The Kynix Blog

The introduction of the LDD-ES8, a customisable gigabit Ethernet switch module for industrial, commercial and building automation data services, has been announced by LDD Technology. The standard LDD-ES8 module is an 8 port unmanaged Ethernet Switch on a PC/104-Plus form factor intended for use in embedded applications. It features a high performance, low latency, switch able to handle full-rate gigabit packets on all ports simultaneously.Auto-negotiation allows each port to operate at 10/100/1000 Mbits with dual LEDs per port to indicate negotiated speed and link activity. Power is provided from the PC/104 stack or through a Molex Microclasp connector. The LDD-ES8 module is designed for fully independent operation but a USB port is provided to allow monitoring of port performance if required. Power consumption is typically 5W with all ports operating at 1 Gbit/sec.The LDD-ES8 Gigabit Ethernet switch was developed in response to a number of enquiries for custom designed products from customers who had been unable to find suitable off-the-shelf products which met their performance, footprint and end product life requirements.LDD Technology is able to offer an efficient and cost-effective customisation service in the event that customers require a design with a different number of ports or in a different form factor. The module has been designed using programmable FPGA technology which offers end users a further range of customisation options not normally found on competitive products based on dedicated devices with limited programmability.This allows customers the option of including the functionality of the standard Ethernet Switch into other designs which may require Ethernet switching as part of a more complex system with additional interfaces or processing being included in the FPGA as required.“Our LDD-ES8 Gigabit Ethernet Switch is an excellent example of how our extensive custom design experience for many different clients can be used to create a flexible standard solution for many applications” commented Malcolm Locke, Managing Director of LDD Technology. Ref:KY32-EP1S60B956C6KY32-XC7K325T-2FFG900CKY32-EPF8636ALC84-3

The CC2640R2F SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless microcontroller from Texas Instruments (TI) is in stock at Mouser Electronics. Part of TI’s CC26xx SimpleLink family of 2.4GHz devices, the CC2640R2F microcontroller features a small, single-chip system that integrates a flash-based microcontroller and Bluetooth Smart radio to target Bluetooth 4.2 and Bluetooth 5 low-energy applications. The microcontroller combines a 61μA/MHz ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller and a rich peripheral set that includes an 8.2μA/MHz sensor controller. The 48MHz ARM microcontroller offers 128 kBytes of flash and 28 kBytes of SRAM and supports over-the-air (OTA) updates. The sensor controller is ideal for interfacing external sensors and for collecting analog and digital data autonomously while the rest of the system is in sleep mode. The device includes a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter, up to 31 general-purpose inputs and outputs (GPIOs), and built-in robust security on chip with one of the simplest radio frequency (RF) and antenna designs available. Minimal RF expertise is required to implement the device, which helps make development and layout extremely easy. The wireless microcontroller is available in 2.7×2.7 mm WCSP and 4×4, 5×5 and 7×7 mm QFN packages, and is designed for a board array of wireless Internet of Things (IoT) applications, including health and fitness, industrial, and home and building automation. With ready-to-use protocol stacks (including the SIMPLELINK-CC2640R2-SDK software development kit for Bluetooth 5), the SimpleLink portfolio of wireless connectivity solutions not only offers designers maximum flexibility and support but also delivers multi-standard capabilities with code- and pin-compatibility across Bluetooth Smart, 6LoWPAN, ZigBee and ZigBee RF4CE.   Ref: KY32-MB91F376GPMCR-GS KY32-MB90F548GSPFV-G KY32-HD6417604SVF20

UK power firm Amantys Power Electronics has developed its next generation IGBT gate drive technology which is being demonstrated this week at the PCIM exhibition in Nuremberg. Called NG Gate Drive, it has been designed to be compatible with IGBT modules known as LinPak, XHP, nHPD2 and SemiTrans20 that are available from several power semiconductor manufacturers.This is achieved because IGBT module variation, such as the position of gate drive connections, is accommodated through use of a module interface card which means the NG Gate Drive can target modules from 1700V to 3300V, and up to 6500V in the future.It will drive up to six IGBT modules in parallel.The company has incorporated its own two-way communication protocol between the gate drive and a central controller, allowing configuration of the gate drive in the target power stack.Configurable parameters, include the gate resistors (Rgon, Rgoff and Rgsoftoff), gate-emitter capacitor (Cge), operating mode (two level or three level) and timeouts such as the fault lock out time and dead time.Module also features multi-level desaturation detection for improved protection of the IGBT module. It records faults that the gate drive has seen during operation.Potential applications could include traction, wind energy and medium voltage motor drives. Ref:KY32-STK672-540KY32-BA5834FM-E2KY32-BD7957FS

Imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technology, announced today at the 2017 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits the world's first demonstration of a vertically stacked ferroelectric Al doped HfO2 device for NAND applications. Using a new material and a novel architecture, imec has created a non-volatile memory concept with attractive characteristics for power consumption, switching speed, scalability and retention. The achievement shows that ferro-electric memory is a highly promising technology at various points in the memory hierarchy, and as a new technology for storage class memory. Imec will further develop the concept in collaboration with the world's leading producers of memory ICs.  Ferro-electric materials consist of crystals that exhibit spontaneous polarization; they can be in one of two states, which can be reversed with a suitable electric field. This non-volatile characteristic resembles ferromagnetism, after which they have been named. Discovered more than five decades ago, ferro-electric memory has always been considered ideal, due to its very low power needs, non-volatile character and high switching speed. However, issues with the complex materials, the breakdown of the interfacial layer and bad retention characteristics have presented significant challenges. The recent discovery of a ferro-electric phase in HfO2, a well-known and less complex material, has triggered a renewed interest in this memory concept."With HfO2, there is now a material with which we can process ferro-electric memories that are fully CMOS compatible. This allows us to make a ferro-electric FET (FeFET) in both planar and vertical varieties," noted Jan Van Houdt, imec's chief scientist for memory technology. "We are working to overcome some of the remaining issues, such as retention, precise doping techniques and interface properties, in order to stabilize the ferro-electric phase. We are now confident that our FeFET concept has all the required characteristics. It is, in fact, suitable for both stand-alone and embedded memories at various points in the memory hierarchy, going all the way from non-volatile DRAM to Flash-like memories. It has particularly interesting characteristics for future storage-class memory, which will help overcome the current bottleneck caused by the differences in speed between fast processors and slower mass memory."Imec recently presented the first, extremely positive results to its partners. The research center is now offering further development and industrialization of the vertical FeFET as a program to all its memory partners, which include the world's major companies producing memory ICs."FeFETs can be used as a technology to build memory very similar to Flash-memory, but with additional advantages for further scaling, simplified processing, and power consumption," added Van Houdt. "With our longstanding R&D and processing experience on advanced Flash, we are uniquely positioned to offer our partners a head start in this exciting opportunity. They can then decide how best to fit ferro-electric memories in their products and chips." Ref:KY32-K9T1G08U0M-YIBOKY32-CY7C1357S-100AXCKY32-AT49BV162AT(T)  

Allegro MicroSystems, LLC announces the release of a new micropower LED driver IC that features an integrated Hall-effect switch. The APS13568 enables compact, elegant, reliable, and fault-tolerant LEDlighting with minimal electrical engineering and low component-count and cost. A single silicon chip integrates: a micropower regulator, a Hall plate, a small-signal amplifier, chopper stabilization, a Schmitt trigger, open drain Hall-Effect switch output, output polarity selection, and an LED driver with soft on/off and short circuit and thermal protection with automatic recovery. The integrated solid-state Hall-effect switch supports silent, sealed, contactless activation and offers a significant upgrade from failure-prone mechanical switches and provides very low standby current (< 50 μA).The LED driver features low-noise, adjustable, linear drive of up to 150mA into one or more LEDs. An optional external capacitor programs the turn-on/turn-off rate, adding an elegant “theater” effect. It is controlled by the Hall-effect switch and turns on and off in response to a magnet. The Hall-effect switch is omnipolar (responsive to both North and South magnetic poles) and highly sensitive (BOP = 40G) to support a wide range of mechanical configurations and enclosures with various air-gaps and degrees of mechanical misalignment. The AP13568 features selectable output polarity as well as an open drain output for connecting to additional external circuitry.This new device complements Allegro Microsystem’s existing portfolios of LED drivers and Hall-effect switches by adding an external output and micropower operation (<50 μA). It is targeted at consumer electronics, white goods, boats, RVs, motorcycles, and interior and auxiliary automotive lighting applications such as glove boxes, center consoles, vanity mirrors, trunks/boots, truck beds, etc. The on-board micropower regulator permits operation with supply voltages of 7 V to 24 V while providing very low average supply current when the output is disabled. Reliability and EMC performance are enhanced with Zener clamps, output short-circuit protection, thermal shutdown, and reverse-battery protection. Superior Hall switch performance is made possible through dynamic offset cancellation, which reduces the residual offset voltage normally caused by device overmolding, temperature drift, and thermal stress.The device is available in two versions: the “K” option is an automotive-grade (AEC-Q100) device that operates from -40 °C to +125 °C; the “E” option is for industrial and consumer applications that operate from -40 °C to 85 °C. Both versions feature a RoHS-compliant, thermally enhanced SOIC-8 surface-mount package (designator “LJ”).Ref:KY32-MIC2287CBD5KY32-LM3519MKX-20KY32-HV9921N3

