Category Archives: Newsworthy

SLI: Sensing Without Touching

MEMS is revolutionizing technology, causing microminiaturization and increasing the precision of conventional solutions. Ubiquitous MEMS applications are emerging as the next most promising frontier by removing the need for touch in structured light illumination or SLI.

DLPs or digital light processors from Texas Instruments contain millions of mirrors. TI is pioneering SLI that works by projecting moving stripes of light onto objects. It then measures the deformities in the reflected patterns by reconstructing their 3-D shapes using algorithms. The biggest customers so far are OEMs that manufacture touch-free fingerprint scanners.

These scanners are different from the traditional, as they do not require the traditional ink-blotter protocol. Therefore, SLI is revolutionizing biometric, facial, dental and medical scanning by opening up a whole new frontier in DLP applications. That includes the entire range from scientific instrumentation to industrial inspection systems.

So far, TI already has OEM development kits with DLPs and algorithm libraries. These can recognize 3D shapes, contours, surfaces, discontinuities and roughness. Operating on light sources ranging from near-infrared to ultra-violet, they enable accurate, fast and non-contact 3D scanning and recognition systems.

With its new DLP LightCarrier development platform, TI will be using nearly half a million micro-mirrors for illuminating simultaneously almost anything with structured light. That will allow almost instant recognition and characterization of 3D objects without touching them.

For example, TI uses FlashScan3D in DLP technology to capture far greater detail of fingerprints with higher accuracy than any other SLI solution can. That helps in cutting down on the possibilities of technician error and fraud. Moreover, the new DLP LightCrafter can scan faster and store data internally as against on a separate storage device such as a laptop. Therefore, it helps in building even smaller and more portable SLI applications.

YoungOptics Inc. of Taiwan origin manufactures the DLP LightCrafter as a plug-n-play module for TI. YoungOptics also manufactures TI’s DLP Optical Engine for OEMs that make projection televisions. LightCrafter, along with TI’s DLP 0.3 WVGA chipset, is ready to be used by OEMs for research and development. However, it can serve as the main subsystem in their finished end-user products as well.

Along with the DLP chip that contains exactly 415,872 micro-mirrors is an ASIC or Application-Specific Integrated Circuit acting as a second custom controller. There is also a DVP or a DaVinci digital video processor with its own 128MB NAND flash memory for storing patterns, a configurable IO trigger for integrating cameras, sensors and other peripherals needed for SLI.

Users can optionally add an FPGA, thereby speeding up the SLI patterns that LightCrafter displays, making them faster up to 4,000 per second. Finally, LightCrafter is capable of generating 20 lumens of light as it has an integrated light-emitting diode array for generating red, blue and green light.

OEMs can also use embedded Linux for developing their software to run the DaVinci DVP in the LightCrafter. That makes it an evaluation module compact enough for integrating projected light for scientific, medical and industrial applications, creating faster development cycles for end equipment needing high-speed pattern display with a small form factor, intelligent and lower cost.

Microphones Are Going Digital Now

Although we live in an analog world and possess organs that work in ways more analog than digital, it is common to find that we are converting most of the signals we handle to digital forms. This is because working with numbers is more convenient and we can have more uniformity in the digital circuits that process these signals.

However, the human ear does not take kindly to numbers, appreciating music only when it hears it in the analog. Fortunately, converting digital signals to analog is not difficult. Therefore, the entire chain of processing an audio signal can be in the digital domain, except at the extremities. These would be the sensors that collect the sound signals before processing and the transducers that convert the digits to analog sound after it has been processed.

Now, people are trying to convert to digital those entities at the very extremes of the audio processing chain. The humble microphone that has journeyed from the ribbon type to the electret type is now undergoing another makeover. Texas Instruments first introduced the digital microphone as a consumer device that could connect directly to TI’s codecs, bypassing the usual analog-to-digital converter in between. Where analog microphones picked up only 5KHz of the spectrum, digital microphones can now collect information over the entire 20Hz to 20KHz audio band.

