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Rohde & Schwarz, deepened its collaboration with Broadcom Inc. to enable testing and validation of Wi-Fi 8 chipsets using the CMP180 radio communication tester.

Wi-Fi 8, based on the IEEE 802.11bn specification, promises a significant leap forward in wireless connectivity. It is anticipated to bring higher throughput, lower latency, improved efficiency in congested spectrum environments and enhanced performance for XR (extended reality), AI-assisted applications, real-time cloud gaming and ultra-high-definition content streaming.

With their collaboration, the Rohde & Schwarz and Broadcom ensure that the industry has the tools to manufacture products that deliver on the promise of Wi-Fi 8:

• Validation of CMP180 for Wi-Fi 8: Rohde & Schwarz and Broadcom have jointly carried out test campaigns that demonstrate that the CMP180 meets the demanding technical requirements of Wi-Fi 8 chipsets.
• Support Across Device Lifecycle: The CMP180 will be available as an end-to-end test solution – from early development (R&D), through design validation, to production and quality assurance – for devices that adopt Wi-Fi 8 technology.
• Future-Proof Hardware & Bandwidth: The CMP180, with its coverage up to 8 GHz, bandwidths up to 500 MHz, dual independent channels (2 x VSA / 2 x VSG), 4 x 4 MiMo support for Wi-Fi networking products, enhanced RF ports, is positioned to handle the new challenges Wi-Fi 8 will present.
• Accelerating Time to Market: With automated test routines created in close cooperation between Rohde & Schwarz and Broadcom, device manufacturers will gain early access to test vectors, calibration protocols, and software frameworks.
• UHR (Ultra-High Reliability) for Wi-Fi 8: This collaboration will ensure Wi-Fi 8 devices deliver consistently stable and robust connections. The CMP180’s advanced testing capabilities will validate performance under challenging conditions, ensuring the ultra-high reliability demanded by applications like XR, Al, cloud gaming, and critical IoT deployments.

Goce Talaganov, Vice President of Mobile Radio Testers at Rohde & Schwarz, said: “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Broadcom to provide a comprehensive testing solution for the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. The CMP180’s advanced features and our close collaboration with Broadcom will empower device manufacturers to bring innovative Wi-Fi 8 products to market quickly and confidently.”

Gabriel Desjardins, director of marketing for the Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division at Broadcom, said: “Our partnership with Rohde & Schwarz is accelerating the future of wireless innovation. Together, we’re empowering Broadcom’s customers and partners to lead the transition to Wi-Fi 8 and redefine what’s possible in connectivity.”

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Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA has inaugurated its new fully vertically integrated manufacturing facility in Iberia Parish, Louisiana. The $1.1bn facility, which spans about 2.4 million square feet and is about 11 times the size of the New Orleans Superdome, currently employs over 700 people and is expected to have 826 staff by the end of the year...

Nuvoton announced NAU8421YG, a new high quality DAC audio solution. The NAU8421YG is a 24-bit stereo DAC with 8Vpp differential analog output capability, 128dB SNR and -99dB THD+N. This device includes an I 2 C control interface with additional pin selectable features and standalone operation. It operates from a 3.3V digital I/O supply voltage and an analog 5V supply voltage. Additionally, the NAU8421YG includes automatic clock detection sequences for smooth power up & power down control. This enables fast and efficient system integration.

The NAU8421YG’s preliminary function is to provide a high-quality and efficiency differential line level output (Line-Out), converting digital audio sources (such as computer, instrument, mixer, effect or streamers) into an analog signal, which is then sent to equipment that requires external or built-in amplification circuitry.

Leap forward in Efficiency, Power and auto clock detection sequences
The NAU8421YG includes automatic clock detection sequences for smooth power up and power down control. This enables fast and efficient system integration. It can serve as the core decoder, replacing the DAC built into a playback system or streamer to improve the quality, outputting to an integrated or pre-amplifier. Pairs with a pre-amplifier provide the purest analog source signal, achieving source separation for critical listening. Act as part of an audio interface to provide accurate, low distortion analog output to studio monitor controllers or mixing consoles.

Superior Isolation and dynamic range for multi-channel system
The 140dB channel signal separation at 1kHz represents the leakage (cross talk) between channels, which secures the over system’s dynamic range and ensures the maximum limit offered by 24-bit resolution without crosstalk issue. It allows users to accurately measure both extremely loud (high amplitude) and extremely low (low amplitude) signals simultaneously with the highest accuracy. This is crucial for multi- track recording in studios or for multi-sensor data acquisition in industrial measurements, ensuring the independence and integrity of each channel’s signal.

