ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 231 of 246

Q-Free and Silicon Labs develop sensor to find a parking spot

Thu, Sep 06, 2018

Q-Free and Silicon Labs have collaborated on a new outdoor parking IoT sensor that helps drivers find vacant parking places in towns. The companies have created Q-Free’s ParQSense smart parking sensor, which uses the Silicon Labs’ EZR32WG Wonder Gecko wireless microcontroller for control and sub-GHz connectivity. The sensor was deployed as a pilot this year in the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and North America, and will be released for commercial use this month.

Q-Free has focused its resources on developing ways to reduce traffic flows. It provides a range of transportation technologies including electronic tolling, vehicle counters, surveillance technologies and parking management solutions. The ParQSense smart parking sensor is one of the company’s first sensor products to support outdoor parking needs. According to an INRIX study, 20 per cent of traffic in urban areas can be attributed to drivers searching for parking spots.

“To develop an IoT sensor solution for outdoor parking that would succeed in today’s market, we had to deliver a combination of low-power, long-range wireless connectivity and high performance,” said Brage Blekken, a project manager in Q-Free’s R&D department. “Silicon Labs helped us overcome this challenge by providing best-in-class wireless technology capable of transmitting data over long distances in the sub-GHz band,” he added.

Many existing outdoor parking sensors on the market had accuracy limitations, and struggled with wireless capabilities and interference from cellular networks commonly associated with urban environments, reports Q-Free.

The Q-Free ParQSense option uses dual radar and magnetic field technology to sense with 99+ per cent accuracy whether a vehicle is present in a parking space. The application transmits data to centralised base stations over long distances using narrowband sub-GHz wireless connectivity.

Q-Free supplies intelligent transportation systems comprising tolling, parking, info-mobility, traffic management and C -ITS/connected vehicle solutions. It was founded in 1984 and headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, the company has over 400 employees, offices in 18 countries.

Silicon Labs provides silicon and software for the internet of things (IoT), internet infrastructure, industrial automation, consumer and automotive markets.

http://www.silabs.com

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Single-chip motor drivers simplify flexible control logic

Tue, Aug 28, 2018

Low-to-mid-power motor controls in the seven to 45V range, can be simplified with the STSPIN830 and STSPIN840 single-chip drivers, claims STMicroelectronics. The drivers contain flexible control logic and low-RDS_(ON) power switches for industrial applications, medical technology, and home appliances.

The STSPIN830 is designed for driving three-phase brushless DC motors and has a mode-setting pin that lets users control the three half bridges of the integrated power stage with direct U, V, and W pulse-width modulated (PWM) inputs, or by applying signals to each gate individually for higher control flexibility. A dedicated sense pin for each inverter leg simplifies setting up three-shunt or single-shunt current sensing for field-oriented control (FOC).

The STSPIN840 can drive two brushed DC motors or one larger motor leveraging ST’s paralleling concept, which allows the integrated full bridges to be configured as two separate bridges or as a single bridge using the two sets of MOSFETs in parallel for lower RDS_(ON) and higher current rating.

Both drivers contain rich features, including PWM current-control circuitry with adjustable off-time, a convenient standby pin for power saving, and protection circuitry including non-dissipative overcurrent protection, short-circuit protection, under-voltage lockout, thermal shutdown, and interlocking to help create robust and reliable drives.

The integrated power stage of each device features ST-proprietary MOSFETs with low RDS_(ON) of only 500 milliOhm to combine high efficiency with economy. The option to use the output bridges individually or connected in parallel, in the STSPIN840, helps trim the bill of materials for multi-motor applications.

According to ST, the integrated, flexible drivers enable more compact and cost-effective controls for industrial, robotic, medical, building-automation, and office-equipment applications. The STSPIN830 is suitable for factory-automation end-points, home appliances, small pumps, and fans for computer or general-purpose cooling. The STSPIN840 is for use in ATM and money-handling machines, multi-axis stage-lighting mechanisms, thermal printers, textile or sewing machines, and vending machines.

The STSPIN830 and STSPIN840 are both in production now, as 4.0 x 4.0mm QFN devices.

Two STM32 Nucleo expansion boards are also available from ST for product evaluation and to build functional prototypes using the STM32 Open Development Environment. The X-NUCLEO-IHM16M1 is for the STSPIN830 and the X-NUCLEO-IHM15A1 is for the STSPIN840 driver.

http://www.st.com/stspin

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Single power monitoring IC is industry-first, claims Microchip

Fri, Jul 20, 2018

Claimed to be the industry’s first two-channel device with native 16bit resolution, the PAC1932, and the three-channel PAC1933 are single power monitoring ICs by Microchip.

