ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 80 of 230

NFC reader ICs sharpen digital wave shaping for faster transmission

Tue, Nov 29, 2022

Adding to its portfolio of NFC reader ICs, Panthronics announced the PTX105R reader for IoT and consumer electronics devices. It is compatible with NFC Forum specifications and offers accurate digital wave shaping to guarantee interoperability with all NFC-compliant cards, tags and NFC devices in wearable form factors.

The RF output is 1.0W at the antenna and the reader has high receive sensitivity of – 80dBc for reliable connectivity in general electronics systems. The RF performance enables designers to implement designs based on an antenna which is smaller than that required by competing NFC readers, said Panthronics.

The company also announced the PTX130R reader which is an upgraded version of the PTX100R reader IC for point of sale terminals.

It is the first Panthronics reader IC to feature native support for the Android operating environment and provides a way for designers to add NFC communications capability to embedded computing systems built around a touchscreen display.

It is suitable for static and mobile point of sale terminals and can also provide NFC connectivity in embedded computing devices. Typical examples include scanners, automated service points such as self-check-in terminals at hotels and secure access control and home and building automation equipment which has a display-enabled HMI (human machine interface).

RF output is more than 2W at the antenna enabling the PTX103R to comply with the strict requirements of the EMVCo standard for payment card transactions even when operating via an antenna which is placed close to or behind a noisy display, explained Panthronics.

The PTX105R and PTX130R NFC readers, like the PTX100R versions, use the company’s sine wave silicon architecture to offer higher sensitivity, more accurate wave-shaping, higher output power and a simpler hardware implementation than conventional NFC reader ICs based on a square wave architecture, said Panthronics.

For mobile phone and point of sale terminal users, this means operations are completed faster and with easier validation of conformance with standards such as EMVCo 3.1. Panthronics readers also typically offer a read range 40 per cent higher than that provided by conventional readers based on a square wave architecture, Panthronics reported.

Evaluation kits for the PTX105R and PTX130R are available directly from Panthronics. They provide an operating environment including the antenna, to enable design engineers to evaluate NFC performance. Panthronics also supplies an NFC connectivity board based on the PTX105R for the Renesas Quick-Connect IoT rapid system prototyping platform.

http://www.panthronics.com.

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NB-IoT-capable wireless module supports battery-powered IoT

Thu, Nov 24, 2022

Low-power WAN products from Renesas now include the RYZ024A Cat-M1 and NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) module. This latest addition to the company’s portfolio provides internet connectivity without the need for a gateway

It offers seamless Cat-M1 wireless connection capability with the option to integrate NB-IoT. The benefits of offering both low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies is that NB-IoT uses only a portion of the available spectrum, making it more power efficient to extend the operational life of battery-powered systems. NB-IoT also offers coverage in underground and enclosed spaces.

The RYZ024A module provides two power amplifier output levels: 20dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and 23dBm, ensuring coverage at the cellular network’s edge as well as deep indoor environments.

It is also energy efficient, consuming just one microAmp in power saving mode. This is significantly less than competing products, said Renesas.

The RYZ024A supports extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and has an extended voltage range from 2.2 to 5.5V, another characteristic that makes it suitable for battery-powered applications

The RYZ024A is being developed in collaboration with Sequans, and will be tested and certified to work with all major radio frequency regulatory specifications defined by organisations such as the Global Certification Forum (GFC) and the PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB). The certification ensures compliance with complex RF regulatory and carrier-specific requirements so that engineers can immediately start building IoT systems for leading carriers in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

Renesas will provide all the tools and software that engineers need to design IoT-ready, power-sensitive systems based on the RYZ024A, including an evaluation kit, a software stack and RF certifications.

Compared to conventional chipset-based designs, designing in the RYZ024A module will reduce the PCB size by 60 per cent and cut development time by up to 90 percent, compared to conventional chipset-based designs, with hardware and software support to integrate the RA or RX family of MCUs.

The RYZ024A module is available today with Cat-M1 firmware and will be software upgradeable to support dual mode (Cat-M1 and NB-IoT) next year.

Renesas plans to offer a Pmod expansion kit to easily connect to Renesas MCUs. The kit will come with the fully-certified RYZ024A module, LTE antenna, SIM card and quick start guide including a software upgrade.

http://www.renesas.com

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Qualcomm introduces AI to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for smartphones

Thu, Nov 24, 2022

At its Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform which enables AI experiences like faster natural language processing with multi-language translation. It also supports INT4, an AI precision format.

