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11 February 2014
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Cover: Edinburgh Research and Innovation
CONTENTS
VOL 47 NO 3
12
INTERVIEW
Giving technology the right strategy
COMMENT
The number of
engineering students
The Technology Strategy Board has success stories in all shapes

and sizes. Lead technologist Myrddin Jones says its hungry for more
COVER STORY
14
The light fantastic
is rising, but
electronics is still
struggling
NEWS
With LEDs increasingly replacing traditional sources, the
Researchers say
opportunity has arisen for them to transmit data
ballistic transport in
ANALOGUE DESIGN
34
Accuracy enhanced
graphene could
enable very different
electronics devices
A proprietary architecture is bringing a new level of data

conversion accuracy to automatic test equipment systems
The bidding process
opens for a share of

EMBEDDED POWER
36
On track for clean power
provided for quantum

technology research
With fewer analogue power engineers in the UK, power design

expertise is a valuable resource, as evidenced by this case study
RF & MICROWAVE
27
39
A decongestant for comms links

A new modulation approach is being offered as a solution
REFERENCE DESIGNS
IBM demonstrates a
multistage RF receiver
featuring three
graphene transistors,
claims milestone
to impending spectrum congestion
39
the 155million being
42
Bristol based team

makes further progress
WaRP speed ahead
with its research into
A platform based approach is said to accelerate the
quantum computing
development of wearable electronics products
technology
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Look at the value, not the cost
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Four leading providers discuss ways for

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POWER MEASUREMENT
Using power wisely
24
How energy measurement systems can

help to validate design improvements
during development and debug
EMBEDDED WORLD PREVIEW
Products provide the pull
Some of the new products on view at

embedded world
EMBEDDED DESIGN SHOW
SECURITY
Creating a defence
21
With embedded systems security a

growing threat, advice is given on how to
defend against unwanted attacks
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11 February 2014
CHALLENGES
Cutting through the

complexity
27
In the next decade, software tools will

play a more critical role in system
design and development
30
32
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COMMENT
ENGINEERING STUDENTS
uk.mouser.com
Bumping
along
More engineering students,
but electronics still struggles
he latest figures from university application handler UCAS make

interesting reading. Not only is the number of people applying to go to
university increasing (after the recent blip caused by the tuition fee hike), but
so are the numbers looking to read engineering.
For the 2013 intake, 27,155 students were accepted onto engineering
courses, representing 5.5% of all students the largest number since 2008.
However, the electronics intake remains low. There were 23,640 applications in
the 2013 cycle to follow electronics and electrical engineering courses (one
student can make up to five applications), with 4845 students being accepted.
There has been widespread effort to encourage school students to follow
engineering courses at university; these figures suggest those efforts are
succeeding. But the efforts to promote electronics appear not to have been so
successful. Over the last six years, the number of students following E&E
courses has remained pretty static. In 2008, 4810 people entered university to
read E&E; in 2013, it was 4845. Cast your mind back to the early 2000s and
there were twice as many electronics students.
Many reasons have been put forward for the decline, ranging from poor pay
and prospects to electronics being too hard. But have we, as an industry, done
enough to highlight the opportunities of a career in electronics and how people
can shape the future?
Its not an easy problem to solve. The UK Electronics Skills Foundation,
amongst others, is trying to promote the industry and has the backing of some
big electronics companies. Other companies prefer to work directly with local
schools, while the Engineering Development Trust runs the Headstart
programme for schools. And there are other schemes.
If electronics is as important to the UKs economy as we are told ESCO
says electronics, in its broadest sense, contributes 80billion to GDP and
supports 850,000 jobs then perhaps it should get a much higher profile than
it does today.
For more on engaging with school students, see New Electronics 11 March
issue.
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NEWS
BALLISTIC TRANSPORT
Graphene goes ballistic

GRAPHENE COULD ENABLE BALLISTIC TRANSPORT AND A NEW CLASS OF
DEVICE. GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.
Research undertaken by Georgia Tech and partners shows that electrical resistance in nanoribbons of
epitaxial graphene changes in discrete steps following quantum mechanical principles. According to the work,
the nanoribbons act more like optical waveguides or quantum dots, allowing electrons to fow smoothly along
the edges of the material.
Using electrons more like photons could provide the foundation for a new type of electronic device that
would capitalise on the ability of graphene to carry electrons with almost no resistance even at room
temperature a property known as ballistic transport.
This work shows that we can control graphene electrons in very different ways because the properties
are really exceptional, said Professor Walt de Heer, from Georgia Techs School of Physics. This could result
in a new class of coherent electronic devices based on room temperature ballistic transport in graphene.
Such devices would be very different from what we make today in silicon.
The properties were measured in graphene nanoribbons approximately 40nm wide that had been grown
on the edges of 3D structures etched into silicon carbide wafers.
This should enable a new way of doing electronics, Prof de Heer added. We are already able to steer
these electrons and we can switch them using rudimentary means. We can put a roadblock and then open it
again. New kinds of switches for this material are now on the horizon.
The research was done in association with Leibniz Universitt Hannover, CNRS in France and the US Oak
Ridge National Laboratory.
Solar cell process could have wider application

A research team at UCLA has created a process for
manufacturing highly effcient photovoltaic materials and
says the approach shows promise for low cost industrial
production of solar cells.
Huanping Zhou, pictured, a postdoctoral researcher at
UCLA, believes the process could eventually be adapted
to use organic-inorganic hybrid materials for the
production of transistors, LEDs and other devices.
The team used a vapour assisted solution process, in
which a substrate was coated with the inorganic
component, then treated in a steam bath of organic
molecules at about 150C. Organic material infltrates
the inorganic matter and forms a uniform and compact
perovskite flm.
Devices have been produced with a conversion rate of
more than 12% said to be comparable to or better
than that of amorphous silicon solar cells.
ARMs revenues climb
Graphenes properties adjusted
ARM has announced revenues of 714.6million for its

2013 fnancial year, 24% higher than in 2013, and a
proft before tax of 364m. ARM says it has a strong
order backlog and a healthy pipeline of prospects.
The company signed 26 processor licences and
noted momentum continues in computing, servers
and networking applications with the signing of an
ARMv8 architecture licence and two ARMv8 processor
licences. Licenses were signed with 22 companies,
more than half of whom were new licensees.
Meanwhile, 2.9billion ARM chips were shipped in
the Q4 2013, an increase of 16% over Q4 2012.
Scientists in Japan have found a way to adjust the

physical properties of graphene oxide, paving the way
towards fexible nanoelectronic devices.
Currently, bandgaps in graphene oxide are
controlled chemically. However, researchers from the
World Premier International Centre for Materials
Nanoarchitectonics used a solid state electric double
layer transistor, comprising graphene oxide on a silica
glass substrate gated by a zirconia proton conductor.
A reversible electrochemical redox reaction at the
graphene oxide/zirconia interface increased the
current fowing in the transistor by a factor of fve.
11 February 2014
BRIEFS
Photonics
commercialisation
University of Southampton
researchers have been given
6million by an EPSRC-led
consortium to bring silicon
photonics to the mass market.
The team, led by Professor
Graham Reed, will use the funding to
develop: a low cost method for wafer
scale test; a passive alignment
coupling technique from fibre to
optical chip; low power, high data rate
modulators; and a means of scaling
the functionality of photonic circuits.
Meanwhile, the 30m Irish
Photonic Integration Centre has
opened at the Tyndall National
Institute. The facility will bring together
four research institutes, 100
researchers and 18 industry partners
to develop and commercialise
photonic technologies.
Single molecule LED

A single molecule LED has been
created by a team from IPCMS in
Strasbourg.
The device was formed from a
polythiophene wire placed between
the tip of a scanning tunnelling
microscope and a gold surface. The
scientists saw light was emitted when
electrons went from the tip of the
microscope towards the gold surface.
The experiment is said to
represent another step towards
creating components for molecular
computers.
NEWS
QUANTUM RESEARCH
BRIEFS
Cash for quantum research
Setting a standard
BIDDING PROCESS OPENED FOR 155M OF QUANTUM RESEARCH FUNDING.

GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.
With interest growing in the use of its

processors in data centres, ARM has
introduced a platform standard for
ARMv8-A based servers. The ARM
Server Base System Architecture
specification, or SBSA, provides a
framework for the deployment of
ARM based solutions in data centres.
Developed in collaboration with
AMD, TI, Broadcom, HP and Dell, it is
designed to accelerate software
development and enable portability
between ARM based platforms.
Meanwhile, AMD is the first major
manufacturer to unveil a server
processor based on the ARMv8
architecture. Opteron A1100 series
processors will be available with four
or eight Cortex-A57 processor cores
and with up to 4Mbyte of shared L2
and 8Mbyte of shared L3 cache.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research

Council (EPSRC) is looking for bids for the
155million allocated to establish a national
network of Quantum Technology Hubs. Each hub will
receive between 10m and 20m, backed by a
75m fund for capital investment.
At least fve areas will be supported: secure
communications; metrology; sensors; simulators;
and computation.
The funding call is part of the UK governments
270m Quantum Technologies Programme.
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said:
Quantum technologies are an exciting and emerging

feld that represent a major opportunity for the UK.
This new investment in a national network of quantum
technology hubs will transform our capacity, keeping
us ahead in the global race. It builds on our strong
science base and will help deliver economic growth.
Each hub will be expected to offer visionary
leadership, as well as acting as an international
centre of excellence. While focusing on the research
challenges at hand, hubs will also need to have
signifcant engagement with industry and to actively
manage technology translation.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have made

a breakthrough in understanding what happens when
silicon is used as the anode in lithium batteries.
Silicon anodes are of interest because they can
store roughly 10 times more charge than their carbon
based counterparts. However, silicon atoms absorbs
lithium atoms, expanding by up to three times in
volume and degrading the battery in the process.
Using nanoscale wires made of silicon and
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the researchers
developed a map of how silicon transforms when in
contact with lithium in a battery. Using this
technique will help make battery design much more
systematic and less trial and error, said Dr Ken
Ogata from the Universitys Department of
Engineering. Importantly, the insights achieved by
the new technology ... will lead to further
development of the anodes.
Researchers make silicon anode

breakthrough
Apple buys most chips

Apple and Samsung remained the
largest buyers of semiconductors in
2013, according to IHS Technology.
Apple bought $30.3bn of chips,
with Samsung spending around
$22bn almost 30% more than in
2012.
Combined, the two represented
about 14% of spending in 2013 by
top OEMS, ahead of HP ($10.1bn),
Lenovo ($9.2bn) and Dell ($7.7bn).
Pic credit: Argonne National Laboratory via Flickr
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NEWS ANALYSIS
GRAPHENE ICS
IBM claims graphene milestone

