JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019 MW · 2019-02-18 · 4 MW January - February 2019 Comment LoRaWAN ‘sees’ growth of over 60 percent in 2018 covering nearly 100 countries Experiencing massive

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5G deployment bringsOTA testing into focus

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Contents

6Cover Feature: 5G Deployment Brings OTA Testing into Focus

19AI Takes the Guesswork out of Being Human

New class of VNA for the next decade

RF - Microwave

MW8-12News

Raman spectrometer targets smartphones, handheld test

2D materials convert WiFi energy to electricity

4Comment

LoRaWAN ‘sees’ growth of over 60 percent in 2018 covering nearly 100 countries

14, 17Wireless Infrstructure: RF Converters Enable Efficient Multiband Radios for Next-Generation Wireless Base Stations

IoT: Using Application Intelligence to Design for 10 Year Operation

22Products

Low cost flexible RFID ICs suitable for smart packaging

28 GHz GaN front end module

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Comment

LoRaWAN ‘sees’ growth of over 60 percent in 2018 covering nearly 100 countriesExperiencing massive growth of over 60 percent in 2018, the LoRaWAN protocol for IoT LPWANs now reaches close to 100 countries with both public and private network deployments passing the 100 networks milestone.

According to Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance, the phenomenal growth in LoraWAN deployments of over 60 percent in 2018 underscores how rapidly the technology is being adopted, especially when one considers that the LoRa Alliance is only just over 3 years old.

Based on a chirp modulation spectrum, LoRaWAN delivers the lowest power network versus distance making it ideal for most IoT devices that are either low-bandwidth or transmit infrequently, and especially those that rely on battery power or energy harvesting.

LoRaWAN networks are being actively deployed globally, with the Asia-Pacific and European regions showing the most growth, at 30% and 50%, respectively, throughout 2018. Regional specifications are established in all key regions with additional regions being added continuously. The total operator investment in LoRaWAN is significant on a global basis, offering compelling proof that network operators are making a long-term commitment to the LoRaWAN standard and supporting the market demand for IoT applications.

Donna Moore explains why LoRaWAN is the best choice, “Only LoRaWAN has strong, established networks with broad coverage areas, while also offering the private network option. For companies looking to launch IoT products and solutions today, the LoRaWAN standard is the only viable solution. Features like firmware updates over the air and the fact that LoRaWAN is an open specification with a robust certification program ensure network and device interoperability. These benefits give confidence to the market that companies are future-proofed and can deploy solutions today with assurance they will work in the future.”

The adoption of LoRaWAN is driven by a variety of factors, including support for private network capability, a key factor driving growth, especially for industrial installations where companies want to have full control over their network, access and data. In addition, the ability

to provide firmware updates over the air (FUOTA) is a key differentiator and critical for future-proofing today’s deployments.

The LoRa Alliance™ ecosystem is based on an open standard protocol that future-proofs the technology – and supports a collaborative input to develop the standard. This open-standard also delivers a wide choice and high degree of flexibility when developing systems as users can leverage the best technology for their specific products.

The utility and reach of LoRaWAN is summed up in the following quotes, one form a growing economy and the other from a developed economy.

“LoRaWAN has seen tremendous interest and growth in India in the past year. In that market alone we already provide network coverage in 30 cities to support IoT applications such as smart metering, smart parking, and smart waste management solutions and see no signs of this slowing as we enter 2019,” states Ali Hosseini, Founder & CEO, SenRa.

“Building a powerful IoT ecosystem that aided in the acceleration of IoT enabled innovation is paramount for Swisscom,” says Julian Dömer, Head of IoT, Swisscom. “As a result we were among the first operators to roll out LoRaWAN nationwide in 2016. Today, the Swisscom LoRaWAN network covers 96.6 Percent of the Swiss population.”

Looking forward, the LoRaWAN Alliance will be targeting specific

verticals including logistics, Utilities, Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart Homes, Smart Ag, Industrial IoT to show the value of LoRaWAN in key applications.

In terms of certification the focus in the near future will be on adding RF testing as well as battery life as part of mandatory certification; developing pre-testing options to accelerate certification and make it easier and more feasible to have devices tested, and releasing certified reference stacks for developers to accelerate designs.

The LoRaWAN Alliance going forward will continue to expand roaming, tracking and FUOTA capabilities; create and release a LoRaWAN™ QR code format for device personalization; and continue to add regional parameters initially targeting Middle East and Africa.

Public operators and private companies or individuals interested in deploying a LoRaWAN network can apply for a NetID from the LoRa Alliance, which can be assigned up to six months prior to joining the LoRa Alliance. Companies interested in learning more or requesting a NetID allocation should contact [email protected].

– Jean-Pierre Joosting, Editor MWEE

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USA (949) 261-1920 AUSTRIA (49) 89 4161 5994 0 BELGIUM (31) 229 50 34 78 CZECH REPUBLIC (420) 235 365 207 DENMARK (46) 8 554 909 50 FINLAND (46) 8 554 909 50 FRANCE (33) 1 47 95 99 60

GERMANY (49) 89 4161 5994 0 IRELAND (44) 0 1420 544789 ISRAEL (972) 9 741 7277 ITALY (39) 06 4071603 KAZAKHSTAN (7) 495 961 34 43 LUXEMBOURG (31) 229 50 34 78 NETHERLANDS (31) 229 50 34 78

NORWAY (46) 8 554 909 50 POLAND (48) 22 855 34 32 PORTUGAL (34) 91 636 3939 RUSSIA (7) 495 961 34 43 SLOVAKIA (420) 235 365 207 SPAIN (34) 91 636 3939 SWEDEN (46) 8 554 909 50

SWITZERLAND (49) 89 4161 5994 0 TURKEY (90) 216 504 07 87 UKRAINE (7) 495 961 34 43 UNITED KINGDOM (44) 0 1420 544789

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USA (949) 261-1920 AUSTRIA (49) 89 4161 5994 0 BELGIUM (31) 229 50 34 78 CZECH REPUBLIC (420) 235 365 207 DENMARK (46) 8 554 909 50 FINLAND (46) 8 554 909 50 FRANCE (33) 1 47 95 99 60

GERMANY (49) 89 4161 5994 0 IRELAND (44) 0 1420 544789 ISRAEL (972) 9 741 7277 ITALY (39) 06 4071603 KAZAKHSTAN (7) 495 961 34 43 LUXEMBOURG (31) 229 50 34 78 NETHERLANDS (31) 229 50 34 78

NORWAY (46) 8 554 909 50 POLAND (48) 22 855 34 32 PORTUGAL (34) 91 636 3939 RUSSIA (7) 495 961 34 43 SLOVAKIA (420) 235 365 207 SPAIN (34) 91 636 3939 SWEDEN (46) 8 554 909 50

SWITZERLAND (49) 89 4161 5994 0 TURKEY (90) 216 504 07 87 UKRAINE (7) 495 961 34 43 UNITED KINGDOM (44) 0 1420 544789


COVER STORY

Increased capacity in 5G mobile com-munication requires rolling out mas-sive MIMO base stations along with

network and mobile terminals imple-menting both sub 6 GHz and millimeter-wave technologies. The requirement for dynamic beamforming and the absence of RF test ports on devices mean that performance evaluation entails system-level characterization.

5G new radio (NR) communication systems will increase the capacity of mobile radio networks using frequency bands in the sub 6 GHz frequency region, called frequency range 1 (FR1) by 3GPP, or in the millimeter wave range (FR2). In order to offer more bandwidth at lower operational expense, new technological approaches have been selected by the industry and 3GPP.

In the FR1 range, the main innova-tion effort is focused on the base station (BS) side with the enabling of Massive MIMO techniques. In particular, 5G multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) moves the complexity from the UE to the BS by using a pre-coding matrix where each data stream is received independently by separate receivers. Beamforming is required to reduce interference to adjacent users in a MU-MIMO scheme, using antenna arrays of 64 to 512 ele-ments. As well as increasing capacity, beamforming reduces the energy con-sumption and hence the overall network costs of operation.

In the FR2 range, transmission sys-tems use large available bandwidths at frequencies around 28 and 39 GHz. That leads to more than 60 dB path loss in 1 m distance and large electromagnetic field absorption in nearby objects. At-tenuation is mitigated through antenna arrays and beam-steering, increasing pattern directivity on both mobile de-vices and network sides.

PERFORMANCE METRICS OVER THE AIRTransceiver and antenna performance metrics must be measured over the air (OTA). Metrics include antenna param-eters of radiated and received power using CW and modulated signals (EIRP, TRP, EIS, TIS) in addition to transceiver specific metrics (EVM, ACLR, SEM). Antenna characteristics are usually measured in the far-field (FF), but large

OTA anechoic chambers are needed for FF measurement at such distances, which brings high initial outlay and cost-of-ownership. Fortunately, techniques based on software or hardware near-field to far-field (NFFF) transformations are possible.

NEAR-FIELD SOFTWARE TRANSFORMATIONSMathematical implementations of NFFF require assessing two or more polariza-tion components of the electromagnetic field (E, H or a mix of both) in magnitude and phase over a surface encompass-ing the DUT. Commercial systems scan over a sphere around the DUT, for example using a conical-cut positioner with the DUT mounted on a turntable rotating in azimuth. A dual-polarized Vivaldi antenna is mounted at the tip of a boom rotating in elevation and an RF test port at the DUT provides the phase reference. The test port connects to one port of a vector network analyzer (VNA) whilst measurement antenna ports con-nect to two other terminals of the VNA, then allowing measurements of complex S-parameters which relate to magnitude and phase of two components of the electric field.

Measurement data is processed using functions to propagate the fields towards larger distances and extract far field radiation components. Near-field transformations are typically based on underlying assumptions applying to “passive or RF-fed antenna testing”, so further hardware and processing

are needed where the DUT transmits a modulated signal with no access to the antenna feed port (Tx mode). Examples include interferometric techniques or multi-port phase coherent receivers, to-gether with a dedicated phase reference antenna. Alternative approaches fall in the category of phaseless methods when the phase information is retrieved from magnitude-only measurements.

The Rx mode is more complex. OTA solutions with near-field software trans-formation do not allow fast and reliable EIS (effective isotropic sensitivity) evalu-ation. However, it turns out that EIRP (effective isotropic radiated power) can be evaluated accurately in the near-field using software NFFF.

