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NEC and Analog Devices team up to design 5G radio unit for Rakuten Mobile

Mon, Oct 26, 2020

NEC and Analog Devices (ADI) will collaborate on the design of a 5G network massive MIMO antenna radio unit for Rakuten Mobile. The radio unit uses ADI’s fourth generation wideband RF transceiver to achieve high precision massive MIMO. It also has a 5G open vRAN (virtual radio access network) interface corresponding to Rakuten Mobile’s end-to-end, virtualised cloud native mobile network. For efficiency transmission, it uses 3.7GHz frequency massive MIMO and digital beamforming technology. The cloud-native virtual network allows communications providers to offer high speed internet access worldwide, at significantly lower costs, says ADI but without the maintenance, repair and labour costs associated with the physical infrastructure. NEC has already started shipping the 5G network massive MIMO antenna radio unit to Rakuten Mobile.

ADI’s fourth generation wideband RF transceiver integrates quad channel transmitters, receivers and digital pre-distortion (DPD) in a single chip. The radio is software reconfigurable and covers all sub-6GHz 5G frequency bands to simplify radio designs.

Explaining the choice of design partner, Nozomu Watanabe, senior vice president at NEC, commented: “ADI’s RF transceiver is expertly designed to support wireless applications such as massive MIMO and small cell systems, simplifying system design, reducing size and weight, and minimising power consumption”.

He believes virtualisation is seen by many of the world’s leading telecomms providers as the next evolution of communications. “ADI’s RF equipment allows us to provide the connectivity required to build an architecture that supports 5G full-spectrum systems,” he added.

NEC’s 5G equipment utilises highly accurate digital beamforming for efficient high-capacity transmission. The system also features seamless installation, achieved through circuit integration.

“The new wave of 5G-based network connectivity is defined by flexibility,” said Greg Henderson, senior vice president at Analog Devices.

While the ecosystem is “incredibly intricate and complex”, he said that efficiencies in cost, time and capital equipment will progress the industry to the a “truly virtualised network”.

NEC specialises in the integration of IT and network technologies.

Analog Devices is an analogue technology company.

http://www.analog.com

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Temperature compensated RTC has I2C interface

Thu, Oct 22, 2020

Claimed to offer the world’s best time accuracy across industrial temperature range at low current consumption, the RV-3032-C7 real time clock (RTC) module has been released by Micro Crystal. The compact RTC module has a custom IC and integrated quartz crystal resonator and sets new standards in size, claims the company. It is half the footprint of a uSOP-8 package, with no additional external components required. It is also claimed to offer the best accuracy (±0.26 s/day at -40 to +85 degrees C operating temperature). Low current consumption (160nA timekeeping mode) and power management capabilities are other features.

The RV-3032-C7 is suitable for applications requiring always-on timekeeping functions, as well as compliance to stringent clock accuracy over time, wide temperature range, and long battery life. Typical examples are smart metering and other similar industrial or consumer applications, such as wearables and IoT devices.

Power management features include a wide supply voltage range (1.2 to 5.5V), automatic backup switch, versatile charge pump and programmable trickle charger. The RTC module can be coupled with a small sized, low capacity, rechargeable battery, or a low cost coin cell power unit which will reduce the overall dimensions and the manufacturing cost of the end product while optimising the life of the battery, advises Micro Crystal.

The RV-3032-C7 includes a quartz-based digital temperature controlled crystal oscillator (DTCXO).

“The design team has applied their 40 years’ of frequency control expertise to develop [the module] . . . . Besides all the standard RTC features, it includes multiple extra functions, like data protection through password, and MHz output frequency, now available for the first time in the market in such a tiny device,” said Hans-Rudolf Gottier, CEO of Micro Crystal.

“The RV-3032-C7 RTC will definitely help engineers in developing next generations of smart products,” he continued. “The availability of a programmable high frequency clock output to drive the central MCU, and access to the high-resolution thermometer, used for accurate thermal compensation and allows setting temperature threshold alarms with interrupt function, will support numerous unique and new applications,” he said.

The RV-3032-C7 is hermetically sealed in a compact reflow solderable DFN ceramic package, measuring 3.2 x 1.5 x 0.8mm. It is RoHS/lead-free-compliant and AEC-Q200 qualified.

https://www.microcrystal.com

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Digi-Key Electronics signs sensing specialist, Aceinna

Thu, Oct 22, 2020

Sensor, autonomous vehicle guidance and power management by Aceinna are now available from Digi-Key Electronics, following a global distribution agreement.

The partnership is part of Digi-Key’s Marketplace initiative, broadening what it claims to be the world’s largest selection of electronic components and making the distributor more of a one-stop-shop than ever before, says the company.

