ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 35 of 230

ST boosts sensing creativity with new all-in-one MEMS Studio desktop software solution

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

ST’ MEMS Studio is a new all-in-one tool for MEMS sensor evaluation and development, connected closely with the STM32 microcontroller ecosystem and available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux operating systems.

By unifying the sensor-development workflow, from evaluation to configuration and programming, MEMS Studio accelerates development and simplifies bringing rich contextual awareness to users’ projects. Enhanced features help easily acquire and clearly visualise sensor data to explore the operating modes and optimise performance and accuracy. There are also tools for pre-built library testing, as well as convenient drag-and-drop algorithm creation for intuitive, no-code development of STM32 MCU firmware.

MEMS Studio supports the wide portfolio of ST MEMS sensors, including motion sensors, environmental sensors, and infrared sensors. It provides tools to explore and use all the sensors’ features including the finite state machine (FSM) and embedded edge AI in inertial modules for power-efficient inferencing directly in the sensor. These include creating and managing decision trees in sensors equipped with ST’s machine-learning core (MLC), monitoring interrupts status, and testing advanced features like FIFO, pedometer, and freefall detection embedded in the sensor.

MEMS Studio also offers a new experience for analysing sensor data in runtime and offline, where users can visualise, label, and edit the data for the best algorithm implementation. Spectrogram analysis and fast Fourier transform (FFT) are also available and help understand the sensor signal for the best detection of the sensing application target.

Users can choose from a wide variety of compatible development boards, including STM32 Nucleo expansion boards, sensor adapters, and ST’s multi-sensor evaluation kits. These comprise the SensorTile.box PRO, STWIN.box, and STEVAL-MKI109V3 professional MEMS adapter motherboard with adjustable power settings and a STM32F401VE MCU on-board.

As creative use of MEMS sensors continues to drive innovation in cutting-edge applications, MEMS Studio empowers designers to add new and more advanced functions in next-generation high-tech products. Its release promotes the development of smart appliances, medical wearables, and technology for digital healthcare, smart buildings and factories, robotics, asset tracking, and smart driving.

Consolidating and extending the features of established sensor-development tools including AlgoBuilder, Unico-GUI, and Unicleo-GUI, MEMS Studio is available now to download, free of charge, from https://www.st.com/mems-studio.

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Arrow Electronics launches intelligent vision ecosystem

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Arrow Electronics is utilising the onsemi Imager Access System (IAS) module standard for developing intelligent vision solutions for use in robotics, machine vision, commercial cameras and other uses.

The solution reduces the design complexities that are common with designing a product that utilises image sensors. Part of that complexity is there is no standardisation of the hardware interfaces of the different technology blocks. This is where the onsemi IAS module standard comes in and is adopted throughout the ecosystem.

Working with Appletec, Arrow developed the newest IAS module, AP-VISION-AR0830-83 that utilises the latest generation of onsemi image sensors.

“The onsemi Hyperlux LP family of sensors set a new industry benchmark for ultra-low power sensor design. Combined with a small form factor, purpose-oriented features and best-in-class imaging, Hyperlux LP will be a fixture for smart home, office, and robotics for years to come,” said Stephen Harris, senior director of marketing for onsemi’s Industrial and Commercial Sensing Division. “onsemi is now able to bring the newest high-performance, feature-rich 4k sensor in the Hyperlux family, AR0830, to market with Arrow’s IAS module, allowing our customers to reduce camera development efforts significantly with best-in-class module design.”

This new module joins the existing portfolio of IAS modules offered by Arrow and Appletec.

Arrow worked with its company, eInfochips, and onsemi to develop drivers that enable the Appletec IAS modules to work with leading embedded processors.
“eInfochips has extensive experience in developing end-to-end vision solutions. This includes hardware design, image sensor integration and tuning, image processing, image driver development, low latency streaming and AI Inferencing on edge/cloud,” said Gaurav Patel, vice president and general manager of product engineering services for eInfochips. “Companies rely on eInfochips to deliver innovative vision solutions and accelerate and de-risk design cycles.”

