SAFELY Control

airborne infection
from viruses
and bacteria
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with
BINAY UPPER ROOM
ULTRAVIOLET-C
GERMICIDAL
IRRADIATION SYSTEM

Upper Room systems operate continuously in indoor occupied areas, and are safe
for occupied-area use. They are a relatively simple and effective means of controlling airborne
infection and can be cost-effective for many types of facilities, including offices, cabins, corridors,
industrial plants, canteens, hospital applications, waiting rooms, and any indoor occupied area
• Safe for active use in occupied areas – Occupants in the room are not exposed to UVC radiation
• Proven Technology – Used globally against viruses and bacteria for over 70 years (widely used in North America)
• Upper-Air UVGI systems are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce pathogen
transmission to persons in settings with a high risk of transmission

Improves Air Quality (IAQ) by reducing Continuously clean upper Produces no

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therefore the risk of COVID-19, cold, and/or bio-aerosol transmission secondary
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Binay Opto Electronics Pvt. Ltd. Ph.:+91 (33) 4006 9875, 2475 0062, 2475 0030
Email: info@binayLED.com
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PROVIDING LED POWERED TECHNOLOGIES SINCE 1983

BINAY
LED Aviation Obstruction
LIGHTS

All BINAY Aviation Lights are based on Non-switching passive type circuitry (NO SMPS)
The circuitry incorporated inside the LED Aviation Obstruction Lights is passive electronic (solid-state) in nature, and does not use internal SMPS
driver switching units to control the light unit. Internal LED current control is by non-switching electronic means only. No electrolytic capacitors
are used inside the Aviation Obstruction Light unit.
The above is necessary to ensure reliability of the LED Aviation Obstruction Light. This system design effectively eliminates any active components
and circuits inside the aviation light itself, and enhances the solid-state passive reliability of the LEDs (mounted in relatively inaccessible locations
at the height of tall structures). This drastically reduces the possibility of component failure - and hence possibility of any maintenance require-
ment – in the LED Aviation Obstruction Lights themselves (which are mounted at extreme heights in the system).

Binay Opto Electronics Pvt. Ltd. Ph.:+91 (33) 4006 9875, 2475 0062, 2475 0030
Email: info@binayLED.com
27, Panditia Terrace, Calcutta 700 029, India Website: www.binayled.com SCAN
QR Code
 AUGUST 2021 | VOL. 1 NO. 10

CONTENTS
TECHNOLOGY
32 INTERVIEW: “Patents Are The By-Products Of The Improvements You Strive
To Make” — Dr Manish Kothari, Head - Wireless Development Centre, Silicon Labs India
40 TRENDS: Emergence Of GaAs Devices As A Substitute To Silicon
DESIGN
44 TIPS: Behind Every Successful Product There Is A Well-Designed Architecture
DO-IT-YOURSELF
47 Single-Channel Audio Amplifier
48 Smart Glass That Can Read Books
INVEST
52 OPPORTUNITIES:
Semiconductor Industry Is Hot,
The Hottest It Has Ever Been
58 INTERVIEW: “I Am Grateful That
We Have Been Able To Create An
End-To-End ODM Story In India”
— Puneet Agarwal, CEO and
Co-founder, VVDN Technologies
REGULARS
08 Feedback: Your Suggestions
10 Q&A: Things You Wanted To Know!
12 Tech News: Technology Updates
20 Truly Innovative Tech
67 MY STORY: “If We Were Not
There Yesterday Does Not Mean
We Can’t Be There Today Or
Tomorrow” — Rahul Singh,
Co-founder, Ideaforge
71 OPPORTUNITIES: Automotive
Industry’s New Dawn Begin-
ning With Two-Wheelers
24 New Products
50 Dashboard: Key Industry Trends That
Can Shape The Future Of Your Business
63 Industry News: Industry Updates
EDITOR : Rahul Chopra
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6 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

 FeedBack
Your suggestions
THANK YOU EFY
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ahead of time. It has always covered
and provided beautiful information
from early days. I have been using your
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zine page by page (from start to end)
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EFY BACK ISSUES
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magazine since 1989.
8 august 2021 • electronics For you express
I feel myself as a member of EFY
family and I am thankful to EFY team
for its contribution to the nation in
developing the electronics industry and
culture of electronics in India, nourish-
ing electronics hobbyists like me, social
responsibility, keeping EFY away from
vulgar ads, beautiful customer service
and the editors’ cordial relation with
readers. I would like to give special
thanks for the ‘Can UV Devices Help
Defeat Coronavirus’ article in July issue.
I have a small suggestion to make: Bring
out a special issue of EFY on FASTag for
motor vehicles.
Gautam Kumar Mandal
General Manager and Head of Industrial
Engineering Department,
Durgapur Steel Plant, Steel Authority of
India Limited (SAIL)
EFY. Thanks for the lovely feedback! We
will try to cover FASTag related topic in
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to write on this subject.
•••
MINI PROJECTS
Please suggest some mini electronics
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EFY. EFY publishes many electronics
projects including mini projects under
DIY section. You can go through DIY
sections of back issues. Some of those
projects are also freely available at
https://electronicsforu.com
Also, some of the complete project
kits (including components, project
descriptions, PCB, etc) are available on
our website https://www.kitsnspares.
com
You will find many electronic pro-
jects that can be made by the beginners
as well as the experienced. Just click on
‘Do-It-Yourself Kits’ section on this web-
site to get relevant information.
•••
EV BATTERY CHARGING
This is regarding the ‘Design Your Own
Electric Vehicle Battery Charging Solu-
tions’ article published in May 2020
issue. Can the circuit be modified to
charge lithium battery of an e-rickshaw
from 90V solar panel to boost the range
of travel? If yes, please share the circuit
and code.
Manoj Kumar Behera
 The average capacity of the EV battery
is 32kVA. Can you please provide circuit
diagrams and details for a 32kVA battery?
Arvind Sardesai
EFY. We have forwarded your queries
to the author. Please wait for some time
for his reply.
•••
TOP 20 IoT PROJECTS
Thanks for the project list covered in
‘World’s Top 20 IoT Project Ideas for
IoT Enthusiasts’ article on your website
https://www.electronicsforu.com I was
able to choose my project topic from
this list.
Mack
 Thank you very much for the different
projects covered in ‘World’s Top 20 IoT
Project Ideas for IoT Enthusiasts’ article.
Ma. Leni P. Sabulbero
EFY. Thanks for the feedback!
Note. Most articles published in EFY magazine
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electronicsforu.com after some time, including DIY
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our kitsnspares.com website (or by writing to info@
kitsnspares.com).
www.EFYMag.com
Daikoku Innovations
www.daikokuinnovations.com

making inroads in Healthtech

Daikoku Innovations (Daikoku), a Bangalore headquartered
burgeoning product design services company with a strong
presence across Communications, Industrial, Consumer,
Medical and Automotive segments is now creating a niche
in Healthtech with healthcare wearables.

The COVID-19 scenario over the last year and current year
has brought out the importance of monitoring critical health
parameters of individuals remotely and also on-the-go. The
periodic or continuous monitoring of parameters like
SpO2,temperature,ECG,heart-rate,PPG etc. has become
necessary in the current times to ensure timely medical
intervention when these parameters aren’t up to the mark.
We have an entire demographic for which the risk needs to
be mitigated.

Broadly one can classify the demographic as follows -

1. The senior citizens.
2. The children or minors.
3. Post COVID-19 patients.
4. Healthy and active individuals.
5. People with comorbidities.
There definitely will be overlaps in the above classification,
but the idea is to create various healthcare wearable
products catering to these people. Daikoku is well
positioned to create products catering to the above
demographic.
“We at Daikoku are adept at creating healthcare
wearables that are of top-notch quality, because of the
skills in industrial design, mechanical design and deep
knowledge in embedded design that includes hardware,
software and firmware. We can couple that with our
strong manufacturing partners and deliver a complete
product that can be taken to market.”, says Sanket
Bandyopadhyay, Co-Founder, Vice-President, Worldwide
Sales & Marketing at Daikoku Innovations.
The healthcare wearable remains incomplete without it
having a gateway to communicate. This has to be a
closed-loop system so that the medical data is actionable.
Daikoku has the technology to get the wearable to talk to
the cloud via a gateway. They tailor make the
communication part as per the customers’ requirements.
Sriharsha Desai, Co-Founder, General Manager –
Embedded says, “We have highly optimized designs
using ultra low power controllers. This results in
extracting the maximum juice from the healthcare
wearable’s battery. Our design runs for weeks on a
single charge.”
Founder, President Sudarshan NS says, “We have a
meticulous process in place, because we also plan for
FDA approvals for the healthcare wearables as we start
the design process. There clearly is a market for
healthcare wearables and it will become a necessary
accessory for many very soon.”
Daikoku puts in a good amount of energy into industrial
design, because though this is a healthcare wearable
segment, the look and feel of the product is also of great
importance. There is consumer flair to this because the user
will be wearing it for prolonged periods and the product
must have a chic look.
Duc Ngo, a bay-area technologist holding 27 U.S. patents
and an advisor to Daikoku says, “Going forward,
healthcare wearables will be a part of the daily lives of
many across the globe. Daikoku is well-positioned to
develop a variety of products in the healthcare
wearable segment.”
Harsha Mutt, serial-entrepreneur, business mentor and
leadership coach and Daikoku’s advisor says, “Healthtech
is an exciting space at this moment, and the Daikoku
team is an extremely passionate, dedicated,
dependable, competent, and customer focussed one,
with high aspirations and looks poised to make a big
contribution to all stakeholders"
Reach Daikoku at: info@daikokuinnovations.com,
+91-9343379845 / +91-9845051485
 Q&A
Things You Wanted to Know!

Q1. How to run MATLAB source codes used in EFY projects? I was not able to open the
source codes in .pdf or word format. How can I convert them into .pdf formats?
Rajasekhar

A1. First download the .zip

or .rar files from EFY web-
site, unzip them and keep all
the files together in a folder,
say Test folder. Running the
MATLAB code is straightfor- Fig. 2: Run button in MATLAB
ward. Run the MATLAB from
your desktop, click Open under open in any word editor by right clicking on
HOME (Fig. 1). the .m extension file with the Open option.
Browse the location where There are many .pdf file converter software.
the Test folder is kept and Fig. 1: Open feature in MATLAB For example, if you are using OpenOffice,
open the MATLAB file with .m you can open MATLAB code and convert
extension. Then click on Run button icon as shown in Fig. 2. to .pdf format by clicking on ‘Export as PDF...’ option under
You cannot open the MATLAB code in .pdf format but can File menu.

Q2. What is a motor starter, and what is dry-run motor protection? Can you please
share the links of any projects on motor starter and dry-run protection that may
have been published in EFY?
Rashid, UAE
A2. A motor starter is an electrical
switching device that starts or turns on a
motor safely. It can also reverse, acceler-
ate, and protect the motor. Generally,
low-power motors do not require starters.
A motor starter has two main blocks— Contactor
contactor and overload protector. Fig. 3: Motor starter (Credit: https://springercontrols.com) works without water, the pump motor
The contactor supplies current to
the motor for starting. It is similar to a relay but is designed to
handle a larger amount of electrical current and higher volt-
ages. Unlike a relay, a contactor does not have an energised
common pole to switch between the normally open (NO) and
normally closed (NC) poles.
The overload protector prevents the motor from drawing
too much current and thus getting damaged. Generally, there
is current sensing element in the protection unit that senses
the amount of current drawn by the motor.
A motor starter is either manual or automatic. Manual
starter is operated by pressing a button or switching on the
device. The button or switch is mechanically linked to the
contactor which, on switching, closes or opens to either
provide power or cut power to the motor. A magnetic motor
starter offers the benefit of remote starting and automatic
operation. A typical motor starter available in the market and
its two main components are shown in Fig. 3.
Motor dry-run protection is a type of protection mecha-
nism that prevents a motor or water pump from running
when there is no water or liquid avail-
able to pump (called dry running). For
example, a water pump is likely to get
damaged if it runs for some time with-
out water in the underground tank (res-
Overload Motor Starter ervoir) to pump. When a water pump
spins faster than its rated speed and the
temperature inside the motor starts increasing (also because
there is no liquid inside the motor to cool it). This often results
in damaging the mechanical parts, bearings, motor coil, shaft,
etc due to a thermal shock or melting of some parts.
There are different ways to prevent dry-run by using vari-
ous switches and sensors. Some common switches are pres-
sure switch, float switch, magnetic switch, electrode relay,
level switch, etc. Some dry-run protection circuits constantly
check the active power of the motor, set point, and timer. If
the power goes beyond the set value, dry-run protection stops
the pump immediately in such cases.
Most of the automatic motor pumps have built-in dry-run
protection. A typical automatic water pump starts the motor
when water level in overhead tank becomes low and switches
it off when the water tank becomes full, or there is insufficient
water in reservoir, thus preventing dry-running of the motor.
You may refer ‘Automatic 3-Phase Induction Motor Starter’
and ‘Water Pump Dry Run Guard’ DIY articles available on our
website at https://www.electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects

Answers compiled by Sani Theo, technical editor. Letters and questions for publication may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You, D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area,
Phase 1, New Delhi 110020 (e-mail: editsec@efy.in) and should include name and address of the sender.

10 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

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 Tech News
Technology Updates

Robot combines touch and vision to navigate

In order to understand the neural
mechanisms behind the brain’s
perception and navigation of the
surrounding world, a team of
cognitive neuroscientists, compu-
tational modellers, and roboticists
from the EBRAINS Research Infra-
structure have developed a robot
called Whiskeye. The rodent-like
robot autonomously explores
its environment with the help of
head-mounted cameras that serve
as eyes and 24 artificial whiskers
that gather tactile information. By
leveraging simultaneous locali-
sation and mapping, the robot
maps an object or environment
using touch, converting any rela-
tive self-motion into an internal
representation. The brain based
model operating the robot has an
edge over traditional deep learning
systems, especially when it comes
to navigation and recognition of
familiar scenes. Brain models are helping to discover better robot navigation methods (Credit: https://ebrains.eu)

Plant patch monitors crop diseases

Researchers from North Carolina State
University have developed a patch that
plants can ‘wear’ to continuously monitor
plant diseases or other stresses such as
crop damage or extreme heat. By measur-
ing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
emitted by plants under different circum-
stances, the sensors in the patch can alert
users to specific problems. The sensors are
coated with various chemical ligands that
respond to the presence of specific VOCs,
allowing the system to detect and measure
VOCs in gases emitted by the plant’s leaves.
The rectangular patches are 30mm long
and have a flexible material containing
graphene based sensors and flexible silver
Plant patch enables continuous monitoring for crop diseases (Credit: https://news.ncsu.edu) nanowires.

