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Software-defined vehicle (SDV) technology has been a prominent highlight in the quickly evolving automotive industry. But how much of it is hype, and where is the real and tangible value? CES 2025 in Las Vegas will be an important venue to gauge the actual progress this technology has made with a motto of bringing code on the road.

Elektrobit will demonstrate its cloud-based virtual development, prototyping, testing, and validation platform for digital cockpits and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) at the show. The company’s SDV solutions encompass AMD’s automotive-grade hardware, Google’s Android Automotive and Gemini AI, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine for 3D rendering, and Here navigation.

Figure 1 SDV is promising future-proof cockpit agnostic of hardware and software. Source: Elektrobit

Moreover, at CES 2025, Sony Honda Mobility will showcase its AFEELA prototype for electric vehicles (EVs), which employs Elektrobit’s digital cockpit built around a software-defined approach. Elektrobit’s other partners demonstrating their SDV solutions at the show include AWS, Cognizant, dSPACE, Siemens, and Sonatus.

SDV’s 2024 diary

Earlier, in April 2024, leading automotive chipmaker Infineon joined hands with embedded software specialist Green Hills to jointly develop SDV architectures for EV drivetrains. Infineon would combine its microcontroller-based processing platform AURIX TC4x with safety-certified real-time operating system (RTOS) µ-velOSity from Green Hills.

Figure 2 Real-time automotive systems are crucial in SDV architectures. Source: Infineon Technologies

Green Hills has already ported its µ-velOSity RTOS to the AURIX TC4x microcontrollers. The outcome of this collaboration will be safety-critical real-time automotive systems capable of serving SDV designs and features.

Next, Siemens EDA has partnered with Arm and AWS to accelerate the creation of virtual cars in the cloud. The toolmaker has announced the availability of its PAVE360-based solution for automotive digital twin on AWS cloud services.

Figure 3 The digital twin solution on the AWS platform aims to create a virtual car in the cloud. Source: Siemens EDA

“The automotive industry is facing disruption from multiple directions, but the greatest potential for growth and new revenue streams is the adoption of the software-defined vehicle,” said Mike Ellow, executive VP of EDA Global Sales, Services and Customer Support at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The hyper-competitive SDV industry is under immense pressure to quickly react to consumer expectations for new features.”

That’s driving the co-development of parallel hardware and software and the move toward the holistic digital twin, he added. Dipti Vachani, senior VP and GM of Automotive Line of Business at Arm, went a step ahead by saying that the software-defined vehicle is survival for the automotive industry.

Hype or reality

The above recap of 2024 activities shows that a lot is happening in the SDV design space. A recent IDTechEx report titled “Software-Defined Vehicles, Connected Cars, and AI in Cars 2024-2034: Markets, Trends, and Forecasts” claims that the cellular connectivity within SDVs can provide access to Internet of Things (IoT) features such as over-the-air (OTA) updates, personalization, and entertainment options.

It also explains how artificial intelligence (AI) within an SDV solution can work as a digital assistant to communicate and respond to the driver and make interaction more engaging using AI-based visual characters appearing on the dashboard. BMW is already offering a selection of SDV features, including driving assistants and traffic camera information.

Figure 4 SDV is promising new revenue streams for car OEMs. Source: IDTechEx

At CES 2025, automotive OEMs, Tier 1’s, chip vendors, and software suppliers are expected to present their technology roadmaps for SDV products. This will offer good visibility on how ready the present SDV technology is for the cars of today and tomorrow.

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• Understanding the Architecture of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs)
• The Role of Edge Computing in Evolving Software-Defined Vehicle Architectures

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, once synonymous with large-scale data centers and powerful GPUs, are steadily moving toward the network edge via resource-limited devices like microcontrollers (MCUs). Energy-efficient MCU workloads are being melded with AI power to leverage audio processing, computer vision, sound analysis, and other algorithms in a variety of embedded applications.

Take the case of STMicroelectronics and its STM32N6 microcontroller, which features neural processing unit (NPU) for embedded inference. It’s ST’s most powerful MCU and carries out tasks like segmentation, classification, and recognition. Alongside this MCU, ST offers software and tools to lower the barrier to entry for developers to take advantage of AI-accelerated performance for real-time operating systems (RTOSes).

Figure 1 The Neural-ART accelerator in STM32N6 claims to deliver 600 times more ML performance than a high-end STM32 MCU today. Source: STMicroelectronics

Infineon, another leading MCU supplier, has also incorporated a hardware accelerator in its PSOC family of MCUs. Its NNlite neural network accelerator aims to facilitate new consumer, industrial, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications with ML-based wake-up, vision-based position detection, and face/object recognition.

Next, Texas Instruments, which calls its AI-enabled MCUs real-time microcontrollers, has integrated an NPU inside its C2000 devices to enable fault detection with high accuracy and low latency. This will allow embedded applications to make accurate, intelligent decisions in real-time to perform functions like arc fault detection in solar and energy storage systems and motor-bearing fault detection for predictive maintenance.

Figure 2 C2000 MCUs integrate edge AI hardware accelerators to facilitate smarter real-time control. Source: Texas Instruments

The models that run on these AI-enabled MCUs learn and adapt to different environments through training. That, in turn, helps systems achieve greater than 99% fault detection accuracy to enable more informed decision-making at the edge. The availability of pre-trained models further lowers the barrier to entry for running AI applications on low-cost MCUs.

Moreover, the use of a hardware accelerator inside an MCU offloads the burden of inferencing from the main processor, leaving more clock cycles to service embedded applications. This marks the beginning of a long journey for AI hardware-accelerated MCUs, and for a start, it will thrust MCUs into applications that previously required MPUs. The MPUs in the embedded design realm are also not fully capable of controlling design tasks in real-time.

Figure 3 The AI-enabled MCUs replacing MPUs in several embedded system designs could be a major disruption in the semiconductor industry. Source: STMicroelectronics

AI is clearly the next big thing in the evolution of MCUs, but AI-optimized MCUs have a long way to go. For instance, software tools and their ease of use will go hand in hand with these AI-enabled MCUs; they will help developers evaluate the embeddability of AI models for MCUs. Developers should also be able to test AI models running on an MCU in just a few clicks.

The AI party in the MCU space started in 2024, and 2025 is very likely to witness more advances for MCUs running lightweight AI models.

Related Content

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A wide-creepage package option for Power Integrations’ InnoSwitch 3-AQ flyback switcher IC enhances safety and reliability in automotive applications. According to the company, the increased primary-to-primary creepage and clearance distance of 5.1 mm between the drain and source pins of the InSOP-28G package eliminates the need for conformal coating, making the IC compliant with the IEC 60664-1 reinforced isolation standard in 800-V vehicles.

The new 1700-V CV/CC InnoSwitch3-AQ devices feature an integrated SiC primary switch delivering up to 80 W of output power. They also include a multimode QR/CCM flyback controller, secondary-side sensing, and a FluxLink safety-rated feedback mechanism. This high level of integration reduces component count by half, simplifying power supply implementation. The wider drain pin enhances durability, making the ICs well-suited for high-shock and vibration environments, such as eAxle drive units.

These latest members of the InnoSwitch3-AQ family start up with as little as 30 V on the drain without external circuitry, critical for functional safety. Devices achieve greater than 90% efficiency and consume less than 15 mW at no-load. Target automotive applications include battery management systems, µDC/DC converters, control circuits, and emergency power supplies in the main traction inverter.

