Cover.qxp:Cover.

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THE DESIGN CYCLE FORTNIGHTLY W W W. N E W E L E C T R O N I C S . C O . U K

14 OCTOBER 2008

The colour
of sound
By combining acoustic images with still
photos and even movies, acoustic cameras
are helping to answer such questions as
wheres that noise coming from?

Special Report: Plus: TSMC offers 28nm flavours Data converter manufacturers push the envelope
Boosting pcb design productivity Easing the internet connectivity conundrum
Expert Panel The link to better industrial communication Modular reference design approach
P002_NELE_OCT14 7/10/08 17:42 Page 1
Contents.qxp:Contents.qxd 9/10/08 15:44 Page 5

CONTENTS
14 October 2008 Volume 41 No 18

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

ADVANCED PROCESSES
What flavour please?
TSMC splits process to meet diverging application needs ...................................................................................................... 42

EMBEDDED DESIGN
MIXED SIGNAL & ANALOGUE
t Ar t

Pushing the envelope

ewe/Debu

Data conversion demands drive innovation ................................................................................................................................ 45

Jurgen Zi

BOARD LEVEL TECHNOLOGY

Designing successfully
How pcb design software is helping to speed time to market .......................................................................................... 51

COVER STORY
How acoustic cameras help us see the COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
invisible. New Electronics looks at the
COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE
technology available for visualising
On the web!
sound.
14 How the task of adding internet connectivity can be eased ............................................................................................................55

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATION
Greater communication
An open network that addresses the limitations of Ethernet ........................................................................................................ 59

SYSTEM DESIGN
REFERENCE DESIGNS
6
System solution
A modular approach to reference designs provides engineers with ability to explore ................................................ 62

SPECIAL REPORT
EXPERT PANEL
Green is the colour
A panel of experts examines approaches to improve environmental design .................................................................. 19

19

For a round up of this years Innovation and Design Excellence Awards,

see the special section starting on page 23

55

REGULARS
COMMENT
Customers, rather than Moores Law, are driving AMD joins with Abu Dhabi investor to create
process technology development. 5 new foundry company. 8
Wireless chipsets are first to go as Freescale
NEWS ceo Beyer refocuses the company. 10
Parallel approach set to slash advanced chips Europe becomes a more important part of
59 design closure times. 6 TSMCs business 12

www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008 3

P004_NELE_OCT14 8/10/08 10:29 Page 1

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Leader.qxp:LEADER TEMP 9/10/08 15:46 Page 7

COMMENT
28nm manufacturing

Moore and more!

The risk of leading edge semiconductor process technologies.

T
Editor: Graham Pitcher he bleeding edge of semiconductor manufacturing technology has just taken
Deputy Editor: Chris Shaw
another step towards the perceived brick wall of the Laws of Physics.
Contributing Editors:
David Boothroyd, Louise Joselyn,
Previously, it was Moores Law which acted as the engine for process
Vanessa Knivett, Roy Rubenstein development. Today, although Moores Law remains a driver, its customers who are
Art Editor: David Walters pushing progress through their need for faster chips which consume less power.
Illustrator: Phil Holmes
The two main process technology rivals Taiwanese foundry TSMC and the IBM
Sales Director: Tricia Bodsworth
Business Development Director: Lee Nye Common Platform have both unveiled plans to address the 28nm node. Driven by
Circulation Manager: Chris Jones their customers needs, these organisations are pushing the limits of science in
(circulation@findlay.co.uk) order to enable the consumer products of tomorrow. It goes without saying that
Production Controller: Derek Gill
Publisher: Peter Ring
this work is not trivial; in fact, some of the work has been in progress for a decade.
Group Publisher: Ed Tranter Scaling process technology the so called process shrink has worked well in
Represented in Japan by the past. But at these amazingly small dimensions, challenges arise. One in
Shinano International: Kazuhiko Tanaka,
particular is gate thickness. Shrinking previous processes leaves a layer around
Akasaka Kyowa Bldg, 1-6-14 Akasaka,
Minato-Ku, Tokyo 107-0052
three atoms thick; not a great deal of room for error.
Tel: +81(0)3 3584 6420 The development of high K metal gate technology is overcoming this by
New Electronics: Tel: 01322 221144 providing a layer of material with the same capacitance, but which is much thicker
Fax: 01322 221188 and therefore more manufacturable.
www.newelectronics.co.uk
But evidence of just how difficult it is to develop these advanced processes is
email: ne@findlay.co.uk
given by TSMC. One thing which you cant accuse TSMC of is a lack of confidence;
it has addressed the issues of the foundry market square on and, in the process,
ISSN 0047-9624
New Electronics, incorporating Electronic Equipment carved itself out a 50% market share. But when an organisation of TSMCs stature
News and Electronics News, is published twice monthly
by Findlay Publications Ltd, Hawley Mill,
uses the word risk when talking about its 28nm process, you know things are
Hawley Road, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7TJ getting interesting.
Copyright 2008 Findlay Publications.
Annual subscription (22 issues) for readers in the UK
is 106, overseas is 161, and airmail is 197.
Origination by CTT, Walthamstow, London E17 6BU.
Printed in England by Wyndeham Heron Ltd,
Heybridge, CM9 4NW.

Moving on? If you change jobs or your

company moves, please contact
circulation@findlay.co.uk to continue
receiving your free copy of New Electronics.
Graham Pitcher, Editor (gpitcher@findlay.co.uk)

www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008 5

pg6.qxp:NEWS 9/10/08 16:07 Page 8

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Design closure

Reducing run times Measuring the wind on Mars

Mentor takes parallel approach to speed design closure in
large chips. Graham Pitcher reports.

T
iming closure is becoming a growing problem with larger chip designs on advanced process
technologies. In a move to solve this problem, Mentor Graphics has launched Olympus-SoC, a
place and route (P&R) system that performs timing analysis and optimisation in parallel.
Sudhaka Jilla, director of marketing for Mentors P&R group, said: This hasnt been attempted
before because its a complex problem. Nevertheless, designers are already getting an x7
improvement in timing analysis and an x4 improvement in design closure.
Pointing out that some design groups are now putting more than 1billion transistors on a chip,
Jilla added: The number of corners is also increasing. Earlier process technologies perhaps only A chip designed by researchers at the
had four corners, but the latest 65nm designs may have up to 30 corners, along with a number of Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya and
modes. All this means run times now take hundreds of hours. manufactured completely in Spain will be used
Mentors approach takes advantage of multicore processors to distribute the load. Jilla explained: to measure the wind on Mars.
Theres a lot of parallelism if you know what to look for and ways you can parallelise the problem. Our The chip is the key piece of the anemometer
algorithm scans up and down the chain identifying tasks which are independent of each other. on a weather monitoring station for NASAs
Already, NEC has used the tool for a 30m gate design with four modes and four corners, a 200MHz Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, planned
main clock and more than 150 derived clocks. According to the company, it found almost a factor of for launch later in 2009.
four reduction in design closure time. Each 1.5mm thick chip includes three
temperature sensitive platinum components:
one measures the chips temperature; the
second heats it to 25C above ambient; and the
Flexible display third controls the characteristics of the wind
sensor. Temperature is measured by a further
research programme identical chip.

Liquavista has launched a three year WirelessHART approved

ARM joins IBM developments
IBM, Chartered Semiconductor, Samsung and
ARM are developing a 32nm and 28nm SoC
design platform based on high K metal gate
(HKMG) technology being created by the IBM led
joint development alliance.
Under the multiyear collaboration, ARM will
develop and license a design platform of physical
IP, including logic, memory and interface
products for IBMs Common Platform.
ARM president Tudor Brown said: Weve just
finished our second test chip, taping out a full
12million cooperative research
programme to develop next generation
flexible electronic displays that support
full colour and video.
The project will use Liquavistas
electrowetting technology to create thin
and flexible screens capable of displaying
video content, but with very low power
consumption.
Mark Gostick, Liquavistas ceo, said:
Together with our partner Plastic Logic and
with the help of the Technology Strategy
Board, we are aiming to realise the full
potential of electronic paper displays as the
best way to show any content on the move.
ARM core, and expect the silicon by the end of
the year. This puts us in good shape to go
around the loop and refine the parameters.
Brown noted the 32nm process was
revolutionary. There are compelling arguments
about why this is breakthrough technology and
HKMG gives us a couple of generations of
breathing space with its thicker gate layer.
The benefit to ARM is the ability for its
customers to create devices that dont leak so
much power. This means standby time is longer
and customers can push performance whilst
working within a power budget.
The WirelessHART Communication Specification
(HART 7.1) has been approved by the IEC and is
the first industrial wireless communication
technology to achieve this level of
international recognition.
The WirelessHART Communication standard
builds on such standards as the HART Protocol
(IEC61158), EDDL (IEC61804-3), IEEE 802.15.4
radio and frequency hopping, spread spectrum
and mesh networking technologies.
For more on industrial communications,
see p59.
NXP uses latest ARM core
NXP has launched the LPC1700 series, said to
be the industrys fastest ARM Cortex-M3 based
microcontroller family. Running at up to
100MHz, the LPC1700 series of microcontrollers
operates up to 64% faster than competitive
Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers.
LPC1700 has been designed for customers
requiring simultaneous high bandwidth data
streams from Ethernet, USB and CAN, said
Geoff Lees, general manager of NXPs
microcontroller product line.
Pin compatibility is maintained with the
ARM7 based NXP LPC2300 series.

6 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

P007_NELE_OCT14 7/10/08 17:44 Page 1
pg8.qxp:NEWS 9/10/08 15:49 Page 8

NEWS
Semiconductor manufacture

AMD spins out Atmel targeted

manufacturing by joint approach

Microchip is looking to buy Atmel in a deal
which values the latter company at $2.3billion.
Outsourcing deal reshapes industry. Chris Shaw reports. The deal, being led by Microchip, will be partly
financed by the sale of Atmels nonvolatile
memory (nvm) and rf and automotive
businesses to ON Semiconductor for an

F
ollowing a year of undisclosed sum.
uncertainty about its Steve Sanghi, Microchips ceo, and Keith
manufacturing strategy, Jackson, ON Semis ceo, claimed that Atmels
AMD has entered a joint 18month old transformation is incomplete and
venture with Abu Dhabi based continues to face significant execution risks
Advanced Technology and obstacles.
Investment Company (ATIC) to Sanghi said the deal will combine
create a foundry company complementary businesses. This enhances
called, for the moment, The Microchips opportunities in the 8bit market as
Foundry Company. well as broadening our 32bit offerings with ATR
The Foundry Company will and ARM based solutions. In particular,
combine AMDs manufacturing Atmels ARM based microcontrollers, which
facilities, related assets and IP offer performances in excess of 200MIPS, are
rights, and a $2.1billion seen by Sanghi as valuable technology.
investment from ATIC. The
Foundry Company will also CRL pushes QKD data rate
assume approximately $1.2bn of AMDs existing debt. ATIC has committed up to $6bn investment
over the next five years to fund the expansion of The Foundry Companys capacity. Immediate plans Claiming a world record quantum cryptography
include expanding the ex AMD fab in Dresden and building a new facility in the US. bit rate, researchers at the Cambridge Research
Meanwhile, the foundry startup will join the IBM joint development alliance for both silicon on Lab (CRL) of Toshiba Research Europe, have
insulator and bulk silicon technologies, addressing manufacturing requirements for geometries to increased the bit rate of quantum key
22nm. distribution (QKD) more than hundred fold.
Describing the move as a landmark for AMD, Dirk Meyer, AMDs president and ceo, said: With Because QKD requires a secure key to be
The Foundry Company, AMD has developed an innovative way to focus our efforts on design while shared between many users, its take up has
maintaining access to the leading edge manufacturing technologies that our business needs without been hampered by its relatively low bit rate
the required capital intensive investments of semiconductor manufacturing. (typically less than 10kbit/s for a 20km fibre
ATICs chairman Waleed Al Mokarrab added: Independent and well capitalised, The Foundry link). The breakthrough will boost data rates to
Company begins with an established leading edge customer, an advanced technology roadmap, an more than 1Mbit/s for a 20km link, enabling
R&D partnership with IBM and a clear plan to scale capacity. networks with thousands of users.
Head of CRLs Quantum Information Group,
Dr Andrew Shields, commented: We plan now
to develop a fully functional prototype of the
high bit rate QKD system for use in quantum
On display networks.

Agilent has launched the U1253A hand- Talking a different language

held digital multimeter (dmm), said to be
the first such device to use an OLED
display. Amongst its features are a 2000:1
contrast ratio, a 160 viewing angle,
smoothed fonts and a large display
mode. The 4.5digit resolution incorpo-
rates a 50,000 count full scale display and
offers basic accuracy of 0.025%.
Ee Huei Sin, vp of Agilents Basic
Instruments Division, said: Adding an
OLED display to a high performance
handheld dmm represents a new level of
visionary innovation in our growing line
of low cost solutions.
The MathWorks has launched a language that
allows engineers to develop reusable models of
components and systems for rapidly advancing
technologies.
Called Simscape, the language enables
textual authoring of physical modelling
components, domains and libraries in the
Simulink environment. Simscape can be
extended to create and share reusable models,
then simulate system behaviour accurately.
This includes developing robust control
strategies, performing design tradeoffs and
finding system performance errors early in the
development process.

8 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

P009_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 10:48 Page 1

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pg. 10.qxp:NEWS 9/10/08 15:45 Page 8
NEWS ANALYSIS
Freescale
Chipsets cut as Freescale refocuses
Beyer shakes up Freescale
and wireless chipsets
are first to go.
Graham Pitcher reports.
S
ix months into the job, Rich Beyer
Freescales new chairman and ceo has
completed his review of the companys
operations. The first casualty is Freescales
wireless chipset business and the move is no
surprise, considering recent developments in
that market.
Having taken a look at the prospects for
the business, Beyer came to the conclusion
that the wireless chipset segment was sub
scale. Its not large enough to support the
level of investment thats required.
His preferred option is selling the business
unit, but he is prepared to consider a joint
venture. Surprisingly, bearing the current
economic climate in mind, Beyer expects to
find a solution in the next three months.
Were in discussions with some companies
and are identifying others, but we wont stay
in that business for long, he asserted.
However, other products targeted at mobile
handsets will not be affected by the move,
which is expected to free substantial amounts
of cash for other uses.
Currently, Freescale is investing 20% of
sales revenue in R&D. Beyer noted that
wireless chipsets took the highest part of
that. Now, hes looking at setting what he
believes is the right level of investment. I
think 18 to 20% is likely, he noted.
Like similar companies, the focus is moving
10
Beyer: Its fair to say that we will use some of the
cash freed up for acquisitions.
to D, rather than R. Nevertheless, Beyer
anticipates a modest amount of R. Nothing
we do needs bleeding edge research, so we
can free up money for product development.
But, said Beyer, its fair to say that we
will also use some of the cash freed up for
acquisitions. Its a valid way to build the
company. Not only that, there is $700million
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
of debt on the companys books that needs to
be written down. Overall, he noted, our
objective is to grow faster than our
competitors in our target markets.
Whilst some of these goals will be pursued
though investment in the distribution channels,
Beyer noted that Freescale will be giving the
green light to some projects that have been
identified, but are yet to be funded. And some of
the investment will go into bringing more
efficient products to market more quickly.
Meanwhile, Beyer has identified a range of
issues that need addressing, including product
defect levels and meeting lead times.
Defect levels were 7.1ppm, he admitted,
but this figure has dropped to 5ppm and 80%
of the products we ship have zero defects.
However, 5ppm in the automotive industry is
catastrophic, so we need to continue to work on
getting to zero defects.
Beyer also sees no immediate need to
embrace advanced process technology, except
for maintaining links with foundries and with
the IBM Alliance. Believing that Freescale
should be fab light, Beyer said: Its not
appropriate for us to build fabs or buy them,
but we do need to influence.
Future versions of Freescales QorIQ chip
the successor to the PowerQUICC range will be
manufactured on 45 and 32nm processes and it
is these products which Beyer was alluding to.
Network processors are at the forefront of
Freescales portfolio, Beyer noted, and were
involved in bringing up 45nm silicon on
insulator and influencing its development so
that it meets our requirements.
Whilst QorIQ is at the leading edge, other
Freescale products dont need to be so
aggressive. Our auto products will move to
65nm, Beyer observed, but not for four or five
years.
P011_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:38 Page 1

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pg12.qxp:NEWS 9/10/08 15:48 Page 8
NEWS ANALYSIS
TSMC
Growing
force
Europe gains more of
TSMCs focus.
Graham Pitcher reports.
T
imes may be hard, but leading foundry
TSMC doesnt appear to be suffering in the
same way as some other companies.
Maria Merced, president of TSMC Europe,
said: The Euro is strong against the Dollar, but
the bad news is this means local costs have to be
reduced and NXP is an example.
Against this background, TSMC is growing its
business in Europe. Were one quarter ahead of
where we were last year, Merced claimed,
which is 30% up year on year. And Europe now
comprises 12% of TSMCs business, compared to
8 or 9% a year ago. Why?, Merced asked
rhetorically. Because IDMs are outsourcing
manufacturing, driven by the current economic
climate. Globally, TSMC now claims it holds 48%
of the foundry market.
But its not just IDMs that are turning to
12
TSMC. Merced believes that start ups are also
taking advantage of its leading edge
technologies. We have around 100 customer
tape outs this year from European companies,
she claimed, adding Icera will be taping out at
40nm this year. And 100 customer tape outs
could mean more than 100 devices.
Europe is also attracting more of TSMCs
mind share, through its growing importance in
the automotive segment and through its
traditional strength in the communications
world. We are doing very well in these areas,
Merced noted.
This success is seeing TSMC raising its
Merced: We have around 100 customer tape
outs this year from European companies.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
European headcount. Were looking to
increase our staffing by about 20%, she said,
mainly field technical support people. These
will assist our customers in accelerating their
designs by helping them to make the right
design decisions and selecting the right
process node.
Automotive designs are likely to play a
greater part of TSMCs business, driven by
increasingly stringent legislation. Some
companies are still using 0.35m processes,
she claimed, but the movement to emission
control and to electric cars means more and
more high performance parts will be required
and we can help to enable these because
companies will have to move to 90 and 65nm
processes.
Another European strength mixed signal
and analogue is also attracting TSMCs
attention. In the past, TSMCs analogue
offerings have lagged the leading edge by two
nodes, depending on the features. Now, said
Merced, its less than half a generation behind.
Similarly, rf technology is being developed
for TSMCs 40nm node. Europe is good in
communications, Merced concluded, and this
will continue with special clusters. Its not just
the Iceras, there are lots of others.
Meanwhile, TSMC is expanding Fabs 12 and
14 in Taiwan its so called gigafabs. Merced
noted tools will be moved into the Fab 12
extension by the end of this year, whilst phase
four of the Fab 14 development was being
equipped. Both fabs are being extended and
TSMC has invested a lot in new capacity for the
new process nodes.
For more on TSMCs 28nm process
technology, see page 42.
P013_NELE_OCT14 8/10/08 14:22 Page 1
Cover story2.qxp:CVR FEATURE TEMP 8/10/08 16:30 Page 14

The colour of

W
heres that noise coming when all we really want to do is
from? Its a question weve visualise how, and understand
often asked and one which why, sounds are emanating
would be easier to answer if we could see sound. from certain sources so that
Our eyes cant, so our brains are left to process the we might eliminate or at least
sounds and then triangulate an approximate location. reduce them.
And if something is hard to hear, we tilt our heads a
little instinctively repositioning our ears to get better There it is
reception. Seeing the invisible is nothing
Because our ears seldom have identical new xray machines, MRIs and
How acoustic performance, we are often deceived over the exact infrared and thermal cameras
location of a sound, particularly if it is intermittent. have been doing it for years. Where sound is concerned,
cameras help us Sometimes, the source of the sound may elude us the use of static or directional microphones, amplifiers
completely. In some cases, locating and eliminating and an oscilloscope and/or spectrum analyser allows us
see the invisible. noise is of great importance. For instance, the luxury to at least visualise the properties of sound.
car industry pays particular attention to what it dubs The technology for visualising sound goes back
By Richard BSR (buzz, squeak and rattle) issues. several years and early pioneers included NASA,
Elsewhere in the automotive sector, noise the Boeing, DLR and Airbus. During the mid 1990s, these
Warrilow. right noise, that is is desired and the characteristic organisations, working independently, were creating
deep throb on tick over of a performance car has always colour acoustic images; using microphone arrays and
been a strong selling point. So there is great interest in conditioning hardware and software to produce sound
seeing how sounds emanate from a car when designing maps.
its exhaust system and when fine tuning the engine. Also developing acoustic imaging technology
Sounds can also play a role in automotive
diagnostics and experienced technicians with an ear
for the job were diagnosing mechanical faults long
before code readers came on the scene.
In other sectors, being able to see noise pollution
would be of great benefit. With increasing road, rail and
air traffic, faster production lines in factories and wind
farms sprouting up, there is growing concern over the
levels of noise affecting everyday life. Indeed, studies
show that prolonged exposure to noise increases the
risk of heart attack and at night, disturbed sleep can
Right: affect our general health.
The noise generated by the But where is all this noise? Until recently, recording
turbine and rotor of a and analysing the plethora of noises bombarding us
helicopter in flight. would have been a time consuming and costly exercise;

14 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

Cover story2.qxp:CVR FEATURE TEMP 8/10/08 16:31
during the 1990s was GFaI eV, a research association
which evolved from a department of East Germanys
Academy of Sciences, which itself was almost
completely disbanded with the reunification of
Germany in 1989. Like MIRA in the UK, GFaI receives
some government funding, but its main remit was and
remains to commercialise its technological
developments into products.
The real breakthrough in acoustic imaging came
during the late 1990s when engineers at GFaI
proposed using a video camera in the centre of an
array of microphones to capture visuals, creating an
automatic overlay to the acoustic image at the same
time. And so the acoustic camera was born.
Overlaying sound on top of real images initially
stills, more recently movies continues to have great
appeal. The start of the technologys commercial
success was probably marked by Porsches purchase
of a system in 2001. Gunnar Heilmann, market
development manager of GFaI tech, a subsidiary of
GFaI eV located in the science and technology park in
Berlin Adlershof WISTA, comments: At the heart of
the technology is a technique called delay and sum
beam forming which, like the human brain, processes
delays in the arrival of sound at different points.
Tony Shepperson, sales and application engineer
of AcSoft, GFaI techs UK distributor, adds: Youre
effectively seeing noise in its fundamental form
changes in sound pressure and in most cases youre
acoustically focussing on what is optically invisible.
To capture a sound, practical beam forming
requires a minimum of 16 microphones, but the more
that are used the better the resolution and the
dynamic range of the sound map. In some instances,
more than 100 microphones are employed.
The microphones can be arranged in virtually any
configuration, depending on application, but the
most common for general applications are ring and
spiral shapes. For measuring the noise of a passing
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
Page 15
Cover story
Acoustic imaging
vehicle, a three pronged star array
might be employed. And for making
all round 3d measurements (say
within a vehicle) the microphones
would typically be arranged in a
sphere.
With this technology, it is possible
to visualise sound in the range 100Hz
to about 100kHz, where the low end is
typically restricted by the arrays
dimensions. Lower frequencies
require larger arrays with widely spaced microphones, Above:
while the upper limit is typically governed by the The University of Michigans
sensitivity of the microphones and the sampling rate Big House stadium. The
of the data recorder. acoustic (still) photo of the
stadium shows who is
Game On making the most the noise
Beam forming adds another dimension to standard and, below it, a frequency
acoustic recordings as the analysis of noise can now (y-axis) against time
be time, frequency or space selective, which presents (x-axis) plot in which colour
some interesting possibilities. Shepperson notes: denotes amplitude. The plot
You might choose a plane in space and take an represents a 1.5s recording
acoustic photo to see dominant sources for all of one section of the crowd.
frequencies. You could then record over a period of
time plotting frequency (y-axis) against time (x-
axis) and using colour to denote amplitude for an Centre:
area of interest in your photo. The automotive
It is possible to make a motion movie from industry is interested in
sequential acoustic photos and GFaI has managed to acoustic imaging to make
capture images at a rate of almost 200kHz to produce sure engines produce the
extreme slow motion. For example, offers right noise.
Shepperson, automotive power train developers are
using the system in their test chambers to observe in
detail individual firing sequences and you can see
what happens when the turbo kicks in.
Elsewhere, the technology has been used to
analyse sound on a massive scale. Last year,
recordings were taken by GFaI tech at the University
of Michigans Big House stadium as part of an
exercise to see how the addition of raised spectator
boxes might affect noise levels.
Heilmann was on the Acoustic Camera team. He
recalls: The stadium is large, but does not have high
sides. On the day of the recording, there were about
110,000 people in the stadium and we took our
measurements from the centre of the pitch. An
unexpected discovery was that we were able to zoom
in acoustically on one individual and hear him above
the crowd.
Sound levels in the centre of the field reached
approximately 85dB, but nearer the edge of the field
(particularly near the student section), it reached
112dB. The data was then superimposed onto a cad
model, which has since been modified in accordance
with architectural plans for the proposed changes.
15
Cover story2.qxp:CVR FEATURE TEMP 8/10/08 16:31 Page 16

COVER STORY
Acoustic imaging

Right:
Acoustic cameras have a
typical range of 100Hz
to 100kHz, which makes
it possible to see
ultrasonic sound. Visit
www.newelectronics.
co.uk to see a short
movie clip of the sounds
emitted in flight by
Bartok the Egyptian
Fruit Bat.

Above and right:
Practical beam forming
requires at least 16
microphones, but the
more that are used the
better the resolution
and the dynamic range
of the sound map.
Heilmann says:
One reason for the
addition of the
spectator boxes is to reflect sound into the centre
of the pitch, as part of the game from the
spectators point of view is to drown out the
quarterbacks instructions to his team. Its
anticipated that the addition of the boxes will
result in at least a 10dB rise in noise on the pitch
during a typical game. We plan to return following
the construction of the spectator boxes to make
new recordings.
From A to Z
Using our eyes, we can gather information more
quickly than through using any other sense and,
according to Shepperson: The main issue is not that
humans cant hear noise, its about developing an
objective approach to reducing or eliminating it. For
example, one automotive manufacturer came to us
with 40 known noise sources inside the car, but it
wanted to know how often they occurred under
varying conditions so it could prioritise the
remedies.
Whilst acoustic cameras are relatively new, they
have already proved useful in applications ranging
from aerospace to zoology anprocessing power has
made possible real time 2d and 3d acoustic imaging.
Heilmann concludes: Acoustic imaging will play
an increasingly important role in quality control,
environmental inspections and architectural analysis.
Acoustic imaging has a very colourful future.

Figure 1: Capturing the location of a sound

w1 In figure 1, left, the red star repre-
(x,t) 1
sents an excitation (say an audible
w2
2 click) which arrives at the four (blue)
^
excitation + 1/M (x,t)
w3 microphones at different times. The
3
delays between arrival times is used to
w4
4 calculate the sounds position in
space which is represented by a pixel
i(x,t)
p(t) ^ on a photograph produced by a cam-
1 (x,t) era also looking at the source. The
delays are normalised and the signals
2
p(t): summed to produce a composite
sound sound, which is assigned to its
3
pressure
corresponding pixel.
4 t

16 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

P017_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:39 Page 1
P018_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 10:40 Page 1
Panel.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:27
GREEN
is the colour
P
ressure is mounting on designers to
think about the environment and
that pressure is being applied from
two general directions.
From one side comes concern about
global warming. By designing components
and products that consume less power, the
need to generate power is reduced and,
hence, greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
The other main pressure comes from a
need to stop waste electrical and
electronic products going to landfill. Part
of this solution is for products to be
designed for recycling.
But just what is environmental
design and what issues does it raise? We
asked a panel of experts. Taking part were
Envirowises cleaner design specialist
Jenni Rosser, Luke Robbins, sustainable
design specialist with Industrial Design
Consultancy (IDC), Steve Chambers, head
of Sagentias science and technology
division, and Mathew Palmer, business
development manager, embedded
technologies, from The Technology
Partnership.
First up was Rosser. Environmental
design aims to minimise the costs and
environmental impact of a product over its
entire life cycle. Improving resource
productivity producing more electronic
goods and services with fewer materials
and input from utilities and with less
pollution and waste will create
sustainable benefits for the environment,
and ultimately reduce business costs.
In Chambers view it is low energy usage
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
Page 29
What approaches can be taken
to improve environmental
design? By Graham Pitcher.
of product, low production cost and energy,
as well as reducing toxic compounds in the
product and in the manufacturing process.
Its about choosing the right
manufacturing location to reduce the
carbon footprint by minimising
transportation of components and final
product. Its about designing for ease of
recycling and future proofing, so the goods
Chambers: The biggest impact would be to
reduce or eliminate standby current.
SPECIAL REPORT
Expert Panel
are robust, reliable and retained, rather
than upgraded and replaced.
TTPs Palmer supported this view.
Initial design is only a part of the story
and many other considerations will have to
be taken into account in the future, such as
whole life environmental effects, reuse and
recycling issues, along with the elimination
of potentially hazardous materials.
How important is it for designers to
think environmentally? IDCs Robbins
contended: Many of the social and
environmental impacts that arise from the
products that people choose are already
designed in long before they reach the
end user. According to the Industrial
Design Society of America as much as
75% of the environmental impacts (as well
as the costs) that a product throws off
throughout its lifetime is determined at
the design stage. Taking that on board, it
is and will be in the future essential for
electronic designers to consider
environmental factors. However, it is not
just the role of the electronics designer to
think environmentally. It should be
considered by the organisation as a whole
to really make a difference.
Packaging design brings results
Rosser added: Its very important.
Packaging design can have an enormous
impact on the environment and often
results in cost savings that are quicker
and easier to achieve than in products.
Cleaner design in relation to products can
help companies benefit both from
compliance with legislation and the
economic, environmental and marketing
opportunities.
Having established that environmental
design is important, what areas should
designers concentrate on?
Chambers believed that eliminating
unnecessary energy use was crucial. The
biggest impact would be to reduce or
eliminate standby current usage in
consumer goods. Typically, this consumes
20% of the energy used in operating
mode, but achieves nothing.
In Robbins opinion, a general starting
point would be to consider the entire life
cycle of the product. A Life Cycle
19
Panel.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:27 Page 30
SPECIAL REPORT
Expert Panel
Assessment provides an opportunity to
prioritise which strategies will make the
largest reductions in environmental
impacts.
Typically, he continued, the
manufacturing processes and the energy
usage of electronic products are the major
contributors to environmental impacts.
For instance, there are around 12million
home broadband users in the UK, many of
whom use wireless routers and never
switch them off. Assuming the average
router consumes around 10W and that all
were left on, this would collectively
consume around 2880MWh per day and
emit around 100,000 tonnes of CO2.
Designing in simple environmental
features, such as a sleep mode or
shutdown timer, could reduce these
amounts by up to 50%.
However, Rosser contended: It may not
always be essential for companies to go
through a complete product Life cycle
analysis. Simply asking the design and
manufacturing staff what they think and
coming up with a list of three areas to
concentrate on during the redesign could
have a massive impact on the product, both
with regards to cost savings and
environmental benefits.
She added: There is also the potential
to achieve real commercial benefits by
identifying more sustainable techniques to
Palmer: The throwaway society approach will
have to change.
20
emissions associated with inefficient
Rosser: There is the potential to achieve real
commercial benefits.
minimise the use of materials over the
entire life cycle from design to disposal.
Our experience has shown that this
approach can often generate long term
cost efficiencies, as well as opportunities
to innovate.
Elegant designs needed
Palmers view? Elegant designs will use
fewer components and, in addition to
saving cost, will mean the lowest
environmental impact of the initial design
is achieved. Designers should also consider
the possibilities of future upgradability to
ensure the maximum life for their
designs or simple disassembly to allow
reuse or recycling.
What benefits, apart from the
environmental ones, might accrue from
more environmentally friendly design?
Robbins noted: Benefits include lower
manufacturing costs, increased profits
and increased competitiveness. More
efficient electronic products can demand
higher prices and bigger margins, whilst
strengthened brands improve customer
relations. And environmentally designed
products will be more readily recycled,
reducing the cost of complying with WEEE
obligations and even allowing reuse or
recovery of some elements.
Rosser concurred: By considering the
environment and adopting cleaner design
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
techniques, there are opportunities for
product designers and manufacturers to
play a key role in helping the UK to meet
future carbon targets and to reduce the
consumer goods.
Designers have a key role to play in
helping companies to adopt best
techniques, which could help save around
100million in manufacturing costs for
example. They can also assist in gaining a
competitive advantage from functionality
and service innovation and will reap the
benefits from environmental marketing
and enhanced reputation.
Chambers believes the greatest
environmental impact could be made by
future proofing making products more
durable and increasing their life span.
Unfortunately, he observed, the rate of
change and progress in improving
performance has resulted in an
accelerating trend to dispose of equipment
way before the end of its functional life
span in order to replace it with the latest
development or update.
However, future proofing will buck the
market trend and limit business growth so
is unlikely to be adopted.
Agreeing, Palmer concluded: The throw
away society approach will have to change
if we are to make any real progress in
reducing the environmental impact of
electronics.
HOW GREEN ARE YOUR PRODUCTS?
IDC has developed an online tool that
helps designers and engineers access
the knowledge to help make
sustainable design decisions. Its LCA
Calculator (www.lcacalculator.com)
provides a free and quick way to assess
the environmental impact of a product
by calculating its energy inputs and
carbon outputs from cradle to grave.
Other sources of input include
Envirowise (www.envirowise.gov.uk)
and the Centre for Sustainable Design
(www.cfsd.org.uk).
P021_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:39 Page 1
P022_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:40 Page 1
Cover.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:00 Page 29

THEBEST

I N N O V A T I O N & D E S I G N E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D S 2 0 0 8
P24,25 spons+conts.qxp:Layout 1 8/10/08 10:12 Page 24
Contents/Sponsors B E S T F A C T O R Y
Eureka and New Electronics magazines, and Cranfield School of Management, greatly
appreciate the support of the sponsors of the Innovation & Design Excellence Awards 2008
iDEA 2008
Introduction 25
Cranfields Dr Marek Szwejczewski introduces
the 2008 Innovation & Design Excellence
Awards
Foreword 26
Lou Reade, IDEA 2008 judge and editor
of Eureka, applauds the outstanding
achievements of those shortlisted
Sagentia Innovation & Design Excellence Award
TTP 29
Technology specialist TTP continues a proud
tradition of companies that use their expertise to
spin off new ventures
Sagentia is delighted to be associated with iDEA
2008 and to be overall sponsor for the 4th year
running for the Innovation & Design Excellence
of the Year Award.
For more than 20 years, Sagentias
uncompromising commitment to innovation has
led to the launch of breakthrough technologies,
products and services for our clients across six
global markets.
We are active in all stages of design
and development through to manufacture,
underpinned by a team that combines industry
experience, technology expertise and business
acumen.
We are proud to be associated with awards
that promote success and excellence in
innovation and design in the UK, and offer
congratulations to all winners.
Prototype Projects is delighted to sponsor the
Best Design Consultancy award. Experts in
providing rapid prototyping and model making
services to product designers, engineers and
manufacturers throughout the UK and Europe,
we employ the latest technology and skills to
answer the most demanding prototyping and
modelling requirements.
We service many industries and currently
supply the Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Medical,
Computer, Industrial Engineering and Consumer
products markets.
Following continued investment in
technology and skills we provide the most up to
date service for rapid prototyping from concept
models through to fully functional pre-production
prototypes.
A W A R D S 2 0 0 8i D E A
Brandon 33
Leeds-based Brandon Medical knows its
customers intimately and devises new
products to meet their precise needs
IDC 35
Industrial Design Consultancy does far more
than its name suggests, growing
its expertise in medical devices, and
embracing sustainable design principles
Wideblue 37
Wideblue, a product design specialist spun out of
Polaroid, is taking its expertise in optoelectronics
into the medical industry and beyond
Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough
products, creates and licenses intellectual
property, and provides business consultancy in
technology-critical issues for clients worldwide.
The Breakthrough Product Award recognises
products that are as yet unproven, but which
show great promise and, more importantly,
inspire belief. The alchemy involved in successful
and inspirational new product design deserves
recognition, and we are delighted to sponsor this
category. For nearly 50 years, weve enabled
clients to turn business opportunities into
commercial successes, whether launching first-
to-market products, entering new markets or
expanding existing markets through the
introduction of new technologies.
Sponsor of the Product Design Innovation Award,
Autodesk helps customers to experience their
ideas before they're real by providing state-of-
the-art, interoperable, 2D and 3D model-based
design technologies that are redefining the
product development process. With Digital
Prototyping, manufacturers can optimise and
validate their ideas before actually creating a
product, helping to remove time and costs from
the product development process, and get the
right product to market faster. Autodesk is a
world leader in digital design innovation
technologies. Our products, services, and
solutions help customers design better by
enabling them to create digital models and
workflows, which allow them to experience their
ideas before they are real.
iDEA 2008 - 24
A W A R D S 2 0 0 8
Kinneir Dufort 38
Design consultancy Kinneir Dufort helps its
clients through the process of moving their
products from concept to finished article
Pulsar 39
Ultrasonics specialist Pulsar is riding the wave
of upheavals in the water utilities by
providing innovative level-measurement
technologies
Siemens A&D 40
Siemens Congleton factory was crucial in
developing a new energy regeneration
technology for standard drives
The Electronics Leadership Council (ELC) is a
body set up jointly by government and
industry to provide strategic leadership for the
rapidly changing technology sector. The UK has
a thriving electronics sector, but the threats
from Asia are very real and demand a national
strategy to offset the potential loss of
manufacturing jobs by developing higher value
UK jobs. This demands action in education and
skills, investment in science and technology, a
level playing field on government procurement
for UK firms and support for UK companies in
overseas markets, enabling them to grow
internationally.The ELC has begun to make a
difference in each of these areas, but fully
accepts that there remains a great deal to be
done.
P24,25 spons+conts.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:02
i D E A 2 0 0 8
Innovation is an essential component when seeking competitive advantage, especially in todays
fast-moving and turbulent business environment. It takes talent, commitment and passion all
of which these awards winners have in abundance. We should all celebrate and share in that.
Innovating to win
I
n todays fast-moving and turbulent
business environment, innovation is critical
to success. It is a primary source of
competitive advantage and arguably the single
most important activity necessary for long-
term growth.
The winners of the 2008 Innovation and
Design Excellence Awards provide a pointer to
some of the common elements that help to
create a successful, innovative organisation.
All the winning companies considered
innovation to be critical to their business
and an important element of their corporate
strategy. Their senior management teams
were focused on innovation and actively
took the lead in developing new products
as well as supporting employees to develop
their own ideas.
The companies had an appropriate
innovation culture, where employees were
encouraged to contribute ideas and try new
approaches. The winners encouraged risk-
taking and senior management accepted
that some failure was likely to occur.
The companies involved also displayed a
commitment to invest in developing radical
innovations and new technologies in the
knowledge that they may not reap reward for
Page 25
Introduction
Innovation
& Design
Excellence Awards
many years to come. Also, the ability to
collaborate with external partners is essential
in developing innovative products, so it is
hardly surprising to find that the winners are
expert at collaborating with customers and
suppliers. They were able to ensure that
a difficult activity does not result in long
development lead times or increased
development costs. They often worked closely
with customers during the development
process, for example, providing early
Dr Marek Szwejczewski
prototypes to test and evaluate.
Director Innovation and
All had a deep understanding of their
Design Excellence
customers needs and wants, which was
acquired through surveys, interviews and Awards
most importantly direct interaction with Cranfield School of
users. All this ensured that they were able to Management
effectively bring the voice of the customer into
the new product development process.
Moreover, the winners used cross-functional
teams to develop new products and a formal
product development process with clear
approval stages.
The winners also had a passion to develop
innovative new products that were significantly
better than those of their competitors. This
passion, and desire to be the best, is something
we should celebrate and share.
iDEA 2008 - 25
P26 Lou intro.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:04 Page 26
Foreword B E S T F A C T O R Y A W A R D S
Innovation The winners of this years awards are a truly diverse mix - from minnows to multi-nationals. Yet
& Design one thing clearly unites them: they are all adept at identifying gaps in their markets and coming
Excellence up with innovative solutions. Most of all, they know how to stay one step ahead of their rivals.
Awards
Land of opportunity
P
eople love to discover connections. If two
things happen at the same time
or one after the other the search for
a link, or common theme, begins.
This brings me to my own difficult
connection: what, if any, are the links between
the seven companies shortlisted for this years
Innovation & Design Excellence Awards (other
than the fact they are all on the shortlist)?
Theyre a diverse bunch of companies,
ranging from minnows to multi-nationals. They
Lou Reade, are experts in, variously: optoelectronics,
Editor, Eureka mechanical design, the medical industry,
marketing, ideation and cutting-edge
technology. Some tick more than one of these
boxes. To compare the companies directly is to
compare apples with pears.
But common themes emerged from the iDEA
judging visits. The most striking of these was
opportunism, as all of the winners showed a
nose for identifying a gap in their market. Some
offered winning products by reacting to
legislative changes; others simply listened
carefully, then delivered products that their
customers could not ignore.
The small companies, in particular, were able
to identify promising market niches and pursue
them, in a way that their larger rivals could not.
iDEA 2008 - 26
2 0 0 8 i D E A 2 0 0 8
The medical market is one where this approach
is common. It proves that the smallest of
companies with the right people, attitude and
expertise can compete with the best in this
most challenging and daunting of markets.
One iDEA winner was actually set up out of
frustration, when several employees of a large
firm decided they did not agree with its new
approach. They started their own company to
do things right which, most of all, meant
listening to customers and delivering
innovative new products to the market. Ten
years later, their company is thriving.
Im not going to name individual winners
here: its better to read their profiles in the
pages that follow, in order to understand more
about how they stand out from the crowd. What
was it that they did in terms of new product
development that helped them nose ahead of
their competitors?
These are real examples of innovation best
practice and Id like to think that theyre
transferable. We all hear stories about how a
mature concept in one field becomes the next
big thing in a different industry. Just look at
some of the things happening in medical, or
automotive, or aerospace and think: would that
work in my industry?
P027_NELE_OCT14 2/10/08 12:38 Page 1

