NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 MW...4 MW November - December 2018 LTE-V interoperability tests for connected vehicles Rohde & Schwarz and Huawei have successfully tested the interoperabil-ity

europeanbusiness press

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018

Wireless Sensor Networks – IoT

The European journal for the microwave and wireless design engineer

RF - Microwave www.mwee.comMW

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ContentsContents

10Design software accelerates antenna array development for automotive radar applications

17, 20WSN: Wireless Options for the IoT

WSN: Practical Bluetooth Low Energy and Sub-GHz integration approaches

RF - Microwave

MW6-9News

Spray-on antennas can be made extremely thin

Breakthrough 5G filter technology targets 5G

4News

LTE-V interoperability tests for connected vehicles

LoRaWAN specs standardize firmware updates OTA

16Honda uses V2X technology to ‘see’ around buildings

Micron targets AI with up to $100M for investments

22Products

Mobile chip combines NFC, eSIM and security

Bluetooth 5 SoCsdeliver low power for battery-free IoT

Editor In ChiefJean-Pierre JoostingTel. +44-7800 [email protected]

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AccountingRicardo Pinto FerreiraTel +32 (0)2 740 [email protected]

PublisherAndre RousselotTel +32 (0)2 740 [email protected]

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! Figure 1. Different ranges, fields-of-view (FOV,) and function for ADAS. Image courtesy of Analog Devices.

Advances in radar modulation techniques, antenna beam-steering, system architecture, and

semiconductor technology are driving the rapid adoption of mmWave radar in future ADAS-

enabled cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the technical advantages of the 77-GHz band include

smaller antennas (a third of the size of the current 24-GHz ones), higher permitted transmit

power, and, most importantly, wider available bandwidth to enable higher object resolution.

Designing components to operate at higher frequencies, however, is inherently more difficult. To

drive the adoption of these technologies, radar developers require RF-aware system design

software that supports radar simulations with detailed analysis of RF front-end components,

including nonlinear RF chains, advanced antenna design, and channel modeling. Co-simulation

between circuit and EM analysis provides an accurate representation of true system performance

prior to building and testing costly radar prototypes. NI AWR software provides these

capabilities, all within a platform that manages automotive radar product development—from

initial architecture and modulation studies through the physical design of the antenna array and

front-end electronics based on either III-V or silicon integrated circuit (IC) technologies.

www.mwee.com MW4 November - December 2018

LTE-V interoperability tests for connected vehiclesRohde & Schwarz and Huawei have successfully tested the interoperabil-ity of LTE-V connected vehicles with the CMW500 wideband radio com-munication tester using the embedded Huawei Balong 765 IC as an LTE-V UE. The system verified multiple test scenarios for internet of vehicles (IoV) communications based on 3GPP Release 14 Mode 4.

LTE-V is a cellular IoV technology standard based on device to device (D2D) and existing LTE technologies. In the R&D phase, interoperability testing between terminals from different provid-ers verifies connectivity and compliance with the standard. Testing the confor-mance of LTE-V terminals based on an authoritative third-party test platform is a crucial foundation for successful com-mercial deployment of LTE-V.

Rohde & Schwarz, a leading provider of conformance test equipment for

mobile communications terminals, also claims to be the first provider of LTE-V

test equipment – the CMW500 equipped with the CMW-KU514 LTE-V option in combi-nation with the SMB-V100A GNSS simulator now supports LTE-V Mode 4 testing.

Huawei LTE-V2X terminals are based on the Huawei Balong 765

baseband IC. This chip has been spe-cially designed for the new generation of IoV communications and can support UU interfaces (communication interfaces between terminals and base stations) and PC5 interfaces (short-distance direct communication between a vehicle and other devices). The application proces-sor complies with 3GPP Release 14, and supports Mode 3 and Mode 4.

www.rohde-schwarz.comwww.huawei.com

Richardson RFPD joins LoRa AllianceRichardson RFPD announced that it has become an adopter member of the LoRa Alliance. The non-profit technology association promotes and collaborates on an open, global standard (LoRaWAN) for low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) IoT connectivity.

As an adopter member, Richardson RFPD will support the LoRa Alliance, participate in member meetings, and continue its global leadership role in delivering tailored, end-to-end IoT solu-tions to its customers. Richardson RFPD extensive IoT offering includes modules, gateways and components for LPWA/cellular, as well as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GNSS applications.

With the technical flexibility to address a broad range of IoT applica-tions, both static and mobile, and a certification program to guarantee interoperability, the LoRaWAN protocol has been deployed by major mobile net-work operators globally, and connectivity is available in over 100 countries, with continual expansion.

www.richardsonrfpd.com

New LoRaWAN specs standardize firmware updates OTAThe LoRa Alliance has announced the public availability of new specifications for the LoRa low-power wide-area-network (LoRaWAN) protocol designed to sup-port firmware updates over the air (OTA). The three new specifications support and standardize firmware updates over the air (FUOTA) – a capability, says the organiza-tion, that is unique to LoRaWAN among low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs). The ability to update devices remotely is critical for the IoT, where many sensors are in remote or difficult locations to reach but may require updating, says the orga-nization, and the new specifications allow the LoRa Alliance ecosystem to perform FUOTA in a standardized way.

Along with the specification announce-ment, the organization also reported significant growth in deployments and certification, with an increase of more than 50% in the number of LoRaWAN-certified products compared to this time last year.

The three new specifications include the LoRaWAN Application Layer Clock Synchronization Specification v1.0.0; LoRaWAN Remote Multicast Setup Specification v1.0.0; and LoRaWAN Frag-mented Data Block Transport Specifica-tion v1.0.0. Together, these specifications enable FUOTA, says the organization, however, three separate specifications have been issued because each can be used independently.

For example, remote multicast setup protocol can be used standalone to send messages to a group of end devices, while fragmentation can be used on its own to send a large file to a single end-device (unicast). And time synchroniza-tion also can be used as a standalone capability.

Security – a strong focus of this devel-opment effort – is addressed in the Multi-cast and Fragmentation specifications.

https://lora-alliance.org

Huawei bets big on AI with new strategyInformation and communications technol-ogy giant Huawei Technologies (Shen-zhen, China) has unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips as part of a big bet on AI technology. The company’s Ascend series of AI chips are claimed to be the world’s first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios. In addition, the company announced new products and cloud services built on Ascend chip capabilities, with the aim of providing “pervasive intelligence to help drive industry development and build a fully connected, intelligent world.”

The Ascend 910 and Ascend 310 chips, says the company, will help greatly accelerate AI adoption in all industries. Aimed at data centers, the 7-nm Ascend 910 chipset is offered as providing “the greatest computing density in a single chip,” while the Ascend 310 – which supports “pervasive intelligence for a fully connected, intelligent world” – targets consumer internet-connected devices.

www.huawei.com

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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

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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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Armed with the world’s largest selection of in-stock, ready to ship RF components, and the brains to back them up, Pasternack Applications Engineers stand ready to troubleshoot your technical issues and think creatively to deliver solutions for all your RF project needs. Whether you’ve hit a design snag, you’re looking for a hard to find part or simply need it by tomorrow, our Applications Engineers are at your service.

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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


Spray-on antennas can be made extremely thinResearchers at Drexel University (Phila-delphia, PA) have developed a method for spraying extremely thin antennas made from a two-dimen-sional (2D) metallic material that perform as well as those being used in mobile devices, wireless routers, and portable transducers.

The breakthrough, say the researchers, could make installing an antenna for next-generation flexible electronics “as easy as applying some bug spray.” The key is the use of a new family of atomically thin 2D metal inorganic com-pounds – called “MXenes” – that have unique properties compared to conven-tional three-dimensional materials.

Graphene – which comprises just a single layer of carbon – is probably the most well-known 2D material, however it is limited to carbon in its composition. The new family of materials includes 2D early transition metal carbides, nitride, and carbonitrides. An MXene titanium

carbide material was used in the Drexel research. The MXene titanium carbide used by the researchers can be dis-

solved in water to create an ink or paint. Its excep-tional conductivity, say the researchers, enables it to transmit and direct radio waves, even when it’s ap-plied in a very thin coating.

Initial testing suggests that the spray-on anten-

nas can perform with the same range of quality as current antennas made from conventional metals, but which are much thicker than MXene antennas. When compared against a variety of antennas made from other 2D materials – including graphene, silver ink, and carbon nano-tubes – the MXene antennas were 50 times better than graphene and 300 times better than silver ink antennas in terms of preserving the quality of radio wave transmission, say the researchers.

https://drexel.edu

LTE, mobile devices drive RF tunable filter marketThe latest research report from Market-sandMarkets™ finds that the RF tunable filter market is expected to grow from USD 55.4 million in 2018 to USD 87.0 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 9.43%.

The report finds that growth of this market is mainly driven by the factors such as the growing demand for smart-phones and connected devices and increasing use of long-term evolution (LTE) network. RF tunable filters based on MEMS capacitors and digitally tuned capacitors are the most popular types of tunable filters used in consumer elec-tronic devices. These tunable filters are widely used in smartphones to minimize the manufacturing cost.

According to the report radar sys-tems are expected to hold the largest share of the RF tunable filter market based on systems, in terms of value, by 2023, while the market for smart cities is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023, attributed to the successful implementation of smart city projects.

www.marketsandmarkets.com

Qualcomm, Ericsson in first 3GPP 5G NR sub-6 GHz OTA callQualcomm and Ericsson announced have successfully completed a 3GPP Rel-15 spec compliant 5G NR over-the-air (OTA) call over sub-6 GHz bands on a smart-phone form factor mobile test device.

The OTA call was conducted in the Ericsson Lab in Stockholm, Sweden on the 3.5 GHz band. Similar to the first OTA calls performed using millimeter wave (mmWave) in both 28 and 39 GHz spectrum bands, which occurred in September 2018, today’s sub-6 GHz call utilized Ericsson’s commercial 5G NR radio AIR 6488 and baseband products and a mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X50 5G modem and RF subsystem.

In December 2017, Ericsson and Qual-comm Technologies announced interoper-ability development testing (IODT) to help pave the way for commercial launches of 5G NR standard-compliant infrastructure, smartphones and other mobile devices in the first half of 2019. The successful

5G OTA calls using both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands are critical milestones in the commercialization process.

Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, says, “Achieving interoperability on different spectrums shows the strength of the 5G ecosystem. Together with Qualcomm Technologies, we’ve successfully tested 5G NR on 39, 28 and now, 3.5 GHz band. These mile-stones add to the commercial readiness of 5G.”

“Sub-6 GHz spectrum is instrumen-tal to the global 5G NR rollout as it will provide wide area, high performance connectivity and has been allocated and auctioned in numerous regions around the world, including the US, Korea and Europe, with others to follow shortly,” says Durga Malladi, senior vice president, engineering and general manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

www.qualcomm.com

Apple buys PMIC capabilities from DialogDialog Semiconductor plc has announced a deal that will see it transfer 16 percent of its workforce to Apple, while receiving license fees and prepayment for three years of products. In return Dialog is set to be paid $600 million and will then its focus on opportunities to supply configu-rable mixed-signal, audio and charging ICs into the IoT, mobile, automotive, com-puting and storage sectors.

Dialog described the deal as a strengthening of its partnership with Apple while adding that it would continue to deliver PMICs to other customers globally. Under the terms of the deal Dialog will license certain of its power management technologies to Apple, transfer assets and over 300 employees to Apple to support chip R&D in return for $300 million in cash. Apple will pay another $300 million for the development and supply of power management, audio subsystem, charging and other mixed-signal ICs to be deliv-ered over the next three years.

www.dialog-semiconductor.com

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Breakthrough 5G filter technology targets 5GResonant has announced a break-through 5G filter technology – desig-nated XBAR – that wiill be introduced for the first time at the 2018 IEEE Interna-tional Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) in Kobe, Japan.

