Sector News

Siemens integrates the u-blox ZED-F9K module into its V2X test fleet

Mon, Jun 10, 2019

The ZED-F9K turnkey solution minimizes the effort required to achieve decimeter-level positioning accuracy in automotive applications.

Thalwil, Switzerland – June 7, 2019 – u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets, is announcing that Siemens has integrated the u‑blox ZED-F9K (https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/zed-f9k-module) high precision dead reckoning module into its Toyota Prius V2X (vehicle-to-everything) test fleet. Siemens carried out live demonstrations of the technology at the ITS European Congress 2019 (https://2019.itsineurope.com/) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

As the only available source of absolute position, satellite-based positioning plays a crucial role in advanced driver automation systems and driverless vehicles. The same is true in V2X communication, in which vehicles continuously share their location and other information with other traffic participants – cars and pedestrians – as well as surrounding infrastructure,  improving road safety and reducing traffic congestion.

V2X test vehicles typically determine their position using high-end, expensive GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) receivers. While these provide highly accurate position information, they fail to realistically represent the hardware that will be deployed in vehicles produced for the mass market. By opting to use the ZED-F9K turnkey solution for high precision dead reckoning, Siemens was able to align the performance of their test fleet with real world conditions while also reducing the cost and the engineering effort required to develop their vehicles.

“We’ve had a very positive experience with u-blox’s ZED-F9K high precision dead reckoning solution. The product delivered strongly from the initial design-in to the data and performance in our first tests,” says Igor Passchier, Engineering fellow, Connected and Automated Driving at Siemens PLM Software. “It underscores the reputation of u‑blox as a trusted innovator in GNSS technology.”

“Our collaboration with Siemens shows the extent to which the ZED-F9K turnkey solution saves OEMs time, cost, and engineering effort while providing decimeter-level positioning performance,” says Alex Ngi, Product Strategy for Dead Reckoning, Product Center Positioning, u-blox. “For us, it has also been a welcome opportunity to contribute to solving the challenges in the autonomous driving ecosystem.”

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RS Components saves space with Hirose high-speed industrial connector

Fri, Jun 07, 2019

Installation space can be reduced by up to 75 per cent, using the Hirose ix Industrial I/O connectors, now available from RS Components.

Manufactured by Hirose Electric, the ix Industrial series is designed for space-constrained applications and can support I/O signal transmission speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second.

The ix Industrial series is suitable for a range of industrial applications including factory automation controllers, industrial robotics, servo amplifiers, PLCs and security systems. In addition to reducing installation space, compared with RJ45 based solutions, the Hirose connector supports CAT5e (1Gbit per second) and CAT6A (10Gbits per second) cabling and features a rugged EMI and ESD shielding design.

Other features include availability with two keying codes for Ethernet and non-Ethernet applications and compliance with the IEC PAS 61076-3-124 standard. Electrical characteristics are a current rating of 1.5A for all 10 contacts, with 3A capability on pins one, two, six and seven, voltage rating of 50V, 5000 mating cycles; and an operating temperature of from –40 up to +85 degrees C.

The connector receptacle can be mounted in parallel with a pitch distance of only 10mm, which enables close side-by-side positioning of multiple connectors on a single PCB. The receptacle shell is PCB-mounted via through-hole solder legs to enhance PCB retention, and the wire-termination unit and cable clamp are integrated into a single plug shell.

The snap-in I/O plug connector offers a positive metal lock, which provides a clear tactile click to ensure secure mating.

The Hirose ix Industrial connector series is now shipping from RS in the EMEA region.

RS Components offers more than 500,000 industrial and electronics products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provides a range of value-added services to over one million customers. It has operations in 32 countries and ships more than 50,000 parcels a day.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/

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RX72M microcontrollers with EtherCAT support industrial applications

Fri, Jun 07, 2019

Renesas Electronics offers the RX72M group of RX microcontrollers featuring an EtherCAT slave controller for industrial Ethernet communication. The single-chip microcontroller has large memory capacities for compact industrial robots, programmable logic controllers, remote I/O, and industrial gateways that require control and communication functions such as compact industrial robots, programmable logic controllers, remote I/O, and industrial gateways.

The RX72M group achieves a 1396 CoreMark score at 240MHz as measured by EEMBC benchmarks and it is capable of application processing and EtherCAT communication. It combines a motor-control microcontroller with on-chip EtherCAT slave functions to reduce the circuit board area by approximately 50 per cent, compared with earlier devices and support miniaturisation in industrial equipment design.

The RX72M is the first RX MCU group to include an EtherCAT slave controller featuring the RX family’s highest SRAM capacity of 1Mbyte of SRAM and 4Mbyte of flash memory. It is also the first embedded double precision floating point unit (FPU) in an RX microcontroller.

The large-capacity SRAM allows the microcontrollers to run multiple memory-intensive middleware systems, such as TCP/IP, web servers, and file systems, at high speed without the use of external memory. It also supports future functional expansions, such as OPC United Architecture with no additional memory required. The on-board flash memory operates as two 2Mbyte banks, which enables stable operation of the end equipment, such as executing a program in one flash memory while simultaneously conducting background rewrites in the other flash memory.

Dedicated trigonometric function (sin, cos, arctan and hypot fucntions) accelerators and a register bank save function support precision motor control implementation. Encryption module and memory protection function in hardware to protect application systems from being copied without authorisation and support authentication.

Package options include 176-pin LQFP and 176-pin BGA configurations as well as the first 224-pin BGA package for RX microcontrollers for size-constrained designs.

Samples of the RX72M Group of MCUs are available now. Renesas will begin mass production orders starting September 2019.

https://www.renesas.com

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Chipset will accelerate mmWave 5G wireless infrastructure, says ADI

Fri, Jun 07, 2019

To reduce design requirements and complexity in the 5G cellular network infrastructure, Analog Device has announced the mmWave 5G chipset. It has, says Analog Devices, the highest available level of integration and includes the 16-channel ADMV4821 dual/single polarisation beamformer IC, the 16-channel ADMV4801 single-polarisation beamformer IC and the ADMV1017 mmWave up/down frequency converter (UDC).

The 24- to 30GHz beamforming + UDC chipset forms a 3GPP 5G NR-compliant mmWave front end to address the n261, n257 and n258 bands. The company claims that the optimised “Beams to Bits” signal chain is only available from ADI.

It can be difficult to design mmWave 5G systems from the ground up, explained Karim Hamed, general manager of microwave communications at Analog Devices. It requires balancing system-level challenges in performance, standards, and cost, he continued and this chipset leverages Analog Devices’ legacy in RF, microwave and mmWave communications infrastructure, and expertise across the RF spectrum “to simplify the design process for customers, reduce overall component count, and accelerate the path to 5G deployment,” he said.

The high channel density, coupled with the ability to support both single- and dual-polarization deployments, greatly increases system flexibility and reconfigurability for multiple 5G use cases while best-in-class equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) extends radio range and density.

Analog Devices is a global high-performance analogue technology company, enabling customers to interpret the world with technologies that sense, measure, power and connect.

http://www.analog.com

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