RADIO TRANSCEIVER PERFORMANCE OTA evaluation of radio transceiver performance includes EVM (error vector magnitude), ACLR (Adjacent Chan-nel Leakage Ratio) or SEM (spectrum emission mask). Obtaining good results depends on the SNR at the spectrum analyzer in Tx mode or the DUT in Rx mode. The impact of SNR can be over-come by first assessing the complete 3-D Tx or Rx pattern to determine the peak direction, allowing demodulation and other measurements to then be conducted at this specific location. The question remains whether results are reliable and reflect the results obtained in the FF. In the case of a single trans-ceiver, the NF EVM must be the same as the FF EVM if the SNR is over a cer-

5G Deployment Brings OTA Testing into FocusBy Benoît Derat, Corbett Rowell and Adam Tankielun, Rohde & Schwarz

Figure 1: CATR set-up illustration with a roll-edged reflector collimating a spherical wavefront into a planar wavefront (fields computed with a model of the actual setup implemented in CST MWS at 28 GHz).


tain threshold: say, better than 20 dB. For multiple independent transceivers operating simultaneously, the NF EVM may not be straightforwardly related to the FF EVM because the noise figure depends on position in the near field.

Different testing methods enable OTA assessment in the NF without applying a software transformation. A hardware-based approach - “indirect FF” - aims to physically create far-field conditions in a specified QZ region within a short range.

COMPACT ANTENNA TEST RANGESIndirect FF is embodied in the compact antenna test range (CATR) as well as in planar wave synthesis. CATR uses a parabolic mirror to transform a spherical wave into a planar wave focused ide-ally in a single direction. Here, reliable measurements depend on optimiz-ing the mirror geometry. Edge treat-ment and surface roughness affect the frequency range over which quiet zone of acceptable quality can be achieved. Techniques such as using serrated or rolled edges will help to mitigate edge effects by scattering the energy away from the quiet zone. The size and shape of the serrated/rolled edges determines the lowest operating frequency, whilst surface roughness determines the upper frequency. (see figure 1)

Feed antenna pattern characteristics have a direct impact on the size of the QZ as the mirror, figuratively speak-ing, projects the radiation pattern of the feed antenna onto the QZ. QZ size depends on the reflector characteristics rather than range length, so it is much easier to create a large QZ inside small enclosures. This is important for testing UE or BS operating in 5G NR FR2 as it significantly decreases the size of the test environment. In addition, CATR shares many of the advantages of FF systems in terms of instantaneity of measurement and direct measurements of RF transceiver metrics. Dynamic range is also improved over the direct FF approach.

PLANE-WAVE SYNTHESIS USING PHASED ARRAYWhilst 5G NR FR2 DUT size require-ments in millimeter-wave allow for smaller and lighter (20-40kg) reflectors, in the sub-6-GHz 5G FR1 range reflec-tor weight significantly increases – up to hundreds of kilograms for base-station sized DUTs. Cost, fabrication time, and handling of large heavy mirrors becomes prohibitive. The alternative is to use “an electronic version” of the CATR mirror,

combining the radiation of multiple an-tennas assembled in a phased antenna array. Fed with predetermined signal magnitude and phase, a plane-wave condition is created within a defined QZ.

Consider a plane-wave converting (PWC) system comprising an array of 156 wideband Vivaldi antennas and a beamforming network of phase shift-ers and attenuators at the back. This PWC array is 1.8 m wide and creates a spherical QZ of 1 m diameter at a dis-tance as short as 1.5 m in between 2.3 and 3.8 GHz (see figure 2). The calibra-tion antenna is the DUT, mounted on a combined-axis positioner to enable full spherical measurement. It is used for evaluating the appropriate compensa-tions of individual RF channels as well as determining path loss of the entire test system. The PWC is reciprocal and has single RF input/output, which can

either be connected to a signal gen-erator, a spectrum analyzer, or a VNA, enabling measurement of devices with or without RF test ports.

The conclusion for OTA testing of 5G devices is that solutions employing software and hardware near-field trans-formations are up to the challenge of assessing user equipment and base sta-tions at minimum cost. Methods utilizing hardware field transformations such as CATR and PWC overcome the limita-tions of software NFFF. When Rx or de-modulation is involved with a DUT and multiple non-identical RF transceivers, they also provide compact and reliable alternatives to direct far-field measure-ments. Meanwhile, near-field techniques employing software transformations are suitable for the evaluation of EIRP and TRP quantities.

COVER STORY

Figure 2: R&S PWC200 showing the PWC antenna array and calibration array mounted on a great-circle cut positioner.

Massive MIMOEight things to consider when testing antenna arraysWhat exactly is massive MIMO and how important are active antenna arrays for 5G base stations? Rohde & Schwarz has created a new eGuide that gives RF engineers an overview of key aspects of massive MIMO technology and related testing challenges. Download the eGuide to learn more:

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Raman spectrometer targets smartphones, handheld testImec in Belgium has developed a chip-level system for Raman spectroscopy that can be used to create handheld testers or even integrated into a smart-phone. Raman spectros-copy is a powerful tech-nique, most often used to determine chemical and material composition with applications in the medical, food and even space industries.

Existing devices are bulky tabletop systems and costing several hundred thousand euros. Handheld solutions exist, but for the moment fail to reach the desired performance for high-end ap-plications, largely because of the limited scaling capacity of conventional disper-sive Raman spectrometry whereby scat-tered light is focused on a slit. Maintaining a high spectral resolution under 1nm requires reducing the size of the slit which immediately limits the optical throughput.

The patented technique developed at imec in the EU-funded IoSense pro-

gramme uses massive parallelization of waveguide interferometers integrated

monolithically on top of a CMOS image sen-sor, providing both high optical throughput and high spectral resolution can be reached in a miniaturized device. The device is built in imec’s

SiN robust biophotonics platform that is compatible with high-volume manufac-turing.

“With the right partners we see many application opportunities in areas like food analysis, melanoma detection, or skin hydration. In the medical domain, we see opportunities for in-line measure-ments during surgery or endoscopy. For space exploration, the ability to perform material analysis with a compact system is of tremendous value,” said Pol Van Dorpe, principal member of the technical staff at imec.

www.imec.be

AccelerComm funding for 5G LPDC codecsAccelerComm Ltd. (Southampton, Eng-land), a startup developing forward error correction semiconductor IP for 4G and 5G communications, has completed a funding round worth £2.5 million (about $3.25 million). The money will be used for the further development and commer-cialisation of low delay, low density parity check (LDPC) polar and turbo channel coding products for use in 5G New Radio and 4G LTE networks.

AccelerComm was founded in 2016 by engineers and managers from ARM Holdings and Vodafone, and has recently appointed ARM veteran Tom Cronk as executive chairman and CEO. The fund-ing round was led by Bloc Ventures and IP Group. The company’s polar coding chain is already in commercial use today in 5G New Radio products, less than eight months after Release 15 of the 5G NR specification was concluded by 3GPP. It includes the encode-decode engine, channel interleaving, rate match-ing, cyclical redundancy checking (CRC) and early termination functions.

www.accelercomm.com

VTT and ESA to develop nonterrestrial 5G networksVTT and the European Space Agency (ESA) have agreed on a strategic part-nership to develop 5G communications networks for the needs of the space industry. The three-year agreement will further deepen the long-term coopera-tion between VTT and ESA. The strate-gic partnership between VTT and ESA provides support for the objectives of the Finnish Space Strategy and responses to its priorities.

“Integrating satellite into 5G is vital both for the growth of the commercial space industry and for making 5G ubiqui-tous. Our intent is to encourage European space and non-space industry to make use of the live trial platforms that VTT have developed, which are necessary to enable and demonstrate satellite/5G inte-gration,” says Senior Telecommunication Systems Engineer Maria Guta from ESA.

VTT and ESA are currently examining what would be the requirements and the necessary technologies for the integra-

tion of 5G satellite networks and terres-trial networks, and the common use of 5G pioneer bands. VTT and ESA intend to implement several projects within the sector under the Letter of Intent over the next three years.

“The key aspect of the projects is the use of VTT’s extensive test networks. This is one of the most important means in the development of communications systems,” explains Team Leader Marko Höyhtyä from VTT.

The integration of satellite and terres-trial networks would benefit the whole so-ciety, since even many everyday services are based on data produced by satellites.

“Satellite connectivity is needed par-ticularly in areas where it would not be economically feasible to build terrestrial networks, such as sparsely populated or distant areas, including the sea, air traffic or frontier areas, lists Höyhtyä.

www.vtt.fi

Radar firm XeThru secures Series C fundingNovelda AS (Oslo, Norway), a developer of sensors based on CMOS ultra-wide-band impulse radar and which trades as XeThru, has secured US$15 million in Series C funding. This brings the total raised by the company to more than $39 million since it was founded in 2004.

The latest round was led by Norwegian government backed Investinor AS and is earmarked to further develop the XeThru radar sensor technology and take it into high volume applications.

XeThru is a microwave radar system integrated on a single CMOS chip that can act as ground-probing radar, a sensor for human vital signs monitoring (even through walls), robotics, automa-tion, and personal security.

For example, operating at sub 10 GHz frequencies, the X4 UWB radar enables sensors to see through obstacles and detect even the smallest movements, its performance being optimised for occu-pancy sensing and respiration monitoring.

www.xethru.com

News


News

Ericsson to advance RAN architecture, joins O-RAN AllianceEricsson has joined the O-RAN Alliance, a group of leading telecom service providers and suppliers with the commitment to evolving radio access network (RAN) architec-ture and orchestration built on openness, intel-ligence, flexibility and performance.

As a member, the company will focus on the open interworking between RAN and network orchestration and auto-mation, with emphasis on AI-enabled closed-loop automation and end-to-end optimization, to lower operating cost and improve end-user performance. Ericsson will also focus on the upper-layer function as specified in 3GPP to provide interoperable multivendor profiles for specified interfaces between central RAN functions, resulting in faster deployment of 5G networks on a global scale.

Erik Ekudden, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson,

says: “Ericsson is a strong supporter of openness in the industry, and the bene-

fits this has on global ecosystems and inno-vations. Our ambition is to actively support and drive discussions and developments around future RAN ar-chitectures and open

interfaces. The O-RAN Alliance is an important coalition that creates an arena for these discussions, complementing other standardization and open-source initiatives in the industry which we are already active in.”

The O-RAN Alliance was formally formed at Mobile World Congress Shanghai on June 27, 2018 as a network operator-led effort to drive openness and intelligence in the RAN of next-generation wireless systems. At the end of 2018, the O-RAN Alliance was opened also for non-service providers to join.

www.ericsson.com

EM simulation specialist, Helic, bought by AnsysEngineering simulation company Ansys Inc., (Pittsburgh, PA) has signed an agree-ment to acquire electromagnetic simula-tion company Helic Inc., (Santa Clara, CA). The proposed purchase price was not disclosed but Ansys said that further details regarding the transaction and its impact on the 2019 financial outlook will be provided after the closing, which is expected in the first quarter of 2019.

Helic was founded in Athens, Greece, in 2000 and has developed analog/RF and high-frequency IC design engineers to synthesize inductive devices and model electromagnetic and parasitic phenomena. The company now has more than 50 employees, including loca-tions in Greece, Japan and Ireland and considers Santa Clara as its corporate headquarters.