The break-through is a fundamentally novel resonator, the building block of an RF filter. The technology is important because it is designed to offer a cost-effective filter operating at frequencies of 3 GHz and higher, making it the first filter technology designed from the beginning for 5G.

“The high bandwidth 5G data services will operate at frequencies of 3.5 GHz – 6 GHz and higher, but today’s best filter technologies have limitations operating at these frequencies,” said George B. Holmes, CEO of Resonant. “The early results from our XBAR initiative are very promising and we are working hard to

provide a cost-effective, high-perfor-mance option for 5G services.”

Using its ISN (Infinite Synthesized Networks) technol-ogy, Resonant has developed this new structure, which in simulations outper-forms best-in-class FBAR resonators. The company filed patent applications

on the technology earlier this year.Resonant believes that its patented

ISN technology will enable the company to design complex filter products at approximately half the unit cost and in approximately half the time of traditional approaches. A large suite of proprietary mathematical methods, software design tools and network synthesis techniques enable it to explore a much larger set of possible solutions and quickly derive the optimum solution.

www.resonant.com

Fixed broadband subscribers now over one billionAccording to the Broadband Forum there are now more than one billion fixed broadband subscribers worldwide – an achievement that has been confirmed by leading market analysis firm Point Topic – following the release of their World Broadband Statistics Q2 2018 report which saw the number of fixed broad-band subscribers grow by 2.5 per cent from Q1 2018, the highest surge in the last six quarters.

The report from Point Topic reveals the majority of new subscribers are now coming from less developed regions and countries. However, according to the report, growth in ARPU is being seen in developed markets, driven by improved offerings and services supported by gigabit-capable broadband.

The research also highlights that around 80% of global connections are fiber-based or cable-based, while ADSL connections are continuing to decline, having dropped eight per cent in the last year.

www.broadband-forum.org

Enterprise VSAT communication system market heats upAccording to a report from ReportBuyer, the global enterprise VSAT satellite com-munication system market size is pro-jected to reach USD 7.55 billion by 2025. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% over the forecast period.

The rising number of enterprises coupled with rapid digitalization are expected to drive the demand for Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) over the projected period.

The increasing volume of goods being exported and imported as well as the emergence of China and India as some of the prominent global manufacturing hubs has resulted in expanded trade routes from Asia Pacific to Europe and North America. Usage of VSAT for communica-tion on ships will add to the growth of the market in the forthcoming years.

Several emerging economies, particu-larly in Asia Pacific and Latin America, have been undertaking initiatives to digitalize their economies to compete with

their developed competitors. For instance, Mexico Conectado, an initiative under-taken by the Government of Mexico aims at digitalizing the country to provide free internet in public spaces such as hospi-tals, schools, parks, squares and universi-ties. Pegaso Banda Ancha (PBA), a satel-lite company, has deployed over 22,000 VSATs since 2004 in collaboration with Mexico’s Ministry of Communication and Transport. In 2015, Pegaso, in partnership with Hughes, deployed the installation and services of another 5,000 VSATs.

Further, the Government of India has recently undertaken the Digital India Pro-gram with an aim to transform the country into a digitally empowered economy with focus on manufacturing, banking, educa-tion, and security. Although the country has access to submarine cables for inter-national bandwidth, it has also initiated the use of satellite-based communication.

www.reportbuyer.com

Startup seeds 3D-printed antenna/radar technologyLunewave Inc., (Tuscon, AZ), a startup developing antenna and radar sensor technology for use in self-driving vehicles and other applications, has raised $5 mil-lion in seed funding. Lunewave uses 3D printing to create a so-called Luneburg lens antenna. A Luneburg lens is spheri-cally symmetric with a refractive index that decreases radially from the center to the outer surface. This produces a spherical sensor with a 360-degree field of view.

The company claims that the spheri-cal radar sensor can replace conventional sensor systems that would require multiple sensors. The technology is also applicable to aerospace and wireless telecommuni-cations. Lunewave, founded in 2017 as a spin off from the University of Arizona, received the National Science Founda-tion’s SBIR Program suppot

Fraser McCombs Capital (FMC) led the round of financing, which also included strategic investments from BMW i Ven-tures, Baidu Ventures and others.

www.lunewave.com

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5G NR full stack interoperability development testingAnritsu Corporation has announced that Samsung’s System LSI Business has successfully com-pleted 5G NR full stack IODT (Interoperability Development Test-ing) with their recently announced Exynos Modem 5100 using Anritsu’s market-leading Radio Commu-nication Test Station MT8000A and protocol test/RF measurement software.

This demonstrates Anritsu’s support for full stack connectivity testing with Samsung’s 5G NR UE modem, helping 5G NR UE development for early rollout of 5G services.

The MT8000A platform enables proto-col testing and RF measurement of lead-ing-edge technologies for 5G NR more flexible and faster than other systems. Anritsu’s Rapid Test Designer (RTD) for GUI-based protocol tests simulates various protocol sequences and param-

eters for both 5G NR and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), as well as for existing legacy

technologies. Now, both UE modem and UE device manufacturers alike can access leading-edge 5G and 4G tests with a single system, helping develop-ment teams work together to achieve

cost-efficient testing and timely real-world 5G and 4G deployment.

“This joint collaboration shows once again how Anritsu delivers leading technologies helping 5G mobile de-vice manufacturers reduce their prod-uct launch times—a critical factor for success in this intensely competitive market,” said Yoshiyuki Amano, Anritsu’s Vice President.

www.anritsu.comhttp://news.samsung.com

C Spire partners with Microsoft on eSIMC Spire is making it easier for information technology teams to manage what has historically been disparate devices and subscriptions on its mobile network by partnering with Microsoft to use embed-ded SIM technology in smartphones and tablets for companies and businesses.

C Spire will work with IDEMIA and Microsoft to use the eSIM orchestration hub to simplify integration in its wire-less network. The hub handles all eSIM activation and provisioning workflows on the network and, by connecting to exist-ing APIs, enables eSIM support without requiring major updates to billing and operating systems.

eSIM-enabled devices are quickly becoming the industry standard with shipments expected to grow from 224 million this year to 700 million in 2022, according to ABI Research. eSIM is expected to flood enterprise markets worldwide in the next few years, which is why C Spire, IDEMIA and Microsoft are working together to remove hurdles for network operators.

www.cspire.com

Adlink and Entrust partner on IIoT secure-by-design modelAdlink Technology and Entrust Datacard have established a partnership to solve one of the most significant barriers to adoption of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) – security – by collaborating on the creation of an Industrial IoT (IIoT) security model. The model aims to enable secure com-munication for data streams throughout the entire IoT value chain – from manu-facturing and applications, through to endpoints and edge devices.

The partnership will integrate Entrust Datacard’s ioTrust Security system into Adlink’s Vortex Edge services. The en-hanced joint system can quickly opera-tionalize systems and things securely for every endpoint, application, container and data stream. The integration will ultimately provide customers with established and secure trusted identities across their IoT ecosystems from the discovery phase to full roll out of their IoT deployments. This joint development will also be included as part of Adlink’s Digital Experiments-as-a-

Service (DXS), which has been designed to test and assess the effectiveness of an IoT design, strategy, organizational com-patibility, and financial return. Organiza-tions looking to develop secure by design Edge IoT projects can now proceed with confidence knowing that they can try a number of scenarios without large upfront costs, as DXS is typically offered as a three-month engagement including ac-cess to a comprehensive suite of Vortex Edge microservices supported by an eco-system of market leading partners, which negates the need for building bespoke complex systems.

Together, Adlink and Entrust Datacard will control the flow of data between ap-plications, in the cloud and on the edge of IoT environments. The partnership will also enable secure communication for data streams at the edge.

www.adlinktech.comwww.entrustdatacard.com

Mobile payment market is set to growAccording to data compiled by Allied Market Research (AMR), the mobile payment market was valued at USD 601 Billion in 2016 and is expected to hit USD 4,574 Billon by 2023.

Mobile payments provide custom-ers an easy and convenient shopping experience with the help of increasing penetration of smartphones and grow-ing e-commerce industry. Based on the mode of transaction, the market is segmented into short message service (SMS), near-field communication and wireless application protocol (WAP). The SMS segment dominated the mobile pay-ment industry in 2016 and is anticipated to grow at a rate of 33.5% during the forecast period.

According to Kalyani Sonawane, Research Analyst, ICT & Media at AMR, the mobile payment market is in its maturity phase and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.8% during the forecast period.

www.financialbuzz.com

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Blockchain phone from HTC now availableElectronics giant HTC (New Taipei City, Taiwan) has announced the official early access release to its blockchain smartphone – initially available only to cryptocurrency holders.

First announced back in May, the Exodus 1 smartphone contains a cryptocurrency wal-let – called “Zion” – that is kept in a secure area “protected from the Android OS” for private keys and virtual cash. The phone will run decentralized apps on the blockchain and has a “Social Key Recovery” func-tion, which lets users regain access to their funds via trusted contacts if they lose their keys.

The Exodus 1 reflects the company’s changing smartphone strategy with an increased focus on software and intel-lectual property. According to the com-pany, the phone’s integrated blockchain technology strengthens the security and

privacy of a user’s assets, and will in the future help with protecting a user’s data

and identity.“The reason why you do

a blockchain phone is,” Phil Chen, HTC’s decentralized chief officer, told CNBC, “for everybody just to own their own keys. Everything starts there. When you start own-ing your own keys, then you can start owning your own digital identity, then you can start to own data.”

Other features of the Exodus 1 are typical of current flagship smartphones, including a six-inch display with quad-HD+ resolution; a 16-megapixel dual main camera and 8-MP dual front camera with 4K video; a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor; and six gi-gabytes of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The device includes a 3,500-mAh battery with IP68 waterproof rating.

www.htcexodus.com

Small Cell Forum supports FCC move to lower barriers to 5GThe Small Cell Forum (SCF) has welcomed a decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prevent city and town governments from charging wireless carriers up to $2 billion USD in fees related to the deployment of wireless equipment, including small cells.The announcement represents a huge step forward to remov-ing bureaucratic barriers standing in the way of bringing the benefits of small cells to consumers all over the US, delivering better cellular coverage today and helping speed future 5G deployments.

Currently, small cells deployments are treated the same as large microcell towers, and are therefore subject to fed-eral processes. Network operators and their agents are required to comply with extensive bureaucratic constraints when designing, building and deploying small cells. This represents significant munici-pal fees and delays in the development of the dense networks required to meet the growing demand for mobile data and to lay the foundations for 5G.

www.smallcellforum.org

IBM purchases Red Hat in ‘hybrid cloud’ driveIBM (Armonk, NY) has announced that it has agreed to acquire open-source soft-ware provider Red Hat (Raleigh, NC) in its goal to become the “world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider.”

Under the agreement, IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding com-mon shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enter-prise value of approximately $34 billion. Red Hat will continue to operate as a dis-tinct unit within IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team, and IBM says it will remain committed to Red Hat’s open governance, open source contributions, participation in the open source community, and develop-ment model, and fostering its widespread developer ecosystem.

“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer,” says Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Execu-tive Officer. “It changes everything about the cloud market. IBM will become the world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider, offering

companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.”

“Most companies today are only 20 percent along their cloud journey, rent-ing compute power to cut costs,” says Rometty. “The next 80 percent is about unlocking real business value and driv-ing growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimizing every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.

The acquisition, say the companies, brings together the best-in-class hybrid cloud providers and will enable companies to accelerate hybrid multi-cloud adoption and securely move all business applica-tions to the cloud. This is currently being prevented by the proprietary nature of today’s cloud market, they say.

www.redhat.com/enwww.ibm.com/us-en

NASA nanosatellites for storm trackingNASA is testing the use of mini weather satellites to help monitor storms and track global weather from space.Deployed into low-Earth orbit from the International Space Station in July, the RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat), which is “no bigger than a shoebox,” is a technol-ogy-demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. In an initial demonstration, the satellite sent back images of a storm over Mexico in August, and in a second wave of images in September it caught the first rainfall of Hurricane Florence.

