Compact, low noise oscillators perform for data centres

The ProXO+ family of compact, low noise, temperature-controlled clock oscillators from Renesas are high frequency, differential oscillators suited to fibre optic transceiver modules, accelerator cards, smart NIC cards, and networking equipment applications.

“The ProXO+ family delivers on all counts, offering tight frequency stability, great jitter performance, and high output frequency, which are critical features for communications, cloud and compute markets,” said Bobby Matinpour, vice president of timing products at Renesas. The level of programmability also enables the use of a single device for numerous designs, simplifying the bill of materials (BoM), sourcing and inventory management, he added.

The oscillators have a frequency stability ±3 parts per million (ppm) from -40 to +85 degrees C and programmable frequencies up to 2.1GHz. They exhibit 135fs typical phase jitter at 12kHz to 20MHz range.

The ProXO+ devices are available now for order in an eight-pin plastic package measuring 3.2 x 2.5mm.

Renesas also announced two industry-standard plastic packages for its existing ProXO XF 2.5 x 2.0mm oscillators. They are now also available in 3.2 x 2.5mm and 5.0 x 3.2mm packages.

The ProXO+ family can be combined with Renesas’ complementary clock buffers, power devices and microcontrollers, such as the Xilinx Kintex-7 Power and Timing, the CC-Link IE TSN, and the System on Module (SoM) with RZ/G2E. Renesas’

Renesas claims to provide the industry’s broadest timing portfolio to support the complete clock tree. It describes itself as a “one-stop-shop” for timing solutions, offering expertise and products from full-featured system solutions to simple clock tree building-block devices.

Renesas Electronics delivers embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices. Its portfolio of microcontrollers, analogue, power, and SoC products is available for a broad range of automotive, industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT applications.

http://www.renesas.com

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Secure embedded controllers integrate AI/ML acceleration

Built to power the next generation, always-connected IoT products, Alif Semiconductor’s Ensemble and Crescendo families are power-efficient devices which integrate AI/ML acceleration, multi-layered security, LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT connectivity, GNSS positioning, and memory.

The Ensemble family scales from single Arm Cortex®-M55 microcontrollers to so-called fusion processors which blend up to two Cortex-M55 cores, up to two Cortex-A32  microprocessor cores capable of running high-level operating systems, and up to  two Arm Ethos-U55 microNPUs for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)  acceleration.

The Ensemble family devices contain an advanced secure enclave that provides device integrity protection, secure identity, strong  root-of-trust and secure lifecycle management. They also have large on-chip SRAM and non-volatile memory, accelerated graphics, imaging, making them suitable for smart home automation, appliances, point of sale (PoS) terminals and robotics applications, said the company.

The Crescendo family offers the same functionality as the Ensemble family, with the addition of LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT cellular connectivity, optional iSIM for simplified subscriber management, integrated RF, power amplifiers, and a concurrent GNSS receiver. These capabilities make them well-suited for smart city, connected infrastructure, asset tracking, healthcare devices and wearable devices said the company, using a single chip to minimise size and weight.

To address the reliance on battery power in IoT devices, which can be challenging when there is a high requirement for local processing, AI/ML, and wireless communication, Alif Semiconductor has also introduced Autonomous Intelligent Power Management (aiPM) technology that allows fine-grained control of when resources  in the chip are being powered. This results in low power operation, enabling intelligent devices to last longer on smaller batteries.

“The solution that Alif delivers fills a significant gap in the market,” said Jerome Schang, head of Microsoft Azure Edge Silicon devices strategy. “We are always on the lookout for the most efficient technology platforms for our Edge experiences, and the Ensemble and Crescendo families are very well aligned with our customers’ needs.”

Ensemble and Crescendo devices are sampling now to lead customers. They are supported by Alif Semiconductor’s software, development tools and kits. Production qualification will be complete in 1Q22.

https://www.alifsemi.com/

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SOM-5883 COM is engineered for graphics performance

Equipped with 11th Generation Intel Core processors, the SOM-5883 computer on module (COM) is designed by Advantech for high-performance edge computing applications.

It is a COM Express Basic Type6 Module and offers octa-core computing performance under thermal dynamic performance (TDP) 45W. It also has Intel Iris Xe graphics and an Edge AI Suite software toolkit, which make the COM suitable for medical imaging and AI applications.

To resolve the heavy workload of image processing applications, SOM-5883 has the capability to support up to 128Gbyte DDR4 3200 SODIMM, with high capacity and high frequency memory technology. The COM includes high speed I/O interfaces including PCIe Gen4 and USB3.2 Gen2 (10Gbits per second) and 2.5Gbase-T for enhanced system expansion. There is also optional NVMe SSD and TPM2.0 onboard design. Other features are -40 to +85 degrees C operating temperature and 8.5 to 20V power input. As a result, says Advantech, the SOM-5883 is reliable and secure for edge computing requirements.

The SOM-5883 offers a 1.7X computing performance growth and 1.5X 3D graphics upgrade. Advantech provides Edge AI Suite containing Intel Open VINO and more than a hundred AI models.

There are four independent displays up to 4K over three DisplayPort 1.4 / HDMI 2.1, optional eDP or LVDS, and VGAl, and the COM is configurable up to two ports 8K HDR outputs. Graphics-driven applications such as ultrasound can achieve much more accurate diagnosis with the combination of native graphics engine and external expansion for system configuration, said Advantech. At the same time, SOM-5883 supports multiple cutting-edge I/O technologies. It enables high speed data transmission with improved bandwidth of 2.5G LAN and an NVMe SSD onboard, with the capability to transfer huge data between AIoT applications. The 2.5G LAN equipped with time sensitive networking (TSN) is suitable for automation or edge applications requiring low-latency. This technology fulfils the demand of real-time traffic, prioritising critical data in the communication process, such as transferring command, actions or safety information on time, said the company. It also supplies extraordinary USB4, which can be configured as DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, USB 3.2, and USB 2.0 in a slim USB-Type-C connector. Advantech also offers USB4 reference design documents and SOM-MZ10 development board, to help partners accelerate the implementation of new I/O technology.

Advantech’s QFCS (Quadra flow cooling system) thermal technology enables the SOM-5883 to release 100 per cent CPU power. The technology is not only efficient in heat dissipation but also thin, quiet and light, sufficiently so to be integrated into a 1U height slim chassis, added Advantech.

The SOM-5883 features error code correction (ECC) memory, TPM2.0 chip onboard to prevent cyber-threats, and also supports BIOS storage protection, security boot, BIOS power-management, plus WISE-DeviceOn for remote hardware monitoring and over-the-air (OTA) software update to prevent system malfunction.

http://www.advantech.eu

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Single-chip GaN gate driver accelerates automation, says STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics’ STDRIVEG600 half-bridge gate driver has high current output and 45ns propagation delay, closely matched between high-side and low-side outputs, in order to handle high frequency switching of GaN enhancement-mode FETs.

The driver can also be used for driving N-channel silicon MOSFETs at up to 20V, and allows up to 6V gate source voltage (VGS) to be applied on GaN devices to ensure low Rds(on). The driver also has an integrated bootstrap circuit that helps minimise the bill of materials (BoM) and to simplify board layout, claims STMicro. The bootstrap circuit uses a synchronous MOSFET that lets the bootstrap voltage reach the logic supply voltage, VCC, allowing the driver to operate from a single supply without a low dropout regulator (LDO).

The STDRIVEG600 has dV/dt immunity of ±200V/ns for dependable gate control in challenging electrical environments. The logic inputs are CMOS / TTL -compatible down to 3.3V for easy interfacing with a host microcontroller or DSP. The high side section withstands up to 600V, allowing use in applications with a high voltage bus up to 500V.

In addition, the outputs have 5.5 / 6.0A sink / source capability and provide separated turn-on and turn-off pins. As a result, designers can choose the optimum way to control the gate. Both the high side and low side circuits support Kelvin connection to the power switch source for enhanced control. Dedicated ground and supply voltage connections for the low side driver ensure stable switching with the Kelvin connection and allow a shunt resistor to be used for current sensing without additional isolation or input filtering.

Built-in safety functions include under-voltage lockout (UVLO) on both the lower and upper driving sections to prevent the power switches from operating in low efficiency or dangerous conditions. There is also interlocking to avoid cross-conduction, as well as over-temperature protection. A dedicated pin for shutdown functionality is also available.

The STDRIVEG600 can be used in applications such as high voltage PFC, DC/DC, and DC/AC converters, switched mode power supplies, UPS systems, solar generators, and motor drivers for home appliances, factory automation and industrial drives.

The STDRIVEG600 is in full production and available as a 16-pin SO16 device.

Two development boards are available. The first is the EVSTDRIVEG600DG which contains a 150mOhm 650V GaN HEMT in 5.0 x 6.0mm PowerFLAT package with Kelvin source. The second is the EVSTDRIVEG600DM which comes with a STL33N60DM2 MDmesh 115mOhm 600V silicon power MOSFET with fast recovery diode in 8.0 x 8.0mm PowerFLAT with Kelvin source or alternative DPAK package.

http://www.st.com/gandrivers

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