Snapdragon Sight technology adds new Cognitive ISP to power real time semantic segmentation for photo and video capture. Based on an upgraded Qualcomm Hexagon processor, users can experience faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features, said Qualcomm. It uses an AI neural network to make the camera contextually aware of faces, facial features, hair, clothes, skies and other features and to optimise them individually so every detail receives customised professional image tuning. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is also tuned to support new image sensors. For example, Sony Semiconductor Solutions is the first to develop quad digital overlap HDR technology which is fine-tuned for Snapdragon. The Samsung ISOCELL HP3, is the first 200Mpixel image sensor optimised for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is also the first Snapdragon to include an AV1 codec with support for video playback up to 8K HDR at 60 frames per second.

The Hexagon processor features architecture upgrades, including micro tile inferencing and a bigger tensor accelerator for up to 4.35 times increased AI performance. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support INT4, with 60 per cent performance/watt improvement for sustained AI inferencing, Qualcomm reported.

The Sensing Hub consists of dual AI processors and supports intuitive experiences that enable custom wake words. There are also features and tools from the Qualcomm AI Stack, including the AI Studio.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 also introduces Snapdragon Elite Gaming features with the industry standard for real time hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Snapdragon Connect enhancements bring what is believed to be the world’s first 5G AI processor in a mobile platform. Qualcomm also claims that it is the only commercial Wi-Fi 7 SoC with high band simultaneous multi-link.

To support spatial audio, Snapdragon Sound technology supports dynamic head tracking for immersive gaming and multimedia experiences.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to be launched in commercial devices by the end of 2022. The new mobile platform will be adopted by OEMs and brands including Asus Republic of Gamers, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, RedMagic, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, Xingji/Meizu and ZTE.

https://www.qualcomm.com

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Sine wave architecture enhances NFC reader performance

Wed, Nov 23, 2022

Austrian, fabless semiconductor company, Panthronics has extended its portfolio of NFC reader ICs with the PTX105R and the PTX130R reader. The pair give OEMs new options to design NFC capability into IoT devices, embedded and mobile computing systems, said the company.

The PTX105R reader for IoT and consumer electronics devices is compatible with NFC Forum specifications. It offers accurate digital wave shaping to guarantee interoperability with all NFC-compliant cards, tags and NFC devices in wearable form factors, said Panthronics.

The PTX105R produces RF output power of 1W at the antenna and high receive sensitivity of -80dBc for reliable connectivity in general electronics systems, said Panthronics. The PTX105R’s RF performance enables the implementation of designs based on a smaller antenna than that which is required by competing NFC readers, said the company.

The second introduction is the PTX130R reader. This is an upgraded version of the PTX100R reader IC for point of sale (PoS) terminals. The PTX130R is the first reader IC by the company to feature native support for the Android operating environment. It provides a way to add NFC communications capability to embedded computing systems built around a touchscreen display. Suitable applications are PoS and mobile PoS terminals and can also provide NFC connectivity in embedded computing devices, such as scanners, automated service points such as self-check-in terminals at hotels, and secure access control and home and building automation equipment with a display-enabled human machine interface (HMI).

The PTX130R features very high RF output power of more than 2W at the antenna, enabling OEMs to achieve compliance with the strict requirements of the EMVCo standard for payment card transactions even when operating via an antenna which is placed close to or behind a noisy display.

The company’s sine wave silicon architecture is designed from the ground up for NFC systems and offers higher sensitivity, more accurate wave-shaping, higher output power and a simpler hardware implementation than conventional NFC reader ICs based on a square wave architecture, reported Panthronics.

Panthronics readers also typically offer a read range 40 per cent higher than that provided by conventional readers based on a square wave architecture, added the company.

Evaluation kits for the PTX105R and PTX130R are available directly from Panthronics. They provide a ready-made operating environment including the antenna, to enable design engineers to evaluate NFC performance out of the box.

Panthronics also supplies an NFC connectivity board based on the PTX105R for the Renesas Quick-Connect IoT rapid system prototyping platform. The Panthronics NFC board provides a fast and easy way to build NFC connectivity into IoT systems based on the general purpose microcontrollers which support the modular Quick-Connect IoT format. The board feaures a Pmod connector and can be linked to the Renesas Quick-Connect microcontroller evaluation kits.

http://www.panthronics.com

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NFC reader ICs sharpen digital wave shaping for faster transmission

NB-IoT-capable wireless module supports battery-powered IoT

Qualcomm introduces AI to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for smartphones

Sine wave architecture enhances NFC reader performance

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