IBM RESEARCHERS BUILD A MULTISTAGE GRAPHENE BASED RF RECEIVER.
GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.
IBM researchers have built the frst fully functional
integrated circuit from graphene. The move,
described by the company as a nanotechnology
milestone, is said to herald new carbon based
electronics devices and circuit applications with
performances beyond what is possible with silicon.
Since the discovery, by Professors Geim and
Novoselov in 2005, that graphene might have
application in future electronics devices,
researchers around the world have embarked on a
range of programmes to commercialise the so
called wonder material.
IBM has shown interest in graphene from its
early stages and, in one of its earliest
announcements, showcased a graphene transistor
with a cut off frequency of 26GHz. In 2010, it
improved this to 100GHz and in 2011, IBM
disclosed the frst CMOS compatible graphene
device which it said could advance wireless
communications and enable new high frequency
devices, which can operate under adverse
temperature and radiation conditions. The circuit in
question was a frequency multiplier which ran at up
to 5GHz and was stable in temperatures of up to
200C.
Whilst these high levels of performance were
achievable under lab conditions, transferring the
technology to production proved troublesome.
Fabrication of a true integrated circuit was said at
the time to be challenging because graphene
could be easily damaged by the harsh conditions
found in the CMOS fabrication process.
Having worked on the problem, an IBM team has
developed a new manufacturing approach that
takes advantage of regular silicon CMOS processes
and this process has been used to build and test
the frst multistage graphene RF receiver.
This is the frst time that someone has shown
graphene devices and circuits to perform modern
wireless communication functions comparable to
Graphene ICs at the wafer test stage
11 February 2014
IBMs multistage
RF receiver
consists of three
graphene
transistors, four
inductors, two
capacitors and two
resistors,
integrated into an
area of 0.6mm2
ON THE WEB
Blogs
Apple under pressure
after share price
plunge
59142
FinFET yields caused
Intel to mothball
Fab42
59037
Makimotos Wave
suggests a new brand
of technology will be
along shortly
59123
Might the hardware
pioneer get out of the
hardware business? 59081
silicon technology, said Supratik Guha, director of

physical sciences at IBM Research.
The manufacturing approach reverses the
conventional silicon fabrication fow, leaving graphene
transistors as the last step of the process. The
multistage RF receiver consists of three graphene
transistors, four inductors, two capacitors and two
resistors, integrated into an area of 0.6mm2 and
fabricated on a 200mm production line. Importantly,
the new approach is said to enable heterogeneous
3D integration with a silicon CMOS backbone.
The demonstrated performance is 10,000 times
better than previously reported efforts for graphene
ICs and is said by IBM to be a major leap forward.
The circuits, consuming less than 20mW power, also
showed the highest conversion gain of any graphene
RF circuits at multiple GHz frequency.
To demonstrate true functionality, the researchers
transmitted a text message using the graphene IC
with a carrier frequency of 4.3GHz. The team
received the data successfully and restored the text,
which featured the letters IBM, and said this shows
the feasibility of using graphene ICs in modern
wireless communications applications.
More engineering
students, but
electronics still
struggles
59137
Exposing EUV
continuing
uncertainties
59002
Is cooperation, rather
than competition, the
59099
way forward?
Intel mothballs fab,
predicts flat year,
looks to shrink
payroll
58989
News
RFID system promises
error free wireless
detection
59048
TSMC takes on Intel
after claims about
transistor density 59122
AMD unveils ARM v8
based 64bit server
processors
59161
Implant measures
drug levels in the
bloodstream
59075
NEWS
QUANTUM RESEARCH
Cracking quantum quandaries

BRISTOL BASED TEAM MAKES STEADY PROGRESS WITH ITS RESEARCH INTO
QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY. GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.
The world of quantum research is complex and progress tends
to be made incrementally and on a longer timescale than is the
case with more mainstream technologies.
One of the research groups which has been pursuing
quantum technologies is the Centre for Quantum Photonics,
based at the University of Bristol. Led by Dr Mark Thompson,
the international effort has made a number of breakthroughs in
the last fve years. Included was the achievement, in 2010, of
getting a pair of identical photons to do the quantum walk
around a network of circuits on a chip. The technique is
believed to have application in quantum networking.
Now, the team has generated and manipulated photons on a
chip and believe this will be a major step in the quest to build a
quantum computer.
Dr Thompson explained: Single photon detectors, sources
and circuits have all been developed separately in silicon, but
putting them all together and integrating them on a chip is a
huge challenge. Our device, the most functionally complex
photonic quantum circuit to date, was fabricated by Toshiba
using exactly the same manufacturing techniques used to make
conventional electronic devices. We can generate and
manipulate quantum entanglement all within a single millimetre sized chip.
The group, which includes researchers from Toshiba, Stanford University, University of Glasgow and
TU Delft, now plans to integrate the remaining necessary components onto a chip and show that large
scale quantum devices using photons are possible.
We were surprised by how well the integrated sources performed together, admits Joshua Silverstone,
lead author of a paper describing the groups research published in a recent issue of Nature Photonics.
They produced high quality identical photons in a reproducible way, confrming that we could, one day,
manufacture a chip with hundreds of similar sources on it, all working together. This could eventually lead
to an optical quantum computer capable of performing enormously complex calculations.
Our group has been making steady progress towards a functioning quantum computer over the last fve
years, said Dr Thompson. We hope to have, within the next couple of years, photon based devices
complex enough to rival modern computing hardware for highly specialised tasks.
In 2012, a team from the Centre for Quantum Photonics showed that it was possible to recycle the
particles inside a quantum computer, so that quantum factoring can be achieved with only one third of the
particles originally required.
10
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11 February 2014
Giving technology
Myrddin Jones
Following R&D roles at Racal Research, Jones
worked for Hitachiin Europe and Japan. From
2003, he was general manager of Hitachis
European display components business,
delivering solutions for industrial, computer,
automotive and telecoms markets. With more
than 30 years industry experience, Jones is now
Lead Technologist at the Technology Strategy
Board, responsible for Electronics, Sensors and
Photonics.
12
INTERVIEW
MYRDDIN JONES
the right strategy

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has hundreds of success stories of all shapes
and sizes. Myrddin Jones told Tim Fryer it is hungry for more.
Photo: Steve Climpson
he TSB is best known for funding collaborative

R&D projects, but as the agency has developed
since its formation in 2007, it has cemented its
role as a vital cog in British industry, particularly
when it comes to exploiting innovative ideas.
Lead technologist Myrddin Jones explained: We are
between the blue skies thinking and industrial development
we help companies with the bit in between. Help
typically comes in the form of collaborative R&D projects
that may, for example, link an SME with an innovative idea,
a larger company, who might be the end customer, and a
university which has the enabling technology in house, or
the ability to develop it.
In 2011, an evaluation report, commissioned by the
TSB and conducted by economic consultants PACEC,
looked at the impact these projects were having. It
showed that, since 2004 (the programme predated the
TSB), the projects created 13,350 jobs at a cost of
36,000 per job. However, the additional revenue
generated was in the region of 2.9billion. To look at it
another way, each 1 of grant created 5.75 in value add.
Clearly, it is a successful system and, as a consequence,
the TSBs budget for the 2013 fnancial year stood at
440million, with 300m of that aimed specifcally at
collaborative R&D projects. Jones added: We are funded by
the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
and I guess that, in the three letter acronym, we are
responsible for the Innovation bit and our primary focus is
industry. EPSRC is responsible for funding academia; we
are responsible for funding companies. Everything we run
will be lead by a company, even if there is a university in the
partnership. Our main focus is to exploit innovation that is
coming out of industry, or to take great ideas that
companies have had and which they want to take on to a
higher level of technology readiness.
The starting point for a collaborative R&D project will be
a competition, of which there have been 75 in the current
fnancial year. Usually, competitions are developed from
the companies, the trade associations or the Knowledge
Transfer Networks (KTNs) telling us we need to be doing
something, said Jones. Then we need to check, if we go
ahead with something, whether there is a large global
market for it. Is there a good know-how in academia to
base this on? Does the UK have the ability to exploit the
technology? Does the technology exist in the UK if it
doesnt, there is nothing to exploit. And is the time right to
make the investment?
The KTNs are an important way for the TSB to fulfl its
11 February 2014
remit; they provide a means to fnd suitable partners

across the industrial and academic sectors. In fact,
reverting to the PACEC report, 84% of participants believed
one of the main benefts had been that it had
strengthened collaborative activity.
Amongst current competitions, there is one looking to
support feasibility studies on emerging imaging
technologies, which will cover 75% project costs up to a
value of 150,000. Another competition technologyinspired innovation is for smaller studies of up to four
months and 33,000 in value. Jones pointed to another
major competition, just getting underway. The most
important one for the electronics sector is manufacturing
electronic systems of the future, helping companies to
improve their manufacturing processes in electronics. It
came out of last years ESCO Report, which identifed this
need. It is a 4.75m project, so we hope to fund 15 to 20
projects of different sizes. All competitions will give
examples of the potential projects printed electronics
and chip-on-chip techniques are quoted for the
manufacturing competition but they are not intended to
be prescriptive. Companies or teams can come up with
their own ideas within the objectives of the competition.
An additional type of project, particularly aimed at small
and micro companies is SMART. Through SMART, we can
fund proof of market, proof of concept development and, in
this case, we would fund 60% of the cost of the project. So
we can make it happen for a company with a great new
idea, but without the resources to fund the project. Funding
this year for SMART is 40m and there have already been
some great successes; it makes such a difference to
smaller companies. One key aspect of SMART is that it is
open all the time, companies dont need to wait for
relevant competitions to be launched.
Does Jones believe there remains a huge amount of
untapped potential, both in UK companies and in the
academic base? Absolutely. It is about connecting them,
getting them to do important things and then exploit the
outcome of those collaborations. I used to work for Hitachi
and never realised how many amazing UK electronics
companies there were as a mainstream supplier, we dealt
with the top few. I never realised the breadth and depth of
what these amazing companies were doing in the UK and
those are the companies we help the most at the TSB.
For those who see the Technology Strategy Board as an
organisation for big business, Jones concluded: When the
TSB was set up in 2007, 25% of funding went to SMEs.
This year, it will cross the 50% threshold.
13
host of research projects in

the established feld of
visual light communications
(VLC) is pushing towards
the possibility of using the lighting
infrastructure to transmit data at
several Gbit/s, with perhaps the most
promising approach dubbed Li-Fi (for
light fdelity), a subset of VLC making
waves in several ways.
The monikers similarity to its RF
equivalent, Wi-Fi, is no accident: Li-Fis
proponents are suggesting it could
become as ubiquitous as IEEE802.11.
But, to be fair, even the most ardent
evangelists accept that it will take a
while for the technology to mature.
Professor Harald Haas, pictured
right, chair of mobile communications
at the University of Edinburgh, told New
Electronics: We should consider Li-Fi
as complementary to todays wireless
networking technology, though with a
whole range of advantages, not least in
terms of energy effciency, security and
the fact that it unlocks a vast range of
unused and, importantly, unregulated
electromagnetic spectrum.
The aim is fully fedged networks,
where a Wi-Fi network would offoad
data to Li-Fi when applicable, easing
the spectrum crunch we are facing,
much like an LTE based cellular
network offoads networking to Wi-Fi.
Along the way, the technology is
more likely to be exploited in sector
specifc applications, notably where RF
The light
fantastic
The lighting sector is not renowned for being
innovative, but with LEDs increasingly replacing
traditional sources, the opportunity has arisen for
them to transmit data. By John Walko.
links are not desirable or possible.
Amongst those being touted include
deploying specially equipped LED
lighting in aircraft cabins that would
allow passengers to connect to
laptops, mobile phones and tablets; in
hospitals, where RF signals are often
prohibited; data exchange between
smartphones (Casio has already
demonstrated an application for this
using prototype mobiles where signals
are transmitted using by varying the
light intensity of the screens); and
street lighting communications (French
company Oledcomm has
demonstrated this with Thorn Lighting).
Fig 1: A bidirectional real time line of sight VLC system

Transimpedance
amplifer
1000BaseT
Ethernet
OFDM
transceiver
LED current
driver
LED luminaire
Visible
light
LED
Photodiode
Visible
light
LED
Transimpedance
amplifer
1000BaseT
Ethernet
OFDM
transceiver
LED current
driver
14
Photodiode
Tabletop
Prof Haas said he is talking to the

oil and gas industry about using point
to point Li-Fi to monitor conditions
inside wells. At the moment,
companies have to shut down their
wells intermittently to install wire
probes at huge expense every time.
Following in Bells footsteps
For now, Prof Haas and his team, who

have been working on the underlying
technologies for nearly a decade and
described the frst proof of concept
in 2006, are located in the Alexander
Graham Bell Building, named after
the Scottish inventor and Edinburgh
alumnus who devised the
Photophone, the frst device to
transmit voice using modulated light.
Bell directed sunlight at a parabolic
mirror that captured and projected his
vocal vibrations. Unfortunately, the
unpredictability of sunlight scuppered
the idea.
Prof Haas frst demonstrated and
coined the term Li-Fi at a widely
acclaimed talk organised by TEDGlobal
in July 2011. Posted a week later on
YouTube, the clip has to date achieved
1.5million hits. After the talk, the
technology attained a much higher
profle and was soon followed by the
establishment of the Li-Fi Consortium.
This focuses on commercial
applications of the technology. Prof
Haas himself cofounded and acts as
chief scientifc offcer of Edinburgh
11 February 2014
COVER STORY
LI-FI
Above: Researchers
believe it may be
possible to use street
lights for data
communications with
passing vehicles
based pureLiFi, a spin out of work at

the University which is planning to
partner with light bulb and light fxture
manufacturers to develop and
commercialise Li-Fi applications.
Li-Fi works as a signal transmitter
with high bandwidth white LEDS,
typically 200MHz, and as a signal
receiver with either a PIN or an
avalanche photodiode. This means
Li-Fi systems not only illuminate a
room, but also provide wireless data
connectivity. This is accomplished by
modulating the incoherent light
generated by LEDs using a modifed
version of orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing. Prof Haas has
dubbed this Spatial Modulation OFDM.
With this technique, developed at
Edinburgh, we can exploit all four
dimensions colour, time, frequency
and space, he noted.
The group has demonstrated data
transfer at up to 1.6Gbit/s on a single
colour LED and expects to achieve
2Gbit/s on each of the RGB channels,
adding up to an impressive 6Gbit/s.
Prof Haas maintains the frst part
tinkering with the electronics of LEDs
so they generate the fickering signals
for data transmission is the easy bit,
since they are already semiconductor

devices. While streaming real time
video from a white LED at fairly high
data rates over a single channel point
to point link as demonstrated by
Prof Haas in his TEDGlobal talk is
one thing, the networking aspect of
the technology including multiuser
access, interference coordination and
overcoming the line of sight
conundrum is another.
In fact, Prof Haas suggests the
latter, often seen as Li-Fis Achilles
Heel, has been overcome. Researchers
within his group and pureLiFi, working
in collaboration with one of the groups
beta project partners, have shown that
Li-Fi can operate by using incident light
(which includes refections) and does
not necessarily require line of sight
connection between receiver and
transmitter. Completed late in 2013,
the project demonstrated high speed
Li-Fi from refections, streaming four
videos in parallel.
Prof Haas said the group has
concluded similar beta project
partnerships with global players in
the healthcare, aircraft, data and
industrial communications sectors,
from which we gain valuable feedback
11 February 2014
on all aspects of Li-Fi development.