The power monitoring devices measure from 0 to 32V on a single chip, enabling designers to improve power measurement accuracy. The two-channel device is believed to be the industry’s first with native 16bit resolution, providing leading flexibility across a wide measurement range.

The PAC1932/33 devices include what is needed to measure power on a single IC, integrating multiple channels in a single package for applications such as point of sale (PoS) systems, ATMs and building automation. This reduces costs for system designers, consolidates the bill of materials (BoM) as the measurement of sub-1.0 to 20V voltage rails normally require separate components to measure each rail efficiently, points out Microchip. The PAC1932/33 measure voltage rails up to 32V and also relieves developers from having to reconfigure measurement resolution between low and high current load events.

As the industry’s only two-channel device with 16-bit power measurement, the PAC1932 can measure without host intervention for 17 minutes, relieving developers from adjusting voltage or current range to measure power and energy. The devices include two 16bit analogue to digital converters (ADCs) that can measure voltage and current simultaneously, enabling developers to extract a true power measurement. According to Microchip, developers can design systems to efficiently save power.

As applications continue to seek ways to reduce power consumption, precision DC power measurement has grown as a key element for energy savings. Microchip also offers a four-channel PAC1934 for improved power measurement for Windows 10 devices; the PAC1932/33 two and three channel power monitoring ICs offer improved power measurement for low voltage, high power applications in markets such as embedded computing and networking.

The PAC1932/33 work in conjunction with Linux and Windows 10 software drivers. The ADM00805 register-compatible evaluation board can be used to start development with a graphical user interface reporting Vsense, Vbus, power and accumulated power.

The two-channel PAC1932 and three-channel PAC1933 power monitoring ICs are available now for sampling and in volume production.

http://www.microchip.com/PAC1932

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Scalable digital controllers simplify power supply design, says Renesas Electronics

Thu, Jul 19, 2018

Two PMBus-compliant, digital DC/DC controllers released by Renesas Electronics, provide single output point of load (PoL) conversions for FPGAs, DSPs, ASICs, network processors and general purpose system rails. The ISL68300 has integrated MOSFET drivers while the ISL68301 has PWM output to simplify the design of power supplies for data centre, wired and wireless communications, and factory automation equipment.

The ISL68300 can drive discrete external MOSFETs directly, while the ISL68301 pairs with Renesas’ smart power stages or DrMOS power stages to create a complete voltage regulator solution.

The ISL68300 and ISL68301 digital controllers feature a high-speed current share bus that parallels up to eight controllers in an eight-phase 240A+ current share configuration. Both controllers implement Renesas’ digital ChargeMode control modulation, which responds to load transients in a single switching cycle, and provides an inherently stable control loop without requiring external compensation. This modulation architecture significantly reduces output capacitor requirements and minimises V out undershoot and overshoot, claims Renesas.

The scalability of the ISL68300 and ISL68301 single output digital controllers is claimed to provide industry leading performance and support a range of load currents.

Engineers can use the PowerNavigator GUI with the ISL68300 and ISL68301 to simplify power supply set-up, sequencing, configuration and monitoring, including all device parameters and telemetry. Full schematic designs are completed in minutes, and the GUI with PMBus makes it easy to control the entire design and change features without soldering components or rework, adds Renesas.

The ISL68300 and ISL68301 digital controllers can parallel up to eight controllers in a single droop-less current sharing output. Output voltage range is 0.45 to 5.5V and input range is 4.75 to 16V or 4.5 to 5.5V.

The proprietary single-wire Digital-DC (DDC) serial bus enables voltage sequencing and fault spreading with other Renesas digital power ICs. Another feature is the cycle-by-cycle inductor peak current protection and configurable fault protection for Vout under-voltage, over-voltage, V in under-voltage/over-voltage and temperature. The non volatile memory stores operating parameters and records telemetry fault events.

In a typical FPGA power supply, the ISL68300 and ISL68301 digital controllers provide single output 10 to 40A+ for auxiliary rails, DDR memory, and system rails. The companion Renesas digital multiphase controllers use smart power stages to provide dual output 15 to 70A, or higher core power.

The ISL68300 is available now in a 4.0 x 4.0, 24-lead QFN package. The ISL68301 with PWM output for pairing with ISL99227B smart power stages or DrMOS power stages is available now in a 4.0 x 4.0mm, 24-lead QFN package.

Single-phase and two-phase evaluation boards are also available.

http://www.renesas.com

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Q-Free and Silicon Labs develop sensor to find a parking spot

Single-chip motor drivers simplify flexible control logic

Single power monitoring IC is industry-first, claims Microchip

Scalable digital controllers simplify power supply design, says Renesas Electronics

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