Overall winner and

winner of the
Innovation
and Design
Excellence
Award 2008,
winner of
the Best Design
Consultancy Award.

The Technology Partnership plc T +44 1763 262626

Melbourn Science Park F +44 1763 261582
Melbourn www.ttp.com
Hertfordshire SG8 6EE UK enquiries@ttp.com
P04_Sagentia ad.qxp:Layout 1 10/9/08 08:53 Page 1

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P29-31 TTP - BW SUBBED.qxp:Layout 1
i D E A 2 0 0 8
Cambridge technology specialist TTP continues a proud tradition of companies that use their
engineering expertise to spin off new ventures
Platform alternation
T
heres something in the DNA of
Cambridge area technology
companies that pre-programmes
them to follow a familiar pattern
namely to: use technical expertise to
help clients develop products; patent a
few ideas of its own; and use these as
the basis for creating spin-outs.
The city may be most famous for
its medical and scientific work, but
companies such as The Technology
Partnership (TTP) are helping to re-
focus this towards engineering and
design. The companys strength is
6/10/08 11:33 Page 29
embodied in its name, as technology is
at the heart of everything it does.
The company describes its approach
as adhocracy teasing order from
chaos, using a creative approach to
problem-solving. Its often said that
innovation cannot be managed
but TTP would not agree.
Its a delicate balance between
anarchy and adhocracy, says Allan
Carmichael, who, like many TTP
employees, has a PhD, but no official
job title. The flexibility of roles helps
people to grow and deliver.
iDEA 2008 -29
TTP
Winner
Sagentia Innovation &
Design Excellence Award
Winner
Best Design Consultancy
Sponsored by Prototype Projects
Highly Commended
Design Collaboration
Award
Sponsored by Eureka
One key area for TTP is consumer
electronics: few fields combine product
volume and high technology to such an
extent. The companys expertise in
communications protocols such as
DAB made it an ideal choice to
develop a digital radio for the US
satellite broadcasting network.
Its impossible to pin down a single
area of expertise for TTP. Other products
that are currently making it through the
pipeline include: a point-of-care device
that will analyse samples in a vets
surgery and a rare own brand product
Profile
Location: Melbourn, Herts
Employees: 281
Focus: Patenting new
ideas; product
development;
spinning off
new ventures
Project1:Layout 1 10/9/08 09:08 Page 1
P29-31 TTP - BW SUBBED.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:33 Page 31

i D E A 2 0 0 8 TTP

a PCB for use in industrial printers. that will sit in the home and act as a new but this is the first time that such
A growing area is its development of shared communications hub a hybrid a concept has been created at consumer
a series of platform technologies of computer, mobile phone and family prices, says Simon Lewis., who heads
ranging from electronic printing to message board. A prototype is presently the spin-off company.
medical devices which it licenses to being trialled with 25 families to see how So, if this time next year you are
clients. It develops these separately to they use it. picking up family messages on the
its fees for service work and hopes In true Cambridge style, the idea has shared messageboard, and ditching
to grow this area of the business. been spun off into a separate company, your mobile in favour of a Wayve
An example is Touchspray, a part owned by Microsoft. terminal, just remember that you read
patented method of nebulising liquids The idea for these devices is not about it here first.
into vapour, which it has licensed to a
German pharmaceutical company.
TTP is confident that further
licensing deals for this and for other
platforms will follow.
We do not just want to be a fees-for-
service company, says the companys
Victor Humberstone. Platform
technologies offer something unique:
they allow customers to develop higher
margin products, giving them a stronger
position in the market. At the same time,
we get to develop a core expertise in a
unique area, which we can then sell to
other clients.
And TTPs focus on the future does
not stop: its latest brainchild is a device
called Wayve, a small-screen terminal

iDEA 2008 - 31
P08_ELC AD.qxp:Layout 1 10/9/08 09:13 Page 1

Shaping the future of electronics

The Electronics Leadership Council

P33 -Brandon - BW SUBBED.qxp:Layout 1
i D E A 2 0 0 8
Leeds-based Brandon Medical knows its customers intimately and devises new products to
meet their needs, while competing effectively with larger rivals.
Light work
ts a little-known fact that an operating
I theatre is so named because early
operations were treated as spectator
events with medical students and
members of the public taking their seats
to watch the surgeon at work.
These days, things are far more
private and far more sophisticated.
The advent of telemedicine means you
may well get an audience at an
operation still but it might be a senior
surgeon, using a live video link to talk
a junior colleague through a procedure.
Telemedicine is just one area where
Leeds-based Brandon Medical has won
success though its main area of
expertise is in medical lighting. Its all
a long way from the company that was
bought from the brink of bankruptcy in
1993 by its current directors.
We dont specialise in particular
technologies, but we deliver products to
a well-understood set of customers,
says managing director Graeme Hall.
The companys approach to product
development starts with its network of
suppliers, who constantly feed back
information from the market. Hall is
proud of Brandons ability to take this
information and convert it into products.
6/10/08 11:07 Page 33
Were a small company, so we
have to develop better products
and make them cheaper, he says.
As with many small companies,
Hall recognises that Brandon can
develop niche products that are of
limited interest to its enormous rivals
because the volumes are too low. That
said, its ability to take on a larger rival
and win is part of its success.
It has now taken this further,
developing a new technology for medical
lamps which it calls high definition
LEDs, or HD LEDs. These are standard
LEDs, treated using a proprietary
process to give out more red light.
The basis for the development was
the knowledge a lamp with better
red balance would help surgeons to
differentiate more easily between
iDEA 2008 - 33
Brandon Medical
Winner
Best Small Company
Sponsored by ELC
Highly Commended
Breakthrough Product
Award
Sponsored by
Cambridge Consultants
tissues that are similar in colour. Profile
Brandon has a growing range of lamps
including the Galaxy Ultra that use HD
LED technology.
Location: Leeds
Employees: 29
Focus: Medical
lighting products
Red balance enhancement
that meet
compensates for the eyes natural customer needs
weakness in distinguishing shades of
red, says the company. These lamps
reduce eye strain by making the light
do the work, instead of the eye.
As well as reducing eye strain, the
LED lights are cold as they do not
heat up like halogen lamps. For this
reason, they are far more energy
efficient Hall estimates that they
consume around 80% less energy.
And, for obvious reasons, he is
circumspect about the exact details of
the product, saying only: Its red and
white LEDs, and a bit of pixie dust.
P10_BFA08.qxp:Layout 1 10/9/08 16:55 Page 1

A partner of
P35-IDC - SUBBED BW.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:11 Page 35

i D E A 2 0 0 8 IDC

Industrial Design Consultancy (IDC) does far more than its name suggests, growing its expertise Winner
in medical devices and incorporating sustainable design principles into its business Design Collaboration
Award
Sponsored by Eureka

Winner
Product Design
Innovation Award
Sponsored by Autodesk

Highly Commended
Best Design Consultancy
Sustained improvement Sponsored by
Prototype Projects

E
arlier this year, Datchet-based extended its reach into new markets. The whole design time of around two
Industrial Design Consultancy Where it once focused its efforts on years from conception to final product,
(IDC) launched a website called products such as household appliances, including the management of complex
the LCA Calculator to help designers the company now wins more of its moulding projects was fast for such a
calculate the environmental impact of business from higher margin industries, product, especially as IDC had never
their products. The site is free and such as medical. before designed an insulin pen.
should help to boost IDCs green IDC was recently invited to help a It wasnt until we attended trade
credentials and attract potential
customers at the same time.
IDC has taken its green initiative
further by employing a full-time person
Luke Robbins to help it embed
sustainable design principles into the
company. And that is something
Robbins knows wont be easy.
Were looking to integrate this into
the whole process, he says. Were not
just bolting it on.
For now, incorporating green
principles into design is still very much a
balance: many environmental solutions
will be deemed unworkable,
for reasons of cost or practicality.
Sustainable design solutions must
prove themselves, he says.
With this will come big changes,
Robbins points out. I need to make sure major drugs company to design an shows and spoke to other pen designers Profile
people are happy to use these new tools, insulin pen with the challenge that that we realised how quickly we had Location: Datchet
Employees: 25
in order to get them on board. many such patent-protected products achieved it, says Gough. We had
Focus: Expertise in
Aside from its move towards already existed. somebody working on this full-time for medical devices;
sustainability a growing trend among We found that there were about 500 two-and-a-half years. incorporating
design consultancies IDC has patents covering insulin pens, says Since last years iDEA judging visit sustainable
design principles
projects director Brian Gough. We (when IDC was highly commended), the
needed to find a way around them all. company has expanded having taken
A key factor in the success of the pen on four more staff, rented additional
which was successfully designed space and invested in a brand new Viper
without contravening any existing IP SLA machine.
was IDCs partnership with a skilled The Viper will allow us to improve our
moulder to make the components. The model-making offering, says managing
pen is made completely from plastics, so director Stephen Knowles. We still use
moulding the various components was some external prototyping bureaux
critical to its success. but this increases our speed.

iDEA 2008 - 35
Project1:Layout 1 10/9/08 09:29 Page 1

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Consultants

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TM

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P37-Wide Blue - BW SUBBED.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:13 Page 37

id D E A 2 0 0 8 Wideblue

Wideblue, a product design specialist spun out of Polaroid, is taking its expertise in Winner
optoelectronics into the medical industry and beyond Breakthrough Product
Award
Sponsored by
Cambridge Consultants

Seeing the future

design leader Robin Sayer. Product how you market such an emotive

A
growing trend among design
consultancies is to develop their own styling was also crucial: focus group product as this, says King.
products. While this can be fraught feedback revealed the device would Breastlight is far from being
with danger, consultancies realise that, if need to be intuitive and comfortable Wideblues only offering. It has
they can get it right, the revenues from an to use a further reason for efficient developed a number of products for
in-house product can dwarf those from thermal management. clients, such as Biopta which measures
traditional fees for service. Another refinement had to do with the response of human tissue to varying
Dumbarton-based Wideblue, created product perception. At low voltage, LEDs concentrations of new drugs. It
as a spin-out from Polaroid, has taken quite naturally produce a variable light automates a process that was
this step. Our expertise, says director output. An array of LEDs would then previously carried out by a PhD
Grant King, is in optoelectronics, which have differing levels of brightness, biochemist, using a very expensive
forms the basis of everything we do. giving a perception of malfunction. We microscope.
Wideblue has set up a separate decided to ramp up the voltage but to Again, optoelectronics played a key
company, PWB, to commercialise its pulse it at the same time, says King. role in its design. And this level of
most promising product a self-
examination tool called Breastlight,
This solved the problem and meant that
we used only 10% of the power.
specialist knowledge can be a real
advantage when it comes to winning
Profile
Location: Dumbarton
whose history is a heartening story of Following a soft launch to the new business. Employees: 15
innovation success. A retired professor medical profession, the company plans We dont typically bid for work Focus: Expertise is in
of health physics had the idea for a a commercial launch near the end of the against other design consultancies, optoelectronics
breast examination product and year. You have to says King. People tend to know us, so for the medical
industry and
went as far as to build a be very careful we get referrals. beyond
demonstrator, using off-the-shelf
components. While it got across the
principle that shining a strong
light through breast tissue could be
an important part of a self-
examination regime the product
needed serious work, in order to make
it commercially viable.
Wideblue spotted the opportunity
and helped to take the idea forward with
assistance from various grants and
awards. Its optoelectronics expertise
and design skills were crucial. From
early on, the company knew it had to
use LEDs as the light source. But it also
knew of several technical problems
one being that LEDs begin to lose
performance at high temperature.
For this reason, we had to devise a
thermal management system to remove
heat from the LEDs, says product

iDEA 2008 - 37
P38 -Kinneir - SUBBED BW.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:15 Page 38

