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New Electronics 2006 22 Vol.39 Dec 12 PDF
New Electronics 2006 22 Vol.39 Dec 12 PDF
U K
12 DECEMBER 2006
Make it yourself!
After the home office, how about the home factory?
A research project at Bath University
is helping to bring the idea of self replicating
machines closer to reality.
I N C L U D E S W I R E L E S S C O M M U N I C A T I O N S S P E C I A L F E A T U R E
Special Report: Plus: • Digital technology boosts audio performance • Analogue outdoes digital
• M2M meets the need to talk • Networks get more personal • Wireless technology
Applications Special means cable is on the run • ATCA brings change of focus to comms industry
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The Maxim logo is a registered trademark of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The Dallas Semiconductor logo is a registered trademark of Dallas Semiconductor Corp.
© 2006 Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. All rights reserved.
12 DECEMBER 2006 VOL 39 NO 22 CONTENTS
REGULARS
INTRA DESIGN SPECIAL REPORT
SIGNAL PROCESSING APPLICATIONS SPECIAL
Comment
Analogue outdoes digital Closer to the birds
Smoothing the bumps
Signal processing the analogue way has Power modules enable an electrically
of semiconductor
unmatched virtues, including low power. 29 powered glider to get airborne. 19
market swings. 5
10 19 29 40
www.altera.com/confidence
Distributors Arrow Electronics (UK) Ltd: 01279 626777 EBV Elektronik UK: 01793 849933
Copyright © 2006 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved. Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylised Altera logo, specific device designations, and all other words and logos that are
identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names
are the property of their respective holders. Altera products are protected under numerous U.S. and foreign patents and pending applications, mask work rights, and copyrights.
SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET COMMENT
T
he semiconductor industry is performing in a manner
that, you would expect, might justify the odd
celebration or two. Figures from the Semiconductor
Industry Association (SIA) show sales are at record
levels for the fourth month in a row. Its latest report claims sales
in October 2006 reached $21.9billion, some 9% up on the same
month in 2005. Times are good. In fact, the SIA is bullish
enough to predict that semiconductor sales will reach $321bn in
2009; not bad, when you consider that this year’s sales are
expected to be $250bn. Graham Pitcher, Editor gpitcher@findlay.co.uk
Demand in Europe is growing more quickly than anywhere
else, underlining its resurgence. Sales grew by 3.4% on a month
to month basis and by 11.2% on a three month rolling average.
And yet the alarm bells are ringing, if only very quietly. Even meaning orders for production equipment are slowing.
while it is predicting strong growth for the industry, the SIA is The cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry is
pointing out, ever so politely, that global economic conditions legendary and balancing supply and demand has, seemingly,
could impact the market. “There are signs of slower overall been impossible. Reckless investments and knee jerk contractions
economic growth and a slowing economy could impact sales of have not helped. But as the industry becomes more mature,
semiconductors,” said SIA president George Scalise. Another those violent swings are likely to be replaced with more gentle
pointer comes from SEMI, the equipment manufacturers ‘adjustments’. Crashes, such as that in 2001, are hopefully a
association. It says the book to bill ratio has dipped below 1, thing of the past.
ISSN 0047-9624
New Electronics, incorporating Electronic Equipment News and Electronics News, is published twice monthly by Findlay Publications Ltd, Hawley Mill, Hawley Road, Dartford, Kent, DA2 7TJ
Copyright 2006 Findlay Publications. Annual subscription (22 issues) for readers in the UK is £105, overseas is £160, and airmail is £196.
Composition by Wyndeham Argent, 32 Paul St, London, EC2A 4DB. Printed in England by Wyndeham Heron Ltd, Heybridge, CM9 4NW.
Moving on? If you change jobs or your company moves, please contact
circulation@findlay.co.uk to continue receiving your free copy of New Electronics.
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 5
IMAGING EXPANSION FRONT PAGE NEWS
Imaging investment
$10m expansion plan at UK imaging design centre. Graham Pitcher reports.
6 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
80 dB CMRR @ 50 kHz, all in 15 mm2.
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• G = 1, 2, 4, 8 (AD8251) programmable gain in-amps eliminate the need for compromise
• 3.5 mA supply current at 50 kHz, in instrumentation designs. With the industry’s lowest power
75% lower than other offerings consumption and smallest footprint of any PGIA, these devices
• Slew rate: 20 V/ s improve performance, allowing for greater channel densities.
• Settling time: 0.5 s to 0.01% The AD8250 and AD8251 leverage our innovative iCMOS™ (industrial
• Gain drift: 10 ppm°C CMOS) process technology to enable fast, accurate measurement
• Input offset drift: 1 V/°C and robust signal conditioning over
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tailored to operate with high performance
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Tel: +44 (0)1932 358 530 Fax: +32 (0)11 300 635
©2006 Analog Devices, Inc. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.
ULTRATHIN CHIPS US NEWS
8 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
POWERLINE NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Plugging in
Powerline silicon debut. Graham Pitcher reports.
10 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
NXP– the new company
born out of Philips
Semiconductors
With all the energy of a new beginning,
fuelled by 50 years of wisdom, NXP
Semi-conductors is ready to answer
all your questions – especially the
impossible ones.
Driven by the open mind and the
curiosity of a newborn, NXP is already
leading the world of vibrant media
technologies with billions of dollars
invested in research, a heritage of
25,000 patents and numerous state-
of-the-art solutions in the most
demanding semiconductor sectors.
So, to discover how you can change
the world with your next innovations
go to www.what-if-you-could.com.
Europe needs to
12 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
Bright ideas
from Pacer...
Looking for opto solutions?
