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- 2014-10-14 Prototype of new transistor for lower power consumption
- Researchers from the University of Twente MESA+ research institute, together with the company SolMateS, have developed a new type of transistor to reduce the power consumption of microchips. The basic element of modern electronics, namely the transistor, suffers from significant current leakage. By enveloping a transistor with a shell of piezoelectric material, which distorts when voltage is applied, researchers were able to reduce this leakage by a factor of five (compared to a transistor without this material). An article presenting the prototype of the transistor appears in the June issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, an authoritative scientific journal in the field of transistor research.
Current leakage in transistors is one of the causes of battery depletion in portable electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptops. With the new type of transistor, either the current leakage (while the transistor is not active) or the energy consumption (while the transistor is active) can be addressed. In the latter case, it is estimated that energy consumption can be reduced by approximately 10%.
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- 2014-10-14 XIMEA, Imec bring smallest hyperspectral imaging camera to market
Nanoelectronics research center imec and XIMEA, a progressive creator of machine vision systems, today announced their partnership in integrating imec's Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) sensors together with XIMEA's xiQ USB3.0 camera product line. Exceptional interoperability between camera and sensor's technology streamlined the success of this integration.
"Combining imec's hyperspectral sensor with XIMEA's impressively compact xiQ cameras is a new milestone for us. The high-speed USB3.0 interface includes power supply over USB that removes the need for expensive and bulky frame-grabbers and separate power supplies. It will enable our partners to design and mass-produce extremely compact hyperspectral imaging camera solutions," stated Andy Lambrechts, program manager for imaging & vision systems at imec.
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- 2014-10-14 NXP launches new flexible digital LED driver IC platform
NXP Semiconductors N.V. today unveiled a new family of single stage driver ICs for compact, high-efficient, high-performance and cost-effective general LED lighting solutions. Complementing NXP's broad range of GreenChip SSL products, the new platform includes the SSL5301T, SSL5306T, SSL5307T, SSL5511T and SSL5101T LED driver solutions from 4 Watt up to 50 Watt of lamp power. All products have been designed in the compact and economical SO-8 package.
The product family is applicable for Buck, Buck-Boost or Flyback, in non-isolated or isolated topologies and includes three selectable modes: Low ripple, Eco-Low THD (PF>0.75) or Low THD (PF>0.9). The solutions also provide benefits through accurate LED current and line regulation and compatibility with wall switches with built-in indication light during standby. The LED driver ICs have been designed to start up directly from the high-voltage (HV) supply by an internal JFET current source and incorporate all required protection features.
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- 2014-10-13 Researchers develop new printing method for mass production of thin film transistors
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a method for the manufacture of thin film transistors using a roll-to-roll technique only. Thin film transistors can now be manufactured using roll-to-roll techniques, such as printing, for the deposition of patterns on the substrate layer of film. This is set to expand the range of electronic components and products, while slashing their production costs. Thin film transistors are more suitable than traditional silicon chip transistors for applications such as large-surface display screens, certain sensor applications, toys, games and smart cards.
A transistor is a basic electronic component which can function as an electrical switch, an amplifier or a memory element. For transistor technology, roll-to-roll fabrication techniques have a range of advantages. These include the possibility to use large surface areas, as well as mechanical flexibility, transparency and low production start-up costs. Until now, production of thin film transistors has typically been only partly based on roll-to-roll techniques, resulting in fairly high mass production costs.
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- 2014-10-13 IBM preps new wireless chip technology to allow mobile operators to clear the data bottleneck
- IBM today introduced the fifth generation of semiconductor technology specialized for high performance communications. The company's latest silicon-germanium (SiGe) chip-making process is designed to enable ever-increasing amounts of data to flow through network backbones in applications such as Wi-Fi, LTE cellular, wireless backhaul and high speed optical communications.
Since its introduction in 1995, IBM's SiGe semiconductor technology has helped spur a revolution in radio frequency (RF) performance, enabling engineers to develop breakthrough devices such as satellite global positioning systems, WiFi radios and high speed optical links. IBM's new "9HP" SiGe technology continues to put advanced capability in the hands of engineers who design chips for LTE cellular base stations, millimeter-wave wireless communication links, and next generation short and long-haul optical communications. Outside of communications, 9HP performance will advance the state of the art in other applications such as high-performance test equipment, automotive radar and security imaging.
