ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 185 of 227

STMicroelectronics adds wireless support to smart meter chipset

Wed, Nov 13, 2019

The ST8500 smart-meter chipset from STMicroelectronics now integrates both RF and PLC communication. At this week’s European Utility Week 2019, ADD Grup, a European smart-metering, announces hybrid PLC/wireless products that contain the enhanced ST8500 chipset.

ST’s ST8500 powerline communication (PLC) chipset now enables smart meters to communicate through existing power cables or radio frequency (RF) waves, combining the strengths of both types of connection.

Where power lines may be too noisy for PLC, or where local regulations dictate, equipment makers can now implement wireless and PLC quickly and efficiently using the ST8500, explains ST. In addition, the built-in RF capability lets equipment designers leverage the ST8500’s feature integration and ease of use in smart devices such as gas and water smart meters, environmental monitors, lighting controllers, and industrial sensors.

By embedding support for RF Mesh at the physical (PHY) layer and in the data-link layer (media access control, MAC, and 6LoWPAN) firmware, the ST8500 allows developers to leverage the strengths of combined powerline and wireless mesh networking for communication between smart nodes and data collectors. Unlike simple point-to-point links, hybrid mesh networking interconnects nodes extensively to create more reliable and fault-tolerant connections and extend communication distances, adds ST.

“With wireless support now fully integrated in the ST8500 firmware, ST’s chipset . . . .[will] enhance network performance, reliability, capacity, and scalability for our innovative electricity meters,” said Ruslan Casico, head of sales and marketing at ADD Grup. “The hybrid PLC/wireless connectivity is credited for ADD Grup winning “important metering projects” in EMEA, Russia, and Asia.

Domenico Arrigo, general manager, industrial and power conversion, STMicroelectronics, added, “By supporting RF communication alongside the leading PLC protocols, our market-proven chipset enables smart city and industry infrastructures worldwide to deliver more of their potential for saving the planet’s resources and enhancing control and efficiency.”

ST will exhibit its ST8500 chipset and demonstrate smart-meter, smart-home and -building, and smart-infrastructure customer solutions at European Utility Week in Paris, France (12 to 14 November) Stand J160.

http://www.st.com

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Low-latency PHY technology prepares for industry 4.0

Wed, Nov 13, 2019

Industrial Ethernet physical layer (PHY) products released by Analog Devices help manufacturers address industry 4.0 and smart factory communication challenges around data integration, synchronisation, edge connectivity, and system interoperability.

At SPS later this month, the company will be showcasing the ADIN1300 low-power, single port Ethernet transceiver. It has industry leading power and latency specifications, claims the company and is primarily designed for time-critical industrial Ethernet applications up to Gigabit speeds.

It has 10BASE-Te/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T IEEE 802.3-compliant MII, RMII and RGMII MAC interfaces with 330mW consumption (1000BASE-T) and 290 nano second 1000BASE-T RGMII latency (receive and transmit). It complies to several EMC test standards, including IEC 61000-4-5 surge (±4kV), IEC 61000-4-2 ESD (±6kV contact discharge), IEC 61000-4-6 conducted immunity (10V) and EN55032 radiated emissions (Class A) and EN55032 conducted emissions (Class A). It is packaged in a 40-lead, 6.0 x 6.0mm LFCSP.

The ADIN1300 is designed to operate in harsh industrial conditions and over extended ambient temperature ranges, mirroring the trend for industrial automation to increasingly adopt the Ethernet and increase data rates.

ADIN1300 is the latest technology developed for the Analog Devices’ Chronous industrial Ethernet solutions. The Chronous portfolio includes the ADIN1200, a low-power single port 10/100 robust Ethernet PHY for real-time industrial Ethernet networks. Other products include a range of advanced industrial Ethernet technologies from real-time Ethernet switches, PHY transceivers and protocol processing to complete network interface products.

ADIN1300 targets industrial Ethernet applications as motion control, factory automation, building automation, test and measurement and the IIoT.

ADI will be exhibiting ADIN1300 and other ADI Chronous Ethernet portfolio solutions at SPS ( 26 to 28 November) in Nuremberg, Germany, Hall 5, 129.

http://www.analog.com

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PCIe packet switches are automotive-qualified for telematics and ADAS

Wed, Nov 06, 2019

The PI7C9X2G304EVQ and PI7C9X2G404EVQ PCIe 2.0 packet switches packet switches are automotive-compliant for use in telematics/ADAS, navigation systems, in-vehicle wireless routers, and emerging applications such as V2V and V2X communications. They offer three-ports/four-lanes and four-ports/four-lanes, respectively.

