Weartech-ICs & Semiconductors

Battery charger IC is designed for low voltage charging for wearables

Wed, Nov 17, 2021

A battery charger IC has been designed by Rohm for low-voltage charging. The BD71631QWZ is suitable for wearables like wireless ear buds and thin, compact IoT devices such as smart displays powered by rechargeable batteries.

The need for safer, higher density rechargeable batteries has led to the development of new battery types, including all- or semi-solid types and using novel materials for the electrode part and batteries that adopt different terminal compositions. Many of the latest rechargeable batteries are small and thin, requiring low voltage charging in the 2.0 to 3.0V range. There are currently no battery charger ICs that can handle a wide voltage range, says Rohm.

The BD71631QWZ battery charger IC supports low voltage charging of Li-ion but also new types of rechargeable batteries such as all-solid and semi-solid state models. The IC achieves low voltage charging over a wide range from 2.0 to 4.7V by improving the stability of the internal circuit

Unlike general battery charger ICs that provide a fixed voltage, the BD71631QWZ battery charger IC allows the charge voltage to be easily set by simply changing the external resistor, reducing design load when changing batteries. The original package technology results in a compact package just 0.4mm thick, which is 60 per cent lower than conventional products in this market to make devices smaller and thinner. Each charging characteristic like charge/termination current can be set for CCCV charging, providing an optimal charging environment for thin, compact IoT and wearable devices usng the latest rechargeable batteries.

In addition to devices using low voltage and single-cell Li-ion rechargeable batteries, the battery charger IC can be used in wearable devices, such as wireless ear buds, electronic pens, e-cigarettes, smart displays or tags and other compact IoT devices.

An evaluation board, BD71631QWZ-EVK-001, is also available.

Rohm Semiconductor develops and manufactures a large product range from SiC diodes and MOSFETs, analogue ICs such as gate drivers and power management ICs to power transistors and diodes to passive components. 

http://www.rohm.com/eu

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NFC Type 2 tag IC has permanent write locks and configurable kill mode

Thu, Nov 11, 2021

Consumer engagement, production information and brand protection are offered with the ST25TN512 and ST25TN01K NFC Forum Type 2 tag ICs by STMicroelectronics. They can also be used for access control.

The ST25TN512 and ST25TN01K NFC tag ICs support multiple user-protection and privacy mechanisms including a 7-bit unique chip-identifier code, TruST25 digital signature, NFC Forum T2T permanent write locks at block level, and a configurable kill mode that permanently deactivates the tag.

The two ICs are certified to NFC Forum Type 2 specifications and leverage ISO 14443 standards. They can be used with NFC-compatible mobiles or a dedicated short-range reader. The embedded device memory includes up to 208 bytes (1664 bits) dedicated to user content.

There is also support for messages in NFC data exchange format (NDEF) which triggers native actions on a smartphone without needing a dedicated app, such as launching a web browser or starting Bluetooth pairing. Augmented NDEF (ANDEF) enables reading dynamic information such as custom messages and unique tap codes without explicitly updating the EEPROM.

The ST25TN512 and ST25TN01K are produced by a new in-house manufacturing process. Both NFC tag ICs contain an internal tuning capacitance of 50pF, which allows plug-and-play integration by inlay manufacturers. The tags harvest energy from the 13.56MHz RF transmitter field and require only an antenna to complete the design.

They also have a long data retention and operate over a wide temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees C. The ICs can be supplied in sawn and bumped wafer format or housed in a DFN5 package.

Both the ST25TN512 and ST25TN01K are available in volume production.

http://www.st.com

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Alliance Memory offers 3V multiple I/O serial NOR Flash memory solutions 

Tue, Oct 26, 2021

Alliance Memory offers a new line of 3V multiple input/output serial NOR flash memory products designed to provide supply continuity for Micron Technology customers using discontinued N25Q series devices. Offering support for single, dual, and quad SPI modes, the AS25F series combines fast read performance up to 104MHz with fast program and erase times of 0.3ms and 40ms typical, respectively. 