12 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

 STM32Cube enhanced with Azure RTOS,
now available for the STM32H7 MCU series

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REDUCING DEVELOPMENT EFFORT, TIME AND COST
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for users looking to integrate STM32 software in
their existing IDE, such as Keil or IAR IDEs.
STM32Cube is a combination of software tools and
embedded software libraries:
A full set of PC software tools addressing each step
of a complete project development cycle :
Configuration, Development, Programming and
Monitoring.
Embedded software bricks enabling advanced
functionnalities in STM32 microcontrollers and
microprocessors (from MCU drivers to more
advanced application-oriented features)

Software Tools Embedded Software Complemented with Microsoft Azure RTOS (2021)

Azure RTOS ThreadX

Configuration Real-time operating system
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 Tech News
Fingertip sweat powered electronic device
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have
developed a thin, flexible strip that can be worn on a fingertip
to generate small amounts of electricity when a person’s finger
sweats or presses on it. It even generates power while the wearer
is asleep, sitting still or doing activities involving light finger
presses such as typing, texting, playing the piano, or tapping
in Morse code. The device is made up of a padding of carbon
foam electrodes that absorb sweat and convert it into electrical
energy. These electrodes are equipped with enzymes that trig-
ger chemical reactions between lactate and oxygen molecules
in sweat to generate electricity. As the wearer sweats or presses
on the strip, the electrical energy gets stored in a small capacitor
and is discharged to other devices when needed.

This thin, flexible strip can be worn on a fingertip to generate

small amounts of electricity when a person’s finger sweats or
presses on it (Credit: https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu)

Technology restores sense of touch in damaged nerves

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a sensor
that can be implanted anywhere in the body, for example,
under the tip of a severed finger. The sensor that is implanted
in the nerve of the injured limb is connected directly to a
healthy nerve. Each time the limb touches an object, the
sensor is activated and conducts an electric current to the
functioning nerve, which recreates the feeling of touch. The
sensor does not require an external power source such as
electricity or batteries. Instead, whenever the device senses
friction, it charges itself. The device consists of two tiny
plates, which release an electric charge when in contact
with each other. This electric charge gets transmitted to
the undamaged nerve. When the injured finger touches
something, the touch releases tension corresponding to the
pressure applied to the device.
Restoring tactile sensation using a triboelectric nanogenerator
(Credit: https://pubs.acs.org)

Biodegradable EV battery
from crop waste
Bhubaneswar based startup Nexus Power has developed a
lithium-free biodegradable battery cell made from proteins
derived from crop waste. The team leveraged the conductive
properties of proteins to store and release electrical energy.
Both electrodes and the electrolyte are made from bio-organic
materials, and the aluminium casing is recyclable. Tests
showed that the charging speeds for the green battery could
be on par with a lithium battery of a similar capacity. It could
even be faster. The team believes the technology will be fully
commercialised in the next 2-3 years, and India could be the Future EV battery
epicentre of the technology. (Credit: Nexus)

14 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

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 Tech News
New face mask detects Covid-19 infection
Engineers at MIT and Harvard
University have designed a novel
face mask that can diagnose the
wearer with Covid-19 within
about 90 minutes. The masks
are embedded with tiny, dispos-
able sensors that can be fitted
into other face masks and could
also be adapted to detect other
viruses. The sensors could be
incorporated into not only face
masks but also clothing such as
lab coats. The sensors are based
on freeze-dried cells that can
remain stable for many months.
When activated by water, they
interact with their target mol-
ecule, which can be any RNA or
DNA sequence, as well as other
types of molecules, and produce
a signal such as a change in
A prototype face mask for diagnosing Covid-19 within about 90 minutes (Credit: https://news.mit.edu) colour.

Groundbreaking approach for recycling batteries

Current recycling methods for lithium- Electrode tabs on opposing
ion batteries typically feed end-of-life ends of pouch cells, could be
Stack of electrodes removed
used to separate them
batteries into a shredder or high- cleanly and efficiently from battery module
temperature reactor, which are energy
intensive and inefficient. Researchers
at the University of Leicester have Cathode
now developed a new method to (Aluminium Foil)
recycle electric vehicle batteries using
a ground-breaking new approach
Sonotrode
involving ultrasonic waves to separate
out valuable materials from elec-
trodes. So, now the materials such
as lithium, nickel, manganese, and
cobalt can be fully recovered from bat-
teries at the end of their life. Anode
(Copper Foil)

Ultrasound separates
the active material
from the supporting Metal
Diagram showing the ultrasonic process Active Foil
foil Material
which assists in the delamination of lithium-
ion batteries (Credit: https://le.ac.uk)

Intelligent robotic arm that can touch like humans

Researchers at the National University Singapore have devel- and smart prosthetic devices that feel more human-like. To
oped a smart foam material that has the ability to heal and replicate the human sense of touch, the researchers infused
repair itself. So, engineers will now be able to develop robots the foam material with microscopic metal particles and added

16 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

CALLING EXPERTS
Share your knowledge at the 18th edition of
India's most exciting convention on Open Source!

18th Edition

VIRTUAL
7-8 OCT 2021

The Who's Who of

Open Source Speak Here...
Open Source India (OSI) is the premier Open
Source conference in Asia targeted at nurturing Scan to
and promoting the Open Source ecosystem in Register
the subcontinent. Started as LinuxAsia in 2004,
OSI has been at the helm of bringing together OR visit:
the Open Source industry and the community. www.opensourceindia.in/cfp

www.OpenSourceIndia.in
The event will be held virtually at https://home.techworldcongress.com
 Tech News
tiny electrodes underneath it. By apply-
ing pressure, the metal particles came
closer to change the electrical properties.
These changes were then detected by
the electrodes to give commands to the
robot. This feature makes robots more
intelligent and interactive as it enables
the robotic hand to detect not only the
amount but also the direction of applied
force.

Robotic arm (Credit: National University

Singapore’s Materials Sciences and
Engineering lab)

Biofuel cells produce electricity in eco-friendly way

Button or coin cells powering portable devices
are difficult to recycle, toxic and dangerous to
the environment. This calls for the development
of safe and ecological alternatives. A company
called BeFC Bioenzymatic Fuel Cells has devel-
oped a paper based, ultra-thin, flexible, and
miniature bio-enzymatic fuel cell system that
uses biological catalysts instead of chemical or
expensive noble metal catalysts. It works by
converting natural substrates such as glucose
and oxygen into electricity. This metal- and
plastic-free technology provides a sustainable
and environmentally friendly method of generat-
ing energy.

Small-size bioenymatic fuel cell (Credit: www.befc.global)

Radar beams for networking

and localising objects
The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration
IZM in its project called OmniConnect has used a secondary
radar to detect the motion and position of objects inside
rooms. Conventional radar detects objects and their move-
ment but does not provide any other data. A secondary
radar combines radar beams with tags that are attached to
objects. The radar is free from any conflicts with mobile
radio networks, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. Also, the emitted
radiation is completely harmless to human beings. The
system is an ideal solution for networking any objects or
everyday items with one another or integrating them into a
home network. And because the passive tags do not need a
The passive tags can be unobtrusively integrated into everyday objects such
separate power supply, there’s no inconvenience of having as items of clothing. Radar modules on the ceiling detect the position and the
to replace batteries. movement of the tags (Credit: www.fraunhofer.de/en/press)

18 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

 India’s

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 Truly Innovative Tech
Amongst numerous press releases of new products received by us, these are the ones
we found worthy of the title Truly Innovative Tech
Image sensor
for automotive
applications
The ISOCELL Auto 4AC, an automotive
image sensor, offers advanced 120-deci-
bel high dynamic range and LED flicker
mitigation for surround-view monitors
or rear-view cameras in high-definition
resolution (1280 x 960). It gives a safer
driving experience with an enhanced
field of view for the driver thanks to Cor-
nerPixel technology, which features a
specialised pixel structure that mitigates
LED light over 90Hz. Within a single
pixel area, it embeds two photodiodes,
one 3.0µm-pixel for viewing low light
images and a 1.0µm-pixel placed at
the corner of the big pixel for brighter
environments. The two photodiodes
simultaneously capture images in dif-
ferent scenarios, thus allowing smoother
transitions between dark and bright
areas while preserving more details of
the road ahead.
Samsung
www.samsung.com
Self-charging
temperature and
humidity sensor
The HADAR sensor is a wireless tem-
perature and humidity sensor that uses
LoRaWAN technology. Powered by a
light harvesting cell, it works absolutely
maintenance-free; no batteries need
to be replaced throughout its lifecycle.
An integrated energy store allows it to
20 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
operate for several days in total dark-
ness. The acquired information can be
used for optimising heating/cooling and
also to supervise the humidity to avoid
any damage. With respect to security,
the hardware based security architec-
ture provides secure boot, encrypted
firmware, and safe key storage, making
sure correct data is fed without a risk of
information leakage or fraud. Operating
temperature is from –20°C to +65°C.
Pollux
www.pllx.se
Battery chargers for
wearable, medical and
smart sensor products
The AEM10900 and AEM10300 (solar)
and AEM30300 (vibration and RF)
PMICs are fully dedicated to the charg-
ing function, addressing the need for
streamlined power management solu-
tions for energy harvesting hardware.
This allows them to be simply employed
in situations where there are space or
cost constraints. The devices achieve
zero quiescent current drawn from the
battery—meaning that if energy har-
vesting stops for a prolonged period of
time, the energy stored into the battery
will not be wasted supplying the PMIC.
AEM10900 has a 250mV cold start capa-
bility, which means it can commence
with charging the battery even when
light intensities are extremely low.
AEM10300 and AEM30300 PMICs both
have built-in ultra-low-power DC-DC
converters supporting operation over an
input voltage range that covers 100mV
to 4.5V.
e-peas
www.e-peas.com
Driver ICs for shape
memory alloy
applications
The ultra-small and high-performance
CM401 consists of built-in micro-
controller, flash memory, SRAM and
proprietary power delivery, position
sensing and precision control logic,
specially tailored for driving SMA based
lens shift OIS actuators and other shape
memory alloy based applications such
as 3D sensing, haptics, and more. The
development also helps in maintaining
short time to market—from conception
all the way to mass production.
Cambridge Mechatronics
www.cambridgemechatronics.com
GPS technology with
sensor fusion simplifies
precise positioning
The ZED-F9R-02B has been designed for
use in autonomous and industrial appli-
cations that require simple and efficient
implementation, and where rapid access
to highly accurate positioning data is
key, even in challenging signal environ-
ments such as dense cities. Applying
real-time kinematic techniques, the
module can derive positioning data
with centimetre-level accuracy. The
high-precision GNSS measurements
are fused with data from the module’s
www.EFYMag.com
India’s 1st Independent Survey