Prices for the 1700 V-rated InnoSwitch3-AQ switching power supply ICs start at $6 each in lots of 10,000 units. Samples are available now, with full production in 1Q 2025.

InnoSwitch3-AQ product page

Power Integrations 

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Rohde & Schwarz expands testing for automotive systems that employ Analog Devices’ Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link (GMSL) technology. Designed to enhance high-speed video links in applications like In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), GMSL offers a simple, scalable SerDes solution. The R&S and ADI partnership aims to assist automotive developers and manufacturers in creating and deploying GMSL-based systems.

Physical Medium Attachment (PMA) testing, compliant with GMSL requirements, is now fully integrated into R&S oscilloscope firmware, along with a suite of signal integrity tools. These include LiveEye for real-time signal monitoring, advanced jitter and noise analysis, and built-in eye masks for forward and reverse channels.

To verify narrowband crosstalk, the offering includes built-in spectrum analysis on the R&S RTP oscilloscope. In addition, cable, connector, and channel characterization can be performed using R&S vector network analyzers.

R&S will demonstrate the application at next month’s CES 2025 trade show. To learn more about ADI’s GMSL technology click here.

Rohde & Schwarz

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Alphawave Semi’s Gen3 UCIe Die-to-Die (D2D) IP subsystem enables chiplet interconnect rates up to 64 Gbps. Building on the successful tapeout of its Gen2 36-Gbps UCIe IP on TSMC’s 3-nm process, the Gen3 subsystem supports both high-yield, low-cost organic substrates and advanced packaging technologies.

At 64 Gbps, the Gen3 IP delivers over 20 Tbps/mm in bandwidth density with ultra-low power and latency. The configurable subsystem supports multiple protocols, including AXI-4, AXI-S, CXS, CHI, and CHI-C2C, enabling high-performance connectivity across disaggregated systems in HPC, data center, and AI applications.

The design complies with the latest UCIe specification and features a scalable architecture with advanced testability, including live per-lane health monitoring. UCIe D2D interconnects support a variety of chiplet connectivity scenarios, including low-latency, coherent links between compute chiplets and I/O chiplets, as well as reliable optical I/O connections.

“Our successful tapeout of the Gen2 UCIe IP at 36 Gbps on 3-nm technology builds on our pioneering silicon-proven 3-nm UCIe IP with CoWoS packaging,” said Mohit Gupta, senior VP & GM, Custom Silicon & IP, Alphawave Semi. “This achievement sets the stage for our Gen3 UCIe IP at 64 Gbps, which is on target to deliver high performance, 20-Tbps/mm throughput functionality to our customers who need the maximization of shoreline density for critical AI bandwidth needs in 2025.”

Alphawave Semi 

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Hydrogen, an ultra-wideband (UWB) radar SoC from Aria Sensing, delivers 3D MIMO beamforming with programmable pulse bandwidths ranging from 500 MHz to 1.8 GHz. Its advanced waveforms support single-pulse and pulse-compression modes, enabling precise depth perception and spatial resolution. The chip optimizes signal-to-noise ratios for various detection tasks while maintaining low radiated power.

Equipped with two integrated RISC-V microprocessors, Hydrogen accommodates up to four transmitting and four receiving antenna channels with flexible and scalable array configurations to enhance cross-range resolution. Offering 1D, 2D, and 3D sensing, the SoC detects presence, position, vital signs, and gestures, serving automotive, industrial automation, and smart home markets.

“Hydrogen represents a paradigm shift in radar technology, combining cutting-edge UWB advancements with compact SoC design. We are excited to see how this innovation will redefine radar sensing applications,” said Alessio Cacciatori, Aria founder and CEO.

The Hydrogen UWB radar SoC supports multiple center frequencies for global operation without sacrificing resolution. It consumes 90 mA at 1.8 V and is housed in a 9×9-mm QFN64 package.

Hydrogen product page 

Aria Sensing 

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Vitality is VeriSilicon’s latest GPU IP architecture targeting cloud gaming, AI PCs, and both discrete and integrated graphics cards. According to the company, Vitality offers advancements in computation performance and scalability. With support for Microsoft DirectX 12 APIs and AI acceleration libraries, the GPU architecture suits performance-intensive applications and complex workloads.

Vitality integrates a configurable Tensor Core AI accelerator and 32 Mbytes to 64 Mbytes of Level 3 cache. Capable of handling up to 128 cloud gaming channels per core, it meets demands for high concurrency and image quality in cloud-based entertainment while enabling large-scale desktop gaming and Windows applications.

“The Vitality architecture GPU represents the next generation of high-performance and energy-efficient GPUs,” said Weijin Dai, chief strategy officer, executive VP and GM of VeriSilicon’s IP Division. “With over 20 years of GPU development experience across diverse market segments, the Vitality architecture is built to support the most advanced GPU APIs. Its scalability enables widespread deployment in fields such as automotive systems and mobile computing devices.”

A datasheet was not available at the time of this announcement.

VeriSilicon

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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The number of ways to harvest energy that would otherwise go unused and wasted is extraordinary. To cite a few of the many examples, there’s the heat given off during almost any physical or electronic process, ambient light which is “just there,” noise, and ever-present vibration. Each of these has different attributes along with pros and cons which are fluid with respect to consistency, reliability, and, of course, useful output power in a given situation.

For example, the harvesting of vibration-sourced energy is attractive (when available) as it is unaffected by weather or terrain conditions. However, most of the many manifestations of such energy are quite small. It requires attention to details and design to extract and squeeze out a useful amount in the energy chain from a raw source to the harvesting transducer.

Most vibrations in daily life are tiny and often not “focused” but spread across a wide area or volume. To overcome this significant issue, numerous conversion devices, typically piezoelectric elements, are often installed in multiple locations that are exposed to relatively large vibrations.

Addressing this issue, a research effort lead by a team at KRISS—the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) —has developed a metamaterial that traps and amplifies micro-vibrations into small areas. The behavior of the metamaterials enhances and localizes the mechanical-energy density level at a local spot in which a harvester is installed.

The metamaterial has a thin, flat structure roughly the size of an adult’s palm, allowing it to be easily attached to any surface where vibration occurs, Figure 1. The structure can be easily modified to fit the object to which it will be attached. They expect that the increase in the power output will accelerate its commercialization.

Figure 1 The metamaterial developed by the KRISS-led team is flat and easy to position. Source: KRISS

The metamaterial developed by KRISS traps and accumulates micro-vibrations within it and amplifies it. This allows the generation of large-scale electrical power relative to the small number of piezoelectric elements that are used. By applying vibration harvesting with the developed metamaterial, the research team has succeeded in generating more than four times more electricity per unit area than conventional technologies.

Their metasurface structure can be divided into three finite regions, each with a distinct role: metasurface, phase-matching, and attaching regions. Their design used what is called “trapping” physics with carefully designed defects in structure to simultaneously achieve the focusing and accumulation of wave energy.

They validated their metasurface using experiments, with results showing an amplification factor of the input flexural vibration amplitude by a factor of twenty. They achieved this significant amplification largely due to the intrinsic negligible damping characteristic of their metallic structure, Figure 2.

Figure 2 (right) Schematic of the proposed metasurface attachment and (left) a conceptual illustration of the attachment installed on a vibrating rigid structure for flexural wave energy amplification. Source: KRISS

Their phase-gradient metasurfaces (also called metagratings in the acoustic field) feature intrinsic wave-trapping behavior. (Here, the term “metasurfaces” refers to structures that diffract waves, primarily through spatially-varying phase accumulations within the constituent wave channels.)