For full duplex communication, an
uplink will clearly be required and Prof
Haas suggests the most suitable
technique is wavelength division
multiplexing, where two
communication channels are
established over different wavelengths.
Infrared is seen as perhaps the most
viable option to link mobile terminals
to the optical access point (AP).
Here, VLC borrows from the small
cell concept widely used in RF
networks and these APs are dubbed
attocells, considered to be analogous
to femtocells. They not only improve
indoor coverage and bandwidth reuse,
but, importantly, will not interfere with
macrocellular networks.
In the long term, the goal is to
enable seamless interoperation
between optical attocells and rf
femtocell/macrocells to ensure
maximum spectrum relief for rf
systems.
Prof Haas said the commercial
proposition for pureLiFi is a series of
OEM products, including miniaturised
modems and dongles. The frst
product will be available on limited
release as from this month. Offering
15
COVER STORY
LI-FI
full duplex communication with a

capacity of 5Mbit/s in both the uplink
and downlink path over a range of up
to 3m, the device supports data rate
densities of 1Mbit/s/m2 while
providing ample desk space
illumination.
This will be followed by the Li-Fire
platform that will allow pureLiFi
partners to develop applications. On
the horizon is the Ceiling Unit that will
connect to the data network via
Li-Fi systems not

only illuminate a
room, but also
provide wireless
data connectivity.
16
standard Ethernet RJ45 port. The units

receive and decode the uplink signal
using infrared detectors and optics.
The protocol stack on the ceiling units
enables seamless handover between
APs, along with multiple access at
each individual AP, creating an indoor
atto-cellular network.
The connection is important as the
two methods of bringing data into the
LEDs and fttings are either power line
communication, as a retroft, or
standardised Power over Ethernet.
Once connected to the IP network, the
lighting infrastructure can communicate
with any other IP device or VLC enabled
device, indoors or outdoors.
Further down the road is the Li-Fire
Desktop Unit. This incorporates a
processing unit with a visible light
decoder to capture the continuous
sequence of light intensity changes,
decode the binary stream and transmit
it to the client device via a USB
connection. The desktop unit receives
data from the client device, encodes it
and transmits it to the ceiling unit
using an IR emitter. The protocol stack
on the desktop unit allows the user to
move from one AP to the next without

losing data connection.
The Edinburgh group is also involved
in a related four year EPSRC funded
project. Called UP-VLC Ultra-Parallel
Visible Light Communications the
project will develop and implement a
Li-Fi network using micron sized GaN
based LEDs that are said to ficker
some 1000 times faster than current
devices. The collaborators also suggest
each micron sized LED could act as a
tiny pixel and, when combined into an
array, could display information whilst
simultaneously providing a Li-Fi link.
The project, led by scientists at the
University of Strathclyde, includes
groups at the universities of
Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews, as
well as industrial partners such as
STMicroelectronics, Thorn Lighting,
Osram, Avago Technologies, EV Group,
Compound Semiconductor Technology
and BAE Systems. In recent tests, each
RGB channel sent data admittedly
over very short distances at
3.5Gbit/s, a total of 10.5Gbit/s.
Commenting on the energy saving
parallelism of the breakthrough,
project leader Professor Martin
Dawson of Strathclyde said: Imagine
an LED array beside a motorway,
helping to light the road, displaying
the latest traffc updates and
transmitting internet information
wirelessly to passengers laptops,
netbooks and smartphones.
Significant expertise in the UK
While stressing the UKs signifcant

expertise in this feld, Prof Haas
acknowledges research groups in the
US, China, Japan and, notably,
Germany, as well as many potential
competitors to the kind of designs and
platforms coming out of pureLiFi.
He is particularly impressed by
work being done at the Fraunhofer
Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) for
Photonics Systems in Berlin and
suggests there is healthy competition
between the groups. Even though
they are, perhaps, approaching the
opportunity from the LED and optics
angle, while our focus has been more
on the data modulation and
networking aspect.
Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos, a
senior researcher at HHI, concurs

partially and suggests the biggest
difference between the two groups is
that HHI focuses on developing
products and devices that can be
integrated speedily. For instance, plugand-play modules, and on Ethernet LAN
type devices that can be easily
combined with existing networks.
This is, of course, partly because
the applied research institute works
predominantly with industrial partners
looking to commercialise applications;
in this instance, in sectors such as
automotive and lighting. Like Prof
Haas, Paraskevopoulos believes the
initial focus should be on industrial
applications and suggests interference
prone conference rooms, fair trade
booths and hospitals would be ideal
places to showcase the technology.
HHI recently demonstrated a
bidirectional, real time line of sight
VLC system (see fg 1). Currently
working in half duplex mode, the
system relies on rate adaptive OFDM
and is implemented with feedback via
the reverse link. The transceivers,
equipped with proprietary VLC
transmitter and receiver modules,
offer a bandwidth of up to 180MHz
and links to 1000BaseT interfaces.
At a typical working distance of 2m
between the ceiling unit and table top,
and in a circle of about 60cm in
diameter, the system allows a data
rate of 200Mbit/s per user. Second
generation prototypes, with smaller
form factors, are on the way.
Paraskevopoulos also told New
Electronics that HHI prefers to pursue
the vision of optical Wi-Fi. We, and
the scientifc community, have yet to
accept the term Li-Fi completely. But
we certainly share most of the
underlying technologies and targets as
outlined by Prof Haas group.
On one aspect, the researchers
are in total agreement: the
technology needs to be standardised
before it can really take off, from the
front end luminaires to the
multipoint to multipoint functionality.
However, with bodies such as the
IEEE 802.15.7 and the ITUs g.hn
home networking group likely to be
involved, it may be a while before this
bright idea is ready to shine.
11 February 2014
February 2014
CONTENTS
Expert Panel addresses cost vs value for software tools
How to protect embedded software against attacks
Measuring energy consumption during system development
Software tools set to play a critical role in system design
Products provide the pull for visitors to embedded world
Findlay Media launches the Embedded Design Show
18
21
24
27
30
32
Look at the value,

not the cost
With software development costs rising, how can designers assess the
best way to use the tools budget? We asked four leading companies for
their views. By Graham Pitcher.
epending upon the scale of

the design, software
development can represent
around 60% of the cost of
of an embedded system project. With
costs rising and budgets stretched,
some companies may choose to look
at less expensive tools. How can the
industry help developers to measure
the benefts of particular tools?
Stefan Skarin, ceo of IAR Systems,
said: We give our customers a quick
start through example projects, step by
step tutorials and technical support.
Customers can measure their benefts,
for example, by time completing
projects ahead of schedule and before
their competitors or by reducing
hardware costs.
Magnus Unemyr, vp sales and
marketing with Atollic, noted: We
provide a lot of information about
using the tools: for example, white
papers and video tutorials. Most
customers will also download a free
30 day evaluation version of Atollic
TrueSTUDIO prior to purchase.
John Carbone, vp of marketing with
Express Logic, took a different view.
In the end, customers must make
their own determination. We strongly
encourage them to start with a careful
and thorough look at our source code
and a full evaluation license (free) that
lets them see how it works for them.
Rami Rachamim, product marketing
manager, with Mentor Graphics
embedded software and design
creation division, said: Sometimes we
make entry level versions of tools
available at low cost or even free; this
gives the opportunity to evaluate
18
whether the tools are viable for them.

In other cases, we deliver time limited,
fully functional evaluation copies. And,
when appropriate, we will assign an
engineer to guide them in the optimal
application of the products.
Many tools are regarded as
expensive and companies can seek
cheaper alternatives. Is that a false
economy? How can development
teams work out the return on
investment (RoI) in software?
Carbone sees two steps in such an
analysis: the role of schedule
completion in the RoI for the product;
and the role of ThreadX (an Express
Logic product) versus other RTOSs.
With those two factors understood,
the RoI beneft will be apparent.
Embedded market forecasters perform
such analyses each year, based on
data they collect. Such insight would
be useful as a basis for individual
customer analysis for their project.
Rachamim believes assessing RoI
in a truly quantitative way is, in many
cases, impossible. Many engineers
focus on the features of tools they
approach a vendor with a long
checklist and make comparisons. A
better approach is to ask questions
like how will my workfow be optimised
by this tool?.
Unemyr claimed project teams need
to be better at evaluating the options
and not just taking the solution from
previous projects. A better way is to
perform a proper tool evaluation and to
test run different tools, checking how
differentiated features can save time
and cost in the project at hand.
Skarin believes talking about
Time to
market is an
important
parameter in
the embedded
system
development
process. Yet a
recent New
Electronics
survey found
that only 3% of
projects were
delivered
ahead of
schedule. Can
tools help to
cut the
development
time and,
hence, costs?
expensive tools is tricky. It is likely

that free, or cheap, tools will cost more
than an investment in IAR Embedded
Workbench, for example. You lose time
for training and may fail because you
lack the right technology.
If engineers are looking to perform
an RoI analysis, which factors need to
be included? And which are
overlooked, but shouldnt be?
Unemyr said: Engineering
managers need to become better in
understanding that tool cost is not the
major issue; rather, its how a tool can
affect the overall development time
(and thus cost). The engineering
manager should not accept claims like
we can download free tools without
evidence this is the most cost
effective solution, providing reasonable
risk mitigation throughout the project.
According to Carbone: One variable
that is often overlooked is time to
market. Even a slight shortening of the
development schedule can have a very
benefcial effect. Whats interesting is
that, in all cases, tool cost is dwarfed
by the cost of the overall project and
the difference between a successful
product and one that fails to achieve
its potential due to a late introduction
to market.
Time is money, said Skarin.
When you waste time learning a
complicated tool, on searching for
matching tools to have a seamless
development workfow, or on working
your way out of a project cul de sac
without technical support, you might
end up with a delayed product and
lose your competitive edge.
Rachamim added: It is common to
look at RoI as simply a value for
money judgement; the lower the cost
per feature, the better the value for
money. But RoI is measured in time
and dollars.
Are open source tools the panacea
they appear to be? Are there hidden
costs and unwanted surprises
associated with their use?
Skarin views them as an important
part of the embedded community.
They may spark new ideas. But when
it comes to developing commercial
products, he said open source is not
an option. When developing safety
relevant products, they will defnitely
11 February 2014
EMBEDDED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