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Magazine
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 Truly Innovative Tech
inertial measurement unit (IMU), GNSS
correction data, odometry information,
and a vehicle dynamics model to pro-
vide high-quality positioning accuracy.
The precision module integrates GNSS
correction data service and broadcasts
in the highly scalable state-space repre-
sentation (SSR) format, making it easier
to deliver fast time-to-market precise
positioning solutions.
u-blox
www.u-blox.com
100V RF/GaN SiC
product
The IGN1011S3600 is a 100V RF GaN/
SiC product targeting a wide range of
applications including radar, avionics,
electronic warfare, industrial, scien-
tific, and medical systems. Operating at
100V, it achieves 3.6kW output power
with 19dB gain and 70% efficiency. The
IGN1011S3600 gives designers the ability
to dramatically increase system power
levels and functionality while simpli-
fying system architectures with less
power combining circuitry. Customers
ultimately benefit with a smaller system
footprint and lower system cost.
Integra Technologies
www.integratech.com
Buck regulator IC
Operating at a switching speed of
667kHz, the SZDL3105B fully-integrated
DC-DC converter (buck regulator) can
supply up to 5 amps and 100 watts of
output power.  It accommodates indus-
try-leading wide input and output ranges
22 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
that support up to 27V DC input and
is supplied in a tiny 4mm x 4mm QFN
package. It has low operating power
dissipation, and internal and external
feedback resistor divider. Applications
include fast charging power adaptors
and battery chargers for mobile devices .
Silanna Semiconductor
www.silanna.com
Small LoRaWAN
modem module
The Type 1SJ LoRaWAN modem
module comes preloaded with AT
Command controlled modem firmware
and a LoRaWAN stack with an AT Com-
mand middle layer. Operating from a
single supply rail up to 3.9V DC, the
device incorporates several low-power
modes that allow the real time clock to
operate while drawing a typical current
of just 1.3µA, assuring battery longev-
ity. These features enable a faster time-
to-market and ease design challenges
for IoT developers. It is suitable for a
wide range of applications such as asset
tracking, utilities, agriculture, smart
cities, smart buildings, industrial, and
other IoT applications where a minia-
turised footprint, long range, extended
battery life, advanced security, and a
competitive price point are all critical
requirements.
Murata Manufacturing
www.murata.com
Module combining
two radio standards
The PTM 535BZ is a transmitter module
for battery-free switch applications. It
offers a combination of supported wire-
less standards in the 2.4GHz radio band
and enables the realisation of energy
harvesting wireless switches communi-
cating based on Bluetooth Low Energy
or Zigbee Green Power radio standards.
Thanks to the integrated Near Field
Communication interface, it is easy to
switch between the two radio standards.
This gives users the option of selecting
one of these two protocols for transmis-
sion depending on applications such as
public transport, mechanical door and
window sensors, or even mini switches
for household appliances.
EnOcean
www.enocean.com
3-in-1 industrial
sensor for vibration,
temperature, and speed
The VSx is an industrial wired sensor
that combines vibration, temperature,
and speed detection. It plugs into the
Petasense transmitter to detect common
failures in variable speed, batch or
spared assets. Integrated speed detec-
tion within the VSx allows users to take
measurements only during the specified
speed ranges or when the asset is oper-
ating. Embedded smart sensing allows
the sensors to communicate with each
other, providing synchronised readings
and enabling users to better diagnose
developing problems. By wiring the VSx
into the Petasense transmitter, users can
take advantage of affordable batteryless
wireless monitoring and accelerate IIoT
deployments.
Petasense
www.petasense.com
www.EFYMag.com
 New Products
COMPONENTS
Air quality sensor
The ZMOD4510 Outdoor Air Quality
(OAQ) gas sensor platform now comes
with an IP67-qualified waterproof
package and a new
AI based algorithm
that enables ultra-
low power selective
ozone measurements
while maintaining
power consumption under 200µW. The
enhanced ZMOD4510 is a miniature
digital OAQ solution with selective
ozone measurement capabilities, offer-
ing visibility into the air quality in users’
immediate environments, thus allowing
devices such as smart watches, phones,
and smoke detectors to monitor harmful
ozone gasses typically found outdoors
but which can drift indoors.
Renesas Electronics Corporation
www.renesas.com
Power management ICs
The AEM30330 and AEM10330 PMICs
utilise a buck-boost architecture, ena-
bling a greater coverage range of
input voltage levels
(100mV to 4.5V).
This means that
low and high power
sources can be addressed. AEM30330
is targeted at RF/vibration-oriented
deployments (including industrial
equipment, home automation systems,
healthcare monitoring, and household
appliances), while AEM10330 is spe-
cifically intended for solar deployments
(with the scope to manage up to 7 con-
nected photovoltaic cells).
e-peas
www.e-peas.com
Transient voltage suppressor
ESDCAN03-2BM3Y dual automotive-
qualified low-capacitance transient
voltage suppressor (TVS) protects CAN
24 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
and CAN-FD interfaces by delivering
all-round performance in a tiny pack-
age. The new TVS meets the automo-
tive industry’s need
for highly miniaturised
and high-performing
protection devices for
the increasing number
of high-density electronic control units.
By using this device, designers can save
75% or more of the PCB space needed
by conventional TVS in SOT23-3L and
SOT323-3L packages.
STMicroelectronics
www.st.com
Magnetoresistance speed
sensor
The ATS19480 speed sensor IC provides
a single-channel solution that’s ideal
for hybrid and pure electric vehicle
transmissions, with use
cases extending to two-
wheelers, off-road vehi-
cles, and industrial appli-
cation designs requiring
speed-only information.
With an air gap that’s 50% larger than
existing options, it improves design-in
flexibility, expands design margin and
tolerance capability, and facilitates a
wider range of sensor installation loca-
tions, reducing system complexity and
boosting efficiency.
Allegro MicroSystems
www.allegromicro.com
Three-phase driver IC
The 6EDL7141 is a fully programmable
solution for advanced motor control
applications, delivering high power
density and improving overall system effi-
ciency. The EiceDRIVER 6EDL7141 fea-
tures an SPI interface for gate drive out-
puts configuration as
well as an integrated
power supply and
dual charge pumps
NEW
to supply all system functions. With an
operating voltage of 5.5V to 60V and a
configurable driving current up to 1.5A,
it can drive a wide range of MOSFETs
effectively to fit the application.
Infineon Technologies AG
www.infineon.com
Monolithic microwave IC
The new GMICP2731-10 GaN MMIC
power amplifier is designed for use
in commercial and defence satel-
lite communications,
5G networks, and other
aerospace and defence
systems. It is fabricated
using GaN-on-Silicon Car-
bide (SiC) technology and
delivers up to 10W saturated RF output
power across the 3.5GHz of bandwidth
between 27.5 and 31GHz. Its power-
added efficiency is 20%, with 22dB
small-signal gain, and 15dB return loss.
Microchip Technology
www.microchip.com
Push-pull transformers
The MID-PPTI series that includes
750317828, 750317829, 750317830, and
750317331 has an isolation voltage of
2,500V AC. The 5V output versions,
750317828 and 750317830, are capable of
handling 250mA cur-
rent. The 12V output
versions, 750317829
and 750317331, can
handle 100mA current. The MID-PPTI
transformers are best suited for isolated
interface power supply for CAN, RS-485,
RS-422, RSS-232, SPI, I2C, low-power
LAN, industrial, process control, medi-
cal equipment, PLC analogue and digital
I/O modules, isolated gate driver power
supplies, AC motor drives, and solar
inverters.
Wurth Elektronik
www.we-online.com
Offline power solution
The new NCP1680 critical conduction
mode (CrM) totem-pole PFC controller
www.EFYMag.com
Empowering
independence
in IoT.

Book your battery expert

consultation at Email:
nelson.seng@varta-microbattery.com
www.varta-ag.com/iot
 New Products
employs novel current limit architecture
and line phase detection while incor-
porating control algorithms to deliver
a cost-effective solution
without compromising
on performance. At the
heart of this IC is an
internally compensated
digital loop control. The
device employs a constant on-time CrM
architecture with valley switching. High
efficiency at light load can also be met
due to in-built discontinuous conduction
mode with valley synchronised turn-on
during frequency fold back operation.
ON Semiconductor
www.onsemi.com
IC for IoT applications
The Essential Analog MAX16162 allows
designers to enhance system reliability
in low-voltage IoT applications. It elimi-
nates glitches until the
input voltage achieves
the appropriate voltage
threshold. Eliminating
glitches improves reliability not only for
IoT systems but also portable medical
monitoring devices, wearables, base sta-
tions, programmable logic controllers,
and automation controls. MAX16162
draws only 825nA.
Maxim Integrated
www.maximintegrated.com
MODULES & BOARDS
Indoor positioning kits
Designed for low power consumption,
simple deployment, and low cost of
ownership, the XPLR-AOA-1 and XPLR-
AOA-2 explorer kits make it easy to
test the technology’s
capabilities to enable a
variety of applications
including access control, collision detec-
tion, smart appliances, indoor position-
ing, and asset tracking. They showcase
WE LOVE TO
SHOWCASE
NEW PRODUCTS!
26 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
complete Bluetooth based tracking solu-
tions that reliably offer sub-metre-level
accuracy in indoor environments.
u-blox
www.u-blox.com
CompactPCI serial processor
The cPCI-A3525 series CompactPCI
serial processor blade in single-slot
(4HP) form factor features the latest 9th
generation Intel Xeon/Core i7 proces-
sor, formerly known as
Coffee Lake Refresh. It
supports the newer Com-
pactPCI serial standard,
PICMG CPCI-S.0, for next-generation,
mission-critical applications requiring
higher performance such as railway
transportation, aerospace and defence,
and industrial automation.
ADLINK Technology
www.adlinktech.com
Development kit
The new EV12AQ600-FMC-EVM devel-
opment kit is an invaluable tool for
implementing mixed-signal subsystems.
Intended for prototyping
work relating to avi-
onics, military, space,
telecommunications,
industrial, and high energy physics
applications, it may be used for evalu-
ating the operation of the company’s
EV12AQ600 and EV12AQ605 12-bit
quad-channel ADCs, meaning engineers
can quickly construct functioning pro-
totypes and check the expected opera-
tional parameters.
Teledyne e2v
www.teledyne-e2v.com
System on Module
The miriac MPX-S32G274A SoM comes
with quad Arm Cortex-A53 cores plus
triple Arm Cortex-M7 dual cores and
combines ASIL D safety and hardware
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security with more than 10 times the
real-time performance and network-
ing throughput of NXP’s previous
automotive gateway devices. The SoM
offers multiple native
CAN interfaces as well
a s c o m p re h e n s i ve
FlexRay, LIN, and Eth-
ernet support. Target
markets are real-time connected vehi-
cles, mobile machinery, and automotive
test and measurement equipment.
MicroSys Electronics
www.microsys.de
DC-DC converter
The BMR482 is a 2nd generation direct
conversion isolated DC-DC converter. By
converting directly from a 48V supply
to the load voltage,
without an intermedi-
ate stage, the BMR482
delivers increased effi-
ciency in a compact
package, enabling it to meet the higher
power needs of today’s data centres
and cloud computing. The device can
achieve up to 91.3% efficiency with a
0.8V output at 53Vin and requires 50%
less board space than other 2-stage
solutions.
Flex Power Modules
www.flexpowermodules.com
600W power supply
The 600-watt AEA600F power supply
series delivers 300% peak power for
up to 1,000 milliseconds. Designed for
applications requir-
ing a high level of
safety, it is suitable
for industrial and
medical applications. Optimised for
free-air convection, it is ideal for use
in equipment operated in low noise
environments. For low harmonic cur-
rent distortion, the AEA600F uses active
power factor corrector, and the switch-
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 New Products
ing stage uses an LLC resonant topology
deploying the latest generation of power
semiconductors, with a typical efficiency
of up to 95%.
COSEL
www.cosel.co.jp
mmWave module
The PRM2141 IEEE802.11ad/ay module
is fully tested to an over-the-air antenna
input/output specification, thus reliev-
ing OEMs from the
complexities of ensur-
ing the integrity of the
mmWave RF perfor-
mance. In terms of per-
formance, the phased array antenna is
optimised for both as standalone device
and for use with a parabolic reflector.
Using a 40cm dish antenna, it links up
to 25km. In standalone configuration,
the module supports a range of more
than 500m. Applications include PtP
and PtMP links for fixed wireless access
networks, private mmWave networks,
5G base station backhaul, and V2X com-
munications.
Peraso
www.perasotech.com
Development kit
The S-2CONNECT Creo development kit
with LTE Cat M1/ NB-IoT is designed
to accelerate digi-
tal programs. The
kit is designed for
software developers
who are charged with reducing R&D
risk and fast-tracking their IoT applica-
tion development. The kit includes the
S-2CONNECT Creo system-on-module,
an evaluation board, and accessories,
and comes with a 3-month cellular
subscription.
TT Electronics
www.ttelectronics.com
Computer-on-module
The new 11th Gen Intel core processor
based computer-on-module with sol-
dered RAM is built for
high shock and vibration
resistance in challeng-
ing transportation and
mobility applications.
It can withstand temperature ranges
of -40°C to +85°C. The module offers
28 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
significantly greater CPU performance
and nearly 3x higher GPU performance
compared to the predecessors, along
with state-of-the-art PCIe Gen4 support.
congatec
www.congatec.com
Wi-Fi 6 based module
The i.MX 8 system on module (SoM)
with Wi-Fi 6 brings performance
i m p rove m e n t w i t h
increased spatial and
spectral performance in
high-density environ-
ments, targeting connected industrial,
medical, and automotive applications.
With Wi-Fi 6 integrated on the SoM, it
becomes easier for designers to design
carrier cards and end products, shorten-
ing development time with reduced risk
and complexity.
iWave Systems
www.iwavesystems.com
T&M SOLUTIONS
Fully integrated oscilloscope
The all-new R&S RTO6 digital oscil-
loscope offers six different bandwidth
models from 600MHz to
6GHz and up to 20 giga
samples per second. The
fully integrated test solu-
tion for the time and fre-
quency domain, as well
as protocol and logic analysis, supports
design engineers from all industries. It
features a high waveform update rate,
excellent signal fidelity, a uniquely
powerful digital trigger, responsive deep
memory, and full HD screen, with easy-
to-use touch functionality.
Rohde & Schwarz
www.rohde-schwarz.com
Intuitive signal generator
The SGX1000 RF signal generator is a
new series of instruments that combine
high performance
signal generation
capabilities with an
intuitive user inter-
face. The unique, proprietary blend of
direct digital and direct analogue synthe-
sis enables ultra-fine frequency resolu-
tion, lightning-fast frequency switching,
ultra-low phase noise and jitter, and
superior reliability. The SGX1000 series
brings high-performance signal genera-
tion at an affordable price for broad use
in the semiconductor, military, aero-
space, medical, and communications
industries.
Wireless Telecom Group
www.wirelesstelecomgroup.com
Protocol analyser
The Frontline X500 wireless protocol
analyser is a one-box solution that pro-
vides time-correlat-
ed captures of Blue-
tooth Basic Rate,
Extended Data
Rate, Low Energy, Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax),
and 802.15.4 based technologies such
as Zigbee and Thread. The instrument
delivers reliable capture, decryption and
decoding in complex multi-technology
test environments, with market-leading
support for the latest Wi-Fi technologies,
helping to reveal potential issues, errors,
interference, or conflicts in the wireless
trace, as well as to identify device per-
formance enhancement opportunities.
Teledyne LeCroy
www.teledynelecroy.com
Automotive radar tester
The new R&S RTS radar test system con-
sisting of the R&S AREG800A backend
and the R&S QAT100
antenna array frontend
is a target simulator that
generates dynamic radar
echoes. It can be used
at all stages of automobile radar sensor
testing—from pre-development through
hardware-in-the-loop lab tests to valida-
tion of ADAS/AD functions integrated
in the vehicle. The system simulates the
radial velocity (Doppler shift) and the
size (radar cross-section) of objects at
very small ranges, allowing early error
detection.
Rohde & Schwarz
www.rohde-schwarz.com
SOFTWARE TOOLS
Microcontroller design tools
The new MPLAB cloud tools ecosys-
tem for PIC and AVR devices makes
microcontroller design easy. The free,
all-in-one cloud platform combines
www.EFYMag.com
 Indian Science, Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM)
Launched by the Honourable
Prime Minister of India
I-STEM: Strengthen the Indigenous
Development of Scientific Instruments
After establishing a National web portal through which R&D equipment in institutions across the country can
be located and accessed in a transparent way, I-STEM is entering a New Phase with the following objectives –

Working towards a more comprehensive listing of R&D facilities.

