ElectronicsWeekly - 25 April - 1 May 2012

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25 April - 1 May 2012 | No. 2505 | ElectronicsWeekly.com
ElectronıcsWeekly
Super-speedy scopes
A LOOK AT LATEST OSCILLOSCOPES FROM AGILENT, LECROY AND TEKTRONIX PAGE 14
Europe still the target for chip suppliers
CARSTEN SUCKROW, VICE-PRESIDENT FOR EUROPEAN SALES AT ANALOG DEVICES, TALKS 
TO ELECTRONICS WEEKLY PAGE 8
Who will fill Imagination’s 200 jobs?
IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES CANNOT FIND ENOUGH SUITABLE ENGINEERS IN THE 
UK TO FILL THE 200 JOBS IT IS TRYING TO RECRUIT FOR PAGE 5 FREE
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the week in electronics
ElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 3
tca o comtcannon.comtcannon.comi twww.ittwww.itt
EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Mil/aero service gets connected
www.isansys.comansys.comansys.comwww.isawww.isa
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL CARE
Sensor keeps watch over patients
Freescale CEO to retire
Rich Beyer is to retire as CEO of 
Freescale Semiconductor. Beyer is 
one of the semiconductor industry’s 
most outstanding CEOs. As CEO of 
Elantec, Intersil and Freescale, Beyer 
was a transformative leader. He 
joined Freescale in March 2008
www.freescale.com
Broadband drive outside Europe
It is the emerging regions of Asia, Latin 
America and the Middle East/Africa 
(MEA) which are driving new broad-
band activity, while growth in Europe 
is modest. Broadband subscriber num-
bers in the emerging regions projected 
to rise by 17.4% to 375 million this 
year, according to analyst IHS iSuppli. 
In contrast, predicted growth or North 
America and Europe are only 6.8%, 
rising to 298 million.
www.ihs.com
IQD joins ONE-NET for the home
IQD Frequency Products has joined 
the ONE-NET open-source wireless 
networking alliance for home control 
systems applications. The ONE-NET 
design specification is distributed 
royalty-free. Source code examples 
for microcontrollers, schematics, and 
bills-of-materials for reference de-
signs are readily available and simple 
open-source licensing rules apply.
www.one-net.info
Mentor majors on open source
Mentor Graphics intends to place 
the front-end UML editor of its 
BridgePoint xtUML environment 
into the open source domain. The 
significance of the UML design envi-
ronment is that it provides a starting 
point for model-driven flows with 
their data management benefits and 
for the reuse of intellectual property.
www.mentor.com
SMS enters Profit Track 100 ranks
SMS Electronics the Nottingham-
based contract manufacturer has 
appeared in The Sunday Times PwC 
Profit Track 100. The league table 
ranks Britain’s 100 private companies 
with the fastest-growing profits. 
SMS achieved a rise in profits of 59% 
a year from 2008 to 2011 which re-
flects the growth in the business over 
the same period.
www.smselectronics.co.uk
Online tool for LED drivers
Future Lighting Solutions has intro-
duced an online product selection 
tool for LED drivers. According to the 
company it takes into account param-
eters such as potential LED failures, 
and the impact of dimming and tem-
perature on the LEDs’ forward volt-
age when selecting a driver. 
www.FutureLightingSolutions.com
Applied Kilovolts sale
Livingstone Partners has advised the 
shareholders of Applied Kilovolts on 
the sale of the business to ITT Exelis, 
the US-based defence manufacturer. 
Sussex-based Applied Kilovolts 
manufactures high voltage power 
supplies mainly for life sciences 
equipment. Exelis was spun out of 
ITT in 2011.
www.livingstonepartners.com
ZigBee ratifies lighting standard
The ZigBee Alliance has ratified the 
Light Link standard, that offers wire-
less control for LED lighting. “Energy 
efficient light bulbs, LED fixtures, 
sensors, timers, remotes and switches 
built using ZigBee Light Link will 
connect into a single network, with-
out special devices to coordinate 
the network,” claimed the alliance. 
TRaC Global has already tested to the 
standard.
www.zigbee.org
Transceiver for 2.4GHz metering
Atmel has announced a 14mA RF 
transceiver for battery-powered Zig-
Bee/IEEE 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN (IPv6 
over personal area networks) and 
other 2.4GHz applications. Called 
AT86RF233, the transceiver is aimed 
at products including gas meters, 
water meters, monitoring, control 
systems, and energy-harvesting 
equipment. Receiver current con-
sumption is 6mA, and sleep current 
is 0.02uA. 
www.atmel.com
Qualcomm, Intel big in baseband 
Qualcomm and Intel shared 60% of 
the baseband processor market last 
year, according to Strategy Analyt-
ics. The world mobile baseband 
processor market grew 15% last year 
to $15bn. Intel took 15%, thanks to 
its acquisition of Infineon’s wireless 
division, followed by MediaTek, TI 
and ST-Ericsson, according to the 
company.
www.strategyanalytics.com
Globalfoundries ramps at 28nm 
Globalfoundries has started its pro-
duction ramp on 28nm and antici-
pates a much smoother ride on 28nm 
than it had on 32nm. With volume 
production underway on 28nm the 
company is expanding the 28nm ca-
pacity at Dresden.
www.globalfoundries.com
Seaward wins Queen’s Award
The Seaward Group has won a 
Queen’s Award for its specialist elec-
trical safety testing equipment, in par-
ticular for growing export sales for the 
Rigel range of electromedical testers 
used in hospitals and health centres.
www.seaward.co.uk
news
Quarter of chip production 
will be 22nm, says Intel
ElectronicsWeekly.com4 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
Qualcomm 
searches for 
more chip 
capacity
SEMICONDUCTORSSEMICONDUCTORS
Q
ualcomm just cannot seem to 
get enough 28nm semicon-
ductor production capacity 
to meet customer demand for its mo-
bile processors.
But the mobile phone chip 
supplier is not blaming yields at its 
main foundry TSMC, merely a lack of 
capacity. It has increased costs to pay 
for tape-outs at other foundries.
Nonetheless, by the end of this 
year, Qualcomm expects a third of its 
shipments to be coming from chips 
for 4G LTE handsets, and this was the 
original assumption in Qualcomm’s 
planning process.
“The constraints on 28nm capacity 
are limiting our potential revenue 
upside this quarter,” said Qualcomm 
CEO Paul Jacobs, “although the 
manufacturing yields are progressing 
per expectation, there’s a shortage of 
28nm capacity,”
Company chief operating officer 
Steve Mollenkopf commented: “It 
really is related to wafer starts and 
not yield or any design issue related 
with the chip.”
Finding new fab partners involved 
Qualcomm in extra costs in Q1, 
“When you bring on additional 
sources you tend to have more 
unplanned tape-outs,” said 
Mollenkopf. “We tailor the chips for 
the different camps,” he said.
The market for mobile processors 
is predicted to grow considerably 
and could reach 1.9 billion units 
annually by 2016, driven by 
smartphones and tablets, estimates 
market research firm In-Stat.
“In 2012, Apple will likely capture 
the top spot, in terms of unit 
shipments, driven by the success of 
its iPhone and iPad. Other companies 
that benefitted greatly from new 
product releases or dominance by 
their OEM customers included 
Nvidia, Texas Instruments, 
Qualcomm, and Samsung,” said In-
Stat chief technologist Jim McGregor.
In-Stat reports that the growth of 
mobile processors in 2011 exceeded 
43% and is forecast to grow at a22% 
CAGR through 2016.
