Збирач потоків

A Planet Analog article, “2N3904: Why use a 60-year-old transistor?” by Bill Schweber, inspired some interest in this old transistor and how it’s commonly used, and if any uncommon uses might exist. Here’s one we played around with.

Wow the engineering world with your unique design: Design Ideas Submission Guide

The Linear Technology Application Note 47-D: “High Speed Amplifier Techniques” by Jim Williams offers an interesting side road to usual transistor use, where a typical fast pulse transistor is utilized in avalanche collector-to-emitter breakdown Vbceo to create sub-nanosecond pulses. The 2N3904 will work in this configuration, but requires a high voltage (>100 V) like the pulse transistor to reach the Vbeco breakdown, and produces a slower pulse, being a slower GP transistor.

A while back, I had measured the reverse breakdown of the 2N3904 base-emitter junction and noted the small area of negative resistance where the junction current reduces as applied reverse voltage increases (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Measurement of the reverse breakdown of the 2N3904’s base-emitter junction, showing a small area of negative resistance.

This base-emitter breakdown is much lower than the collector-emitter breakdown and might serve as a lower voltage version of the avalanche pulse generation method described in App Note 47-D.

A simple circuit was created with the 2N3904 emitter connected by a 100-kΩ resistor to a variable supply set to ~14 VDC. A shunt capacitance of 10 nF from the emitter to ground and a 50-Ω resistor from the collector to ground. Just two resistors, a capacitor, and the 2N3904 are all that’s required to create a simple relaxation oscillator (actually, the 50-Ω resistor isn’t required).

Figure 2 shows the result with the DSO AC-coupled blue trace, the relaxation voltage at the transistor emitter, and the DC-coupled magenta trace, the voltage across the 50-Ω resistor from the collector to ground (remember the NPN is upside down or inverted!).

Figure 2 Waveforms of the simple relaxation oscillator circuit with the AC-coupled blue trace and DC-coupled magenta trace.

The pulse across the 50-Ω resistor in Figure 3 shows the avalanche current in more detail, where this current is ~ 2 V peak across the 50-Ω resistor, or ~40 mA peak. This isn’t fast, however, the 2N3904 is a general-purpose (GP) transistor that is not intended for speed.

Figure 3 Avalanche current shown in more detail on the DSO, showing a ~40 mA peak.

Utilizing faster transistors such as the 2N2369 should produce narrower pulses with faster rise times. Whether these produce faster rise times and narrower pulse widths than in the collector-emitter avalanche breakdown method from App Note 47-D remains an experiment waiting for those interested. Intuition indicates the “normal” avalanche collector-emitter mode will be faster, though!

Anyway, I hope folks find this simple and unusual use of these old standby 2N3904 transistors interesting, I certainly did!!

Michael A Wyatt is a life member with IEEE and has continued to enjoy electronics ever since his childhood. Mike has a long career spanning Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Insyte/ITT/Exelis/Harris, ViaSat, and retiring (semi) with Wyatt Labs. During his career, he accumulated 32 US Patents and, in the past, published a few EDN Articles, including Best Idea of the Year in 1989.

Related Content

• 2N3904: Why use a 60-year-old transistors?
• The overcurrent limiting transistor fails before anything else!
• 2 Channel Audio Mixer using Transistors
• Inverted bipolar transistor doubles as a signal clamp
• How to Read Data Sheets: More on BJTs

The post Unusual 2N3904 transistor circuit appeared first on EDN.

Xerion Advanced Battery Corp of Kettering, OH, USA, which develops and manufactures next-generation battery components and critical minerals, is expanding its critical minerals refinement portfolio after recently demonstrating the capability to refine gallium. Xerion aims to develop the process on a commercial scale to support military and commercial applications, including the production and maintenance of critical defense platforms, as well as semiconductors. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technology, Xerion has been awarded Phase I funding from the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) under the small business innovation research (SBIR) program...

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany and ROHM Co Ltd of Kyoto, Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on packages for silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors used in applications such as on-board chargers, photovoltaics, energy storage systems and AI data centers. Specifically, the partners aim to enable each other as second sources of selected packages for SiC power devices, which should increase design and procurement flexibility for customers. In the future, customers will be able to source devices with compatible housings from both Infineon and ROHM. The collaboration should ensure seamless compatibility and interchangeability to match specific customer needs...

📰 Газета "Київський політехнік" № 33-34 за 2025 (.pdf) Інформація КП чт, 09/25/2025 - 15:00

“The Semicon India program has brought new energy to the ecosystem, signaling the government’s commitment to building a resilient and self-sufficient semiconductor value chain,” says Jose Lok, Product Category Director, Semiconductors, element14, in an exclusive interaction with the ELE Times under its exclusive series ‘Powering the Chip Chain.’ As India wrapped up its largest electronics and semiconductors carnival this month, we grabbed the hot seat to discuss some very pertinent issues with Jose, representing element14, a consistent feature of Global 500 Fortune companies, with its resounding presence across 140 countries, with over 125 company locations.

