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PMICs halve current to boost efficiency, says Silicon Labs

Wed, May 06, 2020

Energy-friendly power management ICs (PMICs) from Silicon Labs, the EFP01 family are companion chips for EFR32 wireless devices and EFM32 microcontrollers. They enable developers to choose the optimal battery type and chemistries for their applications. Target applications include IoT sensors, asset tags, smart meters, home and building automation, security, and health and wellness products. The PMICs also enable developers to control a product’s power supply over multiple output rails and voltages.

Developers often use PMICs to meet the low-power requirements of IoT designs, but choosing the right one can be challenging. The EFP01 PMICs “provide a turnkey power management companion solution for our wireless SoC and MCU families, combined with Simplicity Studio tools, reference designs, sample applications and ‘PMIC-aware’ wireless stacks for easy development,” said Matt Saunders, vice president of IoT marketing and applications at Silicon Labs.

“If you want the easiest to configure, lowest power wireless solution, Silicon Labs’ EFP01 PMIC with Wireless Gecko is the best choice,” he continued. “The EFP01 is optimised for our IoT connectivity platforms, eliminating the need to incorporate multiple vendor reference designs into a schematic or layout.”

EFP01 PMICs include low-voltage DC/DC converters and regulators and a flexible mechanism to manage the power rails in a system design.

The EFP01 PMIC family features include flexible I/O voltage, a wide input voltage range (0.8 to 5.5V) to support an array of batteries. They also have wide output voltages to support a variety of peripherals, microcontrollers and radios.

The PMICs enable buck and boost voltage conversion as well as combined boost and buck (boost bootstrap) supporting low-voltage, high-current rails for IoT products requiring coin cell batteries and higher transmit power (up to +20 dBm).

They also feature multiple output power rails which allows an IoT product to be powered by one low-cost PMIC. This uses less board real estate and simplifies software/hardware design, says Silicon Labs.

The EFP01 offers quiescent current as low as 150 nA to reduce sleep current and enhance battery life. It also supports coulomb counting which offers vital information for battery life estimation and preventive maintenance.

Samples and production quantities of EFP01 PMICs in a 3.0 x 3.0mm QFN20 package are available now. Silicon Labs also provides three development boards – the SLWRB4179B radio board and two PMIC evaluation boards. Simplicity Studio offers energy profiler and network analyser tools, wireless stacks and reference designs. It is available free of charge.

http://www.silabs.com

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Mouser has expanded MMIC range from Qorvo

Mon, May 04, 2020

Distributor, Mouser Electronics offers Qorvo’s line of gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) following the acquisition of Custom MMIC. The range is targeted at aerospace, defence, space and commercial applications.

Custom MMIC is now part of RF and mmWave manufacturer, Qorvo’s Infrastructure and Defence Products (IDP) group. The portfolio now covers the entire RF signal chain, for defence customers, including satellite communications, microwave test equipment, electronic warfare, and advanced phased array radar applications.

Mouser offers Qorvo’s Custom MMIC line of products, including multiple low noise amplifiers, for communications that demand a small form factor and low power consumption. For example, the CMD264P3 6.0 to 18GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) and evaluation board deliver greater than 26dB of gain with a corresponding output 1.0dB compression point of +12dBm. There is also the CMD270P3 4.0 to 8.0GHz LNA, which has a low noise figure of 1.7dB and delivers greater than 16dB of gain. An evaluation board is coming soon. Another LNA is the CMD307P3 (8.0 to 16GHz) with a low noise figure of 2.0dB. An accompanying evaluation board is also available. These LNAs are all 50 Ohm-matched designs, eliminating the need for both external DC blocks and RF port matching, says Mouser.

Other products are the CMD305P3 6.0 to 14GHz driver amplifier, a broadband MMIC offering low current consumption and +20.5 dBm saturated output power. Qorvo’s CMD284P4 DC–22 GHz distributed amplifier is a GaAs MMIC that delivers wideband performance in a leadless 4.0 x 4.0mm package. Mouser also stocks the CMD305P3 evaluation board and CMD284P4 evaluation board.

Mouser claims to stock the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics’ website is continually updated and offers advanced search methods to help customers quickly locate inventory. Mouser.com also houses data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools.

Mouser offers 27 support locations around the world to provide best-in-class customer service and ships globally to over 630.000 customers in more than 223 countries/territories.

