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YOUR ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ISSUE 9e

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ELE_0034_0112 eTech ISSUE 9 0

or Tablet

Today the world regards the electronics industry as leading-edge.

The national press use terms like state-o-the-art and dynamic

to describe the perpetual cycle o innovation and development o

electronic technologies. The gadget-media have even managed

to make electronics appear glamorous within technophile

circles, with certain products and brands becoming iconic ashionextras. And while its engaging and rewarding to be involved in

this cutting-edge, high-tech industry, there are times when even

the most sophisticated new technologies require some simple,

traditional design tools and products to implement them.

In this edition o eTech, we ocus on the everyday ingredients that

provide the basic building blocks common to every electronic design.

These electronic essentials can be ound on every bench, in every

lab, and range rom the simplest components and tools, through

power and saety products, to test and measurement equipment.

And in character with our dynamic industry, youll even nd that some

o these elementary items have been improved and enhanced!

I hope you enjoy this issue o eTech!

Glenn JarrettHead o Electronics Marketing

Terms and conditions:Terms and

conditions o sale set out in the current

RS Catalogue. This issue is valid rom

January 2012 to March 2012

Published by: RS Components

Limited. Registered oice:

Birchington Road, Weldon, Corby,

Northamptonshire NN17 9RS.

Registered No. 1002091. RS

Components Ltd 2011.

RS are trademarks o RS

Components Limited. An

Electrocomponents Company.

05 RS NEWSLINE

06 INDUSTRY NEWSLINE08 COMMODITY PROCESSORS12 PRODUCT NEWS

14 WHICH COMMUNITY BOARDS17 ITS COOL TO BE GREEN18 MEMORY TRENDS20 DISPLAYS24 COMPONENT LIBRARIES26 DESIGN TIPS : LOW-COST

HEADPHONE AMP

30 MOLEX32 ELECTRONICS EXTRA34 THE GOOGLE ADK38 CONNECTOR TECHNOLOGIES

40 DESIGNSPARK.COM42 iSAY

See us at Hall 1 Stand 156

For more inormation go towww.embedded-world.de

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NEW

eTech I

The Tokai University solar car team, sponsored by

RS Components, has won the World Solar Challenge(WSC) for the second year in a row following

an epic 3,000km dash across Australia.

The competition, which was held between 16-23 October2011, started in Darwin in the North of Australia and travelled

south to Adelaide covering a total distance of 3,021km. Despite

being in fifth place after qualifying, the Tokai Challenger

car ran smoothly to complete the race in 32 hours and 45minutes, reaching the finish line at 1pm on 20 October.

The car used HIT solar cells, which have the worlds highest

energy conversion rate. This was supported with high-capac

lithium-ion batteries provided by Panasonic. Super lightweig

carbon ibre material was supplied or the body which enab

the weight o the vehicle to be reduced to a mere 140kg.

Proessor Hideki Kimura, an expert in solar car technology,

I would like to acknowledge all the sponsors, academics a

students or supporting the team. We are delighted with th

and very proud to have had the chance to support all the d

and talented people that make up the Tokai University team

This month sees a change to our Swiss website designed to make purchasingonline rom RS even easier. Over 550,000 products rom leading manuacturers

across our electronics, automation and maintenance ranges, can now be purchased

online in Swiss rancs. All items purchased online are available with ree delivery.

Feedback rom a recent survey shows customers already heavily engaging

with the Swiss website, which was launched in 2010. With the addition o local

currency pricing RS is urther enhancing the online purchasing experience and

continuing to deliver on our commitments to support the Swiss market.

Our online shop is availableat www.rsonline.ch

RS sponsored team wins World Solar Challenge 2011Tokai University team claim victory in worlds largest solar car race or 2nd year running.

Pricing Makeover or Swiss WebsiteMore than 550,000 products rom leading manuacturersare now available to buy online in Swiss rancs

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NDUSTRYEWS

Mrs. Isolde Rtzer.

eTech ISSUE 9

ust imagine the ollowing scenario: our

people are comortably ensconced in am. Each one o them can watch a lm

m the Internet on his or her laptop, in HD

lity. This is made possible thanks to optical

AN. Light rom the LEDs in the overhead

ts serves as the transer medium. For a

g time, this was just a vision or the uture.

wever, since scientists rom the Fraunhoer

titute or Telecommunications, Heinrich

rtz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, have

eloped a new transer technology or

eo data within the scope o the OMEGA

ect o the EU, its implementation in real

is getting markedly closer. At the end o

y, the scientists were able to present the

ults o the project in Rennes, France. They

re able to transer data at a rate o 100

gabits per second (Mbit/s) without any

ses, using LEDs in the ceiling that light up

re than ten square metres (90 square eet).

The receiver can be placed anywhere

within this radius, which is currently

the maximum range. This means

that we transerred our videos in

HD quality to our dierent laptops at

the same time, says Dr. Anagnostis

Paraskevopoulos rom the HHI.

The undamentals o visible light

communication (VLC) were developed

together with the industry partners

Siemens and France Telecom Orange Labs,

said the expert. At HHI, the team projectmanager Klaus-Dieter Langer is now urther

developing the new technology. For VLC the

sources o light in this case, white-light LEDs

provide lighting or the room at the same

time they transer inormation. With the aid o

a special component, the modulator, we turn

the LEDs o and on in very rapid succession

and transer the inormation as ones and zeros.

The modulation o the light is imperceptible

to the human eye. A simple photo diode on

the laptop acts as a receiver. As Klaus-Dieter

Langer explains, The diode catches the

light, electronics decode the inormation and

translate it into electrical impulses, meaning

the language o the computer. One advantage

is that it takes only a ew components to

prepare the LEDs so that they unction as

transer media. One disadvantage is that as

soon as something gets between the light and

the photo diode (or example, when someone

holds his hand over the diode) the transer is

impaired. Laptops, Palm devices or mobile

telephones are all potential end devices.

The scientists emphasise that VLC is

not intended to replace regular WLAN,

PowerLAN or UMTS. It is best suited as an

additional option or data transer where radiotransmission networks are not desired or

not possible without needing new cables

or equipment in the house. Combinations

are also possible, such as optical WLAN in

one direction and PowerLAN or the return

channel. Films can be transerred to the

PC like this and also played there, or they

can be sent on to another computer.

The new transmission technology is suitable

or hospitals, or example, because radio

transmissions are not allowed there. Despite

this act, high data rates must be transmitted

without losses and unzipped, according to

the experts. I part o the communication

occurs via the light in the surgical room,

this would make it possible to control

wireless surgical robots or transmit x-ray

images. In airplanes, each passenger could

view his own entertainment program on a

display, saving aircrat manuacturers miles

o cables. Another possible venue or the

application o this technology are production

acilities, where radio transmissions very

oten interere with the processes.

Currently the scientists are developing

their systems toward higher bit rates.

Using red-blue-green-white light LEDs,

we were able to transmit 800 Mbit/s in

the lab, said Klaus-Dieter Langer.

gular LEDs can be turned into opticalLAN with only a ew additionalmponents thanks to visible lightmmunication (VLC). The LEDs are

en not simply lighting up, they are alsonserring data. They send lms in HDality to your iPhone or laptop, withloss in quality, quickly and saely.

Data is travelling by light

Microswitches include standard types, low torque sealed switches and a number of industryspecific models:

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V reliable and safe basic switch with switching currents of 10 21A. Widely used in applicationswhere long life expectancy is required

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Tactile Switches our range of switches includes standard, illuminated, sealed, keytops, hinged anddome types which include:

B3D ultra-low profile dome key with Omrons unique circular contact action that ensures a high levelof resistance to foreign matter

B3W-9 a compact illuminated switch with 2 LEDs

B3AL a compact long-stroke switch for demanding applications

DIP Switches consist of rotary, piano and slide including our latest addition:

A6SN leading edge high pressure mechanics ensure high reliability and washing without seal tape

Omron designs operability, user-friendliness into all of its switches visit www.omron-rs.eu formore information.