That leads to many further possibilities. With digital microphones or an array of them, not only does audio sound much better than what we are used to, we can have sophisticated noise cancelling and beam forming for tracking a user’s voice.

Conventional electret microphones use a moveable diaphragm to form a capacitor at the gate of a JFET. Sound waves moving the diaphragm cause the capacitance value to change and the charge on it to vary. The JFET converts this varying charge to voltage that is amplified by operational amplifiers before being processed further.

That does not allow the electret microphone to get very much smaller and the signals from the JFET and the operational amplifier are prone to interference and noise. By using MEMS technology, not only can the physical size of the microphone be made more suitable to that demanded by the ever-shrinking digital devices, the ADC can be incorporated within the body of the microphone itself.

Therefore, we have a tiny digital microphone that produces a digital output either in a pulse density modulated (PDM) or in I2S format. The output can directly connect to a digital IC for further processing, eliminating all the issues related to interference and noise pickup.

Among the several types of semiconductor devices, the MEMS microphone package is unique in having a hole for the acoustic energy to travel to the transducer element. Within the package, the MEMS transducer and the ASIC are bonded together, being mounted on a common laminate.

The laminate has a lid over it to enclose the transducer and the ASIC. The laminate is actually a small PCB that routes signals from the electronics to the pins on the outside of the microphone package.

A Universal Antenna for Wireless Charging

Skin effect is a physical phenomenon that limits the amount of high frequency current flowing through a wire. What happens is AC current flowing through the wire sets up local magnetic fields that impede the flow of current. Therefore, current is forced out from the central core of the wire to its periphery, increasing the current density there. Effectively, the current now flows through a smaller cross sectional area of the wire, and thereby faces more resistance. To keep the wire from heating up, it is necessary to reduce the amount of current through the wire.

Companies producing wireless chargers for mobile devices follow specific standards such as Qi, Association for Wireless Power (A4WP) and Power Matters Association (PMA) standards. Since they operate at different frequencies, battery-charging circuits have to handle different skin effects or skin temperatures. This may sometimes cause the batteries to get too hot, missing a full charge by several watts in a cycle of recharge. This happens because the high frequency currents flow only around the outer edges of the charging wire, causing charging times to increase.

To reduce the skin effect, NuCurrent has invented the ML wire. They describe the wire as equivalent to bundling hundreds of straws together for passing liquid through. With several strands of wire in parallel, and each insulated from the others, the current now flows through an optimized conductive area, based on the skin depth of a frequency. Therefore, NuCurrent can pass more current with lower resistance through such a wire.

NuCurrent has over 50 patents in areas such as circumventing the skin effect. They believe this will bring them success in the market for multi-mode wireless charging. NuCurrent produces antennas that support the different standards used by companies making wireless chargers. For this, NuCurrent uses the same coil for resonant PMA (200-300KHz) and inductive Qi (110 & 205KHz) standards. Since A4WP uses 6.78MHz, NuCurrent has to use a second resonant charging on the same board for accommodating A4WP.

NuCurrent produces antennas of higher quality and lower resistance. According to officials at NuCurrent, the higher quality factor is necessary because that achieves the necessary charging efficiency with antennas made of thinner wires. In turn, smaller antennas are useful to keep the phone or device cooler and maintain a good charging speed.

With ML wire, NuCurrent is able to make antennas as thin as 0.08mm and occupy areas as small as 12.7×12.7mm. Endowed with NFC capability, the antennas power mobile devices ranging from 50mW to 2.5W, even going up to 50W. However, these antennas are not meant for charging higher-power devices such as appliances or electric cars. The charging efficiency NuCurrent antennas offer for wearable devices and mobiles can reach up to 80%.

The Efficient Power Corporation or EPC makes transistors with Gallium Nitride instead of silicon. As NuCurrent is involved with EPC, they have used NuCurrent’s ML wire coil and demonstrated wireless power transfer that delivered 35W into a DC load while operating at 6.78MHz. NuCurrent feels the technology from A4WP is more relevant to the market today and is more likely to survive as the dominant standard for wireless charging.

