November 20, 2009
[TechView: Communications] Single-Chip Optical Transceiver Targets Motherboard Applications
Optical-fiber interfaces are the fastest but still expensive, especially for computers. Mountable on a printed-circuit board (PCB), Luxtera’s OptoPHY optical transceiver paves the way to breaking the one dollar per Gigabit/s cost barrier for faster interfaces in the near future. The OptoPHY transceivers use Luxtera’s CMOS process, which integrates the optics and electronics on a single chip.
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Louis E. Frenzel
November 19, 2009
[TechScope] California Approves TV Efficiency Regulations
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) responded harshly to new regulations issued by the California Energy Commission (CEC) that would regulate energy efficiency standards on televisions sold in California.
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Staff
November 18, 2009
[Leapfrog: First Look] It's A Multimedia CPU Feeding Frenzy!
The ARM Cortex-A5 and MIPS M14K and M14Kc lines are new architectures that the customers of these vendors will be using to build new chips. Meanwhile, ZiiLabs and VIA Technologies are offering new chips—the ZMS-08 multimedia processor and the Nano 300, respectively—using their own designs.
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William Wong
November 18, 2009
[TechView: Test] Modular Test Standard Builds On ATCA, PXI, LXI, And IVI
Does the world really need another modular test standard? Ready or not, here comes AdvancedTCA Extensions for Instrumentation and Test (AXIe). Proposed by the trio of Aeroflex, Agilent Technologies, and Test Evolution Corp., AXIe is an open standard based on AdvancedTCA (ATCA) that aims to extend that standard into the realm of general-purpose and semiconductor test.
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David Maliniak
November 18, 2009
[TechView: EDA] Network-On-Chip Tools Arrive for The Masses
Arteris has rolled out products that bring network-on-a-chip (NoC) technology to a broader range of design teams. For creation of interconnects on mid-complexity SoCs, there’s FlexNoC, while for bus replacement applications, there’s FlexWay. In both cases, Arteris has scaled down its technology to make it effective for most, if not all, SoC designs.
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David Maliniak
November 17, 2009
[POV: Point Of View] Tackling System Design Challenges Through Early Verification
For design teams in a number of industries, the cost of system verification is now their top challenge. With Model-Based Design, system-level verification can be performed earlier in the design process through modeling and simulation, shortening design cycles.
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Paul Barnard
November 16, 2009[TechView: Communications] 1-Gsample/s ADC FIts Advanced Wireless Applications
The Texas Instruments ADS5400 analog-to-digital converter (ADC) provides a 1-Gbit/s sample rate with a resolution of 12 bits. With its superior signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR), it’s ideal for extra-needy wireless applications like receivers for radar, electronic intelligence and jamming, and super-highspeed data acquisition. The ADS5400 offers an excellent SNR of 59 dBFS and 75-dBc SFDR in first...
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Louis E. Frenzel
November 16, 2009[Design View / Design Solution] Optimizing Measurement Accuracy
The ability to achieve level accuracy that provides meaningful measurement results depends on external leveling techniques that correct for mismatches and frequency- response variations. In most cases, a combination of static and dynamic leveling is the most effective approach. Static leveling relies on an array of usercreated calibration factors that ensure the delivery of flat power at an interface beyond the signal generator’s RF output connector. ...
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John S. Hansen
November 16, 2009[Design View / Design Solution] Explore The Benefits Of High-Output Signal Generators In Your RF Test Setup
In RF testing, an essential attribute of every RF signal generator is the maximum output power it can supply to a device under test (DUT) while maintaining spectral purity and level accuracy. The ability to deliver a pure, accurate signal at +25 dBm or greater ensures improved measurement accuracy. Plus, it enables testing of extreme or unusual operating conditions. These capabilities can simplify the testing of high-power amplifiers, overcome...
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John S. Hansen
November 16, 2009[Ideas For Design] IC Simplifies Support For FIPS 140-2 Level 4 Digital Encryption
Many solutions exist to supply Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Revision 2, Level 1 and Level 2 digital encryption.1 However, Levels 3 and 4 require monitoring of the environment. Level 3 could be implemented with tamper switches, but they can be bypassed with jumpers or a paper clip. More sophisticated switch sensors require some filtering and deglitching. Level 4 requires monitoring of the supply voltages and temperature. For best...
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John R. Ambrose
, et al.
November 16, 2009[Ideas For Design] Diode Tester Limits Reverse Voltage And Forward Current To Protect Sensitive Junctions
Some diode manufacturers caution against using the diode tester function in ohmmeters because it could exceed the reverse-voltage and forward-current ratings of sensitive diodes. This is especially true in optical devices such as photodiodes and laser diodes. However, the circuit described here performs a simple go/no-go test on these diodes while limiting forward current and reverse voltage to safe levels (...