Omron

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Omrons range of switches include quality, precision microswitches, tactile

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Dave Pike, Marketing Engineer

Since their invention and frst production in

the early 1970s, MCUs have been designedand manuactured by a large number o

semiconductor companies, which have

historically developed their MCU product

lines primarily on their own proprietary

architectures. Especially in the 8-bit marketwith devices such as the H8 rom Renesas, the

ST6/7 rom STMicroelectronics, the PIC rom

Microchip, but also in the 32-bit market, such

as the R32 and SuperH rom Renesas or thePower Architecture rom Freescale or C28x

rom Texas Instruments, to name just a ew.

However, over the past ten years or so, therehas been a growing trend among silicon

vendors not to develop their own proprietary

microprocessor cores, but to license cores andarchitecture rom IP companies such as ARM

and MIPS. These two companies, in particular,have ought head-on to win key designs or

advanced microprocessors, ASICs and ASSPs or

a range o embedded markets and applications,

but outside o the PC microprocessor socket.

Convergence on ARMToday, ARM is leading with the lions share

o this processor core market, and especiallyso in mobile wireless designs, no doubt

due to the architectures ability to deliver

industry-leading low-power consumption;

in addition to the compiled code density

advantages. ARMs Thumb instruction set wasfrst introduced in the ARM7TDMI core and

delivered a signifcant reduction in memory

requirements. Virtually every mobile or

smart phone being made today integrates anARM core. And the ARM architecture is also

growing ast in ASICs and ASSPs or industrial,

computer and consumer applications.

CortexM FamilyHowever, in the general-purpose MCU

market, over the past fve years or so,

consolidation has been extremely ast with

ARM rising to be the leading player in deliveringmicroprocessor cores. A number o vendors

initially launched MCU amilies based on the

ARM7TDMI, with some ollowing up with

products based on the ARM9TDMI. The realbreakthrough, however, has been the Cortex-M

amily, and in particular the Cortex-M3.

The core, launched in 2004, was developedspecifcally or implementation in MCUs and

makes a strong case to be named the leading

general-purpose 32-bit MCU processor

used across an exceptionally broad range o

embedded markets. It has now been adopted

by several major chipmakers including(LPC1x00), ST Microelectronics (ST) ST

Texas Instruments (TI) Stellaris. While

leading companies still maintain ASIC

processor development programmes, which integrate ARM cores such as the

Cortex-A8 or A9, increasingly their res

roadmaps or general-purpose MCUs

on ARM Cortex-M cores. Interestingly hal-way through 2011 TI launched a du

bit MCU series that integrates both its

core and a Cortex-M3 to control the pe

The other two Cortex amily membersand M4, are also seeing increased pro

in new MCU amilies. The M0 is ARMs

most code compact and most energy-

core; and the M4 essentially adds increcapabilities over the M3. NXP, ST and

with its Kinetis amily, have all announ

M4-based amilies over the past year o

while NXP and ST have also either intror announced Cortex-M0 varieties. Acc

to ARM, the total number o licensees

Cortex-M amily, including the M0, M3

processor cores is now just below thre

Although, in what appears to be an ex

to the rule at least or a major MCU

Microchip has based its 32-bit PIC MCU

on the MIPS M4K32-bit processor corePIC architecture is also still a major pa

at 8-bit, certainly in terms o unit volum

A key advantage or Microchip, arguab

the multitude o students that enter intindustry each year and who are amilia

MCUs due to its widespread use in un

and college engineering departments.

Eating into 8bit?O course, the 8-bit market has been lo

talked about as eventually being devo

high perormance, and low-cost 32-bit

But the market or lower data-width prcontinues to survive and prosper, fnd

applications with the continual and incpervasion o electronics in consumer p

household goods and medical devicesothers. However, 32-bit devices contin

make inroads into the more mature ap

at the expense o 8-bit and 16-bit MCU

latest 32-bit MCUs bring massively inc

unctionality and a myriad o on-chip p and at increasingly competitive price

reaching as low as a dollar a chip. Or l

Continue

he generalpurpose microcontroller, or MCU, is now a commodity product.Perhaps this is an overstatement. But in one sense, at least, it can beongly supported by the growing trend in the use o processor cores thatare a common or open architecture. Today, while there are still plenty oCU vendors, it appears that 32bit MCU roadmaps are increasingly based

processor cores developed by one company: ARM.

eTech IeTech ISSUE 9

Charting theConvergence to a

Common Controller Core

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Moving to a Common ArchitectureCertainly there are multiple challenges

and major issues to consider or MCU

vendors to even deviate rom theirproprietary architectures. All the years o

investment, in terms o hardware, sotware

and development tools, are not so easy

to give up. And are they

willing to put doubts incustomers minds about

uture roadmaps and all

their legacy code developed

specifcally or a particularMCU architecture or amily?

Naturally, an open

architecture can bring huge

benefts or customers, suchas being able to source rom

a large number o vendors

or migrate rom one toanother or reasons o cost

or perormance or peripheralselection. Although

Cortex-M3 based MCUs, or

example, are not going to

be identical, the migration process rom onevendor to another, while not being trivial,

should not pose the same level o challenge

to change between substantially dierent

proprietary architectures. Also, given theseperilous times, the market has seen some

signifcant consolidation o MCU vendors

over the past ew years. In the industrial

market especially, customers need to rely on

a processor being around or 10 to 15 years ormore. So the common architecture may bring

a signifcant degree o obsolescence saety.

Another advantage is the wide availabilityo sotware component libraries, enabling

benefts in time-to-market. The move to

a common ARM architecture also means

the wide availability o ARM-baseddevelopment/debugging tools rom all

the leading third-party tool vendors.

Selection by Peripheral

I the trend or MCU vendors is to basetheir product portolios around the non-

proprietary or open architecture o

ARM, then they will need to fnd other

ways o dierentiating their products. Anumber o actors will be included in the

process or selecting an MCU, including

the microprocessor core, speed, memory,

peripheral selection, price, developmenttools, operating system and sotware

support. The choice o the processor

core should determine, or at least

influence, some o the other options.

But, it appears that the industry is moving

into the phase where it is the selection o

peripherals that is paramount, and less achoice based on the MCU core unctionality.

Certainly peripherals are a key actor in

choosing or specifc applications. So it

could be that ollowing the convergencearound the ARM Cortex amily (i.e. the

processor core becomes the commodity),

there will be a divergence o solutions

that oer many dierent combinations operipherals or diverse and niche markets,

relatively speaking. So, we might fnd two

or three key suppliers oering product or

each major MCU market, or example in

high-quality audio where an I2S outputis obligatory. And then a whole host o

suppliers positioned somewhere in the

mainstream oering similar memory, I/O

and wireless options, undamentally fghtingit out based on price. Is this what the MCU

market could look like in a ew years time?

Customer DierentiationPerhaps the market will all out based on

how easy chip vendors make it or customers

to dierentiate their own products. NXP,

or example, has its low-cost development

based on the mbed board. This meansthat the vendor now has a community o

engineers that is developing chunks o

application code and protocol stacks to

drive various peripherals. This can enablecustomers to ocus on the sotware that

will dierentiate their product, rather than

having to worry about lower-level drivers

and protocol stacks. And certainly not onlyNXP; other examples include Freescale

with its Kinetis Tower community and

TI has its BeagleBoard community.

So, have we reached the point where

software is the value-add and thesilicon is now a commodity?

< Continued from page 09

eTech ISSUE 9

Virtually every mobileor smart phone being

made today integratesan ARM core. And the

ARM architecture isalso growing ast in

ASICs and ASSPs orindustrial, computer andconsumer applications.

YOUR CHOICEYOUR eTechFor your chance to WIN a RemoteControlled Flying Drone

Tell us how you want to receive your eTechPlease tick your option and send it to us.

Please tick your option

Send your responses to.

RS Components Ltd, eTech Team, DPN 26,

Corby, Northamptonshire, NN17 9RS

OR Email; eTech@rs-components.com

What is the AR.Drone?The AR.Drone is a groundbreaking device combining

the best o many worlds, including modelling,video gaming and augmented reality.