Reflecting on India’s journey in electronics and semiconductors, he says, “India’s semiconductor landscape is going through a remarkable transformation.” Underlining the impact of schemes like Semicon India, PLI, and DLI, he highlights the momentum contributed by these schemes to the wholesome electronics and semiconductor ecosystem of India. This is further coupled by India’s growing influence over the global supply chain as demand peaks back home across sectors like automotive, IoT, and industrial automation.

Making Access Easier and Efficient

In the interaction, Jose touched upon the critical challenges faced by the design engineers in developing new products. He says, “Engineers often face long lead times, difficulty sourcing small quantities for prototypes, and a lack of visibility into real-time inventory,” as he underlines the pain points.

He further adds that the company has made its business in India largely by addressing these pain points and making it easier for engineers in prototyping and R&D, including its intuitive e-commerce platform and an inventory of over 950,000 products from 2,000 leading suppliers.

Emerging Opportunities

Further adding to the impact of the government schemes, he says, “The increased momentum has translated into increased demand from OEMs and design houses. It’s also creating new opportunities for companies like ours to support emerging players with the right components, kits, and engineering resources.” Further, adding to the same, he emphasizes the visibility and structure offered by these to enable distributors like element14 to work more closely with the Indian engineers and also align their plans accordingly.

element14’s India Plans

Talking about the company’s India plans, he says, “For element14, India is a strategic growth market. It represents not just an opportunity to expand but to partner with a new generation of engineers and innovators.” He also sounds quite optimistic when it comes to India’s role in the global supply chain of semiconductors, as he underlines the growing demand for components across the globe in segments like automotive, IoT, and industrial automation.

Challenges in the Indian Landscape

Every company faces one or the other challenge when it comes to scaling in a given nation under certain circumstances. For element14, these remain to be infrastructure variability, diverse needs, and timely last-mile delivery, specifically in the remote areas. He says, “Strategically, the pace of policy execution and the need for talent development in chip design and testing are areas that will require continued focus.”

Find the Part-01 at “Exclusive Feature: “We’re Using AI to Help Us Make Better, Faster, and More Accurate Decisions,” says DigiKey’s Ken Paxton”

Changing Roles

Reflecting on how the nation’s stride in electronics manufacturing impacts the distributors, he says, “The expectation from distributors has shifted beyond just availability.” The distributors are today expected to provide better technical support, along with alternative prototyping options, and also better credit terms, enabling an end-to-end partnership in the product development cycle.

As Jose puts it, “As India moves toward becoming a global electronics hub, distributors must grow into enablers of speed, reliability, and innovation.”

As India’s semiconductor ambitions gather pace, element14 is positioning itself as more than a distributor. “Our focus in India and across Asia is clear. We want to support innovation in a truly end-to-end way, from the early stages of design all the way to mass production and beyond,” says Jose. At its core, he adds, the company’s goal is “to be a reliable partner for innovation, one that grows with our customers and helps them build what’s next.”

India’s semiconductor ambitions are backed by initiatives like the ₹76,000 crore ISM and the ₹1,000 crore DLI scheme, which focuses on fostering a strong design ecosystem. A critical part of this effort is ensuring design engineers get timely access to quality components. To highlight how distributors are enabling this, we present our exclusive series — “Powering the Chip Chain” — featuring conversations with key industry players.

 

The post The Semicon India program has brought new energy to the ecosystem: Jose Lok, element14 appeared first on ELE Times.

The semiconductor industry is entering a new phase where artificial intelligence is taking on some of the most complex aspects of chip development. With design cycles growing more challenging due to advanced system-on-chip (SoC) requirements, AI-driven design automation tools are proving to be a game-changer bringing higher productivity, improved performance, and faster time to market.

Rising in Complexity in SoC Development

Modern (SoC) has multiple functions integrated, making them huge optimization targets for power, performance, and area (PPA). Mock manual iterative style often cannot efficiently address design rule checks (DRCs), timing closure, and multi-block optimizations. That has created an ever-increasing demand for intelligent design solutions that can handle scaling design.

Productivity Gains Through AI-Optimized Workflows

According to industry evaluation reports, AI-enabled chip design platforms have shown transformative improvements. These reports demonstrate productivity improvements, speeding up design completion from more than five to thirty times over and reducing design rule checks (DRCs) by as much as 70%. Performances outcomes have also improved significantly, highlighting how AI can streamline bottlenecks that previously slowed down development.

Accelerating Time to Market

Products must be delivered on time in very demanding markets like display drivers, imaging solutions, and advanced electronics. This makes automated design optimization allow the engineering teams to focus on innovation rather than repetitive fine-tuning, ensuring that smarter, quicker, and more cost-efficient solutions reach the market.

AI for Competitive Edge

By implementing intelligent design automation, not only do companies improve their operations-oriented efficiency, but they also boost their actual competitive thrust. The concurrent multiple-block optimization of large (SoC) is turning into the strategic differentiator in markets where performance and speed to market define success.

Looking Ahead

AI-driven chip design automation has already gone beyond being a laboratory experiment it is fast becoming an orthodoxy in modern semiconductor engineering. The early adopters, foremost of them being Himax with Cadence’s Cerebrus Intelligent Chip Explorer, demonstrated astonishing gain in productivity and design quality. As more semiconductor companies embrace similar AI-driven platforms, the industry is poised to unlock new levels of creativity, reduce development costs, and accelerate the path to next-generation chips.