Available in 8-pin SOP wide body (209mils) and 8L WSON (6x5mm) packages, the devices operate from a single 2.7V to 3.6V power supply over an industrial temperature range of -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C. The solutions offer typical erase/program currents of 20mA and maximum read currents of 25mA at 104MHz, and they are said by Alliance Memory to provide reliable, long-term performance with 100,000 program/erase cycles and 10-year data retention.

 AS25F series devices support uniform 4KB or 32KB or 64KB erase, offers an 8/16/32/64byte wrap-around burst read mode, and features program/erase suspend and resume. Advanced security features include block protection and 4K-bit secured OTP to protect content from hostile access and inadvertent programming and erasing.

 With their enhanced performance, the serial NOR flash memory products are designed to meet the demands of the computer, consumer, communications, IoT and mobile markets. The devices are suitable for use in, among others, chipsets for PCs, DVD and Blu-ray players, wireless LANs and cable modems, printers, set-top boxes, LCD displays, mobile and wearable devices, digital cameras, handheld GPS units and smart meters. 

Samples and production quantities of the 3V serial NOR flash memory products are available now, with lead times of 16 to 20 weeks. 

Alliance Memory is a global provider of critical and hard-to-find memory ICs for the communications, computing, consumer electronics, medical, automotive, and industrial markets. The company’s product range includes flash, DRAM, and SRAM memory ICs with commercial, industrial, and automotive operating temperature ranges and densities from 64Kb to 8Gb. Privately held, Alliance Memory maintains headquarters in Kirkland, Washington, and regional offices in Europe, Asia, Canada and South America. 

Go to http://www.alliancememory.com

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Updates add video to STMicroelectronics’ TouchGFX suite

Mon, Oct 25, 2021

The TouchGFX Version 4.18 from STMicroelectronics is for user-interface development with STM32 microcontrollers, adding video playback, enhanced tools for multi-developer collaboration, and support for new X-NUCLEO display kits.

By allowing playback of Motion-JPEG (MJPEG) video files, TouchGFX aids small devices such as home-automation products, wearables, medical devices and industrial sensors, allowing rich features such as instructional guides or entertaining startup and pause screens to enhance the user interface. Developers can use their own MJPEG files or choose from the sample movies provided. A new video widget in TouchGFX Designer, with properties including start, stop, repeat, and go-to-frame, simplifies prototyping and is added to the application by drag and drop, says ST.

TouchGFX 4.18 allows video decoding in either software or hardware. Hardware decoding is possible with STM32 MCUs that contain a suitable decoding peripheral, such as the STM32F769 and STM32H7B3. Software decoding is available on all series devices except the STM32G0 series. Various strategies for video buffering, including direct rendering to the frame buffer and double buffering, help optimise memory demand and performance.

Additional new features of TouchGFX 4.18 include enhanced support for collaborative working, using XML to store text data and translations. XML simplifies sharing and merging various elements of the project as multiple team members contribute. The features of previous TouchGFX versions are retained, including the partial frame buffer for low RAM use, ultra-efficient rendering that prevents tearing effects, and support for low-cost non-memory-mapped SPI Flash.

For an easy start to GUI development projects, TouchGFX 4.18 comes with examples showing how to use the new video capabilities and the necessary TouchGFX board setup for the STM32 Discovery boards.

ST has also updated and extended the selection of display shields that help developers get their user-interface projects running. The updated X-NUCLEO-GFX01M2 for Nucleo 64 boards has a 2.2” QVGA serial interface display and now supports the NUCLEO-WB55RG, making it easy to add a display to a Bluetooth application. A new X-NUCLEO-GFX02Z1 for Nucleo 144 has a high-speed parallel interface and QSPI Flash memory on-board, supporting among others the NUCLEO-U575ZI-Q Both are supported in TouchGFX 4.18.

Go to https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/ecosystems/stm32-graphic-user-interface.html

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