EXPERT PANEL
need certifed tools, which you will

never fnd as open source.
Rachamim says there will always be
open source tools. But that does not
imply there will be no commercial tools;
in many ways, its the other way around.
Open source tools drive the need for
commercial offerings. In some cases,
its not only about the technology, but
also in the way you can use it.
Carbone said: Open source
software has tremendous value for
embedded development, but it is often
inappropriate for product development,
where liability might exist.
Open source software might
contain IP that has been included
improperly and, without strong
indemnifcation against the damages
of such use, it carries a risk. The risk
is much smaller, if not eliminated, in
development tools. But an open
source RTOS gets embedded into the
fnal product and thats where rights
come into play.
in Unemyrs view, open source is
making major inroads into the industry
and, in many cases, becoming an
industry standard. But projects
should not be religious about open
source; sometimes, they are a better
match, sometimes not. Projects
should evaluate each tool on its own
merits and choose open source or
commercial solutions as appropriate
for the specifc task at hand.
So is the industry fxated on cost,
rather than value? If so, how can the
balance be changed?
Keeping an eye on costs is vital,
said Skarin, so calculating current
and long term costs is compulsory.
Nevertheless, you need to take into
account the value your embedded
development team creates and what
its successes mean to your company.
Unemyr believes price is irrelevant,
unless the time/cost savings or other
values are factored in. An expensive
tool is not necessarily better, while free
tools may not be cost effective. A tool
that only saves a little bit of
engineering time usually pays for itself
over and over again.
Carbone concluded: Cost should
only be considered when apples are
being compared to apples. Its no
different to shopping for a car.
Carbone:
In all cases,
tool cost is
dwarfed by the
cost of the overall
project.
Rachamim:
It is common to
look at RoI as
simply a value for
money
judgement.
Skarin:
You need to take
into account the
value your
embedded
development team
creates.
Unemyr:
Engineering
managers need to
become better in
understanding
that tool cost is
not the major
issue.
19
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SECURITY
Creating a defence
Embedded systems security is a growing threat; attacks can happen anywhere
and we should all be concerned. By Christophe Tremlet.
n embedded system can

be attacked by injecting
malware at some point.
Once installed, this can
collect confidential data, change a
systems behaviour or induce
unpredictable actions.
These threats can be combatted
using a properly secured boot process
that allows only trusted software to
run. To sustain a high level of trust,
secure boot must rely on proven
cryptographic algorithms. While this
makes sense, a secure boot has its
own challenges:
The most appropriate algorithms are
asymmetric, which requires intensive
computing power
The keys associated with these
algorithms must be protected and their
integrity retained
The implementation must be
fawless.
key, used for signing, while the

embedded device stores the public
key for verifcation. The importance of
this cannot be overstated. The major
advantage is that the confdential
element the private key is never
stored in the end product. Hence, if
an ECDSA or RSA algorithm is used,
an attacker cannot retrieve the
private key, even with the most
sophisticated invasive methods; all
they can get is the public key and, by
defnition, it is impossible to retrieve
the private key, even when the public
key is known.
Fig 1 shows the process fow of a
secure boot based on asymmetric
cryptography. The ECDSA and RSA
Public
Key pair
generation
Firmware
development
Firmware and
digital signature
programming
Public key and

certifcate
programming
End device
Digest
computation
through SHA-256
algorithm
Digital signature
computation
through ECDSA
or RSA
Firmware and
digital signature
Device
reset
Private
Firmware
Public key certifcate
Signed ref hash value
Firmware hash
computation
through SHA-256
Public key based

verifcation through
ECDSA/RSA
of reference hash
signed value
Freshly
computed hash =
reference hash?
Yes
Firmware
start
Asymmetric cryptography
The fundamental principle of

asymmetric cryptography is the
software developer holds the private
algorithms are supported by the SHA256 hash algorithm, which provides

the highest level of secure
authentication.
Why do we also need SHA-256?
For performance reasons, it would be
impractical to sign the full frmware
digitally, so SHA-256 is used to
compute a unique digest (a hash
value) which cannot be forged. This
digest is then signed through ECDSA
or RSA. These same processes are
applicable to frmware updates. For
those updates, software is
downloaded, rather than programmed
during manufacture, but the digital
signature generation and verifcation
processes remain the same.
Fig 1: The secure boot process
Authentication
To ensure the target runs only

authorised software, frmware needs to
be authenticated. This process a
digital signature verifes that a piece
of software is genuine and approved.
The software loaded during
manufacturing must be signed digitally
and this process should apply to each
frmware update. A digital signature
enables trust during the devices
lifetime.
A strong digital signature must be
computed by a public and well proven
cryptographic algorithm. If system
frmware is authenticated using an
elliptic curve digital signature
algorithm (ECDSA) and RSA, both
combined with SHA, users can have a
high level of trust.
Will the attack

be professional
or amateurish?
What will be
the financial
impact of a
successful
attack? Who
might be hurt
and how
badly?
Software design centre
11 February 2014
Manufacturing facility
No
Device
shutdown
Field use
21

SECURITY
Fig 2: Implementing secure boot
Main system
microcontroller
SPI
Device software
stored in serial
fash
MAXQ1050
Public key certifcate
Power
management IC
Signed ref hash value
An attacker
might want to
substitute a
different
public key. If
successful, the
device would
authorise
fraudulent
software. To
avoid this, we
must ensure
the public key
cannot be
modified or
replaced.
Christophe
Tremlet
Implementation challenges
While asymmetric cryptography offers

essential benefts, it has a resource
cost. Computing an SHA algorithm on
a large piece of software is time
consuming when done through
software. RSA or ECDSA signature
verifcation also requires overhead,
especially if the main system MCU
does not have a multiplier.
Another challenge is ensuring the
integrity of the public key and its
certifcate. While a public key does
not need to be kept confdential; it
can be disclosed because it only
allows verifcation, an attacker might
want to substitute a different public
key. If successful, the device would
authorise fraudulent software signed
by the attackers private key. To avoid
this, we must ensure the public key
cannot be modifed or replaced.
Many systems running on medium
range MCUs cannot implement these
basic requirements easily. Rather
than changing the main system MCU,
which might require a full redesign, a
secure MCU can be added to
implement a secure boot effciently,
handle the power and performance
criteria and protect the public key,
while guaranteeing a high level of
security.
With an integrated secure hash
engine, the MAXQ1050 is one such
22
secure MCU that has the power to

accelerate the computation of the
frmware hash. This is important as
hash time impacts the systems boot
time directly. Because it has a modulo
arithmetic accelerator, the MAXQ1050
can also perform fast ECDSA or RSA
signature verifcation.
In the feld use phase of a secure
boot implementation (see fg 1), the
MAXQ1050 will execute all steps and
then inform the main system MCU
and/or the power management IC
(PMIC) of the authentication status. It
can also provide application fexibility:
for example, one of the MAXQ1050s
GPIOs can enable the PMIC to power
the main system MCU or one of its
GPIOs could be connected to the main
MCUs reset pin so reset happens only
when frmware is verifed. Optionally,
the MCUs startup could be initiated by
a specifc sequence on the
MAXQ1050s GPIOs.
The right security
It is often diffcult to defne the

necessary level of system security.
The highest possible level often
results in high development and
manufacturing costs. Hence,
designers and users seek a trade off
between cost and security.
Many issues affect these
decisions. Will the attack be
Christophe
Tremlet is a
marketing
manager with
Maxim
Integrated.
professional or amateurish? What will

be the fnancial impact of a successful
attack? Who might be hurt and how
badly?
There are three potential levels of
attack.
Basic. The system is attacked using
software. The attacker is unable, or
not tooled to perform any physical
attack or to modify any physical
characteristic of the system.
Here, using MAXQ1050 as shown
in fg 2 provides suffcient protection.
Moderate. In addition to software,
the hardware can be attacked by
probing a PCB track to read a signal,
forcing the level of a digital pin and/or
removing an IC from the board.
While this level of threat is more
complex, the standard MAXQ1050
implementation in fg 2 protects
against some physical attacks, such
as an attempt to replace the serial
fash with a fake. The secure boot
sequence using SHA-256 and ECDSA
or RSA would detect any fake software.
To increase resistance to hardware
attacks without increasing costs,
additional layout precautions are
recommended, including: routing the
tracks connecting the MAXQ1050 to
the PMIC or main system MCU in the
PCBs inner layers; using pulses or
sequences of pulses to indicate
successful boot; and using at least
two pins bearing different dynamic
signals to inform the main controller
that boot is successful.
High. Here invasive attacks, such
as microprobing signals on the
bonding wires of an IC, are used.
Protecting against these
sophisticated attacks requires an
implementation that is compliant with
FIPS 140-2 level 3 or 4.
Such implementations detect any
physical tamper attempt and react
immediately by destroying sensitive
information and rendering the system
inoperable. Since restoring device
operation would require maintenance,
this level of protection should be
implemented only when security
overrides availability.
Because the MAXQ1050
incorporates self destruct inputs and
instantly erasable NVSRAM, it can
support these requirements.
11 February 2014
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Using power wisely
Measuring energy consumption in embedded systems. By Peter Weber and Johann Zipperer.
ltra low power embedded

systems challenge
engineers working on
system integration, as well
as hardware and software designers
optimising for energy efficiency. An
energy measurement system that
enables them to understand the effect
of various design improvements
supports their development and debug
efforts.
Energy measurement systems in
such applications are usually powered
from a DC supply and are subject to
current profiles via numerous power
modes, a supply current with a huge
dynamic range and fragmented non
periodical task responses. Energy
efficiency achieved via these methods
can extend the operating time of
portable equipment using primary or
secondary batteries.
Another area is energy harvesting
applications that need very careful
optimisation. The ability to measure
energy consumption accurately and to
optimise it for various conditions
widens the application of energy
harvesting products.
Such systems allow engineers to
see energy consumption during
hardware and software development.
Enhancements to the products activity
profile, as well as the impact of such
systems is typically stable enough that

no significant error will be introduced
to the energy measurement result. The
voltage ripple on such power supplies
is minimal and in the mV range.
Capacitors are placed close to the
terminal of the embedded processor
for sourcing high current peaks and
keeping the voltage stable.
A shunt resistor and operational
amplifier convert the current flowing
through the shunt resistor into a
voltage to be digitised with the A/D
converter.
The energy can be measured using
the product of current i(t) and time. A
variant of this method is to replace the
energy, E, consumed while keeping
the voltage V(t) stable.
Firstly, the focus is on voltage,
current and time. Many embedded
systems use power supplies which
feature an output capacitor and have
good dynamic load regulation. Such
power supplies can be based on LDOs
or DC/DC converters. Other systems
use primary or secondary batteries.
Even if these have a higher dynamic
resistance, they can deliver a stable
supply voltage.
The V-I-t method uses A/D
converters to acquire voltage and
current data. The A/D conversion used
to measure the supply voltage level for
additions, can be measured based on

the energy demand. An integrated
development environment can also
offer energy related debug support.
For most cases, relative energy
consumption is the key value. In ultra
low energy applications, many short
interrupts or other events are major
contributors to energy consumption.
The measurement system needs to
catch such events in order to enable
the development of energy efficient
designs.
Expectations
An energy
measurement
system that
enables
[designers] to
understand the
effect of
various design
improvements
supports their
development
and debug
efforts.
Electrical energy is defined by three

factors: voltage; current; and time. The
formula is usually simplified to:
E=V*I*t
which may or may not cover the real
conditions in the application system.
Most energy measurement systems
measure voltage and current with
discrete components like a/d
converters.
Any precise measurement of energy
requires a power integrating sensor
integral over v(t) and i(t) with high
resolution and dynamic range. The
precision of time is less of a challenge
and the time delta (t1 t0) can be
considered to be no more than
microseconds.
The supply voltage in embedded
Fig 1: The V-I-T method for energy calculation

R(i)
LDO
DC/DC
Rsense
V, I
Vsource
ADC
Gain
Embedded
processor
ib
i(t)
v(t)
id
ic
ie
ia
if
Timer
ta
24
tb
tc
td
11 February 2014
te
tf
tg

