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. 

http://www.infineon.com

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Micro-thermal camera module adds wide angle to Lepton camera series

Claimed to be the world’s first micro-thermal camera module with a wide 160 degree field of view (FoV), the Lepton UW is small enough to fit on the tip of a finger. Introduced by Teledyne FLIR, part of Teledyne Technologies, the wide module can be used for fire detection, process monitoring, and people counting.

The Lepton UW features a usable 120 x 120 thermal resolution and a scene dynamic range of up to 400 degrees C. It also features thermal sensitivity of less than 50mK and the same integrated digital thermal image signal processing capabilities used in other Lepton microthermal camera modules.

“Offering the ultra-wide field of view in such a compact package will enable smart building system integrators to utilise thermal data within more affordable systems and simplify deployment,” said Mike Walters, vice president, product management, Teledyne FLIR. “Developers can also leverage the Teledyne FLIR
technical service team for assistance along with online resources – from source codes to licenses, to speed the development process,” he added.

For people counting, Lepton UW provides a dataset that is not susceptible to overcounting through glass while also maintaining personal privacy. When combined with building automation software, the Lepton UW can help facility managers better optimize and automate energy usage, occupant comfort, and workspace management, said Teledyne FLIR.

Integrators can leverage the online Lepton integration toolbox with application
notes and source code for testing on Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, and BeagleBone. The company’s technical services team is also available to support customer licensing of the MyFLIR application software, MSX, and Vivid-IR to maximise performance and reduce technical risk.

Founded in 1978, Teledyne FLIR, a Teledyne Technologies company, specialises in intelligent sensing solutions for defence and industrial applications.

Teledyne Technologies specialises in digital imaging products and software,
instrumentation, aerospace and defence electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne’s operations are primarily located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western and Northern Europe.

http://www.teledyneflir.com  

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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.

http://www.infinenon.com

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Prophesee claims event-based vision sensor is world’s smallest 

Claimed to be the world’s smallest and most power efficient event-based vison sensor, the GenX320 brings intelligence, privacy and safety to consumer edge AI devices, claimed Prophesee.

The company’s latest event-based Metavision sensor has low power, low latency, high flexibility for efficient integration in AR/VR headsets, security and monitoring/detection systems, touchless displays, eye tracking features and always-on smart IoT devices, said the company. 

It is, said Prophesee, the industry’s first event-based vision sensor developed specifically for integration into low power edge AI vision devices. The fifth generation Metavision sensor is available in a tiny 3.0 x 4.0mm die size.   

The 320 x 320 6.3 micron pixel BSI stacked event-based vision sensor offers a tiny 1/5 inch optical format. It has been developed with a specific focus on the requirements of efficient integration of event sensing in energy-, compute- and size-constrained embedded at-the-edge vision systems. It enables robust, high-speed vision at ultra-low power and in challenging operating and lighting conditions, added the company.

Features of the GenX320 include low latency microsecond resolution timestamping of events with flexible data formatting. There are also on-chip intelligent power management modes reduce power consumption to as low as 36 microW and enable smart wake-on-events. Deep sleep and standby modes are also featured.

Ease of integration/interfacing with standard SoCs with multiple integrated event data pre-processing, filtering, and formatting functions minimises external processing overhead. In addition, MIPI or CPI data output interfaces offer low-latency connectivity to embedded processing platforms, including low power microcontrollers and modern neuromorphic processor architectures.

The GenX320 is AI-ready, with on-chip histogram output that is compatible with multiple AI accelerators. For security, sensor-level privacy is enabled via the event sensor’s inherent sparse frameless event data with inherent static scene removal.

There is also native compatibility with Prophesee Metavision Intelligence event-based vision software suite, which is available free of charge and is used by community of 10,000+ users.

The high speed eye-tracking allows for foveated rendering for seamless interaction in AR/VR/XR headsets. The low latency touch-free human machine interface is suitable for consumer devices (TVs, laptops, game consoles, smart home appliances and devices and smart displays. The event-based sensor is also suitable for smart presence detection and people counting in IoT cameras and other devices as well as for always-on area monitoring systems and fall detection cameras in homes and health facilities.

The GenX320 is available for purchase from Prophesee and its sales partners. It is supported by a complete range of development tools, including a comprehensive evaluation kit housing a chip on board (COB) GenX320 module, or a compact optical flex module. In addition, Prophesee is offering a range of adapter kits that enable seamless connectivity to a large range of embedded platforms, such as a STM32 MCU, enabling faster time-to-market.

Prophesee creates neuromorphic vision systems. It developed an event-based vision approach to machine vision which allows for significant reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements to reveal what was invisible to traditional frame-based sensors until now. Prophesee’s patented Metavision sensors and algorithms mimic how the human eye and brain work to dramatically improve efficiency in areas such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, IoT, mobile and AR/VR. Prophesee is based in Paris, with local offices in Grenoble, Shanghai, Tokyo and Silicon Valley.

http://www.prophesee.ai

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