Availability, and their active use
Providing partial assistance to Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions for Indigenous
the maintenance of facilities shared through I-STEM through Equipment
Comprehensive AMC program Development
Partial assistance to Users from Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions Software
who use facilities through I-STEM Services
Promoting the indigenous development – especially by through
startups - of scientific equipment and I-STEM
Skill
value-added technical supplies, including software,
Development
used for R&D; enabling such development via the (national)
Program
Digital Catalogue of indigenously developed technologies and
products maintained by the I-STEM portal
Partial
Establishing regional centres for providing technical training
funding
and skill development, in part by restoring/stripping R&D
to Institution,
equipment written off by I-STEM institutions; thus developing User friendly
Researchers
a stream of talent and gainful employment through maintaining R&D facilities
and Start-ups
and upgrading R&D facilities access across
Providing access through the web to R&D software platforms to the country
Academic Users to promote R&D and more effective
instruction/learning, especially in smaller institutions.

Launched by the Honourable

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 New Products
easy, integrated search and discovery
of example code, graphical configura-
tion of projects, and
code debugging in a
collaborative environ-
ment, enabling rapid
development while simplifying software
design for users at all skill levels with an
intuitive browser based interface and
cloud connectivity.
Microchip Technology
www.microchip.com
Updated STM32Cube Software
The X-CUBE-IOTA1 expansion software
package includes IOTA-specific mid-
dleware and sample
implementations
for the STM32Cube
microcontroller
(MCU) software development ecosys-
tem. It allows developers to benefit
from the efficient performance and high
feature integration of STM32 MCUs for
building smart, connected transaction-
handling devices that leverage the latest
Chrysalis upgrades to the IOTA DLT,
which is a decentralised secure database
that protects against data tampering.
STMicroelectronics
www.st.com
Embedded development tool
The complete development toolchain
IAR Embedded Workbench for RISC-V
adds support for the
latest Andes RISC-V
extension and devices,
enabling maximised
performance in RISC-V
based applications. It helps developers
ensure the application fits the required
needs and optimises the utilisation of
on-board memory. It is a complete C/
C++ compiler and debugger toolchain
with everything embedded developers
need integrated in a single IDE.
IAR Systems
www.iar.com
Source code debugger
The Tracealyzer version 4.5 provides
support for the Espressif ESP32 MCU
and open source
Zephyr RTOS, along
with improving the
i n te g rat io n w it h
30 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express
Lauterbach uTrace, and more. The new
version offers improved support for the
STLINK-V3 debug probe. It also includes
support for Percepio DevAlert, a cloud
service for monitoring and remote diag-
nostics of IoT devices during testing and
deployment.
Percepio
www.percepio.com
MANUFACTURING
EQUIPMENT
PCB plasma treatment system
The MARCH MegaVIA plasma treatment
system with a 15-cell configuration for
panel sizes up to 76.2cm x
132.1cm during PCBs manu-
facture offers high process
reproducibility and plasma
treatment uniformity for PCB
panels. The MegaVIA system
provides plasma treatment at 40kHz and
accommodates all common gases - CF4,
oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. An EPC
controller with intuitive Windows 10
PC based touchscreen HMI allows for a
wide range of data collection and control
capabilities.
Nordson Electronics Solutions
www.nordson.com
CHEMICALS & ADHESIVES
Soldering flux
Providing solutions for current and
evolving industry challenges is the
new TACFlux 571HF, a no-clean,
halogen-free flux formulated
for both hand soldering and
rework. It is compatible with
typical lead-free (SAC) as well
as low-temperature bismuth-
and indium-containing alloys
for PCB assembly applications.
Besides being halogen free, other ben-
efits include post-reflow flux residue
clearing for no-clean applications and
shelf life of up to one year.
Indium Corporation
www.indium.com
Reworkable underfill adhesive
Structalit 5751 is a black, heat-curing,
resin-based epoxy adhesive character-
ised by low viscosity and linear flow
behaviour. The uncured properties
of Structalit 5751 allow contactless
dispensing for fast and precise place-
ment of the adhesive.
This underfill has a low
ion content and is well
suited for electronic
component packaging, despite its black
colour. It allows manufacturers to reduce
both manufacturing costs and environ-
mental impact by reusing electronic
components mounted on PCBs.
Panacol-Elosol GmbH
www.panacol.com
ENTERPRISE CLASS
Multiport PoE injector
Multiport Power over Ethernet (PoE)
power sourcing equipment (PSE) injec-
tor, also known as a
midspan, enables any
multigigabit switch
to support a device’s
high power needs and data rates, with
no network configuration or downtime
necessary. Multigigabit PoE-enabled
switches with sufficient power for Wi-Fi
6 devices and small cell equipment are
expensive and not widely adopted. A
more cost-effective way to inject power
into the network for these high-speed
devices is to install one of Microchip’s
new multiport, multigigabit midspans
between them and any standard multi-
gigabit switch.
Microchip Technology
www.microchip.com
Data centre SSD
The DC1500M, a U.2 data centre NVMe
PCIe SSD for mixed-use workloads
leverages a high-perfor-
mance Gen 3.0 x4 PCIe
NVMe design. It deliv-
ers predictable random
IO performance as well
as predictable latencies over a wide
range of workloads. The drive deliv-
ers consistent read/write latencies of
<110µs/<206µs, respectively. Addition-
ally, adopting the U.2 form factor allows
current Gen 3.0 and Gen 4.0 servers and
storage arrays to immediately utilise
existing PCIe slots and U.2 backplanes
while maintaining serviceability with
hot-pluggable drives.
Kingston Technology
www.kingston.com
www.EFYMag.com
Debugging Hornby DCC Elite Controller with PicoScope
2408B and PicoScope 6's DCC decoding tool
PicoScope 2408B oscilloscope & TA 189 Probe & PicoScope 6 software
The PicoScope 2408B is a 4-channel device with 128 MS capture memory and a sampling rate of 1 GS/s; TA189 is a
30A AC/DC current probe; The PicoScope 6 software has decoder support for a number of protocols, including DCC.
Hornby DCC Elite Controller
The Hornby Elite is a fully featured advanced digital controller, capable of simultaneously running 64 locomotives
on a single layout. We can set up each one of these possible locos via either of the two manual control channels.
The Elite also supports control of points and other accessories, as well as full programming of locomotive and static
decoders, both on the main and programming tracks. It connects to the PC via USB to allow firmware updates and
interaction with model railway control software.
Setting up the equipment
Having installed the PicoScope 6 software and connected the PS
2408B to the PC, we connected each of the four TA132 voltage
probes supplied with the scope to a channel. We then attached
breakout wires to the Elite’s various external circuits so that we
could connect the TA132 voltage probes to the TRACK, BOOST and
PROG and XpressNet outputs. For the sake of clarity, the basic
equipment setup shown in Figure 1 uses only Channel A, with
breakout wires for the probe attached to screw terminals on the
ESU tester for the most reliable connection. We set up the other
channels similarly, by way of breakout wires from each Elite output. Figure 1 Test Connections Setup
Serial Decoding Results

Figure 2 TRACK Output Signal Decoding Figure 3 Boost Output Signal Decoding
The upper part in Figure 2 is the graph display, where we can see Channel A (in blue) picking up the DCC packets and
showing a typical DCC voltage of roughly ±15 V, and the TA189 current clamp on Channel B (red) picking up the
Sapphire decoder running on load at around 0.2 A. It is generally advisable to make sure the locomotive decoder can
handle the loco’s stall current draw. We checked this by hand-stopping the motor, causing the current spike circled
in the screenshot. The lower part in Figure 2 contains the table display, where by way of a link file, we are able to
translate binary data to more easily digestible text, showing us the commands coming from the Elite. Some ringing of
the DCC signal is apparent in this screenshot as we had not set the lowpass filter correctly and there was only a light
load on the track system. Ringing is better damped when there are many locos on the track.
It produced an error message in Figure 3, indicating mismatched polarity or a short circuit. To correct the error, we
reversed the connections to probe and all was well, indicating some sort of problem within the Elite. Investigation
showed there was an error in the design of the printed circuit board (PCB). Hornby will have allowed this into
production as the external Hornby Booster automatically switches the polarity of the BOOST output without user
intervention. More details about this article, please browse: https://www.picotech.com/library/application-note/dcc-
demonstrating-the-hornby-elite-using-picoscope.
For more information: https://www.picotech.com/distributors or email us: pico.asia-pacific@picotech.com
 Interview Discussion

Patents Are The By-Products

Of The Improvements
You Strive To Make
IIT Madras. MIT. 100 patents. 3 keywords that provide a hint of Dr Manish Kothari’s professional journey. Possessing more than
20 years of technology management experience, Dr Kothari has recently taken up the challenge to head Silicon Labs’ wireless
development centre in India. Electronics For You connected with him to find out his plans to take on the leadership role, how he
maintains a work-life balance, and his vision for Silicon Labs India team

You have an impressive hundred patents to your

name. What’s the secret of success behind that?
As I look back, I think it was really just a
desire to always keep learning and make things
better. I’m always looking for continuous
improvement and the lessons learnt while doing
that, and that is the mantra I follow. In every
project I’m involved in, I look at what went well,
what didn’t go well, and this has given me an
opportunity to understand how things can be
better. Also, I have always been keen on the end-
use cases and understanding how differently a
particular technology can be used. I read consum-
er blogs of my products to find out what people
are writing about them and read Amazon reviews
to find out what the consumer likes or dislikes in a
product, and that always gives me an opportunity
to keep learning and improving.
I believe that having the mindset of want-
ing to keep learning just gives you that needed
impetus. In terms of innovation, I think everybody
can innovate. But of course, sometimes you tend
to be lucky and be at the right place when the
right innovation is being discovered. While these
factors do exist, we all have to be humble
enough to recognise this. We must
also acknowledge when there
is an innovation that could
have done better, espe-
cially when you realise
that the customer is not
happy, or the usage
for which you built
your product is dif-
ferent from how the
customer is using it.
Innovation is all about
doing things for the
first time, so if you
can come up with an Dr Manish Kothari
improvement for the Head - Wireless Development
first time, that can Centre, Silicon Labs India

