April 2014
12
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they include an encoding function to increase
reliability and robustness of those communi-
cations functions. For a quick development
start, the RX64M MCUs will be supported by
a robust development tool environment from
both Renesas and third-party tool vendors that
make up the RX ecosystem, such as Micrium,
Express Logic, CMX, Segger, and freeRTOS.
Silicon Labs introduced the industry’s first sin-
gle-chip digital ultraviolet index sensor ICs de-
signed to track UV sun exposure, heart/pulse
rate and blood oximetry and provide proximi-
ty/gesture control for smartphone and wearable
computing products. The Si1132 and Si114x
sensor ICs are ideal for activity-tracking wrist
and arm bands, smart watches and smartphone
handsets. In addition to enabling UV index
sensing, the devices also provide ambient light
and infrared proximity sensing capabilities for
health and fitness applications. Conventional
UV sensors combine UV-sensitive photodiodes
with an external microcontroller, ADC and
signal processing firmware. Silicon Labs is the
first to combine all of this functionality into a
single-chip solution offered in an exceptionally
small 2x2mm package that helps reduce the de-
sign’s footprint and bill of material cost. When
combined with an accelerometer, the sensors
enable developers to implement sleep tracking
in wearable applications. In addition, the sensors
ability to measure both infrared and visible
light levels enhances the control of LCD back-
lighting in mixed-light source environments.
The result is an inexpensive yet effective means
of adjusting backlighting to ease eyestrain and
reduce power without distracting the end user.
The UV index sensors ultra-low-power archi-
tecture enables thinner wearable designs with
smaller batteries and extends battery life with
as little as 1.2µA average current for once-per-
second UV measurements. The sensors also
offer greater sensitivity and sensing range at
significantly lower power levels than competi-
tive offerings. The high IR sensor sensitivity
provides significantly longer battery life in
motion sensing/gesture applications through
the use of a single 25.6µs IR-LED on-time
while enabling up to 50cm sensing range. Dy-
namic adjustment of LED currents further
minimizes power consumption.
Maxim Integrated’s Novato smart tempera-
ture-transmitter reference design transmits
temperature measurement over -200 °C to
+850 °C range with better than ±0.1 % accu-
racy. Factories can now easily, and very accu-
rately, measure and transmit industrial tem-
peratures with the Novato reference design, a
4–20mA loop-powered temperature transmitter
with the HART communication protocol from
Maxim Integrated Products. The Novato ref-
erence design transmits temperature measure-
ments from remote sensors to the central con-
trol unit over a 4–20mA current-loop using
the highway addressable remote transducer
(HART) communication protocol. This smart
transmitter enables low-power temperature
measurement from -200 to +850 °C with ac-
curacy better than ±0.1% or ±1.0 °C. Novato’s
flexible design supports 2-, 3-, or 4-wire resist-
ance temperature detector (RTD) sensor inputs
and works with any type of RTDs, from PT100
to PT1000, making it ideal for a wide variety
of industrial applications.
Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched a low
power consumption Bluetooth IC TC35667FTG
that supports Bluetooth Low Energy commu-
nications. The new IC will find application in
various wearable and healthcare-orientated
smart devices, sensors, as well as smartphone
accessories, remote controllers and toys. It
adopts an original low-power circuit design
and integrates a highly efficient DC-DC con-
verter, reducing peak current consumption to
below 6mA and deep sleep current consumption
to below 100nA. TC35667FTG also integrates
an ARM processor, enabling download and ex-
ecution of customer programs stored in EEP-
ROM. It supports customization of applications,
eliminating the need for any external micro-
controller. The receiver has a sensitivity of -
91dBm and transmitter output power can be
varied from 0dBm to -20dBm in 4dB steps.
Housed in a 6x6mm QFN40 package with
0.5mm pin pitch, the low power consumption
IC will enable the adoption of Bluetooth LE
communications in the small devices while also
promoting long battery life. The IC supports
server and client functions defined by GATT
(Generic Attribute Profile). Toshiba will expand
the device line-up to include support for auto-
motive applications of Bluetooth Smart devices.
FTDI introduced its application-oriented mi-
crocontroller families. Targeted at key tasks
where they can add value, these speed-optimised
microcontrollers elevate system performance
and operational efficiency while providing
unique connectivity features, as well as simpli-
fying system implementation and chip integra-
tion processes. There are two AOC product
families - the 8-bit FT51, which is designed to
address control system deployments and the
32-bit FT900, which is aimed at use in high-
performance systems such as video imaging,
multimedia and other demanding, cost-sensitive
activities involving large amounts of data.
Both these families employ an extensive selec-
tion of IO options and incorporate powerful,
efficient core processing architectures. The
FT51s 8051 CPU core has been tuned in order
to achieve 48MIPS processing capacity. Its
USB Hub function enables sub-systems to be
cascaded, while a comprehensive cadre of
ADC/DACs facilitate sensor interfacing. By ex-
ecuting instructions from shadow RAM, rather
than flash memory, the FT900 can operate at
true zero wait states up to 100MHz and
293DMIPS performance. It has a built-in cam-
era interface for attachment to CMOS imaging
modules with VGA resolution. The FT51 and
FT900 AOCs join FTDI Chips already well-es-
tablished 16-bit microcontroller offering - Vin-
culum II - to present the electronic engineering
fraternity with a product range spanning from
low-end 8-bit devices right through to 32-bit
devices, all with impressive performance met-
rics and system interconnection assets. The
new R&S RTE oscilloscopes from Rohde &
Schwarz are available with bandwidths from
200 MHz to 1 GHz. An acquisition rate of
more than one million waveforms per second
helps users find signal faults quickly. The
Figure 1. Smaller than a golf ball dimple, new
Kinetis KL03 unleashes design innovation for
Internet of Things applications.
Figure 2. The RX64M MCUs combine connec-
tivity and high performance with 4 MB of
flash memory and 512 KB of SRAM for indus-
trial equipment and other IoT applications.
Figure 3. The Novato reference design accu-
rately measures and transmits industrial tem-
peratures.
