Feed aggregator

STMicroelectronics and SP Group (SP) have commenced operations for Singapore’s largest industrial district cooling system at STMicroelectronics’ (ST) Ang Mo Kio TechnoPark. The event was inaugurated by Ms. Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

The system is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 120,000 tonnes per year and enable 20 per cent savings on cooling-related electricity consumption. It will also repurpose over half a million cubic meters of water each year by using reject reverse osmosis water, previously used in ST Cooling Towers, to support the new district cooling operations.

This marks ST’s first use of district cooling at a manufacturing facility and will strengthen ST’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2027.

“The deployment of Singapore’s largest industrial district cooling system at our Ang Mo Kio TechnoPark demonstrates our commitment to pioneering energy-efficient solutions that reduce carbon emissions and conserve resources. This achievement strengthens our partnership with Singapore in advancing its national sustainability goals,” said Rajita D’Souza, President of Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility at STMicroelectronics. “By integrating advanced technologies like the district cooling system, we are driving a smarter, more sustainable future — showcasing how industry leadership and environmental stewardship align to create lasting value for our business, communities, and the planet.”

“SP Group’s strategic partnership with STMicroelectronics marks a pivotal milestone in our nation’s transition towards a low-carbon future. This project showcases how collaborative innovation can transform urban infrastructure to deliver sustainable, energy-efficient solutions. District cooling will continue to play a vital role in Singapore’s net-zero ambitions, enabling carbon emissions reduction and enhancing energy resilience across industrial and urban developments,” said Stanley Huang, SP’s Group Chief Executive Officer.

Technical details of the district cooling system

Designed, built, owned, and operated by a joint venture between SP and Daikin Airconditioning (Singapore), the system has an installed capacity of up to 36,000 refrigeration tonnes (RT). It delivers continuous chilled water to cool both manufacturing and office spaces via a centralized closed-loop pipe network replacing individual chillers in each building. The total area served by the system is approximately 90,000 square metres.

Chillers in series counterflow configuration reduce the energy required to cool the water. This ensures an efficient and reliable 24/7 operation, with remote monitoring capabilities augmenting the operations team on site to come.

“This partnership with SP reflects Daikin’s commitment to delivering advanced, energy-efficient solutions that go beyond immediate operational needs. Our goal is to contribute to a more sustainable built environment, where technology plays a key role in enhancing resilience, reducing environmental impact, and supporting Singapore’s long-term climate ambitions,” said Chua Ban Hong, Managing Director at Daikin Airconditioning (Singapore).

Additionally, the new installations free up around 4,000 square meters of space at Ang Mo Kio TechnoPark, which will enable ST to install other equipment contributing to environmental impact mitigation. This includes perfluorocarbon (PFC) abatement equipment, with near-future plans for additional water reclamation systems and volatile organic compounds (VOC) abatement as part of its ongoing sustainability efforts.

The post Singapore’s largest industrial district cooling system begins operations to support ST’s decarbonization strategy appeared first on ELE Times.

Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, Matter and proprietary protocols come together in a secure, feature-rich platform for supporting evolving standards, interface needs and market demands

As connectivity standards and market needs evolve, upgradeability has become essential for extending device lifecycles, minimizing redesigns and enabling differentiated features. To solve this challenge, Microchip Technology has released the highly integrated PIC32-BZ6 MCU that serves as a common, single-chip platform to reduce development cost, complexity and time-to-market for multi-protocol products featuring advanced connectivity and scalability.

“The PIC32-BZ6 MCU stands out for its powerful blend of connectivity, integration and flexibility in a single-chip solution,” said Rishi Vasuki, vice president of Microchip’s wireless solutions business unit. “Few devices bring together this breadth of features in a single chip, and we’re already seeing strong tremendous early adopter activity. Customers are leveraging its multi-protocol wireless capabilities, advanced analog features and high I/O to develop smarter, more connected products with greater efficiency.”

RF design for smart devices has become increasingly complex, and wireless solutions typically require multiple chips to add new features or frequent redesigns to support evolving industry standards. The PIC32-BZ6 MCU replaces these multi-chip solutions and reduces the redesign burden with a single, highly integrated chip that removes the complexity of multi-protocol wired and wireless connectivity. The MCU also includes analog peripherals to simplify motor control development, along with touch and graphics capabilities for advanced user interfaces and enhanced memory to support complex applications, heavy workloads and Over the Air (OTA) firmware updates.