32 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

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 Interview
also become an innovation on its own.
And if you stick to the desire to make
improvements, you will always come
up with something, whether patent-
able or not.
What would be your advice to innova-
tors who also want to file a patent?
Is it only tied in with the organisation
they are working with, or can they do it
individually or with their academia?
I have never really mulled over
whether my innovations can be patent-
ed or not because there is no certainty
to it. I’ve always focused on looking
at things deeper. If there is a certain
problem on which I’m burning a lot of
power, I focus on figuring out how it
can be solved better. If I come up with
something new during that process,
then the determination has to occur to
find out whether it is patentable or not.
As a company, there are sev-
eral mechanisms to figure out if you
should be patenting something. It is
also important to note that when you
patent something, you are essentially
disclosing that technology to everyone,
and then figuring out if there is any
way you can hold it from being ille-
gally used. So, while there are a lot of
mechanisms, I don’t believe that focus-
ing on getting patents is the way to go
about it. I’ve never focused on getting
a patent in a specific case because it
depends on a lot of factors, and I don’t
think it’s worth worrying about.
Moreover, in an organisation, a lot
of your ideas work better when you
take an interdisciplinary approach.
For instance, in order to increase the
number of patents in a structured way,
I have participated in a lot of brown-
bag sessions where hardware engi-
neers, system engineers, or power engi-
neers would come together and discuss
the areas where significant innovations
can happen and brainstorm on them. I
have seen amazing innovations come
up when you bring different disciplines
together because if someone work-
ing on hardware receives inputs from
someone in software, they have an out-
sider’s perspective which gives them
an opportunity to make something. So,
as you bring these different thought
processes together, new ideas emerge
which definitely help when someone is
trying to innovate.
Patents are the by-products of the
improvements you strive to make. You
cannot force them because there are no
shortcuts. As you focus on these little
improvements, it is just something that
happens.
34 august 2021 • electronics For you express
How would you define your leadership
style?
My management philosophy is
grounded in humility (I know that I don’t
know everything and there’s something to
learn from everyone), reliability, account-
ability, integrity, a thirst for learning, and
respect for everyone. The technology
industry can be a very intense environ-
ment, so I seek to inspire, empower, and
motivate teams by setting the same stand-
ards for myself as I do for my teams and
work with a sincere focus to help ensure
successful outcomes. Work-life balance
starts with all of us enjoying the work
we do, and I am always mindful about
making the office a fun place to be.
As a leader, is there a way to motivate
people within an organisation to focus
on improving, or is it left to each indi-
vidual’s ethos? How do you drive it?
There are two things that we do as
an organisation. The first is having the
mentality of being best in class. When
you’re best in class, you’re always
measuring yourself in all vectors like
your position among competitors,
in terms of customer satisfaction, in
operational efficiency, and so on. As a
leader, when you follow the mechanism
of dissecting what you have done and
how you could have done it better, and
applying the lessons learnt from it, you
have objective and subjective measures
that you drive in the organisation that
motivates people to follow the same.
We also have a reward mechanism
that drives the whole engine of continu-
ous improvement.
I’m a big believer that if you believe
in continuous improvement and les-
sons learnt by measuring yourself in
an objective way and trying to find out
what you can do to better yourself when
you find out that you are not doing your
best in any vector.
If you have that attitude of ‘we don’t
rest until we are the best’ organisation-
ally, the only way to get there is through
continuous improvement, because
progress is by and large an incremental
step. It is a marathon and not a sprint.
You have to keep at it, which is when
innovations come up. There can be fac-
tors when making a product that might
make you doubt the end-result that
might occur, but if the consumer wants
something, you have to find out how to
win over those factors.
I think it is important to institution-
alise this thought-process at any level
that allows that, and then have the
training and an incentive mechanism to
enable that.
Generally, the system of organisational
promotions is that the higher one goes,
the more responsibility one gets. But
there are people who really don’t want
managerial roles but at the same time
have the ambition to go higher. What
would your advice be to people who are
faced with this dilemma of whether they
should continue doing what they love or
take up this new challenge?
In engineering, I don’t think it mat-
ters if you’re doing a managerial role or
a role where you are leading projects,
you still have to work as a team. You
have to be updated with the technol-
ogy. You need to have the ability to dial
down to one-foot level of detail, should
there be a requirement, and also dial up
to a thousand-feet level. No one person
can make an engineering product. A
software developer or an ASIC designer
may have the technical knowledge to
develop a product but may be leading
a team of 10-40 people to do it. It is a
technical execution, but it does require
motivating the team to come together
and work. There is no getting around
the fact that you have to work as a team
and learn how to execute it together.
These qualities are needed in engi-
neering because engineering decisions
are always about trade-offs. I have
realised that there is no one formula
that can work when you’re trying to
find a solution to a problem. You’re
always trying to find a solution in the
constraints of time, schedule, cost, etc.
You cannot always put in a formula
and expect a unique answer because a
unique answer is a constraint. So, as an
engineer, if you have an idea, you have
to convince your team. You need to have
the ability to communicate and con-
vince. Teamwork and leadership is part
and parcel of working in engineering.
In any technology company, you
have a technical ladder and a manage-
ment ladder that you can grow in. But
even as you grow on your technical
ladder, when they give you a product,
you are still expected to run with a team
of people. You may not be managing
them, but you will still have to moti-
vate them, figure out how to divide the
task, and make sure that you hand over
something to team members that best
aligns with their skills.
Now, what comes in the managerial
ladder is that when you manage people
directly, you are also responsible for
their career development. It is not just
about managing projects when you’re
managing people, it is also about taking
care of their dreams and their aspira-
tions because they have entrusted that
www.EFYMag.com
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 Interview
to you. You have to figure out if that
attracts you because that is something
you have to take very seriously. But I
think that management is an exciting
vector because it is a people-involving
skill. It can be time consuming and
draining, but it is rewarding as well.
But even if you move over to
management, it doesn’t mean that
you forget technology. Because, as a
manager, if a project is running behind
and you have to make a decision, you
need to be able to look at the pros and
cons, analyse it and then make a call.
You can’t do that if you’re completely
detached from the technology. You
really need to be connected with the
technology, regardless of hardware or
software. You need to know enough so
that you can dial up and down.
There is a lot of talk about work-life
balance getting disrupted. Are there
any initiatives at your end to make sure
work-life balance is not compromised?
And then how do you handle the fact
that somebody wants to get into the
flow and forget the number of hours
they are working? Do you leave it to
the individual?
I believe that work-life balance
starts with enjoying your work. I think
that if the workplace is a fun place to
be, you are not frustrated because you
enjoy what you’re doing and don’t
carry that back home. That, to me, is
foundational. You need to make sure
that you’re in an organisation that
allows that, and we certainly strive to
do that. The workplace needs to be
a fun place. People should enjoy the
people they are working with.
There’s also the element of modulat-
ing the number of work hours, which is
an important aspect of work-life balance,
and I think that there is a level to which
the company plays a role in determining
that, especially in terms of how they dis-
tribute the workload and plan projects.
It is a collective partnership between the
company and the individual.
If the project needs the input of five
people but the company squeezes in
only two people to do it, then that obvi-
ously is a problem right from the design
stage. Any project or development you
do always has some uncertainties that
you cannot plan for. There is always
a discovery based learning, which is
important to recognise in the planning
phase. You never know what might
happen when you’re doing something
new, and when that hits you may have
to spend more hours. I have also been
in similar situations where I’ve hit a
36 august 2021 • electronics For you express
roadblock while I’m in the middle of a
project and spent weekends or pulled
all-nighters to get around it.
But the point is, do you let that
become a habit? If yes, then that will
not work out well.
As a company, you need to figure
out how to give certain teams a little bit
of breather if it went through a rough
patch. First, you need to be apprecia-
tive of their efforts and not act like you
expect them to do that.
Also, there’s always some discov-
ery based learning that can come out
depending on the kind of project you
are working on. So, you need to be
The technology
industry is highly
competitive. You
come up with
something and your
competitor may come
up with something
better. This factor
will always remain,
but it is important
that you do not
let it dictate your
whole life.
aware of that right before you begin
and then plan accordingly so that in
the planning stage itself you’re taking
it into account.
Even if you do the best, you’ll always
hit road bumps. You may also face new
challenges which might require you to
accelerate on your schedule. But if you
keep an eye on the teams that are going
through these stress times, you have to
again come back to the lessons learnt
and plan better next time.
Also, with most employees work-
ing from home, you have to be aware
of things like the challenges one faces
when a couple are both working and
have a kid who is not going to school.
If you are aware of that, which we at
Silicon Labs are, you’ll be mindful
of not calling meetings during lunch
hours and also be mindful of how
many hours of calls you have.
In terms of one’s own time man-
agement, I think a personal aspect that
is important is how you modulate your
time with your family and friends. My
advice is to always take out time for
the things that you enjoy doing outside
work. You may not be married or have
kids right now, but you will, at some
point in the future. So, you must get into
the discipline of modulating your time
well, because sometimes you get into a
flow when you are enjoying your work.
There are little tweaks you can make
in your schedule like taking a break
once every four or six months.
The technology industry is highly
competitive. You come up with some-
thing and your competitor may come up
with something better. This factor will
always remain, but it is important that
you do not let it dictate your whole life.
My hope is that when the pandemic
is over and kids are back in school,
we will still have some level of flexible
work-from-home options. I see that as a
part of work-life balance too. If someone
is not productive in the morning as they
have to take care of their kid but are
more productive in the evening, then I
believe that they should have the flex-
ibility to work then. So, I hope that we
can have a mechanism where if some-
body says that they work better in the
morning, we can ensure that they can
finish work in the morning instead of
staying in the office till 6PM and grind-
ing their way through the traffic. We’re
always about getting the work done and
empowering you to manage your time.
What made you opt for this role and the
accompanying challenge?
Silicon Labs is uniquely positioned
to disrupt the industry as these ‘not so
simple’ wireless end nodes leverage AI
and machine learning to become more
intelligent (and powerful) over time.
And history is on our side. After all,
technology disruptions typically occur
from the bottom up, as detailed in the
famous book Innovator’s Dilemma. We
are only limited by our imagination, as
the saying goes, and I consider myself
fortunate to be part of this incredible
journey of disruption where Silicon Labs
is right at the forefront.
The Hyderabad development centre
is Silicon Labs’ fastest-growing site,
playing an important and strategic role
in helping the company as a whole to
meet the huge demand for Silicon Labs’
solutions.
I am excited about the challenge I
have set for myself to build a world-class
development centre here that embodies
Silicon Labs’ culture and engineering
best practices, with a highly motivated
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 Interview
and talented team that has a passion for
execution, innovation, collaboration,
integrity, and fun. Another key goal is to
become an industry-leading technology
centre of excellence for Wi-Fi, including
Wi-Fi 6.
What do you mean by ‘not so simple’
wireless, and how does it affect design
engineers and the end-product?
When people look at an IoT prod-
uct, they think it is simply switching a
light bulb on or off. So, when I say ‘not
so simple’ wireless, it is important to
understand that it is not that simple.
It is tiny but if you break it down, it
performs a variety of complex func-
tions. It has a communication function,
it performs sense and control, and so
on. When you think about the elements
of these simple products, they have a
lot of the things that a smartphone has
today. These products are also becom-
ing intelligent. For instance, when you
think of an environment where you can
talk to a bulb through Alexa, it needs
to detect voice and the keywords, and
then start inferencing. When all of these
several functions are packed into a tiny
ASIC, which has to last on a coin-cell
battery, it is not so simple.
You can think of Silicon Labs in the
IoT space in the same sense of what
smartphones did in innovations to dis-
rupt what happened in the PCs. You will
see a lot of these nodes getting more
powerful and intelligent over time. As
they get more powerful, more and more
functions would occur at your node. It
is also important to note that when you
have this device, which is packed with
mixed signal, analogue, RF, along with
compute, AI etc, in one ASIC, it is not
easy to design.
If you look at a smartphone, the RF
chip is separate from the digital chip,
and there are various reasons for it.
One is obviously the cost benefit, but
also because it is difficult to build since
analogue tends to be very sensitive to
noise, and so on.
That is what I mean when I say
‘not-so-simple,’ although people only
think of the use-case. Turning a light
bulb on is not simple when you think
about what goes into that function. It
is the same case with a lock that has
to work for a year on battery life and
has to work reliably at the same time.
You don’t want a lock which is easily
hackable, and anybody can open it with
a few clicks. So, the security require-
ments are another big aspect. In fact, in
IoT, the security requirements are even
more stringent because the more touch
38 august 2021 • electronics For you express
points you have as you connect more
devices, the more are the opportunities
for attack.
How are you uniquely positioned to
disrupt the industry, given your goal to
become the Intel of end nodes?
I believe that it is the mindset of
working on end nodes where the use
cases are very different. Any disruption
in the industry does not happen on the
flip of a switch, it happens over time.
Being in the industry where we are now
a pure play IoT company, we have this
really unique opportunity to disrupt
over time.
Our budget is one tenth of what you
may have for a smartphone. As these
end nodes slowly become powerful,
there will be a time when our ASICs
become powerful enough to go into
a smartphone but with a much lower
power budget, because that’s how dis-
ruptions occur. You need to start at the
bottom. You may think that something
is too simple for something to come out
of it, but then realise that it has much
greater potential that can be tapped
into.
So, while bigger chip companies are
coming down from higher notes and
settling to lower ones, we are tapping
the right nodes and trying to broaden
the horizon by focusing on only this
market, while they instead have to
maintain their existing markets.
To a major company, this is a very
low performance job that does not align
with their business and the technical
capabilities that they have. There’s no
reason why they cannot do what other
companies can, but it is incredibly
hard for them since they were focused
on one thing previously and built that
competence over time.
It’s not only your revival capabilities
but also awareness of the market. By
working on these lower end nodes and
working with coin-cell battery require-
ments, you build capabilities over time
while learning from your customers. I
see it as exciting development in the IoT
space, and I believe that you will see a
large amount of innovation coming from
that space in the next decade.
The use cases will grow, we still
have a lot more to catch up because we
are focusing on older process nodes.
When that happens, we will get enough
capability to do even other different
things, and that will create new markets
or even disrupt existing markets, which
is what usually happens. I think this is
the law of nature and maybe some-
day, someone might come and disrupt
Silicon Labs as well. I am excited about
what the future holds for us.
Are you trying to replace an entire
IoT device with an ASIC?
Yes, right now we are at the end
node ASIC stage. Our goal is: What
Intel is to PCs, Silicon Labs is to end
nodes. We do all the functions to the
end nodes, we will do sense control,
inferencing. While Amazon Echos are
thin Edge and local data centres are
thick Edge, you can think of us as a
micro-Edge today in terms of the techni-
cal capability of inferencing that we can
do today. The idea is to make end nodes
more powerful over time. It will not
always be centralised where everything
goes to a cloud. There are always going
to be use-cases, even for latency, cost,
privacy, security, that require decision
making, and we wish to be that—the
Intel of end nodes.
How do you see the open source phe-
nomena taking place in the chip design
and component design space? Do you
see that as an enabler or a threat where
it may just disrupt the game totally?
I personally view it as an enabler.
It’s always good to have a competition,
and I think it makes you better. I would
say that open source has unique advan-
tages and disadvantages.
If you’re a business, you have to
figure out how to make money because
that’s the main priority. But there are
people who are recognising that there
are techniques and mechanisms even
with open source, whether in hardware
or software, to drive your business and
drive differentiation. If you can drive
differentiation and value to the cus-
tomer, people will adapt even if you are
using an open source architecture. All it
means is that there are different licens-
ing terms when compared to others.
You still have to build products, and
that is just a component that has to sit
inside your product. A processor by itself
cannot do much if your memory archi-
tecture is not good enough. I have seen
that whether you licence IP or not, there
are still opportunities for you to innovate
because the system is so complex. They
all have to work together, and you have
to make it better over time. There are
always improvements that are going on.
I pursue it more as an opportunity, even
though it is always a threat. My mindset
is to find out how to convert it into an
opportunity because it’s a revolution
that you cannot stop. I think that all of us
have to embrace it and convert that into
an opportunity.
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 Trends
Emergence Of GaAs Devices
As A Substitute To Silicon
Less power consumption and more efficiency offered by GaAs wafers are attracting the
market players to adopt them, thereby increasing the demand for GaAs wafers. Previously, the
optoelectronic devices were broadly used in short-range optical communications and computer
peripherals but now these are in demand for some emerging applications such as lidar,
augmented reality, and face recognition as well
T
Dr S.S. Verma he recent global shortage of semicon-
ductor chips is playing havoc with the
production of electronics goods includ-
ing white goods and automobiles, which now
use lots of these components. The demand
has surged far beyond production, which got
reduced due to lockdowns and other issues
due to Covid-19 all over the world.
With the increasing demand and low
supply of electronic basic material such as
silicon wafers, scientists, engineers, and
manufacturers dealing with electronics indus-
try are always on the lookout for substitute
material. Gallium in its combinations as
gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide
(GaAs) has emerged as a strong candidate,
even if not a replacement for silicon, to at
Fig. 1: GaAs wafer (Credit: www.waferworld.com)
40 august 2021 • electronics For you express
least supplement its shortage with more
diverse applications in electronics industry.
Energy savings have become the buzz
word in every sphere of our life due to our
heavy dependence on energy, its bad envi-
ronmental effects as well as the depleting
resources. Electronic devices as an integral
part of our present-day lifestyle can also be
a major source of energy savings. But a sig-
nificant amount of electric energy is being
lost during power electronics processes,
thus limiting both power efficiency and reli-
ability of electrical and mechanical systems.
Currently, the three semiconductor
materials being used in power electronics are
silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium
nitride (GaN). Among these, silicon does
not perform well in higher energy density
and temperature conditions, and SiC and
GaN cannot be used for higher currents and
are often too expensive. Therefore, gallium
arsenide (GaAs) (see Fig. 1) is widely used
in microelectronics due to its suitability for
high frequency and temperature, but not for
controlling and converting electrical energy.
Science of GaAs
GaAs is a group III-V direct band gap
semiconductor having a zinc blende crys-
tal structure. Since GaAs is a compound,
each gallium atom in the structure is sur-
rounded by arsenic atoms, and similarly
gallium atoms surround each arsenic atom
in the structure as shown in Fig. 2 of unit
cell structure. Three valence electrons of
gallium atoms share with five valence elec-
trons of arsenic atoms. In this way, each of
the GaAs atoms gets eight electrons in its
outermost shell.
www.EFYMag.com