Qualcomm
www.qualcomm.com
I
ntel is ramping production of 
its 22nm finfet semiconductor 
process in three fabs and expects 
to add a fourth in Q4, it was said 
at the analyst meeting following the 
company’s Q1 results.
The 22nm ramp is fast and Intel 
expects that 25% of the company’s 
shipment volume in the current quar-
ter will be from processors made on 
its 22nm finfet process. Intel prefers 
to call its finfets ‘tri-gate technology’.
“Continuous device width sizing 
in planar technology is replaced by 
combining parallel silicon fins to 
multiply drive current,” said Intel. 
“Tri-gate technology reduces short-
channel effects and improves sub-
threshold slope.”
Intel’s forthcoming 22nm finfet Ivy 
Bridge architecture allows up to four 
x86 CPUs to share silicon with a 
graphics processor, memory, PCIe, 
and display controllers.
“The Ivy Bridge architecture is de-
rived from the second-generation 
Core processor which has about 1.4 
billion transistors in about 160mm2 
in its largest incarnation,” said Intel. 
“It introduces several enhancements 
over its predecessor, it adds a pipe-
lined divider, a next page prefetcher, 
additions for 16-bit floating point 
conversion, fast string moves, and fast 
access of the FS/GS base registers.”
The graphics block has DX11 API 
support and there is a third independ-
ent display pipeline. Three 22nm fin-
fets transistor types with varying 
speed/leakage trade-offs have been 
defined: fast nominal leakage, medi-
um-speed ‘quarter-leakage’, and slow-
er ‘tenth-leakage’. “High-frequency 
areas of the processor use ~30% nom-
inal and ~70% quarter-leakage devic-
es; while low speed areas use ~25% 
quarter-leakage and ~75% tenth-leak-
age devices,” said Intel.
Small changes in fin width are in-
herently not available to provide 
many transistor options. “To over-
come this problem and improve scal-
ing, small devices are deliberately 
over scaled by converting any por-
tion of a fin after scaling to a full fin. 
This yields much better timing with 
little power impact.”
Intel reported first quarter sales of 
$12.9bn and a net profit of $2.7bn. It 
expects Q2 revenues to be $13.6bn.
Intel is still tight-lipped about its 
much-discussed plans to operate a 
foundry business from its fabs. It says 
that it is doing foundry for profit rath-
er than other reasons but Intel chief 
executive Paul Otellini called it a 
“learning experience”.
Asked if Intel would take foundry 
business from Apple or Qualcomm 
on the grounds that they both use 
ARM which competes with Atom, 
Otellini replied: “I have to say that, 
from the kind of taste it would leave 
in my mouth, the Apple win would 
be a little bit, a lot more, attractive 
than the Qualcomm win.
Intel
www.intel.com
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news
Imagination has 200 engineering jobs 
but where is the talent to fill them?
ElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 5
Market is in recovery mode as Q1 surprises suppliers
DISTRIBUTION
MANNERISMS
I
magination Technologies wants to 
recruit 200 people but cannot get 
enough suitable engineers in the 
UK, says CEO Hossein Yassaie.
A hundred of the jobs will be for 
freshly-fledged graduates but, points 
out Yassaie, 85-90% of the post-grad-
uate engineering students in the UK 
are from overseas and they go home 
after getting their degrees, writes 
David Manners in his blog on Elec-
tronicsWeekly.com
Which is why the Hertfordshire-
based graphics processor developer, 
whose PowerVR chips are used in the 
iPhone and other smartphones, has 
expanded its design centres in Poland 
and India and is looking to buy com-
panies just to get new engineers.
He would like more incentives for 
his engineers and one way would be a 
return of taper relief on capital gains 
tax where the longer you hold shares 
the less tax you pay on the gain. 
“Shares are so heavily taxed that their 
value as an incentive is not as strong 
as it should be,” says Yassaie.
Yassaie is a huge fan of the UK 
technology scene. “Britain is impact-
ing the technology industry, big time, 
but it’s all under the hood,” he says.
“We don’t have the big brand 
name manufacturers in the UK, but 
we supply a lot of them with the 
technology they use.”
He’s also a big fan of the British 
way of life: “I prefer living in the UK 
more than anywhere else,” says the 
Iran-born Yassaie, “I like the history, I 
like the culture, I like the under-dog 
attitude. The UK is a good place to 
get things done.”
He’s even a fan of the government. 
“In my view, this government has 
done a lot of good stuff,” he says, “I 
am much more impressed with this 
one than the previous government 
because they seem to be engaged, 
they listen.”
Also, Yassaie has a theory about 
the ‘necessity of valued uniqueness’ 
T
he downturn in the UK com-
ponent market in the first quar-
ter of the year was not as deep 
as many feared. Only a few months 
ago some were suggestiong a possible 
market decline of 15%.
Adam Fletcher, head of supply 
chain body ECSN, now says the reali-
ty is looking no where near this 
gloomy. 
“The outcome of the first quarter of 
the year in the UK/Ireland is not yet 
known but anecdotal evidence sug-
gests that it was better than the fore-
cast (9.5%) decline and suggests that 
Q4 2011 may have been the low 
point in the cycle,” said Fletcher. 
According to Fletcher, the decline in 
billings in the electronic components 
market started in May last year with 
the semiconductor and passive com-
ponents sectors primarily affected.
“Then the perceived wisdom was 
that Q1 2012 would be the market 
low point and a slow recovery would 
then follow,” said Fletcher. 
But the market decline of 10% in 
Q4 was deeper than expected and 
now the market may be in early stag-
es of recovery. 
Lead times are good and short 
mainly because China is no longer 
Hoovering up supply.
“Unfortunately manufacturers of 
electronic components have also re-
duced their output and if demand in 
Asia ramps up quickly this situation 
may change with lead times rapidly 
extending,” warned Fletcher.
www.ecsn-uk.org
“W
e have over 100,000 
confirmed orders for 
the Raspberry Pi and 
can confirm that all of those who or-
dered before 18 April will definitely 
receive their Raspberry Pi before the 
end of June 2012,” said Element14 
director Mike Buffham. 
“We appreciate customers are des-
perate to get their hands on a Rasp-
berry Pi and want to reassure them 
that we are working on this as quick-
ly as we can. As soon as we have the 
precise information our customers 
want about their individual delivery 
date they will be the first to know.”
Element14 and RS Components 
are the two distributors handling or-
ders for the computer and shipping 
them to end-users. 
Following the first delivery of 
Raspberry Pis to element14’s global 
distribution centres earlier this 
which he explained to last years Fu-
ture Horizons’ IEF conference.
“You need a unique strategy you re-
ally believe in – and stick to it,” said 
Yassaie. “Useless technologies get cre-
ated all too often; today’s markets rare-
ly reflect tomorrow’s; great technology 
takes time to develop – 10 years from 
inspiration to revenues; markets in-
creasingly interact – being able to 
bring technology from one industry to 
another is increasingly a useful route 
to market; and maturingtechnology 
markets will always rationalise down 
to a few players – you need to figure 
out how to be one of them.”
electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms
month, customers in 30 countries 
have received the boards, claimed El-
ement14, including: Australia, 
 Belgium, Canada, China, Czech 
 Republic, Denmark, Finland, France 
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Hong 
Kong, India, Ireland, Portugal, Singa-
pore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 
Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, 
Norway, UK, US and Vietnam. 
The next shipment is expected to 
arrive in the first week of May and 
will be distributed “strictly in the 
order that commitments were re-
ceived within each region”. 
The distributor added, that it may 
revert to collecting registrations of in-
terest from time to time on new or-
ders whilst its awaits updated deliv-
ery information. 
