The Kynix Blog

Hirose has developed a hybrid power and signal board-to-board connector that features high-speed transmission capability up to 8 Gbps and a highly reliable floating contact mechanism that simplifies assembly. The FX23 Series is designed for a wide range of high-speed applications including medical devices, office imaging equipment, measurement equipment, industrial computer systems, automotive navigation and audio systems, broadcast equipment, base station transceivers, industrial machinery and more.A member of Hirose's FunctionMAX family of high-speed board-to-board connectors, the 0.5mm pitch FX23 Series connector supports high-speed applications with a specialized contact structure that utilizes a ground contact between adjacent differential pairs to reduce crosstalk. In addition, this contact structure provides superior impedance matching, even with short rise times.The connector's floating design offers a degree of play between the contacts during mating, allowing the board-to-board connector to absorb alignment errors up to ± 0.6mm in X and Y axis directions. By self-centering in both the X and Y directions, the floating structure eliminates mechanical stress at the SMT leads. This unique floating contact structure is particularly convenient when mating multiple connectors on the same printed circuit board, saving significant assembly time and costs.The hybrid power and signal connector has two built-in power contacts located on each side of the FX23 Series connector housing that provide a power rating of 3 Amps per pin. The hybrid structure also reduces the number of pins required, saving space. Available in right angle and parallel versions, the FX23 Series is offered in 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 positions. Source from Power Electronics

LCD stands for “liquid crystal display” and technically, both LED and LCD TVs are liquid crystal displays. The basic technology is the same in that both television types have two layers of polarized glass through which the liquid crystals both block and pass light. So really, LED TVs are a subset of LCD TVs.LED, which stands for “light emitting diodes,” differs from general LCD TVs in that LCDs use fluorescent lights while LEDs use those light emitting diodes. Also, the placement of the lights on an LED TV can differ. The fluorescent lights in an LCD TV are always behind the screen. On an LED TV, the light emitting diodes can be placed either behind the screen or around its edges. The difference in lights and in lighting placement has generally meant that LED TVs can be thinner than LCDs, although this is starting to change. It has also meant that LED TVs run with greater energy efficiency and can provide a clearer, better picture than the general LCD TVs.Source: BY HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM CONTRIBUTORS   

Learn how to reduce your electricity bill by using the latest kind of energy monitorIn today’s data-centric, energy-conscious age, seeking to reduce your electricity bill and greenhouse gas emissions is quite common. But if you’re trying to decide which device to switch to an energy-efficient mode, how can you figure out which uses the most energy? Trying to compare products’ energy use labels is often fruitless and overly complex, as those actual figures vary depending on how old a product is and how your local climate fares, among other things. However, thanks to MIT’s research and software, a much easier method for determining how much power each device uses is approaching.While developing devices to screen electricity use is not new, MIT’s plans of a stamp-sized energy monitor have some ideal advantages. Involving no complicated installation, the process doesn’t require disconnected wires, and you don’t have to be overly careful when placing sensors over an incoming power line. The system is designed as self-calibrating and processes comprehensive information about voltage and current patterns. Such detailed readings allow one to differentiate every kind of light, motor, and device in the home to determine when certain products are used.MIT’s system is also arranged so that all of this specific information remains within the home and does not run at risk of someone else accessing your power. The research team is also developing customized apps that could provide in-depth analysis of a user’s specific power-related needs. These apps could help the entire system become even more useful, as tests of it have proven successful. Testing has also shown when heating is excessive, as seen with an installation at a military base where large tents were heated during the day despite usually being empty at that time.“For a long time, the premise has been that if we could get access to better information [about energy use], we would be able to create some significant savings,” said Steven Leeb, MIT professor of Electrical Engineering and one of the research paper’s authors. The required information has grown more attainable as the years go by, firstly needing the skill to supervise changes in voltages and current without disabling main power lines to a home or connecting each appliance to a monitoring device. Systems that previously tried to use wireless sensors for determining faint magnetic and electric fields had dubious performance because fields would cancel out each other. MIT found a solution by applying an array of five offset sensors and a calibration system that determines the strongest sensor signal.With this sensor system in place, MIT researchers then had to find a way to analyze data flooding in from the sensors. Because every energy appliance has different performing speeds and voltage variances, a database of these differences is key to understanding products. MIT was able to develop such a catalog of appliances’ “signatures,” then having to display the data in a decipherable way. The team created an interface that permits users to “zoom in” on time segments and explore things such as when a fridge turns on and how often a water heater switches on and off.MIT plans to develop the system commercially, only pricing it at about $25 to $30 per home. As the device is a non-contact sensor, someone could even install it without any outside help. William Singleton, an engineer at the U.S. Army Fort Devens Base Camp Integration Laboratory who wasn’t involved in the experiments, said the system is “an excellent example of how theoretical scientific and mathematical principles can be brought to bear on real world, practical, problem-solving applications. Significant potential savings in fuel, water, and equipment maintenance can be realized.”Source:TechXplore , New Atlas         By Kristen Perrone 