(This article has been adapted and modified from content on Cadence.)

The post AI-Driven Design Automation Boosts Semiconductor Productivity appeared first on ELE Times.

Largest-ever edition in Bengaluru underscores India’s journey to becoming a global electronics manufacturing hub

• Featured 50,194 visitors, unprecedented international participation of 6000+ brands from 50+ countries
• Targeted international pavilions and 2,000+ structured business matchmaking sessions transformed potential into partnerships with measurable commercial outcomes.
• Conferences bridged policy, manufacturing, and innovation divides, creating actionable pathways to India’s technological leadership rather than theoretical aspirations.

Electronica India and Productronica India 2025, held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), concluded three days of significant business engagement, industry discourse, and technological exploration. The trade fairs, featuring over 6000+ global brands from more than 50 countries and attracting 50,194 trade professionals, reinforced India’s expanding role within the global electronics manufacturing landscape.

Organised by Messe Muenchen India, these co-located trade fairs continue to serve as a strategic meeting point for the entire electronics manufacturing value chain, encompassing design, components, assembly, automation, embedded systems, and quality assurance. While established global entities leveraged the platform to consolidate their regional footprint, Indian manufacturers, Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers, and material suppliers actively showcased advanced capabilities, often with a view toward securing international export partnerships.

Government representation, including senior leadership from Karnataka – Shri. Rahul Sharanappa Sankanur, IAS, Managing Director, Managing Director Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Smt. Gunjan Krishna, IAS, Commissioner, Industries and Commerce Department, Government of Karnataka and Dr. Darez Ahamed, IAS- Managing Director, Guidance Tamil Nadu affirmed ongoing state-level commitments to cultivating electronics manufacturing hubs. Concurrently, dedicated international pavilions from Japan, Taiwan, and Germany were prominent, solidifying the show’s reputation as a key gateway for international enterprises seeking to engage with India’s dynamic ecosystem.

The facilitated Buyer-Seller Forum proved highly effective, recording over 2,000 structured meetings. Sourcing teams from key sectors such as automotive, industrial automation, and consumer electronics–including leading companies such as Samsung, Spark Minda, and Jio platforms–engaged directly with component manufacturers and solutions providers. Discussions primarily revolved around optimizing lead times, establishing local inventory, implementing cost engineering strategies, and fostering supplier development – all critical aspects for global supply chain resilience.

With Rohit Sharma as the face for electronica India and productronica India 2025, the platform also expanded its reach beyond the immediate industry community. His association helped connect the event’s core message to a wider and increasingly tech-aware audience, highlighting the growing societal relevance of electronics manufacturing in India.

Exhibitor Testimonials

Exhibitors consistently reported high-quality interactions. Sanjay Kumar, Managing Director from Kyocera Asia Pacific India Pvt. Ltd an electronica India exhibitor, said, “The scale and focus here in Bengaluru this year was truly impressive. The international pavilions provided direct access to component suppliers we would typically need to visit multiple regional shows to engage with.”

For process-focused technology providers, the utility was clear Gaurav Mehta, President – Business Development from Kaynes Technology India Ltd, an exhibitor at productronica India, stated, “For a process-driven technology company like ours, productronica India gave us access to the right mix of automation buyers and R&D teams. What impressed us was not just the quantity of inquiries but their technical specificity—Indian manufacturers are now discussing Industry 4.0 integration parameters and machine learning capabilities, not merely basic automation. We received interests from across verticals like defence & aerospace, IT/IOT, Healthcare, Automotive. Semiconductor, bare PCBs, Industrial and Consumer segments.

Buyer Testimonials

Mr. Gurdeep Singh, General Manager – Strategic Sourcing Group, Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd – “This exhibition brilliantly showcased the immense potential for localized electronics component sourcing in India. We were particularly impressed with the focus on nurturing growing Indian manufacturing capabilities and the opportunity to identify several promising new sourcing partners. A truly invaluable experience for anyone in the industry!”

Mr. Sushil Kumar, General Manager – Procurement and Sourcing, Jio Platform Limited. – “What stood out was the access to both established names and emerging startups under one roof. This juxtaposition is invaluable—we were able to benchmark mature solutions against emerging supply chain scenarios and witness India emerging as a key global manufacturing destination.”

Mr. Prakash Palanisamy, DGM – Group Corporate Electronics Sourcing, Spark Minda Group – “We attend shows globally, but the scale and focus here in Bengaluru this year were truly impressive. The international pavilions provided direct access to component suppliers we would typically need to visit multiple regional shows to engage with.”

Beyond the exhibition floor, the 2025 edition integrated a robust schedule of supporting programs designed to foster deeper technical and strategic discussions. These included the India Semiconductor Conclave, focusing on policy and design ecosystems, and the CEO Forum, addressing procurement and MSME component strategies. A strong highlight this year was the eFuture Conference, which brought together experts to discuss emerging technologies and future roadmaps for the electronics industry. Additional sessions like the eMobility Conference, the Innovation Forum, and a Live Podcast Zone further enhanced the event’s value proposition by providing diverse perspectives and real-time insights from technologists and decision-makers.

