Sector News Archives - Page 466 of 607 - SmartCitiesElectronics.com

Power Integrations introduces GaN to LYTSwitch drivers

Mon, Sep 09, 2019

The latest members of Power Integrations’ LED driver ICs, the LYTSwitch-6 family, use PowiGaN technology to enable designs that deliver up to 110W with 94% conversion efficiency using a simple, flexible flyback topology.

The high efficiency eliminates the need for heatsinks, reducing ballast size, weight and cooling airflow requirements, says Power Integrations. The 750V PowiGaN primary switches provide very low RDS (on) and reduced switching losses, increasing power conversion efficiency by up to three per cent compared to conventional solutions and reducing wasted heat by more than one-third.

LYTSwitch-6 ICs with PowiGaN technology employ lossless current sensing. They retain existing LYTSwitch-6 characteristics, such as fast transient response for cross regulation for parallel LED strings without the need for additional regulator hardware, and flicker-free system operation, says the company. This allows simple implementation of a pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming interface.

The LYTSwitch-6 ICs with PowiGaN technology enable designs up to 110W for smart residential and commercial fixtures and low-profile ceiling troffers. The high power density enables reduced height and weight, which is vital for space-constrained and sealed ballast applications.

The GaN-based LYTSwitch-6 LED-driver ICs are available now. A reference design (DER-801) is also available, describing a 100W three-way dimming LED ballast.

Power Integrations specialises in semiconductor technologies for high-voltage power conversion, with products that are key building blocks in the clean-power ecosystem, enabling the generation of renewable energy as well as the efficient transmission and consumption of power in applications ranging from mW to MWs.

http://www.power.com

> Read More

Smartrac steps up security with NFC PRO tags

Fri, Sep 06, 2019

RFID technology and IoT specialist, Smartrac has launched the Pro series of NFC tags and inlays. The Circus Pro NFC tag, equipped with NXP’s NTAG 424 DNA IC, will be the first member of the new product series optimised for highly secure product authentication.

By embedding Circus, or subsequent Pro inlays or tags, into physical products, customers can turn products into secure digital platforms. Smartrac says they can deliver value during the product lifetime, from point of manufacture, through the supply chain, distribution channels, point of sales, customer use, to reselling and recycling. Secure product authentication protects against counterfeiting and diversions and also provide exclusive content and rewards for consumer engagement and customer loyalty programs.

“As the number of connected objects is expected to reach a record 40 billion by 2022, organisations of all sizes are seeking not just feature-rich, connectivity solutions but ones that can securely protect their brand, their products, and their customers,” said Philippe Dubois, vice president and general manager of IoT Security, Smart Mobility and Retail at NXP.

Smartrac’s Circus Pro inlays and tags with NXP’s NTAG 424 DNA ICs work with all NFC-enabled devices and support real-time tag and message authentication based on AES-128 encryption on attack-resistant certified silicon. The secure unique NFC (SUN) authentication enables authentic, integrity protected and confidential data exchanges between tags and servers. This high-end security IC offers enhanced privacy features and a sensitive on-chip data storage, says Smartrac, protected by a sophisticated three-pass mutual authentication scheme.

Future Pro features and options will include different security layers, allowing customers to enable secure product authentication for a range of applications. Smartrac will soon introduce further Pro versions of its popular NFC inlays and tags such as Bullseye and Midas, the company confirmed.

NFC-based secure product authentication can be achieved through a choice of verification services to comply with individual customer requirements. The secret keys cannot be copied or tampered and physical product authenticity can be proven once the Pro inlays and tags are irremovably embedded into or attached to the physical product.

Smartrac’s Circus Pro NFC inlays and tags with NTAG 424 DNA will become available in large quantities in Q3 2019 as wet inlays and the Circus Pro Flex wet inlays, which come with an additional protective layer for the IC and antenna connection area for enhanced durability.

http://www.smartrac-group.com

> Read More

ON Semiconductor uses PoE to meet IoT endpoints’ power demands

Thu, Sep 05, 2019

Using the new IEEE 802.3bt standard, Power over Ethernet (PoE) can be used to deliver high-speed connectivity up to 90W of power over local area network (LAN) connections. ON Semiconductor has announced that controllers and MOSFETs not only support the new standard power limit, but extends it further to 100W for systems including telecommunications and digital signage.

