Weartech-ICs & Semiconductors Archives - Page 27 of 41

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

> Read More

Automotive wireless charging reference design is Qi 1.3-certified

Fri, Oct 22, 2021

Believed to be the first automotive wireless charging reference design to be certified by the Wireless Power Consortium for the new Qi 1.3 standard, NXP has released the Automotive 15W Wireless Charging Transmitter reference design.

It consists of a Qi-certified board with an NXP wireless charging MWCT microcontroller, as well as optional NFC, secure element and CAN / LIN transceiver. It also features a software package with NXP’s wireless charging Qi 1.3 software library and a suite of customisable software design to make it easier for developers to bring a Qi-certified wireless charger to market.

The Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi standard is used by most major smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. The Qi 1.3 standard includes new secure authentication features that verify if a smartphone or other wireless power device is Qi-certified and can reduce the wireless power transfer to lower levels if an uncertified device is detected. This ensures user safety and protects equipment from damage. It does, however, requires the addition of secure storage to the wireless power transmitter, addressed by NXP’s automotive-grade products.

Customers can use customise the wireless charging software library, based on the type of wireless charging application targeted. Design options include scaling designs from 5.0 to 15W and above with proprietary protocols, single or multi-coil chargers and across vehicles fleets.

NXP released pre-production details of the WCT-15WAUTO13 multi-coil transmitter reference platform, the first Qi 1.3-certified 15W reference design for in-vehicle wireless charging applications based on the NXP MWCT2xx3A controller IC family.

The system supports 40W power delivery to meet all customised fast charging requirements. It uses automotive-grade components and other automotive functions including EMC optimisation, safety features and MISRA C compliance software. It complies with the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi v1.3 specification including authentication and is certified as an MP-A13 transmitter type.

http://www.NXP.com

> Read More

Secora Pay on 40nm process offers new applets contactless payments

Thu, Oct 21, 2021

Contactless payment has been gaining in popularity and Infineon says its Secora Pay portfolio on 40 nm technology addresses many of the new payment card and devices. It uses the company’s Solid Flash chip and offers new applets and customised value-added products for standard payment cards (Secora Pay S) as well as multi-application cards (Secora Pay X) and components to turn any device into a payment device (Secora Pay W).

The product portfolio also provides applets of global (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express) and domestic networks. It offers state-of-the-art contactless and personalization performance, allowing MasterCard contactless transactions of 200ms.

Secora Pay options on 40 nm technology offer backward compatibility to existing Secora Pay products in terms of card production antenna designs, personalisation and product certification. The family uses a security controller including certified software integrated in coil on module (CoM) chip modules and fine-tuned inlays for seamless card production.

Infineon uses inductive coupling technology and wire embedded card antennas for the CoM system which is claimed to offer high flexibility in card designs. It can be integrated into environmentally friendly cards from recycled and ocean-bound plastic or wood, high performance dual interface metal or LED cards, says Infineon.

According to Infineon, Secora Pay products support the highest throughput in card production with minimum consumable material for manufacturing highly robust dual interface cards. As well as saving resources, new value added services based on Secora Pay’s NFC tag functionality are offered, allowing additional use cases like initial card activation.

The pre-certified Secora Pay W with SPA2.1, a small antenna on 35 mm film tape, addresses the growing demand for payment accessories and new payment form factors. In combination with payment and tokenisation services provided by partners, Infineon explains that it allows the easy integration of payment functionality into end-customer applications, for convenient contactless payment functionalities for wearables like wristbands as well as key fobs or other form factors.

Product versions supporting the latest Visa and MasterCard applications are available now. Additionally, applets supporting American Express, Discover and others will become available in Q1/2022.

http://www.infineon.com

> Read More

Renesas bases RA2E2 microcontroller family on Arm Cortex-M23 core

Thu, Oct 14, 2021

For small and energy-sensitive IoT, wearable, medical, industrial automation, consumer and home appliance applications, Renesas offers the RA2E2 microcontroller group. It is based on the Arm Coretex-M23 core and is the latest addition to the 32-bit RA family.

The family of microcontrollers is claimed to offers a combination of low power consumption, a set of peripherals targeted at IoT endpoint applications and space-saving packaging options including a tiny 16-pin WLCSP (wafer level chip scale package) measuring only 1.87 x 1.84mm. The 48MHz RA2E2 family is claimed to offer the industry’s lowest operating power in their class, consuming only 81microA/MHz in active mode with software standby current of only 200nA with fast wake up. They also support a wide temperature range of Ta = -40/+125 degrees C for harsh IoT operating environments. The RA2E2 microcontrollers support an I3C bus interface and integrate cost-saving peripheral functions, including an on-chip oscillator with precision of +/- one per cent, power on reset, low voltage detector, EEPROM and a temperature sensor.

The RA2E2 Group includes nine devices, spanning from 16- to 24-pin packages, and from 16 to 64kbyte of flash memory and 8kbyte of SRAM. The devices also include 2kbyte of data flash memory, which is atypical in low-pin count devices, says Renesas. They are also claimed to be the only microcontrollers in their class to offer an I3C bus interface, delivering high-speed communications of 4.6Mbits per second while significantly reducing power consumption. Security features include a cryptography accelerator (AES256/128), a true random number generator (TRNG) and memory protection units.

The RA2E2 group is available today. Renesas is also offering the EK-RA2E2 evaluation kit.

The Renesas RA family includes over 160 parts ranging from 48 to 200MHz. They have a wide range of communications and security options, including Arm TrustZone technology. All RA devices are supported by the Renesas Flexible Software Program (FSP) that includes drivers and middleware to ease the implementation of communications and security. The FSP’s graphical user interface (GUI) simplifies and accelerates the development process, says Renesas. It enables flexible use of legacy code as well as easy compatibility and scalability with other RA devices. Designers using FSP also have access to the Arm ecosystem and tools as well as Renesas’ partner network.

http://www.renesas.com

> Read More

Updates add video to STMicroelectronics’ TouchGFX suite

Automotive wireless charging reference design is Qi 1.3-certified

Secora Pay on 40nm process offers new applets contactless payments

Renesas bases RA2E2 microcontroller family on Arm Cortex-M23 core

About Smart Cities