Industry leaders underscored the event’s significance. Rajoo Goel, Secretary General of ELCINA, remarked, “This edition reflects the growing depth of the Indian electronics industry. India’s electronics sector is no longer merely an assembly hub but a burgeoning ecosystem demonstrating sophisticated capabilities across the value chain. The “substantive and targeted” nature of the discussions indicates a higher level of technical readiness and business acumen among domestic participants, making them increasingly attractive partners for international collaborations that seek specialized expertise beyond basic manufacturing.”

Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, CEO of Messe München GmbH, offered a global perspective: “India is no longer an emerging destination—it is becoming a critical node in the global electronics supply chain. India now plays an indispensable role not just in production volumes but also in strategic design, supply chain resilience, and technological innovation. Both of these trade fairs provide a tangible showcase, allowing international stakeholders to directly gauge India’s advancements, fostering confidence and catalysing direct foreign investment and partnerships”

Bhupinder Singh, President IMEA, Messe München and CEO, Messe Muenchen India, concluded, “The 2025 edition of electronica India and productronica India has cemented the industry’s trust in these platforms and their intent to catalyse the next phase of electronics manufacturing in India. The “trust” placed in the platform reflects its proven ability to consistently deliver valuable cross-border interactions, solidifying its role as a premier facilitator for the next, more advanced phase of electronics manufacturing in India, characterized by deeper international integration and technological collaboration.”

Starting 2026, electronica India and productronica India will transition to a bi-annual format taking place both in Greater Noida (April) and Bengaluru (September). This strategic shift aims to provide more frequent market access points and better align with evolving regional business cycles, reflecting the accelerated pace of India’s electronics sector.

The post India’s Powerplay in Electronics Commands Global Attention at electronica India and productronica India 2025 appeared first on ELE Times.

Filtronic plc of Sedgefield and Leeds, UK — which designs and manufactures RF and millimeter-wave (mmWave) transmit & receive components and subsystems — is launching the latest development in solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs) operating in the V-band. The Cerus V is being showcased alongside its Cerus W solid-state power amplifiers at European Microwave Week (EuMW 2025) in Utrecht, the Netherlands (21–26 September)...

Author: Mr. Saleem Ahmed, Officiating Head, ESSCI

When you hold your smartphone, drive your car, or even switch on your smart TV, there’s an invisible heartbeat inside, semiconductors. These tiny chips power satellites in orbit, fighter jets in the skies, and the AI algorithms reshaping our lives. For years, India has depended on importing these critical components, an Achilles’ heel for a country that aspires to be a global tech leader. But the tide is turning. With billion-dollar investments, government incentives, and, most importantly, a young pool of engineers, India is poised to script a new chapter: becoming a semiconductor innovation powerhouse.

Yet, there’s a catch. Money can build fabs and policy can set direction, but without the right skills, the vision will remain half-written. The future of India’s semiconductor journey will not just be about silicon, it will be about skills.

The Opportunity Before India

The global semiconductor industry is racing towards a trillion-dollar valuation by 2030. India’s own market is expected to touch $64 billion by 2026, nearly three times its 2019 size of $22.7 billion, according to Counterpoint Research and the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA). At the same time, the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India (ESSCI) projects the industry will employ 1.70 lakh professionals by 2025 and create another 1.03 lakh jobs by 2030. These are not routine jobs, they’re high-paying, future-facing roles that will place young Indians at the cutting edge of global innovation.

India already has an edge: it is home to nearly 20% of the world’s chip design engineers. Leading companies have set up design and R&D centers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Noida. The recent unveiling of a 3nm semiconductor chip designed in India showcased the sheer technical capability of our engineers and the strategic importance of Indian design centers to the global industry.

By August 2025, the Union Cabinet of India had approved a total of ten semiconductor projects under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), amounting to cumulative investments of approximately ₹1.6 lakh crore (around $18.2 billion) across six states. These projects cover a range of technologies and partners, including advanced fabs, packaging, and silicon carbide-based compound semiconductors.

Why Skilling is the Decisive Factor

Despite this progress, the semiconductor value chain is highly talent-intensive. The design and IP creation phase, where the most economic value resides, requires deep expertise in VLSI (Very-Large-Scale Integration), electronic design automation (EDA) tools, and system-on-chip (SoC) architecture.

Currently, India produces tens of thousands of electronics graduates every year, but only a fraction are industry-ready. The gap lies in practical exposure, specialized training, and familiarity with real-world tools. For India to move beyond being a service center and emerge as a global innovation leader, a sharper focus on semiconductor design and VLSI roles is essential.

Equally critical is the manufacturing side of semiconductors, which demands not just technical know-how but also safety and operational excellence. Specialized programs such as Industrial Safety for Semiconductor Manufacturing – Hazchem and Electrical Safety in Semiconductor Facilities are vital to prepare a workforce capable of managing the highly sensitive and hazardous environments of fabrication plants. By strengthening both design expertise and manufacturing readiness, India can build a holistic talent pipeline for the semiconductor ecosystem.