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Tel +44 (0)118 9845280 · Fax +44 (0)118 9845425
Web www.pacer.co.uk · Email design@pacer.co.uk
14 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
SELF REPLICATING MACHINES COVER STORY
fundamental logical required for self reproduc- attached to each other by magnets, which can be
tion. His constructor has 29 possible states, allow- energised or not. Called ‘molecubes’, they can
ing signals to be sent and logical operations to be rotate and manipulate other cubes in their sur-
carried out. A ‘tape’ of cells encodes the sequence roundings, and by doing that produce a copy of the
of actions to be performed by the machine. Using original tower. The results have been intriguing.
a writing head, the machine can generate (by Bowyer calls this kind of work ‘pure self repro-
printing) a new pattern of cells, allowing it to ducing machines’, because the aim is to create sys-
“These bypass many of the problems of phys- possible within the size limitations of the systems
ical reality because you’re dealing with what is under development, currently a 300mm cube.
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 15
SELF REPLICATING MACHINES COVER STORY
16 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
Cleaner design is good design.
Save money, resources and the environment.
For free practical advice on how to save money go to www.envirowise.gov.uk/cleanerdesign
Cleaner design concepts enable manufacturers to use less material, minimise packaging,
reduce energy use and eliminate pollution and waste.
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 19
APPLICATIONS SPECIAL SPECIAL REPORT
A
leading designer of medical diag- XVision products provide high resolution ance, power and price points of our
nostic systems has used Texas and feature sophisticated technologies, fixed- and floating point dsps to create
Instruments’ digital signal pro- including the XStrain advanced cardiac cutting edge medical diagnostic equip-
cessing technology to create a line of next technique for myocardial function evalu- ment that is available to everyone,” said
generation diagnostic products, including ation, the Virtual Navigator tracking sys- Cyril Clocher, DSP Catalog business
ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imagers tem for interventional imaging and the development manager EMEA at Texas
(MRIs) and electrocardiograms (ECGs). 4D advanced technology for detailed Instruments. “We look forward to work-
Esaote’s new medical devices feature obstetric and general purpose evaluations. ing with them in the future as they fur-
state of the art functionality and mobil- The modular systems are compact to ther push the boundaries of healthcare
ity at prices that are likely to bring these ensure portability and include such inno- information systems.”
tools to a wider range of patients and vative features as tilting lcd monitors. In addition to dsps, Esaote’s products
healthcare workers. Diagnostic performance and maneuver- leverage TI’s analogue signal chain and
Using TI’s fixed and floating point ability allow them to be used in a wide power management technology. For
dsps, Esaote has been able to build its range of hospital applications and they example, the OPA364 precision 1.8V
platforms around devices that act as sig- are also suited for mobile services. operational amplifier and the ADS8320
nal processors and as controllers for the G-scan, Esaote’s open and tilting MRI low power 16bit a/d converter are opti-
board functions. The TMS320C5x, system for musculoskeletal applications, mised for low voltage, battery operated
TMS320C67x and TMS320C64x dsp is a diagnostic tool that is easy to use and systems.
20 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
Energy-saving inverter designs:
50% less cost, size and time.
• Best-in-class packaging technology that reduces board If energy and cost savings are your problem,
space while providing excellent thermal performance Fairchild has your solution.
Sponsored by
EBV Elektronik UK-Wiltshire, SN4 8SY | & +44 (0) 1793 849 933 | www.ebv.com
APPLICATIONS SPECIAL SPECIAL REPORT
A
valanches are a constant danger explains Andreas Ehrensperger, dsp appli- mitted by the Nordic nRF905 on either
to skiers and when they happen, cations engineer at Ascom. “This was in the 868 kHz (in Europe) or 915 kHz (in
it’s important that rescuers get line with the objective to make the 210g, the US) bands. This allows rescuers to
to those affected as quickly as possible. personal organiser sized device the small- prioritise their efforts to reach those vic-
The primary objective of an avalanche est and lightest avalanche transceiver to tims that are still alive in the vital first 15
rescue mission is to get to the right spot use both analogue (acoustic signal) and to 20 minutes after an avalanche.
easily and quickly, because the chances of digital technology on the market. The PULSE Barryvox is the first bea-
survival diminish after 15 to 20 minutes. “The nRF905 operates at a low volt- con that can detect and transmit vital
In order to meet such demanding age and has low power consumption, signs. It has an lcd that shows distance
requirements, rescuers need a device they making it well suited to battery applica- and direction (360°), leading rescuers
can rely upon to operate easily, read tions,” continues Ehrensperger. quickly to buried survivors. An overview
clearly and understand unambiguously. “Nordic’s products offer excellent of all detected signals including their
Swiss electronics manufacturer cost/performance and are reliable. We vital status is given. An analogue mode
Ascom has just developed such a device ; have used many Nordic chips over the with an amplified acoustic speaker is
the PULSE Barryvox. The product uses years and have been impressed by their built in. The challenge to date has been
Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF905 multi- field reliability. And as a multiband that most devices require some expertise
band transceiver as part of the system device, the nRF905 can operate on both – not to mention a cool head – to oper-
used to transmit the vital signs data of a frequencies we intend to use – 868MHz ate effectively.
buried person to the searching device. in Europe and 915MHz in the US.” Extensive use of dsp technology and
The nRF905 transmits on either the Each member of a ski, snowboard or specially optimised algorithms that pre-
European 868 or US 915MHz Indus- climbing party carries a Barryvox device cisely separate signals and accurately
trial, Scientific and Medical bands. The that transmits a continuous signal. If an associate them with each unique source,
Barryvox device uses a patent pending avalanche buries one or more members, search speed and reliability in multiple
dual band antenna that allows the wire- other members of the group switch their burial situations is significantly
less link to operate on both frequency transceivers from transmit to receive enhanced.
bands with optimum impedance match- mode so their unit scans for rescue bea- The detection and transmission of
ing for the strongest possible signal con signals from the devices carried by vital data is made using a very sensitive
response. users buried under the snow. motion sensor and W-Link (Wireless
“We selected Nordic’s nRF905 The receiving unit can detect multi- Link), allowing effective pre-excavation
because the chip is very compact and ple signals on the 457kHz frequency, triage (prioritized rescue) thus increasing
needs only few additional components,” together with a vital signs signal trans- the chances of survival.