Constructs, analysis, and modeling are one thing, but a proposal such as theirs requires and is very conducive to validation. Their experimental setup used a vibration shaker and a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) sensor to excite and then measure the flexural vibration inside the specimen, Figure 3. For convenience, the specimen was firmly clamped to the shaker instead of being directly attached onto the shaker using a jig and a bolted joint.

Figure 3 (a) Schematic illustration and (b) photographs to demonstrate the experimental setup in order to validate the flexural-vibration amplifying performance of the fabricated metasurface attachment. Using a specially-configured jig and a bolted joint, the metasurface structure is firmly clamped to a vibration shaker. The surface region covering a unit supercell (denoted as M1) and the interfacial line (M2) between the metasurface strips and phase-matching plate are measured using laser Doppler vibrometer equipment. Source: KRISS

The shaker was set to constantly vibrate at frequencies between 3 kHz and 5 kHz at arbitrary weak amplitudes set by a function generator and an RF power amplifier. The phase-matching plate (somewhat analogous to impedance-matching circuit) was another essential component in the structure. It dramatically improved the amplifying performance by assisting coherent phases of scattering wave fields to constantly develop within the metasurface strips in the steady state.

It would be nice to have a summary of before-and-after performance using their design. Unfortunately, their published paper is too much of a good thing: it has a large number of such graphs and tables under different conditions, but no overall summary other than a semi-quantitative image, Figure 4 (top right).

Figure 4 This conceptual illustration graphically demonstrates the nature of the vibration amplification performance of the metamaterial developed by the KRISS-lead team. Source: KRISS

If you want to see more, check out their paper “Finite elastic metasurface attachment for flexural vibration amplification” published in Elsevier’s Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing. But I’ll warn you that at 32 pages, the full paper (main part, appendix, and references) is the longest I have seen by far in an academic journal!

Have you had any personal experience with vibration-based energy harvesting? Was the requisite modeling difficult and valid? Did it meet or exceed your expectations? What sort of real-work problems or issues did you encounter?

Bill Schweber is an EE who has written three textbooks, hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features.

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Introduction

Digital oscilloscopes have a great thing going for them: they are digital. Instrument settings, waveforms, and screen images can be saved as digital files either internally or to external devices. Not only can they be saved, but they can be recalled to the oscilloscope or an offline program to review the data and, in some cases, for additional analysis and measurements.

The ability to save setups is one of the great benefits of digital oscilloscopes. It saves lots of time setting up measurements, allowing settings of previous work sessions to be recalled and work resumed in seconds. A series of recalled settings can even be the basis for a comprehensive test procedure.

Digital oscilloscopes preserve the last settings when powered down and restore them when power is restored. That can be a problem if that state is not what you need. For instance, If the previous user set the oscilloscope to trigger on an external signal and you want to trigger on one of the internal channels there will be a problem unless you check first and update the settings. The easiest way to ensure the state of the oscilloscope when first powered on is to recall its default setup. The default setup is a known state defined by the manufacturer. The default state is generally helpful in getting data on the screen. It usually places the instrument in an auto-trigger mode so there will be a trace on the screen. Starting with the default state the instrument can be set to make the desired measurement. When that state is reached simply saving that setup state means that it can be recalled at need.

Setup files

Setup file formats vary between oscilloscope suppliers. Teledyne LeCroy uses Visual Basic for setup files. Most other suppliers use Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) for settings. Both use ASCII text which is easy to read and edit.

Figure 1 shows part of a typical setup file for a mid-range Teledyne LeCroy oscilloscope.

Figure 1 Part of a setup file for a Teledyne LeCroy Windows-based oscilloscope using ASCII text-based Visual Basic script. The command for setting the vertical scale of channel 1 is highlighted. Source: Art Pini

The setup files in this oscilloscope are a complete Visual Basic Script. This script can be thought of as a program that when executed sets up the oscilloscope in the state described. When a setting file is saved, it contains a Visual Basic program to restore the instrument settings upon execution. Visual Basic scripts allow the user to incorporate all the power and flexibility of the Visual Basic programming language, including looping and conditional branching.

The control statements for each function of the oscilloscope are based on a hierarchical structure of oscilloscope functions, which is documented in the automation and remote-control manual as well as in a software application called Maui Browser (formerly XStream Browser), which is included with every Windows oscilloscope. The manual includes detailed instructions on using the Maui Browser. The browser connects to the oscilloscope, either locally or remotely, and exposes the automation components as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2 A view of the Maui Browser, connected locally to an oscilloscope, showing the control selections for channel C1 under the Acquisition function. The vertical scale setting is highlighted. Source: Art Pini

Each functional category of the oscilloscope’s operation is listed in the left-hand column. Acquisition, one of the high-level functions, has been selected in this example. Under that selection is a range of sub-functions related to the acquisition function, including Channel 1 (C1), which has been selected. The table on the right lists all the controls associated with channel 1. Note that the Vertical Scale (Ver Scale) setting has been selected and highlighted. The current setting of 200 mV per division is shown. To the right is a summary of the range of values available for the vertical scale function. The value can be changed on the connected oscilloscope by highlighting the numeric value and changing it to one of the appropriate values within the range.

An example of a simple command is setting the vertical scale of channel 1 (C1) to 200 mV per division. The command structure for the selected command is at the bottom of the figure. All that has to be added is the parameter value, 0.2 in this case- “app.Acquisition.C1.VerScale=0.2”

The Maui Browser is a tool for looking up the desired setting command without the need for a programming manual. It is also helpful for verifying selected commands and associated parameters. The browser program is updated with the oscilloscope firmware and is always up to date, unlike a paper manual.

Scripting

With Visual Basic scripts being used internally to program the oscilloscope and automate the settings operations, the logical step is to have Visual Basic scripts control and automate scope operations. This operation happens within the oscilloscope itself; there is no need for an external controller. Visual Basic scripting uses Windows’ built-in text editor (Notepad) and the Visual Basic Script interpreter (VBScript), which is also installed in this family of oscilloscopes.

The Teledyne LeCroy website has many useful scripts for their oscilloscopes posted on the website, they perform tasks like setting up a data logging operation, saving selected measurements to spreadsheet files, or using cursors to set measurement gate limits. These can be used as written, but they can also serve as examples on which to base your script. Consider the following example. Figure 3 shows a settings script that allows a zoom trace to be dynamically centered on the position of the absolute horizontal cursor. As the cursor is moved the zoom tracks the movement.

Figure 3 A Visual Basic script that centers a zoom trace on the current horizontal cursor location. Source: Art Pini

The script is copied to the oscilloscope and either recalled using the recall setup function of the oscilloscope or executed by highlighting the script file in Windows File Explorer and double-clicking on it. The script turns on the cursor and the zoom trace and adjusts the center of the zoom trace to match the current cursor’s horizontal location as seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4 The script centers the zoom trace on the absolute horizontal cursor location and tracks it as it is moved. Source: Art Pini

The script operates dynamically; as the cursor is moved, the zoom trace tracks the movement instantly. The script runs continuously and is stopped by turning off the cursor. The message, “Script running; turn off cursor to stop,” appears in the message field in the lower left corner of the screen.

