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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Compact, low power, NB-IoT industrial modules have GNSS geo-location capability

Programmable, certified LTE Cat NB2 NB-IoT industrial modules, the SR87M01 series announced by STMicroelectronics, cover worldwide cellular frequency bands and integrate advanced security features. 

The low power modules combine reliable and robust NB-IoT data communication with accurate and resilient GNSS geo-location capability for IoT devices and assets. 

According to ST, the ST87M01 is one of the first IoT cellular products worldwide offered in accordance with the latest 3GPP Release 15. It provides extended multi-regional LTE coverage. The integrated native GNSS receiver with multi-constellation access delivers localisation with power saving features while operating during NB-IoT sleep time slots.

The module has dimensions of just 10.6 x 12.8mm and is in an LGA package.

It is qualified over the industrial temperature range (-40 to +85 degrees C), with low power consumption of less than 2.0 microA in low power mode. Output power is up to +23dBm. The ST87M01 targets wide-ranging IoT applications that require reliable low power wide area network (LPWAN) connectivity, such as smart metering, smart grid, smart building, smart city and smart infrastructure applications, as well as industrial condition monitoring and factory automation, smart agriculture and environmental monitoring. It is also suited to tracking applications such as locating pets, children, and elders, safety monitoring for remote workers, asset tracking for equipment such as power tools, and general intelligent logistics.

The STM8701’s programmable IoT platform lets users embed their own code directly in the module for simple applications. Alternatively, the module can be combined with a separate host microcontroller, for more sophisticated use cases. A variety of protocol stacks is available to handle popular IoT use cases, including IPv6, TCP/UDP, CoAP/LWM2M, MQTT, HTTP/HTTPS and TLS/DTLS. The ST87M01 is designed to support both standardised 3GPP AT commands and ST enhanced AT commands.

An ST4SIM embedded SIM (eSIM) is integrated in the module. This is certified according to the latest industry standards, including GSMA eSA (Security Assurance) certification and includes an embedded secure element (eSE).

The ST87M01 is sampling now to major customers worldwide.

http://www.st.com

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STMicroelectronics reveals single-chip antenna-matching ICs for easier, faster design with Bluetooth LE SoCs and microcontrollers

STMicroelectronics has extended its range of single-chip antenna-matching ICs that simplify RF-circuit design with two new devices optimised for BlueNRG-LPS system-on-chip ICs (SoCs) and STM32WB1x and STM32WB5x wireless microcontrollers.

The MLPF-NRG-01D3 for BlueNRG-LPS and MLPF-WB-02D3 for STM32WB integrate the complete filtering and impedance-matching network needed for best RF output power and receiver sensitivity with an external antenna. Each has 50Ohm nominal impedance on the antenna side. The chip-scale package has a minuscule footprint, 0.4mm bump pitch and a profile of only 630micro after reflow soldering. Also featuring a 2.4GHz low-pass filter, ST’s antenna-matching ICs ease compliance with worldwide radio regulations, including FCC, ETSI, and ARIB specifications.

The circuit elements are fabricated on a glass substrate leveraging ST’s integrated passive device (IPD) technology, which, the company claimed, minimises insertion losses and outperforms circuits built with discrete components. Integration on the same die is said to ensure consistent component parameters for end-product quality. In addition, ST’s IPDs help accelerate time to market, reduce bill-of-materials costs and miniaturise circuit dimensions.

The BlueNRG-LP and Blue NRG-LPS  SoCs and STM32WB1x  and STM32WB5x contain ST’s energy-efficient 2.4GHz radio IP and come with royalty-free protocol stacks and dedicated software tools. They help developers quickly design state-of-the-art wireless products, even without having extensive RF-design skills. Both provide on-chip features such as memory, peripherals, communication interfaces, power regulation and advanced hardware security including encryption, memory protection and public key acceleration (PKA).

BlueNRG-LPx SoCs can be used in standalone or network processor applications and support Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3 features including point-to-point and mesh communications, advertising extensions and direction finding. 

The MLPF-NRG-01D3 IPD is compatible with all variants, comprising the BLUENRG-3x5Vx, BLUENRG-3x5Ax and BLUENRG-332xx in UFQFPN and WLCSP packages.