RainCube is a prototype for a possible fleet of such devices, say researchers, that could one day help monitor severe storms, lead to improving the accuracy of weather forecasts, and track climate change. The researchers are experiment-ing to see if shrinking a weather radar into a low-cost, miniature satellite can still provide a real-time look inside storms.

www.jpl.nasa.gov

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EDA– Automotive Radar

By implementing radar technology over the 76 to 81 GHz spectrum, advanced driver-assist systems

(ADAS) enable smart vehicles with the ability to alert and assist drivers. These automotive radar applications use the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum to exploit more bandwidth for greater resolution and object detection. How-ever, higher frequency propagation comes with greater path loss, as isotro-pic free-space attenuation is inversely proportional to wavelength. In addition, along with this additional path loss, as wavelengths get smaller, physical processes such as diffraction, scatter-ing, and material penetration loss make the channel properties of mmWave bands significantly more challenging. Phased-array beamforming produces a directive beam that can be reposi-tioned (scanned) electronically in order to overcome these greater channel losses. Beam-steering techniques such as minimum variance distortion-less response (MVDR) also improve target (road obstacle) identification.

Radar designers view the array an-tenna as a component with measurable input and output, and a set of specifica-tions. Array designers see the details of the array and the physical and electrical limitations imposed by the radar system. Both must work together to achieve the goals of these very complex systems. In addition, like their aerospace and defense-related counterparts, ADAS must perform over a range of operat-ing conditions and object detection challenges in order to provide reliable coverage over the range (distance) and field of view (angle) as dictated by the particular driver assist function. Un-like the antenna systems developed for aerospace and defense applications, they must be designed for cost-effec-tive, high-volume deployment.

This white paper examines several challenges behind developing mmWave radar systems for the next generation of smart cars and trucks and looks at new capabilities recently added to electronic design automation (EDA) software that

supports a design flow for developing high-performance arrays that are also cost and space conscious. The radio-frequency (RF) front-end hardware supporting these new antenna systems must be optimized for performance, reliability, compactness, and cost. The individual components must be speci-fied and developed through a design flow that manages and combines this performance data in order to achieve accurate simulation of the overall array and feed structure across scan region, frequency range, and other operational requirements. This flow should also pro-vide a pathway to physical realization of the individual components, including the antenna array itself.

An enhanced phased-array genera-tor wizard within the NI AWR Design Environment platform enables users to interactively develop phased-array antenna systems and generate array and feed network schematics or system diagrams suitable for further circuit/system/EM analysis. Users can easily define the array geometry (configura-tion), feed structures, gain tapers, and characteristics of individual elements and their respective RF links. This wizard works interactively with NI AWR

software tools, inclusive of Microwave Office, Analog Office, Visual System Simulator™ (VSS), AXIEM, Analyst™, and AntSyn™ software, to guide phased-array/feed network component/system development from concept to product.

OVERVIEW OF ADASAutomobile manufacturers are equip-ping new models with ADAS based on vision sensor technology and radar systems operating at 24 and/or 77 GHz. Long-range radar (LRR) supports mul-tiple functions, comfortably handling distances between 30 and 200 meters, while short-range radar (SRR) can de-tect objects below 30-meter distances. The 77-GHz band (from 76 to 81 GHz), currently supporting LRR is expected to provide both short- and long-range detection for all future automotive ra-dars. Figure 1 shows the different ADAS functions and ranges.

Advances in radar modulation tech-niques, antenna beam-steering, system architecture, and semiconductor tech-nology are driving the rapid adoption of mmWave radar in future ADAS-enabled cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the techni-cal advantages of the 77-GHz band

Design software accelerates antenna array development for automotive radar applicationsBy Dr. John Dunn, AWR Group

! Figure 1. Different ranges, fields-of-view (FOV,) and function for ADAS. Image courtesy of Analog Devices.

Advances in radar modulation techniques, antenna beam-steering, system architecture, and

semiconductor technology are driving the rapid adoption of mmWave radar in future ADAS-

enabled cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the technical advantages of the 77-GHz band include

smaller antennas (a third of the size of the current 24-GHz ones), higher permitted transmit

power, and, most importantly, wider available bandwidth to enable higher object resolution.

Designing components to operate at higher frequencies, however, is inherently more difficult. To

drive the adoption of these technologies, radar developers require RF-aware system design

software that supports radar simulations with detailed analysis of RF front-end components,

including nonlinear RF chains, advanced antenna design, and channel modeling. Co-simulation

between circuit and EM analysis provides an accurate representation of true system performance

prior to building and testing costly radar prototypes. NI AWR software provides these

capabilities, all within a platform that manages automotive radar product development—from

initial architecture and modulation studies through the physical design of the antenna array and

front-end electronics based on either III-V or silicon integrated circuit (IC) technologies.

Figure 1: Different ranges, fields-of-view (FOV,) and function for ADAS. Image courtesy of Analog Devices.

The Microchip name and logo and the Microchip logo are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their registered owners. © 2018 Microchip Technology Inc. All rights reserved. DS00002758A. MEC2220Eng08/18

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include smaller antennas (a third of the size of the current 24-GHz ones), higher permitted transmit power, and, most importantly, wider available bandwidth to enable higher object resolution.

Designing components to operate at higher frequencies, however, is inher-ently more difficult. To drive the adoption of these technologies, radar develop-ers require RF-aware system design software that supports radar simulations with detailed analysis of RF front-end components, including nonlinear RF chains, advanced antenna design, and channel modeling. Co-simulation be-tween circuit and EM analysis provides an accurate representation of true sys-tem performance prior to building and testing costly radar prototypes. NI AWR software provides these capabilities, all within a platform that manages automo-tive radar product development—from initial architecture and modulation stud-ies through the physical design of the antenna array and front-end electronics based on either III-V or silicon integrated circuit (IC) technologies.

The NI AWR Design Environment platform integrates these critical radar simulation technologies while providing the necessary automation to assist the engineering team with the very complex task of managing the physical and elec-trical design data associated with ADAS electronics. Figure 2 shows the various NI AWR software tools that support ADAS development.

NI AWR software tools and function-ality that support phased-array design include:

System SimulationThe design of waveforms, baseband signal processing, and parameter esti-mation for radar systems with specific analyses for radar measurements, along with comprehensive behavioral models for RF components and signal process-ing. The component and array/antenna requirements are determined using system-level link analysis.

Circuit SimulationThe design of transceiver RF/microwave front-ends with circuit-level analyses and modeling (distributed transmission lines and active and passive devices) to address printed circuit board (PCB) and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)/RFIC design.

EM/Antenna SimulationPlanar/3D electromagnetic (EM) analysis for characterizing the electrical behavior

of passive structures, complex intercon-nects, and housings, as well as antennas and antenna arrays. Antenna synthesis generates a physical antenna design based on performance specifications.

Phased-Array Generator WizardSupports array configuration, early analysis of array using radiation pattern for individual array elements, and feed network based on user input, generat-ing circuit/system schematics and test benches for further analysis.

RADAR ARCHITECTURES AND MODULATIONFor adaptive cruise control (ACC), simultaneous target range and velocity measurements require both high resolu-tion and accuracy to manage multi-tar-get scenarios such as highway traffic. Future developments targeting safety applications like collision avoidance (CA) or autonomous driving (AD) call for even greater reliability (extreme low false alarm rate) and significantly faster reaction times compared to current ACC systems, which utilize relatively well-known waveforms with long mea-surement times (50 - 100 ms). Impor-tant requirements for automotive radar systems include a maximum range of approximately 200 m for ACC, a range resolution of about 1 m and a velocity resolution of 2.5 km/h. To meet all these system requirements, various waveform modulation techniques and architec-tures have been implemented, including a continuous wave (CW) transmit signal or a classical pulsed waveform with ultra-short pulse length.

There are many tradeoffs to be considered when deciding which

architecture and waveform modula-tion technology delivers the necessary performance while maintaining develop-ment and production cost goals. These requirements can be investigated most efficiently with commercially-available software dedicated to RF system de-sign and implementation, offering the necessary simulation technologies and radio block/signal processing models, along with design automation, to man-age complex product development.

VSS system design software pro-vides the simulation and detailed mod-eling of RF and digital signal processing (DSP) components necessary to ac-curately represent the signal generation, transmission, antenna, T/R switching, clutter, noise, jamming, receiving, signal processing, and channel model design challenges and analysis requirements for today’s advanced radar sys-tems. VSS software provides the critical system-level link analysis needed to determine the individual component performance requirements, including the array/antenna.

In addition, the optional VSS phased-array generator wizard enables design-ers to specify key electrical/physical attributes of the array, including number of elements, distance between ele-ments, coupling between elements (along with edge and corner behavior), frequency, geometry of the array, and radiation pattern for each element or groups of elements

Users can organize radiating ele-ments into groups and assign differ-ent antenna radiation details and RF link properties to individual elements or multiple elements at a time, usually based on location within the array, such


The NI AWR Design Environment platform integrates these critical radar simulation

technologies while providing the necessary automation to assist the engineering team with the

very complex task of managing the physical and electrical design data associated with ADAS

electronics. Figure 2 shows the various NI AWR software tools that support ADAS

development.

! Figure 2. Software tools and functionality supporting a comprehensive phased-array antenna design workflow.

NI AWR software tools and functionality that support phased-array design include:

System Simulation

The design of waveforms, baseband signal processing, and parameter estimation for radar

systems with specific analyses for radar measurements, along with comprehensive behavioral

models for RF components and signal processing. The component and array/antenna

requirements are determined using system-level link analysis.

Circuit Simulation

The design of transceiver RF/microwave front-ends with circuit-level analyses and modeling

(distributed transmission lines and active and passive devices) to address printed circuit board

(PCB) and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)/RFIC design.

Figure 2: Software tools and functionality supporting a comprehensive phased-array antenna design workflow.


as an edge or corner. This capability helps simplify and expedite the process of setting up arrays with many ele-ments by scaling element/feed details to the entire array using a smaller, more manageable number of element groups. Elements within the same group may then be assigned an antenna and/or RF link configuration from among multiple user-defined configurations.

GENERATING DESIGNS FROM THE WIZARDOne goal of the phased-array genera-tor wizard is to provide designers with a powerful yet intuitive interface to define a physical-array configuration, assign antenna and RF link character-istics to individual and/or groups of elements, define feed networks and gain taper properties, and simulate the response, inclusive of potential element failure (Figure 3). This enables users to produce a far-field plot that can be swept for frequency, input power, and phi and theta angles using slide tuners to control these parameter values. The resulting antenna pattern view provides designers with a real-time visual aid de-picting the impact of design decisions on far-field performance.

Developing actual phased-array hardware requires the design and simulation focus to shift toward circuit-level analysis and physically-realizable components. The entire available design flow, from antenna synthesis, generation of antenna radiation pat-terns through EM analysis, configura-tion of the array and feed network, and generation of circuit or system-based schematic design is shown in Figure 4.

ANTENNA DESIGNA multi-modal radar for an ACC system [1] based on a frequency-modulated CW (FMCW) radar driving multiple antenna arrays is shown in Figure 5. This multi-beam, multi-range radar with digital-beam forming operates at both 24 and 77 GHz, utilizing two switching array antennas to cover long range and narrow angle coverage (150 m, ±10∞) and short-range and wide-angle cover-age (60 m, ±30∞). This example illus-trates the use of multiple antenna-array systems that were required for this type of system, including multiple (5 x 12 elements) series fed patch anten-nas (SFPAs) for the long range, narrow angle detection (77 GHz), a single SFPA (1 x 12 elements designed for 24 GHz) for short, wide angle detection, and four (1 x 12) SFPAs for the receiver.

Radar performance is greatly influ-enced by the antenna technology, which must consider electrical performance such as gain, beam width, range, and physical size for the particular applica-tion. The multiple, fixed TR/RX antenna arrays in this radar were optimized for range, angle, and side-lobe suppression. A patch antenna is relatively easy to

design and manufacture and will perform quite well when configured into an array, which results in an increase of overall gain and directivity.