CustomDSO

Teledyne LeCroy oscilloscopes incorporate the advanced customization option, including the CustomDSO feature, which allows user-defined graphical interface elements to be called Visual Basic scripts. The basic mode of CustomDSO creates a simple push-button interface used to run setup scripts. The touch of a single button within the oscilloscope user interface can recall scripts. The recalled setups can include other nested setups. This allows users to create a complex series of setups. CustomDSO Plug-In mode will enable users to create an ActiveX Plug-In designed in an environment like Visual Studio and merge this graphical user interface with the scope user interface.

Figure 5 shows the CustomDSO user interface.

Figure 5 The CustomDSO basic mode setup links a user interface push button to a specific setup script file. Source: Art Pini

In basic mode, CustomDSO links eight user interface push buttons with setup scripts. A checkbox enables showing the CustomDSO menu on powerup when no other menu is being displayed.

Figure 6 shows the CustomDSO user interface with the first pushbutton linked to the script to have the zoom center track the cursor.

Figure 6 The user interface for the basic CustomDSO mode with the leftmost pushbutton linked to the zoom tracking script. Source: Art Pini

The basic user interface has eight push buttons that can be linked with setup scripts. In this example, the leftmost push button, which is highlighted, has been linked to the script “Track Zoom.lss”. The oscilloscope uses the root name of the script as the push button label. This capability allows test designers to allow users with less training to recall all the elements of a test procedure.

Some other oscilloscopes can store several setups and then sequence through them as a macro program. This is similar but lacks any flow control when executing the macro.

The Plugin mode of CustomDSO is an even more powerful feature that allows user-programmed ActiveX controls to create a custom graphical user interface. The plugins are powered by routines written in Visual Basic, Visual C++, or other ActiveX-compatible programming languages. Many interactive devices are available, including buttons, a check box, a radio button, a list box, a picture box, and a common dialogue box. A detailed description of plugin generation is beyond the scope of this article.

Recall instrument setups

The use of Visual Basic scripts enables these oscilloscopes to recall instrument setups easily and enhances this process with the ability to program a series of setups into a test procedure. It also offers the ability to use custom user graphical interfaces to simplify operations.

Arthur Pini is a technical support specialist and electrical engineer with over 50 years of experience in electronics test and measurement.

Related Content

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In a recent teardown, I disassembled and documented the insides of a Godox wireless camera flash transmitter that ended up being in much better shape than had been advertised when I’d first acquired it. I was therefore highly motivated to return it to fully functional shape afterwards, albeit not for personal-usage reasons—it supported Fujifilm cameras, which I don’t own—but instead so that I could subsequently donate for another’s use, keeping it out of the landfill in the process.

This time around, the situation’s reversed. Today we’ll be looking at an “as-is” condition wireless camera flash receiver, from the same manufacturer (Godox’ X1R-C). And this time, I do have a personal interest, because it supports Canon cameras (“-C”), several of which I own. But given the rattling I heard inside whenever I picked it up, I was skeptical that it’d work at all, far from deluding myself that I could fix whatever ailed it. That said, it only cost $4.01 pre-15% promo discount, $3.40 after, in March 2024 from KEH Camera on the same order as its X1T-F sibling.

Here’s the sticker on the baggie that it came shipped in:

And here are a few stock photos of it:

Stepping back for a minute before diving into the teardown minutia: why would someone want to buy and use a standalone wireless camera receiver at all? Assuming a photographer wanted to sync up multiple camera flashes (implementing the popular three-point lighting setup or other arrangement, for example), as I’ve written about before, why wouldn’t they just leverage the wireless connectivity built into their camera supplier’s own flash units, such as (in my case) Canon’s EOS flash system?

Part of the answer might be that with Canon’s system, for example, “wireless” only means RF-based for newer units; older implementations were infrared- (also sometimes referred to as “optical”-) based, which requires line-of-sight between a transmitter and each receiver, has limited range, and is also prone to ambient light interference. Part of the reason might be that a given flash unit doesn’t integrate wireless receiver functionality (Godox’s entry-level flashes don’t support the company’s own 2.4 GHz X protocol, for example), or there might be a protocol mismatch between the separate transmitter and the built-in receiver. And part of the reason might be because the strobe illumination source you’re desiring to sync to doesn’t even have a hot shoe; you’ll shortly see how the Godox receiver handles such situations…normally, at least.

Let’s dive in, beginning with some overview shots, as usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes (per B&H Photo’s website, the Godox X1R-C has dimensions of 2.8 x 2.6 x 1.9″ / 70 x 65 x 47 mm and weighs 2.5 oz / 70.9 g). Back:

Rattling aside, it still powers up and outputs seemingly meaningful display info!

Left (as viewed from the front) side, including the power switch:

Bland front (no need for an infrared optical module with this particular receiver!):

Right side (you’ll see what’s importantly behind, and not behind, that rubberized panel shortly):

Top; you can tell from the extra contacts that this hot shoe’s not only actually “hot” but also Canon control protocol-cognizant:

And bottom; this particular shoe’s “cold”, intended only for mounting purposes:

Underneath that removable panel, unsurprisingly, is the two-AA battery compartment:

Look closely and you’ll see two screw heads inside it at the top corners, along with two more holes at the lower device corners in the photo. You know what comes next, right?

And inside we go:

Disconnect the cable harness mating the topside hot shoe to the PCB, and the separation of the two halves is complete:

Here’s a standalone overview of the inside of the top half, along with a hot shoe closeup:

And now for the (bottom) half we all care more about, because it contains the PCB:

Remember that rubberized flap I earlier mentioned? It got jostled out of position at this point, and eventually fell out completely. Notice anything odd behind it? If not, don’t feel bad; I still hadn’t, either:

Those two screws holding the PCB in place within the chassis are next to depart:

Before continuing, I’ll highlight a few notable (to me, at least) aspects of this side of the PCB. The connector in the lower left corner, again, goes to the cable harness which ends up at the hot shoe. The large IC at center is, perhaps obviously, the system “brains”, but as with other Godox devices I’ve already torn apart, its topside marking has been obliterated, so I unfortunately can’t ID it (I can’t help but wonder, though, if it’s a FPGA?). Above it is Texas Instruments’ CC2500, a “low cost, low-power 2.4 GHz RF transceiver designed for low-power wireless apps in the 2.4 GHz ISM band”: translation, Godox’s X wireless sync protocol. And above that, at the very top of the PCB, is the associated embedded antenna.

Onward. As I began to lift the PCB out of the chassis, the display popped out of position:

And at this point, I was also able to dislodge what had been rattling around underneath the PCB. Do you recognize it?

It’s the 2.5 mm sync connector, which acts as a comparatively “dumb” but still baseline functional alternative to the hot shoe for connecting the receiver to a strobe or other flash unit. It’s normally located next to the USB-C connector you recently saw behind the rubberized flap.

At this point, after all the shaking to get the sync connector out of the chassis, the power switch’s plastic piece also went flying:

I was initially only able to lift the PCB partway out of the chassis before it got “stuck”…that is, until I remembered (as with the earlier Godox transmitter) the two battery tabs connected to the PCB underside and sticking through the chassis to the battery compartment underneath:

Pushing them through the chassis from the battery compartment got to the desired end point:

The 2.5-mm sync connector site in the lower right corner of the PCB, below the USB-C connector, is obvious now that I knew what to look for! Rough handling by the Godox X1R-C’s prior owner had apparently snapped it off the board. I could have stopped at that point, but those screw heads visible atop the smaller PCB for the monochrome LCD were beckoning to me:

Removing them didn’t get me anywhere, until I got the bright idea to look underneath the ribbon cable, where I found one more:

That’s more like it:

The two halves of the display assembly also came apart at this point:

That pink-and-black strip is an elastomeric connector (also known by the ZEBRA trademark). They’re pretty cool, IMHO. Per the Wikipedia summary, they…:

…consist of alternating conductive and insulating regions in a rubber or elastomer matrix to produce overall anisotropic conductive properties. The original version consisted of alternating conductive and insulating layers of silicone rubber, cut crosswise to expose the thin layers. They provide high-density redundant electrical paths for high reliability connections. One of the first applications was connecting thin and fragile glass liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to circuit boards in electronic devices, as little current was required. Because of their flexibility, they excel in shock and anti-vibration applications. They can create a gasket-like seal for harsh environments.

