Product Announcements
LDO regulator features low noise, fast transient response
Designed for BGA SSDs used in mobile devices, improving power efficiency and extending battery life
MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. recently introduced a low-power, low-noise, and fast-transient low-dropout (LDO) regulator for ball-grid array (BGA) solid-state drive (SSD) components typically used in mobile devices. LDO regulators are used to regulate DC output voltage even when the supply voltage approaches the output voltage. The benefits of LDO regulators compared to DC-to-DC regulators include no switching noise, smaller size, and design simplicity.
BGA SSDs integrate an SSD controller with a memory chip (i.e., DRAM or NAND flash) into a BGA package. BGA SSDs have the advantage of being approximately 60% smaller in size than non-BGA SSDs, making them suitable for mobile device applications, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones…
Wi-Fi portfolio cuts power consumption in IoT applications
Addresses power, RF performance, size, and security concerns in IoT products
Silicon Labs recently announced an expansion of its Wi-Fi portfolio of modules and transceivers specifically designed for end-node products. Touting best-in-class power efficiency, RF blocking performance, and security, the Wireless Gecko portfolio is designed for a variety of connected IoT devices such as battery-operated IP security cameras, point-of-sale scanners, and personal medical devices.
The Wireless Gecko portfolio cuts Wi-Fi power consumption in half compared to competitive products, according to the company, by providing best-in-class transmit current (138 mA), receive current (48 mA), and sleep current (<40 µA). The modules’ high throughput and fewer retransmissions allow designs to use less channel capacity, further reducing power consumption…
Technology Announcements
Menlo Micro samples new MEMS switch technology
Menlo Micro’s Digital-Micro-Switch (DMS) technology incorporating Corning’s TGV technology is ready to ramp up production in partnership with foundry Silex Microsystems
Menlo Micro has announced that its new Digital-Micro-Switch (DMS) technology platform, demoed in June 2018, has moved from research and development into production at pure-play MEMS foundry Silicon Microsystems. The company is now producing samples of its new microelectromechanical (MEMS) switches on an 8-inch wafer manufacturing line and expects to scale up production by the end of the year.
The DMS technology incorporates through-glass-via (TGV) technology from Corning Inc. The TGV packaging technology is a major factor in the increased performance offered by Menlo’s DMS products. Package parasitics are reduced by more than 75% by replacing wire bonds with metallized vias — a change that also provides support for the increasingly higher frequencies required by communications systems, test instrumentation, and a variety of defense and aerospace applications. Using glass instead of conventional substrate materials (such as silicon) reduces RF losses and enables higher linearity, further lowering power consumption and increasing overall efficiency…
Low-voltage actuator could be the future of ‘soft’ robotics
UCSB researchers developed a fast, low-voltage actuator for soft and wearable robotics
When you think about robots, you probably envision rigid, metallic, humanoid figures repeating things like “Danger, Will Robinson!” or “Resistance is futile” in computer-like voices. In truth, recent advances in robotics have led to machines capable of assisting with surgeries, checking you into a hotel, and even cooking simple meals. Perhaps even more innovative is the form robots are taking known as “soft robotics,” which are complex mechanisms that can (in some cases) bend, twist, and stretch like a human muscle.
Robotic movement is based on actuators, which are mechanical components that are triggered by a control signal. The signal itself can be created by electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic energy — the actuator converts the energy from the control signal into movement. Soft robotic actuators, conversely, have relied on air flow or heat-differential, slow processes that severely limit the sorts of operations that soft-robotic systems can perform. However, a research team from the University of California at Santa Barbara (USCB) believes that they’ve married the electrically powered actuator commonly found in traditional robotic systems with their softer counterparts…
Technology Trends
What it means to be a smart city in 2018
The word “smart” can seemingly precede anything these days. We have smartphones, smart TVs, and smart homes — a series of common things progressively larger in size and scope moving into the smart domain. We can get even larger, too — smart cities have become a part of the lexicon now. What exactly makes a city smart? Below are a few examples of what smart cities can offer.
Residents or visitors to any major urban area know how difficult it can be to find parking, but many cities around the world are incorporating smart meters. These are parking stations that allow citizens to find available parking spaces using an app available for their cellphones. These meters accept many forms of digital payment and will even send a text alert when your time is about to run out, allowing you to pay for more time from wherever you are. The days of running out to the meter to put more coins into the slot will soon be a thing of the past…
https://www.electronicproducts.com/Education/Design/What_it_means_to_be_a_smart_city_in_2018.aspx
Product Round-Ups
Simplifying designs with the three Cs of robotics
You may be familiar with Asimov’s three laws of robotics, made famous in his many science fiction stories. However, you may not realize that there are three other organizing principles (perhaps not strong enough to be called laws) – the three C’s of robotics, that actually do play a major part in current robotics designs.
Borrowed from the military, Communications, Command and Control (sometimes called 3C), are the three key organizing principles for acquiring, processing and disseminating information across distributed “force elements.” Today’s robotics implementations can also be considered a collection of distributed force elements – primarily relying on mechanical force however – and these three “C’s” can be applied to the design of robotic distributed systems as well.
Communications
Communications is probably the easiest element to understand when looking at the design of a distributed system. The multiple elements used for imaging, positioning, environmental sensing, power, and motor control (just to name a few) all need to communicate with each other and with a centralized controller that manages and coordinates the detailed activities to accomplish a task. Standard communications interfaces, either wired or wireless, are used to transfer sensing information from the edges of the system to the central controller. When the central controller needs to send instructions to the edge elements, perhaps to request a sensor update or advance a stepper motor, the same interface is used. Microcontrollers (MCUs) are usually the intelligence within the end nodes and they support a variety of communications interfaces to simplify data transfer….