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Adapter board reduces pre-development, says Rutronik

Fri, Nov 25, 2022

Rutronik System Solutions has added to its adapter board range with the RAB2 for CO2 sensing.

The board uses a PASCO2V01 CO2 sensor from Infineon and a SCD41-D CO2 sensor from Sensirion. Both compact sensors operate on a photoacoustic measuring principle. Using the board, it is possible to test both sensors separately and compare them to each other in the pre-development phase of a project and enables developers to evaluate which sensor is most suitable for a particular application in the field of CO2, relative humidity, and temperature measurement.

According to Rutronik, the combination of the components on only one board means that a faster time to market can be realised.

CO2 measurements play an increasingly important role in the development of applications. For example, there is a growing demand for smart sensors to measure indoor air quality to ensure real-time CO2 monitoring for ventilation systems, air purifiers, and thermostats and prevent, among other things, harmful, excessive CO2 concentration.

Stephan Menze, head of global innovation management at Rutronik, said: “Rutronik System Solutions’ central focus is to support customers in the pre-development phase. That saves resources and shortens the time to market. . . . . By combining two advanced sensors on one board, tests and comparisons are easily possible. [The RAB2 for CO2 sensing] board provides a reliable basis for deciding which component fits best for the final application development.

Like all other boards from Rutronik System Solutions, the Adapter Board – RAB2 for CO2 Sensing features an Arduino interface. That means that the board can easily combine with already developed boards such as the RDK2, Rutronik Adapter Board – Text To Speech, Rutronik Adapter Board – HMS Anybus, and the Rutronik Adapter Board – RAB1 Sensorfusion and embedded in a complex evaluation system.

Rutronik System Solutions also provide the corresponding software stacks. All components featured on the board are available in Rutronik’s product portfolio, ensuring the components are currently and long-term available.

http://www.rutronik.com

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Low power chipset combines 5G LPWA with satellite connectivity

Fri, Nov 25, 2022

Multiple low power connectivity options and low power processing on the edge are offered with the ALT1350 chipset, said Sony Semiconductor Israel.

It is claimed to be the world’s first cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT solution to enable additional LPWA communication protocols, as well as satellite connectivity (NTN), in a single chipset.

It has an optimised standby mode (eDRX) to reduce power consumption by 80 per cent when compared to the current generation, and by 85 per cent when using it to send short messages, according to Sony Semiconductor Israel. Overall improvements in the system’s power consumption will enable four times longer battery life for a typical device, the company added.

The ALT1350’s sub-GHz and 2.4GHz integrated transceiver enables hybrid connectivity for IoT applications such as smart meters, smart cities and trackers. The transceiver enhances coverage, reduces costs, and further decreases power consumption using IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols, such as Wi-Sun, U-Bus Air, and wM-Bus, in additional point-to-point and mesh technologies.

The ALT1350 incorporates a sensor hub to collect data from sensors while maintaining low power consumption. It also provides cellular and Wi-Fi-based positioning and is tightly integrated to provide power-optimised, concurrent LTE and GNSS for tracking applications, all in a single chip, said Sony Semiconductor Israel (formerly Altair Semiconductor).

In addition to low power consumption, the chipset includes mature Release 15 LTE-M/NB-IoT software stack and future compatibility with 3GPP release 17. All these guarantee longevity and ensure the ALT1350 will operate with 5G networks, said the company. There is also a secure element for application usage and integrated SIM (iSIM), designed for PP-0117 to meet GSMA requirements.

The chipset also contains an additional LPWA radio transceiver with targeting operation in sub-1GHz and 2.4 ISM bands for universal connectivity options.

The chipset provides low-power processing capabilities at the edge, ranging from data collection, low-power AI / ML processing of the data, and an MCU.