Calculator Zebra Elastomeric Connector.
black conductor center to center distance 180 microns (7 mils)
Numbers on ruler are centimeters
Released to Public Domain by Wikipedia user Caltrop
May 13, 2009

Here’s a standalone view of the backplane (with LEDs and switches alongside it), once again showing the contacts that the elastomeric connector’s conductive layers mate up with:

And here are a few shots of the remainder of the monochrome LCD, sequentially ordered as I disassembled it, and among other things faintly revealing the contacts associated with the other end of the elastomeric connector:

Last, but not least, I decided to try reversing my teardown steps to see if I could reassemble the receiver back to its original seeming-functional (sync connector aside) condition:

Huzzah! The display backlight even still works. I’ll hold onto the sync connector, at least for now:

I might try soldering it back in place, although I don’t anticipate using anything other than the alternative hot shoe going forward. For now, I welcome your thoughts in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.

Related Content

• Scrutinizing a camera flash transmitter
• The Godox V1 camera flash: Well-“rounded” with multiple-identity panache
• Multi-source vs proprietary: more “illuminating” case studies
• Disclosing the results of a webcam closeup

The post Perceiving the insides of a wireless camera flash receiver appeared first on EDN.

Three phase power transformer secondaries that are set up in a delta configuration do not have an earthing or grounding point. By contrast, a wye configuration of windings would provide such a point, but delta windings are frequently the transformer designer’s choice (Figure 1).

 Figure 1 Wye versus delta transformer secondaries.

Where the three coils of the wye configuration meet, a ground or earth connection can be established, but the three secondary coils of the delta configuration offer no such point.

In such cases, an earthing point can be established using a zig-zag transformer as in the following sketch in Figure 2.

Figure 2 A zig-zag transformer with an established earthing point.

The origin of the phrase “zig-zag” would seem to be self-evident. The underlying theory of zig-zag transformers and additional discussions of its characteristics have been written up extensively as shown in its Wikipedia page. 

Looking at this device feeding just a single load (Figure 3), we can see how earthing can be achieved when power is fed from delta secondaries.

Figure 3 A zig-zag transformer with an earthed load with power fed from delta secondaries.

John Dunn is an electronics consultant, and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).

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• A pole, a zero and a transformer

The post Zig-zag transformers appeared first on EDN.

While the news about Altera being up for grabs isn’t new, there are fresh bytes on its sale to either an FPGA industry player like Lattice Semiconductor or private equity firms such as Francisco Partners, Silver Lake Management, and Bain Capital. Altera’s transition from Intel’s lap to an independent entity is all set, and the only hiccup is money.

Start with Lattice, whose market value is $8 billion. So, to acquire Altera, Lattice will inevitably need a financial partner. On the other hand, proposals from private equity firms value Altera at $9 billion to $12 billion, far below the $17 billion Intel paid to acquire it.

Altera, which once made the FPGA duopoly along with Xilinx, was acquired by then-cash-rich Intel in 2015. This sparked a guessing game in the semiconductor industry regarding why the CPU kingpin had grabbed an FPGA player. Archrival AMD followed suit by snapping Xilinx in 2020.

However, while industry watchers were mulling over the ultimate objectives of CPU makers acquiring the FPGA business and how it could potentially relate to their server and data center roadmaps, trouble started brewing at Intel. Next, we heard about Intel considering to spinning off Alter to deal with its capital crunch. The decision was made by then-CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Figure 1 Sandra Rivera has been named the CEO of Altera. Source: Intel

According to a new Bloomberg report, Intel has shortlisted several buyout firms for the next phase of bids and has set a deadline of the end of January for bidders to formalize their offers. However, while the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker seems committed to executing Altera’s spin-off, the price tag has become a stumbling block.

Intel’s co-CEO and former CFO David Zinsner has hinted about a way out if Intel doesn’t get a financially viable offer. He mentioned the possibility of a deal like IMS Nanofabrication, an industry leader in multi-beam mask writing tools required to develop extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV).

In June 2023, Intel sold 20% of its stake in IMS to Bain Capital in a deal that valued IMS at around $4.3 billion. Three months later, Intel sold an additional 10% stake in IMS to TSMC. We’ll see in 2025 which way things go, but it’s worth remembering that Intel doesn’t have an enviable history regarding acquisitions.

Figure 2 Altera continues to launch an array of FPGA hardware, software, and development tools to make its programmable solutions more accessible across a broader range of use cases and markets. Source: Intel

Founded in 1983, Altera is an important company. So, at a time when the AMD-plus-Xilinx combo is doing well, it’s crucial to watch how the future of Altera 2.0 is shaped in 2025. A successful outcome will provide Intel with a much-needed cash boost and offer Altera greater independence to proactively innovate in the FPGA design realm.

Related Content

• Intel to Buy Altera for $16.7B
• Intel, Altera End Acquisition Talks
• Intel to Accelerate Altera, Says CEO
• The State of the FPGA Union is Uncertain
• How will Intel’s purchase of Altera affect embedded space?

The post Who will get Altera in 2025? appeared first on EDN.

Last time, I covered one half of the Energizer Ultimate Powersource Pro Solar Bundle that I first introduced you to back at the beginning of August and purchased for myself at the beginning of September (and, ironically, is for sale again as I write these words on November 6, at Meh’s companion SideDeal site):

If you haven’t yet read that premier post in this series, where I detailed the pros and cons of the Energizer PowerSource Pro Battery Generator, I encourage you to pause here and go back and peruse it first before proceeding with this one. This time I’ll be discussing the other half of the bundle, Energizer’s 200W Portable Solar Panel. And as before, I’ll start out with “stock” images from the bundle’s originator, Battery-Biz (here again is the link to the user manual, which covers both bundled products…keep paging through until you get to the solar panel section):

Here’s another relevant stock image from Meh:

Candidly, there’s a lot to like about this panel, model number ENSP200W (and no, I don’t know who originally manufactured it, with Energizer subsequently branding it), reflective of the broader improvement trend in solar panels that I previously covered back in mid-September. The following specs come straight from the user manual:

Solar Cells

• Solar Cell Material: Monocrystalline PERC M6-166mm
• Solar Cell Efficiency: 22.8%
• Solar Cell Surface Coating: PET

Output Power

• Max Power Output – Wattage (W): 200W
• Max Power Output – Voltage(Vmp): 19.5V
• Max Power Output – Current (Imp): 10.25A
• Power Tolerance: ±3%
• Open Circuit Voltage (Voc): 23.2V
• Short Circuit Current (Isc): 11.38A

Operating Temperatures

• Operating Temp (°C): -20 to 50°C / -4 to 122°F
• Nominal Operating Cell Temp (NOCT): 46°± 2° C
• Current Temp Coefficient: 0.05% / °C
• Voltage Temp Coefficient: – 0.35% / °C
• Power Temp Coefficient: – 0.45% / °C
• Max Series Fuse Rating: 15A