SOUNDBOKS: Batteries to Power the Next Speakers

Your next portable speakers may be able to violate county noise ordinances without the necessity of them being plugged into a vehicle power inverter, a portable generator or even a wall socket. This is what Soundboks is claiming, and their speakers will be battery-powered.

Most portable speakers are limited in their size and their power output. Usually, if you want sizes and power capacity beyond those, it becomes necessary to power the speakers through AC adapters or wall plugs so they can output continuous power. That does not help when catering to outdoor gatherings, where truly wireless music at extreme volumes is the norm. With the battery-operated speakers from Soundboks, you can now expect 30-hours of nightclub-level decibels on a single charge.

In the market, one can find plenty of audiophile-grade boom-box sized speakers such as the Nano HiFi NH1 or the rugged JBL Xtreme suitable for supplying ample amounts of power for pool events, camping, or backyard cookouts. However, the portable speakers from Soundboks beats them hollow, as they house a pair of low-frequency drivers each of 96 dB, and a pair of high-frequency drivers, also of 96 dB SPL or sound pressure level speaker units, along with 42 W digital amplifiers.

With high-efficiency custom-designed amplifiers, Soundboks speakers enhance the life of the driving batteries while optimizing the sound for outdoor usage. They have designed the speakers for dual-phase boost function and these can belt out a maximum of 119 dB of sound. You can easily get an experience of a live concert, simply by turning up the volume dial on the speaker to position 11.

Weighing in at 14.5 Kg (32 lb.), the 66x43x32 cm (26x17x13 in) Soundboks speaker is not much different from other carry-on luggage used. The low weight is because of the wood and aluminum construction of the case and that makes it shockproof, weather proof and temperature resistant. The case has an integrated side handle that makes it easy to carry about on the beach as easily as a cooler filled with beverages and ice. Wireless and wired connectivity are offered. Bluetooth 3.0 with extended range allows you to connect wirelessly while a 3.5 mm audio input provides the wired connectivity.

The truly remarkable thing about the Soundboks speaker is its ability to play music for 30 hours at 113 dB. That easily violates the county noise ordinance and that too without any help from a vehicle power inverter, portable generator, or wall socket. Each speaker comes with two external batteries, which you can swap and that gives the capability to play for a total 60 hours continuously.
The batteries are special, as they are not the usual lithium-ion type. Rather, Soundboks uses LiFePO4 or lithium-Ferro phosphate batteries that need only three hours to charge, can meet power demands and are safe. Therefore, you only need six hours of charging time, and then enjoy a full weekend-long festival program or a complete week with the volume toned down. Shipments are scheduled to start this April, as Soundboks has already raised 174% of its Kickstarter goal in one day.

What is Buck-Boost Charging?

With Apple unveiling their new MacBook on April 10, 2015, they also opened up a new era in power management for computing devices. The USB-C port in the new MacBook features a true all-in-one port. It is capable of delivering power and bi-directional data at the same time. The technology eliminates a separate charging port, as it integrates the charging functions into the USB-C port.

Intel has released their 6th generation processors, and very soon, a new generation of ultrabook computers, 2-in-1s, tablets, and external devices are expected in the market, ready with the USB-C port. However, with USB-C, fundamental changes are necessary in the existing power delivery architecture. This presents a new challenge to the system designers.

Power Delivery at Present

At present, almost all electronic devices charge through USB-A/B in low power applications. The traditional USB-A/B port offers 5 V DC at up to 2 A current capabilities, but this is insufficient when charging high-power devices. At present, such high-power devices require a separate AC adapter with tens of watts power rating for charging.