“This is to avoid further confusion 
and ensure new customers placing 
orders are given accurate delivery in-
formation”.
www.element14.com
Eben Upton, co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, puts the credit card-sized 
computer through its paces in Leeds. 
Raspberry Pi
orders hit 
100,000 
COMPUTING
news
Five-day charity cycle marathon will 
raise funds for children and elderly
ElectronicsWeekly.com6 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
No clean-room needed for automated PCB production
MANUFACTURING
PEOPLE
C
yclists from Silica are 
preparing to take part in 
a charity five-day, 750km 
cycling marathon, with 
the aim of raising at least £30,000 
for charity. They will be supporting 
the Neuroblastoma Alliance and 
Alzheimer’s Research UK, as well as 
providing some support for the next 
generation of electronics engineers.
The course they will follow will 
take in leading universities, a number 
of major electronics suppliers and six 
of Silica’s UK offices en-route.
The driving forces behind “Pe-
dal4Innovation” are Laurence Delli-
cott, EMEA director of field applica-
tions and Pete Carr, area technical 
manager. “Pete and I believe strongly 
in giving something back, and have 
personal experience of both of these 
charities,” said Laurence Dellicott. 
“The Neuroblastoma Alliance aims 
to extend the lives of young children 
who are affected by ‘children’s can-
cer’, and also fund research into its 
treatment. Alzheimer’s Research pro-
vides support and advice to families 
with members suffering from demen-
R
ainbow Technology Systems 
demonstrated a new process 
for PCB production for the 
first time in the UK at National Elec-
tronics Week at Birmingham NEC 
last week. The process incorporates 
coating, imaging and developing of 
PCBs in one automated unit which 
does not require a cleanroom envi-
ronment. 
The proprietary wet-etch resist 
process which does not require pre-
drying (using a hot air oven) before 
imaging. The resist is 100% solids 
and solvent free. Using only UV 
LEDs and standard photo-tools tracks 
and gaps of 20μm and below are 
achieved, said the firm.
“Until now the only way to pro-
duce fine line PCBs (typically 50 mi-
crons and under) was to use expen-
sive laser direct imaging equipment. 
We are offering the industry an alter-
native which is less expensive, 
greener and more efficient,” said 
company chief executive and found-
er, Jonathan Kennett. 
Other target markets for the tech-
nology include touchscreens, flat 
panel displays, chemical milling and 
chemical machining. According to 
the company, the process is capable 
of delivering a double sided panel 
every 15-20 seconds ready for etch-
ing. The unit has very low running 
costs with power consumption aver-
aging 3kW.
Rainbow Technology Services
www.rainbow-technology.com
tia. Both Pete and I have been person-
ally affected by this debilitating condi-
tion and we are delighted to support 
their work through the event.”
Pete Carr adds: “The amazing gen-
erosity of colleagues and suppliers 
has made this event possible. Our 
training is on target and we are raring 
to get going. Anyone wishing to do-
nate to these great causes can do so 
by visiting: www.pedal4innovation.
silica.com.”
Starting on May 21st in Bolton, 
with stops at Manchester University, 
and NXP.on day one, day two takes 
in universities in Stafford, Aston and 
Birmingham, followed on day three 
by Warwick University and Intel be-
fore stopping in Newbury. Day four 
kicks-off with a visit to Reading Uni-
versity, Microchip, ST and Renesas. 
The team will complete their mara-
thon on May 25 travelling from 
Aylesbury to Freescale and the Uni-
versity of Hertfordshire before arriv-
ing at Silica’s UK HQ in Stevenage.
Support for student electronics en-
gineers comes in the form of a com-
petition. Students from the universi-
ties across the UK are being invited to 
register for “Innovation Packs” con-
taining development boards from Sil-
ica’s suppliers. The students will be 
given 12 weeks to develop innovative 
projects using the packs. A panel of 
judges made up of Silica’s suppliers 
will select three winning projects, 
each of whom will then receive 
£3,000 towards their final year uni-
versity fees.
Pedal4Innovation
www.pedal4innovation.silica.com
© 2012 Agilent Technologies, Inc. UK 0118-927 6201 Ireland 1890-924 204
interview
European market is outstanding 
for the semiconductor business
Carsten Suckrow, vice-president for European sales at Analog Devices, tells Electronics Weekly why Europe is still 
one of the largest target markets for semiconductor suppliers and how relationships with customers are changing 
ElectronicsWeekly.com8 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
Do you see changes in the way that 
semiconductor companies market 
and sell their products?
The most successful semiconductor 
manufacturers are rapidly moving 
from a product to a solution sell, 
which is being reflected in how they 
market themselves. There are many 
reasons why this is happening, but 
they are all rooted in the changing 
market conditions customers face. 
There is continuous pressure to 
launch products that feature new ap-
plications and higher performance 
based on the company’s signal 
processing technology. 
At the same time, the pool of ana-
logue development talent available to 
work on customer product design 
projects is, at best, static and possibly 
decreasing. 
The only way for customers to stay 
ahead of increasingly fast-paced and 
complex product development cy-
cles is to open up to their suppliers 
and collaborate more effectively. 
Customers need earlier and deeper 
engagements from semiconductor 
suppliers and the industry is re-
sponding to that demand. 
What potential do you see to grow 
sales in Europe in 2012?
We’ve been receiving very encourag-
ing signals from the European market 
so, yes, we absolutely see potential 
for growth. 
No one should forget that Europe is 
one the world’s largest economies 
and retains a leading position in the 
design and manufacture of many 
consumer and industrial electronic 
products. 
Due to growing demand for the 
functionality that our products ena-
ble, the total addressable market in 
Europe is significant and increasing.
In Europe, which end markets do you 
expect to provide the biggest 
opportunities in 2012?
The automotive industry in Europe 
and elsewhere is currently going 
through a technological revolu-
tion with active and passive sensor 
equipment, as well as next genera-
tion communication and computing 
equipment, increasingly recognised 
as a key competitive differentia-
tor. When the growing number of 
electric-powered cars being designed 
is factored in, the opportunity for us 
is enormous. 
The roll-out of 3G and 4G commu-
nications infrastructure, which in-
clude tens of thousands of new bases-
tations, is another significant area of 
growth opportunity. 
Healthcare is also an area of 
growth, given Europe’s ageing popu-
lation and the move to home care and 
remote patient monitoring. 
There are also a number of exciting 
new industrial applications poised to 
grow rapidly over the next couple of 
yearsin Europe, for example the de-
ployment of smart grids and smart 
metering within the utilities sector, as 
well as opportunities in areas such as 
process control, instrumentation and 
renewable energies. 
How do you see the role played by the 
distribution channel changing as the 
company looks to expand its business 
in to new markets?
Distributors are our most important 
channel partners and in certain areas, 
such as industrial applications, are 
likely to become even more so. 
How is the internet changing the way 
semiconductor suppliers interact with 
their customers?
Our total web presence is absolutely 
fundamental to how we do business. 
It’s the single most efficient way to 
maximise the effectiveness of our 
resources in the pursuit of satisfying 
customer needs. 
For example, over the past two 
years, we have put significant effort 
into search optimisation so that our 
products can more easily be found. 
This has resulted in a 250% annual 
increase in search-driven web traffic, 
with search traffic now constituting 
nearly 66% of the total. 
Similarly, we have invested in the 
quality of our technical forums, such 
as the ADI Engineer Zone, which 
have seen up to 150% annual growth 
over the past few years. 
