The Kynix Blog - News Room

ST announced last week the world’s most powerful implementation of the ARM® Cortex®-M7 processor for the embedded market. Come and see it in action on our booth Hall 5, Stand 207. It is more than twice as fast as the STM32F7 series, the previous STM32 flagship series, meaning that its core frequency of 400 MHz has enabled ST to become the first ever to reach 2010 points in CoreMark with a Cortex-M MCU. This is possible because ST is the first to have shrunk its M7 implementation from a 90 nm process node to 40 nm. Although some manufacturers have started or are about to start mass producing SoCs in 10 nm technologies, it is important to understand that these components only have digital circuits, unlike ST’s embedded MCU, which includes digital circuitry as well as Flash memory, and analog components which require much more complex processes.Some reasons other than the technology shrink that enable the STM32H7 to set new performance records are detailed below.Three Domains, Memory-PackedTo optimize the STM32H7, its architecture has been divided into three domains. Very simply, the first one (D1) includes the core with its cache, Flash memory and high bandwidth peripherals like the module to drive a screen or the Chrom-Art graphics engine. D2, the connectivity domain, groups low-speed peripherals like USB, the cryptographic accelerator and the SD/MMC2 unit for storage. Finally, D3, the batch acquisition mode domain, is responsible for some of the most fundamental aspects of the MCU like its reset and clock control as well as ADCs, GPIO, RTC, the chip’s power management and a basic DMA (BDMA) controller.This structure allowed ST to design a flexible and efficient architecture that packs a massive internal memory compared to some STM32F7 series. Tthe L1 Cache is now four times bigger with 16 KB for instructions and the same amount for data. ST also included a total of 1 MB of SRAM and 2 MB of Flash, which is three times and twice as much respectively as the previous generation. However, instead of using a single block of SRAM, that would only benefit a certain domain, the STM32H7 placed various amounts at different locations to make the memory more versatile.Optimized Memory and FPUAnother great feature of the STM32H7 series is the ability to use ECC SRAM and Flash. The speed increase compared to the STM32F7 series is so high that ST now has the computational resources to add error correction and still break performance records.  By providing ECC, ST not only ensures data integrity, but also improves data retention in the Flash.The inclusion of a double precision (FP64) floating point unit may not always be obvious, but some of the products that will benefit the most from the STM32H7 series need to perform DSP-type computations. For instance, an embedded system that monitors a power grid and will need to compute fast Fourier Transform algorithms, or a connected device that will run a precise GPS system will rely heavily on double precision computations.The STM32H7 series also builds on the previous generation by adding 10 more communication peripherals, making a total of 35, it still offers cryptographic and hashing hardware acceleration, and remains pin to pin as well as software compatible with the STM32F7 series.Power Saving FeaturesDespite all this performance the STM32H7’s dynamic power consumption is 50% lower at only 250uA/MHz and it is possible to put D1 and D2 in a very low-powered standby mode (7µA) while D3 continues to capture data in its SRAM without needing to wake up the other domains, therefore greatly saving energy. There’s also a complex and elaborate clock-control scheme to ensure that different parts of the architecture run at varying speeds in order to further improve the MCU’s efficiency.The record-breaking STM32H7 series is sampling today to specific partners, and will be in mass production in Q2 2017. At this time, ST will have updated the mbed development platform to ensure developers can take full advantage of this groundbreaking architecture.More information about the STM32H7 series may be found on ST’s blog post or on it’s website. More information about ST’s Electronica presence, including the presentation program, can be found on the dedicated event pages.Meet also with the ST teams on the electronica Fast Forward startup platform. Ref:KY32-STM32F745IEK6KY32-STM32F745IGK6KY362-STM32F746G-DISCO 

For the first time ever, a cloud of ultra-cold atoms has been successfully created in space on board of a sounding rocket. The MAIUS mission demonstrates that quantum optical sensors can be operated even in harsh environments like space – a prerequisite for finding answers to the most challenging questions of fundamental physics and an important innovation driver for everyday applications.According to Albert Einstein's Equivalence Principle, all bodies are accelerated at the same rate by the Earth's gravity, regardless of their properties. This principle applies to stones, feathers, and atoms alike. Under conditions of microgravity, very long and precise measurements can be carried out to determine whether different types of atoms actually "fall equally fast" in the gravitational field of the Earth – or if we have to revise our understanding of the universe.As part of a national consortium, Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut fuer Hoechstfrequenztechnik (FBH) and Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (HU) now made a historical step towards testing the Equivalence Principle in the microcosm of quantum objects. In the MAIUS mission launched on January 23, 2017 a cloud of nano-Kelvin cold rubidium atoms has been generated in space for the first time ever. This cloud was cooled down with laser light and radio frequency electrical fields so that the atoms finally formed a single quantum object, a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC).More than 20 years after the groundbreaking results of the Nobel laureates Cornell, Ketterle, and Wieman on ultra-cold atoms, preliminary evaluation of the sounding rocket mission data indicates that such experiments can also be carried out under the harsh conditions of space operation – back in 1995, living room-sized setups in a special laboratory environment were required. Today's quantum optical sensor is as small as a freezer and remains fully operational even after experiencing huge mechanical and thermal stress caused by the rocket launch. This groundbreaking mission is a pathfinder for applications of quantum sensors in space. In the future, scientists expect to use quantum sensor technology to cope with one of the biggest challenges of modern physics: the unification of gravitation with the other fundamental interactions (strong, weak, and electro-magnetic force) in a single consistent theory. At the same time, these experiments are drivers of innovation for a broad range of applications, from inertial (non-GPS referenced) navigation to space-borne geodesy used to determine the Earth's shape.For this mission, the FBH has developed hybrid micro-integrated semiconductor laser modules that are suitable for application in space. These laser modules, together with optical and spectroscopic units provided by third partners, have been integrated and qualified by HU to provide the laser subsystem of the scientific payload. The results of this mission coordinated by Leibniz Universitaet Hannover do not only prove that quantum optical experiments with ultra-cold atoms are possible in space, but also give FBH and HU the opportunity to test their miniaturized laser system technology under real operating conditions. The results will also be used to prepare future missions which are already scheduled for launch. MAIUS, however, is not the first sounding rocket test for both institutions' laser technology in space; the technology has already been successfully tested in April 2015 and January 2016 on board of two sounding rockets within the FOKUS and KALEXUS experiments.  The MAIUS mission is supported by the German Space Agency (DLR) with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and tests all key technologies of a space-borne quantum optical sensor on a sounding rocket: vacuum chamber, laser system, electronics, and software. MAIUS constitutes a historical milestone for future missions in space that will take advantage of the full potential of quantum technology. For the first time world-wide, a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) based on rubidium atoms has been created on board of a sounding rocket and has been used to investigate atom interferometry in space. Quantum optical sensors based on BECs enable high-precision measurements of accelerations and rotations using laser pulses which provide a reference for precise determination of the positions of the atomic cloud.The compact and robust diode laser system for laser cooling and atom interferometry with ultra-cold rubidium atoms has been developed under the leadership of the Optical Metrology Group at HU. This system is required for the operation of the MAIUS experiment and consists of four diode laser modules that have been developed by FBH as hybrid-integrated master-oscillator power-amplifier laser modules. The master laser is a monolithic distributed feedback (DFB) laser which is frequency-stabilized to the frequency of an optical transition in rubidium and generates spectrally pure and highly stable (~ 1 MHz linewidth) optical radiation with low output power at 780 nm wavelength. The three other laser modules feature a tapered amplifier chip with a ridge waveguide input section. These tapered amplifier chips boost the optical output power of a DFB laser to beyond 1 W without any loss of spectral stability. Two additional redundancy modules were integrated. Free space acousto-optical modulators and optical components are used to generate the laser pulses according to the experimental sequence. The laser light pulses are finally transferred to the experimental chamber by optical fibers.Furthermore, a laser technology demonstrator designed for future missions has been integrated, consisting of two micro-integrated semiconductor Extended Cavity Diode Laser modules developed by FBH. These modules are specifically required for future atom interferometry experiments that pose more stringent requirements on the spectral stability of the lasers.Reference:GP1A173LCS2FOPB626GP1A53HRJ00F  