The PIC32-BZ6 MCU platform streamlines development of products in the smart home and for automotive connectivity, industrial automation and wireless motor control use cases. Key features include:

• High memory and scalable package choices to support demanding applications and OTA updates: The high-performance MCU includes 2 MB Flash memory and 512 KB RAM and is available in 132-pin ICs and modules with additional pin and package variants planned.
• Multi-protocol wireless networking: Qualified against Bluetooth Core Specification 6.0, the device also supports 802.15.4-based protocols such as Thread and Matter plus proprietary smart-home mesh networking protocols.
• Design flexibility that extends product options and scaling opportunities: Versatile and comprehensive selection of on-chip peripherals goes beyond wireless connectivity and OTA updates to support:

Wired connectivity: Multiple interfaces include two CAN-FD ports for automotive and industrial communication, a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet MAC for high-speed wired connectivity and a USB 2.0 full-speed transceiver for seamless data transfer and PC integration.

Touch and graphics: Incorporate peripherals that enable advanced user interfaces including Capacitive Voltage Divider (CVD)-based touch capabilities with up to 18 channels.

Motor control: Simplifies system development through advanced analog peripherals such as 12-bit ADCs, 7-bit DAC, analog comparators, PWMs and QEI for precise motor position and speed control.

• Security by design to protect applications and IP: Includes immutable secure boot in ROM and an advanced on-board hardware-based security engine supporting AES, SHA, ECC and TRNG encryption.
• Reliability in harsh environments: The device is qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 1 (125 °C) specifications for automotive and industrial environments.

The post Microchip Adds Integrated Single-Chip Wireless Platform for Connectivity, Touch, Motor Control appeared first on ELE Times.

Edge AI designs, starting to see a trickle-down effect from AI data centers, increasingly rely on toolchains to keep up with the breakneck speed of AI. So, to bolster the edge AI ecosystem, Infineon Technologies has expanded its edge AI toolchain with the DEEPCRAFT Suite, a set of software, tools, and solutions that help engineers seamlessly integrate AI into their designs.

DEEPCRAFT AI Suite includes an AI Hub with ready models and audio tuning tools. That simplifies the implementation of AI/ML capabilities in edge devices and allows design engineers to either develop their models from scratch or integrate off-the-shelf models.

Figure 1 DEEPCRAFT AI allows developers to bring their own model and convert it for the edge. Source: Infineon

“With the introduction of our DEEPCRAFT AI Suite, we are further expanding Infineon’s Edge AI software ecosystem for unlocking the full potential of edge AI,” said Steve Tateosian, senior VP and GM for IoT, consumer, and industrial MCUs at Infineon.

Take AI Hub, for instance, which Infineon calls a one-stop shop for its Edge AI software offerings. It offers access to more than 50 content resources, including open-source models, Infineon software, tools, and solutions, as well as case studies from industrial, consumer, and automotive applications.

Then there is DEEPCRAFT Studio, which provides support for audio, computer vision, radar, and other time-series data. It facilitates an end-to-end platform for developing robust AI and machine learning models for use at the edge.

Figure 2 DEEPCRAFT Studio includes training and deploying high-performance computer vision models for object detection using advanced YOLO models. Source: Infineon

Additionally, DEEPCRAFT Model Converter in the suite allows developers to optimize both proprietary and open-source models to run on Infineon hardware. It supports popular AI frameworks, including PyTorch, TFLite, and Keras.

Figure 3 This software tool converts, optimizes, and validates AI models to run on the edge. Source: Infineon

Voice and audio solutions in the DEEPCRAFT suite support the development of high-quality, voice-controlled products. These solutions feature always-on listening below 1 mW with very low-latency room conditions, avoiding repeated wake-word prompts and extending battery runtime. Moreover, detection rates exceed 98% in close-talking scenarios with a very low rate of false alarms.

More specifically, DEEPCRAFT Audio Enhancement improves speech intelligibility by removing unwanted noise. Furthermore, DEEPCRAFT Voice Assistant supports natural voice interfaces running locally on edge devices.

The DEEPCRAFT AI Suite is optimized for Infineon’s PSOC microcontrollers—built around Arm Cortex-M processor cores—to facilitate high-performance, low-power, and secure hardware with machine learning (ML) acceleration in edge applications.