Role of ESSCI: Building the Skills Bridge

This is where ESSCI plays a transformative role. Recognizing the talent gap, ESSCI has developed 32 NSQF-aligned qualifications spanning the entire semiconductor ecosystem, from chip design to  advanced packaging, cleanroom operations to safety protocols.

The courses are designed to cater to:

• Engineering graduates looking to specialize,
• Diploma and ITI students preparing to enter the workforce, and
• Professionals seeking to upskill or switch domains.

Some of the most critical roles where demand is already soaring include:

• VLSI Design Engineers – Designing advanced digital and analog circuits at nanoscale.
• Physical Design Engineers – Specializing in floor-planning, power optimization, and timing.
• Verification Engineers – Ensuring chips are error-free before fabrication.
• Analog & Mixed-Signal Designers – Vital for sensors, RF communication, and power management.
• Wafer Processing and Packaging Engineers – Especially relevant as fabs emerge in India.

Each of these roles commands global relevance and premium salaries, but only if the workforce is trained at world-class standards. The full range of programs is available on ESSCI’s website, offering aspirants a structured path to join the semiconductor workforce. Beyond curriculum design, ESSCI collaborates with industry leaders ensuring that Indian talent is benchmarked against international standards.

Why This Matters for Young Engineers

For India’s youth, the semiconductor wave represents more than jobs, it represents a chance to lead global technological change. Whether in AI, electric vehicles, 5G, space technology, or IoT, semiconductors are at the heart of every emerging sector.

A career in this industry offers:

• High-paying roles with global exposure,
• Opportunities to work on frontier technologies, and
• The satisfaction of contributing to national self-reliance and global leadership.

Conclusion:

India’s semiconductor journey has moved from dream to execution. Fabs are being built, policies are in place, and global players are betting big on India. But without a deeply skilled workforce, the dream of becoming a global semiconductor hub risks falling short.

The responsibility now lies with all stakeholders, universities, industry, government, and skill councils like ESSCI, to align efforts and ensure our engineers are not just employable, but world-class innovators.

For young Indians, the message is simple: this is your moment. Equip yourself with the right skills, embrace the semiconductor revolution, and help India design not just chips, but its future.

Because if we skill right, India won’t just participate in semiconductor innovation, it will lead it

The post India Can Lead in Semiconductor Innovation, If We Skill Right appeared first on ELE Times.

Hi :3 Some time ago i was trying to help friends with getting a BCI board for their project, but plans were changed and i made a new fully custom board based on ADS1299 (2 of them, 16 channels) and ESP32-C3. I hope they will use it one day, we just decided to post it :3 Board is open source, i’ve designed the entire pcb myself, as well as firmware and then BrainFlow integration and a python testing GUI (i have no idea how to add mor pictures here :3). You can order it from JLCPCB (project files are provided) if you want and it will be relatively cheap, and crazy cheap if you order like 10 or 20 — price goes down super fast. On esp side i’ve implemented sinc3 equalizer (7-tap FIR), DC removal and notch filters (50/60, 100/120 Hz). You can toggle them in real time independently. DC has several cutoff frequencies you can choose from also on the go. If you change sampling frequency filters will adapt of course (i made LUTs inside up to 4000 Hz) I was trying to make sure board works as fast as it can and as stable as possible. I was doing a lot of optimizations here and there (embedded coders feel free to trash me, i will be only happy), but board can run all filters on all 16 channels and sustain 4000 Hz at max — all of that over Wi-Fi and UDP. So, i have no idea if ADS1299 is dead already or maybe no one needs it or whatever, but if you’re interested — you can check git or ask here or whatever else. It just took me a ton of time to make it and i wasn’t even checking what other people do too much. We’ve checked freeEEG, then OpenBCI, then i thought maybe i can just make 16 channels and since then went into silent mode getting crushed under piles of datasheets and design guidelines. I just want to share the board and not sure how to stay under this reddit guidelines, i hope it’s ok. So, whatever it goes, check git or text me — i will be happy to yap about signal processing and pcb design and share more details if anyone interested. https://github.com/nikki-uwu/Meower submitted by /u/Meow-Corp [link] [comments]

Modern cars are fast becoming connected, software-driven systems with all the trappings of a mobile data center. Automotive Ethernet forms the core of this transformation, providing the required speed, scalability, and security to build next-generation vehicles. From zonal architectures to software-defined platforms, the Ethernet enables the driving experience to become safer, smarter, and more connected.

Shaping Vehicle Architecture

The industry is shifting towards zonal architectures, with centralized processors managing multiple zones within a vehicle. The numerous benefits include reduced complexity, cost reduction, and enhanced efficiencies. By 2030, it is expected that half of new vehicles would incorporate zonal systems, thereby underscoring Ethernet’s role as the backbone of automotive design.

Why Automotive Ethernet Is Important

With over a decade of leadership and ports in the hundreds of millions deployed already, ethernet has made its way into becoming the de facto standard for in-vehicle networking. Listed below are the reasons:

• speed, secure-data transmission
• low power
• standards-based reliability
• scalability for future applications

The ecosystem is continuously growing, from PHY technology that stretches twisted pair connections to switches and MCUs that empower advanced networking.