At a ceremony today at ESO's Headquarters four contracts were signed for major components of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) that ESO is building. These were for: the casting of the telescope's giant secondary and tertiary mirrors, awarded to SCHOTT; the supply of mirror cells to support these two mirrors, awarded to the SENER Group; and the supply of the edge sensors that form a vital part of the ELT's huge segmented primary mirror control system, awarded to the FAMES consortium.  The construction of the 39-metre ELT, the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world, is moving forward. The giant telescope employs a complex five-mirror optical system that has never been used before and requires optical and mechanical elements that stretch modern technology to its limits.Contracts for the manufacture of several of these challenging telescope components have just been signed by ESO's Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, and representatives of three industrial contractors in the ESO Member States.Introducing the ceremony, Tim de Zeeuw said: "It gives me great pleasure to sign these four contracts today, each for advanced components at the heart of the ELT's revolutionary optical system. They underline how the construction of this giant telescope is moving ahead at full speed—on target for first light in 2024. We at ESO look forward to working with SCHOTT, SENER and FAMES—three leading industrial partners from our Member States."The first two contracts were signed with SCHOTT by Christoph Fark, Executive Vice President. They cover the casting of the ELT's largest single mirrors—the 4.2-metre secondary and 3.8-metre tertiary mirror—from SCHOTT's low-expansion ceramic material Zerodur.Hanging upside-down at the top of the telescope structure, high above the 39-metre primary mirror, the secondary mirror will be largest ever employed on a telescope and the largest convex mirror ever produced. The concave tertiary mirror is also an unusual feature of the telescope. The ELT secondary and tertiary mirrors will rival in size the primary mirrors of many modern-day research telescopes and weigh 3.5 and 3.2 tonnes respectively. The secondary mirror is to be delivered by the end of 2018 and the tertiary by July 2019.The third contract was signed with the SENER Group by Diego Rodríguez, Space Department Director. It covers the provision of the sophisticated support cells for the ELT secondary and tertiary mirrors and the associated complex active optics systems that will ensure these massive, but flexible, mirrors retain their correct shapes and are correctly positioned within the telescope. Great precision is needed if the telescope is to deliver optimum image quality.The fourth contract was signed by Didier Rozière, Managing Director (FAMES, Fogale), and Martin Sellen, Managing Director (FAMES, Micro-Epsilon), on behalf of the FAMES consortium, which is composed of Fogale and Micro-Epsilon. The contract covers the fabrication of a total of 4608 edge sensors for the 798 hexagonal segments of the ELT's primary mirror [6].These sensors are the most accurate ever used in a telescope and can measure relative positions to an accuracy of a few nanometres. They form a fundamental part of the very complex system that will continuously sense the locations of the ELT primary mirror segments relative to their neighbours and allow the segments to work together to form a perfect imaging system. It is a huge challenge not only to make sensors with the required precision, but also to produce them quickly enough for thousands to be delivered to the necessarily short timescales.The signing ceremony was also attended by other senior representatives of the companies involved and ESO. It was an excellent opportunity for representatives of the contractors producing many of the giant telescope's optical and mechanical components to get to know each other informally as they begin to help create the world's biggest eye on the sky.Reference:GP1S036PKGS-00GXP1-RRB-3R0232-50

It has been said that spending too much time on a smartphone can negatively impact brain development or even cause damage to the neck. But don't toss yours in the bin just yet. An EU-funded project is working on smartphones' health cred by developing 'Sniffphone' - a module capable of analysing the user's breath to detect as many as 17 diseases.  Adding sensors to smartphones has been a trend lately, with the newest models being able to detect changes in the likes of temperature, humidity, hand gestures or light. But there is one thing these devices can still not do at this point: analyse our breath. Although portable devices have already been commercialised to detect blood alcohol levels and display it on smartphones, using breath analysis technology to its full potential would be a killer feature for both smartphone manufacturers and app developers.A technology called 'Na-Nose' could well be the long-sought-after Holy Grail. Presented in a study published on ACS Nano in December 2016, the device can detect the chemical patterns of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in patients' breath. The new study does not only demonstrate for the first time that specific diseases can be linked to such chemical patterns, but it also shows how Na-Nose can rely on gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes to diagnose as many as 17 different diseases including early stage forms of some cancers.Na-Nose's story began 10 years ago when engineer Hossam Haick joined Technion Israel's Institute of Technology. There, he started developing a screening tool made up of two parts: a desktop box with a tube into which a person exhales, sending his or her breath into an array of sensors; and an attached computer equipped with machine-learning software and trained to recognise patterns from those sensors.The array's thin layers of gold nanoparticles or carbon nanotubes are coated with organic ligands. When exhaled VOCs bind to these ligands, the electrical resistance between the nanoparticles or nanotubes is changed. The resulting signal is sent to a computer which uses a pattern-recognition software to determine whether the signal matches that of a particular disease.The device was trained to recognise over 23 illnesses, after which Haick's team tested it on over 8 000 patients to teach the software how to discriminate between disease and confounding factors, such as contamination, age, gender, background disease and geography. Last year, Haick already demonstrated that the resulting tool could detect gastric cancer in a blinded test of patients with 92-94 % accuracy. But with this new study, he took things even further by using Na-Nose to detect and discriminate among 17 different diseases in the breath of 1 404 individuals across five countries.The next step now consists in miniaturising the device enough to be able to bring it onto smartphones by August 2018, thanks to funding under Horizon 2020's SNIFFPHONE project. 'We aim to catch disease at an early stage, where we can increase the survival rate,' says Haick.Reference:10027941005447-11005935-1 