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Michael Gambuzza
November 16, 2009[Ideas For Design] Adjustment-Free Fan Controller For Under $1
No frills here—just inexpensive functionality. This circuit activates a cooling fan when the temperature of a target high-power-dissipation device, such as a processor chip, exceeds a predetermined limit. The key element in the design is the Epcos PTC Temperature Limit Sensor (see the datasheet at www.epcos.com/inf/55/db/ptc_03/01900191.pdf), which cost about $0.50....
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Jim Keith
November 16, 2009[Lab Bench] Will Android Open The Set-Top Box?
Comcast’s final move to all-digital transmission in my area means I need a set-top box (STB) for all of my devices. This puts Comcast on par with other HDTV service providers such as Verizon and Dish Networks. Viewers can still get local channels via Comcast cable with a TV or HDTV tuner, but they’re just a fraction of all of the available channels. This doesn’t make much of a difference for viewers with one or two televisions. But I have a few more, ...
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William Wong
November 16, 2009[Electronic Design Products] 2D Communications Sheet Challenges 3D Trends
Last month, Teijin Fibers unveiled a 2D communication sheet that it says provides simple, secure wireless local-area network (WLAN) connections. According to the company, communications are rapidly migrating from 1D cable to 3D wireless topologies, while it forges development in the 2D domain. With the growing trend toward 3D communications, this 2D approach may seem like a step backward. But Teijin Fibers, which primarily designs and creates unique...
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Mat Dirjish
November 16, 2009[Electronic Design Products] Select Optimal Protection For Your VDSL-Based Telecom Circuits
A variety of over-current and overvoltage products are on the market for protecting VDSL telecommunications circuits. These include transformer line-side capacitors, transformer driver-side diodes, thyristors, gas discharge tubes (GDTs), electronic current limiters (ECLs), and combinations of all of these devices. To actively protect telecommunication systems, engineers need to understand the surges, the damage thresholds of VDSL drivers, and the...
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Paul Wiener
November 16, 2009[Engineering Essentials] Stars Of The Really Small Screen
Electronic addictions abound, due mainly to the surging popularity of gadgets like MP3 players and video games. In the face of this electronics mania, television remains a leading pastime. Even average viewers spend several hours a day watching the tube. But the type of viewing is changing. Instead of sitting in front of the latest LCD or plasma screen, viewers are on the go with their portable devices. New standards have been established, services are...
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Louis E. Frenzel
November 16, 2009[Engineering Feature] Science Fiction Meets Science Fact In Today's Robot Research
Real robots have capturedthe imagination of young and old engineers, designers, and programmers alike. For example, techies can get their hands dirty with iRobot’s Roomba Create or take part in competitions like FIRST Robotics. Robots also are changing how war is waged and how we protect people on and off the battlefield. And, they’re working with doctors and patients. Though we’re far from the intelligent androids found in science fiction, robot deployment and...
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William Wong
November 16, 2009[Engineering Feature] Taking A Hand At Robot Control
Tele-operated and semi-autonomous robots are often handled by conventional joysticks and mice. This is fine for rolling robots with two degrees of freedom. But higher-complexity robots capable of more varied movements have led to everything from 3D mice to thought control (brainwaves), though that has yet to be used for precise control. The AcceleGlove from AnthroTronix uses Freescale’s 3D microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers (...
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William Wong
November 16, 2009[Editorial] MEMS Inertial Sensor Combines Breakthroughs In Performance And Cost
A recent request from Hewlett-Packard piqued my interest, as company representatives wanted to talk to me about a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensor it had developed. At the end of these briefings, I typically ask for pricing and availability information, so readers will know when the part will be ready to purchase and how much it will cost. But selling this new MEMS sensor as a component directly to design engineers is not what the...
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Joseph Desposito
November 16, 2009[Technology Report] Take The Stress Out Of Measuring IEC 61000-4-2 Stress Levels In Portable Devices
Testing electrical systems for electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness usually involves using IEC 61000-4-2 as a benchmark. This standard defines the stress current waveforms for each voltage level, how to calibrate the ESD pulse source, the test environment for the measurements, and the pass and fail criteria. It also provides guidance on how to perform the tests. But when performing ESD testing on electrical systems, it’s not clear how much stress...
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Robert Ashton
November 16, 2009[Technology Report] What's New In ESD Protection Devices
Obviously, electrostatic discharge (ESD) is one of many critical considerations in almost every design project. Equally obvious is the fact that there is no shortage of solutions to keep ESD at bay. Maxim Integrated Products describes its MAX4895E as the industry’s smallest VGA-port protector (Fig. 1). In addition to ESD protection on all seven of its video outputs, the 3- by 3-mm, 16-pin thin quad...
