Two IC families are for small form factor IoT devices

The xG27 family of Bluetooth SoCs and the BB50 microcontroller are designed for the smallest IoT devices, said Silicon Labs.

The xG27 and BB50 families range in size from 2mm2 up to 5 mm2. They offer IoT device designers energy efficiency, performance and security, and in the case of the xG27 family, wireless connectivity. Both families are suitable for tiny, battery-optimised devices like connected medical devices, wearables, asset monitoring tags, smart sensors, simple consumer electronics like toothbrushes and toys.

The ICs are intended to help developers build exciting new devices while also simplifying their development processes, all while maintaining the low-power and small form-factor requirements for extremely small devices,” said Matt Johnson, CEO.

The xG27 family of SoCs comprises the BG27, for Bluetooth connectivity, and the MG27, supporting Zigbee and other proprietary protocols. Built around the Arm Cortex M33 processor, the BG27 and MG27 are supplied in  wafer-level chip scale packaging, down to 2.3 x 2.6mm, suitable for compact and unobtrusive devices like medical patches, continuous glucose monitors, wearable electrocardiograms, and asset tags in retail and agriculture.

The integrated DC/DC boost allows the devices to operate on batteries as low as 0.8V and the integrated coulomb counter is for battery level monitoring to avoid battery depletion during use.

Silicon Labs’ Secure Vault with virtual security engine (VSE) ensures secure boot and debug which are hardened against glitch attacks, tamper protection. There are also features designed to protect the device and its users’ data from local and remote cyber threats, said Silicon Labs.

They also have shelf mode, which reduces energy use to less than 20 nanoA so that devices can be transported and stocked on shelves while maintaining nearly full battery life for the end-user.

The BB50 8-bit microcontrollers have a high performance core, optimised for a large number of single cycle instructions to improve operating efficiency. They also have wide operating voltage ranges and low power modes to improve energy efficiency. 

They operate with Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio and a fully-featured 8-bit compiler.

http://www.silabs.com

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Dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth module extends battery life for the IoT

Extending the Infineon Airoc portfolio, the company has introduced the CYW43022 Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth module which extends battery life for IoT applications with up to 65 per cent power reduction.

The CYW43022 low power architecture results in up to a 65 per cent reduction in power usage during deep sleep mode, to extend the battery life for applications such as smart locks, smart wearables, IP cameras and thermostats.

Sivaram Trikutam, vice president of Wi-Fi product line at Infineon, said: “By optimising the sleep power for battery-operated IoT devices, consumers can now enjoy longer battery life compared to competing solutions. With the industry’s lowest power consumption for a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combination, [the CYW43022] enables more devices to be smarter, connected, and more versatile in a wide range of environments,” he added.

The Aitoc CYW43022 low power, dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.3 device includes Wi-Fi network offloads and an embedded Bluetooth stack reducing power demands on host processors. To support designs with smaller antennas or designs that require longer reach, it includes a Class 1 Bluetooth power amplifier with +18dBm transmit power. To protect against hacker attacks, there is secure boot with firmware image authentication which requires signed Infineon firmware protects against hacker attacks.

Infineon’s Airoc wireless products, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combinations with a broad portfolio of high-performing, reliable, low power products that deliver robust industry-leading performance.

Airoc products leverage a common software framework across Android, Linux, RTOS platforms and are pre-integrated with Infineon’s ModusToolbox software and tools, allowing developers to deliver differentiated products to market on time and on budget. 

Infineon’s Airoc CYW43022 low power, dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth is available now. IT will be exhibited by Infineon at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany (14 to 16 March) Hall 4A-138.

http://www.infineon.com

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Sensor uses motion and bone conduction to save space and power

Headsets and hearable devices can be reduced in size and power budget using the STMicroelectronics’ motion and bone-conduction sensor, said the company. The LSM6DV16BX can deliver a longer listening experience and superior hearing in TWS (true wireless stereo) headphones and AR / VR / MR headsets.
The integrated sensors can save space inside hearable devices including sports and general-purpose earbuds. It combines a six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) for head tracking and activity detection with an audio accelerometer for detecting voice through bone conduction in a frequency range that exceeds 1kHz.