PSOC microcontrollers also provide advanced security features, including Infineon Edge Protect Category 4 (EPC4) with PSA Certified L2 and L4 iSE, PCI pre-certification, and a secure enclave to protect designs from concept through manufacturing. Next, a dedicated 2.5D GPU enables responsive, high-quality graphical interfaces at the edge, offering realistic visuals at a fraction of the performance and energy cost of traditional 3D processors.

PSOC microcontrollers are fully supported by ModusToolbox, Zephyr, and DEEPCRAFT AI Suite. ModusToolbox features a number of software stacks—including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB—along with middleware and libraries that can be used to develop custom applications. Zephyr is a small, yet scalable OS with an architecture that allows developers to focus on applications requiring an RTOS.

At Infineon’s OctoberTech 2025 Silicon Valley event held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the German chipmaker displayed the company’s PSOC-based edge AI capabilities in applications like advanced sensing. The booth also showcased the analog front-end for a single-chip ECG sensing solution as well as PSOC powering advanced graphics in an AI vision application.

Related Content

• How Edge AI Transforms IIoT and Enables Industry 5.0
• Google Open-Sources NPU IP, Synaptics Implements It
• An edge AI processor’s pivot to the open-source world
• Open-Source ML Tool Aims To Make Edge AI Accessible To All
• Edge AI: The Future of Artificial Intelligence in embedded systems

The post Edge MCUs bolstered by AI design toolchain appeared first on EDN.

Submissions are now open for the 2025 Product of the Year. Winners will be announced in January 2026 and featured in the January/February 2026 digital issue of Electronic Products Magazine, now presented by EDN.com.

Did your company announce or start shipping a product between November 1, 2024, and October 31, 2025, that represents a significant advancement in technology or its application, an innovation in design, or a gain in price/performance? If yes, tell us about it below.  You may submit separate entries for more than one new product, and there are no fees of any kind. The product description can be just a few lines of key information, plus you can upload datasheets and images. The Electronic Products editors will select 13 winners from these and other products introduced or announced during the year.

Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, November 3, 2025. Contact us at editorial@aspencore.com or gina.roos@aspencore.com with any questions.

/* "function"==typeof InitializeEditor,callIfLoaded:function(o){return!(!gform.domLoaded||!gform.scriptsLoaded||!gform.themeScriptsLoaded&&!gform.isFormEditor()||(gform.isFormEditor()&&console.warn("The use of gform.initializeOnLoaded() is deprecated in the form editor context and will be removed in Gravity Forms 3.1."),o(),0))},initializeOnLoaded:function(o){gform.callIfLoaded(o)||(document.addEventListener("gform_main_scripts_loaded",()=>{gform.scriptsLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}),document.addEventListener("gform/theme/scripts_loaded",()=>{gform.themeScriptsLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}),window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",()=>{gform.domLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}))},hooks:{action:{},filter:{}},addAction:function(o,r,e,t){gform.addHook("action",o,r,e,t)},addFilter:function(o,r,e,t){gform.addHook("filter",o,r,e,t)},doAction:function(o){gform.doHook("action",o,arguments)},applyFilters:function(o){return gform.doHook("filter",o,arguments)},removeAction:function(o,r){gform.removeHook("action",o,r)},removeFilter:function(o,r,e){gform.removeHook("filter",o,r,e)},addHook:function(o,r,e,t,n){null==gform.hooks[o][r]&&(gform.hooks[o][r]=[]);var d=gform.hooks[o][r];null==n&&(n=r+"_"+d.length),gform.hooks[o][r].push({tag:n,callable:e,priority:t=null==t?10:t})},doHook:function(r,o,e){var t;if(e=Array.prototype.slice.call(e,1),null!=gform.hooks[r][o]&&((o=gform.hooks[r][o]).sort(function(o,r){return o.priority-r.priority}),o.forEach(function(o){"function"!=typeof(t=o.callable)&&(t=window[t]),"action"==r?t.apply(null,e):e[0]=t.apply(null,e)})),"filter"==r)return e[0]},removeHook:function(o,r,t,n){var e;null!=gform.hooks[o][r]&&(e=(e=gform.hooks[o][r]).filter(function(o,r,e){return!!(null!=n&&n!=o.tag||null!=t&&t!=o.priority)}),gform.hooks[o][r]=e)}}); /* ]]> */

The post Submit your Electronic Product of the Year appeared first on EDN.

