas RE include asset management, tracking of goods through the supply chain and several other use cases requiring continuous indoor or outdoor tracking.

Ryoden is a member of the Mitsubishi Electric Group and is a LPWAN (low power wide area network) communication carrier. It provides data communication services that utilise IoT devices. In addition, the company manages and operates network servers as a network service provider for LoRaWAN communications, and provides related applications and support services.

http://www.renesas.com

http://www.semtech.com

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Siemens enter the IC power analysis market with mPower software

Wed, Sep 29, 2021

Power integrity software from Siemens is claimed to be the only power integrity analysis software available for analogue, digital and mixed-signal IC designs of any size. mPower helps IC designers dramatically boost quality, enhance reliability and speed time to market through accelerated power integrity analysis cycles, says Siemens Digital Industries Software.

The IC power integrity verification software provides virtually unlimited scalability for analogue, digital, and mixed-signal ICs, enabling comprehensive power, electromigration (EM) and voltage drop (IR) analysis for large IC designs.

mPower software delivers power integrity analysis for all versions of 2D designs, in addition to 2.5/3D IC implementations at any scale. It also integrates into existing design flows easily, adds Siemens. mPower can help IC designers to quickly and thoroughly verify designs to meet power-related design goals.

Analog ICs convert physical, data such as sound, motion and video into digital form, and they are increasingly critical to consumer electronics, autonomous vehicles, IoT designs. Siemens explains how mPower replaces rough static analysis and SPICE simulation of select nets to deliver simulation-based EM/IR analysis on large blocks and chips. Customers using mPower have seen overall runtime improvements compared with their current solution, ranging from two times faster to actually completing first-pass EM/IR analysis of large analogue IP blocks, which was previously impossible, reports Siemens.

Siemens’ digital mPower scalable EM/IR engines also provide analysis for all-digital IC designs. This integrates into existing design flows, provides power analysis functionality and requires low per-machine memory into complete verification of even the largest digital design, says the company.

“Before using mPower, we could not do a single-run full chip EM/IR analysis on our 1000+ core 64-bit RISC-V AI chip,” said Darren Jones, vice president of VLSI at AI computer developer, Esperanto. “Using mPower enables us to run our 24-billion transistor 7nm AI chip on our server farm with fewer resources,“ he adds.

The mPower power integrity joins Siemens‘ electro-physical signoff suite addressing power, performance, and reliability analysis which also includes Calibre PERC reliability software, PowerPro software, HyperLynx software, and the Analog FastSPICE platforms.

“Design companies must run both block and full-chip EM/IR analysis to confirm that the power grid delivers the necessary current to the devices, and that wires will not fail prematurely,” says Joe Sawicki, executive vice president for Siemens’ IC EDA Segment. He believes mPower provides a fast, scalable dynamic analysis option for analogue, digital and mixed-signal layouts of any size, as well as silicon-proven accuracy and fast turns for even the largest digital chips, he says.”

Siemens’ mPower power integrity analysis solution for analog, digital and mixed-signal IC designs is available now.

http://www.sw.siemens.com

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Nanopower primary cell monitors battery health

Tue, Sep 28, 2021

Designed to be placed in series with a primary battery with minimal associated series voltage drop, the LTC3337 is a nanopower primary (non-rechargeable) cell state of health (SoH) monitor with precision coulomb counter, by Analog Devices.

The patented infinite dynamic range coulomb counter monitors and tallies all accumulated battery discharge (battery voltage, battery impedance and temperature) and stores this data in an internal register which is accessible via an I2C interface. The quiescent current consumption is only 100nA, increasing battery run time.

To accommodate a wide range of primary battery inputs, the peak input current limit is pin selectable from 5.0 to 100mA. This enables the IC to present the battery with a load profile which allows it to deliver its maximum capacity, independent of the actual load. This “battery friendly” operation prolongs the lifetime of the cell.

The LTC3337 has eight primary battery peak input current limits, i.e. 5.0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75 and 100mA. It is intended for use in primary cell applications that require only occasional power such as applications in remote locations, electronic door locks, or glass break detectors. The monitor may also be used in rechargeable battery cell applications.

The 12-lead 2.0 x 2.0mm LFCSP device is available for sampling and is in full production now.

Analog Devices has a suite of analogue and mixed signal, power management, radio frequency (RF), and digital and sensor technologies, serving customers worldwide operating in the industrial, communications, automotive and consumer markets.

http://www.analog.com

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RX140 microcontrollers bring advance touch sensing to home and industry

LoRa may hold the key to zero carbon tracking technology

Siemens enter the IC power analysis market with mPower software

Nanopower primary cell monitors battery health

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