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 23
APPLICATIONS SPECIAL SPECIAL REPORT
A
compact ‘through the wall’ Compact radar sensing device allows system achieves this by maintaining a
radar sensing device from memory of background signals and
Cambridge Consultants allows the position and movement of observing changes above and beyond
security and emergency service personnel that database.
to evaluate the position and movement
people in rooms and buildings to be Prism 200 will monitor several sub-
of people in rooms and buildings. determined. By Graham Pitcher. jects and track movement, even in diffi-
Prism 200, which is the size of a brief- cult environments such as offices, with
case and can be carried and used with one their angular surfaces and metal objects
hand, features three advances that make the angle of arrival of echo signal returns which can act like a ‘hall of mirrors’ to a
through wall radar technology a practical accurately, yielding information that normal radar. Cambridge Consultants’
proposition: a battery powered portable provides both horizontal and vertical advanced signal processing software is
radar device; smart radar signal process- data so that 3d positions can be deter- designed to distinguish moving people
ing that senses human movement and mined. UWB technology is also said to from these reflections, distilling vital
position – even in environments with make the system good at resolving the information that can help observers to
many reflecting surfaces; and meaningful distance of objects. determine the real situation inside a
data presentation in forms to suit the user, Fast digital signal processing is per- building, and what is the best position
including plan, elevation or 3d views. formed on the echo results to distinguish and time for a tactical entry.
“To commercialise this technology, between objects which are static, such as The position of each subject is clearly
we’ve talked to the spectrum of potential furniture, and objects that move. The indicated on the screen and people can be
tracked as they move, to build informa-
Who’s there?
tion on behaviour and room layout. Users
can choose to see this information in plan,
side elevation or 3d views, or all three
simultaneously. When using the 3d view,
the user’s viewpoint can also be rotated.
The radar antennas inside are arranged
in such a way that prism 200 has a wide
field of view: 120° horizontally and 90°
users and spent more than a year vertically. The radar also has four user
refining the hardware and creat- selectable ranges of up to 20m.
ing a man machine interface prism 200 can be held against a wall
that provides critical intelli- or mounted on a tripod in a ‘stand
gence in an intuitive form”, off’ position. The radar uses ultraw-
says Alan Wiltshire, product ide band (UWB) radar pulses that
manager. “The result is a pass easily through standard
‘switch on and go’ unit that building materials including
can deliver high level loca- bricks, blocks, concrete, tim-
tion information that helps ber, plaster and tiles. The radi-
tip the balance in favour of ated power is very low and the
security operatives in a unit is inherently safe to use.
broad range of dangerous or The ergonomics of the fin-
time critical situations.” ished radar unit have been a
Prism is an ‘impulse key focus of the development
radar’, which operates by process. The packaged sys-
transmitting a very short tem, which measures 210 x
pulse and then listening for 300 x 450mm and weighs
echoes from objects that the 5.4 kg, includes a lithium-
pulse bounces off. The sys- ion battery pack that pro-
tem operates at 100Hz using vides power for more than
ultra wide band principles, three hours of continuous
in the 2GHz region of the use. It can be used almost instantly:
spectrum. the embedded system displays
An array of antennas results within two seconds of the
allows the system to measure device being powered up.
24 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
T Digital design know how helps
he fact that it’s a ‘wiggly world’ out audio people have
there means data converters are an got into ‘specman-
essential part of any system that consumer electronics manufacturers ship’. There are
wants to process information in the dig- applications where
ital domain. And there are many systems target digital tv deficiencies. performance is
that take advantage of technology such as By Graham Pitcher. important, but
digital signal processing to improve their more often, what a
performance. manufacturer is
However, once that processing has most worried
taken place, there’s often the need to designers to route an external master about is the cus-
return data to the ‘real’ world. And that clock across their pcb. Instead, they can tomer, who will
requires digital to analogue conversion. lock on to the incoming left right clock select a product
This technique is found in a number of signal (LRCK), rather than the video based on specs.”
applications, but one of the most clock or other high speed clock sources. He believes that manufacturers have
demanding is, surprisingly, audio. This reduces interference and clock jitter been pushing on such parameters as
Jason Rhode is vice president and sensitivity. In stand alone mode, the mas- dynamic range and distortion in the last
general manager of Cirrus Logic’s mixed ter clock runs at 256 times the LRCK fre- few years ‘largely due to perception’.
signal and audio division. He said: quency when the CS4350 is running in “From a distortion point of view,” he
“Audio, in general, means frequency. single and doublespeed mode. When in continued, “there’s not a speaker that’s
You can use general purpose or indus- quad speed mode, the master clock is better than 80dB of total harmonic dis-
trial devices, but you really need to use 128 times LRCK. tortion, but people are now insist-
specialist parts when it comes to audio.” The device operates in single speed ing upon distortion figures of
Sounds good!
There’s a number of reasons for this, he mode at sample rates from 30 to 54kHz,
notes. One of them is the number of in double speed mode from 60 to
standards which need to be supported. 108kHz and in quad speed mode from
“We have to support sampling rates all 120 to 216kHz.
the way from 32kHz to 192kHz and Rhode said: “This on chip pll is good
that’s non continuous.” But there’s one for emi and means the customer doesn’t
other reason why special parts need to be need a high speed master clock elsewhere
used in the audio world. “Fussy cus- in the system.”
tomers,” Rhode explained. Rhode noted another benefit of the
One of Cirrus’ latest offerings for the master pll. “A lot of systems today
audio sector is the CS4350 which the stream audio over usb. This uses a
company says is ‘a complete stereo audio master clock of 12 or 24MHz and
converter noteworthy for its superior those frequencies don’t relate to
audio quality and ease of design’. audio sampling rates; 48kHz is not
The CS4350 features an on chip an even multiple, so you have to
phase locked loop (pll) based master generate this.”
clock that supports 24bit resolution and Rhode points out another
sampling rates of up to 192kHz. It also interesting development
has a dynamic range of 108dB. within the audio world.