Kinneir Dufort B E S T F A C T O R Y A W A R D S 2 0 0 8 i D E A 2 0 0 8

Highly Commended Design consultancy Kinneir Dufort helps its mainly blue-chip clients to move their
Best Small Company products from concept to finished article
Sponsored by ELC

Better by design
Profile

A
Location: Bristol
Employees: 37 free coffee is always a good way to
Focus: Helps clients to make friends with the neighbours
move products and Bristol design consultancy
from concept
Kinneir Dufort (KD) used the technique to
to design
test reactions to a drinks vending
machine that it was
re-designing for Mars.
Instead of hanging up a sign saying
Free coffee inside, KD researched and
contacted a cross-section of local
consumers choosing them carefully in
terms of age, job title and other factors
and then invited their feedback on the

machines ease of use. can help companies develop an exact

The principle of getting peoples
reactions in a natural environment while
they are using a product, rather than via
an impersonal questionnaire is one that
KD uses frequently.
Our viewing room is where we do
focus groups, says sales and marketing
director Sean Devane. We try to look very
deeply at client needs. Mars is a typical
client, in terms of its size and market
position. In fact, KD boasts a range of blue-
chip clients many of whom remain
anonymous.
Much of the companys work is based
on helping clients to identify how their
products might fit into a market niche
hence a clear focus on packaging design.
As a design team, we must understand
our clients needs and brand, says
Devane. We think thats fundamental to
an innovation project.
KD has also worked on major medical
products and has the requisite ISO
13485 certification, proving its expertise
in medical design.
One of KDs strengths is the way that it
product specification, in the form of an
ideas workshop. Design consultancies
commonly call these sessions ideation
workshops or similar. KD has a name for
its own workshops: Momentum.
The sessions which can last for
anything up to five days go beyond
brainstorming and are a structured
attempt to develop concepts and turn
them into concrete ideas.
Importantly, the companys in-house
prototyping workshop can be a powerful
force in accelerating this process.
Often, we will come up with a number
of ideas on the first day of a Momentum
session, says Devane.
We can then produce prototypes of some
of these in time for day two.
Clearly, whether
the focus is on coffee
or other innovations,
things are percolating
along quite nicely.

iDEA 2008 -38

P39 -Pulsar - BW SUBBED.qxp:Layout 1
i D E A 2 0 0 8
Ultrasonics specialist Pulsar is riding the wave of upheavals in the water utilities by
providing innovative level-measurement technologies
Level best
I
t can be hard to listen to the finer
points of the sewage treatment
process immediately after eating
breakfast. But providing technology to
this industry is the basis of a thriving
Malvern-based business.
Pulsar Process Measurement follows
the trend of many small technology-led
firms: it competes by specialising.
Its expertise is in ultrasonic level
measurement, allowing its customers to
determine the levels of fluids whatever
their nature accurately and reliably.
We can do things that other people
cant do, says managing director Keith
Beard about Pulsars operations.
Water is big business these days: the
judging visit to Pulsar took place in the
week that the water utilities announced
price rises to fund their future plans. The
investment is crucial to Pulsar, which
still wins the bulk of its business from
this industry.
Innovation is important to Pulsar,
too: the company only exists because
Beard and other Pulsar employees didnt
like the direction taken by their former
employer and formed Pulsar to do
things the way they should be done.
An example is the companys
patented level sensor, called Duet.
This solved a growing problem within
6/10/08 11:16 Page 39
Pulsar Process Measurement
Winner
Design Cycle Time
Reduction Award
Sponsored by
New Electronics
the water industry, namely how to
determine the level of a liquid surface by
correcting for the air temperature
which changes the speed of sound in air
and therefore the reading.
Pulsars answer to this challenge was
nothing short of a masterstroke
in simplicity using two ultrasonic
sensors to create a reference signal
which overcame the need to determine
temperature, and link it back to speed
and distance.
Although no new technology is
involved, Pulsar has a patent pending on
the device because of the way that
the elements are arranged.
The company takes a pragmatic
approach to product design: there is no
place here for industrial design, though
the company used a grant to help it
electricity pricing is at its highest
(usually 4pm to 7pm).
The system works by prioritising
pumping when tariffs are lower. For
example, it will calculate the rate of fill
of a sewer and, if possible, pump it out
before the advent of a higher tariff.
Following a trial of the system at one
water company, Pulsar estimates that a
saving of nearly 10% in annual electricity
bills is achievable.
This, and most other products, are
design plastics mouldings for one developed within Pulsars monthly R&D
product range. meetings though these are quite
Profile
Rising water bills is one thing, but different to what might be seen in
the ever-rising cost of electricity is one a larger organisation, it points out.
that Pulsar has also instrumental in We do not need a stage gate
Location: Malvern
helping its customers to address. It process, because we are not a big Employees: 36
modified its Quantum pump control company, states Beard. Instead, Focus: Innovative
system to include its new software we bring in people whose opinions ultrasonic level
measurement
Tariff Guard which detects when we trust.
technologies
iDEA 2008 - 39
P40-Siemens - SUBBED BW.qxp:Layout 1 6/10/08 11:18 Page 40
Siemens A & D B E S T F A C T O R Y A W A R D S 2 0 0 8
Highly commended Siemens Congleton facility is the companys world centre of expertise for control technologies
Product Design and was crucial in developing a new energy regeneration technology for standard drives
Innovation Award
Sponsored by Autodesk
Braking with tradition
from across the company, says Ian
Donald, R&D manager at the facility. But
we must make sure were putting our
money into those that will deliver real
benefit. We cant just put technology into
a product for the sake of it.
The company does not chase niche
markets: it cannot afford to. Instead, it
must focus its energies on the products
that will have the largest take-up in the
market. In many cases, this means
evolution, rather than revolution.
But Siemens has things that many
smaller innovators can only dream of:
enormous R&D budgets; huge marketing
resources; unparalleled access to
universities; and high-level relationships
with end users. It puts all of these to
good use when it comes to developing
new products.
A prime example is a new type of
drive, the Sinamics G120D, whose key
feature is its ability to regenerate energy
from a braking motor rather than
dissipating it as heat. It relies on an in-
house technology known as F3E.
Siemens spotted the potential of
H
the technology early on and much
ow do you innovate for the of the early development was done
masses? One of the first steps by a partner university. This kind of
of innovation is to identify arrangement is common practice
customer need very clearly but that
can be difficult when you have a diverse
customer base.
Profile This is one of the challenges faced by
Siemens whose Congleton plant is its
Location: Congleton world centre of excellence for control
Employees: 384 (Standard
electronics. The company needs to
Drives Division)
Focus: Expertise innovate in order to remain competitive,
in control but must be pragmatic in its product
technologies development.
We have thousands of technologies
iDEA 2008 - 40
i D E A 2 0 0 8
within the company. The product itself
grew in response to more stringent
harmonics regulations but then
automotive customers got excited
about its ability
to regenerate energy, especially on
conveyor lines. These must be braked
at the appropriate point which is
normally achieved using braking
resistors. The new Sinamics drive
effectively recycles this braking
energy. The redesigned electronics
allow the energy to flow back through
the circuit without tripping the
system instead of wasting it as heat.
This principle is not new. However,
systems to achieve it are usually both
complex and expensive.
Siemens has products that use the
more complex regenerative technology,
says Nigel Platt, a project manager at
Congleton. But for standard drives, it
was always too expensive to include.
The technology is already being used
by several automotive companies
which have seen the benefit of not
having to use braking resistors.
And the story does not end there, for
Siemens sees this very much as a
platform technology.
Were ready to roll this out into other
products, says Donald.
P041_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:41 Page 1

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As a key new division of TDK Corporation, TDK-Lambda
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Process2.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:22 Page 42
What flavour
please?
T
he semiconductor manufacturing
industry has been following
Moores Law faithfully for many
years. The result has seen the number of
transistors on a given area of silicon
doubling every 18 months.
Its interesting to look back and
realise that only a decade ago, the state
of the art production technology was
probably 0.18m, moving to 0.13m.
Today, the leading edge production
process is 40nm.
It could be argued that semiconductor
manufacturers were the driving force
behind these developments in the past.
But no longer. Today, its customers who
are forcing manufacturers to develop new
processes seemingly quicker than ever.
Responding to these demands, TSMC
has unveiled a 28nm process. Included in
the announcement is the first public
acknowledgement that TSMC has high K
metal gate (HKMG) technology. Until
now, only Intel and the IBM Alliance have
unveiled this technology.
The 28nm process will be available in
two flavours; one (28LPT) aimed at low
power applications; the other (28HP) at
42
TSMC splits process to meet
diverging application needs.
By Graham Pitcher.
designs where high performance is the
main requirement.
Its the first time that TSMC has
offered different gate materials at the
same node. While the 28LPT process
features silicon oxynitride (SiON), the
28HP process features HKMG.
Importantly, TSMC has announced that
28nm will be a full node. Asked to
explain this, John Wei, senior director of
advanced technology marketing, said:
This means the 28nm node will be
supported by a comprehensive
technology and IP portfolio. Its not just
logic, well also be making available such
technologies as embedded dram,
analogue, rf and embedded flash;
whatever is needed by our customers.
Clearly, with that range of
technologies available, the 28nm process
will be used to produce complex devices.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
But inclusion of analogue elements is of
interest. When asked how hard it had
been to develop analogue at 28nm, Wei
admitted it had been a challenge for the
28HP process. But we believe the
problems can be overcome. Analogue on
the 28LPT process, he continued, will be
OK, from the data we have.
The technology portfolio will be
complemented by a set of IP for
mainstream market applications, Wei
continued. Well be bringing the third
party community with us.
Take the Shuttle
Although TSMC has announced the 28nm
process, it wont be available until 2010.
Having said that, prototype designs will
start to flow through the CyberShuttle
process towards the end of this year.
Does Wei anticipate delays? We are
committed to delivering 28nm in the
timescales we have specified, he
asserted. There is no ambiguity.
Why does TSMC believe that 28nm is the
right point at which to offer different
flavours at the same node? By
understanding each type of technology,
Process2.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:22
we have laid out a comprehensive offering
so we can deliver what is right for the
customer.
Whilst the two flavours address
different designs, it is feasible the 28LPT
option may have the wider application. KT
Tung, deputy director of technology
marketing, explained how the two
approaches differ.
We believe the SiON approach in 28LPT
will provide the low power consumption
required by developers of portable
devices. However, the HKMG process will
be good for those looking for high speed.
The rationale behind 28LPT is the
change in how people use mobile phones.
Tung noted: People now use their phones
for different purposes, including browsing
and multimedia. All these things consume
batteries more quickly. Users are therefore
worried about how long they can use the
handset for. This is determined by active
power consumption.
The benefit of
the 28LPT process
is that SiON has a
low gate
capacitance,
which leads to
lower active power
consumption.
And we have a lot of experience with SiON
technology, Tung noted.
But Tung admits that some applications
will be power users and more suited to
the 28HP process. HKMG will be
important for some applications, he
continued. Its high gate dielectric and
greater thickness requires a higher driving
current.
Asked why TSMC has jumped to a 28nm
node, rather than expanding its 32nm
offering, Tung explained: We have already
done 40nm designs with many customers.
For these companies, the move to a 32nm
process would not be as great an incentive
and going to 28nm would be.
There is, however, an element of risk
involved a word that is not normally
heard from TSMC. Wei explained why. The
higher performance that 28HP delivers
makes sense for high performance
applications, even with the risk factored
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
Page 43
in. The risk is that HKMG is a new
material.
Delivering a cost effective HKMG
process is not a trivial matter, Wei
continued. Today, only Intel has put
HKMG into production and it has kept a
lot of the know how secret. He believes
Intels HKMG approach could be costly.
Its a flavour of HKMG that only cpu
manufacturers can absorb the cost of.
HKMG in manufacture
Despite the fact that 28HP is TSMCs first
public announcement that it has an HKMG
process, it has an HKMG variant at the
40nm node. We started at 40nm, Wei
observed, and customised the process
for one particular company. We think that
high performance consumers have more
margin to absorb the additional costs.
And Wei noted that TSMC will customise
any of its processes, depending upon the
return on its investment.
The 28nm node will be supported by
a comprehensive technology and
IP portfolio. Its not just logic. John Wei, TSMC
Process shrinks, as the jump between
nodes is known, present different
challenges. Its generally accepted the
move from 0.13m to 90nm was harder
than the move from 90 to 65nm. How
hard has it been to move to 28nm?
Wei said: From 45nm, especially in
high performance, we have started to see
changes; mainly because we have to
include different types of strain
engineering. When you introduce a new
material or new method to generate
additional strain, it doesnt come just like
that.
Alongside the strain problems, Wei
noted the appearance of what he termed
side effects that werent present at
previous process nodes. But the key
factor at 28nm, he believes, is variation
control. The challenge is how you manage
variation control whilst adding new
materials to the process.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Advanced processes
Another reason for the move to 28nm
is to reduce leakage. Developing new
technology is always aimed at power
reduction, Wei claimed, as well as
performance gain. So each new node
should bring this, along with an increase
in gate density. As TSMC has moved from
65 to 40 to 28nm, we have applied a set of
three key performance indicators. When
we develop a new process, we have to
deliver on all three indices.
TSMC is still using 193nm immersion
lithography at the 28nm node and
expects to continue using the approach at
future nodes. Wei said: There are various
ways to continue squeezing performance
out of the immersion litho tool. Beyond
193nm immersion, TSMC is looking at
extreme ultraviolet and direct writing
technologies. We are not sure about
their interception points, Wei admitted,
but 22nm may be a stretch.
Meanwhile, TSMC claims a number of
customers are now ready to tape out 40nm
designs, including Icera, which plans to
tape out this year.
Concluding, Wei said: We already
have multiple customers behind each
flavour of our 28nm process.
43
P044_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 10:42 Page 1
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N
o matter which technology sector
you look at, the demands from
designers appear consistent. They
are all looking for products which offer
more performance while consuming less
power. And if manufacturers can supply
those parts at lower cost, all the better.
Data converters are no exception to
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Medical imaging is one such end
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Manufacturers of the larger static
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increasingly interested in improving the
resolution of the images produced. They
look to achieve this by increasing the
number of channels which can be
processed. Not only does this have power
consumption implications, more channels
also means larger machines. So data
converter developers are looking to
integrate more channels into a device.
Ultrasound applications are therefore
being served by octal devices.
Meanwhile, demand is growing for
portable ultrasound devices. The main
driver for these applications is power
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
Pushing the
envelope
Data conversion demands drive innovation. By Graham Pitcher.
consumption in order to provide the
longest battery operating life possible.
Susie Inouye, principal analyst with
market researcher Databeans, noted:
High speed converter growth is being
fuelled by faster speed and resolution
requirements in medical, wireless
communications and broadband
infrastructure. According to Databeans,
demand for a/d converters with sample
rates of 50Msample/s or greater is
expected to grow at 17% per year during
the next five years.
A family based approach
Texas Instruments is responding to these
demands by developing three broad
ranges of data converter to address
mainstream applications. At the lower
end is the ADS52xx family, addressing
applications requiring 10 to 12bit of
resolution and sample rates approaching
70Msample/s. Heinz-Peter Beckemeyer is
TIs analogue business development
manager for EMEA. He said: The 10 to
12bit range is aimed at low power, but
demanding, applications such as medical
imaging. TI is now into its third
generation of these devices, which are
available in dual, quad and octal variants.
Power consumption is typically 50 to
60mW per channel, depending upon the
application.
In general, devices in this range are
suited to applications where the input
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Mixed Signal & Analogue
frequency is relatively low, including
some communications designs.
Beckemeyer typifies these parts as
Nyquist converters. They all sample
signals within the first Nyquist zone and
suit baseband applications. Along with
good signal to noise ratios (snr) and
spurious free dynamic range (sfdr), the
parts also bring lower power
consumption.
Another broad band of applications is
served by the ADS6xxx/55xx ranges, both
supporting resolutions ranging from 11 to
16bit. Beckemeyer noted these families
have higher levels of integration with up
to four channels per device.
We have just released what we believe
to be the fastest 14bit 250Msample/s
device, he claimed.
The ADS6149, and its 12bit partner
product the ADS6129, are targeted at
wide bandwidth communications
applications. Both parts have fine gain
options that can improve sfdr at lower
input ranges, along with dc offset
correction.
Devices like these, Beckemeyer
continued, arent seen elsewhere, except
for other TI parts. Theres nothing else on
the market at 250Msample/s.
Finally, another family of 11 to 16bit
devices addresses applications with the
highest performance requirements.
Whilst most of TIs data converters are
produced on a cmos process, some
45
Mixed.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:23 Page 46
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Mixed Signal & Analogue
support high frequency signal
conditioning and data conversion. By
blending the higher speed of SiGe bipolar
transistors to 5V, 0.35m cmos logic,
BiCom3 provides high performance. As
the industrys first production process to
feature complementary SiGe Meanwhile,
the SoI techniques provide low, highly
linear capacitance and improve isolation
and speed.
TI has used the BiCom3 process for the
ADS5485, a 200Msample/s 16bit
converter. Beckemeyer again claimed this
is the first such device in the market to
achieve these performance levels.
Amongst applications envisaged for
Achieving these performance levels
with a cmos process is difficult.
Heinz-Peter Beckemeyer, Texas Instruments
requirements can only be satisfied by the ADS5485 are in test and measurement
parts produced using a more exotic instruments, where it may enable 16bit
technology. In this case, its TIs BiCom3 resolution at bandwidths of up to 100MHz
process, which brings silicon on insulator in devices such as digitisers, spectrum
(SoI) and silicon-germanium into play. analysers and in general data acquisition
Using BiCom3, said Beckemeyer, it is systems.
possible to produce converters with Applications are also anticipated in
sample rates of up to 500Msample/s and software defined radio (SDR), allowing a
resolutions of up to 16bit. broader range of standards to be
BiCom3 has been developed to implemented. Not all comms standards
can be handled using 14bit a/d
converters, Beckemeyer claimed. Using
Figure 1: Block diagram of the ADS548x a 16bit part allows designers to get closer
to an SDR approach.
timing Confirming this belief is Robert
control
Sgandurra, a senior product manager
with Pentek. He said: The ADS5485 was a
power clear choice for our Model 7150 Quad A/D
Software Radio Module. The higher
sample rate means users will be able to
digital
input 16 bit a/d correction directly digitise nearly 100MHz of
buffer converter and bandwidth, which is invaluable for
16 formatting 8
customers working on wideband radar
and wideband communication systems.
reference Working with leading edge products
does, however, bring its difficulties. One
mode particular problem is the relationship
control between sampling frequency, input
frequency and snr. TI has been working
over the last few years on ways to improve
46 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
this relationship. Apart from improving
specifications, it is also looking to
provide more extensive information on
the performance designers might expect
at given operating conditions.
Par ticular per for mance
We have built a special filter bank, said
Beckemeyer, which allows us to run a
device at multiple frequencies so
designers can identify the performance at
their particular operating conditions.
Normally, a datasheet will only give
performance at one point.
There are five members of the ADS548x
family, with three catering for sampling
speeds of up to 135Msample/s. These offer
snrs of up to 80dB and sfdr figures of up to
100dB. Achieving these performance
levels with a cmos process is difficult,
Beckemeyer contended, and thats why
you dont see many devices of this kind.
Despite the application of process
technology to the problem, data
converters still need some assistance to
deliver the performance which designers
expect.
The ADS5485 has dithering features,
which help to reduce harmonics,
Beckemeyer pointed out. Designers often
have to undertake dithering outside of
the converter. With this part, a small
amplitude signal can be applied which
helps to eliminate periodic frequencies
through the converter stages.
Using a companion clocking chip,
designers can get levels of performance
from these converters which are close to
optimal. But the challenge still remains
to provide the snr which designers are
looking for in a cost effective manner,
Beckemeyer concluded.
P047_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:41 Page 1
Analog.qxp:ADVERTORIAL TEMP 6/10/08 11:39 Page 48

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Keeping
stringent regulation and transient specifications.
A lack of headroom at low voltages can cause
devices to behave unpredictably. If, for example,
the power supply voltage drops below the
threshold for a telecommunications ASIC, it can
operate erratically, possibly resulting in a corrupt
message being sent or the loss of data.
Numerous methods exist to monitor system
voltages, the most basic of which is a discrete
circuit (see figure 1a). It employs a precise resistor-
divider network, a comparator and a reference

on the rails
voltage, allowing it to determine if the voltage rail
being monitored is below a preset threshold.
This method is not without its shortcomings.
It is costly, inaccurate, susceptible to noise and
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Integrated circuit voltage supervisors address
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T
he communications and computing markets Maintaining reliability in ADM809 (see figure 1b), incorporates a voltage
continually demand technological reference, a comparator, a supply voltage resistor
improvements that lower costs and increase multivoltage systems as string, a reset timeout generator and an output
capabilities, with more functionality in smaller driver stage. The resistor network can be
form factors. This results in higher complexity on power chain complexity pretrimmed at the manufacturing stage to suit a
each board in a system. It is increasingly common range of voltage thresholds. Such devices
to find several multivoltage devices coexisting in a increases. typically offer threshold accuracy of 2.5% and can
single design that contains ASICs, FPGAs and DSPs.
This has resulted in a spiralling increase in the By Norma OMahony. monitor voltages as low as 1.58V. As core voltages
drop below 1V, this level of accuracy and choice of
number of power supplies per card. High end reset threshold becomes inadequate.
systems with more than 20 voltage rails on a The local generation of supplies specific to a
board are now common. Only a few years ago, the probability of a fault occurring increases particular function leads to the clustering of
these would have required several boards with proportionately. voltage rails within the vicinity of a chipset,
perhaps four supplies each. Todays electronics A growing trend towards lower core voltages is making integrated multivoltage supervisory
designers face a challenging problem: how to being driven by new smaller process geometries. devices a cost effective, space efficient
ensure that 99.999% system reliability is Low voltages need to be delivered efficiently solution. A device such as Analog Devices
maintained as power chain complexity increases. often at high current and must conform to ADM1184 quad voltage monitor (see figure 1c)
This article examines some of the new issues
arising from increasing complexity, as well as the
methods available to address them. Figure 1: Voltage monitoring approaches Vcc
ADM1184 power and
Complexity increasing monitored reference ref =06V
voltage generator OUT1
The number of voltage rails in complex systems
VIN1 +
has increased dramatically in recent years, due to ref =06V
ADM809
OUT2
the development of new processes using lower
supply voltages, coupled with legacy I/O voltage
+
Vcc RESET VIN2 +
+
generator ref =06V

Vref RESET internal OUT3
requirements. A single board may comprise 240ms logic
microprocessors, FPGAs, and ASICs, along with + VIN3 +
Vref ref =06V
analogue and digital circuit elements. Monitoring gnd PWRGD
and control of the ever increasing number of VIN4 +
ref =06V
voltage rails is fundamental for the safe, robust
and reliable operation of the system over its (a) (b) gnd (c)
lifetime. As the number of voltage rails increases,

Multivoltage devices that combine pretrimmed and adjustable

input thresholds are often the most versatile.

48 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

Analog.qxp:ADVERTORIAL TEMP 6/10/08 11:39
Figure 2: High accuracy is critical when monitoring low voltages
1V core voltage (+
5% tolerance); 105V
1V core voltage (+
3% regulation); 103V
1V supply
1V core voltage (3% regulation); 097V
1V core voltage (5% tolerance); 095V
33V
DC/DC
10V
also reduces the amount of analogue routing
required on the board.
Multivoltage supervisory devices are available
with a range of input voltage thresholds. Some
feature pretrimmed fixed threshold options that
do not require external resistors. Others are more
flexible, with adjustable thresholds capable of
monitoring voltages as low as 0.6V that can simply
be programmed using an external resistor divider.
Adjustable inputs with high reset threshold
accuracy of 0.8% are available. Multivoltage
devices that combine pretrimmed and adjustable
input thresholds are often the most versatile.
Avoiding headroom limitations
Voltage headroom becomes a limitation in low
voltage supply applications. At low voltage, the
tolerance required to reliably switch on chip gates
is much tighter. The reset threshold accuracy of
the voltage monitor is the most critical
consideration when choosing a multivoltage
monitor, especially when monitoring lower
voltages. Consider the system depicted in Figure 2.
A 1V regulated supply produces a voltage that
varies between 0.97 and 1.03V. Because the
microprocessors 1V core supply voltage has a
tolerance of 5%, it requires a voltage level
between 0.95 and 1.05V to maintain reliable
operation. A voltage range of just 2% remains
between 0.95 and 0.97V for undervoltage
monitoring. In order to supervise the 1V supply
voltage precisely, a voltage supervisor offering
high accuracy is a necessity.
Analog Devices ADM13305-4 dual voltage
For more information, go to www.analog.com
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
Page 49
2% range for undervoltage monitoring
I/O supply
core supply
ADM13305-4 uP
SENSE1
RESET RESET
SENSE2
supervisor with its 0.8% threshold accuracy
along with 0.1% accurate resistors in the voltage
divider at the SENSE2 input can provide accurate
monitoring of the undervoltage level within this
2% range. Inferior threshold accuracy would
cause an overlap of the supervisors reset
threshold range and the power supply tolerance
range, resulting in nuisance resets, even if the
power supply was within its specified regulation
range. To offset inferior threshold accuracy, an
PRODUCT FEATURES
ADM809 Microprocessor Supervisory Circuit
Low power consumption (17A)
Precision voltage monitor with 2.5, 3, 3.3
and 5V pretrimmed options
Reset assertion down to 1V Vcc
140ms minimum power on reset
Push-Pull active low RESET output
SC70 and SOT-23 package options
ADM13305 Dual Voltage Supervisor
Supply voltage range from 2.7 to 5.5 V
Pretrimmed threshold options: 1.8, 2.5, 3.3
and 5V
Adjustable 0.6V voltage reference (0.8%
accuracy)
RESET valid from Vdd 1.1 V
Reset timeout 140ms (minimum)
Watchdog timer with 1.6s (typical) timeout
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increased voltage range would be required for
robust system operation.
Noise on the monitored voltage rail, which can
be a consequence of power supply ripple or system
transients, can cause false resets, especially when
the monitored voltage is close to the reset
threshold. Tightening of the voltage headroom at
lower voltages means that the traditional
technique of adding hysteresis to the input
comparator is no longer satisfactory. At low
voltages, glitch filtering is a more efficient form of
noise filtering that ensures predictable operation
and eliminates false triggering of the reset,
without degrading the accuracy of the device. If a
glitch shorter than the specified filter timeout
appears on the input, the pulse is masked and the
signal change does not appear on the reset output.
High accuracy multivoltage monitors offer a
simple, precise, cost efficient method of ensuring
reliable operation in complex multivoltage
systems, whilst minimising the board space
required and limiting spurious system resets.
Multivoltage monitors ease design challenges by
minimising the overall voltage range required for
dependable system operation.
Author profile:
Norma OMahony is an applications engineer in
Analog Devices Power Systems Management group.
Active high and active low push-pull reset
outputs
8 lead narrow body SOIC package
ADM1184 Quad Voltage Monitor
Powered from 2.7 to 5.5V on the Vcc pin
Four inputs can be programmed to monitor
different voltage levels with external resistor
dividers
Three open drain enable outputs (OUT1,
OUT2 and OUT3)
Monitors four supplies via 0.8%
accurate comparators
Open drain power good output (PWRGD)
Internal 190ms delay associated with
assertion of PWRGD
10 lead MSOP
49
P050_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:44 Page 50