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- 2014-10-13 Record ADC for next-generation software defined radio
- Nanoelectronics research centre imec will present at this week's VLSI circuits symposium 2014 (Honolulu, June 13) a low power pipelined SAR (successive-approximation register) ADC (analog to digital converter) in 28nm digital CMOS with record resolution, speed and power performance. The novel ADC targets wireless receivers for next-generation software defined radio, including wireless standards such as LTE-advanced and the emerging generation of Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11ac).
In a software defined radio, the ADC needs high speed, high resolution and high power efficiency in a dynamic solution, supporting high, as well as low bandwidth standards. The pipelined SAR ADC developed by imec and Renesas Electronics achieves an excellent peak SNDR (signal to noise distortion ratio) of 70.7dB at a speed as high as 200MS/s while consuming only 2.3mW at 0.9V supply voltage. Moreover, the implementation in 28nm digital CMOS not only adds to its area and power efficiency, but also supports digitalization of the radio.
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- 2014-10-13 Novel process allows production of the entire circuitry on touchscreens in one step
- When users operate their smartphones, tablets and so on, they do not give a second thought to the complicated electronics that make them work. All that concerns them is that they can happily swipe and tap away. To make the touchscreens work, they are provided on their surface with microscopically small electrical conductor tracks, which open and close circuits when touched with a finger. At the peripheries of the devices, these microscopic tracks merge into larger conductor tracks. Until now, several production stages have been needed to create them. The researchers at the INM – Leibniz-Institute for New Materials are now presenting a novel process that allows microscopic and macroscopic conductor tracks to be produced in one step.
The INM from Saarbruecken will be one of the few German research institutions at the TechConnect World trade fair on 16 and 17 June in Washington DC, USA, where it will be presenting this and other results. Working in cooperation with the VDI Association of German Engineers it will be showcasing its latest developments at Stand 301 in the German Area.
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- 2014-10-13 NXP pushes car-to-X market with launch of new RoadLINK solution
- NXP Semiconductors today announced that the TEF510x, the second product from the RoadLINK range, is now available to automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers for design-in. The TEF510x is a dual radio multi band RF transceiver for Car-to-X (C2X) applications. Supporting global C2X and Wi-Fi standards, the TEF510x provides OEMs with an optimized solution to meet 802.11p modem functionality on one chip. The chip has the flexibility to support global deployments and various system configurations.
The TEF510x RF transceiver meets Japanese 760Mz C2X requirements, US and European (5.9GHz) as well as Wi-Fi and DSRC (5.8GHz) specifications. It will be released for automotive production in 2015 and is expected to be available to consumers as early as 2016.
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- 2014-10-13 Researchers introduce highest performing III-V metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors
(Phys.org) —Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have recently introduced the highest performing III-V metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) field-effect transistors (FETs) at the 2014 Symposium on VLSI Technology.
The UCSB research promises to help deliver higher semiconductor performance at lower power consumption levels for next-generation, high-performance servers. The research is supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies.
The UCSB team's III-V MOSFETs, for the first time in the industry, exhibit on-current, off-current and operating voltage comparable to or exceeding production silicon devices—while being constructed at small dimensions relevant to the VLSI (very-large-scale integration) industry.
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- 2014-10-13 Researchers design circuits capable of functioning at temperatures greater than 650 degrees fahrenheit
(Phys.org) —Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have designed integrated circuits that can survive at temperatures greater than 350 degrees Celsius – or roughly 660 degrees Fahrenheit. Their work, funded by the National Science Foundation, will improve the functioning of processors, drivers, controllers and other analog and digital circuits used in power electronics, automobiles and aerospace equipment – all of which must perform at high and often extreme temperatures.
"This ruggedness allows these circuits to be placed in locations where standard silicon-based parts can't survive," said Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor. "The circuit blocks we designed contributed to superior performance of signal processing, controllers and driver circuitry. We are extremely excited about the results so far."
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- 2014-10-13 Sony inspired by biomimicry develops curved CMOS sensors
Sony's advance in image sensors appears quite natural: the company has developed a set of curved CMOS image sensors based on the curvature of the eye. A report on the sensors in IEEE Spectrum said that, "in a bit of biomimicry," Sony engineers were able to achieve a set of curved CMOS image sensors using a "bending machine" of their own construction.