By integrating the pll in the CS4350, “Somewhere along the
Cirrus has taken away the need for way, the consumer
26 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
DIGITAL TECHNIQUES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
more than working until they get there,” Rhode when you start talking about digital
100dB. That’s claimed. pwm,” Rhode observed, “it’s all about
good for us, “The thing that separates good design discrete time steps, so there’s a transition
because we’re engineers and great ones,” he continued, that results related to the input signal
a high per- “is faith. “They ask ‘what do you want frequency.”
formance sup- the spec to be?’ and they get it done.” Rhode says this is addressed using
plier and we Another example of faith, in Rhode’s delta-sigma modulation. “We take a low
typically target opinion, is the CS4525 Class D ampli- frequency (48kHz, 24bit) audio input
higher end sys- fier. “The faith here is the ability to put and run it through a digital delta-sigma
tems.” more than 90dB into a switching stage. modulator. This produces a 4 or 5bit
The device is That’s hard and you have to think a lot
based on the about sync and similar issues.”
delta-sigma architecture. “It’s a switched The CS4525 is aimed squarely at the
current design,” Rhode noted. “It’s sur- rapidly expanding flat panel digital tv
prising that a system that can achieve market. But, said Rhode, digital tvs
100dB thd is based on a delta-sigma don’t always have the best sound. So he
architecture.” sees a great opportunity for product dif-
One reason why Cirrus has been able ferentiation by small and large manu-
to achieve this figure is the availability of facturers alike.
better design tools. “Simulation is an Allowing this differentiation, the
example,” Rhode noted. “These CS4525 integrates a stereo a/d converter,
tools can tell you if you have a a sample rate converter, digital audio
problem, but there can be digital processor and a complete 30W Class D
interference and there’s no simula-
tion package that does that.
Whilst there has been a huge leap “Somewhere along the way, the consumer audio people have got into
in the capability of the tools, they
don’t capture everything.” ‘specmanship’. There are applications where performance is important,
And that means per-
formance comes down to but, more often, a manufacturer is most worried about the customer.”
design expertise. “What
lets you hit 105dB instead Jason Rhode, Cirrus Logic
of 90dB is having smart
people who keep
amplifier, including the controller and word at a higher sample rate, say
power stage. The device also supports 384kHz. We can then ‘turn’ this word on
incoming analogue and digital audio sig- its side and use each word to generate the
nals, and its power stage is efficient pulse width. That needs some heavy duty
enough to remove the need for a heat mathematics within the algorithm.”
sink in system designs. The CS4525 also features a patent
Component size is an important fac- pending thermal warning and fold back
tor in the flat screen tv world. Whilst technology, developed to cope with dif-
the devices have a large area, they invari- ferent compression levels amongst audio
ably are thin. And, with the electronics sources. When the volume gets turned
located behind the flat panel, mounting up too high and the chip starts running
height is becoming a differentiator. “But hot, this technique scales back output
thermal performance is even more levels automatically. This is said to be
important,” said Rhode, “and the 4525 particularly important for flat panel tvs,
is the first part where we’ve done a lot of which generate significant amounts of
finite element analysis. If you’re deliver- heat within slim form factors.
ing 30W at 85% efficiency, that’s a lot “With digital tv,” Rhode concluded,
of power.” “the focus is absolutely on video and peo-
The part also takes advantage of pulse ple are very tolerant of audio quality.
width modulation technology. “But We’re looking to change that.”
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e o n . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 27
28 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
SIGNAL PROCESSING INTRA DESIGN
Analogue
outdoes digital
Signal processing the analogue way. By Roy Rubenstein.
D
igital may get much of the tasks include complex manipulations This can be an issue with foundries
attention but, for certain signal such as phase shifting as well as log and wanting to see 100 or more wafer starts
processing tasks, analogue has antilog conversions. a year – equivalent to 300,000 analogue
virtues that are unmatched. Speed, com- Applications using asp tend to be low chips,
pact layouts and extreme low power can power, low noise. “We do lots of circuits A way around the problem is multi
all be achieved on an analogue design for radio – handhelds and radio links project wafers (MPW), where compa-
implemented in a deep sub micron between equipment,” says Prof Saul. nies split the cost of a production run –
process. Sensors are another; for example, cir- and the resulting volumes – by placing
“We designed an analogue 90° audio cuits that measure capacitance changes their designs on one wafer. Saul Research
phase shifter – a Hilbert Transformer,” due to MEMS movement. “Such appli- has used MPW provider Europractice
says Professor Peter Saul, partner and cations are for battery powered, portable extensively. “It has been an enormous
cofounder of Saul Research. “Just after equipment put in the field and left for help. I think we are its biggest UK indus-
that, an article appeared describing a dsp months.” trial user when measured by numbers of
version. The [dsp] spec was marginally designs placed, and about third overall,”
better, but the power consumption was Fab choices says Prof Saul. “We also use more varied
1000 times greater.” For a company undertaking an asp ic processes than anyone else.”
Saul Research is a family firm that design, choice of foundry is a key deci- Foundries offer cmos processes with
happens to be a fabless design house. Its sion. Even getting fab access can be an feature sizes ranging from 0.7µm to
services range from feasibility studies to issue if the design run involves prototype 90nm. For digital, smaller mostly means
delivered prototype analogue signal pro- numbers only. Another issue is selecting better, but for analogue, voltage head-
cessing (asp) ics. “Most of our customers the right process, given the wide choice. room becomes an issue with process
come along with a question as to Europe has three main cmos shrink.