In 2014, when University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers announced in the journal Nature Communications that they had developed transparent sensors for use in imaging the brain, researchers around the world took notice.Then the requests came flooding in. "So many research groups started asking us for these devices that we couldn't keep up," says Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma, the Lynn H. Matthias Professor and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison.Ma's group is a world leader in developing revolutionary flexible electronic devices. The see-through, implantable micro-electrode arrays were light years beyond anything ever created.Although he and collaborator Justin Williams, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in biomedical engineering and neurological surgery at UW-Madison, patented the technology through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, they saw its potential for advancements in research. "That little step has already resulted in an explosion of research in this field," says Williams. "We didn't want to keep this technology in our lab. We wanted to share it and expand the boundaries of its applications."As a result, in a paper published Thursday (Oct. 13, 2016) in the journal Nature Protocols, the researchers have described in great detail how to fabricate and use transparent graphene neural electrode arrays in applications in electrophysiology, fluorescent microscopy, optical coherence tomography, and optogenetics. "We described how to do these things so we can start working on the next generation," says Ma.Now, not only are the UW-Madison researchers looking at ways to improve and build upon the technology, they also are seeking to expand its applications from neuroscience into areas such as research of stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, cardiac conditions, and many others. And they hope other researchers do the same."This paper is a gateway for other groups to explore the huge potential from here," says Ma. "Our technology demonstrates one of the key in vivo applications of graphene. We expect more revolutionary research will follow in this interdisciplinary field."Reference:GP1S036PKGS-00GXP1-RRB-3R0232-50  

At last week's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco (USA), imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technology and Holst Centre debuted a miniaturized sensor that simultaneously determines pH and chloride (Cl-)levels in fluid. This innovation is a must have for accurate long-term measurement of ion concentrations in applications such as environmental monitoring, precision agriculture and diagnostics for personalized healthcare. The sensor is an industry first and thanks to the SoC (system on chip) integration it enables massive and cost-effective deployments in Internet-of-Things (IoT) settings. Its innovative electrode design results in a similar or better performance compared to today's standard equipment for measuring single ion concentrations and allows for additional ion tests.Sensors based on ion-selective membranes are considered the gold standard to measure ion concentrations in many applications, such as water quality, agriculture, and analytical chemistry. They consist of two electrodes, the ion-sensitive electrode with the membrane (ISE) and a reference electrode (RE). When these electrodes are immersed in a fluid, a potential is generated that scales with the logarithm of the ion activity in the fluid, forming a measure for the concentration. However, the precision of the sensor depends on the long-term stability of the miniaturized RE, a challenge that has now been overcome."The common issue with such designs is the leaching of ions from the internal electrolyte, causing the sensor to drift over time," stated Marcel Zevenbergen, senior researcher at imec/Holst Centre. "To suppress such leaching, we designed and fabricated an RE with a microfluidic channel as junction and combined it with solid-state iridium oxide (IrOx) and silver chloride (AgCl) electrodes fabricated on a silicon substrate, respectively as indicating electrodes for pH and Cl-. Our tests demonstrated this to be a long-term stable solution with the sensor showing a sensitivity, accuracy and response time that are equal or better than existing solutions, while at the same time being much smaller and potentially less expensive.""We are providing groundbreaking sensing and analytics solutions for the IoT," stated John Baekelmans, Managing Director of imec in The Netherlands. "This new multi-ion sensor is one in a series that Holst Centre is currently developing with its partners to form the senses of the IoT. For each sensor, the aim is to leapfrog the current performance of the state-of-the-art sensors in a mass-producible, wireless, energy optimized and miniaturized package."Reference:ADXRS620BBGZLPY410ALTRL3GD20HTR