The covalent bonds between arse-
nic and gallium atoms in a gallium
arsenide compound are strong bonds,
still it is possible to break the bonds,
if sufficient energy is applied exter-
nally. Due to the breaking of covalent
bonds between arsenic and gallium,
electrons come out from the lattice
structure of the GaAs compounds.
An electron on its separation from
the covalent bond leaves a vacancy
behind it in the bond. The separated
electrons from the bonds are free to
move anywhere in the lattice and are
referred to as free electrons. Similarly,
the vacancies created in the bonds
are referred to as holes, and both free
electrons and holes are called free
charge carriers.
The energy gap between valence
band and conduction band in GaAs is
1.43eV, which is the largest band gap
as compared to other common semi-
conductors. Among the three most
popular semiconductor materials, the
use of GaAs is growing. Because of
very high speed operating character-
istics, low reverse saturation currents,
excellent temperature sensitivities,
and high breakdown voltages associ-
ated with GaAs wafers, nowadays,
the use of GaAs in place silicon has
gained ground in manufacturing very
large scale integrated circuits. With
all these advantages, GaAs is also
being widely used in other differ-
ent optoelectronics applications like
LEDs, solar cells, and photodetector
devices.
Electron mobility, single junction
band-gap, higher efficiency, heat and
moisture resistance, and superior
flexibility are the five distinct advan-
tages of GaAs, which are improving
the acceptance of GaAs wafers in
the semiconductor industry. Liquid
encapsulation Czochralski (LEC) and
vertical gradient freeze (VGF) are two
popular methods which are improving
the production of GaAs wafers with
high uniformity of electrical properties
and excellent surface quality.
Unique applications
and opportunities
The performance of high-speed
semiconductor devices, which almost
drive the present-day digital comput-
ers, electronic systems for digital
signal processing, telecommunica-
www.EFYMag.com
Fig. 2: Unit cell structure of GaAs
tion systems, and optoelectronics
are undistinguishably linked to the
unique physical and electrical prop-
erties offered by GaAs. Once viewed
as a simple alternative to silicon,
gallium arsenide has emerged as an
irreplaceable material in component
fabrication in leading high-tech
industries.
Moreover, the increasing exper-
tise with the fabrication methods,
operating principles, device models,
novel device designs, the material
properties, and physics of GaAs is
so integral to this success. GaAs
high-speed devices provide a com-
prehensive and state-of-the-science
look. Gallium arsenide eventually has
emerged as the favourite material for
high-frequency applications due to the
high carrier mobility compared with
silicon devices.
Wide energy band gap makes pure
GaAs highly resistive and, combined
with a high dielectric constant, this
property makes GaAs a very good
substrate for integrated circuits. This
provides natural isolation between
devices and circuits with GaAs, unlike
silicon. This advantage has made it
an ideal material in monolithic micro-
wave integrated circuits (MMICs).
GaAs devices are particularly useful
in very high speed computer circuits
and at microwave frequencies above
4GHz in discrete components or
microwave monolithic integrated cir-
cuits (MMICs).
GaAs based microwave devices
have found extensive use in consumer
applications as well in sophisticated
warfare electronics. The use of GaAs
in transistors and integrated circuits
electronics For You express • august 2021
Trends
for space and military applica-
tions has greatly expanded over
the past few years.
The unique property of gal-
lium arsenide is its ability to
turn electricity into light. Thus,
GaAs also exhibits relevant
optical properties and finds
extensive applications in opto-
electronics including LEDs,
laser diodes, solar cells, optical
windows, and GaAs diodes to
detect X-rays. Several solar car
models are coming that make
use of GaAs in solar arrays.
The main reasons for the
exploitation of this semiconduc-
tor are that GaAs devices can operate
at higher frequencies and have greater
radiation hardness than their silicon
counterparts. GaAs applications are
growing in different fields and it is
being used in the manufacture of
devices such as microwave frequency
and monolithic microwave integrated
circuits, infrared LEDs, laser diodes,
solar cells, and optical windows.
GaAs is also often used as a substrate
material for the epitaxial growth of
other III-V group semiconductors
like indium gallium arsenide and alu-
minium gallium arsenide. GaAs has
been used for various transistor types
including the following:
• Metal semiconductor field-effect
transistor (MESFET)
• High-electron-mobility transis-
tor (HEMT)
• Junction field-effect transistor
(JFET)
• Heterojunction bipolar transis-
tor (HBT)
• Metal oxide semiconductor
field-effect transistor (MOSFET)
The superior properties of GaAs
compared to silicon, such as higher
saturated electron velocity and higher
electron mobility, allow GaAs transis-
tors to function at higher frequencies.
Due to its wider energy band gap,
GaAs devices are relatively insensitive
to overheating. As a result of higher
carrier motilities and lower resistive
device parasitics, they also tend to
create less noise (disturbance in an
electrical signal) in electronic circuits
than silicon devices, especially at high
frequencies. These superior properties
are compelling scientists, engineers,
and manufacturers to think about
41
 Trends
the use of GaAs circuitry in mobile
phones, satellite communications,
microwave point-to-point links, and
higher frequency radar systems.
Besides, GaAs is also being used to
manufacture Gunn diodes for the
generation of microwaves.
Next-generation GaAs semicon-
ductors and devices promise to create
a huge demand, not totally replacing
the existing semiconductor market,
but ultimately making a huge dent
in it. Due to the mounting limitations
with the use of silicon, a market of
worth $500 billion dollars in 2020 is
looking towards the ability to replace
silicon semiconductors with more
suitable semiconductors. The GaAs
wafers/substrates are next-generation
Electron mobility, single junction band-
gap, higher efficiency, heat and moisture
resistance, and superior flexibility are the
five distinct advantages of GaAs, which are
improving the acceptance of GaAs wafers in
the semiconductor industry.
technology as they operate faster than
the silicon semiconductors. Thus,
GaAs represents the next generation
of semiconductor chips, which can do
things that the silicon chips cannot do.
Next-generation GaAs support
the signal speed which is needed to
implement 5G supported Internet of
Things (IoT). Therefore, the potential
for the next-generation GaAs wafers
is overwhelming with the overall
semiconductor market likely to sur-
pass $20 trillion by 2026. Once world
economies appreciate these develop-
ments, GaAs semiconductor markets
are expected to really take off.
GaAs is a direct band-gap semi-
conductor with a zinc blende crystal
structure and can be used for sensing
(3D sensing for consumer electronics
and electric vehicles). Its application
in radars and for lasers is common.
Further, the benefits of using GaAs in
devices derive in part from the charac-
teristic that GaAs generates less noise
than most other types of semiconduc-
tor components and, as a result, it is
useful in weak-signal amplification
applications. Due to the benefits
42 august 2021 • electronics For you express
related to generating less noise, GaAs
is again a suitable replacement for
silicon in the manufacture of linear
and digital integrated circuits.
Design challenges
The environment, health, and safety
aspects of GaAs sources (such as
trimethylgallium and arsine) and
industrial hygiene monitoring studies
of metalorganic precursors designate
gallium arsenide as a carcinogen.
Another biggest drawback with
GaAs is the high cost of a single-crystal
GaAs substrate, which has been a bar-
rier to volume manufacturing.
Further, just as in silicon devices,
the seeds of GaAs contact reliability
problems are often planted during
processing and contribute to reducing
contact quality, conducting projec-
tions that threaten to short the formed
GaAs layer.
The application of ion implanta-
tion for the fabrication of GaAs devic-
es has not been developed rapidly.
The reasons for this lag are that the
development of implantation doping
techniques in GaAs matured some-
what later and thus, the development
of integrated circuit technologies using
GaAs have occurred only recently.
These integrated circuit technolo-
gies require the reproducibility and
uniformity of doping whose implan-
tation in case of silicon has been
demonstrated. Several features of
implantation in GaAs differ to that of
silicon and the most notable of these
is the dissociation of GaAs by loss of
arsenic.
Further, service failures in GaAs
devices can occur at surfaces and inter-
faces, in the substrate or active layers,
at Schottky and ohmic contacts, and
by EM and corrosion damage of the
metallisation. The three main contact-
degradation effects include:
• Long-term inter diffusion within
metal sandwich structures
• Electric field-induced metal
migration between closely spaced
neighbouring electrodes
• Occurrence of metal migration
through narrow conductors carrying
large current densities
The performance and reliability
of GaAs devices is influenced by the
presence of crystal defects (disloca-
tions, precipitates, point defects, etc)
either native or produced during the
technological processing. Dislocation
and the crystal matrix interaction gen-
erally introduce defects forming the
Cottrell atmospheres, which increase
the crystal inhomogeneity at micro-
metric scale.
Due to low thermal conductivity
(1/3rd in comparison to Si) of GaAs
heat generation is concentrated in a
few discrete locations, which results
in large thermal gradients and non-
isothermal surfaces. Therefore, ther-
mal characterisation of GaAs devices
requires detailed understanding of
heat generation and temperature
prediction within sub-micron length
scales for two primary reasons.
The first is that electrical perfor-
mance of the device is a function
of temperature, and the electrical
parameters of interest that vary with
temperature include phase shift,
output power, efficiency, and gain.
The second reason to understand
the thermal performance will allow
the estimation of reliability. Thermal
modelling is required to accurately
correlate temperature-accelerated life
test data because of the difficulty in
measuring temperatures at such small
scales.
The cooling of GaAs devices is pri-
marily a conduction problem, which
also requires an understanding of
fabrication and packaging techniques
as well as the device geometry. Heat
flow due to convection and radiation
are usually present when considering
the ultimate heat sink but conduction
mode of heat flow is dominant at the
device level.
The basis for the silicon’s supe-
rior reliability is inherent and lies in
the nature of its oxide, which can be
grown under controlled conditions
and has better protective properties.
However, the oxide of GaAs does not
www.EFYMag.com

exhibit these qualities.
The advantages in speed and high-
frequency performance of GaAs are
slightly offset by the manufacturing
process limitations of GaAs, in terms
of both complexity and reproducibility
as opposed to silicon. Moreover, once
a company has set up its fabrication
and manufacturing process for silicon,
they are extremely unlikely to under-
take a major and risky change to GaAs
because fabrication processes of GaAs
are large and complicated.
Recent initiatives
GaAs technology has been accepted as
vital and strategic to the future devel-
opment of the economy and world
economies have promised to make
the technology viable in near future.
GaAs worldwide demand at $3.8 bil-
lion in 2020 is expected to grow to $22
billion by 2026. GaAs components
will achieve broad economies of scale,
thus making them more affordable
and available.
Less power consumption and more
efficiency offered by GaAs wafers are
attracting the market players to adopt
these wafers, thereby increasing the
demand for GaAs wafers. Previously,
the optoelectronic devices were broad-
ly used in short-range optical commu-
nications and computer peripherals
but now these are in demand for some
emerging applications such as lidar,
augmented reality, and face recogni-
tion.
The initiatives taken by different
countries, companies, and institutes
towards the development of GaAs
based technology are briefly summa-
rised below.
• Many countries like Taiwan,
Korea, Singapore, and China, who
are the major importers of chemical
elements and compounds doped for
use in electronics (in the form of discs,
wafers, cylinders, and rods), occu-
pied a share of 56.1% in the world
imports as of 2018. These countries
had captured the leading share of
42.84% in the global GaAs market
during FY2018. Increased focus of
Chinese companies in manufacturing
10cm and 15cm (4- and 6-inch) GaAs
based vertical-cavity surface-emitting
laser-epitaxial layered (VCSEL EPI)
wafers is boosting the use of these
wafers in both 3D and data communi-
www.EFYMag.com
cation applications. Taiwan players,
particularly dealing with the supply
of GaAs wafers and manufacturers of
vertical-cavity surface emitting laser
components, are collectively growing
the GaAs market value in the region.
• Mitsubishi Chemical, DOwa
Electronics, Sumitomo Electric,
AXT, Freiberg Compound Materials,
Advanced Wireless Semiconductor,
IQE, Win Semiconductors, Global
Communication Semiconductors,
and Intelligent Epitaxy Technology
are some of the primary players that
are working in the global GaAs wafer
market.
• WIN Semiconductors Corp.
(Taiwan) has become the first pure-
play 15cm GaAs foundry in the world
and has completed its phase 2 pro-
duction capacity expansion of newest
wafer fabrication. The increased GaAs
wafer manufacturing capacity by 20%
has been possible with the usage of
efficient process lines and advanced
equipment in GaAs MMIC produc-
tion. This company is well-known for
producing GaAs microwave integrated
circuits on 15cm wafers with the help
of advanced manufacturing technol-
ogy and production equipment.
• EVG (Austria) is also a noticeable
supplier of wafer bonding and lithog-
raphy equipment, and the company
bears a good brand value in the GaAs
wafer market. EVG announced its
partnership with Ningbo Semiconduc-
tor International Corporation (NSI) in
China, and this business strategy is
targeted to develop the industry’s first
process technology platform that deals
with wafer-level heterogeneous inte-
gration of GaAs on silicon to be useful
in the RF front-end module (FEM)
making. This is ultimately helpful in
the development of next-generation,
high-performance, and ultra-compact
RF front-end chipsets that are highly
in demand for 4G and 5G smartphones
and other handsets.
• G-ray Nanotech and Das Leibniz-
Institut für Kristallzüchtung (IKZ) in
Berlin are gradually gaining promi-
nence in the GaAs wafer market. In
February 2019, G-ray Nanotech and
IKZ stepped into a research and devel-
opment collaboration with more focus
towards the doping of GaAs structures
and in the manufacturing of high-puri-
ty crystals in wafer form. Such crystals
electronics For You express • august 2021
Trends
are useful in detector applications. 
• A British semiconductor com-
pany (IQE) has announced that the
capability of 15cm GaAs diameter
wafer is enabling its customers and
also helping in reducing the unit cost
of VCSEL chips, thereby accelerating
the adoption of this technology.
Indian initiatives
India is emerging as the next major
semiconductor chip designer and
manufacturer in the world and,
according to the Indian Electronics
& Semiconductor Association, the
Indian semiconductor industry, grow-
ing at 10% annually, is set to be worth
$33 billion by 2025. India is building
an electronics system design manu-
facturing industry with more than
30,000 engineers working on different
aspects of chip design and verifica-
tion, and currently nearly 3,000 chips
are designed every year.
The government of India is taking
initiatives to boost the economy
through schemes such as Make in
India, 100% foreign direct investment
(FDI), and support of subsidies and
incentives. Almost all defence labo-
ratories, institutes, and universities
of national repute are working in the
field of GaAs semiconductor applica-
tions. Some of their initiatives are
summarised below.
• Hyderabad based DRDO facility
working on GaAs devices’ fabrication
is important from the defence R&D
point of view.
• Research initiative on non-silicon
based technologies (such as GaAs)
for nanofabrication and nanoscale
devices has been taken up at IIT Delhi.
The project involves setting up of a
nanofabrication facility for the devel-
opment of nanofabrication processes
and their use towards making non-
silicon nanoscale devices.
• Centre for nanoelectromechani-
cal systems (NEMS) and nanophoton-
ics at IIT Madras has been set-up and
is pursuing R&D to achieve nanopho-
tonics components/systems based on
GaAs/AlGaA.
Dr S.S. Verma is professor at
Department of Physics, Sant
Longowal Institute of Engineering
and Technology, Sangrur, Punjab
43
 Tips