The post Nuvoton Introduces High-Quality 24-bit Stereo DAC Solution NAU8421YG appeared first on ELE Times.

STMicroelectronics has unveiled new models and enhanced project support for its STM32 AI Model Zoo to accelerate the prototyping and development of embedded AI applications. This marks a significant expansion for what is already the industry’s largest library of models for vision, audio, and sensing to be embedded in equipment such as wearables, smart cameras and sensors, security and safety devices, and robotics.

“Turning data science into a working application tuned for an embedded platform is a complex engineering challenge, and developers need support throughout the journey,” said Stephane Henry, Edge AI Solution Group VP at STMicroelectronics. “While expanding the selection of models available, to help the STM32 developer community jump-start their projects, we are also strengthening the infrastructure all the way to deployment with STM32 AI Model Zoo 4.0. This is part of our commitment to make Physical AI a reality.”

ST’s latest AI Model Zoo empowers designers to maximize available resources, enabling the creation of highly efficient models that operate with minimal power consumption.

This Model Zoo is part of ST Edge AI Suite, which offers a comprehensive collection of tools, libraries, and utilities that further simplify and accelerate the development and deployment of AI algorithms on ST hardware, ensuring seamless integration from prototype to production.

For over a decade, ST has been at the forefront of research, innovation, and development in edge AI, with the goal of helping developers overcome the complexities of deploying AI at the edge with both software and hardware accelerated models. Today, ST’s AI tools continue to support over 160,000 projects annually.

ST’s STM32 family features the world’s most widely adopted microcontrollers, used in a diverse range of applications, including consumer appliances, wearables, communication infrastructure, smart grids, smart cities, industrial automation, and even low-earth-orbit satellites. By strategically enabling AI deployment on general-purpose MCUs across these sectors, ST delivers cutting-edge technology to end users rapidly and cost-effectively, while enhancing sustainability.

The post STMicroelectronics introduces the industry’s largest MCU model zoo to accelerate Physical AI time to market appeared first on ELE Times.

STMicroelectronics has unveiled the STM32V8, a new generation of high-performance microcontrollers (MCUs) for demanding industrial applications. The STM32V8 is designed with ST’s most advanced 18nm process technology with best-in-class embedded phase-change memory (PCM). It is manufactured in ST’s 300mm fab in Crolles, France, and also in collaboration with Samsung Foundry.

“The STM32V8 is our fastest STM32 microcontroller to date, designed for high reliability in harsh operating environments, with the ability to replace much larger and power-hungry application processors. The STM32V8 represents the future of what a high performance MCU can do for demanding embedded and edge AI applications such as industrial control, sensor fusion, image processing, voice control, and others,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, President, Microcontrollers, Digital ICs and RF products Group at STMicroelectronics. 

Its Arm Cortex-M85 core and the 18nm process help the STM32V8 achieve clock speeds of up to 800 MHz, making it the most powerful STM32 MCU ever shipped. High levels of faster and larger embedded memory are a key enabler of a broad range of secure and connected applications.

One such demanding environment is the high-radiation conditions encountered in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). SpaceX has selected the STM32V8 for its Starlink constellation, using it in a mini laser system that connects the satellites traveling at extremely high speeds in LEO.

“The successful deployment of the Starlink mini laser system in space, which uses ST’s STM32V8 microcontroller, marks a significant milestone in advancing high-speed connectivity across the Starlink network. The STM32V8’s high computing performance and integration of large embedded memory and digital features were critical in meeting our demanding real-time processing requirements, while providing a higher level of reliability and robustness to Low Earth Orbit environment, thanks to the 18nm FD-SOI technology. We look forward to integrating the STM32V8 into other products and leveraging its capabilities for next-generation advanced applications,” said Michael Nicolls, Vice President, Starlink Engineering at SpaceX.

The STM32V8 is in early-stage access for selected customers with key OEMs availability as of the first quarter 2026 and with broader availability to follow.

The post STMicroelectronics introduces the industry’s first 18nm microcontroller for high-performance applications appeared first on ELE Times.

