A new family of microcontrollers have been added to Infineon Technologies’ PSoC portfolio of Arm Cortex-based, high performance, low power, secured devices.
PSoC Edge is designed for next generation, responsive compute and control applications, featuring hardware-assisted machine learning (ML) acceleration. The microcontrollers enable end products to be more intelligent and intuitively usable, by lowering the barrier in human-machine interaction and adding contextual awareness to end applications, explained Infineon. At the same time, they provide robust privacy and safety protection through embedded Infineon Edge Protect technologies.
Microcontrollers in the new PSoC Edge portfolio offer a mix of scalable power and performance to support emerging AI/ML requirements, extensive HMI capabilities and security features required for next-generation applications. All supported with a deep ecosystem of software and tools, fit for task, said Steve Tateosian, senior vice president of microcontrollers for Infineon.
The PSoC Edge devices are based on Arm Cortex-M55, including Helium DSP support paired with Arm Ethos-U55 and Cortex-M33 paired with Infineon’s low power NNLite which is a proprietary hardware accelerator intended to accelerate the neural networks used in ML and AI applications. There is also support for always-on sensing and response which makes them suitable for advanced IoT and industrial segments such as smart home, security, wearables and robotics, said the company. The family of devices comes with non-volatile, on-chip RRAM as well as high speed, secured external memory support. The PSoC Edge family provides scalability for next-generation intelligent systems while enabling software reuse and portability, Infineon added.
The enhanced intelligence of the PSoC Edge family extends support for advanced graphics, voice, audio and vision-based applications to the existing PSoC portfolio. The new family enables easy migration of applications within the family, as well as an upgrade path from existing designs.
Developers can leverage the power of PSoC Edge for current and future design needs. There is also a strong ecosystem partners, comprehensive documentation and the ModusToolbox software, including integration with Imagimob Studio AI to accelerate time to market.
Infineon’s ModusToolbox software platform provides a collection of development tools, libraries, and embedded runtime assets for a flexible and comprehensive development experience for consumer IoT, industrial, smart home and wearable applications.
Imagimob Studio is an Edge AI development platform, integrated into ModusToolbox, and delivers end to end ML development, from data in to model deployed. There are starter projects and Imagimob’s Ready Models available all designed to support developer deploying ML models for the edge.
The PSoC Edge family is available for early access customers now.
Weartech-ICs & Semiconductors
Infineon goes beyond standard Wi-Fi with lates AIROC device
The latest addition to Infineon Technologies’ AIROC portfolio is the Airoc CYW5551x. This single device combines Wi-Fi 6 / 6E performance and advanced Bluetooth connectivity, making it suitable for a host of IoT applications.
The AIROC CYW5551x Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.4 family delivers secured, reliable 1×1 Wi-Fi 6 / 6E (802.11ax) connectivity that goes beyond the standard, said Infineon. This is combined with advanced low power Bluetooth connectivity. The optimised CYW55512 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 solution and the CYW55513 is a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 / 6E device. Both feature power-efficient designs that are suitable for use in smart homes, industrial applications, wearable devices and equipment and other small factor IoT applications, said the company.
“Infineon’s new CYW5551x family brings the range, reliability, and network robustness from our 2×2 Wi-Fi 6/6E CYW5557x family of devices to an IoT optimised family,” said Sivaram Trikutam, vice president of Wi-Fi Products of Infineon. “As part of the company’s digitalisation and decarbonisation strategy, this family is optimised for very low power consumption, making it ideal for battery-operated devices like wearables and IP cameras,” he said. They are also tuned for best performance across a wide temperature range, enabling them to serve industrial and infrastructure applications such as electric vehicle charging and solar panel controls, logistics.
The AIROC CYW551x family offers support for the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi 6E, delivering lower latency and reduced interference. Bluetooth 5.4 low energy (LE) with Audio is range and power optimised with up to 20dBm transmit power.
Other features include improved multi-layer security (PSA Level 1-certifiable) and design versatility supported by a wide ecosystem of module and platform partners.
The devices feature Linux, RTOS and Android support, and have a fully validated Bluetooth stack and sample code to accelerate development time.