whether their chip can be made at all, or foundries: austriamicrosystems; X-Fab; The rule of thumb regarding the safe
economically,” says Saul. “We start with and AMIS. There are also specialist firms limit is 10V per micron of minimum
the customer’s idea, then turn it into a such as Zarlink offering a bipolar process dimension. “A 0.35µm process is
prototype.” process, and IHP for silicon germanium. good for 3.5V, usually translated as
ASP refers to complex circuits where Saul Research has designed products 3.3V, while 0.18µm is only good for a
the signal passes through several ana- using several foundries. “As a small busi- 1.8V supply,” says Prof Saul. Whilst
logue stages. Just as with dsp, the signal ness, we have to have access to a logic circuits can operate close to the
is transformed or characterised. For asp, foundry’s design data without being able voltage rails, analogue circuits need
signal filtering is common while other to promise a very large order,” he says. enough voltage to operate a differential
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 29
SIGNAL PROCESSING INTRA DESIGN
favours analogue designs that use resis- resistors matched well, such that value
tors and capacitors. “We have put down errors averaged out overall. Once the cell
many hundreds of megohms on some was crafted, 256 were laid out to form
chips; single resistors of 200Mohm are the 8bit design,
no problem on the right processes and The result is a small area, 100mV d/a
have been highly reproducible.” converter – equating to 0.4mV per bit –
The alternative approach avoids pas- with a standby current of 100nA. “No
sives, using FETs instead. This allows one thought a 1mV per bit d/a converter
designers to embrace leading edge was possible,” says Prof Saul. The con-
process dimensions. “At least one or two verter, which has a tiny power consump-
process generations ahead of us,” says tion, gives a dc output without taking
Prof Saul. But the approach brings current. Given the 2.5V reference volt-
design risks. One is supply voltage rejec- age, that equates to 250nW.
tion – greater power supply ripple can As for Saul’s Hilbert Transformer cir-
appear at the circuit’s output; another is cuit, it is a purer asp example. The cir-
Although Saul Research’s analogue 90° component value variation. “All FET cuit was developed for a single sideband
audio phase shifter has slightly less designs really only make sense for the in generator and receiver circuit. One
performance than a digital equivalent, its house design groups,” he says. application is for direct conversion of an
power consumption is 1000 times less. rf signal. Another use is for a medical
Nano converter design. “The company had a medical
Prof Saul cites the company’s recent 8bit device and wanted to develop a hand-
pair or current tail. “That means the d/a converter design for QinetiQ to held version, hence the requirement for
voltage swing is around 1.4V [for a illustrate asp design issues. “The idea low power,” says Prof Saul. The chip
0.18µm process] – not much for some was to use well known digital cells, yet takes 120µA at 3.3V.
applications,” he says. its output is clearly analogue,” he says. Prof Saul believes the use of digital
Circuits can be designed using a The converter was a proof of concept cells as analogue building blocks will be
smaller voltage swing, but performance design to show that a 0.35µm process an area that designers will increasingly
is compromised. “We are designing could deliver extremely low power con- explore. “An inverter makes a fine broad-
3.3V devices in the 0.35µm regions of a sumption and a sub mV bit size. The band, high gain amplifier if the dc con-
0.18µm process,” says Prof Saul. “This design involved adding an analogue ditions are right – and that might take
gives us 3.3V supply, 0.18µm process switch to the converter’s resistor chain. only one resistor,” he says.
compatibility and, surprisingly, better all “It just needed some transmission gates Similarly, rf switches can be formed
round performance than we would get – similar to 4x inverters – and resistors from minimally changed logic gates. For
with either.” to be added to the digital components,” example, a 4x gate can give good enough
The designer’s preferred approach says Prof Saul. performance for some applications,
also affects process choice. Prof Saul Another aspect was ensuring the while using very small chip area, and
rapid layout. “Layout time is always an
issue with analogue; there are few stan-
Figure 1: A d/a converter bit resistor output dard circuit blocks available,” he says.
Y address chain voltage
A further analogue cmos design issue
is interfaces. “With the right process,
50V or more is possible, or currents of
M3 M4 M5 say 0.5A,” says Prof Saul. These need
M8 R1
careful design to stay within the foundry
design rules, but it can be done.
Meanwhile, asp opportunities will
continue to be the centre of low voltage
M2 designs as cmos processes shrink, he says.
M7 This will include signal conditioning,
M6
such as low noise amplifiers and filtering
M1 in the analogue domain, as well as deci-
sion circuitry. “We are talking low noise,
X address resistor carry low power designs,” Prof Saul concludes,
“down to the nanoamps.”
30 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
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WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT INTER DESIGN
M
2M varies, depending who
you talk to, from connecting
up machines with a simple
Bluetooth wireless link in an electronic
point of sale (EPOS) or industrial system,
to linking equipment across the wide area
with GSM, GPRS or EDGE datalinks, to
3G links carrying video for cctv.
Are these really M2M? “If I have a cam-
era linked to a cctv system that monitors
the cameras and decides what it is going to
display, that’s M2M,” said Doug Gill-
mour, sales and marketing director of lead-
ing airtime supplier for M2M systems
Mobius Networks.
The M2M market is growing through
simple applications such as utility meters,
but also through more complex systems,
such as tracking the locations of trucks in
a fleet. “More than 300million utility
meters and 250m vehicles, plus more than
50m other devices could, potentially, be
connected to mobile networks in a not too
distant future,” says the latest report from
Swedish market researchers Berg Insight.
“The largest deployments already involve
up to half a million devices.”
for latency as much as possible and send
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 33
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT INTER DESIGN
M2M supplier Comtech has put solidated billing across all SIM cards on
together a complete end to end system one account, rather than having unused
with the connection software and database airtime on each card. The access point is
that can be easily modified for different running at around 6% capacity and the
applications. “We have doubled our M2M company is already planning to upgrade
business in the last 12 months,” said Barry the link to Vodafone in February.