POWER MEASUREMENT
the energy calculation is precise

enough to match accuracy
requirements. A 12bit A/D converter
usually has an ENOB of more than
11bit and delivers results to an
accuracy of 0.5%.
Calculating energy consumption
Measuring current in ultra low power

systems is influenced by highly
dynamic current profiles and the
resolution can be considered to be
better than 1ppm and 10nA.
There are two common
approaches for calculating energy
usage.
The V-I-T method
Here, the basic measurement circuit
uses a current sensing resistor, a
precision amplifier with two sensitivity
ranges, an A/D converter and a timer.
As shown in fig 1, the timer
controls a finite state machine (FSM)
or a programmable controller, which
triggers the A/D conversion that
measures the supply current and
voltage. The FSM or controller selects
the gain of the amplifier system. The
amplifier system can be built upon
different implementation ideas,
resolving the different gain
requirements. Different gain settings
are needed due to the large dynamic
range of ultra low energy applications.
There are two possible designs. In
the first, one amplifier is used and
the controller decides to select low
gain or high gain. This method
requires gain-select delay and
hysteresis control for proper the gain
decision.
A second option is to use two
amplifiers and convert both outputs.
For the final energy consumption, the

highest valid value can be used in the
calculation.
An important factor is timing
resolution and the precision of the
current signal path. The discrete
sampling of A/D results has an upper
limit of conversions per second and
the accuracy of energy measurement
depends on the activity profile of the
application.
The E method
The E method uses an element to
store energy to power the application.
The simplest electrical component is a
capacitor, where electrical energy is
defined by its capacitance and the
voltage across the terminals. The
energy consumption is the voltage
drop at the capacitor per time unit.
The basic principle is to accumulate
all individual delta charge (E) events
during that period. The capacitor
element in this approach is the
integrator, delivering the current to the
high dynamic system load, and is
independent of the currents waveform.
Effective
energy
measurement
techniques
allow battery
life to be
improved
significantly
and open the
door to a wider
range of energy
sensitive
applications.
Conclusion
Both methods have their strengths and

weaknesses. If the main objective is to
design software and hardware to make
the best use of the available energy,
the E method has the advantage of
integrating the current over time.
However, the V-I-T method allows the
peak current to be observed, as long
as the events are of long enough
duration to be sampled effectively by
the A/D converter. The bandwidth of
the current-voltage op amp system and
the conversion rate define the
systems accuracy.
Measurement using the V-I-T

method needs very fast, high resolution
amplifiers and A/D converters with
sufficient bandwidth in ultra low power
applications. The programmable
amplifier requires fast load change
detection and response down to the nA
range. The ultra low power burst mode
principle key to such ultra low power
applications is the driver for these
requirements and poses challenges to
develop the energy measurement
system with acceptable resolution and
accuracy level.
The E method uses the integration
capability for common passive
components a capacitor in this case
to avoid the challenge and cost of
highly precise electronic components
and circuits. The consumed charge is
reported individually or accumulated,
with the number of recharges allowing
the amount of energy used to be
determined. A slowly changing supply
voltage typical in such applications
can be measured with simple A/D
converters.
Energy measurement is the most
effective method to optimise
applications for effective consumption
by streamlining both software
algorithms and hardware requests.
Effective energy measurement
techniques allow battery life to be
improved significantly and open the
doors to a wider range of energy
sensitive applications.
Peter Weber is anMSP430 quality
engineer, while Johann Zipperer is
involved in MSP430 new product
definition. Both are with Texas
Instruments EMEA.
Fig 2: The E method for energy calculation

Energy in capacitor
Energy consumption
V
VC
VC(max)
VC
C V
VC
E11
t0
1
E = 2 *C*V 2
11 February 2014
E1(t2t1) =
t1 t2
2
1
E12
Energy consumption
t3 t4
VC
VC(max)
VC
E21
E22
t0
t1 t2
2
1i
C*VC(max) *V
E2(t2t1) =
E
1
2i
C*VC(max) *V
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CHALLENGES
Cutting through
the complexity
In the next decade, software tools will play a more critical role in
system design and development. By Rahman Jamal.
ore projects with greater

complexity mean
embedded design teams
need to be more effcient
and this is infuencing their choice of
technology. Evidence is provided by
mobile phones: 10 years ago, devices
featured a wireless module and one
processor, today, smartphones have
various interfaces and a number of
processors in order to execute a
multitude of applications. Cars are
even more complex, with as many as
100 processors per vehicle, and a
similar trend is followed in industrial
applications, where electronic systems
and machines feature a wealth of
control and monitoring systems.

To support these design teams,
technology providers are developing
components, modules and embedded
platforms with higher degrees of
integration and functionality. Ultimately,
companies are working towards a
comprehensive embedded design
platform, incorporating communication,
program execution, system I/O and
the design software.
This trend began with SoCs and
Systems on Modules (SoM),
customised to specifc embedded
applications. Such components often
feature the three main elements of an
embedded system: a communication
The combination
of FPGAs and
processors
supports the
development of
flexible systems
that can be
customised to
new
requirements
interface; processing; and system

specifc I/Os. Computers on modules
(COMs) are a special subcategory of
SOMs; by integrating an entire
computer or embedded subsystem
into one device, companies are
providing more value to embedded
designers through increased
functionality, better integration, a
smaller package and lower power
consumption. SoCs and SoMs are
typically offered as standard
components and designed either for
universal use or for vertical
applications.
In some applications, developers
may use the same SoC or SoM, making
it diffcult to maintain differentiation. So
design teams will augment the SoC or
SoM with additional discrete
components and programmable logic.
The addition of programmable logic
means teams can add specialised
processing proprietary know how to
improve performance and future proof
the design.
The addition of FPGAs is now
established practice and SoCs are
being offered that combine a
microprocessor and an FPGA. The
most interesting, from National
Instruments perspective, is Xilinx
Zynq-7000 family, which combines a
dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor
and a Xilinx-7 FPGA.
Embedded platform challenges
In the next decade, software tools will

play a more critical role in system
design and development. The
reduction in power, cost and size of
embedded hardware over the last
decade means it will no longer limit or
dictate embedded design choices;
instead, productivity will.
Embedded design productivity will
27

CHALLENGES
be driven by tightly integrated software

design tools that can use off the shelf
hardware and with an environment
intuitive enough to be used by most
engineers and scientists.
Smartphones are an illustration
of the infuence that better software
development tools can have on
embedded design. Although
smartphones have been on the
market for more than 10 years,
it was not until the advent of
the iPhone in 2007 that
smartphone and entertainment
technology changed fundamentally.
The iPhone satisfed the needs of
most smartphone customers, but it is
clear the iPhone was differentiated by
the overall software experience not
only by iOS, but also by the
surrounding ecosystem of software,
including iTunes and apps. Integrated
embedded design platforms should
reach for the same level of integration,
quality and extensibility that Apple has
achieved with the iPhone ecosystem.
The embedded market currently
features disjointed and complex tool
chains that make it diffcult for
developers to create embedded
systems which combine measurement
and control functionalities. Solving this
challenge requires standardised
hardware and software platforms,
enabling even small teams of
developers to experiment and solve
problems quickly and effciently.
Compared with conventional tools,
which offer almost no scope for
system abstraction and are inclined to
be characterised by cryptic hardware
dependent programming, a platform
based approach is more productive.
An integrated embedded platform
must feature: a single software
development environment that
programs the heterogeneous
processing systems; a large library of
analysis and control algorithms; and
tight integration with communication
and application specifc I/O. The
embedded platform should also be
fexible and modular enough to give
design teams the ability to evolve the
system during the design fow, from
frst prototype to fnal deployment,
while using the same code throughout.
Previously, the decision whether to
28
use a low cost microcontroller or a

higher performance CPU was fairly
straightforward and based on the
expected performance needs of the
embedded system. Now, control and
monitoring systems need to deliver
additional functionality, such as:
Faster and more reliable responses
to I/O
Machine monitoring to predict
failures and improve safety
Audio and image processing
Wireless communications and
Internet connectivity
Filtering of analogue and digital
signals for more accurate
measurements
Digital communications to intelligent
sensors and other subsystems
I/O level preprocessing for data
reduction
More complex systems such as
these require additional processing
components, such as FPGAs, DSPs
and graphics processors (GPUs).
FPGAs have been used for more
than 30 years as digital glue logic
between different components on the
same PCB. The reconfgurable logic
within the FPGA fabric has been ideal
for implementing complex state
machines and application specifc
digital circuitry that operate
independently from processor clock
cycles, with higher reliability and
determinism.
Over the years, FPGA performance
has increased dramatically, with
signifcant reductions in power and
cost. For this reason, the use of FPGAs
in embedded designs has expanded to
handling signal processing tasks. A
primary beneft of using FPGAs for
processing is that several algorithms
SEA has used the

flexibility of FPGAs
and CPUs to develop
a standard measured
data acquisition card
for implementing
customer specific
functions.
Rahman Jamal is
National
Instruments
technical and
marketing
director, Europe.
can now run in parallel, unlike the

sequential architecture of a processor.
While FPGAs offer performance and
fexibility, they are nowhere near
replacing the need for microcontrollers
and microprocessors in embedded
designs. Comparatively, processors
still cost less and come with a well
established ecosystem of software
abstraction, including OSs, standard
hardware drivers, and libraries for
signal processing with easy foating
point arithmetic. The adoption of
FPGAs has been the result of higher
performance systems that combine
both processors and FPGA fabric to
divide and conquer complex
processing needs through both
sequential and parallel architectures.
Integrating reprogrammable hardware
into designs is the fastest way to
iterate without having to spend time
and cost on redesigning PCBs.
Graphical System Design is a
platform based approach, in which an
application is broken down into basic
building blocks, such as I/O, analysis,
processing, programming, user
interface and implementation platform,
which are then linked using graphical
programming techniques including
timing and synchronisation. This
platform based approach enables the
user to concentrate on innovation
instead of having to grapple with
complex system design problems.
A software-frst design paradigm is
predicated on a system architecture
that minimises fxed function
hardware. This includes obvious fxed
functionality devices such as ASICs
and hardware flters. Although fxed
function devices offer a lower cost per
component, they achieve that cost at
the expense of future scalability.
Software defned hardware platforms,
such as processors, DSPs and
FPGAs, give system designers the
fexibility to change a devices
behaviour without new electrical work.
While these platforms have higher
component costs, they can reduce
design costs dramatically, increase
market share through faster time to
market and, over time, increase
volume and drive down cost by
making it possible to use one design
across multiple devices.
11 February 2014
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WWW.EMBEDDED-WORLD.DE/EN/
Products provide the pull

With 900 exhibitors and 22,500 visitors, embedded world is clearly an important meeting place.
Tim Fryer previews some of the new products visitors can expect to see.
here are many reasons for going to an industry event. For

example, the conference programme (which is in English) at
embedded world should attract around 1500 delegates to
attend a selection of 270 workshops and lectures. Others may meet

suppliers or even members of their own organisations who have
congregated in the modern exhibition halls of historic Nuremberg.
However, the driving force behind most visits to embedded world
Rutronik
will be the chance to see, touch and discuss the latest products and
technologies. With 900 exhibitors, there will clearly be many such
opportunities, but here is a quick sample to whet the appetite.
Renesas
The second-generation R-Car family is

Renesas response to the growing
demand for automotive SoC
processors for use in driver
information and assistance systems.
With a CPU performance of more than
25,000 Dhrystone MIPS and 3D
graphics with 260 million triangles,
the 8-core R-Car H2 is the fagship of
a scalable family based on the latest
28nm silicon process.
Silicon Labs believes 2014 will be
the year of the Internet of Things
and as such will unveil a host of ultra
low energy solutions with this in
mind. Included in these are the latest
low power 32bit MCUs in the EFM32
Zero Gecko range and the Simplicity
Studio which covers a hardware
30
confgurator, build tools and real-time

power analyser.
Another company concentrating
on the IoT will be Wind River who will
be introducing a next generation realtime operating system (RTOS). The
VxWorks RTOS has been reinvented in
response to changes in the
embedded market landscape and the
company will discuss the products
new features that address the IoT
applications, cloud, and security.
Infotainment systems, early
software development, and
integration and verifcation of
embedded subsystems will be at the
heart of Cadence Design Systems
demonstrations. One solution on
show is the Cadence System
Development Suite, which accelerates
system integration, validation, and
bring-up with a set of four connected
platforms for concurrent hardware
and software design and verifcation.
Distributor Rutronik will show the
RFduino from RFdigital. RFduino is
the frst Arduino-compatible board
that can communicate wirelessly with
Bluetooth v4.0 compatible
smartphones and tablets. The board
includes a 2.4GHz Bluetooth module,
the RFD22301, which could also be
used for big production series after

the prototyping with RFduino. The
board contains a 2.4GHz transceiver,
which can change over Bluetooth Low
Energy, Gazell and ShockBurst, as
well as a 256kbyte of fash, a 32bit
Cortex-M0 core and I/O periphery.
JTAGLive Studio from JTAG
Technologies has been extended
with a module aimed at the support
of new IEEE P1687 (aka Internal
JTAG) compliant devices.
IJTAG/P1687 has been devised as an
evolutionary extension to the basic
IEEE 1149.1 and IEEE 1500
standards and describes how
embedded (test) instruments within a
device or SoC may be accessed using
the conventional 4/5 wire JTAG port.
Xilinx partners will demonstrate
solutions for smarter vision and
smarter connected control systems.
These include a Surround view driver
11 February 2014
Xilinx