The IEEE 802.3bt standard for PoE enables more sophisticated endpoints operating across larger networks, explains ON Semiconductor. The IEEE 802.3bt standard optimises energy management through the new Autoclass feature, which enables powered devices (PDs) to communicate specific power needs to the power sourcing equipment (PSE). This in turn allows each PSE to allocate just the right amount of power to each PD, maximising both the available energy and bandwidth.

Three times the power is available with IEEE 802.3bt (90W, compared to the 30W provided by the IEEE 802.at standard, or PoE+). IEEE 802.3bt can provide both power and connectivity to new applications that would otherwise require a dedicated and typically off-line power source. PoE will simplify network topologies and provide a more robust plug-and-play user experience, explains ON Semiconductor.

ON Semiconductor offers the NCP1095 and NCP1096 interface controllers. Both incorporate all of the features needed to implement a PoE interface, including detection, auto-classification and current limiting. The controllers employ either an external (NCP1095) or internal (NCP1096) hot-swap FET. The integrated hot-swap FET in the NCP1096 features the lowest on-resistance available in a Type 3 or Type 4 PoE controller

The controllers are complemented by the NCP1566 DC/DC controller, the FDMC8622 single MOSFET and the FDMQ8203 and FDMQ8205A GreenBridge Quad MOSFETs. These have been developed to provide a more efficient alternative to a diode bridge in PoE applications. Together, these devices enable highly efficient PoE interfaces with up to the standard limit of 90W or to a proprietary 100W.

The company believes it offers a complete family of IEEE 802.3bt-compliant products, to make the technology more accessible and enable more connected devices with guaranteed interoperability.

“PoE is one of the fastest-growing markets for power semiconductors today, with a compound average unit growth rate of 14 per cent expected from 2017 through to 2022,” said Kevin Anderson, senior analyst, power semiconductors at business information provider IHS Markit. “The additional power-delivery capability defined in IEEE 802.3bt enables new applications, such as higher-powered connected lighting, networked high-resolution surveillance cameras and high-performance wireless access points.”

http://www.onsemi.com

> Read More

Software accelerates FPGA development for edge computing

Thu, Sep 05, 2019

Software developers can realise up to 100x performance increase and reduce development time by up to a factor of 15, using CacheQ’s QCC Acceleration Platform, says the company.

The distributed heterogenous compute development environment provides a high-level language (HLL) software development platform for heterogeneous compute architectures. At its heart is the CacheQ Virtual Machine (CQVM). This is a complete application representation that can be analysed, partitioned, optimised and targeted to a variety of compute engines. Input is HLL code that is generated into CQVM, then optimised and partitioned. The final result are compute executables from the partitioned CQVM.

The CQVM allows extensive analysis and optimisation can be done before compute executable generation. Software developers can perform performance simulation, profile the compete virtual machine, view the CQVM to examine partitioning results and hot spots and analyse compute resource utilisation to accelerate design cycles.

To avoid partitioning challenges, requiring the development of compute engine-specific code, software developers write one application using the QCC Acceleration Platform. It automatically partitions an application across compute elements that can be combinations of processors and FPGAs. It supports both automatic and user-guided partitioning to deliver performance and reduce development time.

There is automatic pipelining to accelerate development. For example, CacheQ cites FPGAs’ fully pipelined execution time of a (N+ C)/(clock rate). For more acceleration, pipelined loops can be unrolled to deliver greater acceleration through a simple command line option with no code modification, adds CacheQ.

Traditional FPGA development requires users to rewrite their code and guarantee predictable memory access. The CacheQ offers tight integration with the memory subsystem and application code to deliver performance and reduce development time.

The Acceleration Platform’s proprietary multi-port arbitrated cached memory subsystem integrates with the CQVM to deliver up to 100 memory ports and Tbytes of memory bandwidth. In addition, malloc (C dynamic memory allocation) and complex pointer references are supported.

http://www.cacheq.com

> Read More

Power Integrations introduces GaN to LYTSwitch drivers

Smartrac steps up security with NFC PRO tags

ON Semiconductor uses PoE to meet IoT endpoints’ power demands

Software accelerates FPGA development for edge computing

About Smart Cities