For instance, ultrabook computers use different battery stacks ranging from a single-cell battery to 4-cell batteries. Since each Li-ion battery has a typical operating voltage of 2.5 to 4.3 V, from discharge to fully charged status, the ultrabook may have a battery voltage ranging from 2.5 to 17.2 V. Ultrabook computers generally come with a hefty AC adapter with a 20V output.

Therefore, the charger within the ultrabook battery stack has to step down the 20 V DC to make it suitable to charge the battery. This is done through a buck topology. Again, the ultrabook has to provide 5 V on its USB-A/B port for charging an external USB device. To generate this 5 V USB power rail, the ultrabook may have to apply a boost topology if it is using a single-cell battery pack. If it has battery stack of more than one cell, the ultrabook may use a similar buck topology as it does for charging.

Moving to USB-C

USB-C is a standard interface to connect anything to anything. Even though the default is 5 V, the USB-C port is capable of negotiating with a plugged-in device to raise the port voltage to 12 V, 20 V, or any other mutually agreed voltage and mutually agreed current level. Therefore, the maximum power a USB-C port can deliver is 20 V at 5 A, or 100 W. This is more than what most ultrabooks require – about 60 W.

The main consideration involving the use of USB-C technology lies in the absence of input-to-output relationship, which would warrant the use of buck technology when using a 5-20 V adapter voltage to charge a 2.5-17.2 V battery. Likewise, there is no definite output-to-input relationship either, for which a boost topology would be suitable.

This is where the buck-boost approach finds its merit. This operates in buck mode when there is an input-to-output connection and in boost mode when there is an output-to-input connection – the USB-C port being bi-directional. This flexibility allows for a more efficient design using the smallest solution size. It offers the best design solution, achieving all the requirements of a system designer.

What are Flexible Batteries?

We are accustomed to thinking of batteries as heavy and chunky implements capable of storing energy and powering electronic devices. For long, use-and-throw carbon-zinc batteries along with rechargeable Lead-acid and Nickel-Cadmium batteries dominated.

With the advent of portable devices such as netbooks, ultrabooks, and other hand-held devices, the battery market exploded with various types, of which, the most popular was the Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. However, with electronic gadgets getting slimmer and flexible, it is now necessary for the battery also to shed its rigid form and embrace the curves of the gadget – hence, the market for thin-film flexible battery.

In their new report, market watcher IDTechEx predicts that by 2026, the presently tiny market for thin-film batteries is going to hit $470 million. According to Xiaoxi He, a technology analyst with IDTechEx, this is the reason companies such as TDK, STMicroelectronics, LG, Samsung, Apple, and many others are all becoming increasingly involved. Considering the rate at which the Internet of Things, wearables, and other environmental sensors are being increasingly deployed, replacing traditional battery technologies is becoming imperative. New form factors and designs are urgently required.

For instance, Samsung has a curved battery in their Gear Fit wristband. STMicroelectronics is producing, in limited quantities, thin-film solid-state lithium batteries. Two other companies are now producing printed batteries, according to the report. Therefore, the market now has a variety of flexible batteries vying to power several kinds of devices.

Other companies are trying other strategies as well. For instance, TDK is working on battery-free energy harvesters. The idea is since IoT nodes and wearable devices require extremely low power to operate, these can be operated via energy harvesters rather than batteries. Others such as in South Korea have gone ahead and now TDK is planning to invest heavily in the fiscal years of 2016 and 2017 to ramp up their production of lithium-ion batteries to match.

Other companies such as the Oakridge Global Energy Solutions Inc., plan to ramp up their production capacity in their Brevard County plant at Florida. They will make electrodes and cells for thin-film, solid-state lithium batteries. They acquired this technology in 2002 from Oak Ridge Micro-Energy Inc., and plan to start volume manufacturing in early 2017.

Large varieties of flexible batteries are soon going to be available in the market. Among these will be thin-film batteries, printed batteries, laminar lithium-polymer batteries, micro-batteries, advanced lithium-ion batteries, thin flexible supercapacitors, and stretchable batteries.

Understandably, they will have diverse uses.

For instance, wearables are expected to have the highest potential of high-energy thin-film batteries, followed by printed rechargeable zinc batteries. Printed batteries, in the form of skin patches are already in use in the healthcare industry and the market is steadily increasing. At present, the high cost of printed zinc batteries is preventing widespread use despite having the highest potential for this application. According to the IDTechEx report, there will be rapid expansion in the market for micro-power batteries powering disposable medical devices.

There are additional requirements for batteries to power diverse types of power sources, displays, and flexible sensors. The US Department of Defense has invested $75 million for creating the Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute in San Jose.

User-Centric Surround Sound on Headphones

All of us have two ears and together with the brain, these form a formidable aural processing system that we take for granted. In real life, these external appendages not only help in locating our position with respect to our surroundings, but also in pinpointing the sources of various sounds that surround us. For example, we instinctively move to the right to avoid a honking vehicle approaching us from behind on the left.

When enjoying the stage performance of a group of musicians playing their instruments, we can point out various instruments with reasonable accuracy, even with our eyes closed. We can do this because the sound reaching the left ear is somewhat different from that reaching the right ear and by unconsciously moving our heads ever so slightly we emphasize that difference. Our brain processes various aspects of the sounds reaching it from the left and right ears, analyzes them and forms a mental image of the position of the instrument relative to the two ears.

A similar situation is artificially created when we listen to the reproduction of stereophonically recorded sound played back through two loudspeakers placed some distance apart. Our brain is able to take in the variation in sounds and form the two dimensional aural image between the two loudspeakers. A quadraphonic or surround sound system, such as in a home theater, helps to generate a more realistic image in three dimensions.

However, when listening through headphones, the brain loses a major part of the information. Minute movements of the head produce no variation in the aural information from the two ears, as the headphone is now attached to the head and moves along with it. Therefore, surround sound through headphones does not provide the same level of satisfaction as that coming from a set of loudspeakers of a home theater – but this may be changing now.

A Neoh headphone has a 9-axis motion sensing mechanism to track the smallest micro-movement of the wearers head. The sensors comprise a magnetometer, accelerometers and gyroscopes. This is similar to the way your smartphone can sense its tilt when you play Temple Run on it.

The movement data from the headphones goes to a binaural algorithm via Bluetooth to the sound source the user is employing. This could be a game console, a smart TV, a tablet or a smartphone. The sound source processes the surround sound format making the perceived sound field remain static for the wearer.

Therefore, if the user turns his head (wearing the headphones) to the right or to the left, he or she will hear and localize the appropriate sounds respective to the original sources. The user will feel as if he or she were listening to a home theater sound system or a conventional cinema performance.

According to the company, these special headphones go far beyond stereo. The audio processing app runs with the headphones to virtualize different audio sources, thereby creating an immersive audio sphere. They claim the headphones offer a far more realistic sound experience than what users can experience with the best home theaters today.

Oracle, Raspberry Pi and a Weather Station for Kids

Kids now have a wonderful opportunity of learning about their world while at the same time enhancing their programming skills. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is teaming up with Oracle to create an initiative – The Oracle Academy Raspberry Pi Weather Station. The initiative is inviting schools to teach their kids programming skills by applying for a weather station hardware kit that children can build and develop.

With the firm’s philanthropic arm, Oracle Giving, funding the first thousand kits, schools can get the kits without incurring any expenditure – until the stocks last. Students have the freedom to decide how to build their application. They will be using elements that SQL developed in collaboration with Oracle, while the data collected will be hosted on clouds belonging to Oracle.

The scheme is targeted at children between the ages of 11 and 16. Apart from honing their crafting skills for building the weather station, schoolchildren will also learn to write code for tracking wind speed, direction, humidity, pressure and temperature. In addition, students are also encouraged to build a website for displaying their local weather conditions. Children participating in the scheme can connect with other participants via a specially built website that doubles up to provide technical support.

According to Jane Richardson, director at the Oracle Academy EMEA, the scheme can lead to gratifying and effective careers for children as they learn computer science skills, database management and application programming. The goal of the project is twofold. Primarily, it shows children that computer science can help them in measuring, interrogating and understanding the world in a better way. Secondly, the project provides them with a hands-on opportunity to develop these skills.

The weather station is built with the Raspberry Pi or RBPi SBC as its control station. The complete set of sensor measurements the weather station handles includes Air quality, relative humidity, barometric pressure, soil temperature, ambient temperature, wind direction, wind gust speed, wind speed and rainfall. All this is measured and logged in real time with a real-time clock. Although this combination helps to keep the cost of the kit under control, users are free to augment the features further on their own.

Kids go through the scheme via three main phases of learning – collection, display and interpretation of weather parameters. In the collection phase, children learn about interfacing different sensors, understanding their methods of working and then writing code in Python for interacting with them. At the end of this phase, kids record their measurements in a MySQL database hosted on the RBPi. For this, students can deploy their weather station in an outdoor location on the grounds of their school.

In the display phase, kids learn to create an Apache, PHP 5 and JavaScript website for displaying the measurements they have collected from their weather station. They can upload their measurements to the Oracle cloud database, so that could be used by other schools as well.

In the interpretation of weather phase, children learn to discern patterns in weather data, analyze them and use that to predict future weather. For this, they can use both the local data they have collected and national weather from the online Oracle cloud database.

Are There Any Living Computers?

Those twiddling with the origin of life at the forefront of technology, call it synthetic biology, to use the politically correct words. Some splice genes from other organisms to produce better food products. Others flounder with genes for producing tomatoes that can survive bruises. Many graft jellyfish genes to potatoes to make them glow when they need to be watered. Making completely new organisms from scratch is a simple technique today.

In 2013, the Semiconductor Research Corp., from N.C., started a Semiconductor Synthetic Biology or SSB program to cross human genes and semiconductors. Their aim is to create hybrid computers, something like cyborgs. Although they have progressed far, they have yet to overcome many intermediate hurdles along the way.

Ultimately, they want to make living computers. They intend to make low power biological systems that can process signals much the same way as the human brain can. At present, they are trying to build a CMOS hybrid life form, for which, they are combining CMOS and biological components to allow signal processing and sensing mechanisms.

According to the Director of Cross-Disciplinary Research and Special Projects at SRC, there are several dimensions to the opportunity of using semiconductors in synthetic biology and this could enter various physical directions. He feels that research in SSB will generate a new data explosion – such as big data. It will be important to see how synthetic biology along with semiconductors will handle big data, especially in the science of health and in medical care.

One of the opportunities that can offer proof-of-the-concept is in the form of personalized medicine. This is because it is now possible to sequence the genome of a person – the process generating a vast database of genetic dispositions. Additionally, this also helps in testing the response of an individual to a particular drug in the lab, before it is actually administered.

The SSB program is connecting cells to semiconductor interfaces to read out signals indicating the activities inside a specific cell. In the next step, they intend to design new cells that have characteristics that are more desirable, such as sensitivity to specific substances – making them suitable for use as sensors. Apart from extracting signals from cells, researchers in the program plan to inject signals into cells. Their intention is to generate a two-way communication system, thus creating a hybrid system, half biological and half electronic, which will be capable of processing massive amounts of information; in short, a living computer.

In traditional drug discovery, passive arrays of cells are used. Each of the cells is exposed to a slightly varying drug. A scanner beam, usually a laser, electrically checks each cell and measures its response. That narrows down the drugs that show the maximum promise for further testing. However, the electrical or optical response of a cell to a drug is not a reliable method to capture all the activity within the cell. The SSB program can do that and is about one thousand times faster.

Arrays of sensing pixels can solve the problem, where each pixel measures a different parameter. With the CMOS chip performing a sensor fusion on the results, researchers expect to uncover the complete metabolic response of the cell to a drug.