MUNICH—The next generation of mobile radio networks, called AA, will offer the platform for innovative applications requiring extreme short latency times and / or high data rates up to 10 Gbps. Fraunhofer IAF (Freiburg, Germany) has developed one of the building blocks required to roll out AA networks: An integrated circuit for power amplifier transistor implemented in gallium nitride technology. The specific structures on the chip enable base station designers to run the device at relatively high voltages which translates into higher transmitting power than usual. In the related project Flex5Gware, Fraunhofer IAF is already testing prototypes of the device at frequencies to 6 GHz. In such applications, the energy demand depends on the transmission bandwidth. Every bit transmitted requires a certain, constant amount of energy, explains Quay. Since AA will allow 200 times higher bandwidths compared to today’s commercial mobile radio infrastructure, it is necessary to significantly improve the energy efficiency of semiconductor components used for the transmission of 5G high-bandwidth signals. The power amplifier of the Fraunhofer IAF transmits at a frequency of 5.8 gigahertz. These frequency is needed for the new 5G mobile radio standard. The centrally placed gallium nitride (GaN) semi-conductor circuits are the central part of the packaged power amplifier. (Photo & caption: Fraunhofer IAF) Beyond innovative semiconductors, the scientists also are using measures like highly directional antennas to increase the energy efficiency. Being a by-product of metal processing Gallium is widely available. The success of white and blue LEDs which also contain GaN contributed significantly to make the production of GaN as affordable as it is today. The result is that today the energy savings a GaN device can achieve throughout its operating life time exceed the higher manufacturing cost of such devices in comparison to silicon.    

Whether you are working on the latest device for your company or you are trying to find a replacement part for an old electronic device, finding a company to help you search for the parts you need is only half the battle. One of the difficult things to know is if your order contains exactly what you are expecting to get.  This is why knowing what kind of quality inspection process your parts supplier uses is becoming more important.These days the electronic components distributors and wholesalers are facing a difficult task especially with more and more fake, counterfeit and sub standard components making their way onto the market, this problem seem to be growing every year.The distributors and wholesalers that you use to supply your part requirements should have a tough inspection process in place to ensure you will be receiving the best quality product possible.A good quality inspection process would include several different factors including certified quality control inspectors, daily audits by lead inspectors to ensure a consistent, superior level of product inspection, a rigorous visual inspection and component tests to determine that products conform to manufacturers specifications and a quarantine and rejection process to ensure sub-standard products do not find their way into the market or into your projects.Counterfeiters today are becoming more sophisticated and making their products more difficult to recognize. A good sign that your supplier is helping the fight against counterfeit and sub-standard products is if they are a member of Independent Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA) and use the IDEA-STD-1010-A standard. This standard was developed in 2006 by its members and is used to help educate and continue to educate its members by keeping their quality inspection processes up to date to help fight against the increase of poor or counterfeit parts. One company who is a member of IDEA and who has been in the Electronic parts and component distribution business since 1972 is Electrospec based in Dover, New Jersey.Electrospec’s quality inspection process uses the IDEA-STD-1010-A standard as a basis for their extensive quality control. They are a member of ERAI (Electronic Resellers Association, Inc.) and approved ISO 9001:2000 Certification by SGS Systems & Services Certification with their ISO quality system incorporating the relevant standards of ANSI/ESDS20.20-1999 that are applicable to an electronic components distributor.Electrospec also does all the component sourcing for PartsSearcher.com which has an extensive online parts catalogue and an online request for quote online submission form.The bottom line is don’t be afraid to ask your supplier about their quality inspection process, if it’s good enough they will not only be happy to talk to you about it they will want to boast about how good it is. 

TechInsights discusses which wafer bonding technology hints at a possible future for stacked dies.Samsung’s S7 smartphones are offered with several unique builds depending on the country of use. For example, the US models sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and the European versions that we at TechInsights bought contained the Samsung Exynos 8 Octa processor. Both of these processors were fabbed by Samsung using its 14 nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process. Other chips in the phones were dual sourced as well, including their 12 megapixel CMOS image sensors. We knew that Sony was one vendor and Samsung the other, but how was the split done and what technologies were used?Figure 1 shows the US (SM-G930A) and European (SM-G930F) smartphones with their cover plates removed to expose their circuit boards and camera modules. The layout of the two circuit boards is quite similar but we note small differences in the metal housings used by the two image sensors. We originally thought this to be a marker for the Sony and Samsung variants, but this turned out not to be the case.Figure 1 Samsung S7 with cover removed SM-G930A US model left, SM-G930F European model right (Source: TechInsights)Figure 2 shows the camera modules from the US sourced Smartphone (left) and the European model (right). The US model has ‘SONY’ printed on its flex ribbon and our examination of the die confirms it to be the Sony IMX260 12 megapixel backside illuminated CMOS image sensor. Our first sample of the European phone’s module revealed it to be the Samsung S5L2L1 backside CMOS image sensor, but our remaining six European S7 phones housed the Sony image sensors. This was a surprise as we had assumed that Samsung would do a geographic split for the image sensors, much like they did for the Qualcomm Snapdragon and Exynos processors.Figure 2: CMOS Image Sensor Modules (Source: TechInsights) SM-G930A US model left, SM-G930F European model rightFigures 3 and 4 are die photographs of the Sony IMX260 and Samsung S5k2L1SX 12 Mp backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS image sensors (CIS), respectively that were removed from the two phones. We have removed the organic microlenses and color filters that cover the two dies so that we can get a better view of the pixel array size, and in the case of the Samsung die, the layout of through silicon vias (TSVs) that are used to connect the CIS die to an underlying control ASIC.The two dies are the same size and their array sizes are essentially the same size as well. No surprise here as the two dies use what appear to be the same optical housings in the European versions of the phones.Sony had used TSVs in their earlier CMOS image sensors and we had expected the same for the IMX260. But we don’t see them, as they have been replaced by a direct wafer bonding process that we will discuss later.The Samsung CMOS image sensor has arrays of TSVs along its perimeter and these are used to make the electrical connections to the underlying ASIC.Figure 3: Sony IMX260 CMOS Image Sensor (Source: TechInsights)Figure 4: Samsung S5k2L1SX CMOS Image Sensor (Source: TechInsights)