Eight years ago, Ted Adelson’s research group at MIT’s CSAIL unveiled a new sensor technology, called GelSight, that uses physical contact with an object to provide a remarkably detailed 3D map of its surface. Now, by mounting GelSight sensors on the grippers of robotic arms, two MIT teams have given robots greater sensitivity and dexterity. The researchers presented their work in two papers at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.In one paper, Adelson’s group uses the data from the GelSight sensor to enable a robot to judge the hardness of surfaces it touches — a crucial ability if household robots are to handle everyday objects.In the other, Russ Tedrake’s Robot Locomotion Group at CSAIL uses GelSight sensors to enable a robot to manipulate smaller objects than was previously possible.The GelSight sensor is, in some ways, a low-tech solution to a difficult problem. It consists of a block of transparent rubber — the “gel” of its name — one face of which is coated with metallic paint. When the paint-coated face is pressed against an object, it conforms to the object’s shape.The metallic paint makes the object’s surface reflective, so its geometry becomes much easier for computer vision algorithms to infer. Mounted on the sensor opposite the paint-coated face of the rubber block are three colored lights and a single camera.“[The system] has colored lights at different angles, and then it has this reflective material, and by looking at the colors, the computer … can figure out the 3D shape of what that thing is,” explains Adelson, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.In both sets of experiments, a GelSight sensor was mounted on one side of a robotic gripper, a device somewhat like the head of a pincer, but with flat gripping surfaces rather than pointed tips.For an autonomous robot, gauging objects’ softness or hardness is essential to deciding not only where and how hard to grasp them but how they will behave when moved, stacked, or laid on different surfaces. Tactile sensing could also aid robots in distinguishing objects that look similar.In previous work, robots have attempted to assess objects’ hardness by laying them on a flat surface and gently poking them to see how much they give. But this is not the chief way in which humans gauge hardness.Rather, our judgments seem to be based on the degree to which the contact area between the object and our fingers changes as we press on it. Softer objects tend to flatten more, increasing the contact area.The MIT researchers adopted the same approach. Wenzhen Yuan, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and first author on the paper from Adelson’s group, used confectionary molds to create 400 groups of silicone objects, with 16 objects per group. In each group, the objects had the same shapes but different degrees of hardness, which Yuan measured using a standard industrial scale.Then she pressed a GelSight sensor against each object manually and recorded how the contact pattern changed over time, essentially producing a short movie for each object. To both standardise the data format and keep the size of the data manageable, she extracted five frames from each movie, evenly spaced in time, which described the deformation of the object that was pressed.Finally, she fed the data to a neural network, which automatically looked for correlations between changes in contact patterns and hardness measurements. The resulting system takes frames of video as inputs and produces hardness scores with very high accuracy.Yuan also conducted a series of informal experiments in which human subjects palpated fruits and vegetables and ranked them according to hardness. In every instance, the GelSight-equipped robot arrived at the same rankings. Ref:KY45-AT42QT1110-AUKY45-STMPE1208SQTRKY45-MPR032EPR2