Courtesy: Qulacomm

What you should know: ●        Dense urban traffic and highway driving can be complex and often dangerous for road users, but crash avoidance technologies such as ADAS can reduce road incidents. ●        Traditional, rule-based planning methods for controlling ADAS functionality can’t scale to include enough potential scenarios. ●        The Snapdragon Ride platform employs an AI planner to learn and adapt in real-time as well as a traditional planner as a safety guardrail and verifier.

The dense urban traffic at crowded intersections with vehicles, two-wheelers, and pedestrians and highly congested arterial roadways, can be complex and often dangerous for road users. Approximately 1.19 million people died in traffic crashes in 2023. In the U.S., 59% of these road fatalities occurred in urban areas, and 73% were at intersections.

Crash avoidance technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can reduce road incidents, helping to save lives in these complicated scenarios. For example, automatic emergency braking has been shown to reduce front-to-rear crashes by 50% and pedestrian crashes by 27%.

Achieving these results across cities, countries, and driving styles is no small task. Traditional, rule-based planning methods for controlling ADAS functionality often struggle to negotiate and adapt to real-time sensor data in dense urban driving scenarios. These human-defined, logic-based planners rely on pre-specified rules, which can’t scale to include enough potential scenarios for the planner to react appropriately in any given traffic situation.

AI planner

Introducing an AI-based planner into the system can help to handle the massive amount of input coming into a vehicle as it travels through highly variable and dynamic urban environments. Capable of running large language models while simultaneously processing input from multiple perception systems, an AI planner uses a data-driven approach to learn and adapt in real-time.

Because it is a decision-based transformer, an AI planner understands what information is contextually relevant to the scenario, so the driver assistance system can act upon it quickly and effectively. This ability to quickly and holistically process data allows the planner to solve complex urban traffic problems and achieve a more accurate and human-like driving experience.

Best of both with Snapdragon Ride

To provide a human-like experience, the Snapdragon Ride platform employs a hybrid architecture that blends both types of planning. The AI planner is a fully data-driven, transformer-based model, while the traditional planner serves as a safety guardrail and verifier. The models co-exist on the same heterogeneous system-on-a-chip (SoC), running on separate blocks, so there is no computational interference. The AI planner benefits from AI acceleration in the neural processing unit (NPU) while traditional planners run on the central processing unit (CPU).

Validated in both simulations and real-world scenarios, the AI planner has demonstrated its ability to solve complex traffic scenarios, including unprotected turns, navigating roundabouts, and handling dense traffic merges.

Incorporating both traditional and AI planning gives automakers a robust solution for tackling the challenges posed by dense urban environments, allowing them to fine-tune and customize ADAS features to meet unique market needs. The move toward AI planning will help them to create a more human-like driving experience, potentially revolutionizing urban traffic management.

The post Navigating urban roads with safety-focused, human-like automated driving experiences appeared first on ELE Times.

Courtesy: Monikantan Ayyasamy, General Manager, Equipment Engineering & Supply Chain Management at Orbit & Skyline

Semiconductor manufacturing facilities, or fabs, are some of the most complex and technologically sophisticated industrial plants on earth. Their success isn’t just a matter of how they’re constructed, but how effectively and dependably they’re operated.

For fab operators around the globe, there is a shared set of challenges that can impact yield, uptime, and competitiveness. With increasingly complex fabs, the requirement for specialist operational support has never been more important. Below are seven of the most important challenges and what specialist service providers are doing to address them.

1. Tool Installation and Commissioning

It is possible to fit thousands of precision tools into one fab that need to be correctly installed and calibrated in cleanroom environments. A faulty installation at this stage leads to sequential delays and expensive downtime.

Solution:

Specialised vendors adopt systematic methodologies and apply extensive cleanroom know-how for precision during commissioning. Their established commissioning frameworks reduce risk and get tools into production within timing, a critical parameter for enabling fabs to operate at faster time-to-yield.

2. Preventive and Corrective Maintenance

In semiconductors production, the loss caused by a single tool failure can be millions. But running periodic preventive maintenance schedules for big-sized facilities is still a daunting experience.

Solution:

There are now external engineering suppliers that complement 24/7 on-site assistance with predictive analytics and AI-driven monitoring systems. With it, possible breakdowns are identified prior to occurrence, reducing downtime and ensuring maximum longevity of the tools at the same time, maintaining production lines in balance.

3. Process Optimisation and Yield Enhancement

Yield, the number of useful chips made, is the final measure of fab performance. But yield improvement requires thorough knowledge of both process chemistry and equipment interactions.