Infineon’s AIROC CYW55512 and CYW55513 are sampling now. The CYW5512 will be commercially available in March 2024, and the CYW55513 will be commercially available in June 2024.
Wireless charging transmitter reference design meets Qi2 standard
In response to the enhanced Qi wireless charging standard released by the Wireless Power Consortium, Infineon Technologies has released its first Qi2 Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) charging transmitter reference design kit, the REF_WLC_TX15W_M1.
The MPP in Qi2 offers magnet-based fixed positioning for precision locating of charging devices. It has significant benefits in automotive and consumer applications, such as in-cabin wireless charging, smartphones and EarPods cases, portable speakers, and healthcare equipment through better efficiency and safety, said Infineon.
The reference design kit is highly integrated and form factor optimised with a diameter of less than 43mm. It also has a programmable wireless charging transmitter centred around an Infineon WLC1 controller – the Qi2-capable WLC1 is already on the market. The IC integrates a microcontroller with flash memory, a 4.5 to 24V DC input buck-boost controller, inverter gate drivers and factory-trimmed current sensing. It features analogue protection peripherals, USB PD, and LIN as well as serial interfaces enabling efficient and smart power delivery.
The REF_WLC_TX15W_M1 is supported with code examples in ModusToolbox to help users take advantage of the IC’s configuration capabilities. The 15W Qi2 MPP board is backwards compatible with a basic power profile (BPP) that allows receivers without MPP support to wirelessly charge at 5W. There is also a multi-path ASK demodulator and adaptive foreign object detection (FOD) provided for a robust and secure wireless power design.
“With the emerging Qi2 standards, our programmable solutions offer the flexibility that the industry needs to adapt swiftly and offer differentiated features for automotive and consumer applications,” said Ganesh Subramaniam, senior vice president and general manager of the Wired Connectivity Solutions Product Line at Infineon.
The WLC1 transmitter controllers can be ordered now. There are two versions, the WLC1515 for the automotive package and the WLC1115 for the consumer package. REF_WLC_TX15W_M1 board is available on demand.
The first public live demonstration of the wireless charging transmitter solution board will take place during OktoberTech Silicon Valley, the annual technology collaboration forum hosted by Infineon. This year, it will take place in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, USA on 25 October.
MRigidCSP package is claimed to increase MOSFET’s mechanical strength
Robust package technology, MRigidCSP, by Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOS), is initially offered on its AOCR33105E, 12V, common drain, dual N-channel MOSFET. The packaging technology is designed to decrease on resistance while increasing mechanical strength, and is particularly suited to battery applications in smartphones, tablets and ultra-thin notebooks.
AOS explained that fast charging, which requires lower power loss in the battery management circuit, is now widely adopted for portable devices. As the charging currents increase, ultra-low electrical resistance is needed for improved performance. In standard wafer-level chip scale packages (WL-CSPs), the substrate can be a significant portion of the total resistance when back-to-back MOSFETs are employed in battery management applications. A thinner substrate reduces the overall resistance but drastically reduces the package’s mechanical strength. This reduction of mechanical strength can lead to more stress during the PCB assembly reflow process, potentially causing warping or cracking in the die and, ultimately, failure in the application. The AOCR33105E is designed with trench-power MOSFET technology in a common drain configuration for design simplicity. It features low on resistance with ESD protection to improve performance and safety in battery management, such as protection switches and mobile battery charging and discharging circuits.
“Incorporating the AOS MRigidCSP packaging technology with our new dual N-channel MOSFET combines electrical performance improvements with the benefit of high robustness,” said Peter H. Wilson, senior MOSFET product line marketing director at AOS.
AOS designed the MRigidCSP package technology to be used with high aspect ratio CSP die sizes. The CSP construction delivers “a significantly strengthened battery MOSFET that won’t warp or break during the board manufacturing process,” added Wilson.
The AOCR33105E is available in a 2.08 x 1.45mm package, with RDS(on) of 3mOhm at 4.5V / 4.2mOhm at 3.1V.
The AOCR33105E in the MRigidCSP package is immediately available in production quantities with a lead time of 14 to 16 weeks. It is RoHS 2.0 compliant and is halogen-free.
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