Sony's Kazuichiro Itonaga, a device manager, reported on the new development in Hawaii, at the 2014 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits. This is a conference on semiconductor technology and circuits, which took place from June 9 to June 13.
It was unclear how much the chips were curved, said IEEE Spectrum, although Itonaga said they did achieve the same level of curvature found in the human eye. The curved systems were 1.4 times more sensitive at the center of the sensor and twice as sensitive at the edge, according to the Sony engineers.
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- 2014-10-13 5th generation 1200V thinQ siC Schottky diodes
Infineon Technologies AG expands the comprehensive SiC portfolio introducing the 5th generation1200V thinQ! SiC Schottky diodes. The new 1200V SiC diodes feature ultra-low forward voltage even at operating temperatures, more than 100 percent improved surge current capability and excellent thermal behavior. These features result in significant efficiency improvement and robust operation in solar inverters, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), 3-phase SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supplies) and motor drives.
The "Generation 5" SiC diodes use a new compact chip design, realized by merged pn junction engineering in the Schottky cell-field. This enables a smaller differential resistance per chip area. As a result, a reduction of the diode losses by up to 30 percent compared to the previous generation can be achieved; for example in a front-end boost stage for a 3-phase solar inverter operating at 20kHz with full load.
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- 2014-10-13 A bump circuit with flexible tuning ability that uses 500 times less power
A bump circuit with flexible tuning ability that uses 500 times less power and is smaller than previous circuits has been demonstrated by researchers at the University of Tennessee in the US.
"The challenges and requirements of the analogue deep-learning system inspired us to come up with this radically new design," said Junjie Lu, the lead author. "We implemented the bump circuit by preceding the current correlator with a novel nano-power tunable transconductor to achieve variable width and height. By significantly reducing the power consumption of the bump circuit, this work makes possible the realisation of analogue learning and signal processing systems that achieve better energy efficiency than their digital equivalents, and ultimately fully autonomous systems, which are able to get both information and energy from the environment without external intervention."
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- 2014-10-11 Record-breaking 56 gbps receiver circuit for communications between CPUs
- Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of a receiver circuit capable of receiving communications at 56 Gbps. This marks the world's fastest data communications between CPUs equipped in next-generation servers. In recent years, raising data-processing speeds in servers has meant increasing CPU performance, together with boosting the speed of data communications between chips, such as CPUs. However, one obstacle to this has been improving the performance of the circuits that correct degraded waveforms in incoming signals. Fujitsu Laboratories has used a new "look-ahead" architecture in the circuit that compensates for quality degradation in incoming signals, parallelizing the processing and increasing the operating frequency for the circuit in order to double its speed. This technology holds the promise of increasing the performance of next-generation servers and supercomputers.
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- 2014-10-11 Researchers develop new printing method for mass production of thin film transistors
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a method for the manufacture of thin film transistors using a roll-to-roll technique only. Thin film transistors can now be manufactured using roll-to-roll techniques, such as printing, for the deposition of patterns on the substrate layer of film. This is set to expand the range of electronic components and products, while slashing their production costs. Thin film transistors are more suitable than traditional silicon chip transistors for applications such as large-surface display screens, certain sensor applications, toys, games and smart cards.
A transistor is a basic electronic component which can function as an electrical switch, an amplifier or a memory element. For transistor technology, roll-to-roll fabrication techniques have a range of advantages. These include the possibility to use large surface areas, as well as mechanical flexibility, transparency and low production start-up costs. Until now, production of thin film transistors has typically been only partly based on roll-to-roll techniques, resulting in fairly high mass production costs.
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- 2014-10-11 Scientists explore mash-up of vacuum tube and MOSFET
Thumb-size vacuum tubes that amplified signals in radio and television sets in the first half of the 20th century might seem nothing like the metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) that dazzle us with their capabilities in today's digital electronics, say two scientists, but it might be time for fresh thinking about vacuum tubes and even some mashing-up for surprising results. Jin-Woo Han, research scientist, and Meyya Meyyappan, chief scientist for exploration technology, at NASA Ames Research Center in California, wrote an article that appeared in IEEE Spectrum on Monday, which details their explorations of a vacuum channel transistor. Their article indicates "vacuum channel transistor" is a phrase to watch in the context of what's next in transistor technology. The what's-next conversation is certainly one that continues.