Ansys said the acquisition will complement its own engineering and high-frequency simulation portfolio and would enable the creation of products to address 5G and artificial intelligence applications.

www.ansys.com, www.helic.com

Researchers boost sodium-ion battery performance Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous in devices such as laptops and cell phones as well as in hybrid and fully electric cars. One downside to lithium is the fact that it is a limited resource. Not only is it ex-pensive, but its annual output is (techni-cally) limited (due to drying process). To address this issue researchers at the Na-goya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan have demonstrated that a specific material can act as an efficient battery component for sodium-ion batteries that will compete with lithium-ion batteries for several battery characteristics, espe-cially speed of charge. However, sodium cannot be simply swapped with lithium used in the current battery materials, as it is a larger ion size and slightly different chemistry. Consequently, researchers are looking for the best material for the sodium ion battery among vast number of candidates by trial-and-error.

Scientists at NITech have found a ra-tional and efficient way around this issue.

After extracting about 4300 compounds from crystal structure database and fol-lowing a high-throughput computation of these compounds, one of them yielded fa-vorable results and was therefore a prom-ising candidate as a sodium-ion battery component. The researchers identified that Na2V3O7 demonstrates desirable elec-trochemical performance as well as crystal and electronic structures. This compound shows fast charging performance, as it can be stably charged within 6 minutes. Further, the researchers demonstrated that the compound leads to long battery life as well as a short charging time.

The findings were published in Sci-entific Reports in November of 2018, headed by Naoto Tanibata, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor at the Department of Advanced Ceramics at NITech.

Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35608-9www.nitech.ac.jp/eng/index.html

Anritsu in successful eCall sledge testAnritsu Corporation has announced the success of an eCall (a built-in emergency call in IVS) sledge test demo at the ADAC Technology Centre in December 2018, taking advantage of the performances of the Anritsu Network Simulator MD8475A.

The MD8475A is an all-in-one base station simulator supporting LTE, LTE-Advanced, W-CDMA/HSPA/HSPA Evolution/DC-HSDPA, GSM/EGPRS, CDMA2000 1X/1xEV-DO Rev. A. and TD-SCDMA/TD-HSPA.

The test was equipped with several supplies including IVS and 12-V DC crash proof external battery on the sledge as well as the MD8475A Network Simula-tor and Anritsu’s PSAP Simulator. The eCall Test was performed over the air (OTA) which demonstrates the excellent dynamic range of the MD8475A. Addi-tionally, the BTS/Site Master and Neon Signal Mapper from Anritsu were used to verify the spectrum occupancy of the site and the excellent from the MD8475A.

www.anritsu.com

News

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2D materials convert WiFi energy to electricity Researchers in Spain and the US have used a 2D material for a flexible device that can convert energy from Wi-Fi signals into electricity that could power electronics.

The rectenna design developed at the Techni-cal University of Madrid and MIT uses a flexible radio-frequency (RF) antenna that cap-tures the WiFI signals as AC waveforms. This is connected to anAC-DC converter that uses molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which at three atoms thick is one of the thinnest semiconductors in the world. When it is exposed to certain chemicals, the material’s atoms rearrange in a way that acts like a switch, forcing a phase transition from a semiconductor to a me-tallic material, creating a Schottky diode.

A key advantageof this thin layer is that the device can be built on a flex-ible substrate in a roll-to-roll process to cover very large areas. The device can produce about 40 microwatts of power

when exposed to the typical power lev-els of Wi-Fi signals (around 150 micro-

watts), a conversion effi-ciency around 30 per cent. This compares to 50 to 60 per cent silicon or gallium arsenide converters.

“We have come up with a new way to power the electronics systems of the

future — by harvesting Wi-Fi energy in a way that’s easily integrated in large areas — to bring intelligence to every object around us,” said Tomás Palacios, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the MIT/MTL Centre for Gra-phene Devices and 2D Systems in the Microsystems Technology Laboratories.

Another possible application is powering the data communications of implantable medical devices, said Jesús Grajal, a researcher at the Technical University of Madrid.

www.mit.edu

China Unicom, ZTE complete 5G callZTE Corporation has announced that the Guangdong branch of China Unicom and ZTE have made the first 5G call using 5G prototype smartphone from ZTE in a Shenzhen 5G field trial. The test also completed the verification of diverse services, such as Wechat group voice call, online video and web browsing. The Shenzhen field trial by China Unicom claims to be the first commercial call in NSA mode that is in compliance with 3GPP Rel-15. Known as “the City of Inno-vation”, Shenzhen is one of the first China Unicom 5G pilot cities with the aim of fully verifying 5G network equipment network-ing capabilities, special services, roaming and interconnection, as well as the inheri-tance of existing services in phases.

The test used a 5G end-to-end system developed by ZTE, including radio access network, core network, transport network and intelligent device. The test verified several 5G key technologies such as Massive MIMO, 5G NR, NSA dual con-nectivity, FlexE transport technology and 5G Common Core.

www.zte.com.cn

‘Digital Ghost’ enables real-time cyber-defense for control systemsGE Research (Niskayuna, NY), the research and development division of General Electric, has announced a new real-time, active cyber-defense system for industrial control systems. Called Digital Ghost, the system, says the com-pany, offers a first-of-its-kind capability to both rapidly detect and neutralize cyber threats against industrial control systems (ICS). Residing beyond the traditional information and operational technology (IT/OT) firewalls, Digital Ghost lives inside the industrial control system itself.

It uses a network of sensors, controls, and key insights from AI-driven digital twins of key assets to continuously moni-tor and – when necessary – enable real-time actions to thwart cyber threats. In simulation testing and field trials, says the company, Digital Ghost has been shown to rapidly – within seconds – detect and isolate threats with 99% accuracy.

According to the company, Digital Ghost will help address two big challeng-

es facing industrial control systems: The rapid rise in the number of cyberattacks on industrial control systems over the past five years, and the long lag times for detecting an attack. Recent ICS viruses have been shown to go undetected for months, even years.

A key enabler of Digital Ghost is the company’s Digital Twin technology, in which GE researchers have created more than 1.2 million digital models of critical parts, assets, systems, and pro-cesses across the company’s industrial product portfolio. Digital Twins, says the company, are “living, learning models” that generate specific insights from operational and sensor data, human engineering expertise, fleet data, and simulation testing to deliver a desired business outcome.

Commercial plans for Digital Ghost are being formalized.

www.ge.com/research

IoT partnership to drive smart home securityWi-Fi motion detection technology company Cognitive Systems (Ontario, Canada), Wi-Fi networking hardware and software provider Plume (Palo Alto, CA), and Qualcomm Technologies (San Diego) have announced a partnership with industrial tools and household hardware and security products provider Stanley Black & Decker (New Britain, CT) in the creation of the latter’s “ground-breaking” home security product.

The Omni security product, say the companies, is a self-install security and motion detection system that alerts users to motion in and around their homes and businesses without the privacy risks, set-up hassles, or high costs that come with security cameras and sensors. It is enabled by Cognitive Systems’ Aura WiFi Motion technology, Plume’s cognitive service curation plat-form, OpenSync device software stack, and Qualcomm’s advanced Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform.

www.stanleyblackanddecker.com

News

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MEMS energy harvester with off-chip electret ideal for IoTScientists at Tokyo Tech developed a micro-electromechanical energy har-vester that allows for more flexibility in design, which is crucial for future IoT applications.

Nowadays, it would be hard to not notice that electronic devices have become incredibly small. The use of miniature sensors in the upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) era could enable us to develop applications that were only seen in science fiction. However, microelec-tronic devices still require power to run, and energy-harvesting micro-electrome-chanical systems (MEMS) can be used so that these minuscule contraptions can run on ambient energy, such as that coming from mechanical vibrations.

Conventional MEMS energy har-vesters use an electret (the electrical equivalent of a permanent magnet; it has permanent charge stored in it) placed in

an MEMS tunable capacitor, which has a moving electrode that is pushed by am-

bient forces, inducing the movement of charges. Unfortunately, this design is very constrained because the fabrication processes for both the electret and the MEMS components have to be compatible. Therefore, a team of scientists, including Assistant Pro-fessor Daisuke Yamane

from Tokyo Tech, proposed a new MEMS electret-based energy harvester that consists of two separate chips: one for the MEMS tunable capacitor, and one containing an electret and dielectric material to form another capacitor (see above).

“This allows us to physically separate MEMS structures and electrets for the first time,” states Yamane.

www.titech.ac.jp

Diamond substrate startup in Huawei stingAkhan Semiconductor Inc., (Gurnee, IL), a 2013 startup that has been developing poly- and nanocrystalline diamond mate-rials, has said it has cooperated with a US federal investigation into an apparent theft of its intellectual property by Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Akhan CEO Adam Khan was recruited by the FBI to wear a wire during a meeting with Huawei executives at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, which resulted in a raid on Huawei prem-ises in San Diego, according to reports. Akhan states that is sent examples of its Miraj diamond glass to Huawei under a specific contract expecting the material to be returned “unharmed.”

Akhan said in a statement: “Akhan believes that Huawei destroyed our prod-uct, shipped it to China without autho-rization, subjected it to tests that it was not authorized to conduct, and returned most of it to us in pieces. We still have not recovered all of our product from Huawei, despite repeated written and oral requests and inquiries to Huawei.”

www.akhansemi.com

Anti-drone market driven by security breaches, illicit activitiesA new market research report by Mar-ketsandMarkets forecasts that the anti-drone market will be worth $2,276 million by 2024. The report – which looks at the anti-drone market by technology, application, vertical market, and geogra-phy – expects the market to grow from $499 million in 2018 to $2,276 million by 2024, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.8%. Major factors driving the growth, says the report, are rising incidences of security breaches by un-identified drones and increasing terrorism and illicit activities across the world.

In terms of anti-drone technology, the market for laser counter-drone systems is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, as laser systems offer great speed, significant flexibility, high precision, and low cost per shot. Such systems – which are being developed by companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Rheinmetall Defense Electronics GmbH, and Raytheon – are

expected to mostly find their applications in the military and defense vertical market.

During the forecast period, the “de-tection and disruption” application – in the form of anti-drone technologies – is expected to account for a larger share of the market. Anti-drones are used for detection and disruption applications, especially in the military and defense sector – which is expected to account for the largest share of the anti-drone market during the forecast period – where unauthorized drones that enter prohibited areas of any country need to be detected, as well as destroyed, on the spot.

In addition to potential terrorist activi-ties, the use of drones for border tres-passing, smuggling, and spying has in-creased. As a result, says the report, the demand for an efficient anti-drone system is expected to rise in the coming years in the military and defense sector.

www.marketsandmarkets.com

Private LTE market still growing quicklyAccording to ResearchAndMarkets, the private LTE market size is expected to grow from USD 2.4 billion in 2018 to USD 4.5 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 13% during the forecast period.