Analog Devices
www.analog.com
THE BEST IN TEST
FOR 25 YEARS
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patents
Sensors to avoid 
driver blindness
In a series of articles Michael Jaeger, a patent attorney at 
Withers & Rogers LLP, will describe recently-patented 
technologies and inventions : he starts with a device 
which protects drivers from headlight dazzle
ElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 9
N
E
A
L
E
 H
A
Y
N
E
S
/R
E
X
 F
E
A
T
U
R
E
S
A
fter eight years of exem-
plary service, our family 
car recently gave up the 
ghost and moved on to the 
great scrap heap in the sky. Having 
acquired a replacement car, I was 
impressed with how technology has 
moved on.
Now I may not be an “early adop-
ter” but the novelty of automatic 
windscreen wipers and headlights 
was quite exciting – for a while. Not 
long afterwards I stopped noticing 
them, after all, the technology is auto-
matic and like all the best inventions, 
you don’t notice that it’s working.
One car-related technology that 
caught my interest was a recently 
patented technique, developed by a 
US-based firm, to control car head-
lights or rear lights, in order to pre-
vent blinding reflections.
A common problem experienced 
by drivers, particularly when travel-
ling at slow speeds, is that when light 
is reflected back from a surface, such 
as a garage door or wall, it can cause 
distraction or temporary blindness.
A similar problem can occur when 
reversing towards a wall. This is a 
particular issue for older people 
whose eyes typically react more 
slowly.
The technique that has been de-
vised by Detroit-based GM Global 
Technology Operations gauges the 
amount of light reflected back to the 
driver using either a single light-sen-
sitive cell, an array of sensors or an 
imaging device, such as a camera. 
The sensors may be embedded in the 
area of the windscreen in front of the 
driver, so as to accurately measure 
the amount of light being shone into 
their eyes.
In combination with the light sen-
sors, proximity sensors can be de-
ployed to measure how close the car 
is to the obstacle. Finally, the speed 
of the car is used to determine wheth-
er the lights should be dimmed, by 
comparing the detected values to pre-
set thresholds.
A number of methods of adjusting 
the lights are proposed. For example, 
the light may be dimmed by adjust-
ing the angle of alignment of the 
bulbs. Alternatively, the intensity of 
the headlights may be reduced by 
varying the current and/or voltage 
used to drive the bulbs.
This invention will reduce the risk 
of glare to the driver of the car and 
make our roads safer – but despite (or 
because of?) the best efforts of the in-
ventor, the driver may never notice.
“An illumination device for a 
motor vehicle and method for con-
trolling light” was granted GB patent 
number 2464019 in January 2012.
mouser.com
Find It
Here.
Faster.™
Authorised
Distributor
of semiconductors
and electronic
components for
design engineers.
test & measurement
ElectronicsWeekly.com10 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
Figure 2 Figure 3
U
nwanted noise is 
introduced in all 
electronic circuits, and all 
switching devices induce 
GND and Vcc noise. Additional 
sources add their part of noise onto 
clock lines, data busses, reference 
lines and more. Finally, power 
supply ripple and noise caused by 
load changes effects as well. 
Providing sufficient noise margin 
for Vcc and GND specifications is 
paramount for flawless functionality 
of ICs.
Circuit designers are well aware of 
noise and jitter effects on clock and 
data lines; effects that may threaten 
data integrity and proper 
functionality of their systems. 
Once the causes of such unwanted 
noise are pinpointed their effects can 
be minimised for optimal operation 
How to deal with unwanted noise
Unwanted noise is introduced in all electronic circuits and providing sufficient noise margin for Vcc and GND 
specifications is paramount, writes Howard Venning
with minimal BER problems. 
However, a “new” kind of noise 
has started to interfere with the 
functionality of electronic systems – 
Vcc and Ground noise, with major 
culprits called GND Bounce and Vcc 
Droop Jitter. 
While Vcc specifications of ICs 
define the operational range, high 
frequency noise can disturb their 
functionality, even when operated 
within specified Vcc limits. Such 
disturbances can enter the circuits 
through residual capacities on the 
chip.The usual recommendation of 
placing a blocking capacitor adjacent 
to the Vcc pin may no longer be 
sufficient.
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What’s the problem?
Why does Vcc noise influence 
system functionality? 
Switching behaviour of digital 
circuits depends on defined 
threshold levels that determine if a 
signal is considered a logical “1” or 
“0”. Figure 2 (page 12) shows that 
switching time can shift with varying 
Vcc levels, even if data input signal 
levels are constant. 
While chip designers try to 
minimise jitter effects caused by Vcc 
variations, their effects cannot 
completely be eliminated. 
Digital threshold decisions are to 
some degree always depending on 
the Vcc power level, even if Vcc 
varies just within its allowed limits. 
While general chip functionality is 
provided within that Vcc range and 
the IC works as specified, Vcc 
variations cause slight changes in the 
switching responses. This means Vcc 
and GND noise cause output signal 
jitter. 
Figure 2 (above) illustrates how 
data jitter can be caused through Vcc 
and GND noise. Analogue circuits 
respond to noise present in Vcc or 
GND lines (see Figure 3 above). The 
effects can even multiply if the 
circuit amplifiessignals. Vcc noise 
will usually influence timing and 
purity of output signals. Vcc noise 
generated directly on the chip can 
even create unwanted noise loops, 
which again can significantly 
influence functionality of electronic 
systems.
Causes of Vcc noise 
Close proximity of high-speed data 
traces in PCB layouts can create 
distortions caused by Inter Symbol 
Interference (ISI), Inter Carrier 
Interference (ICI) or other unwanted 
distortion. Power supplies are well 
known for generating deterministic 
jitter (DJ), affecting both power traces 
and data lines. 
The cause can be linked to power 
supply switching frequencies and 
their harmonics.
Every electronic component, 
passive or active, generates a distinct 
amount of noise energy, caused by 
thermal random movement of charge 
carriers and amplifying (active) 
devices multiply this and any other 
noise. 
These problems are a well-known 
and particular care should be taken 
on data and clock lines. The 
increased switching speed can cause 
noise problems at Vcc or Ground 
lines. 
Both GND planes and Vcc lines 
usually have extremely low 
impedance, which has so far 
rendered noise negligible. In 
addition, the use of block capacitors 
in close proximity to the chips’ 
power and GND pins has helped 
reduced any jitter and bounce effects. 
Unfortunately though, these 
measures cannot eliminate the effects 
completely, particularly not if the 
noise is generated within the circuit. 
In a very fast switching 
environment, inherent line 
inductances and capacitances can 
cause frequency dependent jitter on 
data lines which in turn generate 
noises on GND and Vcc lines. This 
effect is called Vcc-Droop Jitter and 
Ground Bounce.
The faster circuits switch, the more 
noise they generate. The effects are 
multiplied with simultaneously 
switching (parallel) I/O ports. 
Figures 4 and 5 show simplified 
Figure 1 Noisecom’s JV9000 is a generator used to inject noise and 
deterministic jitter (DJ) signals into Vcc lines.
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Figure 5Figure 4
digital I/O ports. Figure 4 (facing 
page) depicts the active parts 
switching, from “0” to “1” and Figure 
5 shows an output change from “1” 
to “0”. Thresholds determining the 
logical state are directly dependent 
on the level potential difference 
between GND and Vcc. 
Noise from either plane can cause 
early or delayed output response. In 
extreme cases it will result in spikes 
at the output ports and cause 
unrecognised information on the 
data bus. Clean and stable Vcc and 
Ground levels are mandatory to 
prevent such disturbances that can 
significantly influence system 
functionality.
Self-induced Vcc and GND 
noise 
Ground Bounce occurs when 
integrated circuits switch their high 
speed output ports from “1” to “0”; 
Vcc Droop happens when they 
switch from “0” to “1”. With Ground 
Bounce, the device ground rises 
relative to the power supply ground. 