"After four decades of shrinking transistor dimensions, the oxide layer that insulates the gate electrode of a typical MOSFET is now only a few nanometers thick, and just a few tens of nanometers separate its source and drain. Conventional transistors really can't get much smaller. Still, the quest for faster and more energy-efficient chips continues. What will the next transistor technology be?- See Details
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- 2014-10-11 MediaTek SoC to boost 64-bit Android devices
Tuesday's news from Taiwan carried the announcement from MediaTek of its new MT6795 system on a chip. Expect MT6795 chip-powered devices to be available by the end of the year. MediaTek said the chip is to create opportunities for device makers "to gain first-mover advantage with top-of-the-line devices in the 64-bit Android device market. The company further noted its 2K on device display (2560x1600).
Don Clark in The Wall Street Journal described it as "a heavy-duty smartphone chip with eight processor cores." The chip could potentially boost the company's position regarding top of line devices using Google's Android operating system. The company called it a "flagship smartphone SoC" designed to empower "high-end device makers to leap into the Android 64-bit era." WSJ's Clark, assistant news editor, said, "The company, originally known for chips used in low-end phones for emerging countries, this week is providing more evidence of a strategy shift with a heavy-duty smartphone chip with eight processor cores."
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- 2014-10-11 Microwave multi-tool
A resonator element that can simultaneously act as both a filter and antenna has been developed as a step towards creating PROMFAs - the microwave circuit equivalent of an FPGA.
Flexibly functional
A programmable microwave function array (PROMFA) is a network of microwave hardware that can be reconfigured to assume different circuit functions. "It has the potential to revolutionise the microwave industry; reducing the development time and weight of systems while increasing their flexibility" explained Dr James Kelly, one of the authors of the paper reporting the advance, published in this issue of Electronics Letters.
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- 2014-10-11 Using materials other than silicon for next generation electronic devices
In the consumer electronics industry, the mantra for innovation is higher device performance/less power. Arun Thathachary, a Ph.D. student in Penn State's Electrical Engineering Department, spends his days and sometimes nights in the cleanroom of the Materials Research Institute's Nanofabrication Laboratory trying to make innovative transistor devices out of materials other than the standard semiconductor silicon that will allow higher performance using less power.
Silicon has been the most successful material of the 20th century, with major global industries and even a valley named after it. But silicon may be running out of steam for high performance/low power electronics. For example, the compound semiconductor indium gallium arsenide is known to have far superior electron mobility than silicon. As silicon strains against the physical limits of performance, could a material like InGaAs provide enough of an improvement over silicon that it would be worth the expense in new equipment lines and training to make the switch worthwhile? Samsung, one of the world's largest electronics companies, has funded Thathachary through his adviser, professor of electrical engineering Suman Datta, in a project to help them find out.
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- 2014-10-11 SLAC implements pulsed, step-down power converter for energy savings
- Depressed collectors have been used for decades to improve the efficiency of vacuum-electronic based RF power sources by recovering energy from the spent electron beam of an RF source, such as a klystron or inductive output tube. The main thrust has been for applications with stringent energy-efficiency requirements, such as space-based communication. To date, there has not been wholesale utilisation of RF sources with depressed collectors for accelerator applications, the likely reasons being that the energy savings over RF sources with conventional, grounded collectors might not justify the additional investment, and that many accelerator-based applications have very short RF pulses with high peak power, making implementation of depressed collectors technically challenging.
However, there has been a gradual change in values, both in the US and around the world. For example, there is a mandate from the US Department of Energy to reduce energy consumption at Federal facilities. Similar efforts exist for many European agencies as well. A corresponding upgrade in technology is necessary in our increasingly energy-conscious societies.
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- 2014-10-11 Quick-change materials break the silicon speed limit for computers
(Phys.org) —Faster, smaller, greener computers, capable of processing information up to 1,000 times faster than currently available models, could be made possible by replacing silicon with materials that can switch back and forth between different electrical states.
The present size and speed limitations of computer processors and memory could be overcome by replacing silicon with 'phase-change materials' (PCMs), which are capable of reversibly switching between two structural phases with different electrical states – one crystalline and conducting and the other glassy and insulating – in billionths of a second.
Modelling and tests of PCM-based devices have shown that logic-processing operations can be performed in non-volatile memory cells using particular combinations of ultra-short voltage pulses, which is not possible with silicon-based devices.