More complex geometries may be developed to improve performance or address aggressive size constraints. For these instances, the AntSyn antenna synthesis tool can be applied to help

view provides designers with a real-time visual aid depicting the impact of design decisions on

far-field performance.

! !

Figure 3. The auto group option enables users to specify basic array configuration and review the physical composition of the antenna array (left image). The graphical view (right image) allows users to observe the array radiation pattern in real-time while adjusting the frequency, power level, and steering angles (theta/phi).

Developing actual phased-array hardware requires the design and simulation focus to shift

toward circuit-level analysis and physically-realizable components. The entire available design

flow, from antenna synthesis, generation of antenna radiation patterns through EM analysis,

configuration of the array and feed network, and generation of circuit or system-based schematic

design is shown in Figure 4.

! Figure 4. The VSS phased-array generator wizard uses designer input to generate the antenna array, amplitude/phase shift elements, and combiner/divider system-level network.

Figure 3: The auto group option enables users to specify basic array configuration and review the physical composition of the antenna array (left image). The graphical view (right image) allows users to observe the array radiation pattern in real-time while adjusting the frequency, power level, and steering angles (theta/phi).

Figure 4: The VSS phased-array generator wizard uses designer input to generate the antenna array, amplitude/phase shift elements, and combiner/divider system-level network.

Antenna Design

A multi-modal radar for an ACC system [1] based on a frequency-modulated CW (FMCW) radar

driving multiple antenna arrays is shown in Figure 5. This multi-beam, multi-range radar with

digital-beam forming operates at both 24 and 77 GHz, utilizing two switching array antennas

to cover long range and narrow angle coverage (150 m, ±10°) and short-range and wide-angle

coverage (60 m, ±30°). This example illustrates the use of multiple antenna-array systems that

were required for this type of system., including multiple (5 x 12 elements) series fed patch

antennas (SFPAs) for the long range, narrow angle detection (77 GHz), a single SFPA (1 x 12

elements designed for 24 GHz) for short, wide angle detection, and four (1 x 12) SFPAs for the

receiver.

Figure 5. Multi-band, multi-range FMCW digital beam-forming ACC radar utilizing six individual SFPAs.

Radar performance is greatly influenced by the antenna technology, which must consider

electrical performance such as gain, beam width, range, and physical size for the particular

Figure 5: Multi-band, multi-range FMCW digital beam-forming ACC radar utilizing six individual SFPAs.

view provides designers with a real-time visual aid depicting the impact of design decisions on

far-field performance.

! !

Figure 3. The auto group option enables users to specify basic array configuration and review the physical composition of the antenna array (left image). The graphical view (right image) allows users to observe the array radiation pattern in real-time while adjusting the frequency, power level, and steering angles (theta/phi).

Developing actual phased-array hardware requires the design and simulation focus to shift

toward circuit-level analysis and physically-realizable components. The entire available design

flow, from antenna synthesis, generation of antenna radiation patterns through EM analysis,

configuration of the array and feed network, and generation of circuit or system-based schematic

design is shown in Figure 4.

! Figure 4. The VSS phased-array generator wizard uses designer input to generate the antenna array, amplitude/phase shift elements, and combiner/divider system-level network.



the designer more fully explore design possibilities and develop improved performance based on novel geometries. AntSyn software generates physical designs from a set of antenna require-ments specified by the designer using a proprietary genetic-algorithm based optimizer and fast EM solver to realize actual physical computer designs ready for further EM analysis and development.

The performance of a simple rectan-gular patch antenna design is controlled by the length, width, dielectric height, and permittivity of the antenna. The length of the single patch controls the resonant frequency, whereas the width W controls the input impedance and the radiation pattern. By increasing the width, the impedance can be reduced. However, to decrease the input imped-ance to 50 ohms often requires a very wide patch antenna, which takes up a great deal of valuable space. Larger widths also can increase the bandwidth, as does the height of the substrate h. The permittivity of the substrate controls the fringing fields with lower values, resulting in wider fringes and, therefore, better radiation. Decreasing the permit-tivity also increases the antenna’s band-width. The efficiency is also increased with a lower value for the permittivity. A faster and more efficient means to investigate these tradeoffs is to utilize the powerful EM-based optimization in AntSyn software to determine candidate antenna designs based on electrical performance and size requirements as specified by the designer (Figure 6).

A more rigorous analysis of a single patch antenna or array is made pos-sible through the use of electromagnetic analysis using the AXIEM 3D planar or Analyst 3D finite element method (FEM) simulators. Operating within the NI AWR Design Environment platform, these tools not only simulate antenna performance such as near- and far-field radiation patterns, input impedance, and surface currents, they also co-simulate directly with VSS software, automati-cally incorporating the antenna simula-tion results into the overall radar system analysis without the need to manually export/import data between EM simula-tor and system design tools (Figure 7).

Both AXIEM and Analyst simulators can import the physical geometries generated by AntSyn software or take the user-defined physical attributes of the antenna, such as patch width and length, and dielectric properties such as material and substrate height, to produce the electrical response. AXIEM

software is ideal for patch antenna analysis, whereas Analyst software is best suited for 3D structures such as modeling of a coaxial feed structure or finite dielectric (when proximity to the edge of a PCB would impact antenna performance). This is shown in Figure 8.

EM analysis provides the radiation pattern that is used by the phased-array generator wizard to analyze the array performance. EM analysis is also used to verify the performance of the entire array using physical information about the array configuration specified in the phased-array generator wizard and the antenna’s physical information that was generated by AntSyn software. AXIEM and Analyst simulators also sup-port automatic generation of the radia-tion pattern data file in the format used by the phased-array generator wizard,

providing self-contained projects that are inclusive of the individual antenna element, as well as the entire array/feed network configuration.

ARRAY CONFIGURATION AND FEED NETWORK DEFINITIONWith individual elements designed and characterized through EM analysis, us-ers can specify array parameters (size, number of elements, element spacing, shape, and more), organize radiating elements into groups and assign differ-ent antenna radiation details and RF link properties to individual or multiple ele-ments at a time, usually based on loca-tion within the array, such as an edge or corner. This capability helps simplify and expedite the process of setting up arrays with many elements by scaling element/feed details to the entire array using a

application. The multiple, fixed TR/RX antenna arrays in this radar were optimized for range,

angle, and side-lobe suppression. A patch antenna is relatively easy to design and manufacture

and will perform quite well when configured into an array, which results in an increase of overall

gain and directivity.

More complex geometries may be developed to improve performance or address aggressive size

constraints. For these instances, the AntSyn antenna synthesis tool can be applied to help the

designer more fully explore design possibilities and develop improved performance based on

novel geometries. AntSyn software generates physical designs from a set of antenna

requirements specified by the designer using a proprietary genetic-algorithm based optimizer and

fast EM solver to realize actual physical computer designs ready for further EM analysis and

development.

The performance of a simple rectangular patch antenna design is controlled by the length, width,

dielectric height, and permittivity of the antenna. The length of the single patch controls the

resonant frequency, whereas the width W controls the input impedance and the radiation pattern.

By increasing the width, the impedance can be reduced. However, to decrease the input

impedance to 50 ohms often requires a very wide patch antenna, which takes up a great deal of

valuable space. Larger widths also can increase the bandwidth, as does the height of the substrate

h. The permittivity of the substrate controls the fringing fields with lower values, resulting in

wider fringes and, therefore, better radiation. Decreasing the permittivity also increases the

antenna's bandwidth. The efficiency is also increased with a lower value for the permittivity. A

faster and more efficient means to investigate these tradeoffs is to utilize the powerful EM-based

optimization in AntSyn software to determine candidate antenna designs based on electrical

Figure 6: AntSyn antenna synthesis specification interface (left) and simulated results based on user-specified antenna requirements (right).

performance and size requirements as specified by the designer (Figure 6).

Figure 6. AntSyn antenna synthesis specification interface (left) and simulated results based on user-specified antenna requirements (right).

A more rigorous analysis of a single patch antenna or array is made possible through the use of

electromagnetic analysis using the AXIEM 3D planar or Analyst 3D finite element method

(FEM) simulators. Operating within the NI AWR Design Environment platform, these tools not

only simulate antenna performance such as near- and far-field radiation patterns, input

impedance, and surface currents, they also co-simulate directly with VSS software, automatically

incorporating the antenna simulation results into the overall radar system analysis without the

need to manually export/import data between EM simulator and system design tools (Figure 7).

! Figure 7: Screen captures of various steps in the phased-array design flow, from individual antenna element

synthesis (upper left), radiation pattern simulation (lower left), radiation pattern assignment and far-field view (lower middle), array configuration (upper middle), and generation of the array as an EM structure from individual elements (right).

Both AXIEM and Analyst simulators can import the physical geometries generated by AntSyn

software or take the user-defined physical attributes of the antenna, such as patch width and

length, and dielectric properties such as material and substrate height, to produce the electrical

Figure 7: Screen captures of various steps in the phased-array design flow, from individual antenna element synthesis (upper left), radiation pattern simulation (lower left), radiation pattern assignment and far-field view (lower middle), array configuration (upper middle), and generation of the array as an EM structure from individual elements (right).



smaller, more manageable number of el-ement groups. Elements within the same group may then be assigned an antenna and/or RF link configuration from among multiple user-defined configurations.

In the phased-array generator wizard, the feed network definition enables the designer to specify the loss between the common port and the antenna element ports, as well as the characteristic impedance, S-pa-rameters, voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR), or return loss on the common and element ports. In the phased-array configuration, the settings determine the characteristics of the feed network splitter/combiner. When generating sys-tem diagrams, users have the option of specifying either a single splitter block for the entire feed network or a cascade of individual splitters. The loss between common and element ports determines the overall loss between the common port of the feed network and the port of an individual element.

The NI AWR Design Environment platform also provides capabilities for additional design detail and in-depth analysis for further hardware develop-ment, including full EM simulation of the entire array, along with co-simulation of the feed structure represented by circuit- and system-level behavioral blocks constructed from information defined by the user in the phased-array generator wizard. The wizard supports the genera-tion of simulation-ready circuit, system, and data file-based designs configured into hierarchical schematics for analysis by Microwave Office or VSS software and the assigned EM simulator.

With the wizard generated array geometry, AXIEM and Analyst simula-tors or supported third-party EM tools such as HFSS can be used to analyze the entire detailed physical array, with the individual port feeds pre-defined. This enables the design team to inves-tigate the interaction between the beam angle and the input impedance of each individual element, as well as to ac-count for impedance loading effects on transceiver performance (Figure 9). This capability highlights the importance of co-simulation between RF circuit, sys-tem, and EM to accurately investigate circuit/antenna behavior before fabri-cating these complex systems.

MIMO AND BEAM-STEERING ANTENNA TECHNOLOGIESFor road vehicles, a radar will receive unwanted backscatter off the ground and any large stationary objects in the

environment, such as the sides of build-ings and guardrails. In addition to direct-path reflections, there are also multipath reflections between scatterers, which can be used to mitigate the impact of clutter through the use of multiple-in-multiple out (MIMO) antennas.

A MIMO radar system uses a system of multiple antennas with each transmit antenna radiating an arbitrary waveform independently of the other transmitting antennas. Each receiving antenna can receive these signals, however, due to the different waveforms, the echo signals can be re-assigned to the single trans-mitter. An antenna field of N transmitters

and a field of K receivers mathematically results in a virtual field of K·N elements, resulting in an enlarged virtual aperture that enables designers to reduce the number of necessary array elements. MIMO radar systems thereby improve spatial resolution and provide a substan-tially improved immunity to interference. By improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the probability of detection of the targets is also increased.

VSS software is able to implement us-er-specified MIMO algorithms and evalu-ate the overall performance as it relates to the channel model, which simulates a highly-customizable multipath fading

response. AXIEM software is ideal for patch antenna analysis, whereas Analyst software is best

suited for 3D structures such as modeling of a coaxial feed structure or finite dielectric (when

proximity to the edge of a PCB would impact antenna performance). This is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Example of an edge-coupled single- patch antenna optimized in AXIEM software to center the return loss and broadside gain to design frequency.

EM analysis provides the radiation pattern that is used by the phased-array generator wizard to

analyze the array performance. EM analysis is also used to verify the performance of the entire

array using physical information about the array configuration specified in the phased-array

generator wizard and the antenna’s physical information that was generated by AntSyn software.

AXIEM and Analyst simulators also support automatic generation of the radiation pattern data

file in the format used by the phased-array generator wizard, providing self-contained projects

that are inclusive of the individual antenna element, as well as the entire array/feed network

configuration.

Figure 8: Example of an edge-coupled single- patch antenna optimized in AXIEM software to center the return loss and broadside gain to design frequency.

The NI AWR Design Environment platform also provides capabilities for additional design detail

and in-depth analysis for further hardware development, including full EM simulation of the

entire array, along with co-simulation of the feed structure represented by circuit- and system-

level behavioral blocks constructed from information defined by the user in the phased-array

generator wizard. The wizard supports the generation of simulation-ready circuit, system, and

data file-based designs configured into hierarchical schematics for analysis by Microwave Office

or VSS software and the assigned EM simulator.

With the wizard generated array geometry, AXIEM and Analyst simulators or supported third-

party EM tools such as HFSS can be used to analyze the entire detailed physical array, with the

individual port feeds pre-defined. This enables the design team to investigate the interaction

between the beam angle and the input impedance of each individual element, as well as to

account for impedance loading effects on transceiver performance (Figure 9). This capability

highlights the importance of co-simulation between RF circuit, system, and EM to accurately

investigate circuit/antenna behavior before fabricating these complex systems.

!

Figure 9: 4x4 patch antenna array with individual ports for each element. The software allows designers to define and co-simulate the feed structure (lower left) at the circuit/system level to monitor the changing antenna input impedance per element and control beam steering through the RF feed network.



channel that includes channel-path loss, the relative velocity between the trans-mitter and receiver, and the maximum Doppler spread. Supporting independent or continuous block-to-block operation, the channel can contain multiple paths such as line of site (LOS), Rayleigh, Ricean, or frequency shift, that can be individually configured in terms of their fading types, delays, relative gains, and other applicable features. This module can also simulate a receiver antenna array with user-defined geometry, allow-ing simulation of single-input-multiple-output systems.

The feed network in the phased-array generator can be configured for combined or separate MIMO opera-tions. In the MIMO modes, the elements are treated as standalone elements and are not modeled with any RF circuit connection. For the MIMO combined operation mode, the radiated signal represents the signal received at a point in space from all the elements. This is essentially the sum of the signal from each of the individual elements at a specified angle of incidence to the ori-gin of the array. For the MIMO separate operation mode, the radiated signal represents the multiplexed separate signal from each individual element. The feed network definition is not utilized for either MIMO configuration.

CONCLUSIONAdvanced driver assistance systems will not only become more sophisticated and reliable as technology develops, they will become more prevalent on most if not all vehicles in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to similar advances in antenna array and mmWave technology that are occurring in 5G communications, most cars and trucks will be considerably safer than today. Innovations in simula-tion technology and a new design flow in NI AWR software support RF-aware circuit design, array configuration, modeling/optimization, and system-level co-simulation, enabling antenna design-ers and system integrators to optimize these systems for challenging size, cost, and reliability targets.

REFERENCE[1] S.-H. Jeong, H.-Y. Yu, J.-E. Lee, et.

al., “A Multi-beam and Multi-range Radar with FMCW and Digital Beam-forming for Automotive Applica-tions,” Progress in Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 124, 285-299, 2012


Honda uses V2X technology to ‘see’ around buildings Honda has demonstrated its “Smart Intersection” technology for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) com-munication designed to reduce traffic collisions at roadway intersections, one of the first such de-ployments of V2X technol-ogy in a real-world setting.

Developed in part-nership with the City of Marysville as part of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor project, the pilot project seeks to ad-dress the limitations of on-board vehicle sensors in addressing traffic collisions at roadway intersections. Intersection col-lisions account for roughly 40 percent of all collisions and 20 percent of the nearly 35,000 traffic-related deaths that occur in the U.S. each year.

The “Smart Intersection” technol-ogy, utilizing Honda’s proprietary object recognition software in conjunction with intersection-mounted cameras and V2X communications, allows cars to virtually see through and around buildings and walls in virtually all weather conditions to help identify and alert drivers to other-wise hidden hazards.

“Honda believes that V2X technology is an essential component of a smarter

and safer transportation ecosystem and can play a role in our dream for a

zero-collision society,” said Ted Klaus, vice president of strategic research at Honda R&D Americas, Inc. “By partnering with the City of Marysville and the State of Ohio, we believe this research will give us a better un-derstanding of how V2X

technologies can be further advanced and most effectively deployed for the benefit of all road users.”

Four cameras mounted above the traffic lights at each corner of the inter-section capture bird’s-eye-view video of surrounding vehicles and pedestrian traffic out to a 300-foot range. Honda’s proprietary image processing software then creates a 360-degree image of the intersection that classifies vehicles and other moving objects, such as pedes-trians, motorcycles and emergency vehicles, and broadcasts pertinent information to surrounding vehicles via a dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) signal.

www.hondaresearch.com

Micron targets AI with up to $100M for investmentsMemory provider Micron Technology (Boise, ID) has announced that it plans to invest up to $100 million in early-stage technology startups with a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

The investments will be made through the company’s strategic investments en-tity, Micron Ventures . Micron made the announcement at its inaugural Micron Insight 2018 event.

As more complex AI and machine learning systems are developed, and more advanced use cases are being worked on, the hardware used to train and run those models will become increasingly important. As a result, says the company, this requires a detailed

look at compute, memory, and storage configurations to avoid performance and throughput bottlenecks and drive faster, better results.

Micron Ventures, says the company, is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs revolutionize industries with advances in AI for applications such as augmented and virtual reality and autonomous driving, while dramatically advancing foundational capabilities such as deep learning. As part of the $100 million investment, Micron says it will target up to $20 million to fund startups led by women and other underrepresented groups.

www.micron.com


Wireless connectivity is the enabler for internet of things (IoT) applications. It provides

the ability to place sensor nodes and actuators where they are needed and have them communicate with servers and other nearby devices as soon as they are in place. But wireless connec-tivity comes in many forms. The choice of network protocol can seem baffling at first but each of them has features that suit different markets and applications. Now that the market for IoT devices is beginning to mature, some of the protocols are also beginning to assume a leadership position, particularly for short-range wireless.

The first choice is that of distance. Devices that are used in buildings can often use short-range networks and take advantage of the greater simplic-ity and lower power consumption of protocols tuned to this environment. The installer can generally count on nearby gateways being present that can relay data to the internet. Sensors for smart farming or for monitoring utility ser-vices need much greater range as any gateway device or base station may be several kilometres away.

In the short-range sector, there are two technologies that are establishing dominant positions in wireless com-munications. Both benefit from already being mass-market successes in the consumer electronics market. And they continue to enjoy a continuing pro-gramme of enhancements.

Although its parent protocol was developed for personal area networks centred on the phone, the creation of Bluetooth Low Energy has opened the door to a much wider range of applica-tions. Previously, IoT devices were faced with a choice of niche protocols such as Zigbee for home automation or 6Low-PAN for industrial automation. Bluetooth Low Energy now offers compatibility with 6LowPAN and supports several of the key features originally developed for Zigbee.

One of those features is mesh networking. Bluetooth has had the Scatternet option since 2013, which let nodes switch between master and slave modes to make them more flexible. For

example, a smart node might collect data from several simple slave devices and then relay that data onto a smart-phone by temporarily acting as a slave. The mesh networking capability now available in Bluetooth makes it possible to extend the range of a single gateway seamlessly by using intermediate nodes as staging points for packets.

Bluetooth 5, launched in the sum-mer of 2016, brought enhancements that include the ability to trade range against the maximum datarate. By us-ing an adaptive protocol, the range can be extended to be around four times higher than that of Bluetooth 4.2 at a datarate of approximately 125 kb/s. Assuming line-of-sight conditions out-doors, this range can approach 200 m. Alternatively, for devices that are more closely spaced, the maximum datarate can reach as high as 2 Mb/s, although packet overhead typically reduces the peak achievable payload datarate to around 1.6 Mb/s.

For high-datarate IoT traffic, WiFi now offers a viable option. Transceiver costs have fallen dramatically and sup-port for the protocol makes it possible to use conventional home routers for access to the internet instead of relying

on specialised gateways. WiFi, from the start, has been focused on deliver-ing high-bandwidth communication to mobile devices. The availability of the 5 GHz band in addition to the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) used by the original WiFi protocol, Blue-tooth, 6LowPAN and Zigbee provides access to a less congested part of the RF spectrum. This is useful for applica-tions that need continuous high-speed data transfer.

There are now multiple versions of WiFi available. Although many IoT appli-cations, even those that need high band-width communication for real-time audio or video, can make use of the older variants of WiFi, it often makes sense to standardise today on the 802.11ac vari-ant. This version caters for multiple an-tennas to boost aggregate datarates to at least 1 Gb/s on the 5 GHz band. IoT devices that support 802.11ac will help maintain the maximum possible datarate by allowing the home or office router to make full use of antenna diversity. Fall-ing back to a slower, older protocol can slow down the entire network when the IoT device is active.

Many IoT devices will support both WiFi and Bluetooth as the cost of sup-

Wireless options for the IoTBy Samir Hennaoui, Product Manager LPWA, Murata Europe and Rui Ramalho, Product Manager WLAN/BT, Murata Europe

Figure 1: The choice of network protocol can seem baffling at first but each of them has features that suit different markets and applications.

WSN – IoT


porting both is often only marginally high-er than that for a WiFi-only transceiver. This can be leveraged to ease tasks such as installation. First, a simple Bluetooth connection to an app hosted by a mobile device can be used to set up the device. Once configured, it can switch to using the WiFi protocol for data transfers.

A further option that has emerged recently is DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE). It has the advantage over many of the IoT short-range protocols of hav-ing dedicated RF spectrum instead of shared access to the 2.4 GHz ISM band. DECT ULE’s range can extend as far as 300 m outdoors and 50 m indoors. The DECT protocol lets multiple gate-ways cooperate to extend the range of a single network much further than the core 300 m. Although DECT was origi-nally developed for wireless telephony, the ULE version provides low-power communication for IoT sensor nodes.

In the short-range environment, the gateway is normally managed by the user. In the low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) environment, the gateway can be privately owned but access can also be through public net-works. A protocol that offers the choice of either is LoRA.

Based on a transceiver design by semiconductor supplier Semtech, LoRA employs unlicensed spectrum and provides users with the option to deploy their own gateways or have their devices communicate with third-party networks. Some cities have deployed networks based on LoRA that are free to access and service providers have appeared that rent access to their gateways.

To avoid interference problems from other users on the same RF band, LoRA uses a spread-spectrum modula-tion scheme supporting datarates from 300 b/s to 50 kb/s. The range can be up to 10 km and the use of compara-tively low frequencies makes it possible to reach devices buried below ground, such as water meters.

Sigfox uses ultra-narrowband trans-mission to extend its range to as much as 50 km in rural areas. Whereas LoRA is designed to support bidirectional communication, Sigfox is optimised for low-datarate transfers in one direction – usually from the sensor node to the server. Datarates range from 10 b/s to 1 kb/s. Sigfox is not completely unidi-rectional: the protocol supports ac-knowledgement packets so the sensor node can determine whether a commu-nication has been received, supporting applications such as security alarms.

One advantage of Sigfox’s focus on one-way data transfers is that it can help preserve power on the sensor node, thus extending battery life. If the node only has to wait for acknowledge-ments, which are received very quickly after transmission, there is no need for the node to wake on a regular cycle to listen for downlinks from the gateway.

Whereas LoRA provides the option for users to operate their own gateways, all communications on Sigfox pass through the company’s own gateways. Although it has less operational flexibility this has the benefit of providing users with a single supplier that provides network support in a large number of countries.

Cellular connectivity is already widely used for machine-to-machine applica-tions. In recent years, the industry has augmented the basic GPRS offerings with a variety of protocols that support either higher datarates or lower-power opera-tion. A key advantage of cellular connec-tivity is that operators are able to manage congestion and interference much more readily than is possible with unlicensed spectrum, which improves long-term reliability. The open nature of the proto-cols themselves provides a rich array of compatible silicon and RF modules.

The first change came with Enhanced Coverage GSM, which improves the abil-ity of cellular signals to reach more dis-tant nodes or connect to buried sensor nodes. EC-GSM can handle signals that are 20 dB weaker than standard GPRS and supports datarates up to 10 kb/s.

The arrival of Long Term Evolution (LTE) has brought with it several op-tions for IoT connectivity, thanks to the 4G protocol’s more efficient use of

RF spectrum. The first to arrive was Cat-M, which supports 1Mb/s datarates for both the uplink and downlink using half-duplex communication. Cat-M also provide energy-saving enhancements. Compared to the core LTE protocol used by mobile phones, Cat-M can operate with fewer updates from the base station. The frequency of updates can be reduced to the point where the sensor node only has to wake up every ten minutes or so, which can greatly preserve battery life for devices that monitor slow-changing conditions, such as soil moisture.

Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) provides further enhancements to energy ef-ficiency. NB-IoT uses a much narrower transmission band than full LTE:1.4 MHz rather than 20 MHz. This is accompa-nied by a reduction in transmit power to further improve battery life. In an ongo-ing process of enhancements, Release 14 of the LTE standard by 3GPP, has further improved efficiency by sup-porting techniques to allow nodes to disconnect rapidly after a transmission to reduce leakage power. Datarates of 50 kb/s on the downlink and 20 kb/s on the uplink are possible, extending to 50 kb/s if multi-tone signalling is em-ployed for the uplink.

Thanks to the rich selection of protocols suitable for IoT use, whether operating in a short-range or wide-range scenario, developers and integrators can be sure to find one that fits the application. Independent module sup-pliers such as Murata can advise on which makes sense for each situation and provide solutions based on the best available silicon on the market.

Figure 2: BLE modules like the MBN52832 device can support the most demanding Bluetooth low energy IoT applications.

WSN – IoT


IEEE to drive Wi-Fi on throughput and low latencyIEEE and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) announced the formation of a study group and topic interest group fo-cused on advancing the technology and deployment of the IEEE 802.11 standard, commonly referred to as “Wi-Fi.”

The IEEE 802.11 Extremely High Throughput Study Group has been established to initiate discussion on new IEEE 802.11 features for bands between 1 and 7.125 GHz. The group is identify-ing requirements for a possible amend-ment to IEEE 802.11 that would increase peak throughput to support demanding applications such as video over wireless local area networks (WLANs), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

“We are seeking stakeholders throughout the IEEE 802.11 ecosys-tem to share their experiences with the standard and needs for features such as more spatial streams, higher bandwidth, multi-AP (access point) techniques and

multiband switching, aggregation and operation,” said Michael Montemurro, chair of the IEEE 802.11 Extremely High Throughput Study Group.

The IEEE 802.11 Real Time Applica-tions Topic Interest Group is quantifying performance lags and stability issues that have been observed with real-time applications such as mobile and mul-tiplayer games, robotics and industrial automation, as well as the range of

mechanisms in the industry to address those issues. The group is working to document usage models and require-ments metrics for real-time applications.

“Immersive gaming, for example, is very latency sensitive and requires a quick turnaround on packets for us-ers to enjoy a high-quality experience. Jitter, packet loss and what’s going on throughout the network can have a large impact on these real-time applications, which may have only moderate band-width requirements but have very low tolerance for latency,” said Allan Jones, chair of the IEEE 802.11 Real Time Ap-plications Topic Interest Group. “What we’re trying to do in our group is define more specifically what these require-ments are for this particular category of applications, toward the goal of inform-ing ongoing IEEE 802.11 innovation.”

http://standards.ieee.org

Wi-Fi

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The adoption of Bluetooth technol-ogy in mesh and point-to-point networks shows no sign of fatigue.

Meanwhile, sub-GHz radios continue to proliferate, particularly in smart home, commercial and industrial applications. In this article, we present practical multi-band integration approaches for Blue-tooth and sub-GHz technologies.

THE PROLIFERATION OF SUB-GHZ DEVICESWireless technologies functioning at frequencies below 1 GHz (sub-GHz) have been trending in popularity with the emer-gence of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) and Wi-Fi standards such as HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) and White-Fi (IEEE 802.11af). This trend comes from the inherent ability for signals to travel greater distances (>1 km) with better object penetration and immunity to inter-ference. This wider coverage range has broad implications in IoT for smart city, building and home automation, smart farming and industrial IoT (IIoT).

According to ON World, LPWAN services are set to reach $75 billion by 2025, serving more than 30 different applications in a broad range of market segments globally. And with more than 3 billion anticipated connected devices by 2021, it is no surprise the sub-GHz market is booming.

THE POTENTIAL HURDLE OF RELYING ON EXTERNAL WI-FI AND CELLULAR NETWORKSWhile the number of IoT devices using the sub-GHz spectrum is growing, there is still a considerable barrier to the prog-ress of these technologies―the lack of compatibility with existing devices includ-ing smartphones, tablets and laptops. Typically, sub-GHz IoT networks operate in a star topology where sensor nodes initiate transmissions with a gateway or base station that is often hardwired (e.g., Ethernet cable) for a high-throughput connection to network servers.

Therefore, the only way to remotely control an end device or a gateway is often through a remote web-based app

or Cli (Command-line interface) terminal that connects to a local Wi-Fi or cellular network. There may be scenarios where these networks are not always available or reliable. While this may not be an issue for some IoT applications, it is critical for industrial and commercial applications where the network is used to operate, maintain and upgrade equipment.

BENEFITS OF A MULTIPROTOCOL (BLUETOOTH + SUB-GHZ) PLATFORMFor most LPWAN networks including LoRa, Sigfox, and NB-IoT, an additional

radio is required to communicate with existing user equipment (e.g.: smart-phone, tablet, etc.). Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) offers a platform where the device setup, operation and mainte-nance can be performed locally with a smartphone or tablet. Moreover, firmware over-the-air (OTA) updates can be per-formed much more rapidly with a higher throughput Bluetooth LE 5 connection (~2 Mbps) than LPWAN narrowband (NB) or ultra-narrowband (UNB), which only supports modulation schemes from 1 kbps to 100 kbps.

Practical Bluetooth Low Energy and Sub-GHz integration approachesBy Mikko Savolainen, Senior Marketing Manager, Bluetooth Products, Silicon Labs

Figure 1: Industries that leverage Sub-GHz technologies and their respective applications.

Figure 2: Bluetooth beacons have retail-based applications where a wayfinding phone application could also send store-specific content such as coupons to a customer’s smartphone.

WSN – Sub-GHz


MULTIPROTOCOL SOCS FOR THE SETUP AND MANAGEMENT OF SMART METERSSub-GHz frequencies are often used for the dissemination of collected data from a system of tens to hundreds of smart meters, which could be in the form of a proprietary Field Area Network (FAN) or an open LPWAN platform. The FAN uses a star topology in a many-to-one com-munications architecture where multiple smart meters wirelessly link data to a local server connected to a gateway. The collected information is then sent over a Wide Area Network (WAN) to a geograph-ically separated corporate office/billings system. Any upgrades to the smart me-ters must then occur through the gateway over the internet or through a hardwired connection to the meter itself. Typically, OTA firmware upgrades are performed to add functionality, address technical or security related issues. Since these upgrades are critical to the long-term functionality of smart meter equipment, utility companies must be able to plan around the failure rate of OTA upgrades based upon traffic, interference and a number of other parameters.

A smart meter equipped with an SoC that can function in both sub-GHz frequencies and Bluetooth LE (2.4 GHz) can provide both long-range and local short-range wireless communication. By adding Bluetooth connectivity, utility technicians can now use a mobile app to control, communicate or update smart meters in the field. This type of redun-dancy built into the system can poten-tially reduce the operational overhead of utility companies by having multiple backup plans to perform wireless main-tenance of smart meters. This technol-ogy can also cross industry verticals and be applied to agricultural and industrial applications with industrial area meters to monitor parameters such as flow rate (See Figure 1).

APPLICATIONS FOR BLUETOOTH BEACONS AND SUB-GHZBluetooth beacons recently have become the leading proximity sensing technology and accounted for nearly 80 percent of the proximity sensors de-ployed globally in 2015. Bluetooth bea-con shipments are expected to surpass 400 million units by 2020. This exponen-tial growth rate can be attributed to a wide array applications, including:

• Indoor navigation• Contactless payment• Proximity marketing• Automatic check-in

• Real-time location systems (RTLS)• Asset tracking.

Bluetooth LE beacons can be ap-plied in medium-accuracy short-range/indoor (3-5 m) location services where a smartphone can detect the proximity to a beacon and know the general loca-tion (room/department) of the signal’s source. This can be in the form of either sending promotions (e.g., coupons, sales, etc.) to a shopper in the vicin-ity of a retail store or allowing a user to navigate to a location via a mobile app regardless of whether or not cellular data is available (e.g., train station, park, etc.). Another example that is grow-ing in popularity is the real-time track-ing of high-value assets such as plant tools in industrial applications, shipping containers in logistics applications, or even hospital equipment in healthcare applications.

An SoC that integrates sub-GHz and Bluetooth LE radio modules can effec-tively serve all of the above applications as they also often leverage the sub-GHz spectrum – reducing wireless subsystem cost substantially. As shown in Figure 2, the sub-GHz frequencies are used in many transportation, medical, consumer, utilities, agricultural and industrial ap-plications and clearly overlap with many Bluetooth applications.

INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH BEACONS WITH CONNECTED LIGHTING FOR LOCATION-BASED SERVICESSA key potential application for multi-protocol SoCs is sub-GHz connected lighting equipment in malls and retail centers. A chip that supports simultane-ous Bluetooth and sub-GHz connectivity could deliver a Bluetooth beacon for the dissemination of localized content while also allowing remote control of infrastructure lighting (See Figure 2). Connected lighting infrastructure can be used to increase beacon density in place of dedicated beacons, enhancing location accuracy and in turn, driving better mobile engagement. A connected lighting network that also broadcasts beacons provides a scalable platform to deliver automation, energy savings, and Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) in commercial, retail and industrial settings.

HOW BLUETOOTH LE AND SUB-GHZ CAN COEXIST ON ONE CHIPIntegration of multiple radio modules in one chip is possible through the slotting of transmissions. Most sub-GHz sys-tems are able to save on battery life due to their narrowband modulation schemes as well as the infrequent nature of trans-missions from the sensor nodes; this enables end devices to operate in a low current consumption states – receive, idle and sleep. While sub-GHz end devices such as smart meters or smart lights are operating in receive mode, other devices supporting Bluetooth LE such as smartphones or tablets can transmit to the sub-GHz devices. This built-in intelligent scheduling mechanism allows Bluetooth and sub-GHz protocols to be leveraged on the same chip.

For proximity sensing applications, the typical Bluetooth beacon requires 1 ms to transmit a beacon. A beacon interval―the frequency at which a bea-con transmits its advertising packet―is typically quite large (>100 ms). This amount of time enables the sub-GHz radio module to be in a listening mode for the majority of the time to reliably control lighting. For smart meter ap-plications, an OTA firmware upgrade would likely require much more time for a Bluetooth connection. This is sustain-able due to the infrequent nature of a localized OTA upgrade.