Conversely, with Vcc Droop Jitter, 
device Vcc drops relative to the 
power supply ground and the power 
supply Vcc. The amount of bounce 
or droop depends on the rise or fall 
times of the switching output ports. It 
multiplies with the number of 
simultaneously switched output 
pins. 
Ground bounce 
Figure 4 illustrates the path between 
power supply; board; device output 
and output trace. The path can 
be described as four inductances 
(L1GND to L4GND) that are 
connected in line supplying the die 
GND. 
Voltage response of inductances is 
a function of current and change time 
with the resulting voltage being 
described as in the following 
equation: 
V = L(sum) × dI 
 dt 
where: 
 V is the voltage difference between 
the die Vcc and power supply Vcc, 
 L(sum) is the sum of all path 
inductances (L1, L2 L3 and L4)
 dI the time increment in which the 
current change happens. 
An inherent capacity within all 
data output traces plays also an 
important role. 
This capacitance is charged as the 
output drives a logical “1”. When the 
output switches back to “0”, the 
charge has to be released through the 
Lo-transistor, resulting in a current 
initiated from the data trace 
capacitance to the die pin ground 
and it continues to the power supply 
ground. 
Because of relatively small data 
path capacities, these currents are 
quite small but because of the in-line 
inductances, it can cause significant 
spikes with fast switching times. 
Block capacitors adjacent to the chip 
pins cannot eliminate all of the 
energy from these spikes. 
Conversely, VCC droop Jitter 
occurs when ICs switch outputs from 
“0” to “1” at high speed. The Vcc 
drops relative to the Power Supply 
Vcc. 
Figure 5 (above) shows the 
connections between power supply, 
board, device, and the output trace 
capacitance; all connected via the Hi-
transistor. Because trace capacitance 
discharge current has to pass 
inductances L1Vcc to L4Vcc, any 
current change produces a voltage 
difference between the device Vcc 
and power supply Vcc. The amount 
of voltage is, as with GND bounce, 
specified with the equation above, 
and Lsum is the sum of all 
inductances in the Vcc path. 
Howard Venning is managing director of 
Aspen Electronics
 
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Fast scopes make bandwidth jump
Steve Bush takes a look at the industry’s fastest real-time oscilloscopes and finds interesting similarities in 
design and as well as differentiators 
ElectronicsWeekly.com14 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
B
andwidths have soared 
for high-end oscilloscopes 
in the past 12 months, 
as all of the major test 
system suppliers announced fast 
four-channel scopes with options 
to almost double bandwidth by 
reducing this to two channels. 
Just last week, Agilent 
Technologies revealed its latest 
oscilloscope range, the 90000 
Q-Series, with a real-time bandwidth 
of 63GHz on two channels 
(160Gsample/s) and 33GHz on four 
(80Gsample/s), and 2Gpoints of 
memory. 
Rise-time is under 7ps, noise floor 
is 4.4mV (50mV/div, 63GHz), and 
jitter measurement floor is around 
75fs. 
“The 90000 Q-Series improves 
upon Agilent’s use of custom 
integrated circuits and multichip 
module packaging with a technology 
called RealEdge,” said the firm. 
“RealEdge comprises a combination 
of new architectures, next-generation 
microcircuits and thin-film 
components, and advanced 
application of Agilent’s indium 
phosphide semiconductor process.” 
The firm’s probes work up to 
30GHz and “N2807A software helps 
engineers characterise and correct for 
cables to the full 63GHz”, it said. 
Multiple Q-Series oscilloscopes 
can be connected together to form a 
system of 40 channels or more. 
Earlier in the year, LeCroy 
announced a 60GHz (160Gsample/s) 
real-time bandwidth scope called the 
10Zi. 
Inside, 36GHz bandwidth and 
80GHz sampling come from chips LeCroy 10Zi
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test & measurementElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 15
more online
News: Agilent – Fastest real-ti
News: Test firms combine boundary 
scan tester with USB scope
 
www.electronicsweekly.com
more onlinemore online
News: Agilent – Fastest real-time News: Agilent – Fastest real-time
scope yetscope yetscope yet
www.electronicsweekly.comwww.electronicsweekly.comwww.electronicsweekly.com
News: Test firms combine boundary News: Test firms combine boundary 
scan tester with USB scopescan tester with USB scope
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made on IBM’s 8HP silicon 
germanium (SiGe) high-speed 
semiconductor process. 
LeCroy mixes down the 30-60GHz 
band, sends this through an 
analogue-to-digital converter (ADC), 
then re-combine this with the 0GHz-
30GHz band (which goes through a 
separate ADC) in the digital domain 
to get the full bandwidth. 
Similar to Agilent’s scope, 
synchronisation allows ten 60GHz 
channels to be used together, or 20 
channels at 36GHz. 
Jitter noise floor is claimed to be 
100fsrms and 20%-80% rise-time is 
5.5ps. 
Trigger bandwidth is 30GHz, and 
there is a 14.1Gb/s 80bit serial pattern 
trigger with support for 8b/10b and 
64b/66b symbol triggering – all of 
these super-fast scopes are aimed at 
analysing high-speed serial signals. 
Maximum analysis memory is 
512Mpoint per 36GHz channel, and 
1Gpoint when two channels are used 
together for 60GHz operation. 
In August last year, Tektronix, 
announced DPO70000D and 
DSA70000D series scopes, with real-
time sampling up to 100Gsample/s 
on two channels and 33GHz 
analogue bandwidth on four 
channels. 
Once again, speed came from chips 
made on IBM’s 8HP SiGe process – a 
33GHz pre-amp, and a track-and-
hold. 
“Tektronix engineers have 
integrated high-speed bipolar 
transistors directly on the same die as 
standard CMOS, enabling the 
oscilloscopes to deliver the fast rise-
time on multiple channels,” said the 
firm. 
Rise-time is 9ps (20%-80%) or 
12.5ps (10%-90%) and input 
sensitivity is 6.25mV/div-120mV/div 
(62.5mV-1.2V full scale). 
Jitter noise floor is under 250fs 
typical (bandwidth enhance 
enabled). 
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test & measurement
What’s happening under the bonnet 
of a mixed-signal oscilloscope?
To understand the benefits of using a mixed-signal oscilloscope it is helpful to see how it performs time-correlated 
acquisition and analysis of digital and analogue signals, writes Wolfgang Herbordt
ElectronicsWeekly.com16 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
Figure 1 Display of a parallel bus signal as an analogue waveform
T
he more tasks that embed-
ded systems take on, the 
more complex these systems 
become. At the same time, 
both the variety and number of inter-
faces between digital and analogue 
components are increasing. A typi-
cal design might use one-bit signals, 
clocked and unclocked parallel data 
buses and serial data buses, stand-
ardised or proprietary transmission 
formats and a variety of data rates. 
Anyone who wants to get a handle 
on the increasing complexity has to 
analyse all of these interfaces at dif-
ferent levels of abstraction. This usu-
ally requires complex test setups 
with multiple instruments: analogue 
waveforms are studied using an os-
cilloscope, digital signals with a logic 
analyser and transmission protocols 
with a protocol analyser.
A mixed-signal oscilloscope pro-
vides digital channels for analysing 
digital states and protocol details in 
addition to the analogue channels. 
A benefit is that users can analyse 
the circuits at the various levels of ab-
straction with only one instrument 
and therefore only one user interface. 
The functioning of a digital oscillo-
scope can be split into two sequential 
phases, the acquisition phase fol-
lowed by the analysis phase. During 
the acquisition phase, the sampled 
test signals are saved to a data memo-
ry. The acquisition phase is charac-
terised by the sampling frequency, 
the acquisition depth and the trigger 
options.