Unlocking Next-Gen Capabilities

Automotive Ethernet is the data backbone fostering innovation through development in the following areas:

• Assisted driving & safety: ADAS and LIDAR-powered systems for intelligent navigation.
• Cloud connectivity: Fast, secure data transfer between vehicles and the cloud.
• Software-defined platforms: Supporting OTA updates and feature rollouts.
• Predictive maintenance: Real-time diagnostics and personalization.

Open Standards for Interoperability

Automotive connectivity depends heavily on open standards that guarantee interoperability from platform to platform. Collaborations with global standards bodies such as IEEE are further enhancing Ethernet to provide:

• Higher data rates
• Lower power consumption
• Lower emission of noise

Ethernet technologies, well-proven in enterprise data center applications, are now being modified for automotive applications to deliver the same level of security and performance.

Looking Ahead

Ethernet will continue to provide the data backbone propelling the transformation of automobiles into sophisticated, software-defined platforms. Vehicles will become safer, more intelligent, and constantly better thanks to ongoing technological advancements.

Broadcom is assisting automakers all over the world in embracing this change and influencing the direction of connected mobility with its extensive experience and leadership in Automotive Ethernet.

(This article has been adapted and modified from content on Broadcom.)

The post Reinventing In-Vehicle Connectivity: Driving the Future with Automotive Ethernet appeared first on ELE Times.

Reducing Switching Losses and Increasing Efficiency, Devices Combine Low Qrr Down to 105 nC With VF Down to 1.45 V and Low Junction Capacitance and Recovery Time

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. expanded its Gen 7 platform of 1200 V FRED Pt Hyperfast rectifiers with four new devices in the eSMP series SlimSMA HV (DO-221AC) package. Optimized for industrial and automotive applications, the 1 A and 2 A rectifiers not only offer the best trade-off between reverse recovery charge (Qrr) and forward voltage drop for devices in their class, but also provide the lowest junction capacitance and recovery time.

The Vishay Semiconductors rectifiers released, include the VS-E7JX0112-M3 and VS-E7JX0212-M3, and AEC-Q101 qualified VS-E7JX0112HM3 and VS-E7JX0212HM3. To reduce switching losses and increase efficiency, the devices combine fast recovery times down to 45 ns with Qrr down to 105 nC typical, forward voltage drop down to 1.45 V, and junction capacitance down to 2.5 pF. The robust rectifiers offer non-repetitive peak surge current up to 21 A in a compact package measuring 2.6 mm by 5.2 mm with a low 0.95 mm profile, compared to 2.3 mm for the competing SMA package with a similar footprint. Combined with a minimum 3.2 mm creepage distance and molding compound with a comparative tracking index (CTI) ≥ 600 (Material Group I), the devices reduce component counts and lower BOM costs based on IEC 60664-1 requirements for high voltage applications.

The VS-E7JX0112-M3, VS-E7JX0112HM3, VS-E7JX0212-M3, and VS-E7JX0212HM3 will serve as clamp, snubber, and freewheeling diodes in flyback auxiliary power supplies and high frequency rectifiers for bootstrap driver functionality, while providing desaturation protection for the latest fast switching IGBTs and high voltage Si / SiC MOSFETs. Typical applications for the devices include industrial drives and tools, on-board chargers and motors for electric vehicles (EV), energy generation and storage systems, and Ćuk converters and industrial LED SEPIC circuitry.

The rectifiers feature a planar structure and platinum doped lifetime control that guarantee system reliability and robustness without compromising on performance, while their optimized stored charge and low recovery current minimize switching losses and reduce power dissipation. RoHS-compliant and halogen-free, the devices feature a Moisture Sensitivity Level of 1 in accordance with J-STD-020 and offer high temperature operation to +175 °C.

The post Vishay Intertechnology Releases New 1 A and 2 A Gen 7 1200 V FRED Pt Hyperfast Rectifiers in SlimSMA HV (DO-221AC) Package appeared first on ELE Times.

Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. (MSI), a global leading vendor for computer hardware, has selected Anritsu’s signal integrity evaluation solution, Signal Quality Analyzer-R MP1900A and Vector Network Analyzer MS46524B, for high-speed digital interfaces, including the PCI Express (PCIe) standard.

The rapid proliferation of AI and IoT technologies has driven a significant increase in data transmission volumes. As a result, high-speed digital interfaces such as PCIe, USB, and DisplayPort, widely used in servers, data centers, and consumer products, are required to support even greater speeds and capacities. Faced with this, MSI has risen to the challenge of adapting to next-generation interface standards in its server and motherboard development, ensuring digital signal quality and improving development efficiency.

To achieve this, MSI selected Anritsu’s MP1900A and MS46524B. Utilizing both products, MSI established a comprehensive environment for evaluating the digital signal quality in terms of the time domain (such as the bit error rate), as well as the frequency domain (such as S-parameters). This enabled MSI to verify the signal quality of its high-speed digital interfaces and devices when installed in systems, while also enhancing its development efficiency.

Anritsu will continue to strongly support customers in solving challenges and driving technological innovation in the high-speed digital market through the provision of cutting-edge measurement technologies and comprehensive testing solutions.