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Mat Dirjish
November 16, 2009[Simply the Bits that Matter] Remove Redundancy In Your Compression Designs
All compression algorithms utilize two basic functions. The first removes redundant or irrelevant information. Redundancy removal can be lossless or lossy. The second function, bit packing, packs the redundancy remover’s outpt bits together in a lossless manner. Redundancy occurs when a signal stream contains more bits than required to represent the inherent information it carries. For instance, telephone calls could transmit the full 2-kHz bandwidth...
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Al Wegener
November 16, 2009[Leapfrog: First Look] Low-Energy Microcontroller Takes It To The Limit
What do you get when you don’t run Energy Micro’s 32-bit Cortex-M3 processor (Fig. 1) at full speed (mode 0)? A very low energy bill. In most instances, this 32-bit microcontroller sips less power than ultra-low-power 8-bit microcontrollers, so why not take advantage of 32-bit performance? Extensive clock gating within the chip design is a major factor in reducing power requirements, but so is...
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William Wong
November 16, 2009[TechView: Communications] Single-Chip Optical Transceiver Targets Light Peak Technology
The roadmap for communications divides into two primary paths wireless and optical. While copper cabling won’t go away, data rates keep increasing, making optical the best choice especially when distance exceeds a few meters. Optical is also getting cheaper and better each year. Recognizing this, Intel’s Light Peak technology targets consumer electronics, PC peripherals, and other short-range fast communications applications. It may...
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Louis E. Frenzel
November 10, 2009
[TechView: Test] PXI Instrumentation Suite Stands Up To Mixed-Signal Semiconductor Test Challenges
National Instruments has launched a series of PXI-based modular instruments that combine with the company’s LabVIEW software to create a highly flexible system that shines with analog/mixed-signal test, where stimuli types can be out of the ordinary (think MEMS test), volumes are extremely high, and test costs must be correspondingly low.
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David Maliniak
November 10, 2009
[Technology In The News] Micronail Chip Links Electronics With Bio Cells
IMEC (www.imec.com), a nanotechnology research center based in Leuven, Belgium, has developed a unique microchip with microscopic nail structures that enables close communication between electronics and biological cells.
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Staff
November 05, 2009[Pease Porridge] What's All This 2401BG Stuff, Anyhow?
Back about 1965, when I was at Philbrick, we were doing some business with Amelco Semiconductor. I had designed a good hybrid op amp (the Q85AH) and Amelco was trying to build it, but they had some test problems, and some yield problems... so I flew out to help find and solve their problems. The first morning, I put in an hour looking at their test setup. Nothing showed up right away. So we went over to their cafeteria for a cup of coffee. Several engineers ...
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Bob Pease
November 05, 2009[Design FAQs] Clocking Data Converters Sponsored by: ANALOG DEVICES
What is the most critical performance characteristic for clock chips used with high-performance data converters? The clock signal’s phase noise (or jitter— the time-domain representation of phase noise) is the most critical spec. But also, pay attention to the band over which the jitter has been integrated. Phase noise limits signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For converter applications, broadband RMS additive jitter is a good...
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Don Tuite
November 05, 2009[Ideas For Design] Garage Door Opener Parts Form IR Intrusion Detector
While creating an infrared beam intrusion detector system, the need for a beam-focusing method became evident. Parts from a modified Genie garage door Safe-T-Beam system, purchased at the local home improvement store, proved to be perfectly suited to the application. The main reason for choosing the Genie unit is that the IR transmitter and receiver housings each contain a plastic lens inside a short plastic tube molded into the housing. The tube and lens...
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Bert Henscheid
November 05, 2009[Ideas For Design] Achieve MPPT Control Without Power Calculation
A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller circuit is extremely useful in solar photovoltaic systems for boosting power usage efficiency. The traditional MPPT design, though, requires the use of a multiplier to calculate power from source voltage and current measurements. However, it’s possible to build an MPPT controller without this multiplication stage by measuring power on the load rather than using source parameters. If we aren’t in the presence of a...
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Giovanni Romeo
November 05, 2009[Design View / Design Solution] Take Simple Steps Toward Extreme Low-Power Design
Practicing engineers are always learning and perfecting their craft. With the demand for more portable, battery-powered devices and energy harvesting on the horizon, the requirements for even lower-power designs have gotten more challenging. At first, designers wrestled with saving milliamps, then microamps. Today, it is all about saving nanoamps. As a result, designers have to elevate their thinking to another level. Extreme low-power embedded design...