During the analysis phase, the ac-
quired waveforms are analysed and 
output over the user interface; ie to 
the instrument screen or to files. The 
data analysis functions on a digital 
oscilloscope include the Zoom, Test, 
Cursor, Math and Search functions. 
A mixed-signal oscilloscope will 
use this two-phase principle for both 
the analogue and digital channels. 
The instrument must continue to 
serve as a conventional oscilloscope 
and the functionality of the analogue 
and digital channels must integrate 
cleanly. The many channels and the 
resulting range of setting options 
make a simple and clear user inter-
face even more important. 
To look at time synchronisation in 
a mixed-signal scope we see that ana-
logue and digital channels are ac-
quired synchronously on the same 
instrument so that analogue wave-
forms, digital signals and protocol 
details are time-correlated and can be 
analysed in one location. 
A delay compensation between the 
analogue and the digital channels is 
needed for synchronous signal acqui-
sition. This delay compensation can 
take place between the digital chan-
nel probe boxes and the analogue 
probe connectors inside the instru-
ment. As long as the delay between 
the analogue probes and the probe 
tips on the digital channels is not im-
portant to the user, then no further 
settings are needed. 
A high time resolution for both the 
analogue and digital channels is a 
preferred feature because the events 
within the digital signals are ana-
lysed with a high degree of temporal 
accuracy and narrow glitches can be 
detected. 
In this way it is important that 
when digital channels are used as the 
trigger source, the trigger time is de-
termined with a high degree of accu-
racy, ensuring that waveform jitter is 
minimal during visualisation. 
For example the R&S RTO scope 
with B1 mixed-signal option has a 
sampling frequency of 5Gsample/s 
for the 16 digital channels, as com-
pared to 10Gsample/s for the ana-
logue channels. The resulting time 
resolution for the digital channels is 
200ps. 
If the time resolution in the ana-
logue channels exceeds that in the 
digital channels, as is the case at a 
sampling rate of 10Gsample/s or dur-
ing interpolation, sample & hold in-
terpolation is used to adjust the digit-
al channels to the sampling rate of 
the analogue channels. Joint analysis 
of analogue waveforms and digital 
signals is thereby ensured. 
It is also important to consider the 
acquisition depth of per digital chan-
nel for acquiring long data sequences 
from serial buses. A bit rate of 
400Mbit/s and a sampling frequency 
of 5Gsample/s, for example, results 
in an acquisition depth of 16Mbit.
Oscilloscope trigger types for 
which a single amplitude threshold 
(i.e. the threshold for the logical tran-
sition) is sufficient are frequently of-
fered for the digital channels. 
A typical challenge in the design of 
digital oscilloscopes is the reduction 
of its “blind time”. This is the time 
during which no data acquisition 
takes place and therefore potentially 
interesting events are not seen. 
How can the blind time be reduced 
so that rare events are detected more 
quickly? 
The blind time is shortened by op-
test & measurement
ElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 17
timising the analysis phase. Oscillo-
scope design can address this with 
dedicated Asics in which data acqui-
sition and analysis take place simul-
taneously. The result is an instrument 
speed of up to one million visualised 
waveforms per second. 
Similarly in mixed-signal mode, 
signal processingtakes place within 
an FPGA over the entire process, 
from acquisition and triggering to vis-
ualisation, cursor functions and 
measurements. Analysis is per-
formed in parallel for all 16 digital 
channels. This is done at a speed of 
up to 200 000 visualised waveforms 
per second. 
Typcially, a screen dump takes 
place every 30ms to match the visual 
perception of the human eye. Be-
tween two screen dumps, the oscillo-
scope’s hardware-superimposes the 
waveforms from the analogue chan-
nels in order to display all waveforms 
on the screen. The scope’s mixed-sig-
nal option also uses this display 
method for the digital channels. 
Bus signals, on the other hand, are 
not superimposed because they in-
clude data content from multiple 
combined binary signals. To allow 
analysis of bus signals, the user can 
adapt the display format to the bus 
format. 
A distinction is made between un-
clocked and clocked data buses. With 
unclocked data buses, the logic state 
is determined for each sampling peri-
od. With clocked data buses, it is de-
termined only for valid edges. Dis-
play is in bus format, in table format, 
or as an analog waveform in binary, 
hexadecimal, decimal and fractional 
number formats. 
Critical factors for the effective and 
efficient study of waveforms are the 
number and quality of the analysis 
functions provided by the oscillo-
scope. In particular, automated am-
plitude and time measurements, in-
cluding their statistical analysis, 
math functions and cursor functions 
are provided. 
For digital channels, only time 
measurements and the associated sta-
tistical analyses are used. Maths 
functions are reduced to logic opera-
tions for binary signals. 
For example, in mixed-signal 
mode the maths signal can be any 
logical combination of all 16 digital 
channels. This is also used as the 
source signal for measurement func-
tions. Cursor functions can be used 
on binary signals, on bus signals and 
on logically combined digital signals. 
Mixed-signal oscilloscopes expand 
the basic oscilloscope functionality 
to include logic and protocol analys-
er elements. Users benefit from the 
simplified test setups, uniform opera-
tion and synchronous visualisation 
of analogue waveforms, digital sig-
nals and protocol details within a 
single instrument. 
Author is Dr. Wolfgang Herbordt works in 
oscilloscope design at Rohde & Schwarz. 
Figure 2 Measurements and cursor functions on digital channels
embedded
Low energy microcontrollers with 
DSP can be more energy efficient 
In an age of stripped-down processors there are good reasons to consider a microcontroller equipped with DSP 
functions, even for low power designs, writes Andreas Koller 
ElectronicsWeekly.com18 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
T
he microcontroller market 
is abuzz with talk about low 
energy consumption. Many 
designers are looking for mi-
crocontrollers (MCUs) that will func-
tion, sometimes for a period of years, 
on the energy stored in a battery, or 
that is available from an energy har-
vesting system. 
This is a trend which has culmi-
nated in the recent launch of ARM’s 
‘Flycatcher’ M0+ product, a stripped-
down, ultra-low power processor 
core intended for just these applica-
tions.
Against this backdrop, it might 
seem strange to offer an MCU based 
on the ARM Cortex-M4F processor 
core that offers not less performance 
but more, including floating point 
DSP instructions. 
So, why would anyone choose a 
low-energy MCU equipped with DSP 
functions?
The first reason is that – perhaps 
counter-intuitively – such a proces-
sor may in fact prove to be more ener-
gy efficient than a less competent de-
vice. The availability of floating point 
and single-cycle multiply-accumu-
late instructions often allows the de-
signer to reduce execution time, or 
reduce the clock frequency to accom-
plish the same workload. Put simply, 
expending 10% more power for 20% 
less time represents an energy saving 
overall.
This effect is, of course, accentuat-
ed in devices with well-designed 
sleep modes that deliver very low 
power. The bigger the difference be-
tween active and sleep mode power 
consumption, the greater will be the 
benefit of a rapid return to a low-en-
ergy state.
Such considerations also come 
into play in the field of smart sensing. 
As MCU prices have dipped below 
the dollar mark, it has become in-
creasingly possible to put intelli-
gence into everyday objects. A DSP-
equipped MCU provides a special 
type of intelligence that can be used 
for signal conditioning purposes. 
By siting such processors at the lo-
cation where each signal is captured, 
designers can choose lower cost sen-
sor types, increasing the range of ap-
plications that can cost-effectively be 
addressed.