The report stipulates the need for unique and defined network qualities and the convergence of 5G and private LTE as the major factors driving the growth of the private LTE market. However, on the downside, the challenge of spectrum fragmentation could restrain the market growth. As the private LTE market is in its initial phase, most of the vendors are not capable of providing a standalone system and its associated services to the customers. This forces them to manage a few of the services from expert vendors.

The Americas is expected to have the highest share of the overall private LTE market. It holds a major portion in the adoption of private LTE in this region and leads LTE technology usage with around 94% 4G LTE penetration.

www.researchandmarkets.com

News


News

Wireless backhaul demo achieves fiber-like resultsEricsson and Deutsche Telekom claim to be the first to successfully demonstrate a millimeter wave link with a data transmission rate of 40 Gbps in a joint innovation project at the Deutsche Telekom Ser-vice Center in Athens.

An important mile-stone in the evolution from today’s 10 Gbps reality toward the 100 Gbps future, the partners achieved four times greater data throughput com-pared to current commercial millimeter wave systems to prove the commercial viability of future wireless backhaul technology.

The test also focused on the stringent latency requirements in 5G network architecture to support low latency or ultra-low latency use cases. The round-trip latency performance of the link tested was less than 100 microseconds, confirming the positive contribution of wireless backhaul technologies to satisfy network-specific latency targets.

Alex Jinsung Choi, SVP Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Tele-

kom, says: “A high-perfor-mance transport connec-tion will be key to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in next-gen-eration networks. While fiber is an important part

of our portfolio, it is not the only option for backhaul. Together with our partners, we have demonstrated fiber-like per-formance is also possible with wireless backhauling/X-Haul solutions.”

The live trial was completed at the Deutsche Telekom Service Center in Athens over a hop distance of 1.4 kilo-meters in the millimeter wave (E-band) spectrum. Technical setup included the use of Ericsson’s latest mobile trans-port technology including Ericsson’s MINI-LINK 6352 microwave system and Router 6000.

www.ericsson.com

Iridium completes constellation upgradeIridium Communications has com-pleted its $3 billion satellite constellation upgrade campaign known as Iridium® NEXT, and has also introduced a new small-form-factor transceiver known as the Iridium CertusSM 9770, which will enable the creation of new consumer and industrial applications that are highly por-table and IoT-friendly, optimized for small size and low cost, yet with higher speeds than in the past.

The completion of the Iridium NEXT campaign comes as the final two satel-lites required to complete the network refresh were activated on February 5th at approximately 2:15 p.m. EST. With a fully operational constellation, featuring 66 new Iridium satellites and no further launches planned, Iridium has concluded its nearly decade-long capital-intensive program. The upgraded Iridium constel-lation enables never before possible services such as the AireonSM global aircraft tracking and surveillance system and Iridium Certus, the company’s latest broadband service

www.iridium.com

Startup developing Wi-Fi HaLow preps chips for IoTMorse Micro Pty Ltd., (Sydney, Australia), a fabless semiconductor startup develop-ing Wi-Fi HaLow chips for the Internet of Things (IoT) market, is now planning to have chips available to ship at the end of 2019. Wi-Fi HaLow is a wireless network-ing protocol, written as an extension to the IEEE802.11 standard, that’s intended to operate at low power and longer range than Wi-Fi. The IEEE802.11ah extension was announced and published in 2016.

The extension uses the license-free ISM band around 900 MHz rather than the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands used by conventional Wi-Fi. In theory, the lower power consumption allows HaLow to compete with Bluetooth but with higher data rates and wider coverage. It is thought that HaLow could be a boon to the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as migrating into smart wearables, smart homes, logistics and agricultural IoT.

Morse claims on its website that its chips are capable of 40 Mbps data

rates, for single-stream, single-antenna products using channel widths vary-ing between 1, 2, 4 and 8 MHz, and of up to 80Mbps when using an optional 16 MHz channel width. The technology trades off the higher speeds of tradi-tional Wi-Fi for the power efficiency of its protocol and the ability to penetrate buildings and walls.

According to Morse Micro its HaLow transceiver chips will be 5x smaller and lower cost than conventional Wi-Fi chips while providing 10 times the range at 200x lower power.

Morse Micro has said its SoCs provide a “complete solution” incorporating the radio, phy, MAC, security, processor and memory components as well as I/O and connection interfaces and host applica-tions processor options.

Morse Micro was founded by co-CEOs Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil in 2016.

www.morsemicro.com

LG G8 ThinQ gets front-facing ToF cameraLG Electronics (LG) and Infineon Tech-nologies AG have teamed up to introduce leading edge Time-of-Flight (ToF) technol-ogy on the LG G8 ThinQ™. Infineon’s REAL3™ image sensor chip will play a key role in the front-facing camera of the upcoming LG G8 ThinQ, to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2019. Building upon the combined expertise of Infineon and pmdtechnologies in algorithms for processed 3D point clouds, the chip provides sophisticated security for phone unlocking and payment authentication.

While other 3D technologies utilize complex algorithms to calculate an object’s distance from the camera lens, the ToF image sensor chip delivers more accurate measurements by emitting and capturing infrared light as it is reflected off the subject. As a result, ToF is faster and more effective in ambient light, reducing the workload on the applica-tion processor and subsequently limiting power consumption.

www.LG.com, www.infineon.com

News


Wireless Infrastructure

ABSTRACTTo support rising wireless data demand, modern base station radios are being designed to support multiple E-UTRA bands, as well as carrier aggregation techniques. These multiband radios employ next-generation, GSPS RF ADCs and DACs that allow frequency agile, direct RF signal synthesis, and sampling techniques. To deal with the sparse nature of the RF wireless spectrum, sophisticated DSP is used to efficiently process the data bits to RF and back again. An example direct RF transmitter is described for multiband application, considering DSP configurations and power versus bandwidth trade-off.

INTRODUCTION—10 YEARS, 10× BANDS, 100× DATA RATESIt has been 10 years since the smart-phone revolution began, when Apple released the original iPhone® in 2007. 10 years and two generations of wire-less standards later—a lot has changed. Perhaps not as glamourous as the headline grabbing consumer smart-phones, known as user equipment (UE), the infrastructure base station (eNodeB) of the radio access network (RAN) has gone through its own transformation to enable the data deluge of our now ever connected world. Cellular bands have increased 10×, while data converter sample rates have increased 100×. Where does this leave us?

MULTIBAND RADIO AND EFFICIENT USE OF SPECTRUMFrom 2G GSM to 4G LTE, the number of cellular frequency bands has exploded 10×—from four to over 40. With LTE networks coming on the scene, base station suppliers have found themselves multiplying radio variants. LTE-advanced increased the requirements of multiband radios by adding carrier aggregation to the mix whereby noncontiguous fre-quency spectrum inside the same band or more importantly, in different bands, could be aggregated in the baseband modem as a single stream.

However, the RF spectrum is sparse. Figure 1 shows several carrier aggre-gated band combinations highlighting the sparse spectrum problem. In green

RF Converters Enable Efficient Multiband Radios for Next-Generation Wireless Base StationsJohn Oates - Analog Devices, Inc.

Figure 1: Carrier aggregation of noncontiguous spectrum highlights the sparse spectrum problem. In red is shown licensed spectrum bands. In green is shown the interband spacing.

Figure 2: Wireless radio architecture has evolved to accommodate increasing bandwidth requirements and in turn, become more frequency agile through SDR techniques.

Figure 3: A direct RF transmitter. RF DACS such as the AD9172 include sophisticated DSP blocks with parallel, digital upconverting channelizers to enable efficient multiband transmission.



is interband spacing and in red is the band of interest. Information theory dic-tates the system does not waste power converting the undesired frequency spectrum. Multiband radios with an efficient means of converting sparse spectrum between analog and digital domains are needed.

BASE STATION TRANSMITTER EVOLUTION TO DIRECT RFTo facilitate the increased data con-sumption of 4G LTE networks, the wide area base station has undergone an evolution in radio architecture. Super-heterodyne, narrow-band, IF-sampling radios with mixers and single-channel data converters have been replaced with I/Q-based architectures that dou-ble the bandwidth, such as complex-IF (CIF) and zero-IF (ZIF). ZIF and CIF transceivers require analog I/Q modula-tors/demodulators with dual- and quad-channel data converters. However, these wider bandwidth CIF/ZIF trans-ceivers also suffer from LO leakage and quadrature error images that must be corrected.

Fortunately, data converter sampling rates have also increased 30× to 100× in the last 10 years, from 100 MSPS in 2007 to 10 GSPS+ in 2017. This increase in sampling rate has ushered in GSPS RF converters with very wide bandwidths, enabling frequency agile software-defined radio to finally be-come a reality.

Perhaps, the holy grail of sub-6 GHz radio BTS architecture has long been direct RF sampling and synthesis. Di-rect RF architectures eliminate the need for analog frequency translation devic-es, such as mixers, I/Q modulators, and I/Q demodulators, which themselves are the source of many unwanted spuri-ous signals. Instead, the data converter directly interfaces with RF frequencies and any mixing can be done digitally by integrated digital up-/downconverters (DUCs/DDCs).

Multiband efficiency gain comes in the form of sophisticated DSP included in ADI’s RF converters that allow digital channelization of only the desired spectrum bands while simultaneously giving access to the full RF bandwidth. Using parallel DUCs or DDCs, which combine interpolating/decimating up-/down-samplers, half-band filters, and numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs), the band(s) of interest can be digitally constructed/deconstructed before conversion between analog and digital domains.

The parallel digital up-/downconverter architecture allows you to channelize multiple bands of desired spectrum (shown in red in Figure 1) and not waste

valuable cycles converting unused interband spectrum (shown in green in Figure 1). Efficient multiband chan-nelization has the effect of lowering the

Figure 4: Dual band scenario: Band 3 (1805 MHz to 1880 MHz) and Band 7 (2620 MHz to 2690 MHz).

Figure 5: Band 3 and Band 7 LTE transmission through direct RF transmitter using the AD9172 RF DAC.



required sample rates of the data converters, as well as the number of serial lanes required for transport across the JESD204B data bus. Reducing system sample rates reduces the cost, power, and thermal management re-quirements on the base-band processor saving CAPEX and OPEX of the total base sta-tion system. It remains true that implementing channelization DSP in a highly optimized CMOS ASIC process is far more power efficient than implementation in generalized FPGA fabric—even if the FPGA is in smaller geometries.

DIRECT RF TRANSMITTER WITH DPD RECEIVER: AN EXAMPLEThe RF DAC has succeeded in replac-ing the IF DAC in these next-generation multiband BTS radios. Figure 3 shows an example direct RF transmitter with the AD9172, 16-bit, 12 GSPS RF DAC that supports tri-band channelization with three parallel DUCs, allowing flex-ible placement of subcarriers across 1200 MHz bandwidth. Following the RF DAC, the ADL5335 Tx VGA provides 12 dB of gain and 31.5 dB of attenua-tion range up to 4 GHz. The output of this DRF transmitter can then drive a power amplifier of choice depending on the output power requirements of the eNodeB.

Consider the Band 3 and Band 7 scenario shown in Figure 4. Two dif-ferent approaches can be employed to convert the data stream to RF directly. The first approach (a wideband ap-proach) would synthesize the bands without channelization, requiring a data rate of 1228.8 MHz. 80% of this band-width yields a DPD (digital predistortion) synthesized bandwidth of 983.04 MHz, sufficient to transmit both bands and their 740 MHz of interband spacing. The advantage of this approach is for DPD systems, which allows for predis-tortion not only of the intraband IMDs of each individual carrier, but also other unwanted nonlinear emissions between the desired bands.

The second approach is to synthesize channelized versions of these bands. Since each band is only 60 MHz and

70 MHz, respectively, and since opera-tors will only have licenses for a subset of this bandwidth, it is not necessary to transmit everything and incur high data rates consequently. Instead let us utilize a more appropriate, lower data rate of 153.6 MHz, 80% of which results in a DPD bandwidth of 122.88 MHz. If an operator owns licenses for 20 MHz in each band, there is still enough DPD bandwidth for 5th-order correction of intraband IMDs for each band, respec-tively. This mode can save up to 250 mW of power in the DAC from the wideband approach above and much more power/thermal savings in the baseband proces-sor, as well as reduce serial lane count, allowing for smaller, lower cost FPGA/ASIC implementations.

Observation receivers for DPD have also evolved to DRF (direct RF) architec-tures. The AD9208 14-bit, 3 GSPS RF ADC also supports multiband chan-nelization through parallel DDCs. The combination of RF DAC and RF ADCs in the transmitter DPD subsystem has many benefits including shared converter clocks, correlated phase noise cancel-lation, and overall simplification of the system. One such simplification is the ability of the AD9172 RF DAC, with its in-tegrated PLL, to generate up to a 12 GHz clock from a low frequency reference signal, removing the need to route high frequency clocks around the radio board. Additionally, the RF DAC can output a phase coherent divided down version of its clock for the feedback ADC. Such system features truly enhance the BTS DPD system by creating an optimized multiband transmitter chipset.

SUMMARYTen years after the smartphone revolu-tion, the cellular business is all about data throughput. Single band radios can no longer keep up with the capacity requirements of consumers. To increase data throughput, more spectrum band-width must be made accessible through carrier aggregation of multiple bands. RF data converters can access the en-tire sub-6 GHz cellular spectrum, being quickly reconfigured for various band combinations, making software-defined radio a reality. These frequency agile direct RF architectures reduce cost, size, weight, and power. This fact has made the RF DAC transmitter and RF ADC DPD receiver the winning architec-ture of choice for sub-6 GHz, multiband base stations.

ABOUT THE AUTHORJohn Oates is a system engineer focus-ing on wireless base station architec-ture in the Communications Systems Group. Lately, his focus has been on GSPS converters for direct RF transmit-ters and observation. John joined ADI in 2008 and holds a B.S. in Cp.E. from North Carolina State University.

Figure 6: A Direct RF observation receiver used for digital predistortion. Wideband RF ADCs such as the AD9208 can efficiently digitize multiple bands across 5 GHz bandwidth.


The IoT is shaping up to be bigger than anyone imagined, even taking into the account the huge amount

of hype that has surrounded it for the last five years or so. Some believe that by 2020 the revenue generated from the data services and analytics the IoT creates will be twice as much as the revenue generated from actually supply-ing the technology that will enable those services (Figure 1).

With that in mind, it is obvious that the IoT isn’t just a massive opportunity in the short-term, but could become a huge liability in the long-term, if the un-derlying technology isn’t designed and manufactured for longevity. In simple economic terms, if an operator has 10 million low-cost IoT endpoints in the field, generating data that they then sup-ply at an equally low cost, their business model will probably only allow them to physically service a small percentage of those endpoints before they start to see a loss. For this reason, and many others, reliability and long time-in-service will be key in the IoT. Service will be measured in years, rather than hours or days. It isn’t extraordinary for endpoints to be expected to operate for 10 years from a single primary cell, which presents OEMs with a significant challenge.

POWER PROFILEAchieving 10 years of operation from a single primary cell demands that engi-neers pay particular attention to applying ultra-low power design techniques. This is not trivial, nor can it be assumed that a design based only on low power de-vices will be inherently low power in op-eration. While there are many low power solutions on the market to choose from, the way those devices are used and the mode in which the endpoint operates will ultimately dictate the power profile of the overall design. It is entirely possible to run an ultra-low power microcontroller in a way that consumes far more power than the data sheet might suggest.

At a system level there are many trade-offs to be made. The fact that an endpoint is connected to the Internet may imply that it relies heavily on cloud computing, however there is an energy cost associated with transmitting and

receiving every single bit of digital data to a cloud-based server; it can be broken down to that level of granular-ity if necessary. The trade-off here involves deciding just how much energy should be used to transmit data, and how much should be assigned to process-ing the data locally. Sending two bytes of processed data instead of 100 bytes of raw data may deliver better energy efficiency, but this isn’t something that is easily calculated from a data sheet.

At a lower level there are other design trade-offs to be made, at both the hard-ware and software level. This includes clock rates (process faster for short periods, or slower for longer – which consumes less power?), the hardware/software divide (how much power do the hardware accelerators use compared to processing on the main CPU?), what type of memory delivers the best power efficiency (what is the energy cost of moving up to the next highest Flash density device?). From a software per-spective it may be beneficial to evaluate the impact of using compiler directives, or even the style of coding used.

DEVICE PROFILINGDeveloping an IoT endpoint that needs to operate for up to 10 years from a single primary cell requires a holistic approach to design; a single snapshot of power consumption isn’t going to extrapo-late linearly over 3,600 days. The cost of communication, in terms of energy, can be particularly difficult to estimate. This is true even when using a wireless technology designed for the IoT, such as an LPWAN like Sigfox or LoRa, because the link budget can vary based on the network’s capacity and level of traffic.

Wireless connectivity is a large energy consumer, so when and how frequently the wireless link is used will clearly im-pact the overall power budget. Collect-ing data on how the endpoint operates in practice, in terms of power consump-

tion, would enable application intel-ligence to be fed back into the design process, at a hardware and software level, in order to influence the product’s final and optimal design.

DESIGNING FOR 10 YEARSThe need for power management has become endemic within the electronics industry, which has given rise to a num-ber of solutions. However, implementing the techniques developed for power management in servers and large main-frames isn’t restricted to these systems, the same approach can be taken with ultra-low power design and by using a power monitoring solution like the Otii Arc, developers can measure the ef-ficacy of these techniques on the bench.

As an example, consider the PMBus (or Power Management Bus). This is a protocol used to control PMBus-com-pliant power supplies, by enabling or disabling their outputs and setting their voltage and/or current levels. During periods of low activity the power supply can be disabled or its output scaled down, and ramped up during high activ-ity. The power saved by dynamically ad-justing the output can be significant and the same principle is now being applied in ultra-low power microcontrollers, so there are potential benefits to extending this approach to an entire design. For example, large parts of a circuit could be isolated from the main supply rail when not in use, or the duty cycle of certain features reduced at certain hours of the day or night.

Furthermore, by monitoring the bat-tery’s health on a continuous basis, a

IoT: Using Application Intelligence to Design for 10 Year OperationVanja Samuelsson, Founder, Qoitech

Figure 1: The biggest opportunity in the IoT will come from leveraging the data it generates, according to con-sultancy firm Bain & Company (Source: Bain & Company).

IoT Design


IoT Design

system can dynamically adjust its opera-tion, as well as signal the backend that it will need some preventative main-tenance in the near future. These are features that may not immediately form part of the overall design specification, but they could significantly extend the lifetime of an endpoint. Using Otii Arc to profile a design in this way, over an accelerated lifetime using the system’s scripting capability, could help engineer-ing teams develop design practices that would lead to products that are more power efficient.

CONCLUSIONUltra-low power design is going to be synonymous with the IoT, as endpoints will be expected to operate for multiple years, reliably and without maintenance. Entire business models will rely on de-vices working for 10 years or more, while providing high levels of functionality and Internet connectivity.

Using power profiling tools, develop-ers can run multiple ‘what if’ scenarios to evaluate low power design techniques or to identify the modes of operation most responsible for power consump-tion. But perhaps more importantly, teams can conduct accelerated simu-lations to glean valuable application

intelligence and feed this data back into the design process, to deliver the user experi-ence necessary to fully leverage the oppor-tunity presented by a connected world.

ABOUT THE AUTHORVanja Samuelsson has an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Technology manage-ment specializing in Electromagnetic Theory, both from Lund Uni-versity in Sweden. Her professional journey has seen her work across a variety of markets, from space to the telecoms industry. She has gained valu-able experience in test and measurement, product development and research, as well as innovation in 5G, cellular IoT con-nectivity and low power IoT whilst in her recent role at Sony Mobile Communica-tions. Vanja´s entrepreneurial spirit and passion for smart and sustainable IoT led her to establish Qoitech in 2017 – a Sony Group company start-up, which brought an innovative energy optimization solu-tion Otii to global markets.

Figure 2: The Otii Arc provides application intelligence to enable better low power designs.

Vanja Samuelsson, Founder, Qoitech.

Project looks to integrate drones into ‘automated airports’ to boost safetyA new project ASAS – Airport Surveil-lance for Airport Safety, led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and to be conducted together with LFV (Luftfarts-verket), Swedish Regional Airports (SRF), Örnsköldsvik Airport (OER) and FlyPulse will develop and demonstrate drone solutions to help automate daily opera-tions in airports.

The key aim of the project is to iden-tify use cases that address the needs of daily operations at airports, develop and demonstrate drone systems that help automate airport operations, improve air-port safety, optimize resource utilization, and reduce environmental impacts.

A world first and a big step towards automated airports, LFV introduced Remote Tower Center (RTC) in 2015, which enabled traffic control for the OER airport to be taken over by Sundsvall/Midlanda airport (SDL) through remote control. Again in 2017, connected vehi-cles were introduced to improve airport safety based on results from the project DRIWS – Digital Runway Incursion Warn-

ing Systems, where physical stop-lights were replaced by digital signals within the vehicles to prevent ground vehicles from approaching the runway without clearance from air traffic control (ATC).

To further develop airport automation, LFV in collaboration with OER airports has initialized a program to realise the concept of an “Autonomous Airport”. The program will test and evaluate future-ori-ented systems to enable safe, cost-effec-tive and remotely controlled automated airports. One application area involves the integration of drones in airport operations.

Airport inspection includes many routine tasks such as frequent border surveillance of airport fences, wild animal detection and runway surface condi-tions. These tasks are usually time and labor intensive and introduce emissions when fossil fuel vehicles are in operation.

“Instead of driving a terrain vehicle to check airport fences, electrically pow-ered drones could be used for automatic checking and streaming live video to personnel for supervision. This will save

considerable amounts of time and daily vehicle driving and thereby reduce costs and vehicle emissions,” says Jonas Didoff, senior advisor at LFV and project manager for DRIWS.

The project leverages years of experi-ences of drone development at FlyPulse and will deliver drone systems that are tailored for the needs of airports.

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is leading the project and will offer their skills in wireless communications and automation for the drone system devel-opment, as well as provide business development for market introduction.

The project will last for 14 months and there will be a public demonstration in mid 2019. The project is funded by VINNOVA, Sweden’s innovation agency through its program on future drones.

www.ri.sewww.flypulse.sewww.lfv.sewww.oer.sewww.flygplatser.se


AI

In 2035, artificial intelligence will be everywhere, but it will be invisible. Behind the scenes, it will help steer

the choices we make, offering us the best options to lead a good, healthy life. It will help customize the services and products we buy to best match our preferences.

All this by its lightning-fast ability to process huge swaths of data and extract knowledge. And we might hope: also adding some creativity and wisdom.

USING THE WORLD AS KNOWLEDGE BASEImagine, one day in 2035, you are taken down to the hospital. Some rare, complex condition, it seems. Imme-diately, the doctors run your personal history and medical parameters through their AI system, searching for identi-cal patterns in a worldwide database of anonymized patient data. They find a dozen matches and see potential treatments and their effects. So there is less guessing, relying solely on human experience, and luck to be in the right hospital: wherever you live, and whom-ever you are, you’ll get the best avail-able diagnosis. But wait … chances are that you’re not going to get to the hospital. Because with your physical parameters constantly monitored, you’ll be offered intelligent choices at every step in your life. Whether it’s about the

food you eat, the workout you do, your career choices... And all this will keep you healthy much longer.

One of the most successful branches of AI is machine learning. Machine learning algorithms allow comput-ers to learn and detect patterns in huge amounts of data, establishes the relation between inputs and outputs, between huge swaths of data and meaningful conclusions. They can e.g. learn to identify individuals in camera footage, steer cars away from moving objects, detect planets around distant stars, or recognize clusters of health parameters that predict a disease. And once they have learned their trick, they

can apply it at lightning speed, without pause or getting tired.

SPREADING INSIGHTS INSTANTANEOUSLY, WORLDWIDEAnother 2035 scene. You’ve just been picked up by a self-driving car that covers part of your trajectory to the AI conference. It’s raining heavily and while the car picks up speed on the highway, it suddenly has to swerve to avoid a tree branch that was blown into its track. The vehicles next to and behind your car have to break and there is a short mo-ment of chaos. A near miss. Very rare, but possible. Overnight, the data of the vehicles involved are analyzed and an

AI takes the guesswork out of being humanBy Rudy Lauwereins

NASA used artificial intelligence to discover planets outside our solar system, such as a recently discovered eight planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star 2,545 light-years from Earth (courtesy NASA).


update is sent to all cars worldwide on how to handle this situation in the future. Of course, by then you’ve long reached your destination – unaware of how your journey influenced, even improved the driving behavior of all cars worldwide.

Humans can change their mind, adapt their behavior to new circum-stances and new learning. So can intelligent agents, such as cars. And because the world of 2035 is tightly interconnected, the new knowledge can be spread to all intelligent agents almost simultaneously. So there’s no risk of colliding with a car that’s running on last year’s intelligence.

As was to be expected with such a pervasive technology, there are techni-cal and ethical caveats. One is the issue of explainable AI: if a critical system takes a decision, we humans should be able to track down its reasoning, to understand why the system did what it did. Another issue is that machine learning is only as good the data it is fed. Therefore, technologists are continuously on the lookout for biases that may pop up in behavior of smart systems. Or biases that are added with malicious intent. Examples are recogni-tion or profiling on the basis of ethnicity or gender, or seeing as global what in effect are only local customs or behav-iors, or even just temporary, commercial hypes. And last there’s the concern that people should remain free in their choice to contribute or retract personal data, or to act upon the suggestions of AI systems.

GLOBAL BUT INDIVIDUALIZEDOf course: in 2035 your shoes and clothes are made to fit to perfection. When you need a new pair, your local shoe factory consults your digital twin, derives all possible parameters and produces a pair of shoes that’s unique in the world – costing no more than you used to pay for the average Joe’s size 11 shoes which left your left ankle always hurting. But there’s more: you just bought and attached a sport’s sensor that’s now breaking in. Give it a few more hours with you, learning the very intimate relation between your blood pressure, heart beat, temperature and many more… and it will have become part of you, a sensor that matches up with no other person in the world but you.

The industry is no longer making a small range of average products. Instead, they are able to make sepa-rate, individual products for everyone. Like the good, old cobbler used to do,

individual but at the cost and speed of mass-manufacturing. And some prod-ucts even keep on changing and learn-ing after you bought them. It’s machine learning but no longer trained at the manufacturer’s with labeled input, but on your body with unlabeled data.

BUDDING AI WISDOMYou’ve arrived at your holiday destina-tion to find that your luggage has gone missing. You call the airline’s helpdesk and are put through to a competent op-erator, whose voice and body language are immediately comforting and reassur-ing. Within minutes, even while you are speaking, your luggage is located and an appointment is scheduled to have it delivered at your hotel the same eve-ning. You full heartedly thank the opera-tor, who smiles and wishes you a good holiday. For a split second, the thought registers that this was probably a bot, but by now you’ve become so used to being helped by imaginative, empathic bots that you’re rather pleased.

Machine learning, you might have guessed by now, is only apparent intel-ligence. ML systems still have to be trained by humans, who supply it with the training data and determine the question to be solved. That makes for hugely useful systems, but not really intelligent ones. But by 2035, we’re also seeing a first budding of really intelligent systems, systems that show some measure of reasoning, creativity, imagination, common sense, and above all empathy.

HOW IS IMEC CONTRIBUTING TO THIS FUTURE?Leveraging its expertise in hard- and software, imec is setting up an ambi-tious AI program – together with indus-trial partners that are active in domains as diverse as personalized healthcare, smart mobility, the new manufacturing industry, smart cities and smart energy.

Our approach? Bringing AI to the sensors at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT) by introducing a pipeline of innovative hardware and software that – instead of hundreds of watts – consume less than a watt, or even mere milliwatts. And by developing machine learning applications that get custom-ized for specific uses and for individual people – on the spot, instead of with pre-learned parameters.

In the fall, Flanders has earmarked a considerable sum to AI research, in-dustrial applications, and policies. And imec signed a collaboration agreement with the French R&D center CEA-LETI to advance AI and quantum computing.

ABOUT THE AUTHORRudy Lauwereins is vice president at imec responsible for the digital and user-centric solutions unit. He is also director of the imec.academy, coordi-nating external and internal technical training curricula – www.imec.be

Rudy Lauwereins, VP digital and user-centric solutions at imec.

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0079-1.5.2_V1.4_MECH_Leading In Innovation Half Page Ad_277x93mm_020519.pdf 1 2/5/19 12:01 PM

New class of VNA for the next decade

The ZNA is a new-generation of high-end vector network analysers (VNAs) that combines leading-edge RF per-formance with a unique operating concept that delivers flexibility and simplifies measure-ment configuration. Key

attributes include unprecedented measurement stability, the lowest trace noise available and a dynamic range up to 170 dB to enable demanding measurements on active and pas-sive components and modules as the industry heads into the 5G era.

A universal test platform for characterizing active and passive DUTs, the ZNA is currently available in two models – the ZNA26 (10 MHz to 26.5 GHz) and ZNA43 (10 MHz to 43.5 GHz), which both offer an outstanding dynamic range of 146 dB (typical) and a trace noise as low as 0.001 dB at 1 kHz IF bandwidth. These two features are essential for measurements on high-rejection filters.

The unique hardware configuration of the ZNA includes four internal, phase-coherent sources, eight truly parallel receivers and two internal local oscillators (LOs). This simpli-fies the test setups for characterizing frequency-converting devices, amplifiers and even complex T/R modules, requiring the DUT to be connected only once. Users can perform vec-tor corrected conversion loss, phase and group delay mea-surements in half of the time required with the conventional approach and without the need for a reference mixer.

The ZNA’s hardware configuration enables it to perform mixer measurements for RF and IF in parallel, delivering measurement speed twice as fast as with the conventional approach. Amplifier characterization becomes easy with a 100 dB power sweep range, a pulse generator and modulator per test port, versatile intermodulation measurement capabili-ties and spectrum analyzer functionality.

Further, the ZNA offers a new approach, focused on the DUT, to simplify measurement configuration. The user first selects the type of DUT (e.g., mixer or amplifier) and is then guided step by step through configuration to the desired test setup. This significantly speeds up and facilitates test setups. Alternatively, users can take the conventional approach and configure measurements individually, providing high flexibility to master even the most challenging measurement tasks.

In a hint at the changes expected over the next decade, the ZNA is the first purely touch-operated vector network analyzer, using a 12.1-inch touchscreen as the main dis-play and a 7-inch touchscreen instead of a hardkey panel. Together with the DUT-centric approach, the second touch-screen provides a seamless user experience. It also enables easy upgrades to the instrument that includes changes to the operating panel that can now be done in software.

One key feature is intermodulation distortion – where with up to four internal high quality RF sources it is possible to determine the intermodulation characteristics of amplifiers and mixers fast and with high accuracy.

The VNA offers many other features including spectrum analyzer mode, millimeter wave extensions, pulsed measure-ments, mixer measurements and arbitrary frequency convert-ing measurements, time domain analysis, and so on.

www.rohde-schwarz.com/product/zna


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Precision connectorsspecified up to 90 GHz

A precision connector series to meet the increasing demand for proper RF-connec-tions up to 90 GHz, the RPC-1.35 – the “E connector” – is characterized by a highly robust mechanical design, minimum 3000 mating cycles, high connector repeatabil-ity, and maximum return loss values.

Designed for high-performance RF measurements in the E-Band, the product range covers semi-rigid and flexible cable assemblies, PCB connectors, test PCBs, cable connectors, in-series and inter-series adaptors, test port, floating and waveguide-to-coaxial adaptors as well as gauge and calibration kits.

A working group, consisting of PTB (Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt), Rosenberger, Rohde & Schwarz and Spin-ner, has designed the new 1.35 mm con-nector to close the gap between 1.85 mm and 1.00 mm connectors. The interface standardization is in progress.

www.rosenberger.com

IoT/cloud platformbeta release, cloud-enabled hardware

Californian startup and Google Cloud partner UrsaLeo has released its IoT and Cloud platform beta release, cloud-enabled hardware that collects data and delivers dashboards, sensor diagnostics, and data storage management.