Learn more about the Arrow and onsemi intelligent vision eco-system, click here https://www.arrow.com/en/family/onsemi-image-sensors

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ST reveals new family of 100V trench Schottky rectifier diodes

Wed, Mar 27, 2024

ST has introduced 100V trench Schottky rectifier diodes that boost efficiency in power converters operated at high switching frequencies.
Raising power-converter operating frequency, encouraged by the minimal switching losses of technologies like wide-bandgap semiconductors, allows designers to set new benchmarks in power density. However, at elevated frequencies, the energy losses in conventional planar diodes, including silicon Schottky devices, used as rectifiers become a significant factor limiting conversion efficiency.

ST’s trench Schottky diodes significantly reduce the rectifier losses, with superior forward-voltage and reverse-recovery characteristics that enable increased power density with high efficiency. The forward voltage is 50-100mV better than in comparable planar diodes, depending on current and temperature conditions. Simply changing to these devices can increase the efficiency by 0.5%.

There are 28 variants in the new family, with eight current ratings from 1A to 15A, multiple surface-mount packages, in industrial and automotive grades. The industrial-grade parts target applications such as miniature switched-mode power supplies and auxiliary power supplies for telecom, server, and smart-metering equipment. In automotive, typical uses include space-constrained applications such as LED lighting, reverse-polarity protection, and low-voltage DC/DC converters. The parts are AEC-Q101 qualified, manufactured in PPAP-capable facilities, and specified from -40°C to 175°C.

When combined with ST’s flyback and buck-boost converters, such as the VIPer controllers and HVLED001A offline LED driver, the 100V trench Schottky rectifiers fulfil the active-components bill of materials for switched-mode power supplies. All are supported in ST’s eDesign Suite Rectifier Diodes Simulator, which helps to select the rating and footprint, simulate waveforms, and estimate power efficiency.

The diodes are 100% avalanche tested in production to ensure device robustness and system reliability. They are available in DPAK as well as SOD123 Flat, SOD128 Flat, SMB Flat, and PSMC (TO227A) surface-mount packages.

https://www.st.com/100v-trench-schottky

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Renesas introduces industry’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCUs with internally developed CPU core

Wed, Mar 27, 2024

Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced the industry’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V-based microcontrollers (MCUs) built with an internally developed CPU core. While many MCU providers have recently joined investment alliances to advance the development of RISC-V products, Renesas has already designed and tested a new RISC-V core independently, which is now implemented in a commercial product and available globally. The new, R9A02G021 group of MCUs provides embedded systems designers a clear path to developing a wide range of power-conscious, cost-sensitive applications based on the open-source instruction set architecture (ISA).

While most of today’s RISC-V solutions target specific applications, the R9A02G021 group MCUs are designed to serve multiple end markets, such as IoT sensors, consumer electronics, medical devices, small appliances and industrial systems. Similar to existing general-purpose MCUs, designers will have access to a full-scale development environment for the R9A02G021, provided by Renesas and its extensive network of toolchain partners. This will allow them to significantly reduce costs, engineering resources and development time.
The R9A02G021 RISC-V group offers ample performance with clock speeds up to 48MHz, while consuming extremely low power in standby at 0.3µA. It provides 128KB of fast flash memory, 16KB of SRAM memory and 4KB of flash memory for data storage. Designed to withstand harsh conditions, the MCUs can operate reliably at ambient temperatures ranging from -40 °C to 125 °C. The MCUs come with standard serial communications interfaces, as well as digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) functions to facilitate high-speed and secure connections with sensors, displays and other external modules. The wide 1.6V to 5.5V input voltage range enables low-voltage, low-current operation and allows noise immunity, making the R9A02G021 ideal for battery-powered devices.

The R9A02G021 RISC-V MCUs are fully supported by Renesas’ e² studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE), offered to customers at no cost. The comprehensive toolchain includes a code configurator, the LLVM compiler and a fast prototyping board (FPB). Complete development environments are also available from Renesas’ partners: IAR with its Embedded Workbench IDE and I-jet debug probe, and SEGGER with the Embedded Studio IDE, J-Link debug probes and Flasher production programmers. Supporting documentation includes the FPB user manual, a Getting Started guide, schematics, Bill of Materials (BOM), and Gerber files.

The R9A02G021 RISC-V MCU is available today through global distributors, along with the FPB, software and development tools.

https://www.renesas.com/MCUs

Written by Annie Shinn

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ST boosts sensing creativity with new all-in-one MEMS Studio desktop software solution

Arrow Electronics launches intelligent vision ecosystem

ST reveals new family of 100V trench Schottky rectifier diodes

Renesas introduces industry’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCUs with internally developed CPU core

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