The AR.Drone is remote-controlled by an iPhone. The

device eatures a number o sensors, including a ron

camera, a vertical camera and an ultrasound altimete

The AR.Drone can also be used in video games,

such as AR.FlyingAce, a dogght between two

AR.Drones. This game incorporates augmented

reality, especially or modelling missile re.Note: iPod touch, iPhone and iPad will be reerred to by the term iP

Terms and Conditions:This survey is being run by RS Components Ltd. When completing the survey, all inormation on the orm must be applied. No cash alternatives are available. The survey is open to all RS Components catalogue recipients. The closing date o the draw will be in the month o March 2012. The survey winner will be selected at random by RS Components and will be notied by April 2012. Responsibility cannot be accepted or lost entries, damaged or delayed in tran

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RODUCTEWS

PRODN

eTech ISSUE 9 eTech ISee more online Over 5,000 new products are added at www.rscomponents.com/electronics every month

MICROELECTRONICSM32F4 DISCOVERY KITcortex highperormance

aluation board.

he STM32F4 Discovery Kit provides an

a low-cost development environment

bling engineers to start designing into

ications quickly using the new STM32F4

es o microcontrollers eaturing a 32-

ARM Cortex-M4 core. The kit includes

ST-LINK/V2 embedded tool or rapid

ugging and programming; a MEMS

tion sensor; a MEMS digital microphone

s audio DAC with integrated class D

aker driver; indicator LEDs; pushbuttons;

a USB OTG micro-AB connector.

Web search term: STM32F4DISCOVERY

PANASONIC EEU-FR1 SERIESRadial leaded aluminiumelectrolytic capacitors.

nPanasonics latest EEU-FR1 series

capacitors eature ultra-Low ESR and long-

lie (up to 10,000 hours at 105C) thanks to

the use o improved material technology.

They are suitable or switching mode

adaptors, line noise removal and other

products with long lietime requirements.

RS Web search term: EEUFR1C

NXP LPC11XX SERIES M0CORTEX PROCESSORSCortexM0 microcontrollerswith lowest active power andsuperior code density.

n Built around the Cortex-M0 architecture,

the smallest, lowest power, and most

energy-ecient ARM core ever developed,

these microcontrollers are a low-cost

alternative or use in many traditional

8/16-bit applications. The devices oer

high perormance, low power, a simple

instruction set and memory addressing

together with reduced code size

compared to 8/16-bit architectures.

RS Web search term: LPC1111

GILENT DC POWER SUPPLY031A (2x 30V/6A; 5V/3A);032A (2x 60V/3A; 5V/3A).

he U803XA rom Agilent Technologies is a high watt manual

wer supply. It consists o 2 variable and 1 xed channel

vering high power. The analogue ront panel programming

vides pre-arranged power setting and easy single button

cution. Aimed at customers working within electronics

nuacturing, education and electrical manuacturing, eatures

ude dual-channel LCD or voltage and current, excellent load

ulation (0.01% +/- 2 mV), low output noise o 1 mVrms

mVrms typical), and ast < 50 usec transient response.

Web search term: U8031A & U8032A

BOURNS CRM2512SERIES PULSE RESISTANTPOWER RESISTORVery wide resistance range.

nThe CRM2512 Series is a thick lm

power resistor with a rating o 2 watts

in a standard 2512 chip ormat. This

product has a very wide resistance range

making it suitable or applications in

power supply circuits including current

sensing and inrush current limiting.

RS Web search term: CRM2512

HARTING HARAXCIRCULAR CONNECTORSM12L shielded 2103 series.

nHartings modular RJ Ethernet connector

system provides a reliable data connection

in industrial and harsh environments. Based

on one o the smallest RJ45 Ethernet

cables to which 22 AWG cable can be

connected, the system allows or quick

eld assembly in less than one minute.

RS Web search term: 2103 281

TE CONNECTIVITY DPL12 SERIESVersatile range o 12mm horizontal rotaryLED encoders oers many options.

nAimed at applications such as power supplies, inverters and servo

systems, The range oers LED colour options, snap-in and PCB mountable

versions, knurled or fatted plastic shat types, contacts 100mohm

max rated at 0.5mA 5VDC, optional push switch rated at 10mA 5VDC,

single LED or non switch types and dual LED or switched types.

RS Web search term: DPL12SH

STMICROELECTRONICSSTM32F4 ARM CORTEX M4CORE MICROPROCESSOR168MHz ARM CortexM4with DSP and FPU.

nThe STM32F4 microcontroller amily

enables developers to leverage the

advanced signal-processing capabilities and

increased speed o the ARM Cortex-M4

processor with Floating Point Unit (FPU),

thus widening applications to the digital

signal controller (DSC) market. The

devices are suited to compute-intensive

applications including point-o-sale,

industrial automation, transportation, test

and measurement, medical, security,

consumer and communications.

RS Web search term: STM32F4

MICROCHIP PIC32MXAUDIO DEVELOPMENTBOARD32bit microcontrollerbaseddevelopment kit or thecreation o highquality24bit audio applications.

nMicrochips audio Development Board

eatures its 80 MIPS PIC32 MCU, a

24-bit Wolson audio codec, a two-inch

colour LCD, a USB interace, and an

onboard microphone. The kit provides a

fexible platorm or the development o

audio recording and playback products,

and oers USB digital audio, MP3

decode and sample rate conversion.

RS Web search term: DM320011

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eTech ISSUE 9 eTech I

n the entrylevel opensourceembedded community

The competition or hearts and minds in the opensource embedded development community continuespace with microcontroller (MCU) vendors building upeir respective online communities. So what are theading entrylevel, opensource development boards?ch has a growing community, which appear at leastbe increasingly driven by customers and less by the

CU or board manuacturers. The our boards underamination Kinetis, mbed, Arduino and BeagleBoard

oer reasonably dierent levels o unctionality and areositioned at varying price points.

netise Kinetis boards are based on Freescale

miconductors amily o 32-bit ARM

tex-M4 based MCUs and are general-

pose development systems aimed

range o embedded applications.

e boards are available as stand-alone

cessor modules, or as part o a kit

used in combination with a varietyperipheral boards, such as serial

nectivity (USB, Ethernet RS232/485),

2.11b WiFi, memory and LCD modules.

e Kinetis boards are ully compatible

h Freescales Tower System platorm,

ch enables the peripheral modules to

connected to the main processor board

additional backplane elevator boards.

e TWR-K60N512 module, or example, is

ontroller module that works as a stand-

alone tool; or it can connect to peripheral

modules. The board eatures the Kinetis K60

32-bit low-power Cortex-M4 based MCU.

System power can be delivered via the

onboard mini-USB connector, which also

provides the debug interace to an on-board

open-source JTAG (OSJTAG) IC. IDE sotware

and training materials are also included inthe basic controller module package.

The platorm is likely to be attractive to

those requiring a reasonably powerul

development system at an initial aordable

cost, but also one that is fexible and can

easily be expanded. The platorms modular

approach means it can meet the needs o

the entry-level user up to perhaps the smaller

companies that are engaged in signicantly

more advanced MCU development, but

with no access to expensive development

systems. It also means that the entire system

does not have to be replaced each time

the manuacturer launches a new MCU.

As the platorm comes rom a major

semiconductor vendor, user support is strong

in addition to widely available resources viathe third-party ARM ecosystem. The platorm

has a growing online community, available

at www.towergeeks.org, including access

to documentation and user orums.

ArduinoIn many ways the Arduino has been the trailblazer or low-cost open-

source development. Initially aimed at the hobbyist market, Smart

Projects, the maker o the very small low-cost boards, devised

a standard in terms o connectors, so various peripheral boards

called Shields could be mounted on top o the main Arduino PCB,

including the Motor Shield, which enables the control o DC motors

and read encoders, and the Ethernet Shield or connectivity.

The Arduino phenomenon went worldwide and now many small

companies also now make their own Arduino-compatible boards includin

the same connector layout, allowing the plug-in o Shields. The Arduino

is supported by its users and via orums, available at arduino.cc, rather

than its manuacturer, which has extremely limited application support,

thereore greatly limiting the boards potential use at larger companies.

The Arduino is primarily based on simple Atmel 8-bit AVR amily MCUs,

so it can perorm basic control unctions, but limited memory limits its

capabilities. The Arduino Uno board, or example, is a board based on th

ATmega328 MCU. It contains everything needed to support the MCU a

can be powered via the USB, a battery or external power adapter.

The open-source IDE can be downloaded or ree, which also runs unde

MS-Windows, Macintosh OSX and Linux operating systems. Arduino is

the exception in the our in that it is not an ARM-based MCU platorm.