The post MSI Adopts Anritsu’s High-Speed Interface Evaluation Solution appeared first on ELE Times.

The paradox of test equipment design is that it must be more advanced than the devices it tests. We spoke with Tektronix in person to gain insights on this unique technical challenge.

submitted by /u/Nateramis [link] [comments]

Нова лабораторія Ajax Systems у КПІ ім. Ігоря Сікорського! kpi ср, 09/24/2025 - 22:18

Cree LED Inc of Durham, NC, USA (a Penguin Solutions brand) and ADJ Products LLC have reached a mutually beneficial settlement resolving a patent infringement dispute involving Cree LED’s patents related to LED components commonly used in LED displays. As part of the settlement, Cree LED granted ADJ a limited license to certain patents covering LED components...

Learn what makes Ultra-Wideband (UWB) unique, what makes it useful, and how to address the design challenges it presents.

Over the past several years, the lion’s share of artificial intelligence (AI) investment has poured into training infrastructure—massive clusters designed to crunch through oceans of data, where speed and energy efficiency take a back seat to sheer computational scale.

Training systems can afford to be slow and power-hungry; if it takes an extra day or even a week to complete a model, the result still justifies the cost. Inference, by contrast, plays an entirely different game. It sits closer to the user, where latency, energy efficiency, and cost-per-query reign supreme.

And now, the market’s center of gravity is shifting. While tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are expected to spend more than $300 billion on AI infrastructure this year—still largely on training—analysts forecast explosive growth on the inference side. Gartner, for example, projects a 42% compound annual growth rate for AI inference in data centers over the next few years.

This next wave isn’t about building smarter models; it’s about unlocking value from the ones we’ve already trained.

Figure 1 In the training versus inference equation, while training is about brute force at any cost, inference is about precision. Source: VSORA

Training builds, inference performs

At its core, the difference between training and inference comes down to cost, latency, and efficiency.

Training happens far from the end user and can run for days, weeks or even months. Inference, by contrast, sits directly in the path of user interaction. That proximity imposes a hard constraint: ultra-low latency. Every query must return an answer in milliseconds, not minutes, or the experience breaks.

Throughput is the second dimension. Inference isn’t about eventually finishing one massive job—it’s about instantly serving millions or billions of tiny ones. The challenge is extracting the highest possible number of queries per second from a fixed pool of compute.

Then comes power. Every watt consumed by inference workloads directly hits operating costs, and those costs are becoming staggering. Google, for example, has projected a future data center that would draw three gigawatts of power—roughly the output of a nuclear reactor.

That’s why efficiency has become the defining metric of inference accelerators. If a data center can deliver the same compute with half the power, it can either cut energy costs dramatically or double its AI capacity without expanding its power infrastructure.

This marks a fundamental shift: where training chased raw performance at any cost, inference will reward architectures that deliver more answers faster and with far less energy.

This is why efficiency—not sheer performance—is becoming the defining metric of inference accelerators. If you can get the same answers using half the power, you can either slash your energy bill or double your AI capacity without building new power infrastructure.

Training was about brute force at any cost. On the other hand, inference is about precision.

GPUs are fast—but starved

GPUs have become the workhorses of modern computing, celebrated for their staggering parallelism and raw speed. But beneath their blazing throughput lies a silent bottleneck that no amount of cores can hide—they are perpetually starved for data.

To understand why, it helps to revisit the foundations of digital circuit design.

Every digital system is built from two essential building blocks: computational logic and memory. The logic executes operations—from primitive Boolean functions to advanced digital signal processing (DSP) and multi-dimensional matrix calculations. The memory stores everything the logic consumes or produces—input data, intermediate results, and outputs.

The theoretical throughput of a circuit, measured in operations per second (OPS), scales with its clock frequency and degree of parallelism. Double either and you double throughput—on paper. In practice, there’s a third gatekeeper: the speed of data movement. If data arrives every clock cycle, the logic runs at full throttle. If data arrives late, the logic stalls, wasting cycles.

Registers are the only storage elements fast enough to keep up: single-cycle, address-free, and directly indexed. But they are also the most silicon-expensive, which makes building large register banks economically impossible.

This cost constraint gave rise to the memory hierarchy, which spans from the bottom up:

• Massive, slow, cheap storage (HDDs, SSDs, tapes)
• Moderate-speed, moderate-cost DRAM and its many variants
• Tiny, ultra-fast, ultra-expensive SRAM and caches

All of these, unlike registers, require addressing and multiple cycles per access. And moving data across them burns vastly more energy than the computation itself.

Despite their staggering parallelism, GPUs are perpetually starved for data. Their thousands of cores can blaze through computations, but only if fed on time. The real bottleneck isn’t compute. It’s memory because data must traverse a slow, energy-hungry hierarchy before reaching the logic, and every stall wastes cycles. Registers are fast enough to keep up but too costly to scale, while larger memories are too slow.

This imbalance is the GPU’s true Achilles’ heel and fixing it will require rethinking computer architecture from the ground up.