EMBEDDED WORLD PREVIEW
assistance system in which the

images from six cameras are
integrated into a combined image
which also performs lane-departure
warning and blind-spot detection
functions; a Smart sensors fusion
system in which visual and thermal
images are blended to assist in
security monitoring; and an advanced
vehicle detection system for
autonomous driving employing
parallel processing and analytics in
hardware.
Among the oscilloscopes on show
from Rohde & Schwarz will be
additions to the RTM family that
integrate time domain, logic, protocol
and frequency analysis. The RTM-B1
logic analysis option adds 16 logic
channels to the RTM, which also
features sampling rate of
5Gsample/s and memory depth of
20Msample.
Fujitsu
Based on the Intel Q87 Express

chipset, mini-ITX mainboard D3243-S
is part of the most recently launched
family of industrial mainboards by
Fujitsu and supports DDR3
1333/1600 SDRAM components as
well as the complete range of fourth
generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7
processors with LGA1150 sockets.
The mainboard is designed for
industrial embedded applications in
temperatures ranging from 0 to 60C.
The mainboard meets industrial
standards concerning CE (EMC and
safety), burst, climate, shock and
vibration.
Among the demonstrations
featured by Toshiba Electronics
Europe is a Digital Kiosk that
combines TransferJet, NFC and Qi
wireless charging technology to show
how rich digital content, including HD
Toshiba
video, can be purchased and

downloaded swiftly to mobile devices.
The fully fnished concept system
shows how various emerging wireless
technologies can function together to
deliver new services.
Based on Vault technology,
Altiums new Team Conguration
Center (TC2) helps organisations
centralise and standardise their
design environment. Everything from
design tool setup and confguration to
document templates and
manufacturing fle formats, can be set
up and automatically deployed to
each engineers desktop. This is a
signifcant development, because
failing to maintain a standard set of
design styles and tool set-ups has an
often overlooked impact on team
productivity.
Swissbit will be presenting the X55 series of solid state disks which,
when compared to standard devices,
achieve endurance values up to ten
times higher while maintaining
consistent data retention. Diagnostic
and monitoring features as well as
deletion technology such as Secure
Erase make the X-55 series suitable
for cost sensitive industrial
applications with tough requirements.
11 February 2014
Swissbit
The Conga-QA3 Qseven module

from congatec is based on Intels
E3845 Atom processor. Fitted with
ceramic capacitors, the module is
said to have an ample L2 cache,
which can be shared by multiple
cores, and much faster graphics than
the previous generation.
The rst Computer on Module to
use the Intel Quark1000 processor
will be introduced by ADLINK. The
module in the SMARC short format
(82 x 50mm) is the frst Intel based
module with a power consumption of
2 to 3W. The module will feature the
Intel Quark SoX X1000, 2Gbyte of
onboard DDR3 memory, two PCIe
Gen2 lanes, Ethernet, USB2.0 host
and device functionsm as well as
other I/O interfaces.
Facts &
Figures
What?:
embedded
world
Exhibition &
Conference
When?:
25 to 27
February 2014
Where?:
Nuremburg,
Germany
Who?:
About 22,500
developers of
embedded
systems, 900
exhibitors
Adlink
The DPP-HT50, the rst intelligent

high-resolution touch LCD for
industrial applications, will be
introduced by demmel products. The
5in iLCD has 500cd/m2 luminance
and offers a resolution of 800 x 480
pixels, with direct transfer of display
designs from the 7in panel allowed.
Freescales Kinetis product
portfolio consists of multiple
hardware and software-compatible
Cortex-M0+ and Cortex-M4 MCU
families with low-power performance,
memory scalability and feature
integration. Families range from the
entry level ARM Cortex-M0+ Kinetis L
Series to the high-performance,
feature-rich ARM Cortex-M4 Kinetis K
and include a wide selection of
analogue, communication, HMI,
connectivity and security features.
There will of course be many more
announcements keep an eye on
www.newelectronics.co.uk for all the
latest news.
31

EMBEDDED DESIGN SHOW
Next step is embedded
The embedded sector continues to grow, pushed by economies of scale and pulled by the
specialised expertise of engineers. A missing cog in the embedded engine has been a focused
event for the sector. Tim Fryer reports on why this is no longer the case.
ast year saw the launch of the

Electronics Design Show to
run alongside the Engineering
Design Show that made its
debut a year earlier. The formula was
compelling get the leading suppliers
to exhibit to an audience of the UKs
top design engineers, throw in a
design-focused conference programme
and series technical workshops, and
you have an event that works. It
worked because it provided a place
where technical people could meet
and do business, and exchange ideas
and technical information. The industry
emerged the stronger for it.
Embedded, but not too deeply,
within this years shows will be a new
event, the Embedded Design Show.
Still contained within the now bulging
Ricoh Arena at Coventry, the combined
event will use up all of the venues
6000m2 foor space. The fourth
component of our event, Engineering
Materials Live, will greet visitors in the
atrium as we use every bit of space
the venue has to offer.
A relevant event
Importantly, there is still room for the

some of the key components that
make the event so relevant. Most
particularly the main New Electronics
conference programme will address
issues of direct interest to the
embedded sector, as well as topics
that will appeal across the whole
electronics design industry.
A workshop theatre located within
the Embedded Design Show will,
however, host technical presentations
that are application-based and which
will provide attendees with a
combination of solutions and latest
technical options. All will be dedicated
to the embedded sector. Details of the
conference and workshop
32
programmes will be announced nearer

the time.
John Macmichael, managing
director of Solid State Supplies, is
positive about the new event: As one
of very few niche distributors
supporting the UK embedded sector
SSS welcomes the arrival of this new
event focused on embedded design.
The embedded sector continues to
show strong growth for SSS and, with
the acquisition of 2001 Electronic
Components, our focus on embedded
solutions has grown signifcantly.
Building and maintaining close
relationships with customers and
suppliers is still a vital part of the way
we do business, and the show
promises to provide a highly targeted
environment for anyone involved in the
UK embedded market to exchange
ideas and knowledge, and to learn
about the latest solutions on offer.
The appeal of the show will be that
it will take a comprehensive look at a
dedicated sector according to Ulrike
Anderwald, who handles marketing
communications for ams. She
commented: As sensors and sensor
interfaces have grown to represent
70% of ams business, the embedded
sector has become increasingly
important for us. The Embedded
Design Show provides a great platform
for us to showcase our sensor
capabilities; specifcally, how we have
combined innovative sensor solutions
with NFC and RFID.
Christian Eder, director of marketing
for congatec, added: Embedded
computer modules have experienced
signifcant growth over the past decade
in UK markets such as gaming,
medical, industrial and security. We are
confdent that the Embedded Design
Show will support our growth in the UK
with new projects and customers.
When?:
22-23 October
2014
Where?:
Jaguar
Exhibition
Hall,
Ricoh Arena,
Coventry
Who should
attend?:
Anyone
involved in
the
development
of embedded
systems
Another exhibitor at the inaugural

event will be Euroquartz, whose sales
and marketing director Andy Treble
commented: With microprocessors
being at the heart of most equipment,
embedded solutions are an exciting
growth area for us at the moment. The
ability to modularise designs reduces
the development time for new systems
and frees engineers up to concentrate
on the main function of the application.
Our crystals and oscillators provide the
timing clocks for the processors, which
is an essential part of the system
synchronisation.
A natural next step
Ed Tranter, executive director of

Findlay Media, publisher of New
Electronics and organiser of the
Electronics and Embedded Design
Shows, sees the arrival of the
embedded design show as a natural
next step. To get the quality right
and to lay the foundations for a
lasting event, we have taken it one
step at a time, building on the show
we have and listening to exhibitors,
visitors and magazine readers. The
Embedded Design Show emerged as
that obvious next step for us in 2014
as it complements and extends what
we can offer electronics designers
visiting the show. Embedded
specialists will have exhibitors and
technical content tailored for their
specifc interests, while the
Electronics Design Show will cater for
the more general electronics issues
that invariably invade the space of the
embedded engineer.
We are trying to develop a design
engineering event that is good for UK
design engineers and, ultimately, good
for the UK. We see the embedded
design show as another key ingredient
in achieving that.
11 February 2014
Save the
date!
22nd & 23rd

October 2014
Jaguar Exhibition Hall Ricoh Arena Coventry UK
Including:
Exhibition Conference Workshops
Accuracy enhanced
A new level of data conversion accuracy for automatic test equipment systems.
By Atsushi Kawamoto, Jesper Steensgaard and Heemin Yang.
odern ATE systems push

the boundaries of signal
processing and require
parts per million (ppm)
accuracy. At their core is an A/D
converter, whose parameters defne
the systems overall accuracy and
performance.
Precision ATE systems require high
resolution A/D converters to digitise
analogue signals and the analogue
signal chain requires excellent DC
specifcations, such as offset, gain
and linearity.
In order to achieve ppm level
resolution and accuracy, ATE systems
are calibrated digitally to null out
system level offset and gain errors. As
a result, accuracy can be limited by
errors that cannot be suppressed by
infrequent calibration and system
designers may be more concerned
with potential drift of key parameters
than their static values. For example,
alongside ppm level accuracy at a
fxed temperature, systems may also
need sub ppm/C drift accuracy over a
wide temperature range.
A/D converter linearity is of critical
concern for overall system accuracy
and determined by interactions
between the analogue input signal and
the converters design and
architecture. Non linearity errors are
diffcult to calibrate at the system level
since they vary from one digital code
to another and because they may be a
strong function of temperature.
To meet these challenges, a family
of 20bit SAR converters from Linear
provides the performance and accuracy
needed in high precision ATE systems.
SAR A/D converters are
characterised by their ability to acquire
a precise snapshot in time of an
analogue input signal and to complete
an A/D conversion within one clock
cycle. They excel at asynchronous
34
start and go operations and are easy

to use because the conversion result
is available within the same clock
cycle. The ability to produce accurate
conversion results with no cycle
latency, even after long idle periods,
makes such parts ideal for precision
ATE systems.
The SAR A/D algorithm is based on
a binary search principle. The
analogue input is sampled onto a
capacitor and compared sequentially
to fractions of a reference voltage
selected by the SAR algorithm. The
converter has three components: a
capacitor based D/A converter (CDAC);
a fast low noise comparator circuit;
and a successive approximation
register (SAR). The integral non
linearity (INL) of a conventional SAR
converter may be limited by fnite
matching accuracy of individual
capacitors in the CDAC and precision
SAR converters often employ analogue
The INL of the

LTC2378-20 is
better than
that of
delta-sigma
devices and
this opens new
opportunities
in ATE
applications.
or digital trimming to improve this.

