Archive : 24 June 2015 год

As part of the product roll out at its Technology Forum, Freescale has unveiled the Kinetis K8x MCU family, said to deliver the highest levels of integrated security available on an ARM Cortex-M class platform.

"Broad market MCUs are the critical enablers of innovative new end node applications and, for the IoT to evolve, these MCUs must enable highly securable product designs," said Steve Tateosian, director of microcontroller platforms.

According to Freescale, creating a secure embedded application has previously required up to three ICs – the main processor, a security coprocessor to perform cryptographic functions and, in some cases, an IC for physical tamper protection. Devices in the K8x family are said to perform all of these functions and to support execute in place operation.

Three variants of the K8x family will be available, all designed around a Cortex-M4 core running at 150MHz. The K80 variant is said to be an advanced security MCU. The K81 adds anti tamper features, while the K82 comes with a cryptographic coprocessor. Each part will have 256kbyte of SRAM, while devices will be available with up to 256kbyte of flash.

Depending on the device selected, features will include: hardware asymmetric cryptography, to improve cryptographic throughput; on the fly decryption, allowing the use of external serial NOR flash; and embedded tamper resistance against physical and passive attacks.

Target markets for the devices include point of sale equipment, smart energy gateways, home automation and building controls, portable healthcare devices and wearables.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

The UK's ability to develop and exploit the potential of robotics and autonomous systems is said to have been given a major boost with the formal launch of the EPSRC UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network (UK-RAS). According to the network, the market for such devices is likely to rise to $59.5billion by 2020.

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, UK-RAS chair, said: "Robotics and autonomous systems are set to play an increasingly vital role in the growth of the UK economy. This dedicated network provides a focus for the UK's research and engineering excellence for the first time, ensuring that the UK can maintain its competitive edge in RAS innovation."

The network will coordinate the UK's core academic capabilities in robotics innovation and encourage academic and industry collaborations. The founding network members are Imperial College, Bristol Robotics Lab, University College London and Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton and Warwick universities.

Kedar Pandya, head of the engineering theme for EPSRC, added: "The technology being developed at these EPSRC funded RAS facilities will deliver a significant impact on the research landscape and attract the kind of industrial investment that will maximise the UK's stake in the worldwide robotics market."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

The Arduino M0 Pro board, available from RS Components, is designed to help the development of smart IoT devices, wearable technologies and similar projects. The board can also help users to learn about 32bit application development.

Featuring the Atmel SAM D21 MCU running at 48MHz, the Arduino M0 Pro board is said to offer increased performance and a highly flexible feature set. The Atmel Embedded Debugger (EDBG) provides a full debug interface without the need for additional hardware and increases ease-of-use for software debugging. The EDBG also supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming and traditional Arduino boot loader functionality.

Compatible with 3.3V shields that conform to the Arduino R3 Layout, development using the Arduino programming language is fully supported through a custom developed software library.

The M0 Pro board also features 256kbyte of flash memory, 32kbyte of SRAM and up to 16kbyte of EEPROM via emulation. I/O options include 14 digital I/O pins with 12 PWM channels and UART, six 12bit A/D converter input channels and a 10bit D/A converter output.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Gallium nitride pioneer Exagan has raised €5.7million from a range of French organisations and will use the cash to produce high speed power switching devices on 200mm wafers. Exagan was spun out from French research body Leti and materials specialist Soitec in 2014.

"This significant first round of financing validates our efforts over the past five years with Leti and Soitec to commercialise GaN-on-silicon technology and supports our commitment to provide customers with qualified GaN devices in large volumes," said Frédéric Dupont, Exagan's CEO. "We are focused on offering our customers reliable, high-performance devices that are developed with industrial partners already sourcing technologies or products for the targeted markets."

The financing round follows Exagan's recent agreement with foundry X-FABto produce devices on 200mm wafers targeted at markets such as solar, automotive and IT electronics. It also has a strategic partnership with CEA-Leti, which is using Exagan's 650V G-FET platform to develop applications with its industrial partners.

Soitec CEO Paul Boudre noted: "Soitec is obviously excited about this successful round of financing. Its GaN-on-silicon technology, which leverages our materials expertise, opens interesting opportunities in promising markets such as electronics, automotive and energy.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

In response to growing concerns around health issues arising from poor air quality in cities, imec and Holst Centre claim to have developed small, low power and high quality autonomous NO2 sensors that have low power consumption, in the mW range, can detect NO2 at less than 10ppb and wirelessly communicate with the environment and the cloud.

Air quality is typically measured in a few locations per city, with specialised equipment. Many current gas sensors are large in size, have high power consumption and are too cost prohibitive to be implemented on a large scale for Intuitive Internet of Things (I2oT) applications.

Imec and Holst Centre's NO2 sensors were tested for stability and to compare their results to those of established sensors by being integrated in the Aireas air quality network, a multiple sensor network in the city centre of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) as well as inside the Holst Centre building.

The generated data is transferred to the cloud, stored in a database and is immediately available on mobile applications. Kathleen Philips, director of imec's I2oT R&D programme, explained. "Data fusion methodology and advanced algorithms enable us to combine data from different sensors such as temperature, gasses, humidity and human presence detection to derive contextual knowledge. In this way, we have developed a context-aware intuitive sensing system."

Imec and Holst Centre have launched a programme aimed to develop the building blocks for the I2oT at the imec Technology Forum. The R&D programme aims to leverage knowledge with global partnerships to develop compact and power-efficient sensor modules, future wireless connectivity and flexible integration technologies. An integral part of the programme will also focus on the development of early I2oT demonstrators and applications while dealing with the heterogeneity of networks, data fusion and light weight security and authentication aspects.

Author
Tom Austin-Morgan

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk