Electonics Products & Design

JUNE, 2013 ISSUE NO. 6, VOL.
11
DESIGN & MANUFACTURING
EP&Dee
ELECTRONICS
PRODUCTS
&
DESIGN
EASTERN
EUROPE
THE EAST EUROPEAN RESOURCE

FOR EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS
JUNE 2013
Table of Contents
EDITORIAL
3 Sharing success
by Ken Millar, Senior Sales Channel Manager Europe, Microchip Technology Inc.
DESIGN FEATURES
4 Seven essential Raspberry Pi projects
Seven projects for the Raspberry Pi that range from educational to fun via highly
useful. This is by no means an attempt at a definitive list and the term essential is
somewhat subjective, but if you're stuck for something new to do with your
Raspberry Pi there may be some ideas here!
8 Platforms to consider for Motor Control and Robotics Applications

From automobile assembly and PCB fabrication, to consumer electronics, robotics
is home to some of the most exciting engineering taking place today. Learning
about robotics, whether you are an experienced engineer or complete beginner,
has never been easier thanks to the application notes, software examples and
tutorials available online today.
Win a Microchip
PICDEM PIC18
Explorer Board!
EP&Dee is offering its readers the chance to win a
Microchip PICDEM PIC18 Explorer Board (DM183032).
The PICDEM PIC18 Explorer low-cost demo board is the
main board you need to evaluate Microchips PIC18 MCU
families. The PIC18 Explorer features a PIC18F8722
microcontroller, which is the superset of our traditional
PIC18 general purpose 5V family.
12 Ambient LED Lighting Advances in Tomorrows Vehicle

This article will take a closer look at:
the tradeoffs among the methods for controlling LED ambient lighting solutions
the use of control algorithms to enable effective binning, dimming and
temperature compensation for LED color
creating driver-preferred lighting scenarios by changing the color and brightness
of the LED arrays
20 Hammond. Enclosures for your equipment

Virtually, every electrical or electronic equipment, even amateur one, needs
enclosure. Why? After all, enclosure is not always necessary for the proper operation
of the equipment. There may be multiple reasons for that. Two, most common ones
include: protection of users against electrical shock and widely understood protection
of the equipment against influence of environment in which such equipment operates.
28 MLC. One mane - three times safer!

Three function classes Basic, Standard and Extended enable the most efficient
use of devices from simple standard applications to complex controlled special
safeguarding processes.
PRODUCT NEWS
Embedded Systems
(p 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14)
(p 16 - 18), (p 22 - 27)
Display (p 33)
18
36
LEDs (p 34)
Active Components
(p 35 - 40)
33
Group Publisher Director
Gabriel Neagu
Managing Director
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Accounting
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EP&Dee | June, 2013 | www.epd-ee.eu
The board also comes with the PIC18F87J11 processor

PIM which is the superset of our PIC18 J-series of 3V
MCUs for cost sensitive applications.
The single development board supports dozens of the
general purpose PIC18 families using various processor
Plug-In Modules (PIMs). PICtail daughter boards enable
many different accessory boards to connect to the PIC18
Explorer board for a flexible and complete development
environment.
This board is the ideal complement to the MPLAB
PICkit 3 or ICD 3 debugger and programmer for a fullfeatured, economical, PIC18 development environment.
For the chance to win a PICDEM PIC18 Explorer Board,
log onto http://www.microchip-comps.com/epdee-pic18
and enter your details into the online entry form.
39
Contributing editors
Radu Andrei
Ross Bannatyne
Consulting
Marian Blejan
Bogdan Grmescu
Mihai Savu
Asian Reprezentative Taiwan

Charles Yang
Tel: +88643223633
charles@medianet.com.tw
EP&Dee
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EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design Eastern Europe) is published 11 times per year in
2013 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.
It is a free to qualified electronics engineers and managers involved in engineering
decisions. Starting on 2010, this magazine is published only in digital format.
Copyright 2013 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l. All rights reserved.
EDITORIAL
Sharing success
By Ken Millar
Senior Sales Channel Manager Europe
Microchip Technology Inc.
The trouble with working in a high-tech industry is that the focus is almost exclusively on the
latest technologies and components. Short-termism is endemic and components are made
obsolete with barely a thought for the impact
that this has on the customers who designed
them in just a few years ago. Microchips
approach is a little different because, even though we shipped our 10 billionth PIC
microcontroller in 2011, we have never made a part obsolete whilst there was a customer out there who is still using it. Our production lines still produce the
PIC16C54/55, which were among the first microcontrollers to be manufactured,
whilst our recent acquisition of SST has provided us with the 8051/80C51 family,
which preceded PIC technology. These legacy parts are manufactured next to our
latest, state-of-the-art microcontrollers, analogue and memory devices.
Continuity and innovation
For Microchip, continuity is as important as innovation and supporting our customers procurement teams is as important as the support we give to their engineers. Every aspect of Microchips business shares a single goal: To help our customers to succeed. For buyers, we do this by ensuring that we make it as easy as
possible to buy Microchip components and that we achieve lead-times which are
the shortest in the industry.
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Microchip expands general-purpose 8-bit
PIC microcontroller portfolio with
increased intelligent analogue
Microchip announces the
an expansion to the
PIC16F75X family of 8-bit
microcontrollers (MCUs)
featuring intelligent analogue and core-independent peripherals,
making them ideal for
general-purpose applications, as well as power
supplies, battery charging,
LED lighting, power management and power control/smart energy applications. The new PIC16F753
MCU builds on the success of the popular
PIC12F752.
DAC, capture/compare
PWM modules, high-performance comparators,
and two 50 mA-capable
I/Os, enabling engineers
to increase overall system
capabilities and reduce
costs.
The PIC16F753 offers all

the key features of the
PIC12F752, such as the
integrated Complementary
Output Generator (COG)
peripheral that provides
non-overlapping, complementary waveforms for
inputs such as comparators and Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM)
peripherals, while enabling
dead-band control, auto
shutdown, auto reset,
phase control and blanking control.
Additionally, the
PIC16F753 offers an Op
Amp with 3 MHz of Gain
Bandwidth Product
(GBWP), and a slope compensation circuit to help
in Switch Mode Power
Supply (SMPS) applications. The new also MCU
features 3.5 KB of self
read-write programme
memory, 128B of RAM, an
on-chip 10-bit ADC, 9-bit
for incorporating intelligence into numerous automotive, consumer, commercial or industrial applications, where it enables a
smart system infrastructure
with increased efficiencies,
reduced costs and an
enhanced user experience.
View a brief presentation here:

www.microchip.com/get/AM5D
The PIC16F753 MCU
enables efficient power
conversion for applications
such as LED lighting and
power control. It also provides a versatile platform
Prioritised leadtimes
The fact that we have our own manufacturing facilities, rather than out-sourcing
production to third-party fabs, is crucial because it gives us complete control over
our production processes. It enables us to prioritise lead-times more effectively
and to have redundancy in our capacity which means that output can be
increased or even doubled at very short notice.
Multi-model indirect supply-chain
Another important factor in our ability to help customers to succeed is in mixing
direct and indirect sales channels. Our indirect sales channel combines global
broadline distributors and regional narrowline specialists with internet-based distribution houses. Customers can choose whether to engage face-to-face with a
distributor and or to buy components quickly and easily over the internet.
Direct sales and support
Microchip was one of the first silicon manufacturers to extend the direct supply
channel beyond Tier 1 OEMs by introducing microchipDIRECT. Initially offering
an online procurement process, microchipDIRECT is used by customers of all
sizes, from credit-card users to major multi-nationals, to order samples, production volumes and device programming, as well as to schedule deliveries and to
manage buffer stocks for high-volume orders.
Global support network
It is not just engineers who have technical questions, so Microchip provides buyers with 24/7 online support. Our support teams are based worldwide, in Europe,
India and North America, and achieve response times which we believe are
among the best in the business. Technical forums and blogs also give buyers
access to a global community of Microchip customers.
This global approach extends to our support for customers who decide to move
their own manufacturing off-shore. Philosophically and culturally, Microchip is
geared to be a global organisation. As such we actively help customers to migrate
production to off-shore locations rather than take a more protectionist approach
which would seek to keep the revenue in the same local business unit.
Conclusion
Although we cant do much about economic climate, we can work with customers,
directly and indirectly, to realise our inherent corporate philosophy that we are
here to help every one of our customers to succeed. n
The PIC16F753 is supported by Microchips

standard suite of worldclass development tools,
including the PICDEM
Lab Development Kit
(DM163045) priced at
$134.99; the PICkit 3
(PG164130) at $44.95;
and the PICkit Low PinCount Demo Board
(DM164130-9) at $25.99.
A free reference design
for a high-power LED
flashlight is available for
this product.
MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY
www.microchip.com/get/6TM0
www.epd-ee.eu | June, 2013 | EP&Dee
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Raspberry Pi
Seven essential Raspberry Pi projects

Seven projects for the Raspberry Pi that range from educational to
fun via highly useful. This is by no means an attempt at a definitive
list and the term essential is somewhat subjective, but if you're stuck
for something new to do with your Raspberry Pi there may be some
ideas here!
1. Have fun with LEDs
LED light chaser project
( SK Pang Electronics Ltd)
is currently being recorded, music is playing

or some other useful information.
There are a number of different ways that a
display can be interfaced with a Raspberry Pi,
and a detailed example by Mikey Sklar shows
how to directly drive a 162 LCD.
3. Build an energy monitoring server
Emoncms
( OpenEnergyMonitor, GFDL)
For many their first Raspberry Pi hardware

project will involve blinking an LED, but how
about controlling 8 or 16 LEDs via a port
expander IC. This will provide a gentle introduction to expanding the Raspberry Pi via the
I2C bus, and if you were to use a bar graph
LED array it could come in handy for more
complex projects where you need to indicate
the level of something such as temperature or
sound etc.
2. Drive a liquid crystal display
Directly attaching a liquid crystal display
to a Raspberry Pi
( Mikey Sklar, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Michael Kellett suggests that the Pi-Face may

not be suitable for directly switching mains,
and you should always check the voltage and
current rating of equipment before use and
ensure that it is suitably enclosed, earthed
where neccessary and fused etc.
Alternatively, Pi-Face and similar expansion
boards could be used to control additional
switching hardware that is rated for mains, e.g.
relay, contactor or triac-based.
The OpenEnergyMonitor project are developing a fully open-source energy monitoring
and control system that is suitable for domestic and industrial application.
Providing designs for monitoring and display
hardware along with accompanying firmware
and a web application for processing, logging
and visualising data.
The project provide instructions for setting
up the Emoncms web application on a
Raspberry Pi, which makes for an ideal energy-efficient web server.
4. Automate your home
Pi-Face
( University of Manchester)
Given the low cost and small form factor of

the Raspberry Pi and that it runs Linux, it is
finding use as a tiny server in applications
such as a PVR, music player and NAS. What
better way to extend such a setup than with a
compact display that indicates what TV show
Add-on hardware such as the Pi-Face allows

you to control heavier loads such as lights
and motors and can be used to enable the
creation of a Raspberry Pi-based home
automation system. With lights and appliances [see below] being controlled remotely,
according to a schedule, when certain sensors
are activated, or perhaps in response to energy consumption.
5. Experiment with interesting sensors

The TinkerKit Accelerometer Module
Once you've had your fill of experimenting

with simple heat and light etc. sensors why
not progress to interfacing a 3-axis accelerometer or ultrasonic rangefinder.
6. Join the Internet of Things
Cosm graph from a Raspberry Pi
temperature logger
( Mikey Sklar, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Once you have interesting data collected
from various sensors why not make your Pi
part of the Internet of Things by sending it to
a real-time web service such as Cosm, so that
you can then view this data online and
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS NEWS

Future Electronics extends embedded computing offering after
signing franchise agreement with TechNexion
applications can consume, process and make

use of it in other ways.
7. Hook up a joystick and play old

arcade games
Raspberry Pi joystick wiring
( Chris Swan)
Take time out from more demanding projects and relive the early days of gaming by
creating Raspberry Pi Arcade and wiring up
up a joystick to GPIO. n
Source:
Ten essential Raspberry Pi projects,
Andrew Back, 12.09.2012 ,
www.designspark.com
Aurocon COMPEC
www.compec.ro
TechNexions range of ARM and x86 boards and modules covers a broad range
of customer requirements in the embedded and industrial markets
Future Electronics announced that it has signed a worldwide franchise distribution
agreement with embedded System-on-Module manufacturer TechNexion.
TechNexion manufacturers a wide range of embedded boards and System-on-Modules
(SOM) featuring ARM-based processors from Texas Instruments, Freescale, and x86
processors from Intel. The company also supplies complete embedded systems, and
touch-interface panel PCs and fanless systems.
For design engineers TechNexion provides ease to use development kits that include
tested and verified
versions of Linux and
Android operating
systems and Windows
Embedded. This
together with detailed
high quality documentation, and hardware /
software implementation examples assist
engineers to quickly
validate and implement
the latest technology in
their end equipment.
TechNexions commitment to technology
development on behalf
of the embedded
design community has
resulted in the introduction of the EDM
standard, an opensource hardware and software interface between a system-on-module (SOM) board and
a carrier board. This is the first standard interface to provide pin-to-pin and software
compatibility between ARM and x86 SOM embedded modules.
TECHNEXION
www.technexion.com
FUTURE ELECTRONICS
www.FutureElectronics.com
iC-MHL200: 12 bit universal magnetic position encoder

The iC-MHL200 is an integrated system
solution for linear and angular magnetic
encoder applications. Combined with a target like a magnetic tape or pole wheel an
universal and rugged linear or angular
incremental encoder can be realized.
The chip housed in a TSSOP20 package
includes a linear Hall sensor array which is
adapted to the targets magnetic pole pitch
of 2 mm. The internal signal amplification
control compensates for deviations of the
sensor signals due to temperature and
working gap variations. Incremental (AB
quadrature and Z index, 12 bit) and commutating signals (UVW) are provided at the
RS422 compatible line driver outputs.
An external reference signal can be used to
gate the internal index Z signal to provide
an absolute zero pulse. The linear resolu-
tion is configurable up to 4096 steps per

each magnetic signal period of 4 mm, which
corresponds to an incremental linear displacement of less than 1 micron.
At the fastest incremental output frequency of 8 MHz, linear movements of up to 8
m/s can be tracked with full 12 bit resolution. The UVW commutation signals are
available for two- and four pole linear

motor configuration.
iC-MHL200 is typically used in industrial,
automotive, and medical applications, such as:
Position control and acquisition
Linear / rotary speed control
Motor control
As substitute for optical incremental encoders.
A synchronous serial SSI / bidirectional
BiSS-C interface provides additional serial
data output. Using BiSS-C allows for setting
device configuration. These settings can be
permanently stored in an OTP-ROM.
iC-MHL200 operates from a supply voltage of +5V (10%) within an operating
temperature range of -40 to +125C.
iC-Haus
www.ichaus.com/product/iC-MHL200
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
First CAN FD plug-fest

In the first CAN FD plug-fest, Bosch, Peak, and
Vector proofed the interoperability of their
CAN FD implementations. The FPGAs implementing the CAN FD data link layer as submitted for international standardization were
tested using different network topologies and
transmission speeds. All nodes used a 40-MHz
The CAN FD nodes tested on interoperability

in CiAs laboratory used different off-theshelf CAN high-speed transceivers by NXP
clock frequency, an arbitration bit-rate of 500

kbit/s sampled at 80 percent and a data-phase
bit-rate of 4 Mbit/s sampled at 60 percent.
The tests were performed with different busloads up to 100 percent. The three nodes
communicated in bus-line (9 m) and passive
star topologies (2 3 m and 1 6 m). The passive star was terminated with 60 Ohm at the
center point. The next CAN FD plug-fest will
take place in September. Parties interested in
participation may contact CiA office. CiA
plans a permanent CAN FD test environment
for interoperability tests.
The CiA working group specifying CAN FD
device and system design recommendations
proposes a ration of 1:8 for arbitration/dataphase speed. In addition, the group will recommend bit-timings for different topologies as
well as configuration registers for the CAN FD
protocol controllers. CAN FD implementations
should be clocked by 80, 40, or 20MHz in
order to minimize timing problems.
CiA
www.can-cia.org
Arbitration and
data-phase oscillations
with harmonics (star
topology at 4 Mbit/s
with central termination
resistor 60 Ohm)
Design training using the

example of MachXO2 devices
from Lattice
MSC and Elektor are jointly organizing oneday seminars in Eindhoven for easy entry
into the FPGA design with VHDL using the
example of MachXO2 devices from Lattice.
The Quick Starter Design Training is
aimed at newcomers to the
FPGA Design,
switching from
ispLever SW to
SW Diamond as
well as hardware
and software
developers.
Taught topics are
project development and design
flow, design entry,
generation of IP
cores, simulation, constraining, place and
route, power analysis, programming and
debugging the system.
The seminar will be held on 25 June in
Eindhoven from 9:30 a.m. till 5:30 p.m. and
costs 149 plus VAT (including MachXO2
Breakout board and lunch).
If you are interested in this compact information seminar you can register online at
www.msc-ge.com/lattice-seminare
MSC Vertriebs GmbH
www.msc-ge.com
MSC and Helion organize a seminar about the universal Camera-Development Kit HDR-60
based on Lattice FPGAs
MSC and Helion are jointly organizing oneday seminars for easy entry into the universal Video Camera Development Kit HDR-60.
With the modular HDR-60 Ecosystem camera prototypes can be realized quicker,
easier and cheaper. The reference designs
provided by Helion together with the preset image processing blocks make it easier
for the developer to process the raw sensor
data into a finished image. Own development ideas can be implemented in the
used Lattice FPGA.
At the seminar, different image sensors are
introduced in their specific application
areas. The advantage of the HDR Ecosystems 60 is that only the so-called IP
Sensorport must be adapted to the sensor.
After that, all other IP cores from the Color
Pipeline can be used and be adapted to
the users application by software. This
design flow is shown at the seminar.

The seminars are held at the following dates
and locations:
11.6.2013 Munich
12.6.2013 Stuttgart
13.6.2013 Wiesbaden
18.6.2013 Duisburg
08.8.2013 Berlin
The seminars will be held from
9:30 a.m. till 5:30 p.m. and cost
69 plus VAT (including presentation documents and lunch).
Participants preserve special
conditions for the HDR-60
Video Camera Development Kit.
The seminars are held in
German with English-speaking
films. Expert speakers from
Helion, MSC as well as from ON
Semi and Lattice are available
for discussions.
If you are interested in this compact information seminar you can register online at
www.msc-ge.com/lattice-seminare
MSC Vertriebs GmbH
www.msc-ge.com
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Industrys Smallest 18-Bit

Successive Approximation
Register (SAR) ADC from
Maxim Integrated Saves 70%
Board Space
Microchip Announces Arduino Compatible chipKIT

Boards With Prototyping-Friendly 32-bit MCU Packages
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. announced

that it is now shipping the MAX11156, the
industrys smallest 12-pin, 18-bit successive
approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital
converter (ADC). Available in a tiny 3mm x
3mm TDFN package, the MAX11156 integrates
an internal reference and reference buffer, saving cost and at least 70% board space over
competing solutions. With 18-bit resolution,
this high-performance ADC features Beyondthe-Rails technology, which supports a 5V
input from a single positive 5V input rail. This
technology eliminates the need for negative
power supplies and simplifies designs. With 18bit resolution and a 500ksps sampling rate, the
MAX11156 is ideal for aut omatic test equipment (ATE), industrial control systems, medical
instrumentation, and robotics, where high accuracy and tiny size are paramount.
Microchip Technology Inc., a leading

provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal,
analog and Flash-IP solutions, announced
from the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo,
Calif. the expansion of its Arduino compatible chipKIT platform ecosystem, with
new tools from partners Digilent, Inc., the
Fair Use Building and Research (FUBAR)
Labs, and Schmalz Haus LLC. These new
tools are based on Microchips 32-bit PIC32
microcontrollers (MCUs) in prototypingfriendly, low pin count SOIC or SPDIP packages, which were previously more common
in 8-bit MCUs, for the Arduino community.
This enables all users - including hobbyists,
students and professionals - to benefit from
the PIC32s high performance, memory and
integrated peripherals while using the basic
hobbyist prototyping equipment that is
found in most home workshops.
Digilents chipKIT DP32 board features
basic I/O and interface components,
expanding the 32-bit chipKIT ecosystem
while providing a low-cost, Arduino-compatible development platform with a great
out-of-the-box user experience.
chipKIT Platform Expands With Prototyping-Friendly PIC32-based

Boards From Digilent, FUBAR Labs and Schmalz Haus; PIC32 MCUs With
chipKIT USB Bootloader Also Available
For those users who wish to build applications without a development board,
Microchip is also making the prototypingfriendly PIC32 MCUs in PDIP packages available with the preprogrammed chipKIT
USB Bootloader. Specifically, the prepro-
Availability, Temperature Range, and Pricing

Available in a 12-pin TDFN package
(3mm 3mm).
Specified over the -40C to +85C
temperature range.
Pricing starts at $16.90 (1000-up, FOB USA).
grammed PIC32MX250F128B is available in

a 28-pin package. The advanced features on
this 32-bit microcontroller include 40 MHz
performance, 128 KB Flash and 32 KB RAM,
along with integrated peripherals for touch
sensing, graphics, audio processing, USB and
advanced-control applications.
This chipKIT platform expansion continues
Microchips long history of providing tools and
solutions that are perfect for hobbyists, academics and professional engineers, said
Derek Carlson, Microchips vice president of
Development Tools. These new solutions
are certain to remove barriers for users who
are looking to take their Arduino-based applications to the next level.
Pricing & Availability
The chipKIT Fubarino Mini (part #
TCHIP011) from FUBAR Labs and Schmalz
Haus is available today for $19.95 each. It
can be purchased from microchipDIRECT.
Digilents chipKIT DP32 board (part #
TDGL019) is priced at $23.99 each.
It is expected to be available on May 17 at
microchipDIRECT, and in June from
Digilents e-Commerce site.
The 32-bit PIC32MX250F128B MCU preprogrammed with the chipKIT USB
Bootloader is expected to be available on
May 24, starting at $5.95 each, in single-unit
quantities, from microchipDIRECT.
MAXIM INTEGRATED
www.maximintegrated.com
www.microchip.com/get/4NG7
Due to its monotonic transfer characteristic,

fast settling time, and lack of latency, the
MAX11156 is ideal for fast, high-precision
digital control-loop systems. In fact, the
MAX11156 provides 18-bit resolution with no
missing codes; excellent DC accuracy (0.5 LSB
DNL and 2.5 LSB INL (typ)); and excellent AC
performance (94.6dB SNR and -105dB THD
(typ)). Additionally, the MAX11156 communicates using a SPI-compatible serial interface,
which can be used to daisy-chain multiple
ADCs in parallel for multichannel applications.
This interface can also provide a busy indicator
to simplify system synchronization and timing.
The chipKIT Fubarino Mini board,

from the partnership between FUBAR Labs
and Schmalz Haus, also provides a great
option for Arduino-compatible development with 32-bit PIC32 MCUs, using a prototyping-friendly board form factor.
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Platforms to consider
for Motor Control and
Robotics Applications
by Joe Alderson, Technical Marketing Engineer, Farnell element14
From automobile assembly and PCB fabrication, to consumer electronics, robotics is

home to some of the most exciting engineering taking place today. Learning about
robotics, whether you are an experienced engineer or complete beginner, has never
been easier thanks to the application notes, software examples and tutorials available
online today.
The element14 Community, is an encyclopaedic library of information for electronics
design engineers and robotics is one of its key
technologies. Whatever your preferred
embedded platform, be it AVR, PIC or 32-bit
ARM, element14 supports a wide range of
development boards. This article gives you an
overview into some of the most popular boards
for motor control and robotics applications.
The Sitara AM3359 ARM Cortex-A8 processor in the newly released BeagleBone Black
provides a 1 GHz platform ideal for robotics
development. Although the BeagleBone is a
bare bones version of the BeagleBoard, it
features dual 46-pin headers and plenty of

industrial communications capability, along
with a new addition of HDMI. The BeagleBone
Black is much cheaper than the original version
and includes ngstrm Linux as standard, making it perfect for high-end robotics applications. It even has 512 MB of DDR3 RAM to
support most demanding programs.
The BeagleBone Black is capable of not just
interfacing to all robotics motor drivers, location or pressure sensors and 2D or 3D cameras, but also running OpenCV, OpenNI and
other image collection and analysis software to
recognize the objects around robots and the
gestures made to control it. BeagleBone Black
is supported with a strong community and is
fully open-source, meaning you can utilise its
design if you can get to grips with laying out
a BGA package.
Whilst not quite as fast as the BeagleBone
Black and featuring an different ARM1176JZ-F
Applications Processor, the Raspberry Pi can
be used to control a robot or even use a GPS
module and USB camera to build an intelligent
guidance system for it. With the wide range of
expansion boards available for the Raspberry
Pi, you can offload many low level tasks to
smaller controllers, leaving the main control
unit free to focus purely on data processing
and task delegation.
In the one year that Raspberry Pi has been
available, there have been a large number of
robotics applications from around the world,

including using the Raspberry Pi to control
drones. The Raspberry Pi is also great as a
learning tool and boards such as the
Gertboard and PiFace Digital are designed to

teach motor control and basic robotics. For
teaching in schools, the Raspbian operating
system makes robotics accessible, whilst the
hardware on the Raspberry Pi provides
enough GPIO access to make it useful for all
but the most demanding robotics projects.
If your robotics project does not require high
end Cortex-A series applications processors,
and lets face it, that is probably the case, there
are several other options. The Freescale
Kinetis Freedom Platform, including the
FRDM-KL05Z, FRDM-KL25Z and FRDMK20D50S boards provide a Cortex-M0+ /
Cortex-M4 solution for robotics.
INDUSTRY NEWS
You need two PWM channels to run two

motors at different speeds, two to three channels to send 10 s trigger pulse for Ultrasonic
sensors and three to five channels to capture
the return pulses from Ultrasonic sensors.
Freescale's Robot Kit that operates with the

Tower System Mechatronics Board is an easyto-use mechatronics development and demonstration platform. This toolset allows for the science of combining mechanics, electronics, and
software into an integrated system.
The Microchip PIC16F684 can be used to create an inverted pendulum robot. By implement-
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
ing a positional Proportional-Integral-Derivative

(PID) feedback control with the PIC16F684 can
be used in an inherently unstable system.
An inverted pendulum is used to
demonstrate this
type of control.
The inverted pendulum consists of
three main parts:
the base platform,
the pendulum and the controller board.
Although this demonstrates the capabilities of
PIC MCUs in simple control systems, PIC32
MCUs are capable of delivering complex robotics control systems. Microchip provide a wide
range of software support which is extremely
useful in robotics development.
Finally, for a great introduction to the world of
robotics, Arduino provides a wide range of
boards. From the 8-bit Atmega328 on the
Arduino Uno to the 32-bit SAM3X8E CortexM3 on the Due, Arduino provides a massive
selection of software examples and an accessible IDE in an open-source model. The Arduino
approach of good design and simplicity has
led to its popularity in robotics. The challenge

of utilising 8-bit AVR MCUs for tasks which
you might ordinarily turn to a 32-bit processor
for can be rewarding and enlightening.
Some of the development boards for the

above robot designs can be designed and created using CadSoft EAGLE. CadSoft recently
brought out a new version of its design software EAGLE 6.4 featuring new interoperability
features and improved design simulation.
All these products can be researched, discussed, bought and supported from bought
from www.element14.com n
element14 launches
Raspberry Pi eye to the world
The eagerly anticipated Raspberry Pi camera
board is making its debut with element14
today enabling pictures and video to be taken
with the Raspberry Pi which can be used for
security and VoIP projects as well as image and
video capture. One of a strong pipeline of
exclusive Raspberry Pi accessories to be
launched this year, the camera board, which
retails at $25 is available through Newark element14 and MCM in North America, Farnell
element14 in Europe, CPC in the UK and
Ireland and element14 in Asia Pacific.
The Camera board is a custom designed add-
on for the Raspberry Pi which attaches to one

of the small sockets on the boards upper surface. This interface uses the dedicated CSi
interface, designed especially for interfacing
to cameras. The camera board itself is tiny, at
around 25mm 20mm 9mm.
Key features of the camera board:
5 megapixel native resolution sensor capable of 2592 1944 pixel static images
Supports 1080p30, 720p60 and
640 480p60/90 video
The camera is supported in the latest
version of Raspbian - Raspberry Pi's
preferred operating system
Claire Doyle, Global Head of Raspberry Pi at
element14, said: Since the exclusive launch of
the Raspberry Pi element14 has led the activity through the phenomenal journey of this little computer. The camera board is the latest in
a suit of accessories added to the Raspberry Pi
portfolio providing customers with solutions.
It is an exciting journey and the camera board
has been so eagerly anticipated we felt we
should commemorate the launch with a competition for our customers.
element14 is calling all budding photographers to enter its Raspberry Pi photography

competition to win a supply of new Raspberry
Pi accessories throughout the remainder of the
year. Anyone owning a Raspberry Pi and camera can enter the competition which calls for
images taken with the device to be submitted
in four categories:
Your workshop / den

Your Pi project
People and Pets
Outdoors
Finalists will be selected in each category and

these will be uploaded to Facebook for a public vote to select an overall winner. The competition will run from 14 May to 14 June 2013.
With over nine million views of the Raspberry
Pi group on the element14 Community the
success of the micro-computer is clear for
everyone to see. To join the conversation, go
to www.element14.com/raspberrypi
To take part in the Raspberry Pi camera competition and find out more please visit
www.element14.com/picamera
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Future Electronics sign Global Distribution

Agreement with GainSpan
Silicon Labs Introduces Industrys Smallest,

Most Power-Efficient PCI Express Clocks
Future Electronics is pleased to

announce its worldwide distribution agreement with GainSpan
Corporation. GainSpan is a privately-owned spin-off of Intel,
founded in 2006, with its headquarters in San Jose, California.
GainSpans products address the
market
demand for
low power
and low cost
Wi-Fi connectivity. They
meet these
demands
through their
ultra-low
power chip
and 802.11 b
and 802.11
b/g/n modules, suite of
embedded
and Serial to
Wi-Fi software and complete
solutions and development kits.
The low power technology they
developed results in Wi-Fi that
uses so little power, products can
run for years on standard batteries. Customers can link almost
any 8-32-bit microcontroller to
their solution and get Wi-Fi
quickly and easily. In addition, a
Silicon Labs has expanded its

industry-leading PCI Express
(PCIe) timing solution portfolio
with new one- and two-output
PCIe clock generators that offer
the smallest footprint and lowest
power in the market.
Designed to meet the stringent
specifications of the PCIe
Generation 1/2/3 standards, the
Si52111 and Si52112 clock generator ICs target highvolume
consumer,
embedded, communications and enterprise
applications
where board space,
power consumption
and system cost are
critical concerns.
Silicon Labs Si5211x
clock generators are
especially well-suited for spaceconstrained,
power-sensitive
consumer electronics products
such as digital still cameras that
require industry-standard PCIe
connectivity. Addressing the
small form factor requirements of
these consumer applications, the
Si5211x clocks are available in a 3
mm 3 mm 10-pin TDFN package the smallest package available in the PCIe timing market.
These ultra-low-power clock
number of device and module

vendors offer solutions based on
GainSpan?s technology. With
their embedded Wi-Fi solutions,
customers across a variety of
industries can now develop a
whole new class of Internet connected products.
GainSpans low power Wi-Fi ICs

and modules are a strong solution
for long battery life applications
within the Health Care and Fitness,
Smart Energy, Industrial Controls,
Commercial / Building Automation
and Consumer markets.
FUTURE ELECTRONICS
www.FutureElectronics.com
generators offer up to eight times

lower current consumption (less
than 15mA) than competing
devices, making it easier for
designers to meet green power
regulations while enhancing system reliability. The devices also
meet PCIe jitter requirements
with up to 50 percent margin,
enabling a lower bit error rate to
further improve reliability.
In addition to offering power savings and improved jitter margin,

the Si5211x clock generators use
an innovative push-pull output
buffer technology. Compared to
existing solutions in the market
today, the Si5211x PCIe clock generators integrate all termination
and reference resistors on chip,
eliminating the need for additional external components.
SILICON LABS
www.silabs.com/pci-express-clocks
RX21A reference platform enables developers to easily design economical,

highly-functional smart electricity meters
MSC now offers a new reference platform,
specifically for the design of economical, highly-functional smart electricity meters, from
Renesas Electronics.
The reference platform for smart electricity
meter design based on Renesas RX21A 32-bit
microcontrollers (MCUs) offers developers a
broad range of options such as a modular
design supporting both 3-phase 4 wire and single-phase operation, and configurable sensor
types including current transformer. This
enables it to operate at nominal 230 V 50 Hz to
60 Hz, with full 100 mA to 100 A measurement
range. Accuracy is equivalent to IEC62053-22
(and ANSI C12.20), to at least 0.5 s, and compliant with IEC6205-23, class 2 reactive.
A full set of metrology libraries is provided,
enabling precision measurement of voltage and
current on each phase, active and reactive
power on each phase, and apparent and harmonic power on each phase. Power quality
10
measurement functions such as voltage sag are

also provided. Key software features include
single point calibration for the 24-bit precision
A/D converter (ADC) and analogue front-end
(AFE), and temperature compensation for the
AFE including programmable gain amplifier
(PGA) and ADC, voltage reference, and real

time clock. Data exchange can be carried out via
the IEC62056-21 optical port and isolated USB
virtual COM port. A user-friendly, multi-function graphical display and an intuitive PC graphical user interface allow easy operation.
The RX21A Group of MCUs implements in a
single chip functions that previously required
separate devices, such as power measurement,
meter control, calculation of electricity
charges, and data encryption. This reduces the
number of external components required for
the implementation of a complete smart meter
and thus not only simplifies the design, but
also helps to lower the overall cost.
The RX21A electricity meter reference platform is available in limited quantities. Detailed
information can be requested by sending an
email to micros-renesas@msc-ge.com.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
INDUSTRY NEWS
GreenPeak Enables Low
Power and Low Cost ZigBee
Smart Home Applications
ZigBee PRO sensor nodes around $5
will accelerate Smart Home offerings
by Operators and customer acceptance
GreenPeak Technologies, a leading low power
RF-semiconductor company, announced the
availability of a low cost and low power
ZigBee solution for end nodes in the Smart
Home, allowing Operators to further accelerate market adoption and enabling ZigBee
Smart Home solutions that cover the full
home and last for up to 10 years without battery replacement.
Operators will now be able to offer Smart
Home service offerings at a very low cost for
services like home monitoring, energy monitoring and control, elderly care, etc., enabling
profitable business models for both the
Operators and their supply chain.
GreenPeaks newly released low cost, low
power and easy to install ZigBee PRO solution
runs on coin-cell batteries for up to 10 years,
essentially removing the need for battery
replacement, allowing ZigBee Smart Home
networks to become virtually maintenance
free, slashing end user service calls.
With GreenPeaks superior range and robustness, the devices can guarantee reliable full
home coverage. Easy to install, the ZigBee end
nodes can be securely installed with a single
click, allowing DIY installation by the consumer
without requiring technical support.
In this way, GreenPeaks ZigBee chips allow
Operators to address a very profitable 3
Billion dollar Smart Home market. It also helps
Operators to further implement the strategy
of making the set-top box the center of the
Smart Home by enabling customers to reach
their devices at home with their smart phones
from any location in the world.
GreenPeak is the first to enable the development of ZigBee end node solutions for Smart
Home applications that are robust, virtually
maintenance free, low cost, and can be
installed with a single click. says Cees Links,
Founder and CEO of GreenPeak Technologies,
a market leader for ZigBee silicon. Operators
and service providers will be able to offer
Smart Home services at a low initial cost and
attractive monthly fees. By using GreenPeak
chip solutions, sensor nodes manufacturers
can supply devices around the $5 mark, which
is 3 to 4 times lower compared to the cost of
ZigBee PRO offerings today. This will accelerate the consumer acceptance and increase the
ARPUs of the Operators.
GREENPEAK TECHNOLOGIES
www.greenpeak.com
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
EnSilica launches the eSi-ZM1 System-on-Module for faster,
lower risk and smarter embedded systems development
EnSilica, a leading independent provider of IC
design services and system solutions, has
launched the eSi-ZM1, a small form factor
System-on-Module designed to facilitate faster,
lower risk development of smarter embedded
systems that demand real-time hardware performance, all without sacrificing differentiation,
integration or flexibility.
The eSi-ZM1 is EnSilicas first product in a new

range of eSi-Modules and is built around the
Xilinx Zynq Extensible Programming Platform.
Combining a powerful dual core ARM Cortex
A9 MPcore subsystem running embedded Linux
together with the Xilinx Series-7 FPGA fabric, it
is ideal for developing a range of commercial
and industrial applications for automotive electronics, consumer electronics,

industrial automation, broadcast, medical imaging and wired communications.
However, the small form factor, low-cost,
high pin count, robust connector,
together with availability in commercial
and industrial temperature grades,
makes it ideal for both volume production and prototyping of a wide range of
Xilinx Zynq-based products. The eSiZM1 measures just 82mm by 50mm and
is currently being successfully deployed
in a number of production products
including a radar and media server.
EnSilica provides full firmware and software support for the eSi-ZM1, including a
compatible BSP and embedded Linux
build pre-loaded on SD-card. Although
the module is ready to use out-of-thebox, EnSilica provides a range of complementary custom design and development
services both for eSi-ZM1 integration and
wider product development.
EnSilica
www.ensilica.com
Altera to Deliver Breakthrough Power Solutions for FPGAs

with Acquisition of Power Technology Innovator Enpirion
Altera Corporation announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire
Enpirion, Inc., the industrys leading provider of high-efficiency, integrated power conversion products known as PowerSoCs (power system-on-chip). The combination of Alteras
FPGAs with Enpirions PowerSoCs will offer customers higher performance, lower system
power, higher reliability, smaller footprint and faster time-to-market.
Power is increasingly a strategic choice for product differentiation in communications,

computing and enterprise, and industrial applications, said John Daane, president, CEO
and chairman of Altera. By adding a power group to Altera, we will bring even more value
to system-level designs. Alteras FPGA roadmap will be enhanced significantly with the
addition of Enpirions power technologies.
Ashraf Lotfi, founder and CEO of Enpirion, will serve as an Altera Fellow and chief technologist for Alteras newly formed Power business unit.
Joining Altera will enhance the Enpirion teams ability to solve tough power challenges,
said Lotfi. Our leadership in high-efficiency power conversion solutions complements
Alteras leadership in FPGAs. Enpirion employees have built an innovative company, and
we look forward to building upon this foundation with Altera.
ENPIRION POWERSOCS
www.Enpirion.com
ALTERA
www.Altera.com
11
DESIGN
LEDs
Ambient LED Lighting Advances

in Tomorrows Vehicle
The advancement of Ambient LED Lighting solutions stems from the quest by automotive-OEM interior stylists to add value and make their vehicles more appealing to the
drivers senses, while creating a truly positive driving experience and increasing brand
awareness. Electronics continues to be the fastest-growing sector of automotive content, over mechanical, pneumatics and hydraulics. With the increasing number of ambient LED applications - from cluster backlighting to cupholder lights, to map lights, to
mood lighting in footwells and door trims, to dome lights - ambient LED solutions, both
white and RGB, are differentiators used by automotive OEMs. In fact, research indicates
that lighting can enhance the drivers visual senses.
It remains critical to select the right embedded solution to match the application
requirements and enable cost-effective designs with a shorter time to market.
This article will take a closer look at:
the tradeoffs among the methods for controlling LED ambient lighting solutions
the use of control algorithms to enable effective binning, dimming and temperature
compensation for LED color
creating driver-preferred lighting scenarios by changing the color and brightness of
the LED arrays
by Johann Stelzer / Andreas Reiter / Frank Ziegenhorn
Microchip Technology Inc.
With the ever-increasing need for networked
lighting modules, implementing the best practices for LIN communications in ambient LED
lighting solutions can help reduce development costs and cycle times. Because LEDs consume less energy and occupy less space, fuel
efficiency is enhanced and the packaging benefits allow stylists to expand their creativity in
using lighting to enhance the cabin.
Overall, ambient LED lighting solutions provide OEMs with an opportunity to innovate a
comforting atmosphere for both the driver
and passenger.
Ambient LED lighting is far more than a gimmick feature. Research on the impacts of interior lighting has widely been ignored in the
past few years, while the R&D focus has been
on exterior lighting. This is changing. With the
12
rapid advancement of LED technology in the

past few years, OEMs are in the position to
offer not only more colorful interior lighting
but also user-adjustable lighting. Drivers are
then able to adjust lighting to their mood or
taste. Additionally, there is much more potential in interior lighting.
In future car models, interior lighting is poised
to become part of the advanced driver information system. The revolutionary idea is to
adapt the interior light according to the driving situation. The interior light color could be
different for the city, rural roads and highways,
for example. Red interior light can increase the
driver alertness in the city, while a yellow interior light can help the driver to relax when
cruising on a highway. Interior lighting could
even warn the driver about an imminent acci-
dent. In many cases, flicker-free interior lighting is associated with a high-value proposition
for car makers to differentiate their product in
an ever-increasing competitive environment.
Driving the LEDs
LEDs must be driven with a source of constant
current. Most LEDs have a specified current
level that will achieve the maximum brightness
for that LED without premature failures. The
light output from a LED is proportional to the
current passing through it. There are two techniques to control the LED brightness in the circuit. One is to vary the LED drive current. The
LED drive current may be controlled using a
variable resistor or by using a variable-voltage
power supply. Another technique is to apply
pulse-width modulation (PWM) or variable-
DESIGN
frequency, fixed-duty-cycle PWMs to the LED
drive current.
The first method has two major disadvantages:
As the current is reduced, the LED efficiency
may also be reduced. And, in high-power
white LEDs, a color shift may take place with
the reduction in current level. The PWM dimming technique always drives the LED at full
current. Therefore, problems such as reduced
efficiency and color shifts can be eliminated.
To create different color combinations, the
duty cycles of the PWM outputs will have to
change over time.
Color Control Methods
Embedded microcontroller technology allows
the color components of a light source to be
sensed and actively controlled. Active color
control can be used to create a specific color of
light, or can be used to create a mix. For example, multiple component colors can be blended
to create a specific quality of white light.
LEDs
cally requires a resolution of 14-bit to 16-bit
and a quite powerful microcontroller (MCU).
The same quality can be achieved with four
channels, each with 10-bit resolution, which is
typically found in a low-cost 8-bit MCU. In this
four-channel scenario, color x brightness multiplication occurs in an external hardware circuit.
The typical logarithmic gradation required for
brightness control can also be realized in a sufficiently precise manner on such a low cost 8bit MCU, with approximation via a power
function (see Figure 1).
LED temperature is one of the factors that
have a significant impact on the LEDs color.
Hence, temperature has to be compensated. A
simple, effective and cost-efficient method for
temperature compensation is to use a microcontrollers on-chip comparator and a lowcost Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC)
thermistor that is positioned close to the LEDs.
Another way of gaining control over the LEDs
temperature is by measuring its forward volt-
microcontroller, such as a PIC MCU with nonvolatile memory, inevitable. Furthermore, the
need to network those RGB lighting nodes in
the vehicle, along with the desire for diagnostics, calls for a suitable low-cost communication protocol. While the first generations of
interior lighting were individually wired, the
latest generations and recent developments at
OEMs make use of the well-known, cost-effective LIN / J2602 communication bus. The LIN
communication speed of 19.2k baud is sufficient to support color changing and lighting
scenarios without noticeable impact for the
driver and passengers.
More recently, LIN communication with autoaddressing capability is being considered for
this type of application by some car makers.
There are several known auto-addressing
methods, each with pros and cons (see Figure 2).
Common to all of them is that they add costs
to the silicon, when compared with standard
LIN communication. However, those addition-
Figure 1: Block diagram showing solutions with 3 and 4 PWM channels
Figure 2: Block diagram showing LIN transceivers with and without auto addressing
Using three individual color values for Red (R),
Green (G) and Blue (B), plus an additional
value for brightness, supports the generation
of the desired color either with three PWM
channels or, simpler and more effectively, by
three PWM channelsone for each color
and an additional, separate fourth PWM for
brightness. The latter approach can be experienced in recent Ford Motor Company models
offering mood lighting.
The approach that uses three channels for
integrated color and brightness control typi-
age drop. The resolution of a microcontrollers

integrated 10-bit analog-to-digital converter
(ADC) is sufficient for this task. The forward
voltage drop measurement has its benefits, as
it eliminates the need for additional external
components.
Lighting Networks
Color correction, temperature compensation,
color changing, color mixing, brightness control and the desire by car makers to realize various lighting scenarios make the usage of a
al costs yield reduced logistics costs at the

OEM and Tier1 levels.
Addressing Space Constraints
Typical interior-lighting applications are very
space constrained. Light nodes are embedded
in switches, cup holders, door handles, dashboards, seats, reading lights, footwell areas
and overhead consoles. Available space for
the electronics is often squeezed to an area of
10 mm 20 mm or less, driving small package
solutions in SSOP, QFN and DFN housing.
13
DESIGN
LEDs
Ambient temperature and self heating in such

environments require careful heat management, for semiconductor devices with low
power dissipation and extended operating
temperature ranges from -40C to 125C.
Usually, the nodes are connected to terminal
30 and thus require very low standby current,
significantly below 100 A.
Microchips Automotive Ambient Interior
Lighting Module Reference Design demonstrates microcontroller-based control of RGB
LED devices (see www.microchip.com,
Application Note AN1074).
This module can be controlled remotely by a
master body controller, via the LIN bus. These
troller and RGB LED. LIN commands are interpreted by the module to control color mixing
(16,383 colors) and intensity (1023 levels).
The kit ships with four modules to assign as
lighting zones in a LIN or J2602 network.
These modules can also be used in conjunction with Microchips LIN Serial Analyzer (Part
# APGDT001) to quickly create a working LIN
RGB network, straight out of the box.
A microcontroller-based solution provides the
flexibility and integration required for future
RGB LIN-based interior lighting applications.
Carefully considered system architecture
designs allow the usage of low-cost 8-bit
FRONT SIDE
tion and enhancing driving comfort and safety.

Features such as approach sensing and capacitive-touch switches are additional functions
that are easy to implement at almost no additional cost with PIC microcontrollers, thus further enhancing the value of the system.
References
Application Note: AN-1074, Software PWM
Generation for LED Dimming and RGB Color
Applications. See www.microchip.com
Microchips Automotive Design Center:
www.microchip.com/auto
Microchips Lighting Design Center:
www.microchip.com/lighting
BACK SIDE
Figure 3: Microchips PIC16F1829LIN RGB Ambient Lighting Board (Part # APGRD007)

modules are offered in a very compact 10x20
mm form-factor board, and are comprised of a
PIC16F1829LIN solution, including a LIN transceiver, voltage regulator, 8-bit PIC microcon-
microcontrollers without compromising performance. This enables OEMs to offer color

interior lighting in high-volume, mass-market
vehicle models, increasing their value proposi-
(Note: The Microchip name and logo, and PIC are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other
countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of
their respective companies.)
www.microchip.com
Microchip introduces worlds first programmable USB2 controller hubs;

adds simultaneous support for USB2 and HSIC, low-power modes
Microchip announces the expansion of the
USB2 Controller Hub (UCH2) portfolio it
gained with the recent SMSC acquisition. The
seven new UCH2 ICs, across three families, are
the worlds first to provide programmability,
enabling the developers of PCs and mobile
devices to configure their designs without
external memory. Additionally, these are
Microchips first UCH2s to support both USB2
and USB High Speed Interchip (HSIC) connectivity, maximum battery life via low-power
modes such as Link Power Management (LPM),
and the ability to replace wall chargers with
advanced battery charging modes, such as
BC1.2, Apple, SE1 and China charging. For
applications that need to communicate over
multiple protocols, these UCH2s feature
direct I/O bridging to I2C, SPI, UART and general-purpose I/O. They also have the flexibility
to support the behaviours of multiple operating systems, such as vendor-specific messaging
14
and FlexConnect for simple port reversals.

While the PC market is converting to USB3,
most market forecasts predict that USB2 will
remain predominant in mobile devices until at
least 2015. This continued use of both USB3
and USB2 challenges the designers of PCs and
mobile devices to ensure interoperability
while providing new features and maximum
battery life. Microchips seven new UCH2s,
across three families, address these needs for
both PC and mobile manufacturers. Whereas
competing USB2 Controller Hubs only offer
limited battery charging and require external
memory for configuration, Microchips new
UCH2s integrate Quad Page configuration
OTP Flash memory, which reserves space for
interoperability and other customisations by
the designer, including four separate configuration opportunities. Additionally, Microchip
makes it easy to generate configuration settings and programme the OTP memory, via its
new ProTouch Configuration Editor software

tool, also announced today.
The ProTouch Configuration Editor software
tool is available today via a free download
from www.microchip.com/get/2M4E. It is bundled with the ProLink programming software.
Also being announced today is the USB2534
Eval Board (EVB-USB2534), which is available
now priced at $399 each. This board supports
the development of USB charging designs
using the new three-member USB253X UCH2
family for mainstream USB2 applications.
www.microchip.com/get/6FJ3
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Aeroflex LTE-A Expertise on Display at CTIA 2013
Aeroflex Launches 5th Generation

Modular Wireless Test System
Aeroflex Limited announced that
it has launched a new generation
of wide bandwidth RF signal generators and analyzers in PXI format with class-leading performance enabling a high performance, flexible, and cost effective
solution for RF component and
wireless device testing to the latest standards, including WLAN
802.11ac. The PXI 3050A low
noise RF signal generator and the
PXI 3320 arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) are used together
to provide a fully configurable RF
signal generator
with wide bandwidth vector
modulation, low
phase noise, and
fast frequency
and level settling.
The signal generator is available
in two frequency
range options--from 100 kHz to
either 3 GHz or 6 GHz --and with
a choice of +10 dBm or +20 dBm
output power. A 200 MHz modulated RF bandwidth with low
residual error vector magnitude
(EVM) of less than 0.5% makes it
the ideal choice for wideband
standards using high order 256
QAM modulation, such as
802.11ac. Excellent linearity

(ACLR) of greater than 70dB
3GPP TM1 makes 3050A ideal for
use in test solutions for power
amplifiers and repeaters.
Phase noise is best-in-class at -135
dBc/Hz at 1 GHz with 20 kHz offset while maintaining excellent
frequency agility with settling
times of less than 100 s.
The PXI 3070A is a high performance RF digitizer with up to 160
MHz of instantaneous IF bandwidth for analyzing wide bandwidth signals. The 3070A is avail-
able in two frequency range

options from 250 MHz to either 3
GHz or 6 GHz, with test suites for
general purpose spectrum analysis and support for the latest standards including WLAN 802.11a,
b, g, n, ac and MIMO.
AEROFLEX
www.aeroflex.com
Aeroflex Limited is demonstrating

its comprehensive range of instrumentation for the design, verification, servicing, and manufacturing
test of both LTE-Advanced (LTEA) and LTE networks and mobile
devices at CTIA at the Sands Expo
and Convention Center.
Aeroflex's leadership in LTE-A
spans a complete range of
end-to-end test systems that
cover R&D, performance,
service, and manufacturing
test applications for both
TDD and FDD, from network
equipment and mobile
devices to RF chipsets.
The Aeroflex TM500 LTE-A
Test Mobile was the first in
the industry to support carrier aggregation, a showcase
technology for LTEAdvanced. The TM500 now
supports all the key LTE-A features of 3GPP Release 10,
enabling customers to prepare
their migration to LTE-Advanced.
The Aeroflex TM500 test mobile
is in use with almost every base
station manufacturer worldwide,
and is regarded as the de facto
standard for base station development and testing. It supports
both FDD and TDD modes of
LTE, and provides backwards
compatibility with worldwide 3G
standards. The Aeroflex E500 is

the best-selling LTE and LTE-A
capacity test system in the US
market, incorporating the proven
Aeroflex TM500 LTE air interface. The E500 is flexible and
scalable in terms of both the
number of mobile devices it
emulates-from hundreds to tens
of thousands-and the number of

cells supported. It offers true
end-to-end LTE network load
testing over RF including FDDTDD Handover. The E500 supports a comprehensive range of
IP data services, providing network equipment vendors and
cellular operators with the most
realistic lab-based end-to-end
test solution on the market.
AEROFLEX
www.aeroflex.com
Ericsson Saves Board Space with Surface-Mount Advanced Bus Converter

Ericsson introduces a new surface-mounted
version of its second generation of digital
Advanced Bus Converter (ABC) products,
called the BMR456-SI
High-efficiency, digitally controlled DC/DC
converter compliant to full surface-mount
manufacturing processes; high-precision
tooled pins guarantee high co-planarity
and robustness
Highly advanced firmware integrated in the
BMR456-SI contributes towards significant
reduction in energy consumption
Tightly regulated output voltage (2%) over
the full operational range of 36V to 75V
Output power up to 468W for datacom
applications
The BMR456-SI is based upon the FRIDA II
platform, which was announced last year,
both the surface-mount BMR456-SI and the
through-hole BMR456-PI quarter-brick 3E*
Advanced Bus Converters deliver unprecedented performance to system architects that
are developing equipment for ICT
16
(Information and Communication

Technology) applications. These applications
require fast response time, tightly regulated
intermediate bus voltages and high efficiency
at any point of operation to reduce power
consumption. Since the shipment of the first
surface-mount version of the companys
FRIDA platform in 2010, the platform has
enjoyed significant adoption with the growing demand for high-power DC/DC modules
to power highly integrated surface-mount
boards. Ericsson is the only company in the

industry to offer high-power DC/DC modules
that are digitally controlled and also offer a
surface-mount option, said Patrick Le Fvre,
Marketing and Communication Director,
Ericsson Power Modules. The addition of a
surface-mount version to the PMBus compliant FRIDA II BMR456 DC/DC converter family
is an indication of the strong market demand
for highly integrated power technology that
can also make a significant contribution to
reducing energy consumption.
Surface Mount for Increasing Board Density
Board density is increasing and to simplify manufacturing processes, power module suppliers
need to offer surface-mount alternatives to
conventional through-hole versions. Although it
is not necessarily an issue at low- and mid-power
levels, it can be a significant challenge for high
power modules and even more so when these
modules require additional I/O.
ERICSSON POWER MODULES
www.ericsson.com/powermodules
INDUSTRY NEWS
CRFS Wins 2013 Queen's
Award for Enterprise
International Trade
CRFS, the world's leading manufacturer of RF
spectrum monitoring systems, has been
named as the winner of a 2013 Queen's Award
for Enterprise, International Trade. The award
recognizes the success of CRFS's international
strategy in establishing itself as a major
exporter of spectrum monitoring and surveillance technology.
The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's
most prestigious business awards, designed to
recognize and encourage the achievements by
businesses in the UK. The awards are granted in
the fields of Innovation, International Trade,
and Sustainable Development.
We are delighted that the UK Government has
granted us a Queen's Award for Enterprise, said
Alistair Massarella, CEO of CRFS. This award is
an official acknowledgment of CRFS's success in
building our business in overseas markets, which
we have achieved during a period of challenging
global economic conditions.
CRFS's flagship RFEye is a cost-effective and
intelligent radio frequency (RF) sensor that can
be deployed either
locally in critical buildings or installations or
in very large networks
(across cities, regions,
or even whole countries) to monitor activity in the RF spectrum.
The RFeye captures
and analyzes signals
across the spectrum up
to 18 GHz and rapidly
identifies and locates
the source of suspicious or interfering signals. It is used to help
plan and manage efficient spectrum usage and
to resolve interference issues. It also has an
important role in alerting for unauthorized or
illegal transmissions that may indicate a security breach, public safety threat, or espionage.
The RFeye system is easily configurable and is
extremely versatile for a range of different applications. This flexibility has made it possible for
CRFS to identify customer opportunities in a
range of market sectors, especially in the U.S.
where there are a number of significant noncivilian applications in the security and military
sectors. One recent deployment of an RFeye
network is at the U.S. Army Electronic Proving
Ground at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, providing
rapid detection and radio location of potential
interference sources on the installation.
CRFS
www.crfs.com
THE QUEEN'S AWARDS FOR ENTERPRISE
www.gov.uk/queens-awards-for-enterprise
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Silicon Labs to Acquire Energy Micro, A Leader in Low
Power ARM Cortex-Based Microcontrollers and Radios
Silicon Labs announced that it has signed a
Silicon Labs 32-bit Precision32 MCU,
definitive agreement to acquire Energy
Ember ZigBee and sub-GHz wireless
Micro AS. Based in Oslo, Norway, the lateproducts and targets a growing embedded
stage privately held company offers the
market. The acquisition greatly expands
industrys most power-efficient portfolio of
Silicon Labs MCU portfolio, adding nearly
32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) and is
250 ARM-based EFM32 Gecko MCU proddeveloping multi-protocol wireless RF soluucts ranging from extreme-low-power,
tions based on the industry-leading ARM
small-footprint MCUs based on the ARM
Cortex-M architecture. Energy
Micros energy-friendly MCU
and radio solutions are designed
to enable a broad range of
power-sensitive applications for
the Internet of Things (IoT),
smart energy, home automation,
security and portable electronics
markets. This strategic acquisition accelerates Silicon Labs
growth opportunities and posiGroup at signing (left to right)
tions the company as the fore- Torleif Ahlsand, Chairman, Energy Micro, Northzone VC
most innovator in energy-friend- - Tyson Tuttle, CEO, Silicon Labs
ly embedded solutions. The
- Geir Frre, CEO, Energy Micro
growth of the IoT market, cou- Steinar Fossen, Board of Directors, Investinor VC
pled with continued deployment
of smart grid and smart energy infrastrucCortex-M0+ core to higher-performance,
ture, is driving strong demand for energyenergy-friendly MCUs powered by the
efficient processing and wireless connectivi- Cortex-M4 core capable of DSP and floatty technology to enable connected devices
ing-point operations. The acquisition is
in which low-power capabilities are increasexpected to enhance Silicon Labs radio
ingly important. Industry experts predict
portfolio with the addition of Energy
that the number of connected devices for
Micros ultra-low-power EFR Draco radio
the IoT will top 15 billion nodes by 2015
products.
and reach 50 billion nodes by 2020.
ENERGY MICRO
www.energymicro.com
Energy Micros portfolio complements
SILICON LABS
www.silabs.com
A Lot of DIAMOND Lattice ECP3 for a Small Price

Lattice (Distributor: MSC) extends the
ECP3 Re-surge-campaign. The promotion is valid until 4 September 2013.
The one-year license Lattice Diamond, the
ECP3 Versa Development Kit
or each of five IP Suites can be
purchased for each $ 99. No
chance to get ECP3 development tools for less money.
The LatticeECP3 family is the
third generation high value
FPGA from Lattice
Semiconductor, which offers
the industry's lowest power
consumption and price of any
SERDES-capable FPGA device.
It offers multi-protocol 3.2G
SERDES with XAUI jitter compliance, DDR3 memory interfaces, powerful DSP capabilities, high density on-chip memory and up
to 149K LUTS, all with half the power con-
sumption and half the price of competitive

SERDES-capable FPGAs. Thus PCI Express,
Gigabit Ethernet and video applications can
easily be built.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
17
INDUSTRY NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Starter Kit for COM Express Type 6 Modules with

AMD Embedded R-Series APUs
For quick evaluation and prototyping of embedded systems
based on COM Express modules with AMD Embedded RSeries Accelerated Processing
Unit (APU), MSC Vertriebs
GmbH offers a complete starter
kit. The intelligent starter kit
MSC C6-SK-A7-T6T2 contains a COM Express Type
6 baseboard, an active heat
sink with fan and two DDR3
memory modules. Users of
the kit are free to choose
one of four COM Express
Type 6 computer modules
with Embedded R-Series
APU from MSCs MSC C6CA7 product family.
Furthermore, the starter kit
is also offered with a 15 inch
XGA TFT display with LED
backlight. Different display
types or touch screen panels
are available on request.
The compact baseboard
with dimensions of 140 mm x
184 mm offers the module socket and numerous important connectors, above all the newly
available Type 6 interfaces
defined in the COM Express
specification V2.0. The interfaces
include configurable Digital
Display Interfaces (DDI) which
can be used via three each

DisplayPort and HDMI connectors and a DVI port. In addition,
four USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet,
VGA, HD audio, SATA and even
a PCI Express x4 slot also found
place onboard.
The COM Express Type 6
module platform MSC C6C-A7

from MSC integrates an
Embedded R-Series APU from
AMD and is characterized by
very powerful graphics and high
parallel computing performance
with low power dissipation.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
Mouser Stocks Cypress PSoC 4 Programmable SoC

Mouser Electronics, Inc. is now
stocking Cypresss PSoC 4 programmable SoC, which combines Cypress PSoC analog and
digital fabric, CapSense capacitive touch technology with
ARMs Cortex-M0.
Cypress Semiconductors
PSoC4 ARM Cortex-M0
Based Programmable SoC architecture combines
Cypress best-inclass PSoC analog
and digital fabric
and industryleading
CapSense capacitive touch technology with
ARMs power-efficient Cortex-M0
core. The truly
scalable, cost-efficient architecture
delivers PSoCs trademark flexibility, analog performance and
integration, along with access to
dozens of free PSoC
Componentsvirtual chips
represented by icons in Cypress
PSoC Creator integrated
design environment. The new
PSoC4 device class will challenge
proprietary 8-bit and 16-bit
microcontrollers (MCUs), along
with other 32-bit devices.
Mouser is also stocking Cypress

PSoC ARM Cortex-M0 Pioneer
Kit, which is an easy-to-use and
inexpensive development platform enabling you to create
unique designs with the flexibility of PSoC 4. Featuring a member of the PSoC 4200 family, this
kit gives you the power of an
ARM Cortex-M0 combined
with the fully customizable analog and digital fabric of the PSoC
in the palm of your hands. To
learn more, visit
www.mouser.com/new/cypressse
miconductor/cypress-psoc4/.
With its broad product line and
unsurpassed customer service,
Mouser caters to design engineers and buyers by delivering
MOUSER ELECTRONICS
www.mouser.com
Kontron announces 4th generation Intel Core processor support for a broad range of systems, boards and modules
Parallel to the launch of the 4th generation
Intel Core processors, Kontron announces its
support of this new microarchitecture on a
broad range of long-term available systems,
boards and modules. Four intelligent platforms with improved processing and graphics
performance as well as energy efficiency are
available for evaluation with immediate effect.
Customers benefit from significant time-tomarket advantages, as they can directly start
their application developments on their preferred new target platform.
The first Kontron intelligent platforms to feature the 4th generation Intel Core processors
will be COM Express, Mini-ITX, 6U
CompactPCI, and the Kontron SYMKLOUD
Media cloud platforms. Based on the new
Intel microarchitecture, formerly codenamed
'Haswell', they integrate new features such as
the Intel AVX2 instructions, which dramatically accelerate floating-point-intensive computations and the improved Intel AES-NI, which
accelerates data encryption and decryption.
18
Graphics-intensive applications will profit

from the graphics performance which has
been doubled in comparison to solutions
based on the previous generation processors,
while the thermal footprint has remained
nearly the same. Kontron's new platforms with
4th generation Intel Core processor technology provide a performance
increase for floating-point intensive and parallel computing with
the support of the new Intel
AVX2 and OpenCL 1.2. Target
applications include digital signal
and image processing applications in the medical, industrial
automation and MAG (Military,
Aerospace and Government)
markets, as well as cloud-based
video transcoding for content
delivery networks. OEMs looking for a compelling visual experience of intelligent systems displaying videos, graphics and
interactive content will enjoy the advantages of

increased 3D and media performance as well
as the support of DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL
4.x. Another new feature is the support for 4K
displays, connected via DVI or HDMI.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
DESIGN
ENCLOSURES
Hammond.
Enclosures for your equipment
Virtually, every electrical or electronic equipment, even amateur one, needs enclosure. Why?
After all, enclosure is not always necessary for the
proper operation of the equipment.
There may be multiple reasons for that. Two,
most common ones include: protection of users
against electrical shock and widely understood protection of the equipment
against influence of environment in which such equipment operates.
by Marcin Kajzler
The first important function of enclosure is to

prevent from touching elements which are live
and ensure that equipment is protected
against direct contact. Such protection is the
most basic way to ensure protection against
electrical shock. If this is the only protection,
then such equipment holds zero protection
class. In such case, enclosure is made of nonconductive material: dielectric material.
Why cant this be a conductor? If a breakdown
of any of the components happens to the conductive enclosure, it could lead to production
of users life-threatening potential. Metal
enclosure should, therefore be connected to a
grounding which is usually protective conductor or protective neutral conductor.
Such equipment offers the first class of protection. In case of equipment damage, proper
grounding will protect the user against voltage
dangerous for their life. Enclosures connected
to the grounding system, which are made of
conductor, have one more advantage: they
reduce electromagnetic emission of the equipment and shield it against influence of external
interfering fields.
The second important reason of placing appliances in enclosures is the necessity of their
protection against influence of environmental
conditions, including water and solid bodies
20
influence. The most popular system of equipment marking is a code in the IPyz form. A digit
in the y position shows resistance to penetration by solid bodies, whereas the z position
shows resistance to water. A list of respective
values and their meaning as per the PN EN
60529 standard are presented in the Table 1.
IP
If a product does not require marking with any

of the characteristic digits y or z, then X is
placed instead (e.g. IP2X no specification of
water resistance).
Enclosures used in special applications e.g. in
equipment designed to operate in explosive
conditions, require non-combustibility.
No protection
No protection
Back of hand ( > 50mm)
Vertically falling drops
Finger (12,5mm < < 50mm)
Drops falling at an angle of 15 against

the normal position
Screwdriver / tool
(2,5mm < < 12,5mm)
Drops falling at an angle of 60 against

vertical position
Wire (1mm < < 2,5mm)
Drops falling from any direction
Protection against penetration of dust

in the quantities not disturbing operation
Water jet from any direction
Complete protection against dust

penetration
Powerful water jet or a wave from any

direction
---
Immersion by 30 minutes (up to 1m depth)
---
Continuous immersion and increased

water pressure (1m)
---
Flooded with a stream of water with the

pressure of 80 100bar
Table 1
DESIGN
ENCLOSURES
In practice, metal enclosures do not burn, and

plastic ones do not burn with flame, however,
they melt when exposed to high temperature.
Widely available metal enclosures are practically only aluminum enclosures. Steel enclosures are most often made to customers individual order. Popularity of aluminum is due to
its low weight, simplicity of machining and natural resistance to corrosion.
In case of plastic enclosures, the selection of
materials is much wider. We can choose from
three basic materials: ABS, polycarbonate and
polystyrene. Below, there is a description of
the most popular materials used for production of electric and electronic enclosures. Such
list should help while making the selection of
enclosure for a given application.
metal, aluminum is very light and easy to

machine, however, it is not so much resilient. It
reflects electromagnetic radiation very well.
Aluminium
Aluminium, when in contact with oxygen from
the air is covered with a thin film of aluminum
oxide. This film tightly covers the whole surface and protects against diffusion inside the
layer of oxygen particles which prevents further corrosion.
Additionally, they protect against external magnetic fields because steel is ferromagnetic. Steel
reflects electromagnetic radiation better than
aluminum, however, it is more prone to corrosion and sensitive to acids and bases.
Steel
Steel enclosures weight more, are more resilient
and resistant than aluminum enclosures.
rather cheap enclosures, without any special

mechanic properties.
Polycarbonate
Plastic with excellent mechanical properties
and durability comparable with aluminum.
Polycarbonate is exceptionally transparent for
visible light. Since it is quite expensive material, enclosures made of it are less popular than
those made of ABS.
ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)

ABS is a plastic material, one of the most popular materials used to make enclosures. This is
a very hard material resistant to scratches and
impacts, but at the same time it is susceptible
to esters and acids, but also to UV radiation
which might cause a change of its colour.
HM-RP1085C
HM-1553BTBUBK
HM-1599TABLGY
As one of the few plastics, ABS can be coated
with metallic coat. Thanks to this, there is a
possibility of producing ABS enclosure that
will conduct current.
This phenomenon causes that aluminum

enclosures virtually do not corrode thanks to
which they do not have to be preserved. As a
Polystyrene
This material is quite hard, but brittle. It easily
Hades and its transparency leaves much to be
desired. This is one of the cheapest plastics to
produce that is why it is used for production of
One of the most widely known manufacturers

of enclosures in the world is Canadian
Hammond which was established in 1917. At
the beginning of its business activity, it produced, among others, radio sets and amplifiers. Sudden increase in the popularity of
electric devices in the 50s and 60s opened
new markets. Hammond company started to
produce transformers and enclosures.
At present, Hammond offers many different
types of enclosures which are available in all
shapes and made of various materials. We can
choose among enclosures designed for control
panels of electronic appliances, console, for
devices with displays, dust and water resistant and many others. The list of available types
of enclosures is very long. TMEs offer includes
over 500 Hammond enclosures, which means
that there is much to choose from. n
www.tme.eu
21
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Kontron's 6U CompactPCI board with 4th generation

Intel Core processors increases performance density
and data throughput
Kontron introduced today, its latest 6U CompactPCI CPU board
alongside the launch of the 4th
generation Intel Core processors.
The Kontron CP6005-SA, featuring the Intel QM87 Express
chipset, is scalable up to the Intel
Core i7-4700EQ processor with
up to 4x 2.4 GHz (3.4
GHz in turbo mode).
The CPU board
excels with its outstanding performance
density and data
throughput over the
backplane. While
keeping to the same
TDP and footprint, in comparison
to preceding generations, the
new CPU board offers up to four
times more GFLOP per watt, up
to 15% higher CPU performance
and double the graphic performance. In addition to Kontron's
legacy CP6005-SA, the Kontron
6U CompactPCI CPU board
CP6005X-SA offers significantly
improved data throughput over
the backplane due to PCIe 3.0
and 2x 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Thus,
the new Kontron 6U CompactPCI

CPU board primarily targets compute-intense applications such as
sonar, radar and video stream
analytics in commercial avionics
and military. Further application
areas can be found in markets
such as telecommunication and
medical image processing. New

features such as the Intel
Advanced Vector Extensions 2
(Intel AVX2) and the extended
GPGPU support prove to be particularly advantageous for high
performance embedded computing. With the Kontron
CP6005-SA, OEMs can now attain
DSP performance density with
generic x86 technology.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
FleyRay-Extender for IPETRONIK Data Logger

IPETRONIKs division
IPEmeasure extends its M-LOG
and IPElog data logger series
introducing the newly developed galvanic isolated 2-channel
FlexRay-Extender.
FlexRay is a serial fault-tolerant
field bus system used in many
highlevel electronic chassis and
driver assistance systems. This
bus system is characterized by a
significantly
higher bandwidth of 10
MBit/s, as
compared to
the CAN bus,
and a deterministic and
time-controlled transfer characteristic. As this bus system is now
being implemented in production vehicles, analysis in prototype state and trial phase
becomes increasingly necessary.
IPETRONIKs FlexRay-Extender is
used as gateway for data conver-
22
sion. It supports time-related

data recording of FlexRay signals
(FlexRay 2.1 Rev.A, chn A/ Chn B)
using three different modes: signal measurement, protocol measurement XCPonFlexRay and asynchronous measurement.
Asynchronous measurements are
typically used for benchmark
analysis. As bus parameters are
determined by the FlexRay-
Extender, users are able to measure standard signals at a thirdparty vehicle in a relatively easy
way. In protocol mode the extender collects data using the standardized XCPonFlexRay protocol
IPETRONIK
www.ipetronik.com
Laird Unveiled Bluetooth Smart Application

Powered by Thermal Energy at Sensors Expo
Laird Technologies, Inc., a leading
global technology company,
demonstrated a Bluetooth
Smart application powered by
thermal energy at Sensors Expo
2013. The application uses a
Thermobility Wireless Power
Generator to provide power for
Laird's BL600 Bluetooth Low
Energy (BLE) module. The solution offers
design engineers the
ability to
integrate
renewable
energy
sources into
their BLE-based remote sensor
applications. Thermobility
Wireless Power Generators are
self-contained systems that convert heat into DC power using
Lairds eTEG embedded thinfilm thermoelectric modules.
Thermobility generators use differences in temperature to
enable power anywhere there is
an adequate heat source and
eliminate the need to use traditional wired power sources or
replaceable batteries. The solution can provide years of maintenance-free operation, thus
expanding the possibilities for
new wireless BLE-based sensor
and security applications in
industrial control, transportation,

automotive and building management. BL600 modules provide exceptionally low power
consumption with outstanding
wireless range. The modules
support a variety of ultra-low
power saving modes and have a
compact footprint, making them
suitable for even the smallest
portable devices.
According to industry analyst IMS
Research, sales of Bluetooth
Smart devices should grow from
5.4 million devices in 2012 to
nearly 160 million units in 2016.
Laird gave several presentations
on energy harvesting during the
three-day Sensors Expo conference. Director of Customer
Solutions David Blaker presented
a tutorial entitled Integration of
Thermal Energy Harvesting in
Embedded Wireless Systems,
and Bob Collins presented on
Thermal Energy Harvesting for
Embedded Wireless Solutions.
LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES
www.lairdtech.com
Freescale Open Software Sensor Platform Enables Contex

To speed and simplify the development of embedded systems
that incorporate multiple sensing
technologies,
Freescale
Semiconductor is now offering the
Xtrinsic intelligent sensing framework (ISF). The framework provides software infrastructure and
programming interfaces that
enable Xtrinsic sensors like the
FXLC95000CL platform or
Freescales Kinetis microcontrollers to serve as sensor hubs,
eliminating time-intensive sensor
integration tasks and allowing
developers to focus on differentiating their specific applications.
The proliferation of the Internet
of Things (IoT) is rapidly introducing embedded intelligence and
sophisticated sensing technologies to a broad array of industrial

systems, medical equipment, consumer devices and other products. While the incorporation of
more sensors into product
designs enables compelling functionality and promising new applications, it also presents substantial
challenges. Embedded developers face increased complexity
related to capturing, interpreting
and efficiently leveraging disparate information often collected from multiple sensors and
then appropriately applying this
data to different domains and use
cases. According to a recent
report from analyst firm IHS, the
market for MEMS sensors is
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Freescale S12 MagniV Mixed-Signal MCUs Help Solve

Automotive Electronics Technology Challenges in China
Automobile sales in China are booming,
with a 13 percent year-over-year gain for
April 2013, according to the China
Association of Automobile
Manufacturers. At the same time, the
amount of electronic content per vehicle
continues to increase as automakers add
features to differentiate themselves in this
highly competitive market. To help
address the need for cost-effective vehicle electronic systems, the Freescale
Semiconductor S12 MagniV mixedsignal microcontroller (MCU) portfolio offers Chinese automakers highly
integrated, single-chip solutions that
are extremely reliable and easy to
develop with, while helping reduce
the bill of materials and overall manufacturing costs.
Traditionally, automotive electronic
system designs have required multiple
components some created with a
high-voltage process to connect to the
battery and power actuator outputs,
as well as MCUs created with a lowvoltage digital logic process. This poses a
challenge when the end application has
space limitations. S12 MagniV MCUs
address this challenge by integrating an
analog front end and MCU, providing a
comprehensive single-chip solution for
applications such as anti-pinch window
lifts, instrument clusters and brushless DC
motors. By combining the latest CANand LIN-based S12 MagniV devices with
the latest Qorivva MCU body control
module in a networked system, car OEMs
are able to eliminate up to 20 pounds of

copper wiring and board components,
reducing vehicle weight and further
improving fuel economy. Through several
joint technology labs in China, Freescale is
helping accelerate the introduction of
innovative designs into the automotive
market. Freescale and Tongji University in
Shanghai developed an anti-pinch window lift reference design, which demon-
strates the capabilities of the S12 MagniV

portfolio. This reference design is based
on the S12 MagniV S12VR MCU and is
ideal for the development of power windows and sun roof systems.
In addition to collaborating with Tongji
University, Freescale participates in automotive joint labs across China with partners including ChangAn Motor, Chery,
Foton Motor, Dongfeng Motor and FAW.
FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR
www.freescale.com
xt Awareness and Data Fusion for the Internet of Things

expected to grow 13 percent in 2013 and
continue to grow by double digits until
2016, when it will reach $2.21 billion
(USD). Pressure sensors, gyroscopes and
combination sensors incorporated in intelligent devices are expected to help drive
this growth. Software for aggregating and
fusing data from the growing number and
variety of sensors is increasingly important
to support new and advanced applica-
tions. Freescales Xtrinsic ISF is an open

framework that provides a run-time environment for executing custom embedded
applications. The Xtrinsic ISF exposes a
unified interface for obtaining data from
multiple sensor types. ISF sensor adapters
handle all of the sensor communication
details, making it easy to add new sensors
to a system without worrying about the
details of sensor communications.
Together with its power management, bus
management, command interpreter and
host proxy functions, the Xtrinsic ISF
reduces integration effort and shortens
design time. The Xtrinsic ISF also enables
new sensor adapters to be written and
integrated to handle additional sensor
types for customized solutions.
www.freescale.com
Kontron drives costs

down, performance
densities up for content
delivery applications
in the cloud
Next generation SYMKLOUD Media
platform is more energy efficient and
supplies more than double the
performance for video transcoding
in the cloud
Kontron, a global leader of telecom, network and
cloud infrastructure platform solutions, announced
today that the SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media platform now supports the newly released 4th generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. Expected
graphics performance levels are more than double
the previous generation with its integrated Intel Iris
Pro graphics 5200 (GT3e). This translates into a
new order of magnitude of efficiency. The Kontron
SYMKLOUD Media platform will be able to handle
massive distributed workloads of content delivery
such as fixed and mobile video transcoding applications deployed in cloud infrastructure.
Changing demands in the broadcast industry are

leading to an ever increasing pressure to explore IP,
cloud options, as the viewing experience diversifies
across interactive TV sets, tablets, plus on-demand
and catch-up video services that are more popular
than ever. One of the instrumental network elements
in end-to-end distribution is the Encoding/
Transcoding of video for all fixed and mobile
devices. The market push is to move this portion into
the cloud for all multi-screen deployments. With the
multitude of devices comes a multitude of different
bitrates, resolutions and codecs. To transcode
streams of audio and video from codec to another is
compute intensive. The 4th generation Intel Core i7
quad-core processor is very well suited to decode
and transcode simultaneous video streams with its
GT3e graphics engines, thus freeing up the main
processor for other tasks such as analytics.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
23
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Tiny Kinetis KL02 Microcontrollers from Freescale

Now Broadly Available
Gore Announces Enhanced Venting and Cooling

Solutions for Improved Performance at CTIA 2013
Freescale Semiconductor is now

shipping its Kinetis KL02 family
of 32-bit microcontrollers
(MCUs), offering a new level of
processing performance and
energy efficiency for a range of
applications and helping expand
the Internet of Things (IoT). The
tiny KL02 devices have a small
appetite for power six
times more efficient
than a leading competitor making them ideal
for ultra-small-form-factor and battery-powered products.
Applications may
include portable consumer devices, sensing
nodes, wearable
devices and even
ingestible healthcare sensing. As
more of these products add
intelligence and become part of
the IoT ecosystem, designers
need to maintain a small footprint, in terms of size and power
consumption, while also delivering a level of connectivity users
have come to expect from more
traditional connected devices,
At the CTIA 2013 Mobile

Marketplace in Las Vegas Nevada, May 21-23, W. L. Gore &
Associates presented its latest
venting and cabinet cooling products that enable the telecommunications industry to remain connected and protected. Gore has
displayed new venting products
and cooling filters that ensure reliability and long-lasting performance across the telecommunication spectrum ranging from
mobile phones and small
portable devices to small cells,
outdoor wireless routers, towermounted antennas, base station
cabinets and other telecommunication infrastructure.
Continuing its commitment to
enhancing infrastructure performance, Gore presented
several new GORE Protective
Vents the solution for equalizing internal pressure and
protecting sensitive electronics
inside housings of any size.
The VE9 Series adhesive vent
provides the highest level of airflow approximately five times
that of Gores existing VE7 Series
adhesive vents and features a
membrane that is f2 rated by
Underwriters Laboratory. The
membrane-only construction of
the VE9 Series is very flexible,
which enables it to be installed
such as tablets and smartphones.

This announcement builds on
the momentum Freescale has
achieved with the Kinetis L series
since its introduction in early
2012. The company currently
has 66 Kinetis L series devices in
its portfolio and expects nearly
double that number this year.
This expansion will provide

application designers the industrys largest MCU portfolio
based on the ARM CortexM0+ processor, offering more
than 110 ARM Powered MCU
choices with the most package
options and greatest scalability.
www.freescale.com
Transcends mSATA Mini SSD MSM610 now at Rutronik

The new MSM610 mSATA mini
SSD from Transcend offers a
diminutive yet robust form factor, impressive sequential
read/write transfer speeds, solid
state performance and durability. The product is available in
8GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities
at distributor Rutronik as of now.
Fully compliant with
the SATA II 3Gb/s
specification and built
with industry-leading
toggle-mode MLC
NAND flash chips, the
MSM610 mSATA mini
SSD boasts blazing
fast sequential read
and write speeds up to 245 and
48MB/s respectively. This translates into reduced boot up and
data transfer times, superior
application launch speed and
enhanced overall system responsiveness. This is especially useful
for dual-drive notebooks and
Ultrabooks. The MSM610 comes
24
with advanced features such as

TRIM and NCQ support, built-in
ECC and wear leveling, intelligent
block management, support for
enhanced S.M.A.R.T. commands
and excellent shock resistance,
providing exceptional reliability
and data protection. To further
protect SSD data, built-in
Advanced Power
Shield technology
directly monitors
the host power
input to prevent
data loss in the
event of a sudden
power outage.
Measuring only
26.8mm 29.85mm 3.85mm,
the MSM610 is ideal for spacerestricted embedded applications, e.g. tablets, smartphones,
Ultrabooks, eBook readers, navigation systems, set-top boxes,
hand held scanners and mini PCs.
RUTRONIK
www.rutronik.com
on either the internal or external

wall of the enclosure. As a complement to the VE7 and VE9
Series adhesive vents, Gore
introduced two venting series
the VE7R and VE9R with a
more durable adhesive that
adheres to rough and uneven
surfaces even after exposure to
challenging environmental conditions. And the Protective
Venting team has displayed the
new GORE PolyVent XL, which
is specifically engineered to
improve the integrity and reliability of large outdoor enclosures with a volume exceeding
200 liters by equalizing pressure
and blocking contaminants in
frequently changing conditions.
W. L. GORE & ASSOCIATES
www.gore.com
Silicon Labs Introduces High-Performance Oscillators for

Silicon Labs introduced a new
family of crystal oscillators (XOs)
that provide ultra-low jitter reference timing for 10G, 40G and
100G cloud computing and networking equipment. These new
Si535 and Si536 XOs leverage
Silicon Labs proven DSPLL
technology to provide unparalleled performance, stability and
flexibility for 10/40G data center core/access switches, storage
area networking equipment,
security routers, enterprise
switches/routers, and Carrier
Ethernet switches and routers.
To support the burgeoning
demand for cloud computingbased services, data center
equipment is migrating to high-
er speed serial data transmission, often 10G or faster. In parallel, there is a significant trend
to maximize energy efficiency
by consolidating switching, storage and computing resources
into fewer components. These
trends have given rise to processors, Ethernet switch ICs and
FPGAs with integrated highspeed serializer-deserializer
(SerDes) technology that
requires low-jitter timing references. Silicon Labs Si535/536
oscillators provide the ultra-low
jitter and 20 ppm stability
required by state-of-the-art
cloud computing and networking infrastructure equipment.
The Si535/536 XOs offer excep-
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
New Power Architecture based Kontron VPX board fulfills

demanding embedded computing requirements
Kontron introduced its latest 3U VPX
PowerPC processor board, tailored for
rugged embedded systems that need to
process compute-intensive applications
using the lowest possible power consumption. To meet this requirement, the
Kontron 3U VPX processor board
VX3240 features the new, power optimized Freescale
P2041 QorIQ
quad-core processor. The headless
VPX design has
four 1.2 GHz
Power
Architecture
e500mc cores,
which helps engineers to successfully meet current
and future challenges of Size,
Weight & Power
and Cooling (SWaP-C) requirements for
constrained environments in the military,
aerospace and transportation markets.
Moreover, the integrated hypervisor
support enabling the use of low level
safety critical virtualization technologies
from companies such as Wind River, RTS
or Sysgo, makes the VX3240 the ideal
SBC for consolidation of multiple applications into a single platform, further
improving the SWaP-C balance.
Network-centric applications also benefit from the data path acceleration architecture (DPAA), which offloads packet
handling tasks from the core, providing

increased processor performance for
critical tasks while the secure boot feature of the CPU can be used for trusted
boot implementation, allowing only
authenticated code to run on the board.
Applications for the new Kontron 3U
VPX processor board VX3240 include,
C4ISR, software defined radio and networked applications that require rugged
OpenVPX designs to operate in the
most demanding environments. Safetycritical railway applications also benefit
from this architecture.
Its wide range of I/Os, including Gigabit
Ethernet, GPIOs, USB, SATA and serial
interfaces, simplifies integration in new,
data- intensive, low-power system
designs.
Focusing on the future of the automotive market,

Laird Technologies, Inc., a global technology company, showcased automotive electronic solutions at
Telematics Detroit 2013. An industry leader in solutions for the automotive market, Laird delivers innovative products to OEMs and Tier 1 companies.
The telematics that will allow cars of the future to
see and talk with each other also will enable
medical devices to wirelessly provide valuable data
unlike never before, according to Jim Ciccarelli,
Segment Director for Telematics at Laird.
Telematics and wireless technology has significantly changed the automotive industry, said Ciccarelli.
His presentation, titled Taking Telematics Beyond
Automotive, discussed how to provide full valueadd to vehicles by tapping into other wireless, M2M
ecosystems. Topics discussed included integrating
cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, interfacing to medical devices for first responders and
enabling telematics suppliers to move into new
wireless verticals through strategic partnerships.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
Cloud Computing
tional jitter performance of <200 femtoseconds (fs) RMS jitter (integrated
from 10 kHz to 1 MHz) for common
Ethernet and Fibre Channel reference
frequencies. The Si535/536 oscillators
support LVDS and LVPECL output formats at 2.5 V and 3.3 V and offer both
Laird Technologies
Solution for the
Automotive Market:
Interactive Vehicle Display
20 ppm and 31.5 ppm total stability,

simplifying interfacing to a wide variety
of processors, switches, PHYs and
FPGAs. When combined with Silicon
Labs Si533xx differential clock buffers,
the Si535/536 XOs provide low-jitter
clock generation and distribution for
SoCs requiring multiple
high-performance reference clocks.
The Si535/536 oscillators use Silicon Labs
patented DSPLL technology to provide a
low-jitter clock at
high-speed differential
frequencies.
SILICON LABS
www.silabs.com/XO
During the exhibition, Laird highlighted their broad

mix of products and solutions for the automotive
industry. Antennas, Telematics Devices, EMI,
Ferrites, Active Thermal Management, Thermal
Interface Materials and Embedded Wireless solutions has been showcased at the booth through an
interactive vehicle display. Advanced concepts displayed in the vehicle include low-energy Bluetooth
Smart modules, LTE/MiMo reception and wireless
sensors using energy harvesting.
Laird is an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of performance-critical products for
wireless and other advanced electronic applications. The companys engineer and design teams
can develop custom solutions for virtually any
application. Solutions are supplied across several
industries including automotive, telecommunications, information technology, consumer products,
medical and industrial markets.
LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES
www.lairdtech.com
25
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Kontron COM Express Computer-on-Module accelerates individual implementation of 4th generation

Intel Core processors
Kontron's embedded Mini-ITX motherboard with

4th generation Intel Core processor delivers leading-edge performance in compact size
Kontron announced the launch of

the COM Express basic
Computer-on-Module COMebHL6 that accelerates and eases
the implementation of 4th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 and
Celeron processors into individual application platforms. The
new application-ready modules
offer increased performance density and up to twice the graphics
performance compared to its
predecessors. Up to three independent, daisy-chained displays
with up to 4K resolution are supported to create stunning user
experiences. Further to this,
DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.x
support paves the way for compelling visuals when videos,
graphics and interactive content
are being displayed. By integrating the new Intel AVX2 and
OpenCL 1.2, Kontron's new
Computer-on-Modules additionally not only provide an increase
in floating-point performance
they also possess improved parallel processing capacities. Typical
application areas can be found in
Kontron announced the new

embedded Mini-ITX motherboard KTQ87/mITX based on 4th
generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3
processors and the Intel
Embedded Q87 chipset. The new
motherboard offers engineers
leading-edge embedded processing performance as well as up
to 4K graphics in a compact ATXcompliant footprint. It provides a
35 percent increase in graphics
performance compared
to its predecessors and a
higher floating-point
performance as well as
improved data en- and
decryption while the
thermal footprint has
practically remained the
same. With these
improvements and with the longterm availability as well as the
high-quality design, the Kontron
KTQ87/mITX sets a new benchmark for all mid-range to highperformance embedded applications in markets such as industrial
automation, medical, gaming and
digital signage. With the Mini-ITX
form factor engineers can immediately launch into developing
system designs based on the
broad, ATX-compliant ecosystem.
By making a Mini-ITX board available parallel to the processor
markets such as digital signage,

professional gaming and entertainment, medical imaging and
surveillance and security as well
as industrial plant and machine
line control on shop floor- and
control room-level. Engineers can

immediately commence with evaluating these new benchmark
Computer-on-Modules on all
Kontron COM Express pin-out
type 6-compliant starter kits. For
customers wanting to instantly
leverage the new graphics and
computing power in their existing
designs based on individual carrier boards, Kontron also offers
standardized migration support
services to accelerate the designin phase and thus achieve fastest
field deployment.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
Mitsubishi Electric Released New Higher Current

Automotive IPMs of the J-Series
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
announced on Power
Conversion Intelligent Motion
(PCIM) Europe 2013 (May 14-16
in Nuremberg, Germany), the
development of higher current
rated intelligent power modules (IPMs) mainly for electric- (EV) and hybrid vehicle
(HV) applications. Two new
models of the J-Series in 3phase inverter configuration
(6 in 1) will be introduced,
based on low-loss CSTBTTM
chip technology.
PM800CJG060G is combining a rating of 600V/800A with a
low saturation voltage of typically 1.8V at Tj=25C. For
PM500CJG120G these values
are 1200V/500A with a typical
saturation voltage of 2.0V. Both
are supporting at the same footprint area larger currents than
existing types of the J-series,
starting from 300A at 600V rat-
26
ing respectively from 150A at

1200V. Additionally, both are
equipped with built-in power
supplies for IGBT drive and logic
circuits. First samples will be
available from August 2013
onwards. Mass production of the

RoHS compliant modules is
expected to begin in 2014.
Power modules for automobiles
offer higher reliability than industrial-use modules due to
extremely high standards for
vehicle safety.
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC EUROPE B.V.
www.mitsubishichips.eu
launch, Kontron enables simultaneous engineering and roll-out

along the entire value creation
chain from chip vendor up to
original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs). Building a design on a
seven year long-term available
embedded motherboard ensures
that OEM installations will always
have the same function and functionality which dramatically simplifies updates and after sales serv-
ice. The high-quality design of the

Kontron embedded motherboards with features such as solid
capacitors (POSCAP) additionally
improves application reliability
and availability in the field - even
in the harshest of environments. In
addition, the embedded feature
set contributes to enabling the
long-term availability of applications in all the various embedded
and intelligent system markets up
to cyber physical systems.
KONTRON
www.kontron.com
IPETRONIK now provides an 8-Channel Temperature Mea

IPETRONIK upgrades the second generation of its M-Series
CAN modules by adding MTHERMO2, an 8-channel temperature measurement device
connectable to K-Type
Thermocouples (NiCr/NiAl).
The redesigned M2-Series
enclosure uses reduced dimensions of 106 mm 30 mm 50

mm (W H D) and is
designed for use in the engine
compartment supporting IP67
protection class, as well as the
extended temperature range of
-40C to +125C.
PRODUCT NEWS
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
SUYIN Optronics presents an ultra-compact mini-camera module

with a resolution of 8 megapixels
Suyin Optronics offers a highly miniaturized camera module bearing the part
number CM 8013 AF05 OV01 that features a maximum resolution of 8
megapixels. Due to its compact dimensions of 8.5 mm (W) 8.5 mm (L) 5.91
mm (H), the module is also suitable for
use in applications facing particularly
tight space restrictions. Integrated autofocus capabilities, combined with a highperformance lens consisting
of five plastic elements,
ensures outstanding image
quality and provides a display that is always sharp,
regardless of the distance
setting used. The image
sensor, an OV8825 CMOS
sensor in a PLCC housing, is
in the 1/3.2-inch or 1/4 inch
format. The size of the
active image sensor area
(the effective resolution) is
3,296 (H) 2,460 (V) pixels. Using the
standard serial camera control bus
(SCCB), the images are read out as 10bit RAW RGB (MIPI) files (full-frame,
sub-sampled, windowed). The user has
comprehensive control over output of
the image files with regard to image
quality and formatting. The supported
image sizes include 8 megapixels,
EIS1080p, 1080p, EIS720p, EISQ 1080p,
Q 1080p, EISVGA, VGA and QVGA,
among others. Depending on the resolution, the maximum image transmission
rate is 24fps (8 megapixels), 30fps
(EIS1080p), 60fps (EIS720p), etc. All

required image editing functions such
as the exposure setting, white balance,
the masking of defective pixels, etc.
can be programmed via the SCCB interface. Black level calibration is performed
automatically (ABLC). Among other features, the miniature camera module
offers integrated 256-byte one-time
programmable (OTP) memory for stor-
Exar Releases High

Frequency, Step-Down
Regulator for EMC/EMI
Sensitive Applications
Exar Corporation, a leading supplier of high performance analog mixed-signal components and data management solutions, today expanded its family of low
voltage, step down regulators with the addition of the
XRP6670.
The programmable operating frequency of the
XRP6670 offers power design engineers increased
flexibility in optimizing component values, size and
performance enabling precise management of electromagnetic interference (EMI) compliance and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
ing serial numbers and similar details, a

chip-integrated phase-locked loop (PLL),
as well as a built-in 1.5 V voltage controller for the core supply. Signals and
power are delivered via a micro connector (24 pins, 3 mm 2 mm), which is also
connected to the module via a highly
miniaturized flexible PCP.
This miniature module is superbly suited
for use in industrial PCs and mobile
devices as well as in automotive and
industrial electronics applications.
SUYIN
www.suyin-europe.com
surement Device in a new M2 Enclosure

A supply voltage in the range of 9VDC
to 36VDC is required. Typical power
consumption is 1.1W. The temperature
measurement range of -60C to +1370C
is digitalized by a 24-bit analog-to-digital
converter. Cold junction compensation is
accomplished using a PT100 temperature sensor directly at each measurement
input socket. A compensation of the AD
converter is performed each time before
a measurement value is acquired. To
achieve the highest possible accuracy,
the sensor characteristic is linearized
using an internal compensation algorithm. The hardware filter used in
IPETRONIKs M-THERMO2 is a single
pol low-pass RC filter with a cut-off frequency of 1 Hz. The resolution is
0.087C (14 bits). Accuracy is specified as 0.035% of the temperature
measurement range at 25C.

The measurement module features
channel sampling rates up to 100 Hz
and a maximum aggregate sampling rate
of 800Hz. Status LEDs at each measurement input indicate open inputs (sensor
break detection) and provide information on the channel location during software configuration. The output data is
transmitted using CAN bus 2.0B according to ISO 11898-2 with up to 1 MBit/s.
All measurement inputs, CAN bus and
power supply are completely galvanically isolated from each other.
As known from the former M-Family,
M-THERMO2 provides a toolless
mounting technique to attach the
modules to each other.
IPETRONIK
www.ipetronik.com
Operating from a 2.6V to 5.5V input voltage range,

the XRP6670 is capable of supplying up to 3Amps of
continuous current with an adjustable output voltage
as low as 0.8V. This synchronous Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) voltage regulator can accommodate a broad range of inductor and output capacitor
values through its constant 300kHz to 2.5MHz programmable operating frequency.
Additionally, the adjustable frequency range of the
XRP6670, which is set via a single resistor, allows the
user to optimize size, transient response and efficiency while precisely positioning the fundamental operating frequency and subsequent harmonics. Ideal for
industrial, medical, and audio and video equipment,
the XPR6670, with its compact form factor and
reduced component count, is also ideal for space sensitive applications.
EXAR CORPORATION
www.exar.com
27
We have combined the newest generation of extremely sturdy

Safety Light Curtains under the MLC name. Three function classes
Basic, Standard and Extended enable the most efficient use
of devices from simple standard applications to complex controlled special safeguarding processes. Even the Basic version can
be used universally, due to metal end caps, a flexible fastening
concept and the option of form-locking installation.
An abundance of benefits - the choice is yours.

Integrated blanking and muting
In the MLC 530 (Extended), blanking and muting functions are already integrated
and can be very easily called up via a corresponding pin assignment.
Flexible fastening concept
Thanks to the integrated 3-zone alignment aid and the integrated LED and
7-segment display, the MLC family is easy to align, set up and operate.
Flexible and easy mounting - and without dead space
An optional swivel mount as well as removable mounting cylinders enable very
simple assembly or flush mechanical fastening without dead space.
Global availability
Due to our global sales network, the MLC Safety Light Curtains can be delivered
to your site anywhere in the world in a very short amount of time.
Still more safety expertise for you!
Efficiency is when the whole safety solution comes from a single source. From the simple standard sensor to the high-end system, there are many
additional products and services in our extensive range that will also make your processes more efficient. Examples include:
Machine Safety Services

Product and standards trainings
Safety consulting, safety engineering
Start-up support
Safety inspections, stopping time
measurements
28
MSI 200 Safety Controllers

Monitoring of 140 safe inputs or 100 inputs and 44 outputs
Transfer of diagnostic data to the PLC via optional fieldbus modules
Easy configuration with PLCopen-certified function blocks
MC3x Magnetically Coded Sensors

Not sensitive to dust, humidity, etc.
Highly tamperproof
Different approach actuation directions
Integrated compact design
Tel. +40 256-201346

Mail office@oboyle.ro
Web www.oboyle.ro
Leuze
n
n
n
Optical sensors
Sensors for logistic applications
Safety at work
Contrinex
n
n
Optical Sensors
Inductive Sensors
ASM
n
n
n
Westec
Linear Sensors
Angle Sensors
Tilt Sensors
n
n
n
Selec
n
n
n
HTP
PLCs
Temperature Controller
Timer
n
n
n
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Sensor Instruments
n
n
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Color Sensors
True Color Sensors, Spectrometers
Gloss Sensors
Kobold
n
n
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Heavy Duty Industrial Connectors

Power and Data Transmission Connectors
Aluminium Junction Boxes
Circular connectors M8; M12; M23

Cable and Connectors for Sensors
Valve Connectors
Distribution Blocks
Visit our
online shop
www.oboyle.ro
Intertec
Flowmeters
Level Indicators and Switches
Pressure Sensors and Switches
n
n
Linear Solenoids
Permanent Electromagnets
AUTOMATION
Peratech designs the QTC Ultra Sensor an ultra-sensitive touch sensor
for domestic, commercial and industrial use
Peratech, the innovators in touch
technology, has developed an
ultra-sensitive sensor using its
award winning QTC technology.
Quantum Tunnelling Composite
material changes its resistance
when pressure is applied,
enabling it to be used to make
pressure sensors that can respond

to light touches even through
steel or glass. Fitting conventional
switches to products always introduces a point of possible failure
either within the switch or the fitting of the switch. QTC Ultra
Sensor solve this as it can either
be fitted as a small piece of QTC
sheeting or screen printed on the
back of the steel plate as
required by the product designer. The design works equally well
with other materials such as plastics, glass or wood provided that
there is enough flex to activate
the QTC switch. It can even be
used behind translucent materials
to create secret till lit buttons.

QTC solutions are thinner, smaller, more discrete, less expensive
and ultra-reliable as there is no
air gap and no moving parts
making them ideal for domestic,
commercial and industrial equipment. QTC material has nanosized particles of conductive
material evenly distributed in a
non-conductive polymer. When
a force is applied the particles
move close enough for electrons
to flow between the particles
using an effect called Quantum
Tunnelling.
PERATECH
www.peratech.com
29
30
Tel. +40 256-201346

Mail office@oboyle.ro
Web www.oboyle.ro
31
PRODUCT NEWS
DISPLAY
Distec Provides Optical Bonding in

New Vacuum Technology
14.9-inch (37.7 cm) IPS TFT display with unique

16:3 aspect ratio and high image quality
Distec GmbH - leading German

specialist for TFT-LCD flat screens
and system solutions for industrial
and multimedia applications now provides optical bonding in
new vacuum technology. In this
process a protective glass, a touch
screen or both are bonded using a high quality
optical material onto a
TFT display. The result is
a display that is rich in
contrast, offers exceptional readability, and is well
suited for use in direct
sunlight. "In close strategic
and technical cooperation
with the Japanese Taica
Group, we invested in the latest
generation of optical bonding
technology," said Dieter
Kiermaier, Head of Sales and
Marketing Components at Distec.
"This cutting edge vacuum technology has clear advantages compared to the 'wet bonding' technology currently employed
worldwide. When vacuum bond-
Gleichmann Electronics now

offers a 14.9-inch transmissive
super widescreen IPS TFT display, part name
TX38D25VM0CAA, from KOE
Europe. The new display features
a unique 16:3 wide aspect ratio,
wide horizontal and vertical viewing angles of
170, a high resolution of 1280
242 pixels, a
brightness of 450
cd/m and an
excellent contrast
ratio of 800:1.
The 14.9-inch
display, which is
based on KOE's
own In Plane
Switching (IPS)
technology, has an active display
area of 372.5 mm (w) 70.4 mm
(h) and mechanical outline
dimensions of 386.8 mm (w)
85.6 mm (h) 13.1 mm (d). The
display can be used in either
landscape or portrait mode and
ing, a dehydration process is not

needed; as such we avoid material shrinkage related to dehydration and the resulting degradation of optical qualit y. Due to
the consistent mechanical conditions when vacuum bonding, so-
called 'yellow spots' are eliminated. Additional advantages of the

new process are: enhanced
robustness of the bonded TFT
displays (important in industrialuse cases and in outdoor installations) as well as accelerated lead
time sample production.
DISTEC
www.distec.de
Dontech Car-Series & VC1-IM-Series

Dielectrically Enhanced ITO Coatings for
Demanding Display Applications
Utilizing the latest in thin-film vacuum deposition technology,
Dontechs CAR-Series and VC1IM-Series index-matched ITO
coatings on glass filters provide
exceptional optical and
electrically conductive
properties. For high-end
display programs, CARSeries coatings are indexmatched to air and VC1-IMSeries coatings are indexmatched to lamination to
optimize display contrast
(e.g., sunlight readability)
while providing EMI/RFI
shielding and/or transparent
heating. Dontechs indexmatched ITO coatings are used in
demanding military, medical,
industrial, and avionic applications. CAR-Series and VC1-IMSeries filters can be fabricated
from a variety of glass substrates,
such as chemically strengthened
(soda lime, Corning Gorilla, or
Asahi Dragontrail), borosilicate,
fused silica, and optical glasses
(e.g., Schott nBk-7). Customization

options include low photopic
reflections and tightly toleranced
resistances. The CAR-Series
coatings and VC1-IM-Series
coatings offer AR coating reflections as low as <0.4%, compared

to Dontech non-conductive AR
coatings which can be optimized
down below 0.1%. ITO sheet
resistances range from <1 / to
300 / with transmittances as
high as >96%.
DONTECH
www.dontech.com
is suitable for applications such as

point-of-sale (POS) terminals,
transportation technology and
industrial instrumentation.
The display has a single channel
20-pin LVDS data interface and
supports 6-bit RGB providing a
color palette of up to 262,000
colors. The white LED backlight

provides a guaranteed 70,000
hours half brightness lifetime. The
operating temperature range is
specified at -20C to +70C.
GLEICHMANN & CO. ELECTRONICS
www.msc-ge.com
DSM Computer markets robust electro-luminescent

displays from Lumineq (previously Planar)
DSM Computer GmbH is distributor of the high-quality thin film
electro-luminescent (TFEL) displays made by Lumineq Displays
that are particularly robust and
ideal for the widest range of
applications with extreme environment requirements. Lumineq
Displays is a newlyfounded business
unit of the Finnish
company Beneq
that has taken over
the Electro-luminescent (EL) division of Planar
Systems, Inc. based
in Finland.
Beneq has set the
goal of ensuring that
Planar's faithful customers will continue to receive problem-free and
long-term deliveries of the existing products as well as comprehensive support. In future, Beneq
will also develop new Lumineq
display systems, and with innovative display technologies, such as
ALD (atomic layer deposition),
and transparent displays intends

to capture interesting markets.
Lumineq thin film electro-luminescence (TFEL) displays are
designed for operation in a wide
range of areas subject to extreme
environmental conditions, e.g. for
transportation, railroad technolo-
gy, aerospace and safety engineering. Thanks to the implemented Thin Film Electroluminescent (TFEL) technology developed by Planar, the displays can
also work at extreme temperatures in the -60 to + 85 C range.
DSM COMPUTER
www.dsm-computer.com
33
PRODUCT NEWS
LEDs
New ProfiLED lightbars from OMC save cost;

provide even illumination
Everlight Electronics Introduces a Cost-Effective 1W

High-Power LED for Multiple Lighting Applications
OMC, the pioneer in optoelectronics - LED lighting, backlighting

and industrial fibre optic transmission components has
announced the launch of its
ProfiLED Lightbar product family, which reduce cost and offer an
improved appearance, especially
in low and medium
volume applications.
Unless production volumes are very high,
the cost of developing
a custom lightbar is
prohibitive for most
applications. Instead,
designers often use
several standard
square or rectangular
units in combination.
However, this approach gives rise
to high materials and assembly
costs, and the finished product
has unsightly dark lines where the
arrays join. Using the same
approach as it adopts in its
ProfiLED Backlight range of LCD
backlights, which employ LED
EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO.,

LTD. announces the top-view
white 1W high power LED
XI3535. This highly cost-effective
package provides high lumens
and efficacy and is well suited for
use in lighting grade high power
LED designs such as omnidirectional LED light bulbs,
directional lamps, decorative lamps, panel lights
and many other general
and residential lighting
applications. The package
material of the XI3535 is
competitively priced and
thermally efficient, allowing the LED to be driven at higher
current for more lumens while
maintaining good service life
time. High-reliability housing
brings low thermal resistance of
15C/W and other superior quality characteristics. Everlights
XI3535 is offered in ANSI CCTs
edge-lighting and an acrylic lightguide to achieve uniform, consistent illumination, OMC can now
offer alternatives to lightbars in a
vast range of colours. Devices can
vary from 2mm to 7mm in height
and can be produced in a huge
range of bespoke shapes and
sizes with little or no set-up cost

and very low MOQs.
Applications include front-panel
displays, back-illuminated stencils
and logos, illuminated badges,
indicators and signage.
OMC
www.omc-uk.com
Everlight Adds Two IRLEDs for Remote Controls and

Optical Touch Panels
EVERLIGHT Electronics Co., Ltd.
expands its product offering of
invisible light sources for remote
control applications with two new
SMD infrared LEDs (IRLEDs), the
IR26-71C and the IR26-61C.
The two IR26-71C models are
940nm side-view SMD
IRLEDs that feature superior
mechanical (height) and
optical (radiant intensity and
viewing angle) characteristics
which make them ideal for
use in remote controls and
touch panels. Their height of
only 1.2mm allows the target
devices to be as slim as possible,
even when implemented into
portables like mobile phones and
tablets. With a radiant intensity of
5mW/sr and 8mW/sr or more at
20mA, they outperform most
SMD IRLEDs in the market. The
8.0mW/sr@20mA version catches
up with or exceeds 5mm IR
diodes, and allows either lower
driving currents, to extend the
battery lifetime of handheld
34
devices, or increased panel sizes

respectively increased transmission distance of remote controls.
A viewing angle of 50 ensures
that the remote control does not
need to be directly pointed
towards the receiving device, but
instead provides a wide operating range. Based on a similar

package design, Everlight offers
the IR26-61C IRLED series with a
narrower viewing angle of 20
and the PT26-71B phototransistor series, which are both matching pairs designated for smallmiddle (5-32) size optical touch
panel applications.
EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS
www.everlight.com
ratings from 2700K to 6500K and

features a light efficacy of
109/115 lm/W (warm/cool white)
at 350mA and 3V with >80 CRI. A
150mA and 6V version is also
available. This top-view white LED
has a compact size of 3.5 3.5
0.65mm (LWH) and a typical

viewing angle 115. It is Pb-free
and RoHS compliant and currently undergoing LM80 lumen maintenance testing (already tested
successfully to 4,000 hours).
www.everlight.com
Everlight Presents New HIR LEDs for ProximitySensors and High-Tech Intelligence
Touch Panel Applications
EVERLIGHT Electronics Co. Ltd.,
a leading player in the global
LED industry with three decades
of experience in optoelectronics,
introduces three new 850nm
HIR (high efficiency infrared)
LEDs featuring a high output
power and narrow viewing
angles which make them ideal for
use in high-tech intelligence
touch panel and proximity sensors.
Two of
them are
top view
SMD LEDs
especially
suited for
proximity
sensor
applications. The
HIR89-01C
has a viewing angle
of 30 and achieves a very high
radiant intensity 55mW/sr at
70mA. The HIR91-01C/L297 with
a 40 viewing angle reaches an
intensity of 40mW/sr at 70mA.
Wide viewing angles with high
output power rarely occur with

most proximity sensors, making
the HIR89 and HIR91 truly ideal
for all proximity sensor applications such as smart phones as well
as optical touch panels. For sideview touch applications smaller
than 80 inches, Everlights HIR8301B in a slim SMD package features a radiant intensity of
5mW/sr at 20mA and a viewing
angle of 100(X)/40(Y). The

asymmetric viewing angle is especially suitable for touch panel
applications.
www.everlight.com
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
Step-down converters with more than 90%

efficiency and current consumption of only 12 A
in standby operation
MSC now offers the E522.7x
family of step-down (buck) converters from Elmos. The E522.7x
family features a high efficiency
rate of more than 90% and low
current consumption of only
12A in standby
mode, and 8 A in
sleep mode.
The new E522.7x
family of converters
comprises nine
devices and is
designed for an
input voltage range
between 4.5V and
40V. Models with
3V, 5V or variable
output voltage from 1.5V up to
almost the input voltage at 100%
duty cycle are available.
Depending on the model, the
maximum output current is
350mA, 500mA or 1A. Due to
the integrated power MOSFETs,
only a very limited number of
external components are
required. The Pulse Frequency
Modulation (PFM) regulators

operate at up to 1.33MHz and
achieve outstanding response
times, stability and high efficiency over the entire voltage and
output current ranges. The idle
detection automatically switches

to the idle mode with a current
consumption of typically 8 A if
either no switching activity
occurred for longer than
typically 110 s or the duty
cycle of the converter falls below
a limit of typically 1:72.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
Microchip Introduces new Unique ID

family of EEPROMs
Microchip announces the introduction of a family of serial EEPROM devices that feature a
unique, pre-programmed 32-bit
serial number for customers
requiring unique IDs in their
applications. For
applications needing
longer than 32-bit
IDs, the unique ID
can be extended to
48-bit, 64-bit, 96-bit,
128-bit and other
lengths by increasing
the number of bytes
read from memory.
Because the 32-bit
ID is unique within
these devices, any longer bit
sequence is also unique. These
2Kb serial EEPROM devices are
available in standard busses, such
as I2C, SPI and Microwire, and
integrate up to 1.5Kb of memory
that can be used as a standard
EEPROM. In addition, Microchip
has released a 256Kb I2C
unique-ID device, which, in addition to the 32-bit serial number,
also contains the IEEE EUI-48
and IEEE EUI-64 MAC addresses. These IDs are in a write-protected area of the memory, giving users up to 224Kb of EEPROM to use in their applications.
Microchip ensures this 32-bit ID
is unique across the entire family

of 24AA02UID, 24AA025UID,
11AA02UID, 25AA02UID and
24AA256UID unique-ID EEPROM devices. Microchip has also
added to its existing EUI-48
MAC-address portfolio by introducing a family with pre-programmed EUI-64 MAC
addresses.
www.microchip.com/get/TK4D
Murata extends line up of ultra compact

DC-DC converters
Compact 1 Watt DC-DC converter complies with

UL60601-1 for medical safety
Murata announced additions to

its LXDC series of ultra compact
DC-DC converters. The new
devices comprise the LXDC55F
and LXDC55K step down converters. Both models offer a voltage trim function that
allows adjustment of the
output voltage within the
range of 0.8 to 5.3VDC
for the 55F and up to
3.6VDC for the 55K
converter.
The LXDC55FAAA-203
measures 5.0 5.7
2.1mm and can support
an input voltage in the
range of 4.0 to 14.0VDC.
Maximum output current is up
to 1.5 A. Capable of supporting
an output current up to 3A the
LXDC55KAAA-205 measures
5.0 5.7 2.1mm. Input voltage
is within the range of 2.7 to
5.5VDC.
The converters are constructed
on a multilayer ferrite substrate
Murata announced the Murata

Power Solutions MEJ1 series of
isolated 1 Watt DC-DC converters. Encapsulated in a 7 pin SIP
package, the MEJ1 series offers
basic and supplementary isolation to the internationally recognized UL60950 standard. The
converter is certified to a continuous working voltage of 200
Vrms when operating in a maximum ambient temperature of +
85C. Input to output isolation is
rated at 5,200 VDC for 1 second. The series also complies
with the 3rd edition of medical
safety standard UL60601-1 and
provides the following MOOP
(means of operator protection):
2 MOOP based upon a working
voltage of 200 Vrms max. and
280Vpkmax., between primary
and secondary and 1 MOOP
based upon a working voltage of
200 Vrms max., between primary and its enclosure. The
series comprises 38 models with
that integrates an embedded

inductor and the power IC. Using
this approach the LXDC family
exhibits good EMI suppression
and reduced harmonic noise
characteristics. These highly effi-
cient converters use a synchronous rectifier technology. They

are idea for applications that
require an extremely small DCDC conversion footprint where a
discrete approach is not possible
due to space limitations.
MURATA
www.murata.eu
both single and dual output versions available. Single output

models provide 3.3, 5, 9, 12, or
15 Vout. Dual versions provide
both positive and negative outputs; 5, 12, 15, or 24 Vin is
accommodated across the whole
range and single output models
also have a 3.3 Vin option.

Typical energy efficiencies are in
the range of 70 to 78%.
The MEJ1 series is designed for
low power applications that
require a high degree of isolation
such as an agency-approved safety barrier for medical equipment,
IGBT drivers, and control systems.
MURATA
www.murata.eu
35
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
2:1 DC/DC modules with 30, 40 and 50 W power

PEAK electronics has expanded
its proven 2:1 DC/DC converter
series with additional 30, 40 and
50 W power types.
The PMT-series P30WG with 30
W and the PMT-series P40WG
with 40 W are families of cost
effective single and dual output
DC-DC modules with a wide
input range
of 2:1. The
input voltage ranges
are 9 18
V, 18- 36 V
and 36
72 V. The
converters
provide
regulated
output
voltages
from 3.3 V
up to 15 V
DC, both
for single and dual versions. The
30 W series is also available as
PMTW-series P30WG with 4:1
ultra-wide input and single, dual
and triple output.
All converters are encapsulated
in nickel coated brass 2 x 1 inch
metal cases with high performance features: 1.6 kV DC I/O isolation voltage, continuous short
circuit protection with automatic
restart and tight line / load regu-
lation, over current protection,

over voltage protection and
over temperature protection.
PEAK electronics DC/DC converters PME04-series PE50WG
with 50 W power offer a 2:1
wide input range and a single
output. The input voltage ranges
are 18- 36 V and 36 72 V, the
regulated output voltages go

from 3.3 V up to 24 V DC. The
I/O isolation is 1.5 kV DC. The
50 W converters are available in
a 2 x 1 inch aluminum case.
The DC/DC module series with
2:1 and 4:1 inputs are dedicated
for applications in industrial control, electrical power, instrumentation, telecommunications etc.
PEAK ELECTRONICS
www.peak-electronics.de
Power Integrations Introduces Highly Integrated

PFC IC for Compact Consumer Products and PCs
Power Integrations, the leader in
high-voltage integrated circuits
for energy-efficient power conversion, today introduced
HiperPFS-2, a new family of highefficiency, active-PFC ICs for
offline applications from 100 W
to 380 W. HiperPFS-2 ICs combine a boost PFC controller, driver, PFC MOSFET, PFC diode and
protection circuits in one package, enabling exceptionally compact designs ideal for small-formfactor power supplies as used in
mini-tower PCs, all-in-one PCs,
game console adapters and TVs.
The HiperPFS-2 controller uses a
variable-frequency CCM algorithm providing up to 97% efficiency across the load spectrum
from 20% to 100% and power
factor greater than 0.9 at 20%
36
load with 265 VAC input for

designs over 200 W. Including
line-connected sense elements,
the new device contributes just
60 mW to a typical high-power
adapters 300 mW no-load budget. Conducted and radiated EMI
L26 high accuracy, multi-GNSS module consumes only 21 mA in tracking mode

MSC now offers the new L26
multi-GNSS module from
Quectel. The new L26 module
features ultra low power consumption of only 21 mA in tracking mode/29 mA in acquisition
mode and a high sensitivity of 165 dBm in tracking operation/148 dBm in acquisition
operation. The L26
module is based on
the MediaTek
MT3333 chip and has
99 acquisition and 33
tracking channels. It
enables the simultaneous use of the U.S.
Global Positioning
System (GPS), the
globally available
Russian counterpart Global
Navigation Satellite System
(GLONASS) and the Japanese
Quasi-Zenith Satellite System
(QZSS). The high number of available satellites, the Multi-tone
Active Interference Canceller
(MTAIC) function for efficient
elimination of narrow band interference and noise integrated on
the MT3333 and the likewise
integrated very low-noise amplifier not only ensure rapid first fixes,
but also high positioning accuracy.
Thanks to EASY (Embedded
Assist System), an Assisted GPS
technology developed by
operating temperature range

from -40C to +85C make the
GPS/GLONASS/QZSS module
suited for use in a wide range of
consumer, automotive and industrial applications. The L26 module comes in a compact 16.0 mm
12.2 mm 2.4 mm form factor.
A comprehensively equipped
evaluation board and optional
accessories such as micro USB
cable and GPS/GLONASS antennas are provided by MSC to
allow developers to get started
quickly.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
Microchips new 36V digital potentiometers support wide

Key Facts:
Also feature high terminal/
wiper current support and
an extended temperature
range
Support for 7-bit or 8-bit
resistor configurations
are minimized due to the integrated soft-recovery diode and

short parasitic inductance loop
which results from the highly integrated, compact design.
POWER INTEGRATIONS
www.powerint.com
MediaTek and an innate logger

function implemented on the
MT3333 chip, no additional
external memory is required for
safe operation of the L26 module.
The ultra low power consumption, the fast and accurate position detection as well as a wide
Ability to sink/source up to
25 mA on all terminal pins
enables driving of larger
loads
Ideal for high-voltage and
high-temperature
applications including
industrial, automotive and
audio
Microchip announces two new

volatile, SPI digital potentiometers (digipots), the MCP41HV31
and MCP41HV51
(MCP41HVXX), which are its first
to operate at 10, 12, 18, 24 and
particularly 36 volts, for systems
requiring wide signal swing or
high power-supply voltages.
Additionally, these digipots support both 7-bit and 8-bit resistor
configurations, and a high terminal/wiper current, including the
ability to sink/source up to 25
mA on all terminal pins for driving larger loads. These features,
combined with an extended temperature range of -40C to
+125C, make the MCP41HVXX
well suited to a broad range of
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
Renesas Electronics Announces USB 2.0 Hub Controller Chip

with Battery Charging Function
Renesas Electronics announced the
development of the PD720115 USB 2.0
hub controller chip, which supports
simultaneous USB communication and
charging of portable devices such as
smartphones and tablet PCs via a single
USB connector.
The most important feature of the
PD720115 is its implementation of USB
ports with battery charging functionality
which supports the USB
Battery Charging
Specification, Revision
1.2 (USB BC 1.2). The
PD720115 will make it
easier to develop products that support simultaneous data communication complying with
the USB 2.0 standard
and charging portable
devices via a single USB
connector, such as PCs,
digital TVs, and charging adapters. It can help shorten system
architecture development cycles and
reduce development costs.
In recent years, the USB communication
market has become divided into two
segments as a result of faster data transfer speeds. The first segment centers
around storage devices, such as hard
disk drives, which require high-speed
data transfer. It utilizes the USB 3.0 standard, which supports data transfer
speeds up to 5 gigabits per second (5
Gbps). The second segment includes
applications such as digital TVs, printers,

audio components, and industrial equipment. This segment employs the earlier
USB 2.0 standard, which supports data
transfer speeds up to 480 megabits per
second (480 Mbps). USB 2.0 remains a
widely used interface for connecting
devices of all sorts.
The European Commission (the executive of the EU) has adopted Micro USB
as the standard charger interface for

mobile phones, smartphones and tablet
PCs sold in Europe. As a result, applications in which the communication USB
ports of PCs and docking stations are
used for charging such portable devices
are increasing. The market for products
complying with the USB 2.0 standard in
these application fields is growing rapidly, and it is expected to continue to
expand moving forward.
RENESAS ELECTRONICS EUROPE
www.renesas.eu
signal swings and high power-supply voltages

high-voltage and high-temperature
applications, including those in the
industrial, automotive and audio markets.
The MCP41HV31s 7-bit resistor network resolution enables 127 resistors

and 128 steps, while the MCP41HV51s
8-bit configuration supports 255 resistors and
256 steps. Additionally,
both digipots provide
RAB resistance options
of 5, 10, 50 and 100
kohms.
Both The MCP41HV31
and the MCP41HV51
digital potentiometers
are available today for
samples and volume
production, in 14-pin
TSSOP and 20-pin, 5x5
mm QFN packages.
www.microchip.com/get/0PF1
ARM Cortex M3-based FM3