CONCLUSIONIoT devices have proliferated through-out all industries enabling a seamless method to monitor and track param-eters remotely. Sub-GHz frequencies fill an underserved niche of low- to medium-throughput long-range links with a potential challenge of not being able to connect nodes to the internet without an IoT gateway. Bluetooth presents the opportunity to enhance functionality of sub-GHz connected products by enabling localized access directly to these devices. This can be achieved through a multiprotocol SoC and some clever scheduling techniques. Moreover, trending Bluetooth beacon technology can be used in tandem with many sub-GHz technologies, providing an innovative platform for location-based services.

Figure 3: Scheduling BLE and Sub-GHz for multi-protocol applications.

WSN – Sub-GHz


Products

VNA check standardsare ultra-portable

The TA430 (Insertable M-F) and TA431 (Non-insertable F-F) VNA check standards can optionally be used to validate the accuracy of a network analysis test setup and its calibration before, during or after a sequence of measurements is made.

These devices present a high and vary-ing impedance mismatch, delivering the most demanding test of system measure-ment accuracy currently available, and giving confidence in an instrument, its test leads and its ongoing calibration validity. Suitable for use with any network analyser, the check standards assure, for example, that test leads and connectors have not become damaged or that environmental change is not degrading accuracy.

A data comparison utility is provided with PicoVNA 2 software to evaluate the comparison against a combination of specified measurement uncertainties for the device, test leads and the instrument. Each check standard is supplied with Touchstone measurement data on a USB memory stick. The data is traceable via PC3.5 standards to national standards. The supplied Touchstone measurement data is compatible with the PicoVNA 106 Vector Network Analyzer and can be used to manually validate a measurement of any manufacturer’s VNA, although the degree of support for the comparison will vary.

www.picotech.com

Coaxial cable assembliessuperior phase performance

Smiths Interconnect has released its Lab-Flex T Series of flexible coaxial cable assemblies, mechanically robust and specifically designed to minimize phase change when subjected to a wide range of operational temperatures.

This makes them an ideal choice for system applications under extreme temperature and environmental conditions such as Radar, Test & Measurement, and Space applications.

The Lab-Flex T Series currently con-sists of the 065T, 100T, and 160T cable models, which cover key performance characteristics at various frequency bands from DC to 50 GHz. They are available in standard mechanical lengths or phase-matched electrical lengths as needed. All products have gone through exten-sive qualification testing in order to meet today’s rigorous requirements per cus-tomer application and industry standard.

Their special foam dielectric material provides a much lower attenuation than solid PTFE. Precision Connector inter-faces meet MIL-STD-348 requirements and are designed for maximum frequency capability.

www.smithsinterconnect.com

60-GHz 802.11ay Wi-Fi chipsetsclaim industry firstQualcomm Technologies (San Diego, CA) has announced a family of 60p-GHz Wi-Fi chipsets offered as the industry’s first 11ay solutions for mobile and infrastructure applications.

The QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 chipsets deliver 10+ Gbps network speeds and wire-equivalent latency, while featuring “the industry low-power benchmark” for extended device battery life. The devices, says the company, have the flexibility to meet demands of ultra-high-definition video streaming, virtual/augmented real-ity (VR/AR), mobile screen casting, and fixed wireless mesh backhaul, while also supporting new 60-GHz Wi-Fi sens-ing applications such as proximity and presence detection, gesture recognitions, room mapping with precise location, and improved facial feature detection.

The family of 11ay 60-GHz Wi-Fi chip-sets includes the QCA6438 and QCA6428 for infrastructure and fixed wireless access, and the QCA6421 and QCA6431 for mobile applications. Qualcomm Tech-nologies and Facebook announced earlier this year that they were working together to deliver high-speed internet connectivity

with Facebook’s Terragraph technology through the development of a multi-node wireless system based on the QCA6438 and QCA6428 chipsets.

The latest QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 60 GHz Wi-Fi chipsets are available now.

www.qualcomm.com

GaN-on-SiC transistor evaluation kitshelp verify performance in RF systems

Integra Technologies is providing Gallium Nitride on Silicon Carbide (GaN-on-SiC) HEMT transistor evaluation kits to design-ers evaluating this technology for their high power amplifier designs.

Each kit is customized to include a designer’s transistor model of choice (par-tially or fully-matched options are avail-able) and includes a test fixture with one transistor fully mounted and tested, and a second spare device. Full RF test results, as tested under key conditions by the Integra technical support team, are also provided as a reference guideline.

These kits can be borrowed free for 30 days or be purchased to own.

www.integratech.com

Tiny 32.768 kHz MEMS resonator

Murata claims to have developed the smallest 32.768 kHz MEMS resonator (the WMRAG series), which is expected to make a significant contribution to reducing the size and power consumption of IoT devices and wearable devices.


Products

Demand is growing for compact electronic components that consume less electrical power for use in digital devices for IoT and wearable applica-tions where small size and long operating times are essential to market success. As many modern devices rely on accurate timing, there is an increasing need for low power consumption resonators, which are required to operate continuously to provide timing signals.

Based on miniature MEMS technology, the new resonators exhibit stable fre-quency characteristics with a temperature drift of <160 ppm across their operating range of -30 to 85 °C. Initial frequency accuracy is ±20 ppm which is at the level expected of a more sophisticated (and expensive) crystal resonator.

An in-built 6.9 pf capacitor reduces the components necessary for the circuit that generates the reference clock signal, thereby reducing the space required as well as giving designers more flexibility in designing their solution.

Measuring just 0.9- x 0.6- x 0.3-mm (W x L x H), the MEMS resonator is over 50 % smaller than a conventional 32.768 kHz crystal resonator that measures 1.2- x 1.0- x 0.3-mm. Available in silicon-based wafer-level chip scale packaging (WL-CSP), the resonator can be fully integrated into an IC made of a homogeneous semi-conductor material.

The resonator generates stable refer-ence clock signals by reducing the IC gain based on a low ESR value of 75 kΩ. Internal tests at Murata indicate that the device cuts power consumption by 13% when compared to conventional 32,768 kHz resonators. Mass production of the new resonator is scheduled to begin in December 2018.

www.murata.com

LTE-M and NB-IoT module familysmall form factorTelit has announced the xE310 family of miniature IoT modules – with initial models planned in LTE-M, NB-IoT and European 2G. The new form factor will enable Telit to meet growing demand for ultra-small, high-performance modules for wearable medical devices, fitness trackers, industrial sensors, smart meter-ing, and other mass-production, massive deployment applications. Shipping will start in Q4 this year.

The xE310 family is one of the small-est LGA form factors available in the

market with a flexible perimeter footprint supporting various sizes from compact to smaller than 200 mm2. The xE310’s 94 pads include spares to provide Telit the flexibility to quickly deliver support for additional features as technologies, applications and markets evolve. Spares can be used for modules supporting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or enhanced location technologies – in addition to cellular – while maintaining compatibility with cel-lular only models. They can also be used for additional connections that may be required for new 5G-enabled features.

The new form factor also gives OEMs greater flexibility, efficiency and yield during design and manufacturing. The xE310 family provides easy PCB routing while minimizing manufacturing process issues such as planarity and bending. The unique circular pad facilitates cor-rect package orientation for automated assembly.

www.telit.com

Parabolic line of antennastargets unlicensed bands

RadioWaves has released the Enhanced Standard Performance (ESP) series para-bolic line of antennas, which offers a full portfolio covering all unlicensed bands, providing the highest gain in the industry.

ESP antennas are available in 2, 3 and 4-foot configurations and come fully assembled from the factory. Boasting excellent side lobe performance that exceeds industry standard, the ESP series requires minimal post installation maintenance, needing only a single tool for mounting.

“Congestion in the unlicensed band has continued to grow as 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi and other technologies have become more pervasive,” said Ken Izatt, RF Product Manager for RadioWaves. “These ESP antennas improve the ability to design and deploy uncoordinated point-to-point links

in the unlicensed band, offer higher gain, improved Front-to-Back ratio and isolation to improve noise immunity.”

Key features include: widest selec-tion of frequency bands available; best throughput for unlicensed band deploy-ment, lowest interference; excellent side lobe performance, rugged and robust design, and mproved adjustment capabil-ity (single tool required).

www.radiowaves.com

Removable vertical launch connectorswith VSWR as low as 1.3:1

Fairview Microwave has released a new series of solderless vertical launch con-nectors that are ideal for high-speed computing, high-speed networking and telecommunications applications. The new line of vertical launch connectors is made-up of 12 models that deliver maximum operating frequency of up to 50 GHz and VSWR as low as 1.3:1, depending on the model.

The connectors are offered in male and female versions, covering 2.4-mm, 2.92-mm and SMA interfaces. These removable vertical launches feature a reusable clamp attachment and can be used for microstrip or stripline, and all models provide solderless installation. They also feature a gold-plated beryllium copper center contact, a stainless steel outer conductor and Polyetherimide (PEI) insulators. They are ideal for a variety of uses that include signal integrity measure-ments, multi-channel tests, semiconductor verification boards, high-speed back-planes and SERDES applications.

“When compared to end launches, the VSWR of these new vertical launch PCB connectors minimizes the performance tradeoff. In turn, this offers customers the advantages of additional PCB real estate and easier access for their test cables,” said Dan Birch, Product Manager.

https://fairviewmicrowave.com


Mobile chip combines NFC, eSIM and security

The ST54J from STMicroelectronics is a system-on-chip (SoC) that combines an NFC (Near-Field Communication) control-ler, a Secure Element, and an eSIM to secure mobile and IoT devices.

The single-chip ensures faster contact-less interaction than a discrete chipset by eliminating performance-limiting off-chip data exchanges between the Secure Element and NFC controller. In addition, a faster, state-of-the-art core for each function further accelerates contactless transactions with mobile terminals and enhances roaming by supporting secure-element cryptographic protocols used worldwide, including FeliCa and MIFARE. Packaging and design flexibility comes from the space savings of integrating three key functions onto a single chip. In addi-tion, ST used its NFC booster technology to enhance the performance of the NFC controller, allowing it to establish robust contactless connections with a small-size antenna, allowing designers even more generous freedom to manage space inside the device and minimize the thickness of new smartphone generations.

The ST54J comes with NFC firmware and the GlobalPlatform V2.3 secure ele-ment Operating System, for best-in class cryptographic performance and optimum eSIM interoperability. The OS also allows flexible configurations to support eSE-only or combined functionality.

www.st.com

Reference designaccelerates LTE IoT development

The Renesas Synergy AE-CLOUD2 kit is a complete hardware and software reference design that allows embedded developers to quickly evaluate cellular connectivity options and build Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) cellular Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The AE-CLOUD2 kit together with the new Synergy Software Package

(SSP) version 1.5.0 simplifies connecting IoT sensor devices to enterprise cloud services using 4G/LTE Cat-M1 and Cat-NB1, also called NB-IoT, with fallback to 2G/EGPRS cellular networks. The kit’s rich functionality accelerates prototyp-ing cellular-enabled IoT devices for asset tracking, retail and agriculture monitoring, smart cities/utilities, mobile healthcare, and industrial automation.

Each AE-CLOUD2 hardware kit includes a Synergy S5D9 microcontroller (MCU) baseboard, tri-mode cellular modem with cellular and GPS antennas, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and various sensors such as lighting, microphone, temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality, geomag-netic, accelerometer, and gyroscope. For cellular access, developers simply insert a SIM card with data plan purchased from a local cellular carrier.

The hardware kit’s software allows developers to provision the kit to connect to a 4G/LTE IoT cellular network and their preferred cloud service provider: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure or Medium One Cloud. Users can visualize their sensor data on a customizable, password-protected dashboard.

The AE-CLOUD2 hardware kit ensures excellent EMC performance, having passed global RF emissions tests. In addition, the AE-CLOUD2 kit complies with global regulatory certifications for FCC, CE, RoHs, WEEE and Japan MIC. The kit’s fully optimized hardware/software saves developers months of design time and resources creating a scalable, energy efficient and secure end-to-end LPWA cellular IoT application that can be used anywhere in the world.

www.renesassynergy.com

L-band RF power amplifierfor IFF/SSR systemsIntegra Technologies has released a RF power amplifier module/pallet designed to solve various size, weight, power, and

cost challenges (SWaP-C) in high-perfor-mance L-band avionic systems.

IGNP1011L2400 is a high power GaN-on-SiC RF power amplifier module/pallet that has been designed specifically for IFF/SSR systems operating under either Mode S ELM (48x {32μs on, 18μs off}, 6.4% Long Term Duty Cycle) or standard Mode S (128μs, 2% Duty Cycle) pulse conditions. It supplies a minimum of 2200-W of peak output power, with typi-cally >16 dB of gain and 57% efficiency and operates from a 50-V supply voltage. This RF power amplifier module/pallet is matched to 50-ohms at both input and output and is suitable for both 1030 and 1090 MHz.

www.integratech.com

Metrology-grade W1 coaxial components cover DC to 110 GHz

W1 coaxial components from Anritsu Company are metrology-grade designed and manufactured to deliver precision performance and repeatability for high-frequency measurements. Comprised of a W1 connectorized power splitter, power divider, directional coupler and attenu-ators, the component family removes measurement complexity, reduces mea-surement setup time, and improves accu-racy, making them a superior alternative to millimeter-interfaced solutions.

Unlike other devices that are based on banded waveguide frequencies that require a waveguide interface, the W1 components are not band limited and support a frequency range from DC to

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110 GHz. The industry-best frequency coverage eliminates the need to de-embed adapters between native coaxial interface types, thereby removing the need for calibrations between coax to wave-guide. The result is a system that saves time and money, and is more efficient.

Current W1 components on offer include a three-resistor power divider, two-resistor power splitter and a set of attenuators that provide coverage from DC to 110 GHz, along with a 20-110 GHz directional coupler with typical perfor-mance down to 110 MHz. Because the components are designed with W1 con-nectors (1.0 mm compatible) intended for broadband scalability and mode-free performance to 110 GHz, measurement accuracy is improved for better device under test (DUT) characterization. They are designed to perform with excellent VSWR and low insertion loss.

The high performance of the W1 con-nectors makes them well-suited for a variety of high-frequency designs. They can be used for on-wafer characterization and measurements; to characterize ampli-fiers and sub components in automotive radar; and for instrument calibration and characterization in metrology labs.

www.anritsu.com

IPsec hardware blockto accelerate IoT, cloud, or edge servers

Silex Insight has released the BA454, an extremely scalable and flexible hardware accelerator implementing the IPsec secu-rity protocol to provide security to high-throughput, time-critical applications, such as in data centers or servers at the heart of IoT, cloud, or edge networks.

Today, there are excellent implemen-tations of IPsec in software, but these require considerable processing band-width which is seriously missed by the main applications. This makes software-implemented IPsec especially cumber-some for time-critical, high-throughput applications. The solution to free up the processor, and still have excellent secu-rity, is to relay all security processing to hardware. Today, such hardware is made available by the integration of FPGA sys-tems on data and compute servers used for cloud applications (like the AWS F1). Security processing can be accelerated by complementing such hardware with dedicated IP blocks.

The BA454 easily integrates with both ASIC designs and FPGA implementa-

tions of the major vendors. It supports a wide range of applications on various technologies, and allows aggregating 10, 40 or 100 GbE links with throughputs up to 100’s of Gbps and data paths from 128 to 1024 bits. As for the cryptogra-phy engine, it offers a choice between AES-GCM-128/256, AES-CBC/SHA-2 or our latest high-throughput ChaCha20-Poly1305 implementation (BA420).

IPsec is the security protocol for the network layer in the OSI communication model. It is deployed to make IP networks safe by encrypting/decrypting and authen-ticating all packets of data. It is the basis for virtual private networks (VPNs), the way to run safe connections over public networks.

www.silexinsight.com

Radar analysis systemenhanced for driver assistance systems

Keysight has enhanced its Automotive Radar Signal Analysis and Generation System E8740A so that developers of vehicle electronics can more precisely analyze the function of driver assistance systems. In particular, the risk of colli-sions can be proactively detected and minimized.

As advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles become more popular, they also raise concerns about safety and reliability. Autonomous vehicles rely on state-of-the-art sensor technology with highly integrated radar. According to the US Society of Automo-tive Engineers (SAE), autonomous vehicles need up to 24 of these radar sensors. Interference between the sensors can sig-nificantly impair the reliability of the vehicle radar. Even a slight error or unexpected malfunction in the system can lead to a critical situation or an accident.

The latest version of Keysight’s E8740A radar signal analysis and emulation solu-tion for automotive applications is based on powerful physical-level instruments that provide world-class RF and mmWave performance testing for each radar design under test, as well as an easy-to-use, intu-

itive user interface for maximum produc-tivity. This comprehensive testing system also creates various real-world conditions to solve potential problems with automo-tive radar interference.

The E8740A automotive radar signal analysis and generation system offers powerful tools for creating interference test sequences and physical-level test plans for vehicle radar based on the Path-Wave software platform from Keysight; flexible generation of broadband mm wave and other signals (frequency-modulated continuous wave, continuous wave, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and coded modulation); and predefined test setup for radar standards in the auto-motive sector.

www.keysight.com

Bluetooth 5 SoCsdeliver low power for battery-free IoT

Ultra-low-power wireless fabless semi-conductor startup Atmosic Technologies (Saratoga, CA) has launched what it says are the industry’s lowest power wireless Bluetooth 5 platforms for battery-free connected IoT.

The company’s battery-free M2 and M3 series devices are designed to enable IoT devices to be “forever connected, anywhere,” says the company.

The company has developed three innovative technologies: Lowest Power Radio, On-demand Wake-up, and Con-trolled Energy Harvesting. With its first products, Atmosic is using the Bluetooth 5

standards compliant platform to address challenges associated with installing and maintaining billions of IoT devices, such as beacons, controllers, remotes, and asset and fitness trackers.

“Starting from a clean slate, the Atmosic team has rebuilt every circuit block of the radio to dramatically reduce its power consumption, while maintain full compliance to the Bluetooth 5 stan-dard,” says David Su, CEO of Atmosic.

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“Our team has also created system-level advancements to further extend battery life.”

The Lowest Power Radio and On-demand Wake-Up technologies are claimed to enable from 10 to 100 times lower power – reducing power use to such a low level that controlled energy harvest-ing is a viable power source for wireless connected devices. With the addition of Controlled Energy Harvesting, says the company, the SoC can deliver “forever” battery life or battery-free operation.

The M2 Series Bluetooth 5 SoC fea-tures Lowest Power Radio delivering five to 10 times lower power, while the addition of On-demand Wake-up reduces the power by 10 to 100 times. The M3 Series Bluetooth 5 SoC has the additional feature of Controlled Energy Harvesting to provide forever battery life or eliminate the need for battery power.

The M2 and M3 Series offer mul-tiple application options for wearables, personal and asset trackers, beacons, remotes, keyboards, mice, and more. Packaging options include flash and non-flash, 5x5 QFN, and 6x6 DRQFN packages. The devices are currently avail-able for customer sampling and will be in volume production in Q2 2019.

www.atmosic.com

50-W GaN system amplifiercovers 600- to 6000-MHzModel 2223 from Empower RF is a single band solid state GaN system amplifier, capable of delivering a minimum 150 W across its entire 0.6- to 6-Ghz band.

Equally suited for the production floor, engineering lab, or anechoic chamber, the 2223 comes complete with internal DDC, external forward and reverse sample ports, and an easy to use web served GUI with dedicated features for simplifying integration into your test application.

For Machine to Machine (M2M) appli-cations the 2223 utilizes TCP/IP or UDP

protocol sockets. In depth health monitor-ing with alarms visible on the front panel are also pushed out the LAN port.

Additional features include: optional 400 Hz and DC; mismatch tolerance 3 to 1 to full rated power, 6 to 1 up to ½ Psat; high MTTF; touchscreen plus remote ronitoring and rontrol via web browser; Automatic Level Control (ALC) and Automatic Gain Control (AGC) available; and accurate monitoring for CW/FM/AM/Pulse/Digital modulations.

www.empowerrf.com

LPWAN connectivity at ultra-low power

Silicon Labs delivers ultra-low-power, long-range wireless connectivity to battery-powered IoT devices with a new LTE-M expansion kit featuring the Digi XBee3 pre-certified cellular modem from Digi International.

The LTE-M expansion kit works with the Silicon Labs EFM32 Giant Gecko 11 starter kit and simplifies and accelerates the development of gateways and end devices that operate in deep-sleep mode and require extended battery life. The solution is suitable for agricultural, asset tracking, smart energy and smart city IoT applications.

Developers can take advantage of the LTE-M expansion kit’s advanced devel-opment tools including the Digi Remote Manager, Silicon Labs’ Energy Profiler and pre-programmed demos to rapidly deliver optimized LTE-M products.

www.silabs.com/lte-mwww.digi.com

Adaptive compute acceleration platform scalable AI for wireless/radarClaiming to be the first adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP), Versal, introduced by Xilinx, combines Scalar Processing Engines, Adaptable Hardware Engines, and Intelligent Engines with

leading-edge memory and interfacing technologies to deliver powerful hetero-geneous acceleration for any application.

However, most importantly, Versal hardware and software can be pro-grammed and optimized by software developers, data scientists, and hardware developers alike, enabled by a host of tools, software, libraries, IP, middleware, and frameworks that enable industry-standard design flows.

Built on TSMC’s 7-nanometer FinFET process technology, the Versal portfolio is the first platform to combine software programmability with domain-specific hardware acceleration and the adapt-ability necessary to keep pace with today’s rapid pace of innovation. The portfolio includes six series of devices uniquely architected to deliver scalability and AI inference capabilities for a host of applications across different markets, from cloud to networking to wireless communications to edge computing and endpoints.

The portfolio includes the Versal Prime series, Premium series and HBM series, which are designed to deliver industry-leading performance, connectivity, bandwidth, and integration for the most demanding applications. It also includes the AI Core series, AI Edge series, and AI RF series, which feature the break-through AI Engine. The AI Engine is a new hardware block designed to address the emerging need for low-latency AI infer-ence for a wide variety of applications and also supports advanced DSP imple-mentations for applications like wireless and radar. It is tightly coupled with the Versal Adaptable Hardware Engines to enable whole application acceleration, meaning that both the hardware and soft-ware can be tuned to ensure maximum performance and efficiency.

The portfolio debuts with the Versal Prime series, delivering broad applica-bility across multiple markets, and the Versal AI Core series, delivering an esti-mated 8X AI inference performance boost versus industry-leading GPUs.

www.xilinx.com

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Our Founder Wanted To Create The WidestBandwidth Amplifiers In The Industry

Introducing the AR “U” (Universal) Series Amplifiers – 10 kHz-1000 MHz “Wouldn’t it be great if a single 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100* or 250* watt RF amplifier could span the entire frequency range of 10 kHz – 1000 MHz?” That’s what our founder, Don “Shep” Shepherd said. We agreed it would be great, but we knew there was a reason no one had done it.

So we put our engineers to work figuring out ways to expand the frequency range while keeping the cost low and the performance and quality high. It wasn’t easy, but we designed a series of amplifiers with the widest bandwidth in the industry. They’re compact, affordable, high performance, and very reliable. These new “U” Series amplifiers can serve unlimited applications across multiple industries. These new amps also prove something Shep has always said: “Nothing is impossible when you’re really committed to achieving a goal!”

To learn more, visit www.ar-europe.ie/useries.* The new 100U1000 and 250U1000 cover the 100 kHz - 1000 MHz frequency range.

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NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018 MW...4 MW November - December 2018 LTE-V interoperability tests for connected vehicles Rohde & Schwarz and Huawei have successfully tested the interoperabil-ity