The device is currently sampling to lead customers and will be commercially available next year.

https://altair-dev.live.strattic.io/products/alt1350/

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NB-IoT-capable wireless module supports battery-powered IoT

Thu, Nov 24, 2022

Low-power WAN products from Renesas now include the RYZ024A Cat-M1 and NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) module. This latest addition to the company’s portfolio provides internet connectivity without the need for a gateway

It offers seamless Cat-M1 wireless connection capability with the option to integrate NB-IoT. The benefits of offering both low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies is that NB-IoT uses only a portion of the available spectrum, making it more power efficient to extend the operational life of battery-powered systems. NB-IoT also offers coverage in underground and enclosed spaces.

The RYZ024A module provides two power amplifier output levels: 20dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and 23dBm, ensuring coverage at the cellular network’s edge as well as deep indoor environments.

It is also energy efficient, consuming just one microAmp in power saving mode. This is significantly less than competing products, said Renesas.

The RYZ024A supports extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and has an extended voltage range from 2.2 to 5.5V, another characteristic that makes it suitable for battery-powered applications

The RYZ024A is being developed in collaboration with Sequans, and will be tested and certified to work with all major radio frequency regulatory specifications defined by organisations such as the Global Certification Forum (GFC) and the PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB). The certification ensures compliance with complex RF regulatory and carrier-specific requirements so that engineers can immediately start building IoT systems for leading carriers in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.

Renesas will provide all the tools and software that engineers need to design IoT-ready, power-sensitive systems based on the RYZ024A, including an evaluation kit, a software stack and RF certifications.

Compared to conventional chipset-based designs, designing in the RYZ024A module will reduce the PCB size by 60 per cent and cut development time by up to 90 percent, compared to conventional chipset-based designs, with hardware and software support to integrate the RA or RX family of MCUs.

The RYZ024A module is available today with Cat-M1 firmware and will be software upgradeable to support dual mode (Cat-M1 and NB-IoT) next year.

Renesas plans to offer a Pmod expansion kit to easily connect to Renesas MCUs. The kit will come with the fully-certified RYZ024A module, LTE antenna, SIM card and quick start guide including a software upgrade.

http://www.renesas.com

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Qualcomm introduces AI to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for smartphones

Thu, Nov 24, 2022

At its Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform which enables AI experiences like faster natural language processing with multi-language translation. It also supports INT4, an AI precision format.

Snapdragon Sight technology adds new Cognitive ISP to power real time semantic segmentation for photo and video capture. Based on an upgraded Qualcomm Hexagon processor, users can experience faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features, said Qualcomm. It uses an AI neural network to make the camera contextually aware of faces, facial features, hair, clothes, skies and other features and to optimise them individually so every detail receives customised professional image tuning. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is also tuned to support new image sensors. For example, Sony Semiconductor Solutions is the first to develop quad digital overlap HDR technology which is fine-tuned for Snapdragon. The Samsung ISOCELL HP3, is the first 200Mpixel image sensor optimised for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is also the first Snapdragon to include an AV1 codec with support for video playback up to 8K HDR at 60 frames per second.

The Hexagon processor features architecture upgrades, including micro tile inferencing and a bigger tensor accelerator for up to 4.35 times increased AI performance. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support INT4, with 60 per cent performance/watt improvement for sustained AI inferencing, Qualcomm reported.

The Sensing Hub consists of dual AI processors and supports intuitive experiences that enable custom wake words. There are also features and tools from the Qualcomm AI Stack, including the AI Studio.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 also introduces Snapdragon Elite Gaming features with the industry standard for real time hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Snapdragon Connect enhancements bring what is believed to be the world’s first 5G AI processor in a mobile platform. Qualcomm also claims that it is the only commercial Wi-Fi 7 SoC with high band simultaneous multi-link.

To support spatial audio, Snapdragon Sound technology supports dynamic head tracking for immersive gaming and multimedia experiences.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to be launched in commercial devices by the end of 2022. The new mobile platform will be adopted by OEMs and brands including Asus Republic of Gamers, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, RedMagic, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, Xingji/Meizu and ZTE.

https://www.qualcomm.com

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Adapter board reduces pre-development, says Rutronik

Low power chipset combines 5G LPWA with satellite connectivity

NB-IoT-capable wireless module supports battery-powered IoT

Qualcomm introduces AI to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for smartphones

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