Lowe, managing director. “It has become Higher bandwidth 3G technology is
much more of a business model sell than a also starting to appear in M2M links.
technical sell. We have to help people “Over the next year, we will see a lot more
prove the business model quickly at mini- dual GPRS and 3G applications,” said
mum cost and help them with selling the Gillmour. “It’s not brilliant, and it’s expen-
sive compared to GPRS, but it’s good
to the stage where we are not managing the enough for quite a lot of applications.
machine on its own, but combining it with What we have not had is a viable
the procedures such as the supply chain 3G/GPRS embedded engine – we have
and invoicing systems.” PCMCIA cards, but that’s just not the
Comtech has recently rolled out 2500 same as an embedded engine.”
systems for Camelot for the National Lot- “It’s not going to change the market for
tery, and is working with lotteries in other GPRS, as there are lots of applications that
countries, as well as wirelessly linked and are small amounts of data,” said White-
controlled video posters for promoting the head. “We are starting to see video for cctv
new Nintendo Wii games console. and video posters where you need that
The airtime connection requirements kind of bandwidth. But 3G coverage is
for M2M are also quite different. “Three limited to the cities and you need the sys-
years ago, we went to Vodafone to buy air- tems to work the same way across the
time, and they didn’t have a route to mar- country.”
ket for their data products,” said Gillmour. Security is important, says Gillmour. “I
“We quickly found the dynamics of air- know of one guy who put together a sys-
time are quite different from hardware, so tem using public IP addresses and he was
we spun off Mobius Networks as a Voda- shut down by a hacker just to see what
“The biggest advantage is having fone preferred distributor and service
provider. The bulk of our customers are
would happen.” Mobius works with hard-
ware sister company Spectre and with the
machines able to communicate EPOS and transport.”
Mobius supplies fixed, private IP, rather
payment bureaux and banks through
another sister company Secure Etail. “That
via the internet.” than the dynamically assigned, public IP provides a loose alliance that does save the
addresses that come from the operators customer time,” he said. “The key thing is
Stephen Evans, Brainboxes with an ordinary PCMCIA modem and the difference between something that
SIM card. “The beauty is it becomes part works on the bench and producing some-
of the LAN over a virtual private network thing that works in the tens and hundreds
idea internally – they need a system they – Vodafone won’t give you that service,” he of thousands of units.”
can see and touch.” said. All the IP addresses go through the There are issues of scalability. “The
It has combined its µWEAVE database Mobius access point, which also voice operator’s view is if a SIM doesn’t
software with the GPRS modules that go allows con- work, they send a new one out the next
into the equipment. Now, it is link- day, and that’s good service. But if a fleet
ing the database to the customer of 100 trucks has a failure rate of 5%, that’s
applications. “Data and alarms are five trucks off the road.”
handled out of the database, with But is M2M even the right expression?
automated notification and web “M2M is nonsense because no one makes
based reporting tools, but now we M2M kit,” says Gillmour. “I think M2M
are delivering the data to applica- provides a cover for people ... to create a
tions, bridging the data across the sense of fear, uncertainty and doubt
embedded systems and IT for back among customers. There’s a lot of kit out
office systems,” said Steve White- there that hasn’t been used in a high vol-
head, technical director. “It has got ume roll out.”
34 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
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(3V to 5.5V) Up to 2A
IN SW
Microcontroller,
Lower power FPGA,
P-FET ASIC,
On
Memory,
Off EN CPLD,
Digital logic
FB
PGND
Internal compensation
simplifies design
96
94
92
90
88
86
84
82
80
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WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT INTER DESIGN
“T
he strategy from the start was
to supply personal area net-
working (PAN) and I was
convinced there would be tens of wireless
devices in every home.” CSR has been
leading the way with its single chip Blue-
tooth device and James Collier, chief
It’s taken a while, but
technology officer and company founder, personal area networking
is seeing his dream in 1998 coming true.
PAN technology is expanding from the is finding a wide range
almost ubiquitous Bluetooth link in a bil-
lion mobile phones, to a low cost, low
of applications.
power version called WiBree, to low By Nick Flaherty.
power, network oriented Zigbee technol-
ogy, to contact based, short range Near
Field Communication (NFC) and to var-
ious versions of high speed ultrawideband
(UWB) that will provide wireless USB
links and the next generation of Bluetooth.
PAN is defined by the peer to peer
connections and so rules out the 802.11
standard wireless local area networking,
but there is an explosion in the different
technologies coming though.
WiBree is a low power version of
Bluetooth that aims to do for PAN what
Zigbee has done for control and home
automation – provide a low power, low
cost wireless link.
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 37
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT INTER DESIGN
Broadcom is aiming at the 6GHz your phone to your laptop, and they use
band, sampling a two chip set in the mid- NFC to exchange configuration data,
dle of 2007 and moving to a single chip then Bluetooth takes over,” said
in volume in 2009. “This gives the Francesco Prato, business development
opportunity to create an open standard manager at NXP. But the lack of a stan-
around the world,” said Biband. dard is holding this back.
But the set up issues for WUSB are “Right now. the plan is for NFC to
vital and are potentially holding back the roll out commercially in Q1 2008 at the
market, as there is still a mode where you latest,” he said. “It depends on the mar-
use a cable to connect peripherals the ket and the [mobile phone and ticket sys-
first time they are used. tem] operators, as we are talking about
“We learnt a lot from Bluetooth and integrating this with the SIM card and
WiFi, where you can include the security. flash in the phone. We can’t get com-
But people won’t always turn it on,” said mercial deployment before there is an
Rosser. “WUSB is a standard for pairing interface standard to the SIM and there
and it’s always encrypted. It has an out of is an ETSI standards group working on
band key exchange, either by plugging in that. We expect it will come to market
“WiBree is … really product a cable or by numeric key comparison,
where you put in a number [on one ter-
quicker in the US with CDMA as that
does not use a SIM card.”
oriented Zigbee and will go in minal] and if the two numbers match,
that generates the key. And the keys can
NXP is already integrating the NFC
technology with its own in house Blue-
remote controls and toys.” be permanent, temporary or one time.” tooth development. “We have our own
“Setup is the issue with every single combo chip, but Bluetooth is not neces-
Eric Janson, CSR wireless technology,” said Janson. “Radio sarily number one in the market,” he said.
is, by its nature, promiscuous and will All of this is happening now. “We
run wild if you let it and the [WUSB] should see certified WUSB products in
standard is not ready for what is required January in the US and Japan and we
by the market.” expect Korea and Europe to make a deci-
NFC aims to make all these things sion in December, so they should be avail-
simpler to use. Instead of having to able in January,” said Rosser. “Bluetooth 3
search for a device to pair with and set up will be in the 6 to 8GHz band, so we hope
the link, the connection can be formed to have a dual band, single die with mul-
by touching a phone onto a printer or pc tiple protocols and automatic setting.”