Treadingthe Boards

Dr William Marshallentral Content Editor Semiconductors

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

10/25

eTech ISSUE 9 eTech I

bedsigned, introduced, and continually supported, by ARM, mbed is

mall and cheap open-source sotware based module designed

rapid MCU prototyping. The module enables a quick and easy

oduction to the normally expensive area o ARM core processing

educational purposes and other entry-level usage. It is positioned

meet the needs o those who may be exploring embedded

elopment or the rst time up to proessional embedded engineers.

e current implementation o the mbed board is based on an NXP

C1768 ARM Cortex-M3 MCU with interaces including Ethernet,

B, CAN, SPI and I2C. Available in a 40-pin DIP module, the board

e is only 44mm x 26mm and can be optionally powered via

USB port. The MBED module can achieve quite a lot with its

sonably powerul Cortex-M3 core, which is ast becoming the

ustry-standard low- to mid-range core or general-purpose MCU.

e module itsel does not have much peripheral interacing capability,

undamentally its a processor with a USB interace to a PC.

e unique element about mbed is the development tools that

based entirely in the cloud, and are eectively ree, with user

e being written and compiled in an online-based IDE (integrated

elopment environment). A user can buy the kit and register it at

ed.org, and then store their programs on the website, which alsoudes blogs, orums, user-contributed program libraries and other

elopment resources. Another advantage is it can be plugged into

web-connected computer, and programs can be downloaded

edited without the need or any PC sotware installation.

e disadvantage, o course, is that companies will not want

r preciously developed sotware out there on the web. So

annot be recommended or serious product development,

ecially at the latter stages o production, and they will need to

n to high-end proessional sotware and debugging tools.

iQ MotorEuropes largest motor and an manuacturer,

have created the iQ motor, which delivers

energy savings between 65-90%, and can

be installed quickly and cost eectively to

upgrade applications currently tted with Q

motors. From the outside the iQ motor is

visually the same as the standard Q motor,

however, that is where the similarities end.

Inside it is completely dierent and uses

cutting edge technology including a highly

ecient, energy saving EC motor, with

intelligent open and closed loop control. The

iQ motor provides the perect replacement

alternative to the out-dated Q motor. Using

permanent magnet motors with a direct

motor (DC), the iQ is more ecient than

the Qs synchronous (AC) motor, oering

average eciency savings o 70%.

RS Web search term: 714-2139

Compact Axial Fanebm-papst has introduced the new 2200F an

which oers a 65% higher cooling capacity,

a lower noise level and reduced power

consumption than ans traditionally installed

within servers, switch cabinets, and drives.

The new 2200F compact axial an solves

such cooling problems through its totally new

an development technology. 2200F delivers

improved perormance, lower noise pollution

and is contained within a smaller package

than that o previous generations. By reducing

the size o the compact an and its thickness,

ebm-papst has achieved a 65% higher cooling

capacity. However, this reduction in size

has not compromised perormance, instead

increasing it by 30%. Using fuid dynamic

modelling, a new axial an impeller was

developed or the 2200F, which increased

perormance and reduced noise levels by

8 decibels, while still delivering 30% more

airfow and continuing to use less energy. To

complement the impeller, a new motor with

a unique skew slot angle and commutation

sotware was designed, lowering motor noise

and running consumption, with an overall

design that achieves 85% motor eciency.

RS Web search term: 740-6376

imaxx Series ACii-maxx AC compact an is set to rev

the industry by overtaking traditiona

compact ans as the preerred choic

control cabinets, rerigeration techn

and lter ans. Unlike traditional AC

ans, the i-maxx is able to achieve u

energy savings, oers 70% longer

lie, is up to 8 decibels quieter and i

hal the weight. The new i-maxx ser

4400 represents the rst energy e

ully mechanical compatible alternat

the out-dated 120mm AC compact

achieving the same perormance an

unctions, without any compromise

product oers complete integration

transormer drive electronics into th

hub, which was made possible by o

the motor sensor-less commutation

by using newly designed electronic

use o enhanced aerodynamics, in

to the motor optimisation within the

i-maxx an, urther improves perorm

and the use o sickle blades and win

has reduced noise and improved e

when compared with traditional AC

RS Web search term:740-6389

BeagleBoardThe BeagleBoard was also designed to address the

open-source community. Texas Instruments originally

developed the board or use in educational institutions,

enabling students to learn about open source hardware

and sotware capabilities. However, the BeagleBoard

has evolved and is certainly at the top end, delivering

high-end perormance and expandability but it does

come attached with an accordingly higher price tag.

The new BeagleBoard-xM System is based on the

TI DaVinci DM3730 digital media processor, which

is compatible with TIs AM37x Sitara ARM-based

microprocessors. The DM3730 integrates a high-end 1GHz

super-scalar ARM Cortex-A8 core and a high-perormance

audio/video accelerator subsystem, based on an 800MHz

VLIW TMS320C64x+ DSP and video hardware accelerators.

The chip also includes a 3D graphics accelerator, in addition

to plenty o memory. While not all the eatures supplied by

the processor are accessible rom the BeagleBoard, the

system can be extended to add more eatures and interaces.

The board, which can optionally take power via the USB

OTG, includes a our-port high-speed USB 2.0 hub and 10/100Ethernet connectivity and a host o multimedia interaces and

connectors, including DVI-D or digital computer monitors and

high-denition TVs, S-Video (TV out) and stereo audio I/O.

The BeagleBoard is not intended by the manuacturer as a

ully embedded-development platorm, but is designed to

allow users to experience the perormance o its processors

and also to grow its community o designers. But given

its power and sophistication, especially its ability to handle

A/V processing, it could be used rom the entry-level

user up to low-end industrial application development.

Like the Kentics Tower, the platorm comes rom

a major chip vendor, so user support is good and

resources are available via the ARM ecosystem. The

online community is available at beagleboard.org.

FIND IT:or more inormation onommunity boards visit

www.rscomponents.com/evelopmentkits

Share your views...www.designspark.com/etech

Its Cool To Be Green

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Share your views...www.designspark.com/etech

eTech ISSUE 9 eTech I

there is a semiconductor area considered a commodity, itsmemory. Certainly its the area that receives the most columnches. The rising or alling average selling price o whicheverAM chip that is in highest demand at the time is usually

ed as a bellwether or the overall semiconductor industry.

arkets and Manuacturersthe business ront, the semiconductor market is currently worth around

00 billion per year, and memory chips take a signicant slice o that pie; but

an extremely volatile share rom year to year. The costs or a manuacturer to

y in the market are high, the margins are increasingly slender, and prots are

en only made in the good years, unless you happen to be the market leader,

haps. The industry has a decreasing number o major players those that have

ater than 5% market share anyway with the past decade or so having seen

me serious consolidation o memory suppliers. It happened rst in DRAM,

in the past ew years, theres been a shake out in the leading manuacturers

non-volatile memories (NVM), which or the most part means Flash.

ocess, Architecture and Interconnectthe technology ront, a major challenge in memory chip development is to

p pace with the increasing perormance o microprocessors and deliver

ter and lower power-consuming memories. Increasing pressure is

unting on the memory makers to make improvements in architectures

to move to smaller process nodes, although o course memory

always been at the driving edge o silicon process development.

e necessary economics o technology shrinking has meant leading

AM manuacturers are now beginning production at the 30nm

de, with some vendors now sampling devices at 25nm. In NAND

sh, the most common type o Flash memory used or data storage

olid-state drives, USB Flash drives and multimedia memory

ds, leading manuacturers are now starting production o 64-Gbit

mories in process technologies ranging rom 20 to 30nm.

ovative memory architectures and structures are also required

h 3D memory technologies becoming increasingly important: at the

hnology process level, with DRAM memory cells being engineered in

structures, and at the silicon die level with the stacking o DRAM die

ng TSVs (Through-Silicon-Via) interconnects to meet the demands or

h density. And the advanced development o 3D NAND Flash memories

h vertical gate structures, oering high endurance and high reliability, is

easingly being seen to be a realistic prospect in the next year or so.

other issue in the industry is the potential o next-generation high-throughput

erconnect standard. In early 2011, JEDEC announced the Universal Flash

rage (UFS) standard, which is designed to be the most advanced specication

both embedded and removable Flash-based memory storage.

The semiconductor

market is currentlyworth around $300billion per year.