Ultrasonic water metering is one 
example of such a use case, that in 
addition to signal processing also re-
quires outstanding sleep mode per-
formance – meters require a battery 
life of years. 
In such an application an MCU can 
be configured with the CPU in sleep 
mode and its peripherals set up as a 
kind of analogue state machine that 
wakes the Cortex-M4 only when 
water is flowing. The availability of 
DSP instructions allows the designer 
to build sophisticated filtering func-
tions that come into action when 
there is water flow to measure, and 
eliminate the need for expensive ul-
trasonic transducers.
Some applications simply need the 
processing horsepower of a DSP. 
For example, I know of one firm 
which is working on a security de-
vice that senses glass breakages using 
acoustic analysis. Breaking glass is 
accompanied by a distinctive series 
of sounds and vibrations that culmi-
nates in a resonance at the character-
istic natural frequency of the glass – 
in this case around 13kHz.
The MCU is used to perform fast 
Fourier transforms on the output 
from a wide-band sound transducer, 
and hence to determine whether a 
breakage has taken place. The trans-
ducer may be sited close to the win-
dow and used to detect sounds, or at-
tached directly to the glass to work in 
‘seismic’ mode. 
Because the system needs to run 
for a period of years from a single bat-
tery, it must be designed so that the 
MCU wakes up and starts processing 
only when a possible candidate 
acoustic event has occurred. The 
chip’s fast wake up capabilities facili-
tate this, and its DSP capabilities 
minimise wake time, while allowing 
the designer to choose a detection al-
gorithm that is robust against false 
alarms.
Portable medical equipment pro-
vides another typical example of 
such an application. Instruments like 
battery-powered ECGs have been fa-
vourite talking points: but the fact is 
that as of today, for a really accurate 
read-out of cardiac health, the patient 
needs to visit a hospital or health 
clinic. 
The processing power of current 
portable instruments is restricted by 
the power and energy budget im-
posed by battery-based operation: as 
a result designers compromise by re-
ducing sampling rate. DSP-equipped 
low-energy processors present a prac-
tical solution to this problem.
Applications like these demon-
strate that low-energy operation is 
not always about paring processing 
power to the bone. Tomorrow’s ener-
gy-efficient products require MCUs 
with the right balance of processing 
capabilities, low active power con-
sumption, well-designed sleep 
modes and tailored, autonomous pe-
ripherals.
Andreas Koller is vice-president of sales and 
marketing at Energy Micro
Energy Micro
www.energymicro.com
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ElectronicsWeekly.com20 | EW 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012
Welcome to the monthly page featuring the ElectronicsWeekly.com Gadget Master blog, 
sponsored by RS Components. As well covering the most popular posts and highlighting 
current competitions, we look at some classic Gadget Master posts from the past. 
www.electronicsweekly.com/gadget-master
This month’s most read posts
A fool for Moog’s 
PolyTheremin...
We don’t do April 
Fools on Elec-
tronics Weekly, 
but if we did... I 
hope they would 
be like this! 
Wired.com flagged this effort from 
last year – a “PolyTheremin” from 
Moog – and it’s well worth sharing.
Build your own 
LED cube
Peter Griffiths 
shares all the 
details you need 
to build your own 
5x5 LED cube and 
programmed light 
display. The project is fully docu-
mented in terms of parts and the 
build process, and Peter provides 
photos to help with construction.
When you can’t find the 
camera you want
Going well be-
yond the call of 
duty, freelance 
photographer CF 
Salicath has built 
himself a camera 
out of Lego. The twin-lens reflex 
design is called the Legoflex. 
 Keep your property where 
you can see it
Many off-the-
shelf surveillance 
cameras are too 
expensive or im-
practical for home 
use. Designer Al-
berto Ricci Bitti created an automat-
ed and inexpensive camera with a 
flash card as recording media. 
 DIY Geiger counter 
smartphone app helps 
measure radiation
We have previ-
ously highlight-
ed the work of 
some engineers 
at Libelium, a 
wireless sensor 
network company, to help the peo-
ple of Japan, around Fukushima, 
determine levels of radiation for 
themselves. Our sister site New 
Scientist’s One Per Cent blog has 
reported on a Smartphone-based 
initiative to help people track the 
critically important levels of radia-
tion around them.
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> Stanford students && (Android + NFC + TV) = Fun
Stanford students demonstrate the potential of NFC-based hackery with a number of projects “showing 
how NFC-equipped phones and televisions can work together”. 
> Small Sand Flea robot jumps tall buildings
What do you get when you give a rugged remote control car the ability to jump more than 9m in the air? 
Sand Flea.
> Most read Gadget Master posts in March
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the BeagleBoard project, scanning negatives, and some old favourites...
> A fool for Moog’s PolyTheremin...
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CLASSIC PROJECTS
> G Arduino + Accelerometer = DIY music controller
This Gadget Master was facing his Physical Computing and Max MSP finals, and the 
great project he came up with was... 
To create a motion-sensitive music controller. It’s Tilt to Play! 
Ryan writes: I made a controller that uses an ADXL 335 Accelerometer and an Arduino 
board that communicates serially with Max MSP. The Max MSP patch is a simple 
sequencer that allows for delay on all tracks. The controller has inputs for 5 tracks, and 
the 6th button applies the delay affect on all tracks...The buttons are connected to Digital 
Pins 2 through 6, and the LED’s are connected to Digital Pins 9 through 13. The acceler-
omter X axis is connected to analogue Pin 0, and the Y axis is connected to analogue Pin 1.
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-master/2010/04/arduino-accelerometer-diy-musi.html
> Win A Beagle Board
Last chance to enter the competition! The theme we have taken for this one is Google’s 
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highlight another community platform. Let’s have a BeagleBoard related prize! Up for 
grabs is the ARM Cortex-A8-based BeagleBoard XM, to be precise, which promises 
“laptop-like performance and expandability, while keeping at hand-held power levels”. 
Sounds like a useful piece of kit for a Gadget Master to possess! The competition closes 
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Two half bridge LED drivers add 
PFC and improved efficiency
ON Semiconductor has introduced 
two new LED drivers – the 
NCL30051 stage, power factor 
correction (PFC) and resonant half 
bridge driver and the NCL30160 
dimmable constant current step-
down (buck) LED driver.
The NCL30051 is a step-down 
DC-DC converter/LED driver that 
combines a critical conduction mode 
(CrM), PFC controller and a half-
bridge resonant controller with a 
built-in 600-volt (V) driver, is 
optimised for off-linepower supply 
applications.
The chip’s half-bridge stage 
operates at a fixed frequency. 
Regulation is achieved by adjusting 
the PFC stage output voltage. The 
device integrates open feedback loop 
protection, plus PFC overvoltage and 
undervoltage detection mechanisms, 
as well as an adjustable frequency 
oscillator which can be set at up to 
75kHz.
The NCL30160, a switching 
regulator for high power LEDs, takes 
the constant voltage delivered by the 
NCL30051-enabled power supply 
and steps down the voltage to 
provide a constant current across the 
LED string. 
An 98% efficiency is achieved by 
using the low 55mΩ internal mosfet 
and the ability to operate at 100% 
duty cycle. This constant current 
device operates with an input voltage 
range from 6.3 V to 40 V, which 
makes it suitable for industrial and 
automotive applications. 
Switching frequency is up to 
1.4MHz.
Both the NCL30051 and the 
NCL30160 have operating junction 
temperature ranges of -40°C to 
+125°C.
www.onsemi.com
Driver can handle up to 20 high 
current LEDs in boost mode
Diodes has an LED driver controller 
with extended input voltage 
operation from 60V down to as low 
as 5.0V.
