Siemens enter the IC power analysis market with mPower software

Power integrity software from Siemens is claimed to be the only power integrity analysis software available for analogue, digital and mixed-signal IC designs of any size. mPower helps IC designers dramatically boost quality, enhance reliability and speed time to market through accelerated power integrity analysis cycles, says Siemens Digital Industries Software.

The IC power integrity verification software provides virtually unlimited scalability for analogue, digital, and mixed-signal ICs, enabling comprehensive power, electromigration (EM) and voltage drop (IR) analysis for large IC designs.

mPower software delivers power integrity analysis for all versions of 2D designs, in addition to 2.5/3D IC implementations at any scale. It also integrates into existing design flows easily, adds Siemens. mPower can help IC designers to quickly and thoroughly verify designs to meet power-related design goals.

Analog ICs convert physical, data such as sound, motion and video into digital form, and they are increasingly critical to consumer electronics, autonomous vehicles, IoT designs. Siemens explains how mPower replaces rough static analysis and SPICE simulation of select nets to deliver simulation-based EM/IR analysis on large blocks and chips. Customers using mPower have seen overall runtime improvements compared with their current solution, ranging from two times faster to actually completing first-pass EM/IR analysis of large analogue IP blocks, which was previously impossible, reports Siemens.

Siemens’ digital mPower scalable EM/IR engines also provide analysis for all-digital IC designs. This integrates into existing design flows, provides power analysis functionality and requires low per-machine memory into complete verification of even the largest digital design, says the company.

“Before using mPower, we could not do a single-run full chip EM/IR analysis on our 1000+ core 64-bit RISC-V AI chip,” said Darren Jones, vice president of VLSI at AI computer developer, Esperanto. “Using mPower enables us to run our 24-billion transistor 7nm AI chip on our server farm with fewer resources,“ he adds.

The mPower power integrity joins Siemens‘ electro-physical signoff suite addressing power, performance, and reliability analysis which also includes Calibre PERC reliability software, PowerPro software, HyperLynx software, and the Analog FastSPICE platforms.

“Design companies must run both block and full-chip EM/IR analysis to confirm that the power grid delivers the necessary current to the devices, and that wires will not fail prematurely,” says Joe Sawicki, executive vice president for Siemens’ IC EDA Segment. He believes mPower provides a fast, scalable dynamic analysis option for analogue, digital and mixed-signal layouts of any size, as well as silicon-proven accuracy and fast turns for even the largest digital chips, he says.”

Siemens’ mPower power integrity analysis solution for analog, digital and mixed-signal IC designs is available now.

http://www.sw.siemens.com

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Nanopower primary cell monitors battery health

Designed to be placed in series with a primary battery with minimal associated series voltage drop, the LTC3337 is a nanopower primary (non-rechargeable) cell state of health (SoH) monitor with precision coulomb counter, by Analog Devices.

The patented infinite dynamic range coulomb counter monitors and tallies all accumulated battery discharge (battery voltage, battery impedance and temperature) and stores this data in an internal register which is accessible via an I2C interface. The quiescent current consumption is only 100nA, increasing battery run time.

To accommodate a wide range of primary battery inputs, the peak input current limit is pin selectable from 5.0 to 100mA. This enables the IC to present the battery with a load profile which allows it to deliver its maximum capacity, independent of the actual load. This “battery friendly” operation prolongs the lifetime of the cell.

The LTC3337 has eight primary battery peak input current limits, i.e. 5.0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75 and 100mA. It is intended for use in primary cell applications that require only occasional power such as applications in remote locations, electronic door locks, or glass break detectors. The monitor may also be used in rechargeable battery cell applications.

The 12-lead 2.0 x 2.0mm LFCSP device is available for sampling and is in full production now.

  Analog Devices has a suite of analogue and mixed signal, power management, radio frequency (RF), and digital and sensor technologies, serving customers worldwide operating in the industrial, communications, automotive and consumer markets.

http://www.analog.com

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MEMS barometric pressure sensors are slim and compact

Able to measure a height difference as small as 50mm, the ICP-20100 low noise MEMS barometric pressure sensors have a compact footprint for use in smartphones, tablets, drones, augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR) equipment and smart home appliances.