Cable

• Anderson Cable Length: 5M / 16.5 ﬞ
• Cable Type: 14AWG dual conductor, shielded
• Output Connector: Anderson Powerpole 15/45

Dimensions and Weight

• Product Dimensions – Folded: 545 x 525 x 60 mm/21.5″ x 20.7″ x 2.4″
• Product Dimensions – Open: 2455 x 525 x 10 mm/96.7″ x 20.7″ x 0.4″
• Product Net Weight: 5.9 kgs/ 13.0 lbs

As you can see from the last set of specs, the “portable” part of the product name is spot-on; this solar panel is eminently tote-able and folds down into an easily stowed form factor. Here’s what mine looked like unfolded:

Unfortunately, as with its power station bundle companion, the solar panel arrived with scuffed case cosmetics and ruffled-through contents indicative of pre-used, not brand new, condition:

Although, I was able to clip a multimeter to the panel’s Anderson Powerpole output connector and, after optimally aligning the panel with the cloud-free direct sunlight, I got close to the spec’d max open circuit output voltage out of it:

the connector itself had also arrived pre-mangled by the panel’s prior owner (again: brand new? Really, Battery-Biz?), a situation that others had also encountered, and which prevented me from as-intended plugging it into the PowerSource Pro Battery Generator:

Could I have bought and soldered on a replacement connector? Sure. But in doing so, I likely would have voided the factory warranty terms. And anyway, after coming across not-brand-new evidence in the entire bundle’s constituents, I was done messing with this “deal”; I was offered an exchange but requested a return-and-refund instead. As mentioned last time, Meh was stellar in their customer service, picking up the tab on return shipping and going as far as issuing me a full refund while the bundle was still enroute back to them. And to be clear, I blame Battery-Biz, not Meh, for this seeming not-as-advertised bait-and-switch.

A few words on connectors, in closing. Perhaps obviously, the connector coming out of a source solar panel and the one going into the destination power station need to match, either directly or via an adapter (the latter option with associated polarity, adequate current-carrying capability and other potential concerns). That said, in my so-far limited to-date research and hands-on experiences with both solar panels and power stations, I’ve come across a mind-boggling diversity of connector options. That ancient solar panel I mentioned back in September, for example:

uses these:

to interface between it and the solar charge controller:

The subsequent downstream connection between the controller and my Eurovan Camper’s cargo battery is more mainstream SAE-based:

The more modern panel I showcased in that same September writeup:

offered four output options: standard and high-power USB-A, USB-C and male DC5521.

My SLA battery-based Phase2 Energy PowerSource Power Station, on the other hand:

(Duracell clone shown)

like the Lithium NMC battery-based Energizer PowerSource Pro Battery Generator:

expects, as already mentioned earlier in this piece, an Anderson Powerpole (PP15-45, to be precise) connector-based solar panel tether:

To adapt the male 5521 to an Anderson Powerpole required both the female-to-female DC5521 that came with the Foursun F-SP100 solar panel and a separate male DC5521-to-Anderson adapter that I bought off Amazon:

What other variants have I encountered? Well, coming out of the EcoFlow solar panels I told you about in the recent Holiday Shopping Guide for Engineers are MC4 connectors:

Conversely, the EcoFlow RIVER 2:

and DELTA 2 portable power stations:

both have an orange-color XT60i solar input connector:

the higher current-capable (100 A vs 60 A), backwards-compatible successor to the original yellow-tint XT60 used in prior-generation EcoFlow models:

EcoFlow sells both MC4-to-XT60 and MC4-to-XT60i adapter cables (note the connector color difference in the following pictures):

along with MC4 extension cables:

and even a dual-to-single MC4 parallel combiner cable, whose function I’ll explore next time:

The DELTA 2 also integrates an even higher power-capable XT150 input, intended for daisy-chaining the power station to a standalone supplemental battery to extend runtime, as well as for recharging via the EcoFlow 800W Alternator Charger:

Ok, now what about another well-known portable power station supplier, Jackery? The answer is, believe it or not, “it depends”. Older models integrated an 8 mm 7909 female DC plug:

 

which, yes, you could mate to a MC4-based solar panel via an adapter:

Newer units switched to a DC8020 input; yep, adapters to the rescue again:

And at least some Jackery models supplement the DC connector with a functionally redundant, albeit reportedly more beefy-current, Anderson Powerpole input:

How profoundly confusing this all must be to the average consumer (not to mention this techie!). I’m sure if I did more research, I’d uncover even more examples of connectivity deviance from other solar panel and portable power station manufacturers alike. But I trust you already get my point. Such non-standardization might enable each supplier to keep its customers captive, at least for a while and to some degree, but it also doesn’t demonstrably grow the overall market. Nor is it a safe situation for consumers, who then need to blindly pick adapters without understanding terms such as polarity or maximum current-carrying capability.

Analogies I’ve made before in conceptually similar situations, such as:

• It’s better to have a decent-size slice of a sizeable pie versus a tiny pie all to yourself, and
• A rising tide lifts all boats

remain apt. And as with those conceptually similar situations on which I’ve previously opined, this’ll likely all sort itself out sooner or later, too (via market share dynamics, would be my preference, versus heavy-handed governmental regulatory oversight). The sooner the better, is all I’m saying. Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments!

 —Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.

Related Content

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• SLA batteries: More system form factors and lithium-based successors
• Experimenting with a modern solar cell
• Then and Now: Solar panels track the sun
• Solar-mains hybrid lamp
• Solar day-lamp with active MPPT and no ballast resistors
• Beaming solar power to Earth: feasible or fantasy?

 

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New and repurposed fabrication techniques for flexible electronic devices are proliferating rapidly. Some may wonder if they are better than traditional methods and at what point they’ll be commercialized. Will they influence electronics design engineers’ future creations?

Flexibility is catching on. Experts forecast the flexible electronics market value will reach $63.12 million by 2030, achieving a compound annual growth rate of 10.3%. As its earning potential increases, more private companies and research groups turn their attention to novel design approaches.

Flexible electronics is a rapidly developing area. Source: Institute of Advanced Materials

As power densification and miniaturization become more prominent, effective thermal management grows increasingly critical—especially for implantable and on-skin devices. So, films with high in-plane thermal conductivity are emerging as an alternative to traditional thermal adhesives, greases, and pads.

While polymer composites with high isotropic thermal conductivity (k) are common thermal interface materials, their high cost, poor mechanics, and unsuitable electrical properties leave much to be desired.

Strides have been made to develop pure polymer film with ultrahigh in-plane k. Electronics design engineers use stretching or shearing to enhance molecule chain alignment, producing thin, and flexible sheets with desirable mechanical properties.

Here, it’s important to note that the fabrication process for pure polymer films is complex and uses toxic solvents, driving costs, and impeding large-scale production. A polyimide and silicone composite may be the better candidate for commercialization, as silicone offers high elasticity and provides better performance in high temperatures.

Novel manufacturing techniques for flexible electronics

Thermal management is not the only avenue for research. Electronics engineers and scientists are also evaluating novel techniques for transfer printing, wiring, and additive manufacturing.

Dry transfer printing

The high temperatures at which quality electronic materials are processed effectively remove flexible or stretchable substrates from the equation, forcing manufacturers to utilize transfer printing. And most novel alternatives are too expensive or time-consuming to be suitable for commercial production.