The ZXLD1371 can control an 
external driver FET in buck, boost 
and buck-boost driver topologies and 
is capable of driving as many as 20 
high-current LEDs in boost mode.
Employing patent-pending control 
loops and single resistor high-side 
current sensing, the ZXLD1371 will 
deliver a typical output current 
tolerance of 1%, helping to produce 
improvements in brightness control 
and lamp luminance matching. 
The LED driver controller offers 
users dimming over a wide dynamic 
range, through separate 20:1 DC 
dimming and 1000:1 PWM dimming 
options, resulting in higher accuracy 
light control, particularly at lower 
brightness levels.
The controller provides thermal 
management of LEDs via a dedicated 
external thermistor input. 
Switching at up to 1MHz, the 
device is available in a TSSOP-16EP 
package.
www.diodes.com
Distributor stocks Cree’s indoor/
outdoor power LEDs 
Rapid Electronics has available Cree’s 
XLamp XP-E, XP-G and ML-B series 
of miniature power LEDs designed 
for use in indoor and outdoor 
lighting. 
The ML-B range of power LEDs are 
supplied in warm white and cool 
white, with colour temperatures that 
range from 2700K to 7000K, 
luminosity from 23.5lm to 30.6lm 
and a maximum forward current of 
175mA. 
They can be mounted on PCBs 
and are designed for use in 
applications such as linear lighting, 
under-cabinet illumination, 
fluorescent retrofits, T5/T8 bulbs, 
retail and refrigerated display and 
panel lights. 
The lens size (diameter 2.5mm and 
2.6mm) and availability from Rapid 
in white, warm white, neutral white 
and cool white suit these lamps for 
applications such as outdoor lighting, 
colour-changing displays, 
commercial and emergency vehicle 
lighting. 
www.rapidonline.com 
Firm creates LED-driver reference 
design for 100W bulb replacement
An LED-driver reference design 
for an LED replacement of 100W 
incandescent bulbs has been 
introduced by Power Integrations.
Dubbed DER-322, the circuit is 
designed to fit inside the A19 form 
factor, is EN61000-3-2 C (D) 
compliant and easily passes THD 
limits. 
With a PF above 0.95, it suits 
commercial as well as consumer 
applications. 
“With an 8%-10% efficiency 
advantage over older solutions, 
 DER-322 provides a compelling 
option for lighting engineers working 
toward the landmark achievement of 
a commercially viable A19-sized 
replacement for the 100W 
incandescent bulb,” said Andrew 
Smith, product marketing manager at 
Power Integrations.
“With LED efficacies continuing to 
improve, this important milestone 
will soon be within reach,” said 
Smith.
The design eliminates the need for 
short-lived electrolytic input bulk 
capacitors. 
The reference design incorporates 
a non-isolated, 93% efficient LED 
driver designed to drive a nominal 
LED string voltage of 78V at 230mA 
from an input voltage range of 
195Vac to 265Vac (47 Hz – 63 Hz). 
The LED driver utilises the very 
low-profile LNK460VG from the 
LinkSwitch-PL family of ICs from 
Power Integrations.
www.powerint.com
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ElectronicsWeekly.com 25 APRIL - 1 MAY 2012 EW | 23
Test platform drives high-speed 
serial links up to 10Gbit/s
Tektronix has introduced a 
protocol test platform to drive and 
characterise high-speed serial links 
with speeds up to 10Gbit/s (pictured 
below). 
Designated the TPI4000, the 
modular test platform has support for 
protocols such as Ethernet, Fibre 
Channel, Common Public Radio 
Interface (CPRI), and Serial Front 
Panel Data Port (FPDP).
There is a portable unit with a 
built-in monitor and keyboard and 
supports up to eight ports, and also a 
4U rack-mount unit supports up to 
32 ports. 
The instrument can be configured 
as a combination of 
protocol analyser, 
traffic generator, 
system stress 
tester, or BER (bit 
error rate) tester. 
It also has a 
user-editable 
database that 
allows customers 
to define custom 
protocols using the 
optional 
Protocol Editor 
tool. 
High-speed 
serial protocols 
supported by the 
TPI4000 Series include Fibre 
Channel (FICON, AS1760, ASM, FC-
AE-1553, others), Ethernet (iSCSI, 
FCoE, TCP/IP, IPv6, iFCP, AFDX, 
ARINC664, TTE, others), Serial 
FPDP, SAS, SATA, CPRI and Serial 
RapidIO.
www.tektronix.com
Configurable front-end interfaces 
for sensor-to-microcontroller links
Texas Instruments has introduced 
two configurable analogue front 
ends for interfacing non-dispersive 
infrared (NDIR) gas sensors and pH 
sensors to microcontrollers. 
The LMP91050 NDIR gas sensing 
AFE supports multiple thermopile 
sensors for NDIR sensing, indoor 
CO2 monitoring, demand control 
ventilation, HVAC, alcohol 
breath analysis, greenhouse gas 
monitoring and Freon detection.
It integrates a programmable 
gain amplifier, “dark phase” 
offset cancellation circuitry, 
adjustable common-mode 
generator, and SPI interface to 
simplify system design.
The programmable gain 
amplifier has low gain drift of 
100ppm/°C (maximum) 
and output offset drift of 
1.2mV/°C.
The LMP91200 pH 
sensing AFE supports two 
electrode pH sensors used 
in analyzer platforms for emissions 
monitoring, steam and water quality 
monitoring, chemical/petrochemical 
plants, food processing and more.
As well as PGA it has a low input-
bias pH buffer, signal guarding, 
temperature and measurement 
calibration, and common-mode 
generation and diagnostics circuitry.
www.ti.com/lmp91050-pr
High-speed logic devices come 
with Schmitt trigger inputs
Toshiba Electronics has expanded its 
TC74VHC family of high-speed logic 
with a range of devices that combine 
Schmitt trigger inputs with voltage-
tolerant output capabilities.
The logic ICs can operate with 
slowly changing input signals and 
enables interface functionality 
between systems that use separate 
power supplies. 
Compared to the original design 
the output structure of the new 
devices has been modified to enable 
power-down protection of the output 
pins, preventing backflow current 
from the main to a sub board in cases 
where the sub board power supply is 
disconnected.
Toshiba has also implemented a 
Schmitt trigger function into the 
input stage of the TC74VHCV-series. 
Due to the Schmitt trigger function 
the allowable input voltage slope of 
0-20ns/V for the standard TC74VHC 
series has been extended to 
0-1000ns/V for the TC74VHCV 
series, making it extremely attractive 
for a wide range of industrial and 
consumer applications.
The TC74VHCV series line-up 
includes Hex and Octalinverters, 
buffers, transceivers, latches and flip-
flops. 
Devices can operate with power 
supplies ranging from 1.8V to 5.5V 
and have a large fan-out capability 
due to the minimum output current 
of 16mA.
www.toshiba-components.com
P- and N-channel power mosfets 
are designed for low resistance
Renesas Electronics has a range of 
P- and N-channel power mosfets 
designed for low on-resistance.
The μPA2600 and μPA2601 
mosfets come in a 2x2mm package 
and achieve an on-resistance of 
9.3mΩ (typical value at VGSS=4.5V) 
for the 20V (VDSS) μPA2600 device 
and 10.5mΩ (typical value at 
VGSS=10V) for the 30V μPA2601 
device.
The full range of eight devices 
cover the 12V to 30V range. Four 
P-channel products, including the 
μPA2630, three n-channel products 
including the μPA2600 and the 
μPA2690, which holds both an 
N-channel and a P-channel device in 
a single package.
www.renesas.eu. 
Combining hardware and software 
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