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- 2014-10-11 Imec, RENA develop a new low-cost texturing process for high efficiency PERC solar cells
At this week's European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC 2014, nanoelectronics research center imec, and RENA, a leading supplier for wet chemical production tools, present a novel isopropyl-alcohol (IPA)-free process for the texturing of Cz-Si wafers for high-efficiency silicon solar cell manufacturing at low cost.
The process uses monoTEX F, RENA's next generation texturing additive, instead of the currently used industrial additive IPA. In contrast monoTEX F is a moderating and wetting agent that behaves almost "linear" towards changes in process temperature and alkali concentration and operates at temperatures far below its boiling point . It will thus not evaporate, resulting in stable concentration of ratios in the etching mixture during the texturing process step. As a result, monoTEX F based texturing simplifies the texturing of Cz-Silicon wafers, widens the texturing process window, and increases texturing bath lifetime (i.e. more wafers can be processed in a single texturing bath compared to state-of-the-art IPA-based texturing).
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- 2014-10-11 NTT Electronics ships industry's first 20nm low-power coherent DSP
NTT Electronics (NEL), a leading supplier of coherent Digital Signal Processor (DSP) solutions to system and module manufacturers worldwide, announced shipment of industry's first 20nm 100G Long-haul/Metro coherent DSP to customers. Substantial reductions in size and power consumption of the new Low Power DSP (LP-DSP) enhance scalability and flexibility of cost-effective 100-Gbps long-haul and metropolitan networks.
The new 100G LP-DSP product NLD0640 has three-chip functions successfully integrated into a single chip consuming 70% less power and footprint as compared to the previous generation 40nm DSP product NLD0629, which additionally required OTN Framer and transmitter MUX chips to achieve the same functionality. This is an important milestone for the industry made possible by NEL's ongoing collaboration with Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM). The new chip leverages Broadcom's industry leading 20nm signal-processing-enhanced mixed-signal technology and integrates the DSP core of the widely deployed NLD0629.
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- 2014-10-10 Toshiba delivers world's first propulsion system integrating PMSM and SiC diode to Tokyo metro
- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has delivered the world's first train propulsion systems incorporating totally enclosed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM) and silicon carbide (SiC) Variable Voltage Variable Frequency (VVVF) traction inverters. The propulsion systems were delivered to Japan's Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. for Ginza Line 1000 third series trains. The details of technology were explained by Tokyo Metro today at Toshiba booth in InnoTrans, international transport technology trade fair on transport technology taking place in Berlin this week.
The new propulsion systems offer enhanced power saving performance. Integration of a filter reactor, a control system to eliminate current noise, supports the system in reducing powering, acceleration of the train caused by delivery of power supply, by approximately 4%, and improving regenerated energy by approximately 3%, compared to Ginza Line 1000 first series trains incorporating a PMSM main circuit system. Compared to the induction motor (IM) main circuit system incorporated in Ginza Line 01 series trains, the new system cuts overall power consumption by approximately 37%.
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- 2014-10-10 Ultra-low consumption for the future of electronics
The European project E2SWITCH is aiming to develop new electronic systems with ultra-low energy consumption. The nine partners, universities, research institutes and companies, are committed to making these 'circuits of tomorrow' more energy efficient.
The mission of E2SWITCH will be to develop an ultra-low power electronic system based on Tunnel FET (TFET) heterostructures built on silicon substrates and exploiting a phenomenon of quantum mechanics for operating at voltages up to five times lower than those of the current standard mobile phone circuit. This is a real challenge, especially in light of the explosive growth in independent functions expected for portable devices of the future. The EPFL is coordinating this new European research project, which involves not only six universities and research institutes, but also the companies IBM, CCS and SCIPROM. The project has been funded for up to 4.3 million euros over 42 months.
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- 2014-10-10 DARPA technology identifies counterfeit microelectronics
Advanced software and equipment to aid in the fight against counterfeit microelectronics in U.S. weapons and cybersecurity systems has been transitioned to military partners under DARPA's Integrity and Reliability of Integrated Circuits (IRIS) program. Researchers with SRI International, an IRIS performer, announced today they have provided Advanced Scanning Optical Microscope (ASOM) technology to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana, where it will join an arsenal of laboratory equipment used to ensure the integrity of microelectronics.