The STM32WB5x and STM32WB1x MCUs are Bluetooth 5.3, Zigbee 3.0 and OpenThread certified and feature an Arm Cortex-M4 core for application processing with a Cortex-M0+ dedicated to managing the radio. They are available in WLCSP and UFBGA packages that connect directly to the MLPF-WB-02D3 IPD. A different IPD is available for other MCU variants in UQFN and VQFN packages.

The MLPF-NRG-01D3 and MLPF-WB-02D3 single-chip antenna-matching ICs are available from $0.14 for orders of 1,000 pieces.

https://www.st.com/

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nRF7002 companion IC and development kit create low power Wi-Fi 6 IoT  

The first IC in Nordic Semiconductor’s Wi-Fi product family is the nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 companion IC. The low power Wi-Fi 6 companion IC provides seamless dual band (2.4 and 5.0GHz) connectivity. The nRF7002 IC can be used with Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52 and nRF53 series multi-protocol SoCs and the nRF9160 cellular IoT (LTE-M / NB-IoT) system in package (SiP), but can be used in conjunction with non-Nordic host devices. 

In IoT applications, Wi-Fi 6 has power efficiency gains for battery power Wi-Fi operation and management in smart home products, industrial sensors, asset trackers, and wearables. They also contribute to the management of large IoT networks comprising hundreds of devices, said Nordic Semiconductor.

According to Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO and executive vice president of R&D and Strategy at Nordic: “This highly integrated and flexible solution will empower developers to create new, innovative Wi-Fi 6-enabled products. Supported with the nRF7002 DK and the award-winning nRF Connect [software development kit], combined with Nordic’s . . .  technical support, I believe it has never been easier to develop great Wi-Fi products.”

“The nRF7002 is designed to work alongside Nordic’s nRF52 and nRF53 Series making it a perfect fit for Matter, a smart-home standard backed by Amazon, Apple, Google, Nordic, Samsung, and hundreds of other companies,” explained Finn Boetius, product marketing engineer with Nordic. “The introduction of the IC and the nRF7002 DK now makes it easy for developers to get started on Matter and any other Wi-Fi based applications.” Matter uses Thread and Wi-Fi for data transport, and Bluetooth LE for commissioning.

The nRF7002 brings low power and secure Wi-Fi to the IoT. The dual-band IC complies with Station (STA), Soft Access Point (AP), and Wi-Fi Direct operation, and meets the IEEE 802.11b, a, g, n (Wi-Fi 4), ac (Wi-Fi 5), and ax (Wi-Fi 6) standards. The product also offers co-existence with Bluetooth LE, Thread and Zigbee. 

The nRF7002 supports target wake time (TWT) a key Wi-Fi 6 power saving feature. Interfacing with a host processor is done via serial peripheral interface (SPI) or quad SPI (QSPI). The IC offers a single spatial stream, 20MHz channel bandwidth, 64 QAM (MCS7), OFDMA, up to 86Mbits per second PHY throughput, and BSS (base service set) colouring. 

In addition to general IoT applications and Matter, the nRF7002 implements low power SSID-based Wi-Fi location when used with Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP and the company’s nRF Cloud Location Services. SSID-based Wi-Fi location supplements GNSS- or cell-based location by providing accurate positioning indoors and in places with a high density of Wi-Fi access points.

The introduction of the nRF7002 is accompanied by the launch of the nRF7002 DK, a development kit for the Wi-Fi 6 companion IC. The DK includes an nRF7002 IC and features an nRF5340 multi-protocol SoC as a host processor for the nRF7002. The nRF5340 embeds a 128MHz Arm Cortex-M33 application processor and a 64MHz high efficiency network processor. The DK supports the development of low-power Wi-Fi applications and enables Wi-Fi 6 features like OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), beamforming, and TWT (target wake time). The DK includes Arduino connectors; two programmable buttons; a Wi-Fi dual-band antenna and a Bluetooth LE antenna, and current measurement pins. 

The nRF7002 companion IC and nRF7002 DK are available now from Nordic’s distribution partners.  

http://www.nordicsemic.com

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