A research team has developed a dry transfer printing process, enabling transferring thin metal and oxide films to flexible substrates without risk of damage. They adjusted the sputtering parameters to control the amount of stress, eliminating the need for post-processing. As a result, the transfer times were shortened. This method works with microscale or large patterns.

Bubble printing

As electronics design engineers know, traditional wiring is too rigid for flexible devices. Liquid metals are a promising alternative, but the oxide layer’s electrical resistance poses a problem. Excessive wiring size and patterning restrictions are also issues.

One research group overcame these limitations by repurposing bubble printing. It’s not a novel technique but has only been used on solid particles. They applied it to liquid metal colloidal particles—specifically a eutectic gallium-indium alloy—to enable high-precision patterning.

The heat from a femtosecond laser beam creates microbubbles that guide the colloidal particles into precise lines on a flexible substrate. The result is wiring lines with a minimum width of 3.4 micrometers that maintain stable conductivity even when bent.

4D printing

Four-dimensional (4D) printing is an emerging method that describes how a printed structure’s shape, property or function changes in response to external stimuli like heat, light, water or pH. While this additive manufacturing technique has existed for years, it has largely been restricted to academics.

4D-printed circuits could revolutionize flexible electronics manufacturing by improving soft robotics, medical implants, and wearables. One proof-of-concept sensor converted pressure into electric energy despite having no piezoelectric parts. These self-powered, responsive, flexible electronic devices could lead to innovative design approaches.

Impact of innovative manufacturing techniques

Newly developed manufacturing techniques and materials will have far-reaching implications for the design of flexible electronics. So, industry professionals should pay close attention as early adoption could provide a competitive advantage.

Ellie Gabel is a freelance writer as well as an associate editor at Revolutionized.

 

 

Related Content

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• Printed electronics enhance device flexibility
• Flexible electronics stretch the limits of imagination
• Printed Electronics to Enhance both Exteriors and Interiors in EVs

The post Innovative manufacturing processes herald a new era for flexible electronics appeared first on EDN.

Microchip’s MTCH2120 turnkey touch controller offers 12 capacitive touch sensors configured via an I2C interface. Backed by Microchip’s unified ecosystem, it simplifies design and streamlines transitions from other turnkey and MCU-based touch interface implementations.

The MTCH2120 delivers reliable touch performance, unaffected by noise or moisture. Its touch/proximity sensors can work through plastic, wood, or metal front panels. The controller’s low-power design enables button grouping, reducing scan activity and power consumption while keeping buttons fully operational.

Easy Tune technology eliminates manual threshold tuning by automatically adjusting sensitivity and filter levels based on real-time noise assessment. An MPLAB Harmony Host Code Configurator plug-in eases I2C integration with Microchip MCUs and allows direct connection without host-side protocol implementation. Design validation is facilitated through the MPLAB Data Visualizer, while built-in I2C port expander capabilities allow for the addition of three or more unused touch input pins.

In addition, access to Microchip’s touch library minimizes firmware complexity, helping to shorten design cycles. For rapid prototyping, the MTCH2120 evaluation board includes a SAM C21 host MCU for out-of-the-box integration.

MTCH2120 product page

Microchip Technology

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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A synchronous step-down LED driver with high-side current sensing, Diodes’ AL8891Q drives up to 2 A of continuous current from a 4.5-V to 65-V input. It also supports up to a 95% duty cycle, enabling the driver to power longer LED chains in various automotive lighting applications.

The AL8891Q uses constant on-time control for simple loop compensation and cycle-by-cycle current limiting, offering fast dynamic response without needing an external compensation capacitor. Its adjustable switching frequency, ranging from 200 kHz to 2.5 MHz, optimizes efficiency or enables a smaller inductor size and more compact form factor. Spread spectrum modulation further enhances EMI performance and aids compliance with the CISPR 25 Class 5 standard.

Two independent pins control PWM and analog dimming. PWM dimming, from 0.1 kHz to 2 kHz, enables high-resolution dimming. Analog dimming, ranging from 0.15 V to 2 V, supports soft-start and other adjustments. The AL8891Q also features comprehensive protection with fault reporting.

The AEC-Q100 Grade 1 qualified AL8891Q driver costs $0.78 each in lots of 1000 units.

AL8891Q product page 

Diodes

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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The Certus 9704 IoT module from Iridium supports satellite IoT applications requiring real-time data analysis and automated decision-making. This compact module offers larger file transfer sizes and faster message speeds than previous Iridium IoT modules, enabling the delivery of data, pictures, and audio messages up to 100 KB in industrial and remote environments.

With Iridium Messaging Transport (IMT) technology, the Certus 9704 provides two-way IoT services worldwide over Iridium’s low-latency global satellite network. The module is 34% smaller than the Iridium 9603, 79% smaller than the Iridium 9602, and offers an 83% reduction in idle power consumption compared to both.

In addition to conventional satellite IoT applications, the Certus 9704 is AIoT-ready. Products built with Certus 9704 modules can offload more computing to the cloud in a single message, where an AIoT engine can quickly make decisions and send actionable instructions back to the remote device. With IMT at its core, a built-in topic-sorting capability ensures messages are efficiently organized for delivery to the appropriate engine for real-time data, audio, or image analysis.

Iridium offers a development kit preconfigured with the Certus 9704 module mounted on a motherboard, along with a power supply, antenna, and Arduino-based software. The kit comes with 1000 free messages and GitLab-hosted reference materials.

Certus 9704 product page 

Iridium Communications 

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Kyocera AVX has expanded its CR series of high-power chip resistors with a device that handles 2.5 W in a small 0603 package. Designed to enable the miniaturization of RF power amplifiers, the 0603 resistor overcomes size constraints and enhances thermal management by incorporating a high thermal conductivity substrate and maximized heat sink grounding area.

Chip resistors in the CR series are non-magnetic, qualified to MIL-PRF-55342, and deliver reliable performance in a variety of communications, instrumentation, test and measurement, military, and defense applications. They feature thin-film resistive elements, aluminum nitride substrates, and silver terminals.

The resistors are available in eight chip sizes from 0603 to 3737, with standard resistive values of 100 Ω and 50 Ω and tolerances as tight as ±2%. They offer capacitance values ranging from 0.3 pF (0603) to 6.0 pF, power handling up to 250 W, and operating temperatures from -55°C to +150°C.

Chip resistors in the CR series are available from Mouser, DigiKey, and Richardson RFPD.

CR series product page

Kyocera AVX 

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Kioxia and Nanya Technology have co-developed a type of 4F2 DRAM known as Oxide-Semiconductor Channel Transistor DRAM (OCTRAM). It features an oxide-semiconductor transistor that has both high ON current and ultra-low OFF current, enabling reduced power consumption across a wide range of applications, including AI, post-5G communication systems, and IoT products.

Panoramic view of the OCTRAM.

OCTRAM seeks to deliver low-power DRAM by using an InGaZnO-based cylinder-shaped vertical transistor with ultra-low leakage. This 4F2 design adaptation, according to Kioxia, provides significantly higher memory density than conventional silicon-based 6F2 DRAM.

ON and OFF current characteristics of InGaZnO transistor across configurations and structures.

The InGaZnO vertical transistor delivers a high ON current of over 15 μA per cell and an ultra-low OFF current below 1aA per cell, achieved through device and process optimization. In the OCTRAM design, the transistor is integrated on top of a high aspect ratio capacitor using a capacitor-first process. This setup helps separate the effects of the advanced capacitor process from the InGaZnO performance.