Toward a purpose-built inference architecture

Trying to repurpose a GPU—an architecture originally centered on massively parallel training workloads—to serve as a high-performance inference engine is a dead end. Training and inference operate under fundamentally different constraints. Training tolerates long runtimes, low compute utilization, and massive power consumption. Inference demands sub-millisecond latency, throughput efficiency approaching 100%, and energy frugality at scale.

Instead of bending a training-centric design out of shape, we must start with a clean sheet and apply a new set of rules tailored to inference from the ground up.

Rule #1—Replace caches with massive register files

Traditional GPUs rely on multi-level caches (L1/L2/L3) to hide memory latency in highly parallel workloads. Inference workloads are small, bursty, and demand predictable latency. Caches introduce uncertainty (hits versus misses), contention, and energy overhead.

A purpose-built inference architecture should discard caches entirely and instead use huge, directly addressed register-like memory arrays with index-based access instead of address-based lookup. This allows deterministic access latency and constant-time delivery of operands. Aim for tens or even hundreds of millions of bits of on-chip register storage, positioned physically close to the compute cores to fully saturate their pipelines (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Here is a comparison of memory hierarchy in traditional processing architectures (left) versus an inference-driven register-like, tightly-coupled memory architecture (right). Source: VSORA

Rule #2—Provide extreme memory bandwidth

Inference cores are only as fast as the data feeding them. Stalls caused by memory bottlenecks are the single biggest cause of underutilized compute in AI accelerators today. GPUs partially mask this with massive over-provisioning of threads, which adds latency and energy cost—both unacceptable in inference.

The architecture must guarantee multi-terabyte-per-second bandwidth between registers and cores, sustaining continuous operand delivery without buffering delays. This requires wide, parallel datapaths and banked memory structures co-located with compute to enable every core to run at full throttle, every cycle.

Rule #3—Execute matrices natively in hardware

Most modern AI workloads are built from matrix multiplications, yet GPUs break these down into scalar or vector ops stitched together by compilers. This incurs instruction overhead, excess memory traffic, and scheduling complexity.

Inference cores should treat matrices as first-class hardware objects with dedicated matrix execution units that can perform multiply–accumulate across entire tiles in a single instruction. This eliminates scalar orchestration overhead, slashes instruction counts and maximizes both performance and energy efficiency per operation.

Rule #4—Expand the instruction set beyond tensors

AI is rapidly evolving beyond basic tensor algebra. Many new architectures—for instance, transformers with sparse attention, hybrid symbolic-neural models, or signal-processing-enhanced models—need richer functional primitives than today’s narrow tensor op sets can offer.

Equip the ISA with a broad library of DSP-style operators; for example, convolutions, FFTs, filtering, non-linear transforms, and conditional logic. This empowers developers to build innovative new model types without waiting for hardware revisions, enabling rapid architectural experimentation on a stable silicon base.

Rule #5—Orchestrate cores via a smart, reconfigurable NoC

Inference workloads are highly structured but vary layer by layer: some are dense, others sparse; some are compute-bound, others bandwidth-bound. A static interconnect leaves many cores idle depending on the model phase.

Deploy a dynamic network-on-chip (NoC) that can reconfigure on-the-fly allowing the algorithm itself to control dataflow. This enables adaptive clustering of cores, localized register sharing, and fine-grained scheduling of sparse layers. The result is maximized utilization and minimal data movement energy, tuned dynamically to each workload phase.

Rule #6—Build a compiler that hides complexity

A radically novel architecture risks becoming unusable if programmers must hand-tune for it. To drive adoption, complexity must be hidden behind clean software abstractions.

Provide a smart compiler and runtime stack that automatically maps high-level models to the underlying architecture. It should handle data placement, register allocation, NoC reconfiguration, and operator scheduling automatically, exposing only high-level graph APIs to developers. This ensures users see performance, not complexity, making the architecture accessible to mainstream AI developers.

Reengineering the inference future

Training celebrated brute-force performance. Inference will reward architectures that are data-centric, energy-aware, and precision-engineered for massive real-time throughput.

These design rules, pioneered by semiconductor design outfits like VSORA in their development of efficient AI inference solutions, represent an engineering breakthrough—a highly scalable architecture that redefines inference speed and efficiency, from the world’s largest data centers to edge intelligence powering Level 3–5 autonomy.

Lauro Rizzatti is a business advisor to VSORA, an innovative startup offering silicon IP solutions and silicon chips, and a noted verification consultant and industry expert on hardware emulation.

 

Related Content

• Partitioning to optimize AI inference for multi-core platforms
• Custom AI Inference Has Platform Vendor Living on the Edge
• The next AI frontier: AI inference for less than $0.002 per query
• Startup To Take On AI Inference With Huge SiP, Custom Memory
• Revolutionizing AI Inference: Unveiling the Future of Neural Processing

The post Purpose-built AI inference architecture: Reengineering compute design appeared first on EDN.

Been working on a flexpcb smart watch. It finally works! Uses an nrf52840, Components are on rigid/ flex pcbs spread around the wrist. Has heatrate, blood oxygen, gps, 9 axis imu and screen backlight. Working on putting it all into a flexible case, but kind of like the "bare" look. submitted by /u/Zestyclose-Bar8108 [link] [comments]