Solution:

Specialized process engineering teams employ data-driven control systems, root cause analysis, and worldwide best practices to optimize recipes, reduce defects, and increase yield. By continuous optimization, they allow fabs to remain competitive in a market in which every fraction of a percent in yield counts.

4. Legacy Tool Lifecycle Management

Most fabs continue to use legacy deposition, etch, and clean tools that remain functional but are becoming obsolete as OEM support decreases. If left unmanaged, such systems become production bottlenecks or create operational hazards.

Solution:

Technical services providers with older tool platform experience come in to refit, reverse-engineer, and retrofit equipment. Through extending tool life and guaranteeing parts availability, they enable fabs to maintain capital investments and keep production consistent without requiring full equipment replacement.

5. Supply Chain and Spare Parts Availability

Global supply chain disruptions have revealed the vulnerability of fabs to spare parts and consumables delays. Internal stockpiling of inventory can appear to be secure but can turn cost-prohibitive very quickly.

Solution:

Global providers with supply networks allow just-in-time parts delivery and centralized logistics. Their combined procurement systems assist fabs in balancing reliability and cost-effectiveness, making sure critical components are at hand precisely when required without incurring undue overhead.

6. Workforce Readiness and Talent Gaps

As the fabrication of semiconductors grows worldwide, there is increased demand for fab-ready technicians and engineers. Creating such specialized talent requires resources and time. Newer fabs usually fail to become ready for operation because of a lack of trained people.

Solution:

Engineering service partners are filling the gap with structured training programs, simulation-based learning, and certification modules that are designed to simulate actual fab environments. This way, all technicians and engineers are deployment-ready from day one, which strongly improves fab ramp-up times.

7. Integration of New Technologies: AI, Automation, and Sustainability

Contemporary fabs need to adopt next-gen technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), robotics, and green energy practices while ensuring production steadiness. Shifting to these technologies while not affecting continuous operations is a major challenge.

Solution:

Specialized suppliers act as technology transition partners. They pilot automation equipment, implement AI-based process analytics, and integrate sustainable solutions like energy optimization and waste reduction systems. By strategical scaling adoption, they assist fabs in transforming without sacrificing productivity.

Conclusion

Operating a semiconductor fab is significantly more complicated than constructing one. The seven challenges described, ranging from installation and maintenance to process optimisation, supply chain reliability, and workforce readiness, are essential to the long-term success of a fab.

Specialised service providers are critical to filling these capability gaps, providing operational continuity, and sustaining the high standards required of the global semiconductor industry.

Ultimately, the fate of semiconductor production rests not solely on state-of-the-art infrastructure or money, but on the resilience of the ecosystem that ensures these fabs operate day in, day out, wafer after wafer.

The post 7 Challenges Facing Fab Operations and How Providers Can Solve Them appeared first on ELE Times.

Courtesy: Broadcom

With the increase in scale and complexity of AI systems, Ethernet is once again evolving to meet the challenge. At the OCP Global Summit 2025, Broadcom, along with AMD, ARM, Arista, Cisco, HPE Networking, Marvell, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Oracle, announced a new collaborative effort called Ethernet for Scale-Up Networking (ESUN).

With the initiation of this workstream, the OCP Community now has the opportunity to address areas that enhance scale-up connectivity across accelerated AI infrastructure. The scale-up domain in XPU-based systems can be viewed in two primary areas: 1) network functionality, and 2) XPU-endpoint functionality.

First, the network aspect of scale-up focuses on how traffic is sent out across the network switches themselves, including protocol headers, error handling, and lossless data transfer.  This is what ESUN intends to address and what the planned OCP workstream by the same name will focus on. The workstream itself is planned to kick off shortly after the OCP Global Summit.

Second, in the XPU-endpoint domain, the design depends on factors such as workload partitioning, memory ordering, and load balancing, and it is often tightly co-designed with the XPU architecture itself.

What is ESUN?

ESUN is a new workstream collaboration designed as an open technical forum to advance Ethernet in the rapidly growing scale-up domain for AI systems. This initiative brings together operators and leading vendors to collaborate on leveraging and adapting Ethernet for the unique demands of scale-up networking.