Qorvo provides RF products and technology, systems-level expertise and global manufacturing for wireless devices, wired and wireless networks and defence radar and communications.

http://www.mouser.com

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Software simplifies 5G small cell development

Wed, Apr 29, 2020

To support the development of 5G base station technology, CommAgility has introduced its PHYRefChain-5G software. Developers working on satellite comms, wireless test, military communications and private network designs can use it to quickly develop and deploy specialised 5G solutions for customised applications.

The PHYRefChain-5G software is 3GPP-compliant, which reduces the complexity, risk, and cost of 5G product development by helping ensure new products meet global standards and are compatible with specific industry requirements, says CommAgility.

“The new 5G reference chain software adds to our base portfolio of 5G NR hardware and software,” said Edward Young, CommAgility’s vice president and general manager. The company combines its software and hardware with NXP’s Layerscape Access LA12XX programmable baseband processors for small cells, access points and private networks based on its reference chain software.

The resources in the PHYRefChain-5G software are claimed to provide a lower cost, shorter time to market option over in-house ground-up designs. The PHYRefChain-5G can play a key role in enabling the use of new radio access technology, 5G New Radio (NR), to develop next-generation communication networks.

The PHYRefChain-5G software is the foundation of CommAgility’s offering for 5G NR software development, including pre-ported and validated PHY and Stack. The 5G NR software has a flexible architecture to enable easy integration with available hardware accelerators and libraries. Versions are available for both 5G gNodeB and UE product developers. The reference chain complies with 3GPP Release 15 (specifications 38.22, 38.212, 38.213 and 38.214), ensuring end products will work with all 3GPP-compliant networks. Additionally, compliance with Small Cell Forum 5G FAPI enables fast integration with CommAgility or other protocol stacks.

Algorithms are provided for channel estimation, equalisation and synchronisation. There are also static test frameworks with hundreds of test cases and test vectors to reduce the investment required in test equipment and creating custom test environments, added CommAgility.

Version 15.0.3 of PHYRefChain-5G is available now and will be continually enhanced to meet market needs as 3GPP specifications evolve. Regular releases are planned to the software throughout 2020, adding further new features and functionality.

https://www.commagility.com

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Wirepas Mesh is scalable for decentralised networks

Mon, Apr 27, 2020

Battery-powered Wirepas Mesh technology mesh units and mesh sensor units from Fujitsu Component America, simplify the construction of large-scale decentralised networks, says the company. They allow scalable, reliable and cost-effective IoT for position tracking and sensor data collection.

The mesh units (FWM8BLZ07P) and mesh-sensor units (FWM8BLZ07Y) enable power saving, high-density networks with interference tolerance channel selection, transmitting power control and autonomous network rerouting capability, says Fujitsu. If the network environment changes, adds and/or removes the end device, or if a device failure occurs, the mesh topology and protocols will automatically reconfigure the mesh network. A security key ensures a secure communication environment throughout the network.

The FWM8BLZ07P mesh unit is well-suited for wide-area asset tracking. It features a long-sleep mode and an integrated sensor that wakes up only if certain events, like shock, are detected. This function further conserves energy because communication begins only when needed.

The multi-function FWM8BLZ07Y mesh-sensor unit incorporates temperature, humidity, air pressure, illuminance, three-axis acceleration and sound-level sensors. It can be adapted for a variety of massive, sensor data collection systems with scalable mesh topology. Sensor data paths through the mesh network topology mean that the end-node’s placement is not limited by the gateway’s location, says Fujitsu.

Both mesh units are based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 SoC and are compact. They measure 40.0 x 31.0 x 12.0mm (1.57 x 1.22 x 0.47 inches) within a grey, plain housing. They use a single CR2450 coin-cell battery and include a voltage notification function, which senses a voltage drop in the battery and allows users to determine the right timing for replacement.

The mesh and mesh sensor units and position tracking support software are available now.

Fujitsu Components America markets and distributes electronic and system components and sub-systems throughout North and South America. Products include relays, touch panels, thermal printers, wireless modules, connectors, and input and pointing devices.

The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA.

https://us.fujitsu.com/components

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PMICs halve current to boost efficiency, says Silicon Labs

Mouser has expanded MMIC range from Qorvo

Software simplifies 5G small cell development

Wirepas Mesh is scalable for decentralised networks

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