However, as temperature varies and
package and board stress is applied,
CDAC capacitor matching degrades
and may limit the converters linearity.
Breakthrough performance
The LTC2378-20 is the fagship in a

family of pin and software compatible
devices featuring up to 20bit resolution
with no missing codes and an SNR of
up to 104dB at rates of up to
2Msample/s. DC precaision is
particularly impressive: INL errors are
typically less than 0.5ppm and
guaranteed to be less than 2ppm for
all codes over temperatures ranging
from -40 to 85C. The maximum offset
error is 13ppm with 0.007ppm/C drift,
while the gain error is 10ppm with
0.05ppm/C drift. Power consumption
ranges from 5.3mW at 250ksample/s
to 21mW at 1Msample/s.
The guaranteed linearity and
Fig 1: The LTC2378-20 configured to read and average 10 analogue inputs for 100ms
Analogue
multiplexer
V0(t)
CH0
Buffer
V1(t)
CH1
x1
V9(t)
CH9
d0(0) d1(0)
0
VIN
CH0
d(k)
LTC2378-20
CH1
CH9
Mux period n = 0
d(k)
Digital
multiplexer
20bitSAR
A/D converter
d0(n)
d1(n)
d9(n)
Mux period n = 1
d9(0) d0(1) d1(1)
Adder
D0 = V0/VREF
Adder
D1 = V1/VREF
Adder
D9 = V9/VREF
Mux period n = 1023
d9(1) d0(2)
d0(n) d1(n)
Time
D0 = V0/VREF = [d0(0) + d0(1) + . . . + d0(1023)]/1024

D1 = V1/VREF = [d1(0) + d1(1) + . . . + d1(1023)]/1024
d9(n)
0.1s
.
.
.
D9 = V9/VREF = [d9(0) + d9(1) + . . . + d9(1023)]/1024
11 February 2014
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

ANALOGUE DESIGN
accuracy of the LTC2378-20 is a

game changer for many precision
ATE systems. The device has been
designed using a proprietary
architecture that ensures linearity and
minimises its sensitivity to changes in
temperature and other operating
conditions. As a result, a 2ppm INL
specifcation is guaranteed over the
entire operating temperature range.
The LTC2378-20 implements a
proprietary architecture that makes
INL independent of CDAC capacitor
mismatch. This makes it robust to the
temperature variations and package
stress found in industrial
environments. Power consumption is
proportional to the sampling rate, so
they consume only microwatts when
operated at 1ksample/s.
Accuracy and speed
High channel count ATE systems may

use slow A/D converter architectures
for precision DC measurements, with
multiplexers allowing a single meter to
service many inputs. While conversion
time can be traded against resolution,
measurement resolution is often less
than 16bit at sample rates of more
than 100ksample/s.
The LTC2378-20 can take 1million
readings per second, with 2.3ppm
noise resolution. Results from
multiple readings of the same

analogue signal may be combined
digitally to improve noise resolution,
yielding better performance than
multislope converters. For example, by
averaging blocks of 10 samples, the
LTC2378-20 effectively operates at
1Msample/s/10, or 100ksample/s,
with a 0.7ppm noise resolution
(114dB SNR).
Delta-sigma and multislope
converters may be confgured to
average an input signal during an
observation/integration period to
suppress noise and interference. An
observation period of 100ms is often
used to suppress 50Hz and 60Hz line
frequency interference, resulting in a
throughput of 10sample/s.
Accordingly, it takes a full second to
service 10 multiplexed channels with
one multislope converter. Fig 1 shows
an LTC2378-20 operating at
102.4ksample/s, confgured with a
multiplexer circuit to measure all 10
signals (interleaved) simultaneously
during the 100ms observation period.
While preserving the suppression of
line frequency interference, throughput
is increased by the multiplexing factor
(here 10, but it can be higher),
bringing higher productivity.
In this example, noise resolution is
increased by averaging across 1024
Precision ATE
systems
require high
resolution A/D
converters to
digitise
analogue
signals and the
analogue
signal chain
requires
excellent DC
specifications.
Fig 2: The conventional approach uses two or more converters
VIN
Delta-sigma
A/D converter
24bit/1ksample/s
SAR
A/D converter
16bit/1Msample/s
A=1
Fig 3: A configurable A/D converter system for sample rates of up to 1Msample/s

24bit/1ksample/s (0.7V rms)
VIN
A=1
LTC2378-20
FPGA
24bit/1Msample/s (22V rms)
11 February 2014
samples taken from each channel

during the observation period,
providing 22bit of noise resolution
(0.07ppm or 70nV rms). The averaging
operation can be performed with a
simple adder, allowing the LTC2378-20
to increase measurement speed
signifcantly, while maintaining the
advantages of prior architectures.
Because one LTC2378-20 can
potentially replace several discrete
components required for a multislope
design, cost, board space and channel
count can be balanced. Replacing a
multiplexed meter with one or more
LTC2378-20s can shrink system size,
reduce power and solution cost, while
increasing speed. Because it can
operate in its native mode as a Nyquist
converter at up to 1Msample/s, one
LTC2378-20 is suitable for use in
systems that would otherwise require
more than one type of A/D converter.
Simplifying the signal chain
Some ATE systems may require

signals to be evaluated with great
precision and with some bandwidth.
More bandwidth implies more noise,
so such systems typically require two
digital data streams: one with low
noise, low bandwidth and high
accuracy; and one with higher noise,
higher bandwidth and lower accuracy.
The conventional approach is to
use separate converters for each
stream, with each optimised for
accuracy or bandwidth/noise (fg 2).
The LTC2378-20 is optimised for both
objectives and may be used in both
data streams.
When oversampling an SAR A/D
converter, antialiasing requirements
are relaxed, as they are for deltasigma devices. However, the INL of the
LTC2378-20 is better than that of
delta-sigma devices and this opens
new opportunities in ATE applications
(see fg 3). By replacing two very
different and separately optimised
A/D converters with one SAR
converter, design can be simplifed.
Atsushi Kawamoto, design
manager, Jesper Steensgaard,
staff scientist, and Heemin Yang,
design section leader, are with
Linear Technology.
35
On track for
clean power
Every piece of equipment needs power and yet there
are fewer analogue power engineers in the UK than
there are professional footballers. However, Acal BFi
has succeeded in retaining this power expertise, as
Peter Creely demonstrated to Tim Fryer when
discussing details of a project for the rail sector.
The main challenge

with this custom
power supply was
to achieve EM
compliance - an
issue that extended
to the cabling as
well as the supply
itself..
36
eter Creely is applications

manager for power at Acal
BFi, a company that has
diversifed from its primary
role as a specialist distributor to offer
a broader range of engineering
services principally to those that rely
on specialist expertise.
Acal BFis power business is a
prime example. Power supply
engineers are a scarce commodity
and, according to Creely, a luxury that
most SMEs cannot afford. Why would
they retain full time power engineers if
their expertise is in a completely
different area, he suggested. If they
do employ a power supply designer,
then they need a high volume product
to justify that expense. Every
engineering project needs power, so
you have got a very small source of
expertise being chased by a huge
market demand.
Creely believes one reason for this
lack of expertise comes from the skill
sets that are taught, or more
importantly those which are not
taught, in universities. He said: There
are three key skills relevant to power
supply design in which there doesnt
seem to be academic interest: EMC,
which is very much a learned
experience based upon hands on
testing; analogue engineering, which
in this digital age, is generally not
taught in great detail; and fnally
control theory, which involves a

signifcant part of the power supply, is
not widely taught. Even thermal
management, which on the surface
looks straight forward, can have
serious implications on the reliability
of the product if not considered in
great detail. Most electronics
engineers leaving university today
have not been schooled in these
crucial areas of design.
Companies lacking the in-house
expertise often use experts like Acal
BFi. This may involve developing a
power supply solution for a new
product. Creely pointed to an
interesting project in the rail industry, a
semi-custom power solution, which was
needed to resolve an in-situ problem
on an existing air conditioning system.
Dealing with specific problems
The rail industry has very specifc

problems. Electrically, it is a very noisy
environment. With heavy currents
being switched, the interconnecting
cables are subjected to high voltage
transients. There are also
communications networks within the
train that must be protected from
these effects. It is a tough EMC
environment. Mechanically, there is a
high degree of vibration, a wide
operating temperature range and a
need for abrasive cleaning techniques.
Creely added: They also have a very
specifc source of power. It is not like

utility power or telecoms power. Rail
power is very variable, can require a
wide range of DC inputs and has a lot
of switchgear associated with it. All
these challenges need to be
understood, and a solution delivered in
a short time scale at an agreed price.
Previously the air conditioning
systems were powered directly from
the vehicles primary power source,
which lacked stability. This meant that
there was variable air fow from the
boiler where the air was heated by
burning diesel fuel. The consequences
of the variation in input voltage to the
fan, and therefore air speed, were
twofold. Firstly, it was ineffcient in
terms of the amount of fuel used, and
secondly, it created a major
maintenance problem. Incomplete
burning resulted in carbon deposits to
the extent where there was a
disruptive amount of maintenance and
cleaning required, ultimately reducing
the availability of the vehicle.
The objective of the project was to
take the original voltage source as the
input, which varied from 19 to 34V
DC, and provide a 200W stabilised
24V DC supply to the boiler fan
control system.
Having already used a design
based on market leading power
modules, the customer was aware of
Acal BFis capabilities, but was not so
11 February 2014
EMBEDDED DESIGN
EMBEDDED POWER
sure about the complexities of the

problem in hand. We helped the
company defne the specifcation so
that we could deliver a product that
was clearly understood and defned.
We also worked with them throughout
the development because nothing is
straightforward. In this case, we spent
time with the company on the EMC
side, and supported its engineers at
the test house to make sure the
product was compliant.
Customers want a black box
solution for their power needs.
However, every application will have
different demands in terms of
communication and control, EMC
compliance, thermal management,
reliability, customer interface and
many other variables, so an off the
shelf solution invariably leads to
design compromise in some key areas
of the customers end product.
In this railway case, Creely based
the solution on standard power
modules, selected for their relevance
to the rail industry. We have a range
of power module products available
and select the product to suit the
customers application and the
environment within which it will be
used. The actual unit at the heart of
our custom design was a 200W minibrick module with a 24V output. The
next stage of the custom design,
Creely claimed, was where the
expertise of the power specialist came

into play: The basic unit self-protects
thermally, and self-protects for
overload currents, but that is it. EMC
noise will be generated on switching
and the temperature will have to be
managed; heatsinking will be required.
The module technology used
internally in our design is also changing
all the time. Modules have come a long
way from the brick-style units to todays
smaller chip designs, offering improved
power density. Part of our expertise is
in selecting the correct internal
components for our design.
However, in this case, the main
challenge turned out to be EMC
compliance. Creely explained: The
EMC environment is defned for the rail
industry and our product has to
operate within that environment. So
there are the two things susceptibility
and radiation. In this case, the
customer couldnt take its current
product to market because it was
outside the specifcation on radiated
emissions.
The problem was the cable it had
attached to our power supply was
radiating emissions, something you
cant identify easily in a product. In this
application, it produced a problem. If
you look at the specifcation, it is not
clear where the responsibility was
with the cable or the supply but it is
part of our role to come up with a total
solution, so we took the cable and the
supply to our test area for evaluation.
output cable was clean and didnt

couple into the shared primary supply.
EMC itself is a diffcult thing to
specify and design for, a lot of it is
experience, measurement, trial and
error, and testing. Fortunately, with
the equipment we have, we can do
that quite quickly and we have much
of the equipment to evaluate power
supplies like this. We can compare
the plots the test house produces
and so can feel confdent to go back
to the test house and pass the tests
at the frst attempt.
The equipment Creely refers to is a
3m long anechoic chamber. Acal BFi
customers can use this space at short
notice enabling designers to test
quickly and avoid having to reapply for
compliant test house space an
expensive business in its own right.
If they do
employ a
power supply
designer, then
they need a
high volume
product to
justify that
expense.
Peter Creely
Keeping the noise down
A power supply has noise in its input

and output. A normal specifcation
defnes where the system interfaces
with the outside world, where there is
a common source of power that needs
to be kept clean. Between the power
supply and a dedicated load is not
usually an issue. In this case the
cable was common at both input and
output. Creely said: What was
happening was the cable was
radiating back into the common
source. The cable it had was railway
standard, but it was the cable length
that was specifed that caused us
problems. What we had to do to fx
that particular problem was to get
inside the power supply so that our
11 February 2014
37
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COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN
RF & MICROWAVE
A decongestant
for comms links
A new modulation approach is being offered as a solution to
impending spectrum congestion. By Graham Pitcher.
s mobile communications
become more pervasive,
the amount of data fowing
around the various
networks and importantly, the various
parts of the spectrum grows
inexorably. The world, it is claimed, is
moving ever closer to spectrum
congestion.
When theres limited availability of
something, engineers look for a way
around the problem. The current
solution is quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM). But even QAM in its
more exotic favours is beginning to run
out of steam, according to some.
A company which has recently
exited stealth mode believes its
technology could be the solution for
which the industry is looking. WAM or
wave modulation is said by
MagnaCom to be a game changer for
the telecommunications industry.
What we have is a technology that will
be as big a shift as upgrading analogue
to digital TV, said Yossi Cohen, the
companys cofounder and chief
executive.
MagnaCom believes it has the
ability to change the telecomms
industry in a big way. Cohen, an
industry veteran with spells at
Broadcom, National Semiconductor
11 February 2014
and Motorola Mobility under his belt,