Key Focus Areas:

• Technical Collaboration: ESUN serves as an open forum where operators, equipment and component manufacturers can jointly advance Ethernet solutions optimized for scale-up networking.
• Interoperability: The initiative emphasizes the development and interoperability of XPU network interfaces and Ethernet switch ASICs for scale-up.
• Technical Focus: Initial focus will be on L2/L3 Ethernet framing and switching, enabling robust, lossless, and error-resilient single-hop and multi-hop topologies.
• Standards Alignment: ESUN will actively engage with organizations such as UEC (Ultra-Ethernet Consortium) and IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) to align with open standards, incorporate best practices, and accelerate innovation.
• Ecosystem Enablement: By leveraging Ethernet’s mature hardware and software ecosystem, ESUN will encourage diverse implementations and drive rapid adoption across the industry.

Ethernet for Scale-Up Networking

What Are the Focus Areas for ESUN?

ESUN focuses solely on open, standards-based Ethernet switching and framing for scale-up networking—excluding host-side stacks, non-Ethernet protocols, application-layer solutions, and proprietary technologies.

How is this Different from SUE?

OCP has previously launched an effort to advance the endpoint functionality for scale-up networking through the SUE-Transport (Scale-Up Ethernet Transport) workstream (originally named SUE; it has been renamed and clarified as SUE-T in contrast to ESUN). SUE-T will carry forward some of the SUE work, which was seeded with the Broadcom contribution of the version 1.0 specification.

The post Introducing Ethernet Scale-Up Networking: Advancing Ethernet for Scale-Up AI Infrastructure appeared first on ELE Times.

My Mom always kept these safe, I learned the habit of collecting them from my Dad. submitted by /u/arpiku [link] [comments]

The custom pcb for my LoRa radio just arrived, sorry for the burnt mouse pad, i apparently like to solder over it😢 submitted by /u/PepeIsLife69_ [link] [comments]

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Found in an Apple IIe power supply. Never seen this before, but it seems to work! I didn't know you could solder to aluminum like that. submitted by /u/tyttuutface [link] [comments]

It's basically two DF Players, one plays a metronome track (prog rock, so not constant time nor signature) and the second a backing track for the songs that have it. Each output is stereo, and has a signal led with an LM393 comparator, with the set point done by the ESP32 DAC. Next I'll implement the MIDI part to be able to change settings in my keyboard with time stamps. Probably will make a html configuration page to select various parameters. I been using it for a couple of rehearsals and tomorrow will meet the stage. submitted by /u/momo__ib [link] [comments]

Opened an Olarm today and found the LTE antenna lying loose in the case. This board uses a Quectel EG915N LTE module with a little SMD PCB antenna soldered directly to the board. The RF pad ripped clean off the PCB. Ended up doing my first ever micro-soldering repair: scraped the RF trace destroyed it scraped a new section rebuilt the missing pad using one tiny copper strand lost that strand repeatedly reflowed the antenna back on with hot air prayed It actually works. I don’t know whether to feel proud or traumatised. submitted by /u/TokkieMonster [link] [comments]

КПІ ім. Ігоря Сікорського допомагає повертатися до повноцінного життя нашим захисникам kpi пт, 11/21/2025 - 17:43

КПІ у рейтингу Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2026! kpi пт, 11/21/2025 - 17:39

День Гідності та Свободи kpi пт, 11/21/2025 - 17:35

Industrial automation, robotics, and electric mobility are increasingly driving demand for improved motor driver ICs as well as solutions that make it easier to design motor drives. With energy consumption being a key factor in these applications, developers are looking for motor drivers that offer higher efficiency and lower power consumption.

At the same time, integrating motor drivers into existing systems is becoming more challenging, as they need to work seamlessly with a variety of motors and control algorithms such as trapezoidal, sinusoidal, and field-oriented control (FOC), according to Global Market Insights Inc.

The average electric vehicle uses 15–20 motor drivers across a variety of systems, including traction motors, power steering, and brake systems, compared with eight to 12 units in internal-combustion-engine vehicles, and industrial robots typically use six to eight motor drivers for joint articulation, positioning, and end-effector control, according to Emergen Research.

The motor driver IC market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.8% from 2024 to 2034, according to Emergen Research, driven by industrial automation, EVs, and smart consumer electronics. Part of this growth is attributed to Industry 4.0 initiatives that drive the demand for more advanced motor control solutions, including the use of artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms in motor control systems.