B2B customers can start using the platform by purchasing a development kit from an UrsaLeo online distributor, Mouser or RS Components. All kits come

with a Silicon Labs Thunderboard Sense 2 carrying ten environmental sensors and are loaded with code for connect-ing to the UrsaLeo platform and sending data within a few minutes after setup is complete. Users of the Beta platform can work directly with UrsaLeo engineering to add sensors, port the code to their own hardware, and white label the platform for existing and potential customers.

The company also announced the clos-ing of a $500K seed round, which will be used to further develop the IoT and Cloud platform. UrsaLeo is currently working on raising a second seed round.

www.ursaleo.com

Digital attenuatoroffers 8 channels, covers 200 to 6000 MHz

Vaunix Technology Corporation has released a new 8-channel high resolution digital attenuator, designated LDA906V-8, that is specifically designed for errorless attenuation transitions in ultra-high speed 5G, WiFi and PTP networks.

Part of the company’s Lab Brick port-folio, the LDA-906V-8 is a highly accurate, bidirectional, 8-channel step attenuator that provides calibrated attenuation from 200 to 6000 MHz with an amazing step size of 0.1 dB and typical accuracy of <0.25 dB over 90 dB of control range.

Vaunix Lab Bricks use a native USB HID interface to avoid the difficulties inherent in using older serial or IEEE-488 interfaces implemented over USB. As a result, Lab Brick users can get to work faster without having to install kernel level drivers, and Lab Brick devices can be easily used on any system that supports USB HID devices, including low cost embedded computers using Linux or simi-lar operating systems.

The Vaunix Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) enables easily program-mable fixed attenuation, swept attenuation ramps and fading profiles. Alternatively, for users wishing to develop their own

interface, Vaunix supplies LabVIEW driv-ers, Windows API DLL files, Linux drivers, Python examples and much more.

www.vaunix.com

Test contactor maintains native DUT impedancemaximises RF power transferThe ICON contactor is designed specifi-cally for maintaining the native impedance of a device–under–test (DUT) through the contactor to the test system.

Functional and AC parametric test-ing of high speed devices requires a high and bandwidth low noise interconnect to maintain the quality and/or fidelity of the test signal. As an impedance controlled contactor the ICON maximizes high frequency power transfer by minimizing signal reflections (Return Loss).

The ICON is simple in its design and effective in use with insertion loss greater than 52 GHz at – 1 dB without distorting the test signal. The ICON spring probes carrying test signals that are impedance matched to the DUT and the test system at 50 Ohms. The ICON’s metal body is a Faraday shield/cage, which reduces cross talk (electromagnetic radiation) the primary cause of signal jitter. Along with this, the aluminium body blocks both static and non-static external electric fields (random noise). The 50 Ohm ICON is impedance matched to the device under test is the best way to maximize high frequency power transfer by minimizing signal reflec-tions (Return Loss).

www.cohu.com

Bluetooth IoT SWimproves location accuracy to sub-1-metre

Silicon Labs has released new Bluetooth software for its Wireless Gecko portfo-lio, leveraging the new direction finding feature added to Bluetooth in version 5.1 of the Bluetooth Core Specification to enhance location-based services, such as indoor navigation, asset tracking, space utilization and point-of-interest engagement.

The new feature supports multiple methods for determining signal direction including angle-of-arrival (AoA) and angle-of-departure (AoD), and Silicon Labs’ implementation of the new Bluetooth fea-ture enables detection of signal direction within 5 degrees. To date, Bluetooth asset


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tracking and indoor positioning solutions have typically provided location accuracy within a range of 3-4 meters.

With the Silicon Labs Bluetooth 5.1 solution, developers can create products that improve location accuracy down to the sub-1-metre level, opening the door to applications previously not possible.

Bluetooth 5.1 also helps developers reduce power consumption with sleep clock accuracy updates, improve smart home connection performance using GATT caching functionality and optimize beaconing for Bluetooth mesh in crowded RF environments with the advertisement channel index feature.

www.silabs.com

Oscilloscopesenable frequency response analysis using Bode plots

Analyzing the frequency response of a device, using Bode plots, is available now for the RTB2000, RTM3000 and RTA4000 oscilloscopes from Rohde & Schwarz using a new option for frequency response analysis.

With a the RTx-K36 software option, users can analyze the response to frequency changes from 10 Hz up to 25 MHz without any additional piece of equipment and at a fraction of the price of dedicated systems.

Equipped with the RTx-K36, the oscil-loscopes can display Bode plots for both phase and gain against frequency simul-taneously. For performing control loop response and power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) measurements, or for character-ization of passive components, the vector network analyzer-based methods often do not cover frequencies under 9 kHz, or are simply too costly for smaller budgets. When using the RTB2000 entry-level oscil-loscope, it is possible to make frequency response measurements from 10 Hz at almost half the price previously offered on the market.

Apart from the conventional time domain measurements available with oscilloscopes, and the wide range of gen-

eral-purpose measurements supported, with the new Bode plot application the RTB2000, RTM3000, and RTA4000 can also perform gain and phase frequency response analysis. All three oscilloscope families come equipped with 10-bit ADCs not available on other oscilloscopes in their class, enabling superior vertical dynamic range compared to existing oscilloscope-based solutions.

www.rohde-schwarz.com

IoT-AI-blockchain gateway devicedelivers ‘out-of-the-box’ capabilitiesNetObjex (Irvine, CA), a provider of digital operating platforms for smart products, has announced what it says is a “revolu-tionary” new IoT-AI-blockchain gateway device. PiQube, says the company, is a state-of-the-art IoT-blockchain edge device that enables developers to build and develop serious enterprise grade applications with IoT and blockchain capabilities out of the box.

Powered by NetObjex OS, a variant of Yocto Linux, PiQube provides IoT users with a plethora of connectivity options, including analog I/IO and up to 128 digital I/O ports, and storage of up to 1 TB.

The system also includes a Secure Element hardware chip for edge device authentication and encryption of data packets over a wide variety of protocols. What makes the PiQube stand out from the crowd, says the company, is its con-nectivity to the NetObjex Operating Plat-form thereby bringing AI and blockchain capabilities within reach.

The NetObjex philosophy, says the company, has been to use IoT for data acquisition, AI for analytics and machine learning, and blockchain for data sharing and transactions in an ecosystem.

“Quite often,” says Raghu Bala, CEO of NetObjex, “the last-mile issue of collect-ing good, clean data has been the bane of many a blockchain system and that is solved with the PiQube and its built-in security mechanisms.”

The NetObjex Platform is also an interoperability layer to multiple block-chains including Ethereum, Hyperledger, IOTA, NEM, and Stellar. Each PiQube will come with access to the NetObjex Platform and have the capacity to act as a light node on a blockchain. The PiQube supports firmware development in C, PHP, Python, and Java for simplifying the inte-gration of edge devices to the blockchain.

“Each PiQube will be an edge node in the NetObjex Platform and hence lever-age all of its capabilities,” says Georgey Jacob, Director of Growth at NetObjex. “Enterprise developers can utilize our Distributed Ledger Query Language (DQL) to construct rich applications capable of interacting with multiple ledgers.”

The company also sees PiQube as a first foray into the space of inter-device communications.

“As smart products evolve there is a need for them to discover, authenticate, communicate, and transact with a wide range of other device across ownership and trust boundaries in a safe and secure manner,” says Jacob. “The combination of the PiQube and the NetObjex Platform’s decentralized registry and data market-place capabilities make this a reality.”

www.netobjex.com

2400 to 2500 MHz RF transistoroutputs up to 500 W

The 500-Watt BLC2425M10LS500P LDMOS RF power transistor from Ampleon has been designed for pulsed and CW applications operating in the 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz frequency range.

Suitable for use in a wide range of industrial, consumer and professional cooking RF energy applications, the BLC2425M10LS500P has an excellent high-power to footprint ratio as it delivers 500-Watt CW from a single SOT1250 air cavity plastic package. The device’s 67% efficiency keeps the required cool-ing capacity to a minimum while also ensuring low energy consumption and


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operating costs of the end-equipment. The transistor also exhibits excellent ruggedness by being able to operate with a VSWR 10:1 load mismatch through all phases, further simplifying the system design and protection circuitry.

www.ampleon.com

SMD antennapinpoints locations within centimetres

Antenova Ltd has developed a new SMD positioning antenna that achieves an extraordinary level of accuracy in the GNSS bands, it can pinpoint a location to within centimetres.

The Raptor antenna uses the L2, 1200 MHz satellite bands which recently became available for civilian use. It is the latest addition to Antenova’s lamiiANT range of rigid FR4 antennas designed for easy insertion onto a PCB. The antenna itself is very small – it is a GPS single feed antenna in SMD form, measur-ing just 16.0- x 8.0- x 1.6-mm, which makes it suitable for small PCBs within all kinds of small electronic devices. The L2 frequency band combines multi-band satellite signal reception and GNSS cor-rection data. This helps to mitigate posi-tion errors, greatly improving accuracy, especially in urban areas.

www.antenova.com

SDKsimplifies integration of facial authentication applications

Neurotechnology has released a face verification software development kit (SDK) designed for the integration of facial authentication into enterprise and con-sumer applications for mobile devices and PCs, providing enhanced security through biometric face recognition and liveness detection to prevent spoofing.

The Face Verification SDK library has a simple API that makes it easy to imple-

ment solutions for payment authentica-tion, banking know-your-customer (KYC) procedures, logins for e-services and many other types of secure applications that run on personal devices.

The SDK provides a subset of the capabilities in Neurotechnology’s more full-featured VeriLook SDK for facial iden-tification, and it has a smaller library size compared to the previous Face Verification library in VeriLook version 10, allowing it to be deployed in even smaller applications based on Face Verification technology. The Face Verification SDK also inherits from VeriLook the ability to perform ICAO face image checks in accordance with the ISO 19794-5 standard. The checks may be used by the integrators to ensure the quality of the captured face image and used in combination with liveness detec-tion to reinforce anti-spoofing measures.

Face Verification SDK also includes a flexible deployment mechanism which helps system integrators use it in transaction-based environments. At the same time, it allows face verification to be performed offline and keeps the server component on the end customer’s side.

www.neurotechnology.com

Contactorenables RF final testing at high temperatures

Cohu has launched a high speed test system that combines advanced test fea-tures at temperatures from -55 °C to +155 °C with extensive RF capabilities and an innovative pin design for high test yield and low cost of ownership. The closed-loop Intelligent Contactor Option on the cDragon controls the required conditions for the device under test (DUT). cDragon’s compatibility with existing setups allows for fast and easy conversion.

