Archive : 13 May 2015 год

Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has announced its collaboration with Blu Wireless Technology to demonstrate wireless charging integrated with 60GHz WiGig data transmission.

"Between Blu Wireless' expertise in WiGig and IDT's in wireless power, we are developing a solution that keeps pace with demands in an age of massive multimedia content," said Mark Barrett, chief marketing officer at Blu Wireless. "The combination of low-profile 60GHz phased array technology and wireless charging capabilities supports the increased data and ease of use demands of mobile users."

WiGig uses the 60GHz band to deliver 7GHz bandwidth and has the potential to enable consumers to wirelessly charge their phones and tablets while transmitting high quality, uncompressed 4K HD video and photos to their televisions and computers.

The synchronisation of such data on today's portable devices would take two hours and use up nearly a third of a battery's charge. However, the partners say this can be completed, using WiGig, in just 45s while consuming only 2% of the charge.

Author
Tom Austin-Morgan

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Said to be the industry's most energy friendly USB enabled MCUs, the Happy Gecko range from Silicon Labs is designed to deliver longer battery life and support energy harvesting.

Said to be the industry's most energy friendly USB enabled MCUs, the Happy Gecko range from Silicon Labs is designed to deliver longer battery life and support energy harvesting.

Based on the ARM Cortex-M0+ core and featuring low energy peripherals, the Happy Gecko has been developed to address rising demand for cost effective, low power USB connectivity solutions.

The MCUs, which consume 0.9µA in stand by, draw 130µA/MHz at 24MHz and are said to wake up from stand by in 2µs. Also featured is the six channel Peripheral Reflex System, which enhances overall energy efficiency. This monitors system level events and allows different MCU peripherals to communicate with each other autonomously.

Other peripherals include an analogue comparator, supply voltage comparator, on-chip temperature sensor, programmable current D/A converter and a 12bit A/D converter.

"Happy Gecko MCUs bring the benefits of Silicon Labs' EFM32 architecture to developers seeking an economical, plug and play solution for adding USB connectivity to their battery powered IoT applications," said Daniel Cooley, general manager of Silicon Labs' MCU and wireless products.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

MACOM Technology Solutions has launched the fourth generation of its gallium nitride on silicon (GaN on Si) technology and claims the development will deliver performance that rivals that of GaN on Silicon Carbide, but with a volume production cost less than that of LDMOS.

"Gen4 will unlock the full promise of GaN for mainstream commercial applications," said John Croteau, pictured, MACOM's president and CEO. "We expect its impact on the RF and Microwave industry will be transformative."

Gen4 GaN delivers a peak efficiency of more than 70% and a gain of 19dB for modulated signals at 2.7GHz, said to be similar to GaN on SiC and at least 10% more efficienct than LDMOS. It is also said to deliver four times the power density of LDMOS.

According to MACOM, the technology is expected to yield GaN based devices that are half the semiconductor cost per Watt of comparable LDMOS products and significantly lower cost than comparably performing GaN on SiC wafers in volume.

"Our GaN IP portfolio and strategic licensing agreements set the foundation for a sustainable, cost-efficient technology and supply chain model enabling GaN production at unprecedented economies of scale," Croteau added.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Microchip has unveiled the dsPIC33EP GS family of Digital Signal Controllers, which the company says will be able to support more sophisticated non-linear, predictive and adaptive control algorithms at higher switching frequencies.

"These higher frequencies will enable the development of much smaller power supplies," according to Mike Sproher, product manager for the company's MCU16 division, "offering both higher densities and lower costs."

Compared to previous products, these new devices provide less than half the latency when used in a three pole, three zero compensator, and consume up to 80% less power in any application.

New features include advanced features such as a live update flash capability, which can be used to change the firmware of an operating power supply, including the active compensator calculation code, while maintaining continuous regulation.

The parts include up to five 12bit A/D converters, with up to 22 inputs, providing a throughput of 16Msample/s at a latency of 300ns. The GS devices also come with 12bit D/A converters for each of the four analogue comparators, while two on chip programmable gain amplifiers can be used for current sensing and other precision measurements.

Author
Neil Tyler

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Intel is to work with eASIC on the development of integrated products that combine processing performance and customisable hardware. According to the partners, the move will meet increasing demand for custom compute solutions for data centres and the cloud.

"Having the ability to customise our solutions for a given workload will not only make the specific application run faster, but also help accelerate the growth of exciting new applications like visual search," said Diane Bryant, pictured, general manager of Intel's Data Center Group. "This announcement helps broaden our portfolio of customised products to provide our customers with the flexibility and performance they need."

The partners say the growth of cloud computing has spurred greater demand for customised chips that make an application or workload run faster. To enable this, eASIC plans to integrate its eASIC platform technology with future Intel Xeon processors.

"We believe eASIC technology has characteristics that will benefit cloud service providers to get the most from their applications," said Ronnie Vasishta, eASIC's president and CEO. "The combination of eASIC and Intel technology will help bring break through cost and performance to our customers."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

IBM has announced what it calls a significant milestone in the development of silicon photonics technology. Its engineers have designed and tested a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip which supports data rates of up to 100Gbit/s.

"Making silicon photonics technology ready for widespread commercial use will help the semiconductor industry keep pace with ever-growing demands in computing power driven by Big Data and cloud services," said Arvind Krishna, director of IBM Research.

IBM engineers in New York and Zurich have demonstrated a reference design targeting datacentre interconnects with a range up to 2km. This chip demonstrates transmission and reception of high speed data using four laser 'colours', each operating as an independent 25Gbit/s optical channel. Within a full transceiver design, these four channels can be wavelength multiplexed on chip to provide an aggregate bandwidth of 100Gbit/s over a duplex single mode fibre.

IBM says its CMOS Integrated Nanophotonics Technology will provide a cost effective silicon photonics solution by combining optical and electrical components, as well as structures enabling fibre packaging, on a chip and manufacturing the device using sub 100nm technology.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Japanese photoresist specialist JSR is entering a partnership with Belgian research centre imec in a move intended to develop EUV lithography materials.

As part of the deal, JSR will provide manufacturing technology, as well as an upgrade to the manufacturing and analytical equipment at its Belgian subsidiary. Imec, meanwhile, will provide expertise and services quality control on materials.

"JSR has been a strategic partner of imec for a long time and I am excited with this intensified collaboration," said imec's president and CEO Luc Van den hove, pictured. "The partnership enabled through close proximity between the JSR manufacturing facility and the imec technology platform will allow our partners to gain access to best in class materials for next generation technologies."

"We know that EUV lithography is required to realise Moore's Law in semiconductor manufacturing technologies and we continuously focus our R&D efforts to meet industry needs," said Nobu Koshiba, president of JSR. "The industry is requesting material suppliers to prepare manufacturing infrastructure and quality control capabilities for defect free lithography solutions, as well as to improve photoresist performance to match EUV exposure equipment.

"JSR has successfully developed chemically amplified photoresists, as well as newly designed chemistries with very high sensitivity and good productivity. Our strength has also extended to peripheral materials, such as multilayer materials."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Renesas Electronics has reported net sales for the year ended March 31 2015 of ¥791.1billion ($7.3bn), a 5% decrease compared to the previous year. According to the company, this was due mainly to a decrease in sales of drivers for small and medium sized displays in mobile handsets and consumer electronics devices.

While sales into the automotive sector grew by 6.4% to ¥323.1bn ($3bn), revenues from general purpose devices dropped by 12.7% to ¥425.5bn ($3.9bn).

Net income for the year was stated as ¥82.4bn ($762million), compared to a loss of ¥5.3bn ($49m) in its 2014 financial year.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk