Silicon carbide (SiC) is en route to mainstream for applications like photovoltaic and uninterruptable power supplies. Infineon Technologies AG is now targeting the next group of applications for this wide bandgap technology: The evaluation board EVAL-M5-E1B1245N-SiC will help to pave the way for SiC in motor drives and help strengthening Infineon’s market position as #1 for industrial SiC. It was developed to support customers during their first steps in designing industrial drives applications with a maximum of 7.5 kW motor output.
The evaluation board comprises an EasyPACK™ 1B with CoolSiC™ MOSFET (FS45MR12W1M1_B11), a 3-phase AC connector, EMI filter, rectifier and a 3-phase output for connecting the motor. Based on the Modular Application Design Kit (MADK) the board is equipped with the Infineon standard M5 32-pin interface which allows the connection to a control unit such as the XMC DriveCard 4400 or 1300. Its input voltage covers the range of 340 to 480 V AC.
The new member of the MADK family is optimized for general purpose drives as well as for servo drives with very high frequency. It features the EasyPACK 1B in Sixpack configuration with a 1200 V CoolSiC MOSFET and a typical on-state resistance of 45 mΩ. The power stage contains sensing circuits for current and voltage; it is equipped with all assembly elements for sensorless field oriented control (FOC). The EVAL-M5-E1B1245N-SiC has a low inductive design, integrated NTC temperature sensors and a lead-free terminal plating, which makes it RoHS compliant.
Cypress Semiconductor’s F-RAM is ideal for portable medical, wearable, IoT sensor, industrial, and automotive applications
Cypress Semiconductor’s Excelon is next-generation Ferroelectric RAM (F-RAM) which delivers the industry’s lowest-power mission-critical nonvolatile memory by combining ultra-low-power operation with high-speed interfaces, instant nonvolatility, and unlimited read/write cycle endurance. This makes Excelon the ideal data-logging memory for portable medical, wearable, IoT sensor, industrial, and automotive applications.
Features
Up to 150x reduction in typical standby current (1 µA) and hibernate current (0.1 µA) compared to current F-RAMs
Greater than 10x increase in performance with the addition of a 108 MHz Quad SPI (QSPI) compared to competing SPI F-RAMs
Offers NoDelay™ writes to capture data instantly with no soak time requirement and without any additional components for power back-up
2 Mb, 4 Mb, and 8 Mb density options
Operating voltage range: 1.71 V to 1.89 V and 1.80 V to 3.60 V
Commercial (0°C to +70°C), industrial (-40°C to +85°C), Auto-A (-40°C to +85°C), and Auto-E (-40°C to +125°C) temperature grades
Excelon-LP and Excelon-Ultra individual features
Multiple power-saving modes, including hibernate, deep power-down, and standby
Consume 200x less energy than EEPROM and 3,000x less energy than NOR Flash products
Read/write endurance of 1,000 trillion write cycles to log data every millisecond for more than 3,000 years
Introduce 8 Mb density F-RAM to meet the growing data-logging requirement in modern applications
Available in small footprint: 10 mm², 8-pin GQFN package
Excelon-Auto individual features
Captures data instantly with no soak time requirement and also no additional back-up components
Supports endurance cycling of 1,000 trillion write cycles to log data every µs for 20 years
Provides AEC-Q100-qualified and functional safety-compliant memory components
Example applications
Excelon-LP for portable medical, wearable, and IoT device applications: provides extended battery life, high reliability, and small form factor
Excelon-Ultra for industrial automation systems: ideal memory for highly demanding data-logging needs of PLC
Excelon-Auto for automated driver-assist systems: enables instant and reliable data capture in ADAS vision systems
Complex numbers are an important mathematical tool that is widely used in many physics domains, including electronics. The concept might seem odd, but their manipulation is simple and their efficiency notable.
In the first section, general concepts about the complex numbers are presented in order to get familiar with their representation. A second section will follow by enumerating some of the most important definitions associated with complex numbers. After defining some key concepts, the third section will deal more in details with their calculation rules. Finally, we will understand why they are used in electronics and simplify calculations as an efficient tool.
Presentation
This section presents from a pure mathematical point of view the complex numbers and the set associated to. The set of complex numbers is noted ℂ and it is an extension of the usual set of real numbers that we are familiar with. Real numbers are therefore included in complex numbers.
The starting point to define complex numbers is the imaginary unit i also noted j in electronics to avoid confusion with the current. This number is defined such as j2=-1, in some countries or institutions, the notation j=√-1 can also be encountered.
While real numbers can be represented in a 1D space along a line, complex numbers are represented in a 2D space called the complex plane. This structure is represented in Figure 1 below :
fig 1 : Representation of a complex number in the complex plane
Let’s first talk about the complex plane, it consists in two axis where any complex number can be represented. The horizontal axis is the real number set and the vertical axis is the imaginary axis.
As shown in Figure 1, a complex number z can be described by either two real numbers a and b that represent coordinates, or by a distance |z| and an angle θ. The first option to describe z is called the algebraic form and is defined in Equation 1:
eq 1 : Algebraic form of a complex number z
It is interesting to highlight some particular cases. If b=0, z=a, which means that the complex number is reduced to a real number. If a=0, z=jb, in that case, z is called a pure imaginary number.
The second way to define z is called the polar or exponential form. Before giving the expression of this form, we need to understand what consists |z| and θ. The value |z|, also called module is the distance between the origin of the complex plane and the complex number. It is defined by the Pythagorean theorem such as shown in Equation 2 :
eq 2 : Definition of the module
The value θ is called the argument and defines the angle between the real axis and the complex number. Unless a=0 and b=0 or a<0 and b=0, the argument can always be calculated with the following formula :
eq 3 : Definition of the argument
Using Euler’s formula, the polar description of a complex number z is given by a distance and an angle and satisfies the following formula :
eq 4 : Polar form of a complex number z
Definitions
Many definitions are associated with complex numbers.
Two simple operators are often used in complex algebra: Re and Im. Let’s suppose a complex number z=a+jb, the real part operator Re is defined such as Re(z)=a and the imaginary part operator is defined such as Im(z)=b. Another easier way to determine the argument θ of a complex number with the condition that Re(z)>0 is given by : θ=arctan(Im(z)/Re(z)).
The complex conjugate is another important definition and widely used in complex algebra. The complex conjugate of a complex number z is noted z* and as the same real part but an opposite imaginary part : if z=a+jb, z*=a-jb. In exponential form, if z=|z|ejθ, z*=|z|e-jθ. Many relations can be established with the complex conjugates but the most important one is to note that z×z*=|z|2.
In the complex plane, the conjugation operation translates to a symmetry with respect to the real axis :
fig 2 : Illustration of the conjugation transformation
It is interesting to note that if Im(z)=0, z=z* : the complex conjugate of a real number is the number itself. Moreover, the conjugation operation is reversible : (z*)*=z.
Calculation rules
The addition (or subtraction) of two complex numbers z1=a1+jb1 and z2=a2+jb2 consists in separately consider the real and imaginary parts :
eq 5 : Addition of two complex numbers
Such as for real numbers, the multiplication of complex numbers is distributive and illustrated in Equation 6 after regrouping the real and imaginary parts :
eq 6 : Multiplication of complex numbers
If z1 and z2 are written in exponential form, the multiplication operation is even easier to realize :
eq 7 : Multiplication using the exponential form
The division operation with complex numbers is however more complicated to perform, using the algebraic form than with real numbers. Let’s consider the two complex numbers z1 and z2 previously defined. The trick to perform a division is to transform the complex denominator into a real denominator. For this, we multiply both the numerator and denominator by the denominator complex conjugate such as shown below :
By realizing the multiplication such as shown previously, we get now a complex numerator that can be divided by a real denominator :
eq 8 : Division of two complex numbers
Let’s consider the example of z1=2+4j and z2=3+j and proceed to the division z1/z2 :
This result, can also be written in exponential form z1/z2=√2ejπ/4.
Such as we highlighted for the multiplication operation, the division can be done more easily with the exponential form :
eq 9 : Division using the exponential form
Equation 9 can be verified with the same example. First, we need to calculate the modules and arguments of z1 and z2 :
|z1|=√22+42=√20 and θ1=Arg(z1)=arctan(4/2)=arctan(2)
|z2|=√32+12=√10 and θ2=Arg(z2)=arctan(1/3)
The division of the modules gives |z1|/|z2|=√2 and the argument of the division is arctan(2)-arctan(1/3)=π/4. The result of the division is therefore √2ejπ/4 and confirms the result we previously calculated using the algebraic form.
Complex numbers in electronics
Any periodical signal such as the current or voltage can be written using the complex numbers that simplifies the notation and the associated calculations :
eq 10 : Complex notation for the voltage
The complex notation is also used to describe the impedances of capacitor and inductor along with their phase shift. It can indeed be shown that :
ZC=1/Cω and ΦC=-π/2
ZL=Lω and ΦL=+π/2
Since e±jπ/2=±j, the complex impedances Z* can take into consideration both the phase shift and the resistance of the capacitor and inductor :
ZC*=-j/Cω
ZL*=jLω
We can consider as an example a simple RLC circuit in serie with its associated complex impedances ZR, ZL and ZC. The total complex impedance is therefore : ZRLC=ZR+ZL+ZC=R+j(Lω-1/Cω).
The imaginary part of this impedance is called the reactance and noted X, in this example, XRLC=Lω-1/Cω. We can distinguish three cases to describe the behavior of a circuit :
X=0 means that the circuit is purely resistive : it acts as a resistance and follows Ohm’s law
X<0 the circuit is capacitive : it acts as a capacitance and tends to make an opposition to any change of voltage.
X>0 the circuit is inductive : it acts as a inductance and provokes an opposition to any change of current.
The total impedance of the RLC circuit is given by the module of ZRLC which is : |ZRLC|=√(R2+XRLC2).
The phase shift between the voltage and current is given by the argument of ZRLC which is : Arg(ZRLC)=arctan(XRLC/R).
Both the impedance and phase shift depend on the frequency of the signals. This evolution can be represented using MatLab® in Figure 3 where the components have been chosen such as R=1 kΩ, L=10 mH, C=20 μF.
fig 3 : Impedance and phase shift of the RLC serie circuit. Plotted using MatLab®
We can note that first the circuit is capacitive since it presents a negative phase shift and becomes inductive after a certain frequency value. This remark can be validated by plotting the reactance in Figure 4 where it is shown that the shift between negative and positive values occurs for the same particular frequency :
fig 4 : Reactance of the RLC serie circuit. Plotted using MatLab®
This particular frequency f0=2235/2π=356 Hz is called the resonance frequency of the circuit and satisfies X=0. In our example, XRLC=0 ⇒ ω0=1/√LC=2235, which is confirmed by the value highlighted in Figure 4.
Conclusion
Complex numbers have emerged since nearly 500 years and have been built by some of the most brilliant mathematicians such as Gauss or Cauchy. Since then, they are used in many scientific domains such as electronics and it’s a powerful tool.
In the very first section, the concept of complex numbers is presented. The complex set can be seen as a plane where each number can be defined by coordinates (algebraic form) or a distance and angle (exponential form). Complex numbers have the property to be solutions of some equations that cannot be solved by usual real numbers, such as the equation x2=-1. Some more important notions such as the conjugation transformation are introduced in a second section.
The calculation rules are presented in a third section. We have seen that the addition, subtraction and multiplication are very similar with real and complex numbers. However, the division operation requires more steps, involving the use of the conjugation transformation.
Finally, we have seen how complex numbers can be used in electronics to describe periodical signals, impedances and determine the behavior of circuits in frequency-dependent regimes.
tinyPulsePPG, an ATTiny85 Pulse Oximeter with Photoplethysmogram (PPG) display by Jeff Magee:
This project implemented on an ATTiny85 displays a moving Photoplethysmogram together with pulse rate and estimates of SpO2 – blood oxygen percentage. It uses an SSD1306 128×32 OLED display and a Max30102 sensor. It is emphasized that this should not be used for medical purposes. The computation of SpO2 is very approximate and not calibrated in any way. The project is an exercise in software and hardware parsimony.
tinyPulsePPG – ATTiny85 Pulse oximeter with photoplethysmogram – [Link]
Peakago Computer has started an IndieGoGo campaign for its 7″ fanless laptop and mini-PC the Peakago. The campaign has raised 831% of the original target funding on its first day.
The Peakago is not a new idea, as there have been a number of 7″ to 9″ display laptops that offer Windows operating systems. The advent of the pocket sized laptop has inspired a number of different versions of similar types and operating systems. The Pretech 700Mi Mini is one of those iterations that was reported on here and is a look-alike to the Peakago. In fact, Peakago and the Pretech are from the same tooling company.
The campaign does say the display has a 178° viewing area, but this unit is very portable and could easily be used in a densely populated locale, so maybe such a wide viewing angle might inspire the manufacturer to develop a privacy screen. It must be said that such a wide viewing angle is also a real boon to such a small display.
Introduction Video
Pricing for crowdfunding early bird :
4GB RAM/64GB storage for $269
8GB RAM/128GB storage for $339
8GB RAM/128GB storage+ 4G LTE for $399
Some Good, Some Missing, Features
The Peakago has a 360º hinge that allows the mini-laptop to become a tablet. There is an inexpensive webcam, which is somewhat new to the 7″ mini-laptop realm. The keyboard isn’t backlit and there is no fingerprint reader, which is becoming a standard issue now. No support for an active stylus.
There is fast charging with a USB Type-C connector, not a power cord. There is a micro HDMI port for display expansion. Although it seemed a little bit ambitious to run a screen of the size in the promotional.
Specifications
7 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel IPS touchscreen display
Intel Atom x5-Z8350 Cherry Trail processor
4,500 mAh battery
0.3MP wecbam
802.11b/g/n WiFi
Bluetooth 4.0
1 x USB Type-C
1 x USB 3.0 Type-A
microSD card reader
micro HDMI port
3.5mm audio jack
7.1″ x 4.5″ x 0.78″ (~18 x 11.4 x 2 cm)
1.2 pounds (545 grams)
The Peakago is dues to fulfill in March 2020 – and prices will increase, although there is no date given for the increase. The IndieGoGo page lists a number of high-end partners who are involved in the project, one of which is Microsoft., and Information from a liliputing.com article was used in this reporting. via www.cnx-software.com
800×480 5″ TFT Display with Full Viewing Angle and Optional Touch Screen
Have your product stand out with the DT050ATFT display – our 5” TFT LCD module with full viewing angle. The full viewing angle feature allows the display contents of the LCD to be visible from practically any angle. It’s a cost-effective enhancement compared to using an IPS display. The 5″ TFT has 800 x 480 RGB resolution and supports 24-bit parallel RGB input mode. The LCD uses two driver ICs to drive the display: a source driver with TCON (Ilitek ILI6122) and a gate driver (Ilitek ILI5960). It also is available with either a resistive touchscreen or capacitive touchscreen panel. This 5 inch LCD is an ideal option for a variety of digital devices including video or POS systems.
The fanless IEC-3900 multi-displayer controller is equipped with a 7th generation Intel Core i7/i5 processor and multiple I/O connectivity for vibrant visual performance.
ARBOR Technology, a pioneer of embedded computing solutions, releases the latest digital signage player IEC-3900 to level up the multimedia display experience. The IEC-3900’s compact rugged design is built for high quality computing and multi-functional digital signage applications in harsh environments.
2 x 4K HDMI Video Outputs for Graphic Performance
ARBOR’s new multiple display terminal IEC-3900 is powered by the 7TH generation Intel Core i7 or Kaby Lake processor that supports both Windows 10 IoT and Linux operating systems. It delivers a high-performance visual experience with 2 HDMI video outputs which can provide 4K/60Hz displays on both HDMI ports at the same time. The new digital media controller ensures vibrant full HD video outputs to make viewers feel the vivid graphics.
Wide Range Operating Temperature for Harsh Environments
The rugged and reliable IEC-3900 is designed to operate in a wide temperature range from -40 to 70 degree Celsius. It is also designed to withstand vibration and humidity in order to work smoothly and run digital displays perfectly even in harsh environments.
Key Features
7th Gen. Intel® Core™ i7/ i5 processor installed
Support 2 x HDMI with independent video outputs
Support 1 x COM, 4 x USB3.0, 1 x GbE port
Support Intel® vPro & AMT
Wide range operating temperature: -40 ~70°C
Compact Fanless Design for Maintenance and Easy Installation
The IEC-3900 weighs only 700g and is palm sized, allowing it to be installed easily and needing less space on a wall-mount. Moreover, its fanless design helps reduce the accumulation of dust and requires minimal maintenance.
Intel® vPro & AMT Avoids On-Site Visits for Device Management
IEC-3900 also supports Intel vPro & AMT. Running on the Intel Management Engine where it’s built to monitor, update, and maintain the device remotely to reduce costs for device management and maintenance. With its amazing ultra fanless rugged design and high quality HDMI video outputs, the IEC-3900 is a game changer for digital signage controllers. It will benefit your multimedia applications for infotainment, advertising, hospitality, and more.
The IEC-3900 is available now at an undisclosed price. More information may be found in Arbor’s announcement and product page.
BPI Tech, a spinoff from SinoVoIP, has introduced a new single board computer with Banana Pi BPI-F2S powered by SunPlus SP7021 “Plus1” SoC with four Cortex-A7 cores, one older ARM9 real-time core, and one even older 8051 IO controller. The chip also embeds up to 512MB DDR3 memory.
The board comes an 8GB flash, dual Fast Ethernet, HDMI, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible GPIO header, as well as headers for an optional Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA expansion board.
Banana Pi BPI-F2S SBC
Specifications:
SoC – Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz, one Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core to handle I/Os, and 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM.
Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot
Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output
Camera I/F – MIPI CSI connector
Connectivity – 2x 10/100M Ethernet
USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port
Expansion
40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi header
Misc – Power switch, reset button, boot selection dip switch
Power Supply – 12VDC via power barrel jack
Dimensions – N/A
The company provides a Yocto-based Linux distribution for the board, but so far there’s no source code nor firmware for download. Sunplus Plus1 and BPI-F2S SBC are said to be suitable for IoT/Industrial Internet control, smart audio, smart payment, FPGA education & development, as well as automotive networking technology and applications.
Leading global technology solutions provider Avnet is providing customers with the ability to focus more on the software side of their development by launching MaaXBoard, a low-cost, production-ready qualified single board computer. Based on the NXP i.MX 8M applications processor, MaaXBoard is ideal for embedded computing and applications that leverage AI at the edge. It supports design engineers and end-users seeking to create industrial automation, multimedia, AI and IoT applications with reduced cost and time-to-market.
With this new single board computer, Avnet is further enabling developers who are seeking new, flexible and cost-effective means to design and test concepts. As a production-ready qualified unit, the MaaXBoard can become part of an embedded hardware system, providing customers the ability to focus more on the software side of their development. The MaaXBoard forms part of Avnet’s end-to-end product development ecosystem, helping to bring projects from idea to design, and design to production.
“Developers are looking for the right combination of feature sets, efficiency and cost-effectiveness,” said Jim Beneke, vice president of products and emerging technologies, Avnet. “This new single-board computer gives our customers an ideal balance of these qualities to accelerate their applications for embedded computing and AI at the edge. It’s the latest addition to our complete end-to-end product ecosystem for our customers to develop their devices for scale.”
The MaaXBoard uses NXP’s i.MX 8M family of applications processors, which are based on the Arm® Cortex®-A53 and Cortex-M4 cores, providing industry-leading audio, voice and video processing for applications that scale from consumer home audio to industrial building automation and embedded computers.
The MaaXBoard has a range of capabilities making it ideal to investigate AI, IoT and multimedia applications, offering designers everything they need to support and create a Linux, Android, Windows 10 IoT Core or other OS-based system. The platform’s on-board peripherals include 2GB of DDR4 memory, a Gigabit Ethernet port, dual USB 3.0 host ports, HDMI output, MIPI-DSI, MPI-CSI, WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy, MicroSD card slot and eMMC storage.
Avnet is shipping the MaaXBoard kit with a passive heatsink and a Quick Start guide to speed developers with their hardware or software development project. Android 9.0 and Yocto images are also available for download.
TE Connectivity (TE), a world leader in connectivity and sensors, has launched the AmbiMate MS4 multi-sensor module that integrates the most popular set of sensors needed for most smart building solutions. Because engineers can use the pre-engineered module instead of up to seven individual sensors, it reduces the time required to research, source and integrate multiple sensors. This reduces time to market and frees up resources to work on other aspects of smart building system designs.
Different AmbiMate module options are available to meet different specifications. A basic version has the four core sensors of passive infrared, ambient light, temperature and humidity to enable control of heating and lighting. However, customers can choose to add a microphone and / or equivalent carbon dioxide and volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors for features such as voice activation and air quality management.
Jonathan Catchpole, System Architect at TE Connectivity’s Industrial business said:
“Engineers face the challenges of looming deadlines, unforeseen technical obstacles and high expectations. We designed the AmbiMate sensor module as the best possible set of sensors for intelligent buildings so that Engineers can focus their efforts on the aspects of their project that set their product apart from the competition, whether that is cloud integration, software or meeting the WELL Building Standard.”
The sensor module is available to buy as a standalone printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) in bulk and also as a developer kit. The developer kit includes multiple attachment options to give developers flexibility in the mechanical fit and connection inside their product housing. Electronics developers can plug an AmbiMate module into a host controller like a Raspberry Pi or Arduino device and start collecting data within 30 minutes with support of code that is freely available on TE.com. The module is compatible with the I2C communication protocol.
AmbiMate MS4 multi-sensor module
The AmbiMate sensor module is available from electronics distributors for as little as $19.50 per unit for the core set of sensors.
Features
Four Core Sense Capability
Motion (PIR)
Light
Temperature
Humidity
Optional Sense Capability
VOC
CO2
Sound (Microphone)
Free up design resources and accelerate time to market
Simplicity of popular I2C communication protocol
Space saving compact design
Multiple attach methods to accommodate your application need
One footprint allows multiple sensor configurations and flexibility in design
The WELL Building Standard is a set of requirements for buildings that are designed to help people and communities thrive. It is owned by the International WELL Building Institute and is focused on improving comfort and productivity through enhanced control of the environment in and around buildings. Because the AmbiMate sensor module collects data on building temperature, light, occupancy and air quality, it has potential to form a part of building management and intelligent control systems that are designed to meet the WELL Building Standard.
For more product information, visit the TE website.