Kioxia

Find more datasheets on products like this one at Datasheets.com, searchable by category, part #, description, manufacturer, and more.

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Introduction

In vehicle electrical systems, a high- to low-voltage DC/DC converter is a reversible electronic device that changes the DC from the vehicle’s high-voltage (400 V or 800 V) battery to a lower DC voltage (12 V). These converters can be unidirectional or bidirectional. Power levels from 1 kW to 3 kW are typical, with systems requiring components rated at 650 V to 1,200 V for the converter’s high-voltage power net (primary side) and at least 60 V on the 12-V power net (secondary side).

The need for greater power density and a smaller powertrain led to increased switching frequencies for power components to several hundred kilohertz, in order to help shrink the size of magnetic components. The miniaturization of a high- to low-voltage DC/DC converter exposes many issues that are not as important at lower switching frequencies, such as electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), thermal dissipation, and active clamp for metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). In this power tip, I will discuss the design of clamping circuits for synchronous rectifier MOSFETs at a high switching frequency.

Traditional active clamp

The phase-shifted full bridge (PSFB) shown in Figure 1 is a popular topology in high- to low-voltage DC/DC applications because it can achieve soft switching on switches to increase converter efficiency. But you can still expect to see high-voltage stress on the synchronous rectifier, as its parasitic capacitance resonates with the transformer leakage inductance. The voltage stress of the rectifier could be as high as Equation 1:

Vds_max = 2VIN x (Ns/Np)                      (1)

where Np and Ns are the transformer’s primary and secondary windings, respectively.

Considering the power level of a high- to low-voltage DC/DC converter and the power losses of a resistor-capacitor-diode snubber [1], designers often use active clamp circuits for synchronous rectifier MOSFETs. Figure 1 shows the typical circuits.

Figure 1 Traditional active clamp circuit for PSFB synchronous rectifier MOSFETs. Source: Texas Instruments

In this schematic, you can see the P-channel metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) Q9 and the snubber capacitor, which are the main parts of the active clamp circuit. One terminal of the snubber capacitor connects to the output choke, and the source of the PMOS connects to ground. In a traditional active clamp circuit for a PSFB, synchronous rectifier MOSFET Q5 and Q7 have the same scheme; so do Q6 and Q8. Each time after the synchronous rectifier MOSFETs shut down, the PMOS will turn on with a proper delay time.

Figure 2 shows the control scheme of the PSFB and active clamp. You can easily find that the switching frequency of PMOS will be double the fsw.

Figure 2 Control scheme of active clamp PMOS Q9 where the switching frequency of the PMOS is doble the fsw. Source: Texas Instruments

Evaluating active clamp loss

You can use Equation 2, Equation 3, Equation 4, Equation 5, and Equation 6 to evaluate the loss of the active clamp PMOS. Apart from Pon_state, all of the other losses are proportional to fsw. When the switching frequency of the PMOS doubles, the loss doubles, so you will need to resolve the PMOS thermal issue. And the exact thermal issue turns out to be even worse when pushing the fsw higher to meet the needs for miniaturization.

Pon_state = Irms2 x Rdson                                (2)

Pturn_on = 0.5 x Vds x Ion x ton x fsw        (3)

Pturn_off = 0.5 x Vds x Ioff x toff x fsw        (4)

Pdrive = Vdrv x Qg x fsw                                   (5)

Pdiode = Isnubber x Vsd x td x fsw                 (6)

The proposed active clamp

So, what can you do? To select PMOS with better figure of merit (FOM) or to choose thermal grease with higher conductivity coefficient? Both are OK but remember the thermal issue caused by active clamp still concentrates at one part which makes the issue hard to resolve. Can we divide the thermal into several parts? A feasible way is to use two active clamp circuits and connect the terminal of the snubber capacitor to the switching node of the secondary legs, as Figure 3 shows. Then you can only turn on Q11 after Q5 and Q7 turn off, and only turn on Q10 after Q6 and Q8 turn off. Figure 4 shows the control scheme of the PSFB and proposed active clamp.

Figure 3 Proposed active clamp circuit for PSFB synchronous rectifier MOSFETs. Source: Texas Instruments

Figure 4 Control scheme of the PSFB and proposed active clamp. Source: Texas Instruments

When Q5 and Q7 turn off, Q6 and Q8 are still on. So, you can locate the clamp loops for Q5 and Q7, as indicated by the green arrows in Figure 3. The switching frequency of Q10 and Q11 are both fsw, not double the fsw.

So, according to Equation 2, Equation 3, Equation 4, Equation 5, and Equation 6, Pon_state of each PMOS will be one quarter of original, Pturn_on, Pturn_off, Pdrive, and Pdiode will be one half of original. Obviously, the proposed method divides the loss of the clamp circuit into two parts and even less, which makes it easier to deal with the thermal issue.

Let’s come back to the clamp loop. Q5 has a larger loop than Q7; it’s similar to Q6 and Q8. You will need to pay attention to the layout of the synchronous rectifiers in order to get a minimum clamp loop for Q5 and Q6.

Proposed active clamp performance

Figure 5 and Figure 6 shows the related tests from the High-Voltage to Low-Voltage DC/DC Converter Reference Design with GaN HEMT from Texas Instruments, which uses the proposed active clamp circuit working at a 200-kHz switching frequency. Figure 5 shows the voltage stress of the rectifier.

Figure 5 Voltage stress of the rectifier where CH1 is the Vgs of the rectifier, CH2 is the Vds of the rectifier, CH3 is the voltage for the primary transformer winding, and CH4 is the current for the primary transformer winding. Source: Texas Instruments

CH1 is the Vgs of the rectifier, CH2 is the Vds of the rectifier, CH3 is the voltage for the primary transformer winding, and CH4 is the current for the primary transformer winding. The maximum voltage stress of the rectifier is below 45 V at 400 VIN, 13.5 VOUT, 250-A IOUT. The maximum temperature of the active clamp circuit is 46.6°C at 400 VIN, 13.5 VOUT, 180-A IOUT [2], as shown in Figure 6. So, the proposed control scheme achieves quite good thermal performance for the clamping MOSFET.

Figure 6 Thermal performance of the active clamp circuit where the maximum temperature of the active clamp circuit is 46.6°C at 400 VIN, 13.5 VOUT, 180-A IOUT. Source: Texas Instruments

500-kHz active clamp sans thermal issues

When promoting switching frequency from 200 kHz to 500 kHz, the volume of transformer will shrink about 45% [2], which will help to promote the power density of the High-Voltage to Low-Voltage DC/DC Converter. With the proposed method, BOM cost will increase a little, but designer can run the active clamp at 500-kHz switching frequency without thermal issue, leading to improved performance. Considering the pulsed drain current of PMOS is far smaller than NMOS, designer can also use NMOS in active clamp with isolated driver and bias power supply if necessary.

Daniel Gao works as a system engineer in the Power Supply Design Services team at Texas Instruments, where he focuses on developing OBC and DC/DC converters. He received the M.S. degree from Central South University in 2010.

 

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 References

1. Betten, John. 2016. “Power Tips: Calculate an R-C Snubber in Seven Steps.” TI E2E design support forums technical article, May 2016.
2. “High-Voltage to Low-Voltage DC-DC Converter Reference Design with GaN HEMT.” 2024. Texas Instruments reference design test report No. PMP41078, literature No. TIDT403A. Accessed Dec. 16, 2024.

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