The LSM6DSV16BX contains ST’s Qvar charge-variation detection technology for user-interface controls such as touching and swiping.
The LSM6DSV16BX sensor embeds ST’s Sensor Fusion Low Power (SFLP) technology, specifically designed for head tracking and 3D sound, and the in-the-edge processing resources featured in ST’s third generation MEMS sensors, including finite state machine (FSM) for gesture recognition, the machine learning core (MLC) for activity recognition and voice detection, and adaptive self-configuration (ASC), which automatically optimises performance and efficiency. These help to reduce system latency while saving overall power and offloading the host processor.
The enhanced integration and edge processing save up to 70 per cent of system power consumption and 45 per cent of PCB area. In addition, the number of pin connections can be reduced by 50 per cent, saving external connections, and the package height is 14 per cent less than earlier MEMS inertial sensors from ST.
The LSM6DSV16BX comes with many software examples, available on ST MEMS GitHub FSM and MLC model zoo. These include pick-up gesture detection to automatically turn on some device’s services, in-ear and out-of-ear detection in TWS headsets and head gestures for 3D sound in headphones. To save developer time, without starting from scratch, pre-integrated application examples are available in X-Cube-MEMS1 package.
The LSM6DSV16BX is in production now, available in a 2.5 x 3.0 x 0.74mm VFLGA package.

 

http://www.st.com/

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Farnell takes a global view for ams-Osram

Optical products for automotive, consumer, industrial and healthcare products by ams-Osram are available from Farnell.

New proximity, temperature and vital sign monitoring sensors and a comprehensive range of LEDs, photodiodes and infrared (IR) emitters by ams-Osram are available from Farnell. 

The manufacturer has extended its distribution agreement with Farnell to offer optical products for sensing, visualisation and lighting applications from a single source. 

The enhanced range of solutions from ams-Osram available for fast delivery from Farnell includes the AS621X series of temperature sensors which are claimed to deliver the industry’s best combination of accuracy and low power consumption in a tiny wafer-level package. It is suitable for a range of consumer electronic devices and wearables, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and health-related monitoring systems. The series consists of three models, including AS6212, AS6214 and AS6218, providing measurement with different temperature accuracies and low power consumption, said Farnell. The compact size of each sensor ensures ease of integration and can feature up to eight different I²C addresses, which permits eight AS6221T devices to be used on one bus with no calibration or linearisation needed. 

The TMD3725 light, colour and proximity sensor offers reduced power consumption with design flexibility for dark room or full sunlight operation. Key features include advanced proximity measurement, colour sense (RGBC+IR) and digital ambient light sensing. The senor also compensates for unwanted IR energy system crosstalk reflection and undesirable ambient light photodiode current. The slim module incorporates an IR LED and factory calibrated LED driver with RGB + IR filters, high sensitivity down to mLux levels, a 1M:1 dynamic range and 0.18 micron processing technology with 1.8V I²C. The MD3725-EVM evaluation kit for the TMD3725 sensor provides everything required to evaluate the sensor.

There is also the TMD27553M ambient light / proximity photo sensor is optimised for narrow bezel mobile phones and offers industrial design flexibility, said Farnell. It has accurate ambient light sensing, superior proximity sensing and reduced power consumption. The proximity detection feature includes object recognition using photodiode detection of reflected IR energy (sourced by the integrated VCSEL). Detect and release events are interrupt driven and occur when the proximity result crosses the upper and / or lower threshold settings. The proximity engine features a wide range offset adjustment to compensate for unwanted IR energy reflection at the sensor. Moreover, the automatic ambient light subtraction with ALS (ambient light sensor) and IR photodiodes features dedicated data converters which have the capacity to produce 16-bit data. The extremely narrow 1.1mm module incorporates an IR VCSEL and factory calibrated VCSEL driver. 

The AS7056 bio-signal analogue front end (AFE) sensor is the next generation of vital sign sensors enabling users to detect bio-signals such as PPG (photoplethysmogram) and PTT (pulse transit time) as well as proximity measurements. The AS7056 is an analogue front end optimised for size and performance to support space-limited applications, such as in-ear vital sign monitoring, hearables, optical sensor platform, fitness band, smart watch, smart patches and heart rate monitors. Optical blood pressure measurements and SpO2 are enabled by the two independent working photodiode inputs of the AS7056. The AS7056 also provides two LEDs and one VCSEL driver outputs and samples up to three photodiode inputs. 

Customers can now buy the full range of ams OSRAM’s optical solutions with fast delivery from Farnell in EMEA, Newark in North America and element14 in APAC.

https://uk.farnell.com/

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