Amongst the Aceinna products available are real time kinematic (RTK), inertial navigation system (INS) tilt and inertial measurement unit (IMU) products, including the OpenIMU300RI IMU (pictured). Digi-Key will also supply Aceinna’s current sensing products used for power supply and management in data centres, server farms, electric vehicles and lorries, large industrial machines, and commercial appliances.

David Stein, vice president, global supplier management at Digi-Key. “Aceinna’s latest generation of IMUs feature a triple-redundant architecture, all wrapped in small, low-cost packaging that, when combined, meet the challenging performance, reliability and cost requirements of the robotic and autonomous market.”

Aceinna’s integrated, anisotropic magneto resistive (AMR) -based isolated current sensor family is a single chip solution with one of the industry’s highest bandwidths, fastest response times and highest accuracy, says Digi-Key. It is suitable for high power conversions including those using fast switching wide bandgap silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) power switches.

Aceinna provides sensing solutions for automotive, industrial, telecomms, data centre and cloud infrastructure, consumer appliances, agricultural and construction market sectors. Its precise positioning products MEMS-based, open-source, inertial sensing systems that enable centimetre-accurate navigation systems for autonomous systems.

Aceinna’s isolated current sensor product family is based on an AMR technology that enables industry leading accuracy, bandwidth and step response in a simple, cost effective single chip form factor.

Aceinna has R&D facilities in San Jose, California, Andover, Massachusetts and Chicago, USA and manufacturing facilities in Wuxi, China.

Digi-Key Electronics, headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA. It is an authorised global, full service distributor of electronic components, and provides access to unlimited adjacent products and technologies through its online Marketplace. The distributor offers more than 11 million components, with over 2.6 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 1,300 quality name-brand manufacturers.

Marketplace Product provides a singular shopping experience for all things related to technology innovation, for example, IoT, industrial automation, test and measurement.

http://www.digikey.com

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MCUs integrate peripherals for sensor-based IoT applications

Wed, Oct 21, 2020

Sensor-based IoT applications use a combination of analogue functionality and digital control capability to meet cost, size, performance and power parameters for efficiency. In response, Microchip has combined analogue peripherals and multi-voltage operation with inter-peripheral connections in its PIC18-Q41 and AVR DB MCU families. In addition to these attributes for increased system integration and reduced signal acquisition times, they offer the convenience and efficiency of operating in a single design environment, says Microchip.

The introduction bring s easy-to-use analogue capability to cost-effective PIC and AVR MCUs, says Greg Robinson, so designers can meet the requirements of large-scale IoT systems,” said Greg Robinson, associate vice president of marketing for Microchip’s 8-bit microcontroller business unit. “With a unified, seamless development tool experience, designers can use these MCUs as a single-chip controller, or as an intelligent analogue signal conditioning component in a larger system,” he explained.

The PIC18-Q41 MCU has a configurable operational amplifier and ADC with computation and DACs for signal conditioning in space-constrained sensing and measuring applications such as IoT end nodes and industrial, medical devices, wearables, automotive and lighting systems. It is also well-suited for IoT and large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge, including predictive maintenance edge nodes in a smart factory, added Microchip. It is offered in compact 14- and 20-pin packages and can be used with Microchip’s 32-bit MCUs and other controllers that require analogue integration.

For mixed-signal IoT systems which often include multiple power domains, the AVR DB MCU integrates true bi-directional level shifters to reduce cost. Typical use examples are automotive, appliances, HVAC and liquid measurement applications. Microchip has added three configurable op amps, a 12-bit differential ADC, 10-bit DAC, three zero cross detectors and Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) enabling the AVR DB MCU to be used wherever analogue signal conditioning and processing functions are required.

The PIC18-Q41 and AVR DB MCU families are supported by Microchip’s MPLAB X integrated development environment (IDE), its MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC) and the MPLAB Mindi Analog Simulator. MCC is a free software plug-in that provides a graphical interface to configure peripherals and functions specific to an application.

The AVR DB is additionally supported by Atmel START, Atmel Studio and third-party tools such as IAR and the GCC C compiler.

The PIC18F16Q41 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit (EV26Q64A) and the AVR DB Curiosity Nano evaluation kit (EV35L43A) are also available with programming and debugging capabilities.

http://www.microchip.com

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NEC and Analog Devices team up to design 5G radio unit for Rakuten Mobile

Temperature compensated RTC has I2C interface

Digi-Key Electronics signs sensing specialist, Aceinna

MCUs integrate peripherals for sensor-based IoT applications

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