The ASOM technology housed at NSWC Crane will help engineers provide forensic analysis of microelectronics, including integrated circuits (IC) confiscated by law enforcement officials. The ASOM operates by scanning IC using an extremely narrow infrared laser beam, which probes microelectronic circuits at nanometer levels, revealing information about chip construction as well as the function of circuits at the transistor level.
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- 2014-10-10 NXP unveils versatile microcontroller family to drive a smarter user experience in next-generation embedded designs
NXP Semiconductors today announced the release of the LPC82x family of microcontrollers, dramatically extending the versatility of the ARM Cortex-M0+-based LPC800 Series for use in today's highly connected, sensor-dense and IoT designs. With double the memory (over the LPC81x family), a new 1.2 Msps ADC, DMA, and triple the serial connectivity, the LPC82x family makes it easy for embedded developers to meet the growing requirements for a better, smarter user experience in their next-generation product designs—from connected thermostats, environment monitoring devices, home and building automation products, and lighting controls, to server and rack monitors, wearable health/fitness devices, toys, models, and more.
Versatile connectivity equips the LPC82x family to handle a wide range of microcontroller functions with exceptional power efficiency. As a sensor gateway, it efficiently connects to and concentrates data from multiple analog and/or digital sensors. For IoT connectivity, the LPC82x family is a space and power-efficient solution for local area or cloud connectivity via myriad wireless protocols such as NFC, Bluetooth Smart (BTLE), ZigBee or WiFi. For human machine interface (HMI) applications, the LPC82x family offers efficient sensor interface and data aggregation for capacitive or mechanical touch, swipe, and gesture front ends. It is also a space efficient solution for motor control applications such as fan control.
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- 2014-10-10 ARM targets device platform for quicker IoT development cycles
ARM on Wednesday announced its mbed device platform. The platform includes the mbed OS as a free operating system for ARM Cortex-M processor-based devices, and is targeted toward bringing about energy-efficient Internet of Things devices. ARM basically wants to make it easier for developers to help bring such products to market.
"Today's IoT devices largely exist in isolation and it has been impossible to realize a truly interconnected world where devices are interoperable with many different cloud services," said Krisztian Flautner, general manager, Internet of Things division, at ARM. "The ARM mbed IoT Device Platform will solve this by providing a common communication and management toolkit." ARM has been focusing on a platform that will bring Internet protocols, security and standards-based manageability into one integrated solution for energy and cost-constrained devices. The goal is for developers to create products more quickly as they can rely on common building blocks for IoT devices and services. "Part of the reason that we felt the need to do an operating system was because there's a lot of fragmentation in the marketplace," Krisztian Flautner, the firm's vice-president of research and development, told the BBC.
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- 2014-10-09 TSMC, ARM see impressive results with FinFET process
Technology from a Taiwanese semiconductor foundry is to bring considerable benefits in performance and power efficiency to big.LITTLE implementations, in the name of FinFET. Hsinchu, Taiwan-based TSMC announced last month it had successfully produced the first fully functional ARM-based networking processor with FinFET technology and explained how TSMC's 16FinFET process promises speed and power improvements as well as leakage reduction.
The advantages address "challenges that have become critical barriers to further scaling of advanced SoC technology. It has twice the gate density of TSMC's 28HPM process, and operates more than 40 percent faster at the same total power, or reduces total power over 60 percent at the same speed." Last month the company also announced 16nm FinFET (16FF) process technology improvements in light of a collaboration between ARM and TSMC to jointly optimize the 64-bit ARMv8-A processor series on FinFET process technologies. TSMC and ARM set newbenchmarks for performance and power efficiency with FinFET Silicon with 64-bit ARM big.LITTLE technology.- See Details
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- 2014-10-09 Engineers working to prevent heat buildup within 3D integrated circuits
But a team of UT Arlington researchers funded by the National Science Foundation is working first to minimize the heat generated and then to developing nano-windows that will allow the heat to dissipate before it damages the chip.
Ankur Jain, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is working with colleague Dereje Agonafer, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Roger Schmidt, IBM fellow and chief engineer, on the project.
"There is only a very limited amount of space available on an integrated circuit so we've had to build vertically, placing wafers on top of wafers," Jain said. "These 3D integrated circuits have led to significant performance improvements. However, when we stack these circuits on top of each other, heat starts to become a problem."
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