The InvenSense ICP-20100 sensors combine a barometric pressure and a temperature sensor in a 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.8mm package. The low noise pressure sensing capabilities, with a range of 30 to 110 kPa, allows the device to detect altitude changes of less than 50mm.

The performance extends InvenSense’s SmartPressure family and offers multiple input voltage levels of 1.2V, 1.8V and 3.3V. There is also a choice of interfaces, namely I²C, I3CSM and SPI. The ICP-20100 can be configured to achieve low noise or low power performance.   

The SmartPressure family uses a capacitive MEMS architecture to deliver lower power consumption and lower noise than competing pressure sensors technologies, explains InvenSense. In addition to operation over a wide temperature range, the ICP-20100 pressure sensor can deliver the measurement accuracies required by applications such as 3D geolocation and emergency location service (E911), mobile indoor / outdoor navigation, sport and fitness activity tracking and altitude-hold in drones. The sensor’s low power consumption assists in extending battery life for always-on applications, for example in the IoT. The pressure sensor temperature co-efficient offset is ±0.5 Pa/ degrees C.

A development kit, the DK-20100, and evaluation platform with software are also available.

The ICP-20100 joins the existing ICP-10125, ICP-10101, and ICP-10111 pressure sensors in the SmartPressure family.

Target applications in addition to smartphones and tablets are sports, and fitness activity monitoring devices, altitude control for drones and aerial toys, gaming equipment, including virtual reality. The ICP-20100 can also be used for indoor / outdoor navigation, for example in detecting, floors in a lift or steps. In smart home appliances, they can be used in robotic vacuum cleaners and other equipment which needs sensing capabilities.

TDK was established in 1935 to commercialise ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. The company’s portfolio features passive components such as ceramic, aluminium electrolytic and film capacitors, as well as magnetics, high-frequency and piezo and protection devices. There are also sensors and sensor systems such as temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors, power supplies and energy devices.

Products are marketed under the product brands TDK, Epcos, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics and TDK-Lambda. TDK focuses on demanding markets in automotive, industrial and consumer electronics, and information and communication technology. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America.

https://invensense.tdk.com

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MicroAI teams up with Renesas to bring ML / AI to RA microcontrollers

Training machine learning (ML) models directly in the embedded environment is now possible following MicroAI’s collaboration with Renesas to integrate the former’s MicroAI AtomML technology in the latter’s RA microcontroller range.

It is claimed to result in the first time microcontrollers can train ML models directly in the embedded environments.

The MicroAI-powered microcontrollers can be used in industrial, commercial and consumer systems and devices to adopt edge AI (artificial intelligence). Embedding intelligence at the source of the data, lowers operational costs as well as the expenses around connectivity in ‘smart’ machines and IoT devices, says MicroAI.

Mohammed Dogar, senior director of global business development, Renesas, said: “The industry has been asking to bring more insight and intelligence into the performance of their assets closer to the source of the data, and, working with MicroAI, we have a solution.”

MicroAI is a patented ML algorithm that lives directly on a machine or IoT device, providing deep insight into the behaviour, health and performance of the equipment or devices.  Typical examples are robotic welding arms used in automotive assembly lines or for greenhouse gas efficiency in agriculture. These can often face unexpected downtime and static maintenance schedules, resulting in unnecessary costs in terms of lost production and service charges because operators can only when a problem occurs. Creating more visibility into the operation of manufacturing lines, allows asset owners and manufacturers can make adjustments to reduce those events to keep equipment and operations running smoothly.

The Renesas RA (Renesas Advanced) microcontrollers are 32-bit devices with Arm Cortex-M33, -M23 and -M4 processor cores. They are PSA-certified for IoT hardware, software and devices.

In response to calls for predictive insights into machinery, equipment and production systems, MicroAI’s chief executive officer, Yasser Khan, says: “Working with Renesas, MicroAI is delivering that capability by utilising our technology to bring machine learning to microcontrollers, providing the ability to train machine learning models directly in the embedded environment.”

http://www.micro.ai

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