explained why.
QAM is at the heart of all digital
communications, he said. Its
pervasive; its in anything and
everything. He listed such sectors as
mobile phones, Wi-Fi, wireless
backhaul, satellite communications
and fbre networks. You name it, its
in it.
QAM as a technology dates back
some 40 years and was developed
originally to cope with the problem of
white noise in data communications.
For the last 40 years, the industry has
been developing various favours of
QAM, he continued. However, we
believe we have developed something
which can be perceived in the same
way as the jump from AM to FM radio.
WAM is said by Cohen to be a
different way of modulating information.
Today, he said, its QAM. This says
that every signal has a phase and an
amplitude. The technology allows both
to be recovered at the receiving end.
As data communications demands
increased, QAM became more
complex. Over the last 40 years,
Cohen continued, its moved from
QAM4 to QAM64 to QAM256 and so
on. The number following QAM refers
to the number of signals that can be
passed over the particular link; for

example, QAM64 handles 64 signals.
The latest development has extended
the technique to handle 4096 different
signals, although devices featuring this
are yet to ship in volume.
But its a two dimensional
approach, Cohen contended. Using
WAM, we can place the coordinates in
multiple dimensions, rather than being
limited to two. He gave the example of
putting 1000 dots on a piece of paper.
The dots would be much closer
together than if you had 1000 points in
a cube with the same footprint. Thats
the fundamental difference between
WAM and QAM.
While QAM was ostensibly
developed to deal with the problem of
white noise, its now facing other
challenges. Cohen continued: When
QAM was invented, it was only intended
to address white Gaussian noise. But
now it has moved up by several orders
of magnitude, white noise is getting
dwarfed by non linearity. This is far
more dominant and we are now at the
point where we can ignore white noise.
WAM solves both problems, offering
better performance in the presence of
non linearity.
He used the example of an audio
amplifer. When you keep turning an
39
COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN
RF & MICROWAVE
WAM is said by MagnaCom to be

a pure digital modulation scheme
which uses spectral compression
to improve spectral efficiency.
amp up, you reach a maximum a

saturation point. Its the same with
wired communications; you can only
turn up the power to a certain point.
WAM was designed from the start to
deal with non linearity.
He added that QAM fails when the
power curve starts to bend. It can only
operate on linear channels. WAM
doesnt need linearity; in fact, we
welcome non linearity as this allows
the approach to work with a much
wider range of amplifers.
WAM is said by MagnaCom to be a
pure digital modulation scheme which
uses spectral compression to improve
spectral effciency. Spectral
compression enables the signalling
rate to be increased. This, in turn,
allows the use of lower order alphabet
and a reduction in complexity. The
company adds that WAM provides
inherent diversity of time and frequency
domains and uses non linear signal
shaping. The non linearities are
handled digitally at the receiver side,
allowing a lower cost and lower power
transmitter design
More technically, WAM is a
multidimensional signal construction,
operating at the Euclidean domain,
which breaks the orthogonality of
signal construction (zero inter symbol
interference in single carrier systems

and zero inter channel interference in
OFDM systems). It has been shown,
says MagnaCom, to increase capacity
and to provide an optimal handling of
nonlinear distortion. Ultimately, it says,
this results in signifcant
improvements versus legacy QAM
systems.
Craig Mathias, principal of wireless
and mobile advisory frm Farpoint
Group, said: With wireless
applications often dominated by
conficting requirements, whats needed
is a fundamental advancement in
communications technology with the
potential to address all of these
requirements and more. MagnaComs
WAM [is] a fascinating approach to
advancing the state of the art in
wireless communications that might
even have the ability to unify the local
area world of wireless and the wide
area world of cellular in a single
technology.
One of the main benefts of WAM is
that it plugs into the existing signal
chain (see fg 1). Because WAM is
licensed as an IP block, customers can
remove an existing QAM block and
replace it with WAM. If this route is
chosen, MagnaCom claims its possible
to get a 10dB performance beneft
We know
people will be
sceptical, so
weve taken
time to
implement
WAM in
hardware.
People can
actually see it
working and
can verify the
technology in
their labs.
Yossi Cohen
Fig 1: WAM integration is identical to QAM

PHY
Digital
Baseband
processing
Forward error
correction
Multiplexer
Digital
40
WAM
Multiplexer
QAM
IQ
Digital
front end
Analogue
front end
Analogue/
radio
compared to QAM. That beneft is

expected to increase as QAM grows in
complexity. Other benefts include a
halving of power consumption and less
use of the spectrum.
The 10dB performance advantage is
claimed by Cohen to be equivalent to a
20 year leap forward. It translates
into 400% for distance, so you can
transmit a signal over four miles
instead of one and still get the same
quality. And its the same with Wi-Fi;
you can be four times further away
from the router and get the same
quality and speed.
Cost wont be a factor, said
Cohen, as its a pure digital design.
You dont need to touch anything, just
add a digital block which is easy to
implement on any silicon process.
However, Cohen also points to
WAMs backwards compatibility. At
least 95% of connections over the next
few years will need backwards
compatibility with QAM. There are
7billion devices out there which are
QAM compatible and they arent going
to disappear overnight, Cohen
admitted. But if they add a WAM
modulator, they can connect it to the
same place in the signal chain.
WAM was demonstrated at the
recent Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas. We know people will be
sceptical, said Cohen, so weve taken
time to implement WAM in hardware.
People can actually see it working and
can verify the technology in their labs.
MagnaCom is now looking to
license the technology. Our approach
is much like that taken by ARM with its
processor cores. Our intent is to
proliferate the technology as quickly as
possible by making it easy to license,
Cohen concluded.
11 February 2014
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WaRP speed ahead

A platform based approach to developing a wearable electronics
product. By Graham Pitcher.
earable electronics has

been a topic pursued
for some years, but
with little obvious
progress beyond entry level devices.
While initial offerings were invariably
some form of clothing based device,
the technology has advanced slowly
and it appears its day may be
arriving. In fact, analysts expect the
wearables market to be worth
$50billion by 2017.
There has been a furry of
launches over the last few months,
culminating in the Consumer
Electronics Show at the beginning of
January. Visitors to the Las Vegas
event would have seen an array of
wearable devices, broadly classifed
as watches, bands and glasses.
Also on show was some of the
technology that enables wearables.

Device builders and application
developers have focused on a small
number of markets, including
healthcare and ftness, as well as
adjuncts to smartphones. Typically,
those looking to develop devices for
these markets need to start from a
platform in order to create a range of
products as quickly as possible.
Looking to help such companies
navigate the wearables market more
readily,Freescale is enabling an open
source, scalable reference platform
that provides a set of building blocks
that will allow companies to develop a
range of wearable product designs.
According to Freescale, this
platform is not limited to just one
form factor or product category. The
fexible, system level design kit, which
Fig 1: Block diagram of the Wearables Reference Platform

Display
(LCD or EPD
WaRP daughter board
RGB
USB
DDR2 i.MX 6SoloLite
SDIO
Three axis accelerometer

three axis magnetometer
(FXOS8700CQ)
UART
SDIO
Wireless LAN/
Bluetooth 4.0
(Murata LBEH17YSHC)
Kinetis KL16 MCU
Pedometer
(MMA9553)
42
SPI
Wireless
charging
Button 1
Button 2
Board to board
connector
Memory
WaRP main board
MIPI
SSD2805C
Power management
(MAX77696)
Micro USB
Developing innovative devices
Touch interface
Board to board
connector
Single cell battery
supports embedded wireless

charging, incorporates processors
and sensors within a hybrid
architecture for scalability and
fexibility (see fg 1). It also comes
with open source software. Called
WaRP short for the wearables
reference platform the offering is
intended to enable design creativity in
multiple vertical segments.
Wearables represent one of the
ultimate edge node sensors for the
Internet of Things and holds
tremendous promise for equipment
makers, service providers and
consumers alike, saidRajeev Kumar,
director of worldwide marketing and
business development for Freescales
microcontrollers business. This
solution is engineered to streamline
the design and development of new
wearables products. It allows
designers and OEMs to go from
concept to prototype as quickly as the
market is changing.
Sujata Neidig, market development

manager for Freescales i.MX product
line, added: Freescale has been
building a range of solutions for many
years. However, the last couple of
years has seen growing interest in
wearable products, including watches,
activity trackers and similar devices.
With a lot of people beginning to talk
about wearable products, we looked
to see what we could do to help them
develop innovative devices.
Neidig pointed to Freescales
portfolio. We have a lot of
components available; things that
customers can start working with. We
also have an extensive ecosystem.
Our partners started talking to us
about doing something and weve
followed down that path.
Part of Freescales component
11 February 2014
SYSTEM DESIGN
REFERENCE DESIGNS
simplify wearables development by

addressing many of the technology
challenges, such as connectivity,
usability, battery life and
miniaturisation.
The platform is built on Freescales
i.MX 6SoloLite, an ARM Cortex-A9
based apps processor, and supports
the Android OS. Currently, the board
supports Android 4.3, with a standard
Android SDK approach adopted to
allow software developers to run
applications.
WaRP also features Freescales
Xtrinsic MMA9553 turnkey
pedometer, the FXOS8700 electronic
compass and the Cortex-M0+ based
Kinetis KL16 microcontroller. The
KL16 handles sensor fusion and
wireless charging.
Neidig said the key areas were
connectivity and maximising battery
life. Consumers are now used to
charging their phones regularly, but
they may not be so ready to charge
wearables that frequently. Catering
for this, Freescale and its partners
have integrated wireless charging
functionality into WaRP.
Wearables need processing power
development efforts focus on the

creation of low power devices with
small form factors. Weve drawn
from these products to create a
platform that can be used to develop
products and to add value, she
continued.
But one thing which Freescale was
convinced about was avoiding the
development of too many reference
designs. The wearables market is
still developing, Neidig pointed out,
and there are different verticals in
the sector. We didnt want to create a
pedometer reference design, for
example, because those already
exist. We wanted to provide a
platform that supported expandability,
so developers could add more
features.
She said while the WaRP board is
a hybrid architecture, it offers the
most fexibility and scalability. WaRP
board is also said to speed and
She noted that wearable devices may

need to alert the user to something;
for example, that an email has been
received. That requires more
processing power than available from
an MCU. The i.MX 6SoloLite is the
smallest product in the i.MX range
and is said by Neidig to ft the bill. It
was originally designed for use in
e-readers, so it has very low power
consumption and a small form factor.
It fts well with the processing
requirements for wearable products.
A further beneft of the i.MX
6SoloLite is that it offers more
functionality than an MCU based
solution. In this instance, she said,
its running the Android operating
system, so developers can add
different components and cater for
different use cases.
However, Freescale has not
produced the reference design singlehandedly. WaRP is a result of
collaboration between Freescale,
Kynetics and Revolution Robotics.
Kynetics has provided the expertise
11 February 2014
needed to create the platforms

software, while Revolution Robotics
has developed the hardware. When
Freescale decided to target this
market, it realised it couldnt do it
alone and looked to its ecosystem for
suitable partners. We looked at
seven or eight companies before
deciding to work with Revolution
Robotics and Kynetics, Neidig said.
Both have been involved in designing
products for the wearables market, as
well as for healthcare applications.
Another important design criterion
for WaRP is useability. There are
devices on the market, Neidig noted,
but if they dont help the user to do
something better or give them
something to act on, they just become
another unused product. As the
market for wearable devices evolves,
such products will go from being
single to multiple function. When that
happens, consumers will get tired of
having 10 devices to do 10 things.
WaRP is not a turnkey solution; its
a platform that can be used to
develop an end product. That could
be anything from a smart watch to a
product targeted at the medical
market, Neidig offered.
Initially, WaRP is being supplied as
a two board platform; the main board
houses the application processor, an
accelerometer and a magnetometer.
A daughter board allows sensor
aggregation and wireless charging.
The hybrid approach allows the i.MX
6SoloLite to be turned on when
communication is needed or when
graphics need to be displayed. But
when the i.MX is in deep sleep mode,
the MCU monitors sensor data. This
method is said to reduce overall power
consumption and extend battery life.
However, it is possible that a range
of daughter cards might be developed
to provide different functionality. We
will be listening to what the
community asks for and take the next
steps, Neidig concluded.
According to Freescale, WaRPs
hardware and software will be open
sourced and community driven, with
no closed development tools or
licensing fees required. Schematics
will also be available on the WaRP
website (warpboard.org).
Left: The small form

factor WaRP board
features an i.MX
6SoloLite processor
and a range of
sensors, as well as
wireless charging
As the market
for wearable
devices
evolves, such
products will
go from being
single to
multiple
function. When
that happens,
consumers will
get tired of
having 10
devices to do
10 things.
Sujata Neidig
43
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