Electronics Weekly - Silvaco Sensor Subsystem, TI Ethernet MCUs & More

Advantest Mixed-Signal Channel Card

(Image courtesy of Advantest.)

Advantest has added a high-resolution mixed-signal channel card to its Wave Scale MX product family, extending the series’ range in testing analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog waveform converters. The Wave Scale MX card combines parallel testing capability with reliable AC and DC performance. These attributes allow Advantest's V93000 test platform to meet the increasing low-distortion, accuracy and linearity requirements in testing analog and digital waveform converters while also helping to reduce the cost of test and time to market for consumer audio and IoT devices.

The card provides independent AC and DC testing across as many as 32 instruments – 16 arbitrary waveform generators (AWGs) and 16 digitizers – for either single-ended or differential signals. It has local, temperature-controlled references that ensure DC stability over time, and single-ended signals can be referenced to a ground sense per channel.

Detailed technical specifications are available on Advantest’s website.

Microchip CryptoAuthentication Device and Security Design Partner Program

(Image courtesy of Microchip.)

Microchip has created the ATECC608A CryptoAuthentication device, a secure element that allows developers to add hardware-based security to their designs. The company has also established a Security Design Partner Program for connecting developers with third-party partners that can enhance and expedite secure designs.

The foundation of secured communication is the ability to create, protect and authenticate a device’s unique and trusted identity. By keeping a device’s private keys isolated from the system in a secured area, coupled with its cryptography practices, the ATECC608A provides a high level of security that can be used in nearly any type of design.

For more information, visit Microchip’s website.

RS Components Fluke Testers

(Image courtesy of RS Components.)

RS Components has introduced a series of electrical testers and an electrical proving unit from Fluke. These devices are aimed for use by electrical safety and installation engineers, as well as commercial electrical technicians working in areas such as automation and electrical maintenance.

The Fluke T6-600 and T6-1000 non-contact electrical testers are equipped with FieldSense technology, which allows the measurement of voltage to be performed in the same way that current is measured, but without test leads contacting live voltage. Engineers and technicians can slide the T6 unit’s open jaw over a conductor and read the voltage level.

In addition, the T6 can operate using the PRV240FS proving unit, which also makes use of FieldSense technology, either with or without test leads. This device provides a safe and reliable method to verify that electrical test tools are operating properly before conducting any live tests, and without having to make electrical contact.

Information concerning pricing and availability can be found on RS Components’ website.

Silvaco I3C Sensor Subsystem

(Image courtesy of Silvaco.)

Silvaco has launched the I3C Sensor Subsystem, an Arm AMBA-based system used to build low power SoCs supporting the MIPI I3C standard for sensor connectivity. The subsystem includes the company’s I3C Dual Role Master controller core.

The I3C Dual Role Master controller is a configurable I3C master that can be used to provide I3C connectivity to any I3C or I2C device. It contains many of the features of the I3C standard including high data rate DDR modes, in-band-interrupts and a complete slave to enable dynamic master/slave role switching. It can be configured to use the minimum amount of logic to reduce both area cost and power.

Included in the I3C Sensor Subsystem is software that was developed on the IAR Embedded Workbench. The IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm provides a C/C++ compiler and debugger toolchain, integrated in a user-friendly IDE.

For more information, visit Silvaco’s website.

TI Ethernet MCUs

(Image courtesy of Texas Instruments.)

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced Ethernet connectivity to the SimpleLink microcontroller (MCU) platform, a single hardware, software and tool platform for wired and wireless MCUs. The MSP432 Ethernet MCUs are based on a 120-MHz Arm Cortex-M4F core with an integrated MAC and PHY, helping accelerate time to market for grid infrastructure and industrial automation gateway applications.

Designers can create a wireless sensor network using SimpleLink wireless MCUs by connecting as many as 50 secure sensor nodes to a gateway. The gateway, based on the Ethernet MSP432E4 MCUs, acts as a centralized management console to process and aggregate data and deliver it to the cloud via Ethernet for additional data analysis, visualization and storage. Companies developing these types of gateways can interface with existing wired installations while adding wireless connectivity technologies.

For more information, visit TI’s website.

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