Memory FuturesLooking intothe Crystal or?

driven by increasingdemand or ast and lowpower memory in smart mobileconsumer devices such astablets and smartphones.

The standard has been specically tailored or mobile

applications and computing systems requiring high

perormance and low power consumption.

Flash Growth and Replacements?

Currently the Flash market is experiencing stronggrowth, largely driven by increasing demand or ast

and low-power memory in smart mobile consumer

devices such as tablets and smartphones. According

to 2010 data rom market analyst IHS iSuppli, the

leading memory technology or mobile applications

in the next ew years will be NAND Flash. It was

expected to account or around hal o the total

memory revenue in 2011 in mobile products, ollowed

by DRAM taking approximately one-third o the

market and NOR Flash memory taking the rest. As

a side note, none o this should diminish the role o

the traditional hard-disk drive that is delivering ever

increasing high-density storage capacities and is

not expected to be exiting the portable computing,

server or mobile consumer markets anytime soon.

Although it is unlikely to happen in the immediate

uture, with plenty o lie let in Flash as it continues

to scale, perhaps some o the most interesting

developments taking place in memory technology

today are the many possible long-term replacements

or Flash or standalone and embedded applications.

The leading contenders oer several advantages

over Flash, such as 100 times aster read/write times

and signicantly higher write cycle endurance:

Phase-Change Memory (PCM) data is gene

when various levels o current are applied to t

like material in PCM, changing the materials p

structure between crystalline and amorphous

As current can be delivered at variable levels,

could allow data storage o more than one bit

Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FeR

or FRAM)behaves similarly to DRAM in that allows random access to each individual bit o

read and write operations. It has a cell capacit

uses a erroelectric material in which an electr

eld can be applied to polarise the material.

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory

(MRAM)and the second-generation MRAM,called SST-MRAM (Spin Transer Torque MRA

uses magnetic storage elements. The technol

promises the potential replacement o not jus

Flash, but also DRAM and SRAM memories.

Resistive RAM (RRAM) technology is based

the electronic switching (current or voltage ind

o a resistor element material between two st

resistive states (low/high). Research institute

predicts that RRAM devices with a stacked st

could enter into the market at 11nm. It believe

Flash will scale as ar as 20nm, with SONOS

(Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon) Flash as a

intermediate step at 17nm and 14nm nodes.

FIND IT:www.rscomponents.com/memory

Mark Cundle, Technical Marketing Manager

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

12/25

Declining protability olargesize LCD panelsJapans LCD panel manuacturers are being

obliged to make a turnaround in their

respective strategies. Since the turn o the

century, despite the emerging need or

small-to-medium sized LCD panels or high-unctionality mobile phones, camcorders,

digital still cameras, satnav products, PDAs

and so on, the global LCD market hasgenerally revolved around the competitionto develop and produce large-size panels

or TVs. Now, more than a decade into the

new century, these products are being

supplied in large quantities, with SouthKorean and Taiwanese manuacturers

leading the feld. China, too, has begun

stepping up production to meet its own

domestic consumption - it is becoming selsufcient in this respect, standing at 39%

in 2011, and likely to rise beyond 100% in

2013. An obvious outcome o this high level

o volume production worldwide will be a

all in proftability or manuacturers

in this sector. Growth has levelled

o and prices are already alling orTV LCD panels up to 40 inches.

This contrasts sharply with the

rocketing demand or small-to-medium size high-defnition displays

or smartphones, tablets, 3D displays,

electronic paper and many others. For

example, the markets or smartphone LCDsand tablet displays are increasing at 51%

and 33% per year, respectively. Citing just

one example why, the production volume

in 2012 or Apples iPad is expected to reach

between 80 million and 100 million units.

Sharp ramps up, while rivalsestablish a new company

Japans LCD panel manuacturers arekeenly aware o this global market change

and have responded by adjusting course,

veering away rom the large and toward

the small-to-medium size panels.

Sharp, a leading Japanese manuacturer

o LCD panels, used to make panels o

all sizes, but its Kameyama No.1 and 2Plants, previously used or large-size TV-

screen panels, are now being turned over

to the production o small - to - medium

size panels. The large-panel production

equipment at Plant No.1 has already

been sold to a Chinese manuact

Were going to shit our LCD opinto a high-growth business feld

Sharps President, Miko Katayam

a press conerence held to annou

the companys restructuring movWe wont battle in a market whe

the victors cant even turn a prof

Meanwhile, three other companihave become leaders in making s

- to - medium size LCD panels To

Mobile Display, Hitachi Displays a

Mobile Display and Panasonic a

merge their operations and estabnew company, provisionally nam

Display KK, that will specialise in

displays. The merger will be com

Q2 2012 with a sales target o 750

yen or Japan Display to be achieFY2016 (ending March 2016). The

perormance o the three compan

2010 represents as much as 22%,o global demand; so Japan Disp

to become the de acto worlds l

manuacturer o small - to - medi

LCD panels. A company known a

Innovation Network Corporation (INCJ) is also playing a part in this

Japans Display IndustryShis Towards Smaller LCDs

Continue

Faced with the rapidly growingdemand or smalltomedium sizedhighdenition displays or smartphones,tablets and other smart mobileproducts, LCD panel manuacturers inJapan are now shiing their businessocus away rom larger display panelsand towards smaller ones.

eTech IeTech ISSUE 9

By Mr. Hideaki Sakazume

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

13/25

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unched in 2010, the INCJ is government

cked, having received 82 billion yengovernment investment, plus another

billion yen o capital rom the private

tor. The president o Japan Display

o be hired rom outside o the threenders, and 70% o its voting-rights

ares will be held by the INCJ. So, the

rger amounts to something approaching

ational policy measure. Leadingmiconductor manuacturers in Japan

ve already set precedents or this type

merger. Examples include the company

w known as Elpida Memory Inc., ormedm the merged DRAM operations o NEC,

achi and Mitsubishi, and semiconductor

nuacturer Renesas Electronicsrporation, also ormed rom the same

ee companies.

veraging technological superiorityhe words o INCJ CEO Kimikazu Noumi:

With small-to-medium size displays, they to growth lies in technologies that add

ue by raising defnition, widening the

wing angle and lowering the power

nsumption. This is where Japansnuacturers can leverage their world-

ss levels o technological muscle.

e big question is whether Japans

nuacturers can make use o theirque leading-edge technology to become

minant in this sector; which are the

tinctive leading-edge technologies

portant to small and medium sizeplays. LCD panel technology can be

adly divided into two strands: the frst

ncerns the displays themselves, and the

ond relates to the Thin-Film TransistorsTs) that drive the displays.

king the overall display strand frst: a

hnology called In-Plane Switching (IPS)

nown to be predominant. In IPS, whichs developed by Hitachi, not only are the

ve transistors built-in with the electrical

d parallel to the substrate, the liquid

stals themselves are also horizontallyentated, eliminating the need or

ctrodes on the glass substrate through

ich the light passes. In an IPS display,

ike a Twisted-Nematic (TN) displaya Vertical-Alignment (VA) display, the

uid crystal molecules are not orientated

tically vis--vis the glass substrate.

s results in a panel with superior photo-

nment properties: or example, there

are minimal variations in brightness and

colour depending on the viewing angle.IPS displays are also resistant to pressure,

which enables them to be used or touch-

panel screens. As is well known, the Apple

iPhone 4 uses an IPS panel called a RetinaDisplay. However, horizontal alignment

o the crystals is not unique to Japanese

manuacturers, as there are similar

technologies such as Fringe Field Switching(FFS), which is used by the Taiwanese

company Hydis.

Another promising panel technology

is organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs). However, when it comes to

commercialising OLEDs, the major players

are rom South Korea, such as Samsung,

which have overtaken the Japanesecompanies.

The second important technology element

relates to Thin-Film Transistors (TFTs).Probably the most important actor is the

rat o technologies surrounding Low-

Temperature Polysilicon (LTPS). Most o

todays small-to-medium sized displays

employ TFTs using amorphous silicon.However, or products requiring high

defnition, such as smartphones, orming

displays using LTPS is advantageous and

increasingly proftable. This is becausethe charge mobility o polysilicon is

signifcantly higher than that o amorphous

silicon. So the TFTs can be downsized.

Incidentally, the low temperature inlow-temperature polysilicon reers to

the act that the TFTs can be ormed at

temperatures lower than 650 degrees C,

which is the deormation temperature

o the glass substrate o the LCD. Thisallows TFTs to be ormed on the substrate,

enabling higher defnition. However, once

again, LTPS technology is not unique to

Japanese manuacturers.

Another signifcant actor concerningTFTs is the advancement o technologies

relating to materials. A prime exampleis transparent amorphous oxide

semiconductors (TAOS). Sharp, or

example, has developed a technology or

manuacturing Gen 8 (2160 x 2460 mm)

IGZO panels, which it will, according tothe company, supply or use in tablet PCs.

IGZO is a variety o TAOS whose principal

constituents are indium, gallium and zinc.

In addition to its high charge-mobility, aspecial eature o IGZO is its permeability

to visible light when in thin-flm orm, and

can thereore be used to make flm that is

almost transparent.

Another string to Sharps bow is continuousgrain silicon (CGS) technology. In CGS,

the silicon crystals in the LTPS are aligned

regularly, which raises the charge mobility

to approximately 600 times that o

amorphous silicon, and about our timesthat o LTPS, attaining a speed close to that

o single-crystalline silicon. Using CGS,

other circuits can also be mounted on the

LCD substrate. Arguably, this technologyholds great potential or developing a

system-on-chip with an integral display.

Sharp recently indicated its intention to use

CGS or smartphone displays.

In light o these acts, Japans displaymakers appear well equipped with a

number o leading-edge technologiesor small-to-medium sized LCD panels.

However, this does not necessarily mean

these technologies are unique enough

or Japan to establish overwhelming

dominance in the ace o internationalcompetition. Peripheral technologies

also have a large part to play. These

include technologies relating to glass

and other materials, abrication devices,techniques such as lithography, along

with technologies or testing and

evaluation. Having changed course

to ocus on small-to-medium sizeLCDs, Japans manuacturers will need

to consider all these actors when

predicting what lies ahead. One thing is

certain: it will not be plain sailing.

ontinued from page 21

eTech ISSUE 9

FIND IT:www.rscomponents.com/displays

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

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Ian Bromley, Marketing Engineer

Download...DesignSpark PCB from

www.designspark.com/pcb

Estimates are not easy to make, but certainly the cost is

high in the industry overall i PCB design teams worldwide

are recreating parts libraries or their specifc CAD tools,duplicating much o the same work. Each time a manuacturer

introduces a new component, it gets built into libraries at

hundreds or thousands o dierent companies and in many

dierent ways. Competitive advantage is crucial obviously,but rom an end-user companys point o view, does a

proprietary component data library really create that much-

needed competitive edge, especially when combined with

all the other dierentiators oered by a creative design?

Seeking a standard

So what are the chances o agreement on an industry-standard ormat or easy component data library exchange,

or even a global o-the-shel component library? There isno widely accepted industry standard that defnes all o

the pin inormation or a component, in addition to its size,

or entry into a layout tool, ultimately achieving urther

automation o the PCB design and manuacturing process. Itsunderstood that the design tools community, the component

manuacturers and companies involved in PCB design

will all have dierent interests. Component manuacturers

regularly change package types and also have a tendency

to opt or unique packaging or many products, hopingto eliminate competition with the aim o achieving single-

source supply. And generally, manuacturers have not yet

ound the motivation to provide their data in the dierent

available CAD tool ormats. CAD vendors, also perhaps,have insufcient motivation to support a standard library

ormat; internally developed extensive libraries are product

dierentiators. Additionally, many o the larger global design

and manuacturing companies also consider it a dierentiatorand library management to be a cost worth swallowing.

However, there is a great deal o motivation rom end users,

generally, but it is difcult to accomplish because CAD

vendors implement libraries in dierent ways. So translatingthe data is a serious challenge and individual companies and

users fnd themselves building libraries time and again.

Proposals in the pastOver the years there have been standards proposed and

introduced, such as IPC-SM-782 (Surace Mount Design and

Land Pattern Standard), developed by the IPC in the 1980s and

early 1990s. The IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global trade associationthat represents around 3000 electronics companies involved

in PCB design, manuacturing, assembly and test. The latest

incarnation o the successor to IPC-SM-782 is IPC-7351B.

Based on this standard, sotware tools are available rom manyvendors that oer land pattern calculators and generators

or the creation o new part libraries. But, the take-up is

certainly not widespread. There have also been

other attempts over the years, competing with proposals, but all doomed to insignifcance, thu

In all probability, i a standard is to emerge, it w

a groundswell o the smaller design companies

their increasing use o component search engin

available at global electronics distributor webs

The Ultra Librarian SolutionOne company that is oering a ast emerging s

is Accelerated Designs. The company oers a tool caLibrarian (UL), which is capable o storing vendor-ne

descriptions o ootprint and schematic symbols, in a

to industry-accepted pad geometry calculations or ve

specifed pad geometries. According to Accelerated many CAD companies have aided in the developmen

tool enabling it to export data in the most usable orm

a number o leading semiconductor companies are a

using the tools to deliver both ootprint and symbols

Widely available or ree download, the UL Reader, a

o the Ultra Librarian toolset, can generate, import an

components and their attributes, via vendor-neutral

fles, in virtually any PCB schematic layout package. Dootprints generated by the UL Reader are actually ba

on the IPC-7351 specifcation. Additionally, end users

modiy the standards used to build the component s

and ootprints to match their own internal standards purchasing an upgrade to the Ultra Librarian suite.

Bigger than the sum o itHowever, all the various interested parties o the PCB

ecosystem will need to co-ordinate in the flow o parCrucially important in this process are the semicondu

manuacturers and their willingness to provide comp

in an open interchange ormat. I made available, the

electronics component distributors will be able to proeasy access to basic part data or CAD tools. As an ex

the DesignSpark website, supporting the popular De

PCB design tool, now oers bxl ormat libraries rom

manuacturers such as STMicroelectronics and MicroAnd, at that point, the global distributor website beco

highly signifcant library resource or design enginee

Component Librariesand the Challengeso Cooperation

A component library is obviously a core unctionalelement in a CAD PCBdesign tool. Without itwell a car doesnt go without uel. A rather cheapanalogy perhaps, but it leads sharply to: who isresponsible or producing the library? The shortanswer mostly appears to be: the end user, ashas been the case ever since the developmentand introduction o electronic design tools.

eTech IeTech ISSUE 9

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

15/25

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Figure 1. The circuit or the simple headphoneuses easy to get components

(one channel shown).

Figure 2. The completed circuit is stilcompact despite the lack o SMDs.

eTech ISSUE 9 eTech I

here have o course been numerous designs orheadphone ampliers beore this one, either

ore or less successul and simpler or moreaborate. The design presented in this article isaightorward, sounds quite good and can beilt using wellestablished components.

Stean Dellemann (Germany)

LOW-COST HEADPHONE AMPMusic to your ears

These days its not that easy to nd a

separate headphone amplier in the

shops. They do exist, especially in the hi-

world, but they come with a matching

price tag. The design presented here

comes in a bit below these high-end

circuits, but can be built using easily

obtainable components and still managesto have quite a good sound quality.

The circuitThe circuit could be described as a type o

power-amp, built with discrete components

(see Figure 1). At the input we nd a

volume control (P1, which is connected

via a header) and a coupling capacitor (C1),

ollowed by a dierential amplier (T1, T2)

with a constant current source (T3) in the

emitter branch. The preset between T1 and

T2 (P2) is used to set the symmetry, or in

other words, the output voltage is set to

0 volt DC compared to ground. For the

best sound quality we should have the

same collector current fowing through

both transistors. This can be seen rom

voltages at test points F and G in the

circuit diagram, which are nearly equal.

The input oset across R1 is caused

by the base current fowing into T1.

This causes the voltage at point A

(V(A)) to be slightly negative. A quick

measurement o the prototype showed

that the base current into T1 was about

3 A. Without the oset compensation

provided by trimpot P2 the output

oset voltage VO would exceed 0 .2 V:

VO = (1 + R6/R5) V(A)

VO = (1 + 10/1.5) 0.028 = 0.215 V

The oset can thereore be removed

by setting the dierential amplier

to operate slightly asymmetrically.

Although this isnt the best method as

ar as the sound quality is concerned,

it does keep the circuit much simpler.

Constant current settingsThe current source in the emitter

branch (T3) is set to about 3 mA

with diodes D1, D2 and resistor

R4, which results in T4 being

driven as linearly as possible.

The audio signal then makes its way

to the driver stage, T4, which drives

the more powerul output transistors

(T6 and T7). C4 has been added

to provide a greater internal gain.

The quiescent current in the output

stage is set to about 5 mA with T5

and R9. Assuming a gain (hFE) o 50

in the output transistors, this 5 mA

could theoretically provide a linear

0.005 A5032 = 8 Vpeak into

32. However, some limitations are

introduced by constant current source

T5 and the voltage drop across the

base-emitter junction o T7 (about1.5 V). We should al so take acc ount

o the voltage divider around R11 and

R12 (R10 and R12) in the calculations.

The maximum voltage Vmax across

the load (RL) then becomes

Vmax = RL / (RL + R11

+ R12) (9 1.5)

Vmax = 4.6 Vpeak

This corresponds to about 3.26 Vrms,

which is what we measured, as you

can see in the specications. This

means that the circuit can deliver

(3.262/32) = 330 mW into 32 ,

which should be enough to keep

most pop and rock ans happy.

Resistor R12, which ollows the

output stage, limits the output current

and keeps the circuit stable when a

capacitive load is connected, such as a

long shielded cable to the headphones.

This prevents the output transistors

rom overheating when there is a

short circuit. R10 and R11 keep things

symmetric. Despite the value o C2

in the eedback circuit, the bandwidth

is still much greater than the audio

bandwidth (see the specications). To

obtain a low corner requency at the

input we used 4.7 F or C1. A capacitor

o 2.2 F (which is easier to obtain)still results in an acceptable corner

requency o 7 Hz (0.6 dB at 20 Hz).

The measurements rom one o our

prototypes are shown in the circuit

diagram. These should be seen as

guideline values rather than as exact

requirements. The PN junctions

and the gain o the transistors

can o course vary depending

on the manuacturer (this also

applies to the current consumption

given in the specications).

ExperimentingFor those o you who dont mind a

little bit more noise (although it will still

be inaudible with most headphones),

you can increase the impedance o

the eedback loop to about 10 k. This

can be achieved by increasing R5 and

R6 in the parallel circuit to 10 k. In

this case the base currents o T1 and

T2 will compensate each other. I you

like experimenting you can replace

R5 with a resistor o 12 k and R6

with a resistor o 68 k (perectionists

should use 11.5 k and 76.8 k rom

the E96 series). It is unlikely that thisoers an audible improvement, but

there may be a smaller oset this way.

ConstructionA small printed circuit board has

been designed or this circuit (see

Figure 2), which can be ordered via

[1]. From here you can also download

the board layout in PDF ormat. The

component layout is shown in Figure 3.

As usual, construction is easiest

Input impedance (without P1) 10 k

Bandwidth 3.4 Hz 2.4 MHz

THD + Noise (1 kHz, 1 mW/33) 0.005 % (B = 22 kHz)

THD + Noise (20 Hz - 20 kHz, 1 mW/33 ) 0.01 % (B = 80 kHz)

Signal to noise ratio (ref. 1 mW/33 ) 89 dB (B = 22 kHz)92 dBA

Max. voltage (into 33) 3.3 V (THD+N = 0.1 %)

Max. input voltage 0.57 V (with P1 set to maximum volume)

Current consumption 19 mA

Specicationsoutput load: 33, supply voltage: 9 V)

Continued page 28 >

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eTech ISSUE 9

i you start soldering the lowest

components (resistors, diodes) and

then continue mounting increasingly

higher components (capacitors,

transistors, connection pins).

You will need two boards or a stereo

version, in which case P1 has to be

replaced with a stereo potentiometer,

so that the volume can be controlled

on both channels simultaneously. I

your audio source already includes

a volume control, you can leave

out P1 (put a jumper on the header

or solder a wire link on the board

rom pin 1 and pin 2 o the header

instead o the actual header).

The input impedance o our

suggested circuit (which includes

P1) has a minimum o 5 k (P1 set

to maximum volume). This shouldnt

be a problem or most modern

audio sources. Take note o the pin

spacing o decoupling capacitor

C1; the board accommodates5 mm and 7.5 mm versions.

For the power supply you could use

two 9V batteries. Alternatively, a

2x6 V, 5 VA transormer with a 1.5 A

bridge rectier and 8200 F/16 V

per supply rail is another option. This

could optionally be supplemented

with a pair o voltage regulators.

The output transistors (T6 en T7)

probably dont need heatsinks

in practice, although a small

heatsink will make sure that

they will be short circuit proo.

We decided to build this circuit into

an Elektor ProjectCase [2]. This is

very easy to do and it gives it a

distinctive look and a good view o

the electronics (see Figure 4).(100701)

Internet Links[1] www.elektor.com/100701[2] www.elektor.com/100500

Component Listesistors RS Stock No.1,R6 = 10k 707-8300

2,R3 = 1k 707-8221

4 = 270 707-8189

5 = 1.5k 707-8246

7 = 4.7k 707-8280

8,R9 = 150 707-8167

10,R11,R12 = 10 707-8063

1 = 10k See Connector P1

2 = 100 trimpot 652-4502

Capacitors RS Stock No.1 = 4.7F, lead pitch 5mm or 7.5mm 483-3955

2 = 6.8pF, lead pitch 5mm 495-622

3 = 10pF, lead pitch 5mm 538-1360

4,C5,C6 = 100F 16V radial 707-5809

emiconductors RS Stock No.1,D2,D3,D4 = 1N4148 544-3480

1,T2,T3,T5 = BC550C 545-2254

4 = BC560C 545-2484

6 = BD139 314-1823

7 = BD140 314-1817

Miscellaneous RS Stock No.onnection or P1 = 3-way socket strip, lead pitch 0.1 251-8092

1 = 2-pin pinheader, lead pitch 0.1 251-8503

pcs 1.3mm diam. solder pin 631-9574

CB # 100701, see [1].

CB, order code 090190-1 www.elektor.com/090190

Figure 3. The component layout or thenorills headphone amplier.

Figure 4. The circuit has a distinctive appearance

when its built into a ProjectCase.

< Continued from page 27

Share your views...www.designspark.com/etech

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

17/25

Share your views...www.designspark.com/etech

FIND IT:www.rscomponents.com/molex

eve Keep, European Distribution Marketing ManagerMolex, on how connector leaders need to stay one

ep ahead and evolve their commodity products

Continuous Evolution oCommodity Connectors

e number o companies making commodity connector products,

h as headers and sockets, has signicantly increased in recent

rs creating pressure on prices. Molexs strategy to compete in this

rketplace is to deliver new innovations, evolving its commodity

ducts by adding new eatures that make them easier to use,

wing them to be designed in by new customers and in new

lications. Delivering higher temperature ratings or changing plating

ions or enhanced reliability and increased mating cycles, enables

to dierentiate our oering and compete not just on price alone.

crimp terminals, or example, weve added eatures such as Anti

h Hooking, so the terminals do not become tangled up when

plied in a large bag. Its small but important eatures such as these

t allow us to dierentiate ourselves. Clearly, the competition will

stand still either and will no doubt look to imitate. And, o course,

he commodity umbrella becomes wider, it should now also be

d to include USB, HDMI and FFC/FPC type connections. These

hnologies have been around or many years, but Molex continues to

e improvements to help it stay one step ahead o the competition.

other actor that can keep Molex as a market leader is itsbal manuacturing ootprint. In times o fuctuating market

ditions, allocation comes into play, which has aected

me o Molexs competition. However Molex has the ability

everage its global manuacturing machine so it can provide a

tinuous and reliable supply and maintain stable pricing to the

rket, avoiding potential large price hikes in commodities.

e metals markets will also play a signicant role, as commodity

nectors are greatly exposed to the fuctuations o metals pricing.

tals such as copper and gold make up a big proportion o the cost

he connectors, so they have a big impact on product price. Molex

ncreasingly working with metals that are less price-sensitive,

h as palladium, which is being used as an alternative to gold.

Molex is developing palladium contacts to be used in its PicoFlex

range and some modular jacks and plugs. Palladium is not subject

to such strong fuctuations in price, and also has as good i not

better electrical properties or conductivity and also or durability.