50 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

Board.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:55 Page 51
Designing
successfully
S
ince emerging from Ferranti
International in 1994, Ferranti
Technologies, a a privately owned,
specialist contract designer and
manufacturer, has established a
reputation for engineering expertise,
quality and commitment in the defence,
aerospace and rail sectors.
The companys electronics design
team has analogue, digital and power
design capabilities and its designs are
accredited to a number of aerospace and
defence Critical Standards, including
DO254 and DO-178B. We specialise in
power and control systems for harsh or
difficult environments, typically for
demanding defence and aerospace
applications, said Ben Griffin, hardware
engineering manager.
As part of its continuous improvement
activity, Ferranti Technologies has
replaced a range of simulation, schematic
and data storage software applications
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
PCB design software speeds
time to market. By Phil Mayo.
with Altium Designer.
The company, which has a 25 strong
design team, believes the switch has
helped to make its processes both more
efficient and more robust. Griffin noted:
For the first time, designers have direct,
real time cost information for each
component as it is added to the design.
We reviewed a number of design
packages, including some that were
highly functional and very complex. For
us, the key was to find a tool that would
improve productivity across the
company. It is not just about good
design in isolation its about producing
a complete unit efficiently, reliably and
profitably.
The tool, used within Ferranti
Technologies strict Gated Project
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Board level technologies
Management Process, interfaces directly
with its component purchasing and stock
control systems.
Griffin said: In the past, design
engineers would create the design then
pass information to other parts of the
company for component procurement,
full project costing and manufacture. The
Altium process starts with functional
design and simulation, then moves all the
way to board layout.
The design team can now select the
components from a common database,
which means they no longer have to create
new parts for each design. Griffin noted:
The BoM contains information regarding
lead time and cost, enabling us to keep
track of our budget as we go along, instead
of having to wait for the information to
come back from the purchasing team after
the board has been designed.
All board components are now
specified at design stage, right down to
51
Board.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 10:14 Page 52
EMBEDDED DESIGN
Board level technologies
the varnish. Previously, specification of
these sundries would be left to the
drawing office.
Ferranti has transferred all its
component data including its BRISCH
number system to a single access
database, which interfaces directly with
Altium and its MIS. In this way, price
information and stock levels can be
updated centrally and are available
immediately across the company.
We are already saving money as a
result of using Altium, says Griffin. We
used to include a component validation
stage in our process to double check the
information on the drawings against the
database. This step is now redundant
and we have been able to free up
manpower for other tasks.
Sounds good
Audio specialist Linn Products has also
used Altium Designer with great success,
reducing pcb design time by half and
enabling it to bring its products to market
more quickly.
Linn, which manufactures hand built
audio and cinema systems, relies upon
designing and delivering leading edge
For us, the key was to find a tool that would
improve productivity across the company.
Ben Griffin, Ferranti Technologies
products. It has a platform strategy
approach to developing its business and
reviews key areas of technology that will
take the company forward.
Each new product takes anything from
three to six months to design. PCB design
was typically three to six weeks
development, with most of this time
spent inputting data. Previously,
designers had to draw each schematic
from scratch, said Ian Wilson, electronic
design team leader.
The company was looking to source a
pcb design tool and development package
that would enable it to deliver products to
market more quickly. As well as reducing
52
THE BIG PICTURE
PCB designers have been working in 3d
for years its just that 3d visualising
was happening in engineers heads,
writes Rob Evans.
The ability to view and manipulate
a board design in a real time 3d
environment opens up a range of
practical and workflow advantages
that support more informed and more
intuitive design decisions. In real
terms, this means the capability to
fly around and inside the board in
real time. and rotating around the external view
Having a realistic view allows you to also helps to make more informed
inspect the board accurately prior to placement decisions.
manufacture. This makes it easier to Altium has included 3d visualisation
detect design faults and to make in Altium Designer 6.8. Taking
decisions regarding overlays and advantage of DirectX, PCB Visualization
coating finishes. allows you to customise and configure
As the board design is being the design view for both 2d and 3d
developed, you can view the boards displays all in high detail.
internal layer stack up directly and
make more accurate judgments when Author profile:
placing blind or buried vias. Zooming Rob Evans is Altiums technical editor.
according to Wilson: The result was not
just a replacement to our existing system,
but also a platform upon which we could
build new methodologies.
The company says pcb design time has
been cut by half, bringing a
corresponding reduction in the product
lead times, Linn wanted a package that development cycle.
would integrate easily with its existing The software has also improved Linns
database. customer supply relationships. Board
Linn chose Altium Designer and, designs can be shared more readily with
silicon suppliers, allowing them to check
designs against stock and library models
at an earlier stage.
Like Ferranti, Linn benefited from
Altium Designers ability to create a BoM
from the product library alongside the
board layout. This is a quicker and more
efficient process, says Wilson.
Au thor prof ile:
Phil Mayo is managing director of Premier
EDA Solutions (www.eda.co.uk)
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
P053_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:46 Page 53

www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008 53

P054_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 12:20 Page 54

Where innovative products are

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This drive to find new ways to
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See us at Electronica 2008 Hall B4, Stand 336

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54 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

Soft.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:26 Page 55
On the web!
W
eb enabled devices are
springing up everywhere and it
is seen as an advantage if they
can be controlled, monitored or updated
remotely. So its no surprise that many
people feel their latest product needs to
be connected to the internet.
Having decided to use some form of
internet connectivity, the biggest
problem is finding a way to actually make
the link from a small embedded
application to one that can communicate
with large servers on the other side of the
world. Whilst there are commercially
available TCP/IP stacks, they may cost a
lot, as well as requiring much time and
effort to integrate with the product.
The stack usually requires an
operating system in order to run
effectively. Packets of data can arrive on
the Ethernet cable at any time and there
are all manner of responses that might
need to be sent in return as the packet is
decoded by the different layers of the
software. On the other side, transmitting
data is not just a case of handing it over
to the driver and saying go. With the
reliable protocol TCP, the operating
system has to monitor responses from the
device at the other end and be prepared
to retransmit the data until it knows that
it has been received successfully. This
clearly takes cpu power and memory,
which has to be managed by the software.
In most cases, this is why operating
systems are brought into the equation
because it is easier to split each of these
different functions into separate tasks
which can run semi autonomously.
It is at this point that the networking
Illustration: Elly Walton
aspect of the project is often put to one
side because it is seen as being too
complex. There is new software to write
or buy and new APIs to learn.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
How the task of adding
internet connectivity can be
eased. By Sean Cochrane.
embedded controller. However, for people
specification, trying to get a system
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Communications sof tware
Incorporating USB is in a similar vein.
All modern computers have a number of
ports which can provide power and high
speed communication facilities to an
not familiar with the full USB
sending even a handful of bytes can be a
daunting prospect. Compared to RS232 or
parallel ports, USB has a huge number of
advantages, but they come with a large
overhead in terms of knowledge that is
needed to use them. Without the right
tools, getting to a point where data can
be transferred can be a tricky process.
When it comes to USB, one side of the
communication is designated as
a host or master that which runs
the communication. At the
other end of the cable is the
device or slave. Its job is to send
or receive data whenever
the master tells it to
and, as part of the
process, it has to
identify what it
is; what it does;
who made it; how
often it expects to
transfer
data; and
how much
data that
will be.
55
Soft.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:26 Page 56
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Communications sof tware
Compare that to RS232 which is a simple
serial protocol whereby bytes are sent,
one after the other, down a piece of wire
where they arrive some short time later.
In an ideal world, an engineer would
be able to treat a data port in the same
way, whether the ultimate
communication method is by UART, USB
or Ethernet. From that point, they can
concentrate on the main task in hand,
Without the right tools, getting to a point
where data can be transferred can be a
tricky process. Sean Cochrane, Cyan Technology
which is to put their expertise into the
finished product. There are many tools on
the market that assist with the low level
code writing and create mini device
drivers for each of the peripheral
functions. This is useful, but there is still
a lot of work needed in order to take the
project further.
On a project where, for example, a USB
memory key is going to be used for
logging data, adding a block that
controls the on chip USB
peripheral is only the start.
What engineers
actually want is a
56
set of functions they can call to open
files, and read or write their contents.
Under normal situations there is still a lot
of code to write.
Firstly, there is the host side USB
driver to be able to communicate with a
mass-storage device. Next, there is the
filing system layer. For maximum
compatibility with mainstream
computers, the logical step here is to
have a set of routines that turn the
storage device into a standard FAT-
formatted area. In that way, an embedded
system can write to the memory key and
it then be plugged into a desktop
computer in order to extract the
information.
The highest level of the stack would be
where the HTTP (for a web server) or FTP
(for general file storage) applications
would be linked in. Both of these
protocols respond to requests sent over
Ethernet and return data from a filing
system, albeit that they present
themselves to users in different ways. By
putting both protocols in the same
product, it is of course possible to provide
a way to provide updates to the web
pages remotely.
Cyans CyanIDE 2 can help overcome
these issues by providing an easy to use
graphical
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
configuration tool, along with ready to
use templates and examples. By simply
dragging and dropping hardware and
software modules into a picture of the
chip, an engineer can configure a
complete system in a matter of minutes.
Pe r i pherals
Starting with a blank project, the
hardware peripherals are dragged onto
the chip canvas area and the relevant pin
configuration chosen. Next, the user
adds blocks that represent the hardware
to which the device is connected the
example in figure 1 is the USB mass
storage driver. Additional software
blocks to provide a TCP/IP stack and FAT
filing system will then give everything
needed to create a simple web or FTP
server.
Each peripheral has a set of
properties associated with it. Changing
these causes the underlying code to be
changed using the graphical interface.
The Cyan Driver Framework (CYDF) turns
difficult hardware functions into a set of
API calls. By using CYDF for all
peripherals, the CyanIDE configurator
can manage all the changes to the
device. The idea is to make the engineer
more productive and to save having to
thumb through page after page of
manuals.
As a final aid to getting designs ready
as quickly as possible, many of the more
common tasks are provided as templates
which populate the device canvas
automatically with all the needed
peripherals and configurations.
Everything is provided in a ready to run
format; however it is still C source code
that can be modified as needed. It is
unlikely that the basic system, while fully
usable, will be the end of the project.
Taking the hard work out of the getting
the communication running allows the
engineer to concentrate on working on
the main part of the project and that is
usually where their expertise lies.
Au thor prof ile:
Sean Cochrane is a field applications.
engineer with Cyan Technology.
P057_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 15:56 Page 57

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P058_NELE_OCT14 7/10/08 14:02 Page 1

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Comm.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:24 Page 59

COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN

Industrial Communication

I
Greater
n the 1970s the concept of machines
talking to each other was pure
science fiction. 2001 - A Space
Odyssey introduced the idea to the
masses with HAL, a sinister machine with
a superior intellect. The development of
Ethernet in the mid 1970s made the
concept of communications between
machines - an open network - a less
ominous prospect with a simple coaxial
cable acting as a broadcast transmission
medium between separate computers.
Ethernet stations communicate by
sending each other data packets, with
each station given a single 48bit media
access control (MAC) address, used to
specify the destination and source of each
data packet.
Today, Ethernet is everywhere,
however, its limitations are obvious; the
length of an Ethernet and the number of
computers is limited by the quality of the
cable; even when extended with signal
boosters, the length of an Ethernet is

limited to 512bit in transit on a network;
the frame length is at least 512bit so that
all computers detect it while still being
transmitted.
With speed and energy efficiency a
prerequisite in all production
environments, engineers are now on the
lookout for alternative protocols to
network automation systems. It is to Asia
that eyes are turning, toward an
industrial automation network that
processes both control and information
data at high speed.
Alter native commincation
Control & Communication Link (CC Link) is
already established in Asia as an open
technology field level network able to
provide high speed communication with
the capability to link a wide range of
automation devices over a single cable.
Now Europe and North America are taking
this open technology, originally
developed by Mitsubishi Electric,
enabling devices from numerous
manufacturers to communicate.
The worldwide CC Link Partner
Association (CLPA) boasts more than 900
partners. These offer a range of
communication
The limitations of Ethernet could now be addressed with an open
network already well established in Asia. By Chris Shaw.
compatible products including industrial the same or very similar, but its only
PCs, PLCs, robots, servos, drives, digital when you start to drill down that you see
and analogue I/O modules and the list there are fundamental differences in
goes on. their use and performance. CC Link is at
CLPA Europes conformance testing the high end in terms of performance
facility is designed to ensure that devices and functionality as it was designed to
meet the performance specifications in handle both control and communications
order to become CC Link certified. at high speed, in this case up to 10Mbps.
Globally, four testing facilities have been Importantly, the I/O handling is reliable
established in the US, Japan and Korea. and response time is fast and
With ISO accreditation, it all sounds deterministic. This means that
too good to be true, but how does it applications requiring fast I/O response
really compare any other fieldbus? Steve and large sized data transmission are
Jones, CLPAs general manager for easily handled, and expanding an
Europe explained: People often speak as installation in the future will not present
though all open fieldbus networks are a problem.