NXP Semiconductors unveils its i.MX 952 AI-enabled applications processor for automotive human-machine interfaces (HMIs), in-cabin sensing, and vision applications. This new applications processor leverages NXP’s sensor fusion, powered by the eIQ neutron neural processing unit (NPU), for applications such as driver monitoring, child presence detection, and industrial HMI systems.

The i.MX 952 applications processor uses AI to take inputs from different sensors to deliver more accurate and usable data for improved safety in interior cabin sensing applications and to meet regulatory requirements such as the Euro NCAP. These in-cabin sensing systems are used to determine driver attention levels, ensure proper airbag calibration, and detect a child left alone in a car.

“By combining the data from cameras, UWB, ultrasonic and other sensors, the i.MX 952 SoC enhances the intelligence each system provides to deliver a more intuitive interaction between the driver and car,” said Dan Loop, vice president and general manager, edge microprocessor, NXP, in a statement. “This allows OEMs and Tier 1s to offer additional value beyond safety, such as health monitoring, personalization and more, while scalability with the i.MX 95 family reduces hardware and software total cost of ownership and improves times to market.”

The i.MX 952 also can be used in industrial applications, such as AI-powered surveillance and environment sensing applications, as well as HMI systems. The applications processor leverages AI to provide real-time analysis and anomaly detection across the factory floor, and it supports low-power scale to multi-site monitoring and control from a central office.

The i.MX 952, part of NXP’s i.MX 9 series, is pin-to-pin compatible with the i.MX 95 family. This makes it easier for developers to scale their hardware and software design to meet  different price points with a single platform design, NXP said.

The i.MX 952 features an integrated eIQ Neutron NPU for use with multiple camera sensors and an image signal processor and supports RGB-IR sensors. It delivers low-power, real-time, and high-performance processing through a multi-core application domain with up to four Arm Cortex-A55 cores, and an independent safety domain with Arm Cortex-M7 and Arm Cortex-M33 CPUs. It enables ISO 26262 ASIL B compliant platforms and SIL2/SIL3 compliant platforms in industrial safety-critical environments.

NXP claims the i.MX 952 SoC is the industry’s first automotive and industrial processor with integrated support for local dimming, delivering lower power consumption and improved visibility.

With the iMX 952, in-cabin LCD panels and HUDs use less energy, deliver higher contrast, and enhance outdoor HMI panels by dynamically adjusting brightness for optimal visibility in harsh lighting conditions, NXP said, reducing power consumption and eliminating the need for additional components.

The new SoC also features advanced security. This includes EdgeLock Secure Enclave (Advanced Profile), a hardware root of trust that simplifies the implementation of security-critical functions such as secure boot, secure update, device attestation, and secure device access, based on both classic cryptography and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to ensure security into the future. Together with NXP’s EdgeLock 2GO key management services, OEMs can securely provision i.MX 952 SoC-based products with credentials for secure remote management of devices deployed in the field, including secure over-the-air updates.

The i.MX 952 applications processor will start sampling in the first half of 2026.

The post Applications processor targets in-cabin sensing appeared first on EDN.

Lattice Semiconductor claims the industry’s first post-quantum cryptography (PQC)-ready FPGAs with the launch of its MachXO5-NX TDQ family. Touted as the industry’s first secure control FPGAs, the MachXO5-NX TDQ family features full CNSA 2.0-compliant PQC support.

Built on the Lattice Nexus platform, these FPGAs target applications such as computing, communications, industrial, and automotive applications, addressing the continued threat of quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

The MachXO5-NX TDQ FPGA family provides the only complete CNSA 2.0 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-approved PQC algorithms (LMS, XMSS, ML-DSA, ML-KEM, AES256-GCM, SHA2, SHA3, and SHAKE) offering robust protection against quantum threats, according to Lattice. Its authenticated and/or encrypted bitstream ensures data integrity and protection against unauthorized access with ML-DSA, LMS, XMSS, and AES256. It features crypto-agility via in-field algorithm update capability and anti-rollback version protection for ongoing alignment with evolving standards, and secure bitstream key management with revokable root keys and sophisticated key hierarchy for PQC and classical keys.

Advanced cryptography features include advanced symmetric and classical asymmetric cryptographic algorithms (AES-CBC/GCM 256 bit, ECDSA-384/521, SHA-384/512, and RSA 3072/4096 bit) for bitstream and user data protection. A device identifier composition engine, security protocol and data model, and Lattice SupplyGuard support provide attestation and secure lifecycle/supply chain management for future-proof, end-to-end security.