Fundamentally, its about continually evolving and improving on our

products available today to both retain and grow market share.

o paraphrase a amous political slogan rome 1990s its price, stupid. Its inevitable in our

dustry that operating margins will be increasinglyhallenged due to price pressure, especially in theea o commodity products. Additionally, the umbrellaat encompasses what are called commodities iscreasing in size to cover a wider product area.

the umbrella thatencompasses what arecalled commodities isincreasing in size to covera wider product area.

eTech ISSUE 9

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

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ELECTROEX

LECTRONICSXTRAS

eTech ISSUE 9 eTech I

48 DRAWERSTORAGE CABINETSimple cabinet which is ideal orstoring small component parts.

nCabinets can be joined together to

provide additional storage and can be

ree standing or wall mounted. Dividers

are available to segment drawers

which have a saety rim to prevent

them alling out when ully opened.

RS Web search term: 556020

DATALOGGERMeasures humidity, temperatureand dewpoint to a high accuracy.

nWith a simple USB interace or set-up

and data download. Ideal or monitoring

the perormance o environmental

test chambers and other long-term

temperature related testing.

RS Web search term: 6668166

LOW LINTING GLOVESFor electronics assemblyand inspection.

nTight tting or maximum dexterity

and tactility, with open back or

comort and breathability.

RS Web search term: polyfex white

SAFETY GLASSESLightweight spectaclesrom Boll Saety.

n Close tting design, with a sot touch

rame material and excellent eld o view.

RS Web search term: 6899617

DIGITAL CALIPERStainless hardened caliperwith 1mm digital display.

nMeasures 0 to 150mm / 6 inch with 0.01mm / 0.005

resolution. Accuracy is +- 0.02mm / 0 .001.

RS Web search term: 7255689

5-PIECE ESD SCREWDRIVER SETFor use on electrostaticallysensitive components.

n Set contains: 3x100mm slotted, 4x100mm slotted,

PH0x60mm PHILLIPS,PH1x80mm PHILLIPS

and

PH2x100mm PHILLIPS

screwdrivers.

RS Web search term: 4697096

BRASS FIXING KITRange o brass slotted panhead screws, washers and nutssupplied in a handy storage case.

n Contains over 2,000 items in

sizes ranging rom M2 to M6.

RS Web search term: 100282

ANELPILOT SMARTRAPHICS DISPLAYg n Play Programmablenel Meter storage case.

sotware programmable - via USB - 3.5 TFT ullour display that allows the designer to choose rom

eady-to-use meter styles in either landscape or

rait aspect, or design their own. Featuring a dual

0Vdc measurement input, IC interace, touch

een capability and ull input scaling unctionality the

elpilot range is the cost-eective way o adding

tomised metering to your design.

Web search term: 7048131

GILENT 34401Adigit bench multimeter.

rovides a combination o resolution,

uracy and speed or ast, accurate

ch and system testing.

Web search term: 501354

See more online Over 5,000 new products are added at www.rscomponents.com/electronics every month

8/2/2019 Ele 0034 Etech9 Em

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Continue

eTech IeTech ISSUE 9

The Arduino advantageThe answer to the question, why Arduino? is simple: cost,

community, generativity [1] and ecosystem. The Arduino

technology is low cost and boasts a large, enthusiastic

and inventive community. While the platorm and

its approach to licensing can be considered to be

generative, it has given birth to an ever growing

ecosystem o derivative and compatible hardware

and sotware. There are no licensing, partnershipor non-disclosure agreements to be signed, or ees

to be paid, and a strong culture o sharing exists.

In selecting Arduino, Google was able to make

use o legally unencumbered technology with a

low barrier to entry and an expansive ecosystem

o complementary hardware and sotware.

Accelerated adoptionThe ADK hardware that Google launched was available

at a cost o around 240 and was, by Arduino standards,

expensive. However, given that Google

provided all the design materials or the

hardware and published these under

a liberal licence, it didnt take long or a

compatible clone to appear. In act it took

around a month, dispensed with the custom

Arduino shield, and came in at a cost o

close to 50. In the months that ollowed

and in what could be considered completion

o the Open Source Hardware (OSHW)

cycle, the originators o the Arduino platorm

in-turn released their own ADK product.

It would be reasonable to assume that this

is precisely what Google had hoped or,

as the cloned and derivative boards are

also compatible with the ADK rmwareand thus Android. Would there be such

a rapid prolieration o ADK compatible

products were the technology licensed

under more restrictive terms? Unlikely.

Its all about inormationLets be clear: Google is not a hardware

company. It may run its services on

custom data centre technology and

Google branded consumer devices exist,

but the volume o hardware that the

company ships is relatively small and will only acco

tiny raction o its overall revenue. Googles stated

to, organise the worlds inormation and make it u

accessible and useul . In order to achieve this, Go

to do everything it can to drive the use o its servic

data through itsel. Thus the Android platorm is no

generating revenue rom device sales, it exists sim

extend the reach o Googles online services busin

ADK urther strengthens the Android proposition athe way or the uture Android @ Home ramewor

will add home automation capabilities to the plato

Devices and device platorms are a means to an e

generating value by underpinning a strategy to col

inormation, organise it and make it available.

A multiaceted opportunityGoogles motivations or employing Arduino in the

creation o the ADK are clear. However, its import

recognise that the OSHW opportunity is not limite

development kits or as an adjunct to online service

A key lesson rom Free/Open Source Sotware (F/

has been that business opportunities are multi-ac

and may not be obvious. For example, open sourc

used to create a market or services, drive implem

led standards or empower customers with the ab

innovate. Perhaps uniquely, it can be used to great

the cost associated with establishing a new techn

platorm, securing market share and disrupting inc

With the advent o open business models its no

longer as simple as making something, selling it a

a prot and protecting the associated intellectual

property. This traditional model still works, clearly,

but a greater number o options now exist and som

o these may be used to gain an advantage overcompetitors that have taken a simpler approach.

Open or the consumerGoogle was not the rst to recognise the opportu

or the application o OSHW technology in the

consumer space. Initiated in 2009, Homesense w

a research project that looked at how we might

design smart home s rom the bottom up.

An enabler or Android accessory developmentThe Google Accessory Development Kit (ADK) was designed

to support the prototyping o USB attached accessories or

Android devices. It serves as both a development platorm

or low power microcontroller-based accessories, and as

a reerence implementation

o the protocol used in

communications between an

Android device and accessory.

The ADK comprises two major

parts: hardware that connects

to the Android device via USB,

and supporting sotware. The

hardware consists o an Arduino

Mega 2560 that has been

extended to integrate a USB

host controller, and a custom

Arduino shield. USB host

capability is required as the vast majority o Android devices

do not support it. The Arduino shield plugs into the ADK

mainboard and provides various basic inputs and outputs,

including a joystick, LEDs and temperature and light sensors.

Communication between the device and ADK board is

acilitated by the Android Accessory Protocol. A library

or this, along with a USB host driver, are provided or

the ADK and simply drop into the Arduino development

environment. Support in Android itsel appeared in

version 3.1 o the platorm and has also been back-

ported to version 2.3.4. Sotware development is then

split across the Android application via its Sotware

Development Kit (SDK) built using, or example, the

Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

and the Arduino IDE or the ADK board rmware.

organise the worldsinormation and makeit universally accessibleand useul

Googles stated mission

Ayear ago the question, Why would Googlebe interested in a microcontroller platorm?would have been met with blank expressions.Yet in the keynote speech at the Google I/Oconerence in May 2011, the company unveiledthe Arduinobased Accessory DevelopmentKit or Android. Why is Google supportingmicrocontroller development and why chooseArduino? In this article we take a closer look atthe ADK and consider the wider opportunity orOpen Source Hardware.

By Andrew Back, Coounder, SolderPad

The Google ADK:Making MoneyBecause o Something

OpenSo

urce

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rking with selected households across Europe,

project provided them with a kit o Arduino-

mpatibleelectronic building blocks, a manual

access to a local technical expert.

008 Bug Labs launched The Bug System, described

a modular, open source system or building devices.the heart o the system is the Bugbase a small

Mpoweredcomputer that runs Linux, can be extended

a range o hardware modules, and supports the Java

en Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) ramework

Eclipse IDE or sot