MCUs now also available
in compact 32-pin LQFP and QFN
packages
MSC now offers the new MB9B120J series from
Fujitsu. This new series is the first series in the FM3
family of microcontrollers (MCUs) to be offered in
compact 32-pin LQFP and QFN package types.
The MB9B120J series of 32-bit RISC MCUs based on
the ARM Cortex-M3 processor is ideally suited for
cost-sensitive inverter and motor controls and is available at operating speeds of up to 72MHz.
Furthermore, the series features a wide range of optimized peripheral functions such as a multi-function
timer with pulse-width modulation (PWM) generation, flexible ADC trigger functions and a waveform
generator with automatic dead time generation, and
a 12-bit A/D converter with a sampling rate of up to
one million samples per second.
As with all FM3 microcontrollers belonging to the
high performance group, the MB9B120J series features a broad supply voltage range extending from
2.7V to 5.5V.
Additional features such as a trimmed on-chip RC

oscillator and internal pull-up resistors reduce the
number of external components required, thus
reducing the space requirement on the circuit board.
In addition to industrial applications, typical fields of
application for MCUs of the MB9B120J series include
household appliances such as refrigerators, washing
machines and induction cooking appliances. In order
to simplify design-in, numerous complete solutions
with various application-specific software packages
are provided.
Fujitsu provides FMinverter, a complete solution especially for motor controls. The package consists of
firmware for different motor and control types,
detailed documentation, scenario-specific software
examples, dedicated starter kits, support services and
a workshop program (QUICKLINK on the MSCGleichmann homepage: 8454). More detailed information about FM3 MCUs belonging to the high performance group can be requested by sending an email to
micros-fujitsu@msc-ge.com or via Internet QUICKLINK 8448 on the MSC-Gleichmann homepage.
MSC VERTRIEBS
www.msc-ge.com
37
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
EVERLIGHT Unveils Ultra-small Outline ITR Photo Interrupter

for Optical Switches, Digital Cameras and Printers
EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
has introduced the latest member of its
ITR series of photo interrupters for use
in optical switches, digital cameras and
printers, the ultra small outline slotted
type ITR1205ST11A/TR. A slotted
type opto interrupter detects an
object when it enters the gap of the
slotted switch and blocks the light path
between the emitter and detector.
EVERLIGHTs ITR Products consist of

an infrared emitting diode and an NPN
silicon phototransistor, integrated by a
double molding process. This unique

process reduces 74% volume in dimension as compared with conventional
photo interrupter product in the market. The phototransistor detector
receives light from the IR LED only, and
avoids the noise from ambient light.
With a low profile of only 2.7mm, the
new ITR1205ST11A/TR has an even
more compact size than conventional
parts. By using an advanced packaging
technology, EVERLIGHT's
ITR1205ST11A/TR can be designed to
have a gap and slit width of 1.1mm and
0.3mm respectively, thus enabling it to
have a higher degree of accuracy or
detection sensitivity. This high degree of
accuracy is especially needed for digital
camera applications. EVERLIGHTs ITR
photo interrupters are Pb/Halogens-free
and RoHS compliant.
www.everlight.com
Digital differential pressure

sensor for highly accurate
monitoring
Omron Electronic Components BV has added a new
digital flow sensor offering exceptionally high accuracy
and repeatability in monitoring low air flows. The sensor is an ideal alternative to a differential pressure sensor for optimising energy efficiency in air conditioning
and ventilation systems, like variable air volume (VAV)
and heat recovery unit systems (HRU) or for use in high
quality medical equipment and industrial applications.
Based on Omron's cutting-edge MEMS thermal flow
sensor chip, the new Omron D6F-PH provides better
accuracy and repeatability than standard differential
pressure sensors especially in low flow conditions. It is
capable of measuring with superior sensitivity and
reproducibility in these environments and with a wider
pressure range than the commonly used capacitancetype and piezoelectric-type differential pressure sensors. Embedded ASICs carry out digital correction (linearity and temperature correction) making the D6F-PH
more precise and less influenced by temperature than
conventional analogue output sensors.
Features of the sensor include a new digital correction

algorithm that achieves 3% R.D. precision. The sensors
flow impedance has been increased, to reduce the
influence of the bypass pipe length and diameter and
give more stable measurements. The D6F-PH is suitable
for use in a bypass configuration where the small differential pressure generated by orifice or flow restrictor is
correlated to high volumetric flow in main duct.
The sensor is available from Omron in three versions,
with measurement ranges from 0-250Pa, 50Pa and
500Pa.
Current consumption is just 6mA with no load at supply
voltage Vcc of 3.3VDC. The sensor features a digital I2C
interface with 12 bit pre-set resolution.
The new sensor is exceptionally compact, with dimensions of just 26mm 22mm 18mm as a result of the
new flow path design. Omrons D6F-PH digital differential pressure sensor can optionally be supplied pre-set
to provide temperature measurement or failure detection functions.
OMRON
http://components.omron.eu
38
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
Freescale delivers six new Airfast RF power solutions

for TD-LTE base stations
New RF transistors support metrocell and macrocell applications, deliver
exceptional gain and linearity for TD-LTE deployments at 2.3 and 2.6 GHz
Freescale Semiconductor, the
worldwide leader in high-power
radio frequency
(RF) power transistors, introduces six
new Airfast RF
power solutions
designed specifically for TD-LTE
base stations at the
2.3/2.6GHz frequency bands.
High throughput
capacity and the
ability to support a
large number of
simultaneous users makes the
2.3/2.6GHz frequency bands
preferred for LTE deployments
worldwide. Late last year, the
Chinese government announced
it will allocate 2.3/2.6GHz frequency bands for the deploy-
ment and application of TD-LTE

technology, introducing significant growth opportunities.
The newest Freescale Airfast
transistors deliver exceptional
bandwidth and linear efficiency
in a small footprint and are engineered to help drive rapid
deployment of TD-LTE networks
Circuit Design, Inc., the leading supplier of low

power radio modules, has recently developed and
released the WA-TX-03-R
and WA-RX-03-R wireless
audio modules for the
European harmonized
863 ~ 865 MHz audio band.
The WA-TX-03-R / WA-RX-03-R can
be set to 15 communication frequency channels within the 863 ~ 865
MHz band. In addition to offering
frequency response sufficient for audio transmission, the compander
noise reduction system enables wireless transmission of clear sound,
with a wide dynamic range of 70 dB or more.
worldwide. The products span a

broad range of power points,
from 50 W to 200 W, providing
solutions for metrocell and
macrocell applications.
www.freescale.com
Laird Technologies Phantom Elite Antennas Power

Communications for Speed, Safety on V8 Supercars
Laird's revolutionary Phantom
Elite antennas are state-of-theart antennas for audio and data
communications. They are low
profile, aerodynamic and weatherproof, making them ideal for
outdoor use on racing
cars. The ruggedized
VHF, UHF, multi-band
antennas are used for
two-way voice and
data communication,
cellular (LTE) and wireless broadband network communications
for vehicular and
mobile applications.
The revolutionary design features field diversity with both
vertical and horizontal polarization components. This gives the
antennas frequency agility, low
visibility, wide bandwidth and a
low agile radiation pattern that is
superior in most applications.
Lairds Phantom antennas are not
Announcing 863 ~ 865 MHz multi channel wireless

audio modules for the European market.
Model: WA-TX-03-R / WA-RX-03-R 863 MHz
only outfitted on Australian V8

Supercars, but they are also used
by public safety, utility and
transportation providers.
Through innovation, reliable fulfillment and speed, Laird is a
trusted partner and
supplier for many of
the worlds leading
companies. An industry
leader in the design
and manufacture of
antennas for mobile
devices and wireless
data, Laird possesses
end-to-end system
knowledge and employs
advanced, proprietary design
tools to bring novel antenna
designs to market. Antenna
product offerings consists of
Industrial Wireless, Telecom,
Public Safety and Enterprise and
Small Office antennas.
LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES
www.iqdfrequencyproducts.com
By focusing on simple wireless audio transmission processing functions, the product guarantees the user maximum flexibility in developing higher order software. Handshaking between modules uses
only RF channels. So for example, if the modules are embedded in a
tour guide system, as long as the channel settings match, there is no
limit to the number of receivers used.
Reducing the number of components using dedicated IC has given
the product a new multi channel capability without any increase in
module size. As embedded modules, they include nearly all the parts
necessary for audio transmission in a small shielding case, making it
possible to develop audio transmission equipment in a short time.
Features of the WA-TX-03-R / WA-RX-03-R
- R&TTE and RoHS compliant radio modules
- Dynamic range of more than 70 dB thanks to the compander noise
reduction system
- Frequency response range 50 Hz ~ 13 kHz
- 15 RF channels with 125 kHz steps
- Variable squelch sensitivity
- High sensitivity receiver
- Compact (36 26 8 mm) and light (13 g)
- Achieves stable operation with all high frequency circuits required
for transmitting and receiving enclosed inside the casing
- Reduced impact of interfering waves from external sources
through improved shielding effectiveness
WA-TX-03-R block diagram
WA-RX-03-R block diagram
Applications
Audio guiding in museums Tour guide systems
Wireless conference systems Voice monitoring systems
Wireless microphone systems
CIRCUIT DESIGN
www.circuitdesign.de
39
PRODUCT NEWS
ACTIVE COMPONENTS
Advanced Power Electronics Corp. announces

miniature ultra-low RDS(ON) dual load switch
Reduce system power in power rail
management applications
Advanced Power Electronics
Corp. (USA), a leading Taiwanese
manufacturer of MOS power
semiconductors for DC-DC
power conversion applications,
has announced a
miniature, ultra-low
on-resistance 6A dual
load switch.
Comprising two Nchannel MOSFETs
with associated control circuitry, the
APE8990-3 has an
RDS(ON) of 20m
and controlled turn
on functionality.
The MOSFETs operate over an
input voltage range of 0.8 to 5.5V
and each support a maximum
current of 6A. Each load switch is
controlled by an ON/OFF input
(ON), which is capable of interfacing directly with the low voltage control signals. Additional
features include an on-chip 150

load resistor for quick output discharge when the switch is turned
off. In order to avoid inrush current, the rise time is adjustable
using an external ceramic capacitor on the CTx pin.

The APE8990-3 is available in an
ultra small, space-saving 32mm
14-pin DFN package with a thermal pad.
ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS CORP.
www.a-powerusa.com
Avago Technologies Unveils New Gate Drive

Optocouplers for High Switching Frequency
Applications
Avago Technologies (Nasdaq:
AVGO), a leading supplier of
analog interface components for
communications, industrial and
consumer applications, today
unveiled two new sets of high
speed gate drive optocoupler
devices, the ACPL-P/W345 and
ACPL-P/W346. These devices

are 1A and 2.5A gate drive
optocouplers designed to protect and drive Power MOSFET
and Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET for high switching frequency
40
applications such as inverter,

motor control, and switching
power supply (SPS). Compared
to Avagos previous generation
devices, the ACPL-P/W345 and
ACPL-P/W346 are twice as fast
in terms of propagation delay.
Product Highlights
120ns Maximum Propagation
Delay
2.5A Maximum Peak Output
Current (ACPL-P/W346)
1.0A Maximum Peak Output
Current (ACPL-P/W345)
Rail-to-rail Output Voltage
Under Voltage Lock-Out
(ULVO) with Hysteresis
50kV/s Minimum High
Common Mode Rejection
(CMR)
Small Stretched SO6 Package
Minimizing PCB Board Space
and Cost
AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES
www.avagotech.com
CUI Introduces Next Generation 500 mA DC

Switching Regulator Series
CUI Inc. announced its 2nd generation non-isolated dc switching
regulator series rated at 500 mA.
The companys new P7805-S
series implements several
upgrades, including an
increased power density, efficiency improvements and a
decrease in ripple and noise, all
at a lower per unit cost.
The series delivers efficiencies
over 96% and is able to maintain a high efficiency rating
across the full input range; still
providing up to 95% efficiency
at a highline input of 32 Vdc.
The P7805-S has been designed
as a high performance, drop-in
alternative to LMXX78 and
LMXX79 linear regulators, eliminating the need for a heat sink.
The devices are targeted at
portable devices, battery-fed
equipment, and embedded
designs where board space is at
a premium and energy efficiency
is a concern.
The P7805-S series boasts a

wide input range (4.75 to 32
Vdc), varying in line with the output voltage configuration.
Output options include 1.5, 1.8,

2.5, 3.3, 5, 6.5, 9, 12, and 15 Vdc.
To address LMXX79 applications, CUI has designed all
units in the series with the
added capability of supporting
a positive to negative voltage
conversion, increasing the
series flexibility.
CUI
www.cui.com
Avago Technologies Introduces New Dual-Channel

Bi-Directional High Speed Optocoupler
Avago Technologies, a leading
supplier of analog interface components for communications,
industrial and consumer applications, today announced a new
dual-channel bi-directional 25
MBd digital optocoupler device,
the ACSL-7210. The device is a
dual-channel high speed digital
optocoupler optimized for bidirectional industrial communication networks using high
speed protocols such as
PROFIBUS fieldbus and Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI). The
ACSL-7210 utilizes Avagos proprietary IC and patented packaging technologies to achieve
3,750 VRMS signal isolation in a
low profile SO-8 package while
supporting high speed fullduplex data communications
with data rates up to 25 MBd.
ACSL-7210 Product Highlights
Dual-Channel Bi-directional for
Full-Duplex Communications
Data Rate from DC to 25 MBd
Low Profile (< 2 mm) SO-8
Package
CMOS Input and Output
10ns Maximum Pulse Width
Distortion
40ns Maximum Propagation
Delay
20kV/s Minimum Common
Mode Rejection (CMR) at
VCM = 1000 V
UL 1577 Compliant with VISO

= 3,750 VRMS per Minute
IEC/EN/DIN EN 60747-5-5
Compliant with VIORM = 567
VPEAK and Reinforced
Insulation
AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES
www.avagotech.com

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JUNE, 2013 ISSUE NO. 6, VOL.

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

THE EAST EUROPEAN RESOURCE

8 Platforms to consider for Motor Control and Robotics Applications

12 Ambient LED Lighting Advances in Tomorrows Vehicle

20 Hammond. Enclosures for your equipment

28 MLC. One mane - three times safer!

EP&Dee | June, 2013 | www.epd-ee.eu

The board also comes with the PIC18F87J11 processor

Asian Reprezentative Taiwan

EUROSTANDARD PRESS 2000

The PIC16F753 offers all

View a brief presentation here:

The PIC16F753 is supported by Microchips

www.epd-ee.eu | June, 2013 | EP&Dee

Seven essential Raspberry Pi projects

is currently being recorded, music is playing

For many their first Raspberry Pi hardware

Michael Kellett suggests that the Pi-Face may

Given the low cost and small form factor of

EP&Dee | June, 2013 | www.epd-ee.eu

Add-on hardware such as the Pi-Face allows

5. Experiment with interesting sensors

Once you've had your fill of experimenting

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS NEWS

applications can consume, process and make

7. Hook up a joystick and play old

iC-MHL200: 12 bit universal magnetic position encoder

tion is configurable up to 4096 steps per

available for two- and four pole linear

www.epd-ee.eu | June, 2013 | EP&Dee

First CAN FD plug-fest

The CAN FD nodes tested on interoperability

clock frequency, an arbitration bit-rate of 500

Design training using the

EP&Dee | June, 2013 | www.epd-ee.eu

design flow is shown at the seminar.

Industrys Smallest 18-Bit

Microchip Announces Arduino Compatible chipKIT

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. announced

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading

chipKIT Platform Expands With Prototyping-Friendly PIC32-based

Availability, Temperature Range, and Pricing

grammed PIC32MX250F128B is available in

Due to its monotonic transfer characteristic,

The chipKIT Fubarino Mini board,

www.epd-ee.eu | June, 2013 | EP&Dee

From automobile assembly and PCB fabrication, to consumer electronics, robotics is

features dual 46-pin headers and plenty of

EP&Dee | June, 2013 | www.epd-ee.eu

robotics applications from around the world,

Gertboard and PiFace Digital are designed to

You need two PWM channels to run two

Freescale's Robot Kit that operates with the

ing a positional Proportional-Integral-Derivative

led to its popularity in robotics. The challenge

Some of the development boards for the

on for the Raspberry Pi which attaches to one

element14 is calling all budding photographers to enter its Raspberry Pi photography

Your workshop / den

Finalists will be selected in each category and

Future Electronics sign Global Distribution

Silicon Labs Introduces Industrys Smallest,

Future Electronics is pleased to

Electonics Products & Design

Electonics Products & Design