The FPGAs also provide hardware root of trust (RoT), delivering a trusted single-chip boot with integrated flash, a unique device secret that ensures distinct device identity, and integrated non-volatile configuration memory and user flash memory with flexible partitioning and secure locking. They also feature comprehensive locking control of the programming interface (SPI, JTAG), side channel attack resiliency, and NIST Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) compliant algorithms.

In addition, Lattice expanded its RoT-enabled Lattice MachXO5-NX device family with new MachXO5-NX TD devices, offering new density and package options. The new Lattice MachXO5-NX TDQ and MachXO5-NX TD FPGA devices are currently available and are supported by the latest release of Lattice Radiant design software.

The post Lattice sets new standard for secure control FPGAs appeared first on EDN.

Vactrols, or both an LED and a light depending resistor (LDR) in a light-tight housing, are found in analog music electronics circuits like audio compressors, voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs), voltage-controlled filters (VCFs), and other applications.

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

Nowadays, analog ICs are used for this purpose, so vactrols have become quite rare. One of their main advantages was and remains the low large signal distortion compared to transistor circuits.

On the other hand, they are slow and sluggish when driven by small control currents and have a nonlinear characteristic curve.

Fortunately, the characteristic curve of the conductance versus control current is more linear than that of the resistance. This is advantageous, for instance, for VCFs with a frequency response proportional to 1/RC. For music electronics applications, however, exponential control of the conductance is preferred since voltage-controlled circuits use the “volt/octave” characteristic, whereby with each volt of additional control voltage, the cutoff frequency of the VCF doubles.

Another advantage of exponential vactrol control is the fact that the LED current never becomes 0 [y= exp(x) > 0] and thus the LDR never reaches its full dark resistance, which has a positive effect on the response time of the LDR.

Usually, a pair of transistors is used to convert a linear control voltage into an exponential current. In the case of a vactrol, however, the pair of transistors can be replaced by the LED itself, which is like any diode a voltage-controlled exponential current source.

For temperature compensation, two matched LEDs are required, similar to the transistor circuit.
Figure 1 shows the simulated circuit of the exponential vactrol control.

Figure 1 An exponential vactrol drive where a reference LED is used to convert a linear control voltage into an exponential current, and two matched LEDs are used for temperature compensation.

The LED2 is operated with Iref = -V/R4. At CV=0, the current in the vactrol LED2 is identical, and the resistance of the LDR is set to the middle of the desired resistance range via Iref, here about 30 µA.

As CV increases, the voltage at the cathode of LED2 decreases, but the voltage between the anode and cathode increases so that the LED current increases exponentially.

With a negative CV, the voltage across LED2 decreases accordingly, so that the LED current decreases exponentially. The range of the LDR resistance is determined by summing amplifier U1’s gain. In practical applications, a range of ~ 1 MΩ (CV = -5 V) to 1 kΩ (CV = +5 V), is used, so that a VCF can be tuned from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

Thermistor R3 improves the temperature drift of the LED current. Still, the LDR’s temperature dependence remains at approximately 0.2%/K, which makes the vactrol circuit less suitable for high-end VCOs.

For other applications (VCF, VCA), the temperature drift is good enough, and in most cases, the thermistor can be omitted.

Figure 2 shows the simulated resistance curve and LED2 current at 20°C and 40°C.

Figure 2 The simulated resistance curve and LED2 current at 20°C and 40°C.

A small PCB was developed for the circuit. The SMD LEDs are standard white types in a 5730 case. Vactrol LED2 is on the PCB top side and illuminates two GL5537 LDRs, which are arranged at an angle of approximately 45 degrees above LED2.

By slightly bending the LDRs, they can be mechanically trimmed for matching resistance. A small black 3D-printed box and a PCB with black solder mask prevent external light from affecting the circuit. Circuits with two and four LDRs illuminated by one LED have been successfully tested to implement 2nd- and 4th-order VCFs.

Uwe Schüler is a retired electronics engineer. When he’s not busy with his grandchildren, he enjoys experimenting with DIY music electronics.

Related Content

• Vactrol – A Lazy Walk
• Automatic Street Light Circuit
• LDR = Light Dependent Resistor = Photoresistor
• Electroschematics LDR circuits

The post Exponentially-controlled vactrols appeared first on EDN.