The switches are designed to increase the fan-out of PCIe ports on SoCs, ASSPs, microprocessors and FPGAs to support these advanced features in the automotive industry. Both the PI7C9X2G304EVQ and PI7C9X2G404EVQ are qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 2, and have an operating temperature range of -40 to +105 degrees C. They are manufactured in IATF 16949-certified facilities.

Interoperability at the system level is guaranteed, confirms Diodes, through compliance with the PCI-SIG PCIe Rev 2.1 standard.

Advanced features include an integrated clock buffer and support for peer-to-peer traffic, delivering greater system performance. The low-power operation is complemented by link power management, including active-state power management L0 and L1, device-state power management D0, D3Hot and D3Cold. Power dissipation in L0 is 300mW (typical), dropping to 35mW in PCI-PM L1.1 D3Hot PM sub-state mode.

Latency for a packet running through the switch without blocking is 150nanoseconds, and latency tolerance reporting improves platform power management. While the default mode is cut-through, store and forward modes are also supported. Peer-to-peer traffic is enabled through access control service support.

Diodes manufactures and supplies application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic, analogue and mixed-signal semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets, supplying diodes, rectifiers, transistors, MOSFETs, protection devices, function-specific arrays, single gate logic, amplifiers and comparators, Hall-effect and temperature sensors, power management devices, including LED drivers, AC/DC converters and controllers, DC/DC switching and linear voltage regulators, and voltage references along with special function devices, such as USB power switches, load switches, voltage supervisors, and motor controllers. Diodes also has timing, connectivity, switching, and signal integrity solutions for high-speed signals.

http://www.diodes.com

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Audio ADC quadruples far-field voice capture distance

Wed, Nov 06, 2019

Engineers can now achieve a 120dB dynamic range for clear, high-fidelity audio in smart home applications, says Texas Instruments (TI) as it introduces the TLV320ADC5140audio ADC. It can capture clear audio up to four times farther away than competing devices, claims TI. The TLV320ADC5140 is the industry’s smallest quad-channel audio ADC with this level of performance, says the company. It is part of a family of three TI Burr-Brown audio ADCs that enable low-distortion audio recordings in loud environments and far-field, high-fidelity recordings in any environment.

In smart home systems, a limited number of microphones and restricted signal processing capability make it difficult to capture and understand voice commands in loud environments. To meet this challenge, the TLV320ADC5140 enables engineers to improve audio capture from across rooms and boost recognition of soft-spoken commands in applications such as high-end smart speakers, sound bars, wireless speakers, high definition TVs, IP network cameras, tele-conferencing systems and smart appliances.

The TLV320ADC5140 provides clear audio capture in any environment in beamforming systems, says TI. It has a built-in 120dB dynamic range enhancer (DRE). At a system level, the DRE scheme boosts low-volume audio signals while maintaining low-distortion recordings, even at close proximity to the speaker output. The DRE also improves far-field, high-fidelity recordings in all environments.

The TLV320ADC5140 is believed to be the first ADC that fully supports the latest high signal-to-noise-ratio microphones with greater than 106dB dynamic range.

Up to four analogue or eight digital microphones can be converted and programmable features such as gain and phase calibration can equalise microphone-array mismatches. Other features include a programmable gain amplifier, high-pass filters, channel mixing, and linear phase or ultra-low-latency decimation filters.

The TLV320ADC5140 enables engineers to offload digital signal processing tasks, to shrink the size of designs while maintaining system reliability and minimising power consumption to only 9.5mW per channel at 48kHz.

The TLV320ADC5140 is available in a 4.0 x 4.0mm, 24-pin wafer quad flatpack no-lead (WQFN) packaging. The TLV320ADC5140 quad-channel 768-kHz TI Burr-Brown audio ADC evaluation module, the ADC5140EVM-PDK, is also available.

http://www.ti.com

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STMicroelectronics adds wireless support to smart meter chipset

Low-latency PHY technology prepares for industry 4.0

PCIe packet switches are automotive-qualified for telematics and ADAS

Audio ADC quadruples far-field voice capture distance

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