The temperature performance is achieved by a unique design integrating per pin heat exchangers and applying a closed-loop for temperature control to stabilize the temperature at the DUT. Low contact resistance with 22 GHz operation means the system is aimed at contacting advanced analogue and RF technology in DFN, QFN, QFP and SO packages.

The design of the cDragon pin ensures high test yield due to precise point-ing accuracy and highly repeatable test results. Motion decoupling tabs hold the returning pin in a fixed free height position while the force-controlled wipe ensures reliable contact avoiding objectionable impacts on DUT pads and pin. Apply-

ing a non-destructive preload the design eliminates pad wear on the test interface board. The cDragon design features a self-cleaning reverse wipe action for extended cleaning intervals and longer pin life resulting in significantly higher uptime of the test cell.

https://resources.cohu.com

Broadband 6-18 GHz 3-way power divider

A 3-way Wilkinson power divider from MECA has been optimized for excellent performance covering; 6.0-18.0 GHz (P3S-12.000). Key specifications include isolation of 20 dB minimun (25 dB typical), maximum VSWR of 1.4:1, 0.7 dB maxi-mum insertion loss and amplitude balance of 0.4 dB maximum. The device comes in a compact package measuring 2.5- x 3.8- x 1.0-cm (1- x 1.5- x 0.4-inches).

www.e-MECA.com

Cellular IoT modulesmall, low-power, integrated security features

The nRF9160 has GCF certification for compliance to the 3GPP LTE specification and global cellular network interoperability, as well as required FCC and CE regulatory certifications. This means it is approved for deployment globally.

At 10- x 16- x 1-mm, the nRF9160 SiP is a complete solution that only needs


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an external battery, SIM, and antenna to operate. For the integration, Nordic part-nered with Qorvo to make a SiP resembles an IC more than a module. The nRF9160 SiP leverages Qorvo’s RF front-end, advanced packaging, and MicroShield technology to combine high performance with low power consumption.

The nRF9160 SiP is the first cellular IoT module to incorporate the Arm Cortex M-33 CPU core, which is supported by 1MB Flash and 256kB of RAM. It also is the first module to incorporate Arm’s TrustZone and Arm CryptoCell security for Internet-level encryption and application protection. The nRF9160 SiP also features a broad range peripheral set, integrated GPS, analogue and digital interfaces, 32 GPIOs, a stand-alone modem with full LTE capability, plus a multiband RF front-end.

www.nordicsemi.com

Low cost flexible RFID ICssuitable for smart packaging

Designed for use in closed HF RFID sys-tems, PragmatIC’s PR1101 and PR1102 flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) are the first products in the company’s ConnectIC family.

Developed using PragmatIC’s unique platform of patented technologies, Con-nectICs deliver connectivity solutions at the lowest cost point in the market, claims the manufacturer, delivering an ultra-thin and flexible solution that can be embed-ded into a wide range of substrates, including paper and plastic.

The devices reduce the complexity of inlays by using single layer antennas, delivering a further step down in cost to brand owners and retailers. These ConnectICs are extremely attractive for high-volume fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) and other mass market appli-cations, with electronic connectivity no longer limited to high value, luxury items.

The PR1100 product series facilitates rapid detection of objects when one or more low-cost custom readers are integrated into the system. Designed for proximity identification applications, these FlexICs are suitable for applications

including hierarchical inventory manage-ment, item identification and tracking, supply chain assurance and brand authen-tication. They are targeted at market segments such as food and beverage, personal and home care, pharmaceuti-cal and healthcare. They also support the introduction of digital interactivity into physical toys and games. x

www.pragmatic.tech

10-Gb/s 802.11ad networking platformThe EVK-W130-AP4 10-Gb/s 802.11ad networking platform developed by Peraso Technologies is now available to meet the demand for the ever-increasing push by service providers to provide multi-gigabit internet access to the home.

The platform will incorporate the Peraso W130 802.11ad, 16-element phased array chipset. In addition to increased capacity, the 60 GHz band brings greenfield spec-trum that is virtually interference free, in contrast to the existing 2.4/5 GHz bands, which have become saturated, and do not provide a reliable channel of communica-tion. The paltform was demonstrated at CES 2019.

“The introduction of the EVK-W130-AP4 networking platform ushers in a new era of performance and reliability in the residential networking market”, explains Bill McLean, President and CEO of Peraso. “For example, in China, our access point customers are telling us that the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands are fundamen-tally saturated. Customers are looking for an alternative solution.”

www.perasotech.com

Wi-Fi flexible antennasare side-fed for compactness

Molex’s Wi-Fi flexible antenna series is designed for fast and easy integration into wireless devices with minimal imple-mentation cost.

The 206994-series side-fed cable-flex-ible antenna enables high-performance RF transmission for the most demand-ing Wi-Fi applications, including those with space constraints. When centre-fed cable antennas do not address the needs of particular applications, side-fed cable antenna designs are required: the 206994-series monopole side-fed flex antenna addresses the requirements of small-size devices, while the 204281-series dipole supports applications that need fully balanced transmission and ground-plane independence regardless of cable length. The 206994-series antenna measures only 15.0- x 6.0-mm in order to fit within today’s space constraints. The antenna deliver over 70% radiation efficiency and a return loss under -10 dB.

www.molex.com

28 GHz GaN front end moduletargets fixed wireless base stations

Qorvo® has expanded its offering for 5G applications with the industry’s first 28 GHz Gallium Nitride (GaN) front-end module (FEM), which reduces overall system costs for base station equipment manufacturers as they expand into 5G.

The QPF4001 FEM integrates a high linearity LNA, a low loss transmit/receive switch (TR SW) and a high-gain, high efficiency multi-stage PA in a single MMIC. The compact 5- x 4-mm air-cavity lami-nate surface mount package is optimized for the phased array element spacing at 28 GHz for 5G base station architectures.

The QPF4001 operates from 26 GHz to 30 GHz. The receive path (LNA + TR SW) is designed to provide 17 dB of gain and a typical noise figure of 3.5 dB. The transmit path (PA + SW) provides 27 dB of small signal gain with high linearity of 35 dBc ACPR and low EVM of 3% at 23 dBm average output power, while supporting peak power of 1-W.

The new GaN FEM enables smaller, more powerful and efficient millimeter-wave, phased array systems, which will


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steer signals to areas of greater bandwidth demand. Using Qorvo’s highly efficient 0.15-micron GaN-on-SiC technology in this application allows the user to more efficiently achieve higher EIRP levels while minimizing array size and power dissipa-tion, resulting in a lower cost system.

According to SNS Telecom & IT, the 28 GHz frequency band is widely preferred for early 5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA) deployments, enabling operators to meet the speed, latency, reliability and capacity requirements of 5G.

www.qorvo.com

Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is 5G ready

Qualcomm Corp. (San Diego, CA) has announced the Snapdragon 855, a 5G-ready processor with numerous enhancements designed to exploit 7nm manufacturing process technology includ-ing the first glimmers of machine learning support in hardware.

The Kryo 485 CPU features a prime core capable of up to 2.84 GHz clock frequency. The 855 comes with a built-in Snapdragon X24 LTE modem but is presumably designed to work with an external 5G modem chip.

Graphics are improved with the Adreno 640 GPU and the Hexagon 690 DSP has been rebuilt for AI, with vector accelerators and a Tensor accelerator. This allows for voice and audio enhance-ments based on machine learning such as Elevoc’s noise cancellation and voice-recognizing assistants from Google, Amazon and Baidu.

Qualcomm said it has also revamped its AI software engine to its fourth ver-sion. Together with the hardware support this is now three times the performance of its predecessor, the company said.

The Snapdragon includes a dedicated computer vision image signal processor core, the Spectra 380 and for rendering the chip includes the Adreno 640 GPU, which supports Vulkan 1.1 API.

www.qualcomm.com

Real-time remote analyzerbased on the SignalShark

Narda Safety Test Solutions has released an equivalent remote-controlled version of its SignalShark at an attractive price/performance ratio. This latest real-time remote analyzer detects and analyzes, classifies and localizes RF signals in the frequency range between 8 kHz and 8 GHz to the highest degree of precision and reliability.

The real-time remote analyzer has been modified and optimized for universal applications requiring efficient, centrally-controlled monitoring of systems, the components of which may be widely spaced and spread out over a large area. The module solves complex measurement and analysis problems, thanks to its high RF performance (i.e. super sensitivity, yet with high immunity to overmodulation), ITU compliance, reliability, and speed.

www.narda-sts.com

Bluetooth sticker sensor tag operates battery-free

With a vision to connect people with pack-aging and products using paper thin bat-tery-free Bluetooth sensors, Israeli startup Wiliot has raised $30 million in series B funding with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Investment Arm, Samsung Venture Invest-ment Corp., and Avery Dennison.

The new investors have joined Nor-west Venture Partners, 83North, Grove Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and M Ventures to raise an additional $30 million of funding. This follows its demonstration of the first-ever sticker-sized Bluetooth sensor tag incorporating an ARM proces-sor powered solely by scavenging energy from ambient radio frequencies.

A Wiliot chip glued to a simple antenna printed on plastic or paper can authenti-cate the proximity of a product by trans-mitting an encrypted serial number along with weight and temperature data from a device the size of a postage stamp. Elimi-nating most of the components associ-ated with traditional Bluetooth, these tags lower sale and maintenance costs to pre-viously unachievable levels. The tags use Wiliot’s breakthrough in nanowatt com-puting to communicate with any device enabled by Bluetooth Low Energy, such as smartphones, Wi-Fi access points and Internet of Things (IoT) devices that can connect to digital displays, Wi-Fi and LTE cellular networks.

“We believe that disposable elec-tronics based on battery-free, low-cost systems are the foundation for future IoT systems. We are on the edge of dra-matically changing the way products are made, how they are distributed, where and when they are sold, and how they are used and recycled,” said Tal Tamir, Wiliot CEO and co-founder.

“Re-cycling the radiation around us to power sticker-size sensors can enable new ways for consumers to interact with products that were previously not feasible. Products can share when they are picked up, their temperature, or when they need to be replenished. Without batteries or other high-cost components, tags have unlimited power and lifespan, so can be embedded inside of products that were previously unconnected to the Internet of Things.”

Real-life applications for Wiliot tags include real-time item tracking through a manufacturing process, to the warehouse and from the store to the end consumer, all while gathering critical information. At the retail level, the Wiliot transponder can overcome the limits of human-readable product information on tags or packag-ing, unlocking interactive engagement through the consumer’s own phone or displays. At home, consumers can communicate with their products to get instructions and reminders of when and how to use them, and Wiliot-enabled containers can automatically reorder themselves when empty. Valuable prod-ucts can be tracked in case they are lost or stolen without having to add a dongle with limited battery life.

www.wiliot.com


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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019 MW · 2019-02-18 · 4 MW January - February 2019 Comment LoRaWAN ‘sees’ growth of over 60 percent in 2018 covering nearly 100 countries Experiencing massive