Behind Every Successful

Product There Is A
Well-Designed Architecture
In his series of articles for hardware startups, in this edition the author covers the importance
of hardware architecture design and how not doing a proper architecture design will lead to
trouble. To make the issue clear he has used a real-life example, which he handled recently,
for better understanding

W
S.A. Srinivasa Moorthy hen we build a house, typi-
cally we do not go to design the
house straightaway. We first
get the architect’s help to get an outline of
the house (now-a-days a 3D rendering of
the house) and get all the needed features
addressed before we move to the next stage
of planning or creating a house plan draw-
ing. Similarly, creating an electronic product
calls for basic architecture design before the
detailed design is done. A successful design
needs properly designed architecture fol-

44 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com


Fig. 1: The original design for a defense application
lowed by good circuit design.
But for this you need experience
and depth of knowledge to design
the architecture before starting the
implementation of the design. What
I have observed in the recent times is
that, once the team freezes the deci-
sion to design a product, they start off
with the circuit design, which leads
to issues. Some of the critical issues I
have seen are:
1. Low performance of the product
against requirement
2. Increased cost of product
3. Issues when working in differ-
ent environments
4. Difficulty in product upgrades
Designing architecture of the
product first helps in a robust product.
When you do an architecture design,
you should not worry about what
components you would use, and you
should worry about only the function-
ality of the product. Once architecture
is done, implementing the design
becomes easier.
Second riskier tendency is getting
fixated on ‘technology’ and customise
the design for using the technology.
Many a times I have heard startup
founders telling me, “Sir, the micro-
controller is good, so we are designing
a product based on that.” But this fal-
lacy leads only to trouble later. As the
saying goes, you should buy the right
size shoes and not cut the leg for the
shoe you like!
The architecture becomes most
critical when you design medical
devices, avionics, and industrial
devices, all of which have safety as
the main criterion. Since these are
regulated industries (a central agency
will approve your product finally),
architecture design and fail-safe analy-
www.EFYMag.com
sis is critical as review of these designs
are a must.
Most designers do not understand
the benefits of developing an archi-
tecture before they start the design.
Advantages of designing the architec-
ture first helps in a product with the
following:
1. Predictable performance meet-
ing the needs
2. Simpler design to manufacture
and low cost
3. Easy to support and upgrade in
future
By the way, designing an archi-
tecture is not a rocket science. It just
needs basic idea of decomposing a
product functions into individual
parts and create individual blocks to
address those functions.
Why architecture is critical
A well architected product is robust
and performs as per the specifications.
This effectively results in a successful
product with a long life. Remember,
for a product to have a long life (medi-
cal devices, avionics, and industrial
devices), following are important:
1. Performance throughout their
long life
2. System should have resources to
meet future requirements
3. Reliable and can be upgraded
These requirements call for a
well-designed architecture. Long-life
products come with their own issues,
especially obsolescence. Today seven
to ten years is the average life of a
semiconductor. So, if the product has
to live longer, the design needs to spe-
cifically address this challenge.
Second aspect is the cost of the
product. As the product ages, custom-
ers expect the cost to go down, Added
electronics FOR YOU express • AUGUST 2021
Tips
to this is the fear of obsolescence,
which reduces the price of the product
continuously. A well architected prod-
uct results in reduced cost of produc-
tion and easy maintenance.
In addition to these, product’s soft-
ware development is impacted by the
architecture. Well-defined architecture
helps in simpler and robust software.
This is helpful when the software does
not use any RTOS and is developed as
a bare metal software. In bare metal
software, dependence on the hard-
ware is very high and a well-designed
architecture makes the bare metal
code writing easy and compact.
A good architecture example
To explain the importance of a good
architecture, here is a real-life exam-
ple of a product which was designed
without a good architecture, and the
circuit was implemented without going
through proper design cycle. This design
was created for defense application to
replace an existing mechanical control
into an electronic control. Main function
of the system was to close a series of 31
relays one by one, starting from the first
relay. The closure operation started with
the press of a push button. The potenti-
ometers P1 and P2 were used to set the
following functions:
1. P1 to set the delay time after
which the closure of relays would start
after pressing of the push button.
2. P2 to set time between closures
of relays after the time set by P1, start-
ing from relay 1 to relay 31.
The original design is given in
Fig. 1. You can see there are two micro-
controllers, and the system has two
PCBs due to retrofitting requirement
in the existing enclosure. This resulted
in 22 interconnect pins between
45
 Tips
the PCBs. The time
involved in delay
and closure of relays
are in seconds, still
the designers used
a conventional
design approach
of one microcon-
troller driving the 31
relays. This left no
space for interfac-
ing the pots (which
needed ADCs), and
they added another
microcontroller to
just do this function Fig. 2: The simplified design with redesigned architecture
and complicated the
design with two microcontrollers. The 2. Number of PCBs and partition- 2. Plan the interconnects between
whole design became complicated ing of the system by functional blocks blocks with groups of signals (had
and expensive to maintain with two to ensure optimal design. the team that designed in the above
software in the same product. This 3. If the system is battery operated, example done this step they would
step could have been avoided had the architecture design becomes critical have figured out that they had a chal-
designers spent just a day or two on as battery life entirely depends on lenge) separated as data, power, clock,
the architecture. the speed of operation and quiescent etc. This gives a clear overview of the
The designers came to us for current consumed by the electronics, signals and brings out any missing
guidance and help in redesigning to which are proportional to the speed of signal.
make the whole thing simpler. After the processor. 3. If the product has to be designed
studying the requirement (major 4. If the product is for regulated with multiple PCBs (any electronic
constraint was that the existing enclo- industries, the architecture should be product which has a user interface
sure was of 15cm diameter and 10cm either ‘fault-tolerant’ or ‘fail-safe.’ In always has a separate PCB for the dis-
long cylinder and the PCBs had to be the case of fault-tolerant system, archi- play), identify which block will go to
fitted inside this constrained space, tecture should work without stopping, which PCB. Revisit the interconnects
our team redesigned the architecture which is typically needed in medical again as now you will have more sig-
and made the whole design simpler and telecom systems. This may call nals to connect
as shown in Fig. 2. We spent about a for use of two processors. In the case 4. Always choose a controller that
day in understanding the requirement fail-safe systems, when system fails, has different memory options and dif-
and did a bottom-up new design. As the system should go to a safe state ferent pinout options. This helps in cus-
you can see, the advantages of the new without harming the user. tomising the product with just minimal
design are: 5. Spending time in understand- hardware and software changes.
1. One microcontroller and simpler ing the development and debugging 5. When you design an IoT solu-
software tools available and their compliance tion, the ‘things’ will be in large
2. Interconnects between the PCBs to safety standards. Typically, most numbers, so the cost has to be low.
are reduced from 22 to 4, making the free tools or open source tools do not However, each ‘thing’ will have inter-
engineering simple and manufactur- comply with any safety requirement connections to the gateway or cloud.
ing easier and special tools have to be used. The interconnection needs to be
3. This architecture offered an 6. Understand the processor clock selected properly. Many designs run
open option to add more relays for speed and product performance needs into cost and performance issues due
next-generation systems. to avoid selecting an under-powered to wrong choice of interface as well as
4. Above all, being a long-life speed that could compromise the sys- wrong component.
product, the design can be supported tem’s performance. 6. If you are using vendor-supplied
without much effort. reference hardware or software, first
Tips to develop the architecture understand the design well as these
What need to be factored Developing an architecture for an elec- are meant for demonstration and their
When designers develop product tronic product can be a full course as it cost and memory size will never be
architecture, following elements need impacts both hardware and software. optimised.
to be considered: However, here are a few tips to use.
1. Choice of processor and the 1. When product idea is conceived,
variations available with different build the product with functional S.A. Srinivasa Moorthy is
director at D4X Technologies
memory sizes and the different pack- blocks with each block doing a unique Private Limited
ages available. function.

46 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

 Do-It-Yourself

EF Y
Single-Channel Raj K. Gorkhali
S.C.
Dwi
vedi

Audio Amplifier

H
ere is a simple single-channel a 12V battery would be better as an
Parts List
audio amplifier that can be AC/DC adaptor may cause humming
Semiconductors:
made using IC LM380N. As noise. The LM380N is an inexpensive IC1 - LM380N audio amplifier
per the datasheet, LM380N delivers 14-pin PDIP IC that is easily available Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):
an output of 2.5 watts with an 18V in the market. R1 - 2.2-ohm
VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm pot
power supply and an 8-ohm speaker.
This project was tested using a 12V DC Circuit and working Capacitors:
C1 - 4.7µF, 35V electrolytic
power supply. Circuit diagram of the audio ampli- C2 - 470pF ceramic disc
The power supply can be 230V to fier is shown in Fig. 1. A suitable C3 - 0.22µF ceramic disc
C4, C6 - 470µF, 35V electrolytic
12V DC adaptor or a 12V battery. But pot (VR1) is connected at input pin C5, C7 - 0.1µF ceramic disc
2 of the IC. An Miscellaneous:
8-ohm, 3-watt CON1 - 2-pin terminal connector
C4 speaker is con- CON2 - 2-pin connector
C7
470u 14 LS1 - 8-ohm, 3W speaker
35V 2 Vcc INV
6
0.1u nected to IC’s - Heat-sink for IC1
NON−INV IC1
LM380N Vout
8 pin 8 through - 12V power supply/
BYPASS

C6 12V battery
CON1 470µF electro-
GND

GND

GND

470u
GND

GND

GND
GND

FOR
NC

NC

12V
VR1
1 4 7 10 11
35V lytic capacitor
3 5 9 12 13
10K
LS1 C6. IC’s pin 14 Place a 14-pin IC socket in the
C1
C5 is connected to middle of the Veroboard. Then place
0.1u
CON2 4.7u,35V GND positive terminal all other components on the Vero-
FOR C3 R1
I/P C2
0.22u of 12V supply. board and solder them as per circuit
470p 2.2E
Audio input diagram. Keep connector CON1 on left
LS1 = 8−OHM,3W SPEAKER
is given to pin 2 and speaker LS1 on right side of the
I/P = AF INPUT FROM MP3/LAPTOP/MOBILE
of IC1 through Veroboard. Fix pot VR1 somewhere in
Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the amplifier 4.7µF electro- the middle of the Veroboard.
lytic capacitor Connect all the GND pins of IC1 to
C1 and pot VR1 ground. You may also use a suitable
that is used for heat-sink for these ground pins.
volume control. To test, after mounting the IC on
Pins 3 through its socket, connect the 8-ohm, 3-watt
7 and pins 10 speaker to the right side connector
through 12 of IC1 LS1. Connect a 12V battery or 12V AC/
are all connected DC adaptor to positive and negative
to ground. Pins supply terminals of CON1.
9 and 13 are not Keep the volume control (VR1)
connected. wiper in its middle position and touch
Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout for the amplifier circuit the audio input terminal with a metal
Construction screwdriver. If you hear humming
and testing sound from the speaker, it means the
An actual-size amplifier is working.
PCB layout for Connect audio from your mobile or
the amplifier is laptop to input CON2 of the amplifier.
shown in Fig. 2 Adjust pot VR1 until you hear a pleas-
and its compo- ant and clear sound.
nent layout in
Fig. 3. A suitable
Veroboard can Raj K. Gorkhali is an
electronics hobbyist and a
be used in place regular contributor to EFY
Fig. 3: Component layout of the PCB of the PCB.