www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008 59

Comm.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:25 Page 60
COMMUNIC ATIONS DESIGN
Industrial Communication
By speeding the process of
communication, a more accurate
manufacturing and process monitoring
control is enabled. CC Link technology has
been optimised for speed, throughput
and response to the extent that a system
consisting of 64 stations and thousands
of input/output points can be updated in
4ms. Depending on the length of wired
network cable required, the five speed
Applications requiring fast I/O response
and large sized data transmission are
easily handled. SteveJones, CLPA
options range from 10Mbps at 100m to
156kbps at 1200m. Longer distances can
be spanned at a 10Mbps by using optical
repeaters.
By using asics, all of the devices and
components in the network are able to
operate together. The asic handles the
complete data link layer and transport
layer defining standard connectors, cable
characteristics, LED status indicators and
any other networking parameters.
Supported by more than 700
association members that manufacture
more than 725 CC Link compatible
products, the support for this open
network is becoming increasingly
established.
This figure will undoubtedly rise, but
there is one issue that has seen many
60
companys remain cautious; namely trust.
Disclosing detailed information of
network technology is, unsurprisingly,
something that may raise a few industry
eyebrows. While this disclosure of data is
necessary to apply the CC Link
technology, its easy to understand the
concerns. To combat these issues, the CC
Link Partner Association freely publishes
the CC Link specifications to all
companies that join the association.
Re liability
Reliability of a network involves immunity
to electrical interference, the ability to
identify errors, isolate faults and allow
unaffected devices to continue operating.
There is also the question of the ability to
recover from a fault condition and resume
normal error free operation without
human intervention. CC Link attempts to
resolve this by employing RS485
signalling specification and by using
three conductor twisted shielded cable
and high performance transceivers and
line filters.
joining the association as a regular
Device conformance certification
involves conducted, radiated and
directly coupled electromagnetic noise.
A device must be immune to this EMI and
RFI to be certified. In the event that a
device on the network stops
communicating, CC Link allows
communication to continue with all
other network devices and, upon
correction of the fault, automatically
returns a disconnected device to full
network operation. This is backed up by
the standby network master which
automatically assumes control of the
network should the primary master
station cease to function.
The ability of a network to provide for
stable closed loop control of an
automation system depends greatly on
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
CC-LINK HAS WIDE APPLICATION
CC-Link integrates a wide range of
automation devices, from numerous
suppliers, on a single network:
Digital & Analog I/O
Automation Controllers
PCs
Temperature Controllers
Variable Frequency Drives
Servo Drives
Valve Manifolds
Network Gateways
Operator Interfaces
Robots
Barcode Readers
Cables & Connectors
how deterministic its performance is
determining the measure of predictability
and repeatability. By utilising a master /
slave architecture, CC Link technology
eliminates timing uncertainty due to
access arbitration. Many other network
technologies cannot offer such an
unvarying I/O response.
CC Link can be implemented by device
makers and the CLPA provides various
tools and flowcharts to explain the
process and how to get started. Once
member, access is given to the protocol,
profile and implementation documents.
Most companies start by producing either
a remote device station or a remote I/O
station and both are based on an asic
implementation.
One decision point here is whether to
make a full implementation at board
level, or to incorporate an OEM CC-Link
slave module onto the circuit board.
These devices allow for much faster
implementation and are generally used
for lower volume modules.
While, we have yet to reach an Arthur
C Clarke age where computers and
machinery can converse to the point of
mutiny, systems such as CC Link offer the
opportunity to surpass much of the
technology of 2001 A Space Odyssey, but,
thankfully retaining subservience.
P061_NELE_OCT14 30/9/08 14:48 Page 1
Ref2.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:24 Page 62
System
solution
T
heres no secret why increasing
numbers of design engineers are
turning to reference designs.
Simply put, the reference design gives
them a head start substantial in some
instances in getting their product to
market.
Carsten Wild, a marketing engineer with
Renesas Technology Europe, explains why:
Customers want an out of the box
experience, including leading edge
processor products with operating systems
and even application software.
As part of its support strategy, Renesas
and its Platinum Alliance partner emtrion
(www.emtrion.com) have recently unveiled
the HiCO.SH7722 processor module. This
highly optimised and cost competitive
processor module has been designed in the
sodimm format. According to the
partners, the module can be used as a
reference design for the
development of applications
using highly integrated
and ultra low
power
multimedia
processors,
such as Renesas
SH7722.
The module has been
designed as a system solution
to extend typical starter kits,
without changes, into production
ready solutions for industrial
applications. And, because the sodimm
module supports the low power
architecture of the processor, it is also
62
Modular approach allows
design exploration.
By Graham Pitcher.
suitable for portable applications.
The HiCO.SH7722 reference system
consists of a carrier board, which a
customer can adapt to their specific
needs and project specifications, and the
actual cpu core module in sodimm format.
In addition to the processor, the module
contains the respective memories,
USB2.0 Host and Device
interfaces, and a 100Mbit
Ethernet interface. All
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
signals are available on a 200pin sodimm
connector. The carrier board offers all
components that are needed for
integrated systems, such as audio and
video codecs, power supply and
connectors.
We are pleased to offer, together
with emtrion, this reference system for
the SH7722 in response to the increasing
customer demand for complete system
solutions and reference designs, said
Wild.
The SH7722 is a highly integrated
single chip SoC solution for audio, video
and speech processing applications, as
well as graphics acceleration for
sophisticated graphical user interfaces.
The SH7722 incorporates the SH4AL-DSP
cpu, which is capable of 600MIPS when
running at 333MHz. The device also
provides various peripheral functions
that are suited to multimedia
applications, including an Mpeg4
H.264 capable video engine
offering video
encode/decode up to
vga resolution at
30frame/s, a
Jpeg
encode/decode
hardware
accelerator, a 2d
graphics accelerator, an
lcd controller, a 5Mpixel
camera interface and sound
input/output.
Alongside these features, the
SH7722 incorporates an sdram
Ref2.qxp:Tech Temp 8/10/08 16:24 Page 63
interface, which can be
expanded to handle
64bit words, USB
2.0 and an SD
Card interface.
emtrion has been
working very closely with
Renesas for many years during
which several SuperH processor
based board products and customer
specific products have been developed,
said Dipl Ing Dieter Baur, emtrions ceo.
Our advantage is the excellent technical
support and the early access to
specifications Renesas provides us with.
The addition of the HiCO.SH7722 to our
product portfolio now provides our
industrial customers the solution for a low
power multimedia capable module
satisfying their need for high performance,
long time delivery and software support.
For help with application development
and to allow quick evaluation, the
HiCO.SH7722 is supported by
comprehensive Linux Board Support
Packages, which feature an up to date
Linux kernel, compiler and tool chain, as
well as all the drivers needed for quick
start.
Whilst most reference designs are
focused fairly closely on a particular
application allowing the designer to
differentiate the product perhaps using
software the Renesas/emtrion offering is
characterised by its broad application.
According to Wild, the reference design
may be applicable to such end markets as:
security, with applications including web
cams, security cameras and door entry
systems; navigation devices; voice and
video over IP systems; and products such as
portable media players.
emtrion offers the HiCO.DIMM base as a
carrier board for its dimm format processor
modules. The carrier board is also available
as a reference design, supporting the rapid
development of customised solutions.
The base board can be modified or used
in series with other devices. The
processor module in this case, the
sodimm module fits into the on board
socket, providing access to all module
interfaces. Depending upon the
www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008
application,
a suitable
HiCO.DIMM
module can be
selected, with the carrier
board available for reuse.
Enhancing the features of the
HiCO.SH7722, the carrier board provides
Ethernet, USB, SD card, audio and video
in/video out connectivity, as well as an
lcd port.
Our advantage is the excellent technical
support and the early access to specifications
Renesas provides us with. Dieter Baur, emtrion
Whilst the HiCO.SH7722 has been
developed for use with the HiCO.DIMM
carrier board, emtrion has also
developed a range of modules which
plug into the HiCO.nect carrier board.
These more traditionally formatted
modules not only allow designers to
evaluate three Renesas microcontrollers
the SH3, SH7760 and SH7780 but
also an Atmel ATR9 based device; the
HiCO.ARM9.
The HiCO.ARM9 and the Renesas based
devices are available in two versions:
Core and SBC. The Core variant is a small
form factor board which contains the
whole logic plus connectors to the
HiCO.nect interface. This variant needs
to be plugged in emtrions
SYSTEM DESIGN
Reference designs
HiCO.nectopenBase to be used. The SBC
variant is an extended version of the Core
which contains all features offered on
the Core, plus all connectors that are
needed to interface to other systems.
As such, the SBC variants are
targeted at standalone use.
Whilst the carrier board
can be used with a
number of modules,
the device does
need to know
which one is being
used. This is accomplished
by setting a dip switch
appropriately.
The carrier board provides connections
for such functions as USB, Ethernet and
audio, but there are also three header
connectors which can be used for
customised cables.
The first of these, called J18, provides
15 general I/O pins and an i2c interface.
The other two, called J19 and J20,
provide access to two CAN bus interfaces
and two uart interfaces respectively.
According to emtrion, it can supply
adaptors which allow designers to start
using these interfaces quickly. Both of
these adaptors are terminated with a
Dsub-9 connector and socket.
HiCO.nect-openBase features four
connectors supporting a range of display
and interface options. Connector J16
supports a touchscreen, while J13 will
drive a tft lcd. Connector J15 can be used
with stn lcds, but the carrier module
cannot support tft and stn displays
simultaneously.
The extension of emtrions HiCO
concept to our application processor
family, together with its experience in
customer projects, is the ideal scenario
we can offer to our industrial customers,
Wild concluded.
63
Sys prods.qxp:PRODUCTS TEMP 9/10/08 15:42 Page 50

SYSTEM DESIGN
Product news

A WG brings 20% performance boost over previous models

TEST & MEASUREMENT
Test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation specialist, Tektronix has announced the new
AWG7000B and AWG5000B series of arbitrary waveform generators (AWG). Designed to provide a
20% performance boost over prior AWG instruments, the series is said to meet the test needs for
high speed serial data buses and wideband rf applications. With 9.6GHz effective rf output, 10bit
resolution and sample rates up to 24Gsample/s, the AWG7000B can produce high speed serial
waveforms with real life imperfections including noise, jitter, pre/deemphasis and multilevel
signalling up to 8Gbit/s.
The AWG7000Bs maximum sample rate has been increased to 24Gsample/s. The device can
generate signals including imperfections such as noise and jitter up to 12Gbit/s with 35ps rise time
and modulated digital RF/IF signals up to 9.6GHz for wideband applications including advanced
radar.
TEXTRONIX: VISIT WWW.TEK.COM/SOURCES

POWER up to 8.36W/in3 and outputs of up to 1500VA, REFERENCE DESIGNS

A modular sine wave inverter power system
from Unipower can be used as a standby power
system or the source of supply.
Said to meet the needs of both telecoms and
industrial OEM customers, the Sabre series is an
integrated power system that can be configured
using a variety of modules, including sine wave
inverters, static transfer switches, control units
and remote communications interfaces.
The systems, which provide power densities of
can be expanded to provide up to 24kVA and
meet the requirements of all relevant safety
standards. The modules are RoHS compliant.
Unipower: visit www.unipowercorp.com
BACKPLANES & BOARDS
A user programmable FPGA XMC/PMC module
with fibre optic transceivers has been
launched by VMetro.
The XMC-FPGA05F incorporates the Xilinx
Virtex-5 fpga with four front panel fibre optic
transceivers in air or conduction cooled
versions. It is suitable for real time
applications such as remote sensor interfaces,
data recorders and embedded real time
distributed computing due to the combination
of high speed serial interconnects in
embedded real time dsp systems and the use
of fpgas to interface to sensor I/O. Alternative
fpgas can be supplied if required.
VMetro: visit www.vmetro.com
An IP camera reference design from Freescale
Semiconductor has been developed to address
the growing video surveillance market. The
royalty free i.MX27 IP camera reference design
comes with a hardware and software package,
designed to allow OEMs to design and deliver
IP network cameras that offer clear video
streaming for video surveillance and other
applications.
The hardware optimised reference design is
engineered to allow OEMs and ODMs to easily
differentiate their own IP cameras with added
features, instead of focusing on core
hardware/software design. Incorporating H.264
compression technology to minimise network
bandwidth and improve image quality, its other
features include low power operation, Power
over Ethernet technology and D1 resolution
image compression for sharp image detail.
The reference design also targets the video and
voice over IP markets.
Freescale: visit www.freescale.com

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64 www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008

P065_NELE_OCT14 9/10/08 16:19 Page 65

Excellence in Electronics

ALL YOU NEED!

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Dual light source available
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Illumination: Monochrome or colour;
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APPLICATIONS
Ideal for use in Fax, MFP, 2D Barcode reader,
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www.newelectronics.co.uk 14 October 2008 65

P066_NELE_OCT14 8/10/08 10:53 Page 1

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