Emergen Research also reports that silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials are gaining traction in high-power applications thanks to their higher switching characteristics compared with silicon-based solutions.

Other trends include the growing demand for precise motor control, the integration of advanced sensorless control, and low electromagnetic interference (EMI), according to the market research firms.

Here are a few examples of new motor drivers for industrial and automotive applications, as well as development solutions such as software, reference designs, and evaluation kits that help ease the development of motor drives.

Motor drivers

Melexis recently launched the MLX81339, a configurable motor driver with a pulse-width modulation (PWM)/serial interface for a range of industrial applications. This motor driver IC is designed for compact, three-phase brushless DC (BLDC) and stepper motor control up to 40 W in industrial applications such as fans, pumps, and positioning systems.

The motor driver targets a range of markets, including smart industrial and consumer sectors, in applications such as positioning motors, thermal valves, robotic actuators, residential and industrial ventilation systems, and dishwashing pumps. The MLX81339 is also qualified for automotive fan and blower applications.

A key feature of this motor control IC is the programmable flash memory, which enables full application customization. Designed for three-phase BLDC or bipolar stepper motors, these advanced drivers use silent FOC. It delivers reliable startup, stopping, and precise speed control from low to maximum speed, Melexis said.

The MLX81339 motor driver supports control up to 20 W at 12 V and 40 W at 24 V, integrating a three-phase driver with a configurable current limit up to 3 A, as well as under-/overvoltage, overcurrent, and overtemperature protection. Other key specifications include a wide supply voltage range of 6 V to 26 V and an operating temperature range of –40°C to 125°C (junction temperature up to 150°C).

The MLX81339 also incorporates 8× general-purpose I/Os and several interfaces, including PWM/FG, I2C, UART, and SPI, for easy integration into both legacy and smart systems. It also supports both sensor-based and sensorless control.

Melexis offers the Melexis StartToRun web tool to accelerate motor driver prototyping, eliminating engineering tasks by generating configuration files based on simple user inputs. In addition to the motor and electrical parameters, the tool includes prefilled mechanical values.

The MLX81339, housed in QFN24 and SO8-EP packages, is available now. A code-free and configurable MLX80339 for rapid deployment will be released in the first quarter of 2026.

Melexis’s MLX81339 motor driver (Source: Melexis)

Earlier this year, STMicroelectronics introduced the VNH9030AQ, an integrated full-bridge DC motor driver with high-side and low-side MOSFET gate drivers, real-time diagnostics, and protection against overvoltage transients, undervoltage, short-circuit conditions, and cross-conduction, aimed at reducing design complexity and cost. Delivering greater flexibility to system designers, the MOSFETs can be configured either in parallel or in series, allowing them to be used in systems with multiple motors or to meet other specific requirements.

The integrated non-dissipative current-sense circuitry monitors the current flowing through the device to distinguish each motor phase, contributing to the driver’s efficiency. The standby power consumption is very low over the full operating temperature range, easing use in zonal controller platforms, ST said.

This DC motor driver can be used in a range of automotive applications, including functional safety. The driver also provides a dedicated pin for real-time output status, easing the design into functional-safety and general-purpose low-/mid-power DC-motor-driven applications while reducing the requirements for external circuitry.

With an RDS(on) of 30 mΩ per leg, the VNH9030AQ can handle mid- and low-power DC-motor-driven applications such as door-control modules, washer pumps, powered lift gates, powered trunks, and seat adjusters.

The driver is part of a family of devices that leverage ST’s latest VIPower M0-9 technology, which permits monolithic integration of power and logic circuitry. All products, including the VNH9030AQ, are housed in a 6 × 6-mm, thermally enhanced triple-pad QFN package. The package is designed for optimal underside cooling and shares a common pinout to ease layout and software reuse.

The VNH9030AQ is available now. ST also offers a ready-to-use VNH9030AQ evaluation board and the TwisterSim dynamic electro-thermal simulator to simulate the motor driver’s behavior under various operating conditions, including electrical and thermal stresses.

STMicroelectronics’ VNH9030AQ half-bridge DC motor driver (Source: STMicroelectronics)

Targeting both automotive and industrial applications, the Qorvo Inc. 160-V three-phase BLDC motor driver also aims to reduce solution size, design time, and cost with an integrated power manager and configurable analog front end (AFE). The ACT72350 160-V gate driver can replace as many as 40 discrete components in a BLDC motor control system, and the configurable AFE enables designers to configure their exact sensing and position detection requirements.