and then Bluetooth or UWB can take There are also moves to implement
over to transfer the data. 60GHz technologies for links between
NXP Semiconductor sees this as the high definition set top boxes and screens,
next step for its MiFare contactless smart- promoted by the WirelessHD (WiHD)
card technology, already used in systems alliance. But this is being done with
around the world, adding peer to peer UWB at 6GHz, says Bruce Watkins,
capability and host and slave capability so chief operating officer of Pulse-Link.
that a phone can also be a smart tag reader. Will all these technologies cause con-
The value is low power – the protocol “Hold two phones together, or put fusion in the market? Most people don’t
is the most power efficient per bit, even think so – it’s about different technologies
though the system runs at 3.8GHz or at for different application areas. “Frankly,
6GHz. Transferring a 1Gbyte file can in the next decade, there will be no ‘win-
take just a few seconds, using less total ner’,” said Janson. “But there will be more
power, compared to 20minutes for a combination chips – Bluetooth and
Bluetooth transfer. UWB, Bluetooth and WiBree, Bluetooth
“We are going to do UWB Bluetooth and NFC, Zigbee and something else.”
in cmos, initially in the sub 5GHz band, “Consumers don’t care what UWB,
because that’s where the mobile terminals WiHD, WiMedia, 802.15.3c or what-
will connect,” said Janson. “We are con- ever else comes along means – until one
vinced we can do it without interfering becomes ubiquitous,” Watkins con-
with mobile phones.” cluded.
38 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
New WaveRunner® X i
Oscilloscopes
with WaveScan
Performance Elevated
Great performance, large display, and small footprint – the
WaveRunner Xi again shatters the conventions of bench
oscilloscope design. Now available from 400 MHz to 2 GHz,
it offers sample rates of 10 GS/s, LeCroy’s new WaveScan
search & analysis and WaveStream fast viewing mode,
I2C/SPI/CAN and Mixed Signal options and so much more.
C
able is on the retreat. In almost from a few kbit/s on GSM networks to a details are shown on a geographical
every data application, one form few Mbit/s with 3G. In many applica- information system.
of wireless networking or another tions, sheer bandwidth is not necessary Elsewhere, industrial and medical
is supplanting copper and fibre, whether and effective monitoring and control gases supplier Cryoservice has connected
in the last few metres with personal area networks have been built which capi- 30 of its delivery and engineering staff to
networks or in the ‘last mile’ with WiMax. talise on mobile networks’ ability to back end applications using O2’s GPRS
The key technology areas – mobile cover wide areas of the countryside. network and XDA II PDAs supplied by
phone networks, wireless lan and short British Waterways, for example, has Handheld PCs. This allows real time
range, low bandwidth methods of trans- used Vodafone’s GPRS network to mon- tracking of deliveries and work assign-
mission such as Zigbee – are becoming itor flow rates, pumps and water levels on ments, proof of delivery and stock control
pervasive. So, what levels of adoption are 2000 miles of rivers and canals. Where via flyingSpark field services software
they achieving and what are their chief previously staff had to manually check which is also linked to satnav on the PDA.
uses in industry? often remote locations, data is now Neil Grimshaw, CryoService’s finan-
Mobile ’phone based remote moni- polled in seconds using sensors con- cial controller, says: “By automating
toring and control benefits from wide nected to modems which transmit to the many of the tasks the engineers previ-
areas of coverage and bandwidth ranging organisation’s SCADA centres where key ously had to do manually, such as
40 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT INTER DESIGN
timesheet recording and reporting back over tens of miles. In a few cases, entire ideally suited to low data rate and long
to head office, the solution has created a cities have achieved WiMax coverage. battery life. Bluetooth, for example, has
20% to 30% time saving.” Another new kid on the wireless block a battery life of 100hr, whilst Zigbee has
Wireless lan technologies come into is Zigbee. Based on the IEEE 802.15.4 battery life of one or two years. Installa-
their own when the requirement is for standard, access to the specifications is tion costs are quite low compared to
less range, but more bandwidth. And the controlled by the Zigbee Alliance. The key wired technologies where you are dealing
technology has seen high rates of adop- benefits are cheapness, simplicity and long with many units.”
tion in warehouse applications. battery life when compared with similar Zigbee is particularly suited to building
Angelo Lamme, EMEA wireless prod- personal area network technologies, such automation and to control and monitor-
uct manager for Symbol, points out the as Bluetooth. Transmission range is up to ing applications in industrial, medical and
benefits of WiFi to industrial users. 75m, bandwidth is up to 250kbit/s and residential environments. A lot of atten-
“Wireless networking can be, and is being, nodes can be arranged in star, peer to peer tion is being placed on development of
used in any industry where mobility is or mesh topologies. The ability for Zigbee Zigbee based wireless light switches, blind
essential to the business,” he says. “Spe- units to form mesh networks is seen as a and window shade controls, thermostats,
cific industries are suited to the use of key advantage, because that configuration home security devices, consumer electron-
wireless. For example, it is much easier to can reroute should one node go down. ics remote controls and medical sensors.
realise the benefits of wireless networking Although it’s early days, there are
if you operate in the transportation and some industrial Zigbee implementations.
logistics, manufacturing, or retail sectors, In Turkey, for example, a Hugo Boss tex-
where WiFi can be used to trace goods and tiles plant has automated its stock con-
maintain control over inventory with a trol and production monitoring using
very clear return on investment. These RC2200 Zigbee modules from Norwe-
sectors have seen the largest increase in gian Radiocrafts. Zigbee modules –
uptake of wireless lan technology.” which have a form factor of 16.5 x
One user of WiFi in the warehouse is 35.6mm – are attached to batches of
Shrewsbury based pressing manufacturer clothing and fixed nodes at sewing and
Stadco, where voice activated warehous- pressing machines register their presence
ing systems are used for a Jaguar contract. at that stage of production. Management
Instead of keyboard or barcode driven can track order status and productivity,
systems, it uses Voiteq voice control sys- whilst operators can receive instructions
DebutArt: Barry Downard
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e o n . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 41
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
The path to
low risk wireless
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rom concept to design, industry approval to manufacture, upgrading firmware, fault reporting and stock management are
Spectre has an enviable reputation as the leading wireless well understood.
