ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 45 of 231

Mouser signs global distribution agreement with Ambiq to deliver ultra-low power AI microcontrollers

Wed, Jan 03, 2024

Mouser has announced a new global distribution agreement with Ambiq, a leading supplier of low-powered, AI-enabled microcontrollers for wearables, hearables, IoT, edge devices and mobile edge computing applications.

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Ambiq, which furthers our commitment to providing the latest products and technologies to our customers worldwide,” said Kristin Schuetter, Vice President of Supplier Management at Mouser Electronics. “We look forward to providing engineers and buyers worldwide with their innovative embedded solutions, backed by Mouser’s best-in-class logistics and unsurpassed customer service.”

“Mouser is well-known for its worldwide distribution and support system,” said Mike Kenyon, Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Ambiq. “We are excited to enter into this relationship. With distribution through Mouser, we can draw on their expertise in delivering leading-edge technologies and expand our global customer base.”

Among the Ambiq products now available from Mouser are the Ambiq Apollo4 Blue Lite system-on-chip (SoC) and the Ambiq Apollo4 Blue Lite evaluation board. The Apollo4 Blue Lite SoC features a 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4 core with a Floating-Point Unit, along with a Bluetooth® Low Energy 5.1 radio with robust RF connectivity. This SoC is ideal for use in battery-powered endpoint devices, including smartwatches, fitness bands, animal trackers, voice-activated remotes and digital health products. The Ambiq Apollo4 Blue Lite evaluation board offers a complete demonstration and development platform for the Apollo4 Blue Lite device.

Mouser also offers the Apollo3 Blue Plus evaluation board and the Apollo3 Blue Plus SoC. The Apollo3 Blue Plus device is based on Ambiq’s Voice-on-SPOT (VoS) platform, making it the perfect microprocessor for enabling always-on voice assistant integration and command. The Apollo3 Blue Plus evaluation board enables quick and easy prototyping of the SoC. The Apollo3 Blue Plus Voice-on-SPOT kit, also available from Mouser, facilitates demos, evaluation, and the development of ultra-low power audio and voice capabilities on the Apollo3 Blue Plus SoC. The kit provides always-on voice capability with options for one or two microphones, signal processing, wake word/command detection, codec, and Bluetooth Low Energy communication.

The Artasie AM1805 evaluation board offers an easy method to measure and evaluate Ambiq’s AM18x5 real-time clocks. The evaluation board includes on-chip oscillators to provide minimum power consumption, full RTC functions including battery backup and programmable counters and alarms for timer and watchdog functions, and a PC serial interface for communication with a host controller.

To learn more about Ambiq products available from Mouser, visit https://www.mouser.com/manufacturer/ambiq/.

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Nordic-powered module provides Bluetooth LE audio connectivity

Tue, Dec 19, 2023

Wireless communications company Rayson Technology has released a multiprotocol module based on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF5340 System-on-Chip (SoC). The SoC is designed for advanced Bluetooth LE audio applications, as well as sophisticated metering, wearable, smart home, industrial, and medical use cases. Measuring just 16.5 by 13.0 by 2.5 mm, the ‘BTM-N340X’ module supports LE Audio and its Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3), which together enable higher quality, lower power wireless audio streaming compared with existing Classic Bluetooth audio solutions.

The module employs the nRF5340 SoC’s dual Arm Cortex-M33 processors – providing a high performance application processor capable of DSP and Floating Point (FP) alongside a fully programmable, ultra low power network processor. The application core manages the LC3 codec, while the Bluetooth LE protocol is supervised by the network processor.

“The BTM-N340X module has been designed for a wide range of applications, aiming in particular to provide enhanced audio experiences via Bluetooth LE Audio,” says Bob Wu, CTO at Rayson Technology. “It enables one device to stream audio to multiple pairs of wireless headphones, and can facilitate audio broadcasts through public address systems, such as in airports and museums. This module is also compatible with smart speakers and home audio systems.”

The module’s ultra-low power consumption is made possible due to the nRF5340’s power-optimised multiprotocol radio, which offers a TX current of 3.4 mA (0 dBm TX power, 3 V, DC/DC) and RX current of 2.7 mA (3 V, DC/DC). The sleep current is as low as 0.9 µA. Additionally, because the cores can operate independently, developers have the flexibility to optimise performance for power consumption, throughput, and low latency response.

Two flexible antenna options are available for the module—a pre-certified U.F.L Connector and a PCB pin out—depending on the product application. The module is designed to operate within a temperature range of -40 to +85°C.

“The dual processors made the nRF5340 SoC an excellent choice for this module’s LE Audio applications,” says Wu. “The large memory capacity, radio sensitivity, and low power consumption were also major drawcards. In addition to the excellent technical capabilities of the chip, the high level of support from Nordic was a key factor when making our selection.”

https://www.nordicsemi.com

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Time-of-flight sensor from ST boosts ranging performance and power saving

Fri, Dec 15, 2023

ST has announced the latest-generation 8×8 multi-zone time-of-flight (ToF) ranging sensor that delivers a range of improvements including greater ambient-light immunity, lower power consumption, and enhanced optics.