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Steven Bible
November 05, 2009[Leapfrog: First Look] Hard Drive Delivers SATA-III 6-Gbit/s Transfer Rate
Peripheral transfer rate is the typical bottleneck for many applications, especially as processors split into multiple cores. SATA-III’s 6-Gbit/s transfer rate provides significantly more bandwidth, assuming the hard drives and motherboards can keep up. Seagate’s 2-Tbyte ST32000641AS Barracuda XT hard drive delivers on the peripheral side. This is enough space for up to 45 hours of 1080i HD DVCPRO-encoded video (see the...
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William Wong
November 05, 2009[TechView: EDA] Parasitic Extraction Tool Targets Next-Generation Custom ICs
Achieving design closure in a system-on-a-chip (SoC) development project generally requires a great deal of patience. SoCs tend to include more and more custom circuitry, which means long simulation runs and some stabs in the dark at something resembling signoff. The combination of more transistors and the need to model more complex parasitic effects can double, if not quadruple, the runtimes of circuit-level simulation. One way to get...
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David Maliniak
November 05, 2009[Technology Report] Li-ion Suppliers Try To Find The Right Chemistry With Car Buyers
Since Sony introduced them in 1991, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have transformed portable electronic products. Now, carmakers and would-be automotive battery suppliers are looking for a similar transformation to redefine automotive propulsion. Currently, well over 2 billion Li-ion battery cells are sold annually for consumer electronic applications, most notably cell phones and laptop computers. If cars become a significant market for Li-ion batteries, this...
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Randy Frank
November 05, 2009[Embedded in Electronic Design] Tracing The Almost Perfect Program
Those of you who write perfect programs the first time around may leave the room. Now for the rest of us, what debug tools do you use? The crude but effective printf (for C and C++) is probably at the top of everyone’s list. Variations include watch variables in debuggers and control panels for graphical environments like National Instruments’ LabVIEW, but the idea is the same—see what the program is doing and then figure out what’s going...
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William Wong
November 05, 2009[Embedded in Electronic Design] DSF Targets Complex Debugging Chores
The open-source Eclipse project has turned into one of the primary software development platforms for Web services, embedded systems, and other applications. Embedded developers typically take advantage of the Java-based Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) using the C/ C++ Development Tool (CDT). Embedded tool vendors quickly adopted the CDT because it enabled incorporation of the GNU toolchain as well as proprietary toolchains including...
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William Wong
November 05, 2009[Design FAQs] Non-Isolated Point-Of-Load Regulator Modules
Analog & Power Editor Don Tuite answers some frequently asked questions about non-isolated point-of-load regulator modules, including: What is the Intermediate Bus Architecture? Functionally, what does a POL regulator comprise? How do newer packages deal with the switching inductor? Are there disadvantages to an integrated inductor? And more! Fill out this brief form to download the FAQ: ...
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Don Tuite
November 05, 2009[Lab Bench] Rambus And SPMT Offer A Memory Of Things To Come
Memory is more than double data rate (DDR), as any embedded designer will attest. Memory technology is also one of the arenas where there is an ongoing conflict between standards and innovation. Volume keeps memory costs down, but it also means standards need to exist so parts are interchangeable. Plenty of memory technologies are out now, with more on the drawing board. Two new possibilities, multithreaded DDR RAM from Rambus and serial port memory from the...
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William Wong
November 05, 2009[Engineering Feature] A Bright Future For LED Illumination
Nearly all market forecasts paint a positive picture on LEDs being used for general illumination. Market research firm Databeans Inc. expects the market for LED lighting applications, including white LEDs, to grow an average of 23% over the next several years. Worldwide sales this year alone will total $500 million, and LED revenues will hit $1.8 billion by 2013 (see the figure). The vast majority of such sales will be for...
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Roger Allan
November 05, 2009[Engineering Feature] White LEDs Promise Green Illumination Domination
The lighting is on the wall: Solid state is threatening to dismantle the dominion of incandescent and compact fluorescent light (CFL) sources. Illumination applications based on solid-state lighting are slowly replacing those previously ruled by the older technologies. Though very expensive to use, solid-state lighting has proven more efficient and in sync in a world where government initiatives are calling for a greener environment and less energy consumption. ...
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Roger Allan
November 05, 2009[Engineering Essentials] Motor-Control Resources
A good general view of field-oriented control (FOC) can be found in Texas Instruments’ 1998 white paper, “Field Orientated Control of 3-Phase AC Motors”, which can be downloaded for free. For a more recent treatment, though its references go back at least as far as 1980, readers can check out “A Seamless Whole Speed Range Control of Interior PM Synchronous Machine without Position Transducer” by Filka, Balazovic, and...
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Don Tuite
, et al.