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needs hardware and software integration at chip level, module and back office software, a Spectre customer can quickly be in
integration or end product connection, Spectre provides the widest communication with their products in the next room or around the
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Open standards such as Bluetooth™, ZigBee™, TCP/IP, WLAN, Working with its sister company, Mobius Networks - Vodafone’s
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RF & MICROWAVE
The ZigBee/802.15.4 application kit from Rabbit Semiconductor
interfaces a RabbitCore module with MaxStream XBee wireless
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RF & MICROWAVE
Alpha Micro Components has launched the iTegno 3898i PCMCIA
GPRS modem to meet growing demand for flexible internet
connectivity.
The iTegno 3898i, a multifunctional PCMCIA modem, offers SMS,
voice calls, wireless internet, email and fax and is designed to
provide dependable wireless data access solutions without the need
for a ‘hotspot’.
The quad band device provides real time access to information at a
maximum speed of 85.6kbit/s using GPRS technology. Because users
only pay for the volume of data sent and received, this can translate
into lower costs for longer connection.
Alpha Micro: visit www.alphamicro.net
44 N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
INTER DESIGN
The AD9352 and AD9353 from Analog Devices are fully integrated,
direct conversion transceivers for WiMAX wireless networks. Offering
a complete rf and mixed signal system on a chip, the dual band
AD9352 operates from 2.3 to 2.7GHz and 4.9 to 5.9GHz, whilst
the single band AD9353 operates from 3.3 to 3.8GHz.
Integrated are 12bit, 160Msample/s a/d and d/a converters, along
with smart system features such as self calibration, automatic gain
control, transmit power control, and automatic frequency control.
The devices offer a noise figure of 3.5dB, along with adjacent
channel and alternate channel rejection capability 8dB greater than
the 802.16 standard requires. A highly linear transmit path brings
spectral purity and an error vector magnitude of -37dB at 0dBm
output power.
Analog Devices: visit www.analog.com
A
number of sectors, but the ATCA is bringing changes in end net as short sighted. “Staying with giga-
communications sector in par- bit Ethernet switching architectures for
ticular, have undergone a radi- user markets and suppliers alike. the next year or so represents a short term
cal change in the way they develop choice. The best long term solution is
systems. No longer do companies in By Graham Pitcher. 10Gbit Ethernet.”
these industries create ‘perfect fit’ solu- And Radisys is looking to meet that
tions – essentially using almost unique need now. “We determined the market
components to build products which communications networking, worth needed a 10Gbit Ethernet switch,
have only one application. $200million in Echieson’s view. “We do started developing it and it’s now in tri-
Today, these industries are adopting a boards that go into telecoms equipment als with customers. It’s part of our focus
platform based approach, where the ‘per- and most of our R&D today is going into of delivering application ready inte-
fect fit’ of the past is replaced by com- ATCA.” ATCA, the Advanced Telecom- grated platforms.”
mercially available products. Not only munications Architecture, has an ‘allure’, Radisys sees ATCA getting good mar-
does this affect the system builders, it Echieson noted. “It allows companies to ket acceptance. “We’re seeing momen-
also has a big effect on those companies get a platform from another company tum build,” he said. “All Tier 1 telecom
who used to design boards ‘to order’. who will keep it up to date. They don’t equipment manufacturers (TEMs) bar
One such company is Radisys, which have to worry; all they need to do is to one have active ATCA projects and
deployment. Tier 2 and 3 companies are
‘all over it’ because it gives them time to
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BACKPLANES & BOARDS SYSTEM DESIGN
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PRODUCT NEWS SYSTEM DESIGN
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ENGINEER PROFILE ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION
D
avinder Lotay’s office wall has a Altimex specialises in small batch
quote from Mark Twain: “Twenty
Davinder Lotay’s motivation is seeing production and bespoke products for a
years from now, you’ll be more something finished and a happy diverse customer base. Responding quickly to
disappointed by the things you didn’t do than individual needs is something Lotay finds
the ones you did do. So throw off the bow customer. By Elaine Essery. stimulating. “Quick response is not possible in
lines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch large organisations, where the technical
the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream people are removed from the customer and
and discover.” It sums up the philosophy of Fibre optics has been Lotay’s passion the information flow between them and the
the electronics graduate who left the safe since the late 1980s. He was a ‘guinea pig’ commercial guys is slow. I can talk to a
harbour of a large company to head up his on a new Engineering – Optoelectronics customer, capture the design concept and
own company and discover fulfilment. HND at Sheffield Polytechnic, transferred to meet expectations.” Whilst a phone call can
Lotay is director of Chester based a similar degree course at Newcastle and alter the course of a planned day, reacting
Altimex, a niche provider of optoelectronic went on to complete a Masters at Hatfield, promptly to customer demands is hugely
components and solutions for electronic turning down the offer of a PhD in favour of satisfying. “Money doesn’t motivate me, it’s
control systems and fibre optics data industry. His position today is far removed the fulfilment and joy of seeing something
connectivity. Answering an advertisement for from his earlier career in the R&D finished, working and a customer happy.”
a managing director in 2003, he and a departments of organisations such as BICC Lotay has no ambition to move into large
business partner bought the company. Lotay Cables and Corning. Then, he worked at the scale manufacture, but is considering taking
took over day to day management and set cutting edge of technology – ‘playing around over another micro organisation. Always up
about making his mark. “It needed a lot in with lasers like a child with new toys’. Whilst for a challenge, he is open to ideas. Returning
terms of updating production processes and at Corning, he completed an MBA; ‘one of to Mark Twain, he comments: “People always
products, but I love challenges,” he says. my best experiences’. fear things are difficult, but they’re not. You
Altimex doubled its turnover in the first year Eighteen months of self employment have to be positive and never look back and
under Lotay and he hasn’t looked back. followed, before that passion for wish you’d done things differently.”
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 53
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