The ACT72350 includes a configurable power manager with an internal DC/DC buck converter and LDOs to support internal components and serve as an optional supply for the host microcontroller (MCU). In addition, by offering a wide, 25-V to 160-V input range, designers can reuse the same design for a variety of battery-operated motor control applications, including power and garden tools, drones, EVs, and e-bikes.

The ACT72350 provides the analog circuitry needed to implement a BLDC motor control system and can be paired with a variety of MCUs, Qorvo said. It provides high efficiency via programmable propagation delay, precise current sensing, and BEMF feedback, as well as differentiated features for safety-critical applications.

The SOI-based motor driver is available now in a 9.0 × 9.0-mm, 57-pin QFN package. An evaluation kit is available, along with a model of the ACT72350 in Qorvo’s QSPICE circuit simulation software at www.qspice.com.

Qorvo’s ACT72350 three-phase BLDC motor driver (Source: Qorvo Inc.) Software, reference designs, and evaluation kits

Motor driver IC and power semiconductor manufacturers also deliver software suites, reference designs, and development kits to simplify motor drive design and development. A few examples include Power Integrations’ MotorXpert software, Efficient Power Conversion Corp.’s (EPC’s) GaN-based motor driver reference design, and a modular motor driver evaluation kit developed by Würth Elektronik and Nexperia.

Power Integrations continues to enhance its MotorXpert software for its BridgeSwitch and BridgeSwitch-2 half-bridge motor driver ICs. The latest version, MotorXpert v3.0, enables FOC without shunts and their associated sensors. It also adds support for advanced modulation schemes and features V/F and I/F control to ensure startup under any load condition.

Designed to simplify single- and three-phase sensorless motor drive designs, the v3.0 release adds a two-phase modulation scheme, suited for high-temperature environments, reducing inverter switching losses by 33%, according to the company. It allows developers to trade off the temperature of the inverter versus torque ripple, particularly useful in applications such as hot water circulation pumps, reducing heat-sink requirements and enclosure cost, the company said.

The software also delivers a five-fold improvement to the waveform visualization tool and an enhanced zoom function, providing more data for motor tuning and debugging. The host-side application includes a graphical user interface with Power Integrations’ digital oscilloscope visualization tool to make it easy to design and configure parameters and operation and to simplify debugging. Also easing development are parameter tool tips and a tuning assistant.

The software suite is MCU-agnostic and includes a porting guide to simplify deployment with a range of MCUs. It is implemented in the C language to MISRA standards.

Power Integrations said development time is greatly reduced by the included single- and three-phase code libraries with sensorless support, reference designs, and other tools such as a power supply design and analysis tool. Applications include air conditioning fans, refrigerator compressors, fluid pumps, washing machine and dryer drums, range hoods, industrial fans, and heat pumps.

Power Integrations’ MotorXpert software suite (Source: Power Integrations)

EPC claims the first GaN-based motor driver reference design for humanoid robots with the launch of the EPC91118 reference design for motor joints. The EPC91118 delivers up to 15 ARMS per phase from a wide input DC voltage, ranging from 15 V to 55 V, in an ultra-compact, circular form factor.

The reference design is optimized for space-constrained and weight-sensitive applications such as humanoid limbs and drone propulsion. It shrinks inverter size by 66% versus silicon, EPC said, and eliminates the need for electrolytic capacitors due to the GaN ICs and high-frequency operation. The high switching frequency instead allows the use of smaller MLCCs.

The reference design is centered around the EPC23104 ePower stage IC, a monolithic GaN IC that enables higher switching frequencies and reduced losses. The power stage is combined with current sensing, a rotor shaft magnetic encoder, an MCU, RS-485 communications, and 5-V and 3.3-V power supplies on a single board that fits within a 32-mm-diameter footprint (55-mm-diameter outer frame; 32-mm-diameter inverter).

EPC’s EPC91118 motor driver reference design (Source: Efficient Power Conversion Corp.)

Aimed at faster development of motor controllers, Würth Elektronik and Nexperia have collaborated on the NEVB-MTR1-KIT1 modular motor driver evaluation kit. The kit can be configured for use in under two minutes and is powered via USB-C.

The companies highlight the modularity of the evaluation board that can be adapted to a wide range of motors, control algorithms, and test setups, enabling faster optimization as well as faster iterations and testing. With an open architecture, the kit enables MCUs and components to be easily exchanged, and the open-source firmware allows developers to quickly adapt and develop motor controllers under real-world conditions, according to the companies.

The kit includes a three-phase inverter board, a motor controller board, an MCU development board, pre-wired motor connections, and a BLDC motor. A key feature is the high-current connectors integrated by Würth Elektronik, which enable evaluations up to 1 kW at 48 V.

The demands on dynamics, fault tolerance, and energy efficiency in drive systems are rising steadily, resulting in increasingly more complex motor control system design, according to the companies. The selection of the right switches (MOSFETs and IGBTs), gate drivers, and protection circuits is critical to ensure lower switching losses, better thermal behavior, and stable dynamics.

The behavior of the components must be carefully validated under real-world conditions, taking into consideration factors such as parasitic elements, switching transients, and EMI, according to the companies. The modular kit helps with this by enabling different motors and control concepts to be evaluated.

The Würth Elektronik and Nexperia NEVB-MTR1-KIT1 motor drive evaluation kit (Source: Würth Elektronik)

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A 4 to 20 mA loop current is a popular terminology with Instrumentation/Electronics engineers in process industries. Field transmitters like pressure,temperature,flow, etc., give out 4 to 20 mA current signals corresponding to the respective process parameters.

Industrial equipment, such as plant control rooms (situated at a distance from the field), will house a distributed control system (DCS) or programmable logic controller (PLC) to monitor, record, and control these process parameters. This equipment will supply 24 VDC to a typical transmitter through one wire and receive current proportional to the process parameter through another wire.

Typically, two wires are needed to connect the supply voltage and ground, and two more wires are needed to connect the current signal. Thus, a two-wire system cuts cable cost by 50%. Hence, all field devices must conform to this two-wire system in process industries. DCS/PLC should receive a current in the range 4 to 20 mA. A current of zero indicates the cable has been cut.

Still, there is equipment, like gas analyzers, which give out a conventional 0 to 20 mA current output. These signals are to be converted into the 4 to 20 mA loop current format to feed the DCS/PLC in the control room.

Figure 1’s circuit does exactly this.

Figure 1 A 0 to 20 mA current source to a 4 to 20 mA loop current converter module circuit. The SPAN & ZERO potentiometers can be multiturn PCB mountable types for precision adjustment. Q1 should have a heatsink.

How it works

Connect the 24-V power supply, digital ammeter, and a load resistor to J2 as shown in Figure 1.

Then, connect a current generator to the J1 connector. This current flows through R3 and is converted to a voltage.

The output of U1B is this voltage multiplied by (1+(R10/R11)), which is nearly one. Let us call this Vspan. The output of U3 is Vreg.

There are three currents at pin3 of U1A. Let us analyze the basic equation of this circuit:

The third current through R4 is:

The total current at pin3 of U1A is:

In this circuit, R4/R6 is chosen to be 99; therefore:

Both U1A and Q1 adjust the current flow through R6, satisfying the above equation in closed-loop control. U3 generates 5 VDC from the 24 VDC input for circuit operation.

R12 loads the regulator to draw a small current. Q2 and R1 limit the output current to around 26 mA.

How to calibrate this circuit

Connect a 24 VDC power supply to J2, a load resistor of 200 Ω, and a digital ammeter

to J2 as shown in Figure 1. Connect a current generator to J1 as shown.

Keep the current as zero. Adjust Rzero until Ioutput reaches 4 mA.

Now, set the current generator to 20 mA. Adjust Rspan until Ioutput shows 20 mA.

Repeat this a few times to get the correct values. Now this current converter is calibrated.

How to improve accuracy

This circuit gives an accuracy of < 1%. To improve accuracy, select components with close tolerances.

You may introduce a 2.5-V reference IC after U3. Connect R2 and Rzero to this reference. In this case, R2 will be 50 KΩ and Rzero will be 20 KΩ.

Figure 2 illustrates how this current converter module is connected between the field transmitter and the control room’s DCS/PLC. Make sure to introduce a suitable surge suppressor in the line going to the field.

This module does not need a separate power supply. This can be kept in the field near the equipment giving out 0 to 20 mA.

Figure 2 A block diagram that shows the connection of the current converter in process industries.

Jayapal Ramalingam has over three decades of experience in designing electronics systems for power & process industries and is presently a freelance automation consultant.

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