ST’s direct-ToF sensors combine a 940nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), a multi-zone SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) detector array, and an optical system comprising filters and diffractive optical elements (DOE) in an all-in-one module that outperforms conventional micro lenses typically used with similar alternative sensors. The sensor projects a wide square field of view of 45° x 45° (65° diagonal) and receives reflected light to calculate the distance of objects up to 400cm away, across 64 independent zones, and up to 30 captures per second.

The new VL53L8CX boosts ranging performance with a new-generation VCSEL and advanced silicon-based meta-optics. Compared with the current VL53L5CX, the enhancements increase immunity to interference from ambient light, extending the sensor’s maximum range in daylight from 170cm to 285cm and reducing power consumption from 4.5mW to 1.6mW in low-power mode.

ST released the first multi-zone time-of-flight sensor with the VL53L5CX in 2021. By increasing performance, the new VL53L8CX now further extends the advantages of these sensors over alternatives with conventional optics, which have fewer native zones and lose sensitivity in the outer areas. Thanks to its true 8×8 multi-zone sensing, the VL53L8CX ensures uniform sensitivity and accurate ranging throughout the field of view, with superior range in ambient light.

When used for system activation and human presence detection, the VL53L8CX’s greater ambient-light immunity enables equipment to respond more consistently and quickly. As part of ST’s STGesture platform that also includes the STSW-IMG035 turnkey gesture-recognition software and Gesture EVK development tool, the new sensor delivers the precision needed for repeatable gesture-based interaction. In addition to motion gesture recognition, hand posture recognition is also possible leveraging the latest AI models available in the STM32ai-modelzoo on GitHub.

Moreover, the VL53L8CX provides increased accuracy for monitoring the contents of bins, containers, silos, and tanks, including liquid-level monitoring, in industrial bulk storage and warehousing. The superior accuracy can also enhance the performance of drinks machines such as coffee makers and beverage dispensers.

Mobile robots including autonomous vacuum cleaners can leverage the VL53L8CX to improve guidance capabilities like floor sensing, small object detection, collision avoidance, and cliff detection. Also, the synchronisation pin enables projectors and cameras to benefit from coordinated autofocus. There is also a motion indicator, an auto-stop feature that allows real-time actions, and the sensor is immune to cover-glass crosstalk beyond 60cm. Now supporting SPI connectivity, in addition to the 1MHz I2C interface, the new sensor handles host data transfers at up to 3MHz.

Designers can quickly evaluate the VL53L8CX and jump-start their projects taking advantage of the supporting ecosystem that includes the X-NUCLEO-53L8A1 expansion board and SATEL-VL53L8 breakout boards. The P-NUCLEO-53L8A1 pack is also available, which contains a STM32F401 Nucleo microcontroller board and X-NUCLEO-53L8A1 expansion board ready to power up and start exploring.

http://www.st.com/VL53L8CX

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Renesas launches cloud-based environment to accelerate automotive AI software development

Fri, Dec 15, 2023

Renesas has launched a new cloud-based development environment aimed at streamlining the software design process for automotive AI engineers. The new platform, AI Workbench, is an integrated virtual development environment that empowers automotive AI engineers to design, simulate and fine-tune their automotive software – all within the cloud.

With this environment, engineers can immediately begin designing automotive software by leveraging Microsoft Azure services including Azure Compute, IaaS services, Microsoft Entra ID and Azure Security. Instead of installing tools on a PC or obtaining an evaluation board, they can perform tasks such as performance evaluation, debugging and verification using simulation tools online. This approach aligns with the “Shift-Left” approach, which enables software creation and testing earlier in the design cycle, even before the actual hardware becomes available. For example, it is possible to start developing AI-enabled application software to support ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) and autonomous driving for the upcoming fifth-generation R-Car System on Chip (SoC) prior to the availability of hardware samples. This environment will serve as a unified development platform for designing and testing Renesas’ scalable automotive SoCs and microcontrollers (MCUs), regardless of product type or application.

“Cloud-based development is a secure and cost-effective method to address the increasing complexities of today’s embedded projects. The collaboration between Renesas and Microsoft aims to tackle this challenge and accelerate the digital transformation of the automotive industry,” said Ulrich Homann, Corporate Vice President & Distinguished Architect, Cloud + AI, Microsoft. “With Renesas’ AI Workbench, developers can now efficiently build and test software for a myriad applications using Renesas SoCs in a cloud-based environment powered by Azure.”

The AI Workbench includes the following four functional blocks today. Renesas plans to enhance its offering in the future with additional features such as selected functionality or customisation options tailored to support various development processes.

Availability
The AI Workbench will be available in January 2024 in limited preview. Renesas plans to expand availability of the AI Workbench from Q2 2024 and build similar environments for other major cloud services in the future. Additionally, Renesas will consider integrating tools provided by partners of the R-Car Consortium into the cloud environment for improved efficiency. More information about the AI Workbench is available at: https://renesas.com/ai-workbench.

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Mouser signs global distribution agreement with Ambiq to deliver ultra-low power AI microcontrollers

Nordic-powered module provides Bluetooth LE audio connectivity

Time-of-flight sensor from ST boosts ranging performance and power saving

Renesas launches cloud-based environment to accelerate automotive AI software development

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