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You express • august 2021 47

 Do-It-Yourself EF Y
K .
wini
Ash inha
S

Smart Glass Ashwini Kumar Sinha

That Can Read Books

W
e have seen many smart
glasses to detect the distance
between objects or help visu-
ally challenged persons to recognise
people’s faces. Here we extend it to
the next level using optical character
recognition (OCR). Expanding the
DIY project to its next version, we are
now giving details to make a smart
glass that can read text using OCR and
computer vision. A camera mounted
on the front of the glass for OCR and
computer vision will thus allow visu- Fig. 1: Code snippet importing Python modules
ally challenged people also to read. In
this version, you will also need a pair
of goggles.
Prerequisites
First, we need to install some of the
required modules and libraries for the
project. As the smart glass is based on
real-time video processing, by using
OCR we can extract the text from the
pages that may include images. Here,
a module is needed that can capture
images from a camera. By using a
speech synthesis module, the text in
those captured images can be con-
verted into speech.
First, we need to install the follow-
ing libraries:
• OpenCV
• PyTesseract
• eSpeak
To install them, use the commands
below:
sudo apt-get install espeak
sudo apt-get install espeak python-espeak Fig. 2: Code snippet for capturing video and processing it for OCR
sudo pip3 install opencv2

Coding Components Table 1

Import the required libraries to the Component name Quantity Description
code and then set the path where the Raspberry Pi 4 4 2GB/4GB
video frames are to be saved for text EFY Note 5V power bank 1 Powering
extraction. The source code
RPi camera 1 Camera module
Create a while loop in the code, of this project for RPi
which will capture real-time video is available
Pam amplifier 1 Amplifier module
from the camera. Using cv2, convert for free download
the image into BGR and save it to at source.efymag.com Speaker 1 Small speaker

48 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

 Do-It-Yourself

Electronics Process
Control Instruments
More than 2000 Units working
in CEMENT, STEEL & FERTILIZER
INDUSTRIES supplied through OEM
M/s. UTEPL
We also provide services for Installation,
Recalibration and Trouble Shooting of
Fig. 3: Testing code Electronics Dynamic Weighing Systems
such as Weigh-feeders, Belt Weighers,
Solid Flow Meters / Feeders, Simplex Loss
in Weight Systems, Bin Weighing Systems
of SCHENCK and other makes.

Valve Position Annunciator Damper Position Indicator

Over / Under
Current Relay
Fig. 4: Author’s device attached with the camera on eyeglass Signal Isolator Transmitter
Valve Position Controller

and extracting text from it. By using

eSpeak, the speech engine will convert
all that text into audio and read it.
Note. For a clear voice output that
does not sound robotic you can use
paid or other text-to-speech services
like gtts, watson speech, etc.
Testing
Some of our Esteem Clients:
N Hindalco Industries Ltd.
Birla Copper - Dahej, Gujarat
N JSW Steel Ltd. Karnataka
N NALCO - Captive Power Plant,
Angul, Orissa
N RCF, Chembur, Mumbai

Fix the camera onto the eyeglass and N Sri Chakra Cement Ltd.,

run the code. On putting a book in Unit -1, Guntur (A.P.)

Fig. 5: Author testing the device
the path previously set. Then call
PyTesseract that will open the saved
video frame for processing the image
front of the camera and waiting for a NUtkal Alumina Int l Ltd. Odisha
few minutes without any movement,
it will automatically start reading
the book. To hear it, connect your
earphones to the Raspberry Pi head-
phone TRRS jack or any speaker with Since 1991
amplifier. You can also connect any
501, Sherly Queen, Rizvi Complex,
Bluetooth earphone. Off Carter Road, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050.
Land Line: +91(22) 6883 0613
Contact Person: U. T. Sawant
Ashwini Kumar Sinha is an electronics
hobbyist and tech journalist at EFYi Cell Phone: +91 98195 42768 / +91 93228 21894
email: creatronics.info@gmail.com

www.EFYMag.com electronics FOR YOU express • AUGUST 2021 49

 306 Approved Investments Under M-SIPS
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), India, has approved 306 investment applications under the Modified Special Incentive
Package Scheme (M-SIPS). This number in April 2020 was 268

600

472.88 482.83 483.50 488.29 489.46 490.54

500 463.50 467.28 468.34 468.34 469.08 469.37
416.56 417.98 419.88
400
(` billion)

300

200

100

0
020 020 202
0
202
0 020 020 20 020 020 202
1 021 021 021 021 202
1
r2 y2 Jul g2 p2 t 20 v2 c2 b2 r2 r2 y2
Ap Ma Jun Au Se Oc No De Jan Fe Ma Ap Ma Jun

Source: MeitY

India Automotive Electronics Market by Segment

Digitisation of cockpit, CAFE norms and EVs will drive the automotive electronics market in India. Touchscreen infotainment
is also becoming popular in the passenger vehicle segment
(Figures in billions)

Infotainment
2027 2027
2020 2020

$236 $15,988
$5 $5,753

$2,419
$800

Telematics 2020 2027 Others

Source: Counterpoint Research

50 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

At-a-glance view of key industry trends that
can shape the future of your business…

High-Speed Electric Two-Wheelers Grow Faster Smart Speaker Shipments Cross 1 mn Mark in India
Sales of High-Speed (HS) E2W (models with speed >25km/hr) Smart Speakers as a category will post ‘ultra-growth’ (i.e., annual growth
witnessed an YoY increase of 47%. Established players such as of more than 35%) for next 2-3 years as more players foray into the
Hero Electric and Okinawa commanded over 53% of the segment complimenting consumers’ intent to buy smart speakers.
market share for HS E2Ws in FY2021 Most of the opportunity lies in under `5,000. Consumers are
preferring to buy smart speakers priced under `5,000
160,000 30 450 2,500

140,000 400 403.3

25
Percent Share of High Speed E2WS 350
2,000
120,000
Number of units registered

300

Value in ` million
20

Units in thousands
100,000 277.4 1,500
250
227.4
80,000 15 200
1956 1,000
60,000 150
10
100 99.2 1136 1128
40,000 500

5 50
414
20,000
0 0
1Q 2020 2Q 2020 3Q 2020 4Q 2020
0 0
FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20 FY 2020-21 Value (` million) Volume (Units)

Source: jmkresearch.com Source: TechArc

Global PC Shipments Up But Chip Shortage Impact to Continue

Global PC shipments grew 45% YoY to 75.6 million in Q1 2021 thanks to robust demand across different categories and a low base in the same
period last year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. PC brands and ODMs cannot fully solve the shortage issue and clear the orders backlog

Wi-Fi SoC

LAN Chip

Lead Time in 2H21

Audio
Codec IC
Lead Time in 1H21

Normal Lead Time

DDIC

PMIC

CPU

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Weeks →
Source: Counterpoint Research

www.EFYMag.com electronics FOR YOU express • AUGUST 2021 51

 Opportunities

Semiconductor Industry Is Hot,

The Hottest It Has Ever Been

The top five

international
semiconductor
stocks recorded
an average return
on investment (RoI)
of 100.59 percent
between 28th June
2020 and 28th
June 2021. Experts
are of the view
that Covid-19 might
have accentuated
the peak of the
semiconductor
industry. But there
seem to be many
more factors

S
Mukul Yudhveer Singh emiconductors are to electronics
what oxygen is to living beings.
While helping control the flow of
electricity in a circuit, these are known
as the brain behind modern electron-
ics. Their importance to the world today
could be mined from the fact that several
automakers, smartphone OEMs, consumer
electronic OEMs, and many others into
electronics manufacturing have had to halt
operations for some part of 2020 and 2021
due to shortage of semiconductors.
Further, despite lockdowns announced
by almost all the countries following the
outbreak of coronavirus, many semiconduc-
tor fabrication units were allowed to oper-
ate. International Data Corporation (IDC)
recently noted that the size of the global
semiconductor market will reach $522 bil-
lion in 2021. This represents a growth of
around 12.5 percent year-on-year.
The proof of the pudding can also be
gauged from the fact that the top five semi-
conductor stocks have recorded an average
RoI of 100.59 percent between 28th of June
2020 and 28th of June 2021. The data col-
lected and analysed by Finbold also shows
that the top ten selected semiconductor

52 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com


stocks recorded an average RoI of
78.79 percent during that period.
“There are two metrics that the
investors or top management of a
fab need to be worried about. One is
what the load of the fab is and second
is what is the yield on the fab. ‘Load’
is the function of demand or a com-
pany’s capability to sell the 30K to
40K wafer starts per month. ‘Yield’ is
how good are the number of ‘usable’
chips from each 300mm wafer. The
fabs which have made the chips of
these high performing companies are
very mature ones. They have already
solved the yield problem on the well
established and mature nodes, which
is where the extraordinary growth is
coming from. These fabs have also
made significant investment into
tooling for the newer nodes, which is
where future demand will come. Note
that in a good year a fab is a money
printing machine,” says PVG Menon,
former President of the India Elec-
tronics & Semiconductor Association
(IESA), and former CEO, Electronic
Sector Skills Council of India (ESSCI).
He adds, “Fabs announcing 100s
of billions of dollars in R&D is proof
in itself that fabs are money generat-
ing machines. Someone like a TSMC
will not commit big amounts to R&D
and capacity expansion unless it has
demand (‘Load’) commitment from
the likes of large-volume customers like
Apple . Investing in a new node means
investing at least $4 billion per node.”
Shortage and high demand
Starting 2020, semiconductors have
been in high demand and, despite
many fabs being allowed to function
amidst coronavirus lockdowns, their
supply in the market continues to be
scarce. This is primarily due to the
constraints the semiconductor supply
chain went through, and continues
to go through, due to the lockdowns.
After all, fabricating semiconductors is
one thing and getting them delivered
to organisations is another!
In plain economics, obviously, a
market shortage occurs when there
is excess demand. In such situations,
customers are usually unable to buy
as much as they require, neither are
the manufacturers able to meet all the
demands. Even though most of the
semiconductor companies were not
www.EFYMag.com
Increase in Share Price Over a Year
Semiconductor company Price per share on
28th June 2020 (in $)
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) 366.2
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 56.33
Corporation (TSMC)
Lattice Semiconductor 27.53
On Semiconductor 19.09
NXP Semiconductor 108.15
able to keep up with the demand of
the semiconductors, their share prices
continued to, and continue to, grow
as of today.
“There is huge demand for semi-
conductors, and it is clear from every
part of the supply chain that there
are shortages. There is a very big gap
between the demand and supply. It
is quite possible that customers are
paying higher prices to source semi-
conductors than what they have been
usually paying in the normal times,”
says Hemant Mallapur, co-Founder,
Saankhya Labs.
He adds, “This works in favour of
both fabless as well as fab semicon-
ductor companies. Primarily, if you
trace it back to the origin, you will find
that during the first wave of Covid-19
there was a big slump in demand.
Immediately the people noticed that
such things can hammer their busi-
ness. Also because of the backlog
many companies ordered semiconduc-
tors in amounts more than what they
would normally buy.”
The shares of Nvidia, a fabless
semiconductor company, yielded
107.87 percent RoI during the one year
period under review. By fabless, as
most of you know, we mean a semi-
conductor company that owns the IP
but does not own a semiconductor fab.
Such companies outsource semicon-
ductor manufacturing to vendors like
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Corporation (TSMC).
Nvidia had a market cap of
$474.25 billion on 28th June 2021. Its
stock price rose from $366.2 per share
(June 2020) to $761.24 per share (June
2021).
Similarly, shares of Qualcomm,
another fabless company, delivered
approximately 56.38 percent RoI
during the time frame. As a matter
of fact, fabless semiconductor firms
represented 32.8 percent of the total
electronics For You express • august 2021
Opportunities
Table 1
Price per share on
28th June 2021 (in $)
761.24
116.53
55.87
37.51
207.17
market in 2020, a record for the
segment, according to data from IC
Insights.
Qualcomm had a market cap of
$155.27 billion on 28th June 2021.
Its stock prices rose from $88.02 per
share (June 2020) to $137.65 per share
(June 2021).
The new record for market share
for fabless companies was led by Qual-
comm’s $5 billion sales increase in
2020. IC Insights has also forecast that
fabless companies and IC foundries
will continue to be a strong force in
the total IC industry landscape with a
percentage share of the total IC market
expected to reach the mid-30s in the
next five years.
This shortage of semiconductors
can primarily be linked to various
factors including restraints in supply
of raw materials used to manufacture
these, restraint in supply chain that
supplies semiconductors to custom-
ers, and high demand of these due to
increased production of electronics.
“The demand for semiconductors
is being driven by everything that has
a connection with the end consumers.
The increased demand of wearables,
especially devices like pulse oxyme-
ters, fitness bands, and smartwatches.
The explosion in demand for comput-
ing devices like laptops, tablets, and
smartphones due to massive increase
in both work and study from home, is
another factor. Then there is demand
for relatively newer gadgets (in India)
like dishwashers coming in. We are
spending more and more on smart
gadgets,” explains PVG Menon.
The 5G factor
The advancement of 5G is leading to
a more connected world than ever.
And enabling electronics with better
connectivity features requires better
and the latest technology based semi-
conductors. As the 5G technology con-
53
 Opportunities
Canalys has also forecast that
What’s Happening Around The World these figures will climb to 30 million
1. The United States alone has approved $52 billion in spending for domestic EVs sold in 2028. EVs are expected to
semiconductor manufacturing and research. represent nearly half of all passenger
2. China has sanctioned more than 40 billion yuan ($6.19 bn) in combined funding during cars sold globally by 2030. Now there
the first five months of 2021 to more than a 100 semiconductor companies. is no rocket science in knowing that
3. South Korea has plans to spend roughly $450 billion to build the world’s biggest the more sophisticated an electric car
chipmaking base over the next decade. model is, the more semiconductors are
4. Japan is said to be offering a total of several hundred billion yen, equivalent to several required to power it.
billion dollars, to overseas chipmakers ready to build advanced chip manufacturing “EVs being very hot right now,
plants in the country. there is already very high demand
5. The government of India is about to launch a new scheme for attracting global from the sector. Automotive uses a
semiconductor companies to set shop in the country. large number of sensors and electron-
ics now. I think the sector has also
tinues to spread over different parts of This simply means that 5G is help- contributed to the increased demand
the world, electronics manufacturers ing to increase the adoption of the of semiconductors,” explains Hemant.
will want to phase out existing devices latest tech based semiconductors in Global demand for automotive
based on 4G tech, and the process the world, and it is a known fact that semiconductor market, in terms of
will require sourcing more and better products based on latest technologies revenue, was worth $45.98 billion in
semiconductors. usually cost more than the outdated 2020 and is expected to reach $81.40
A report by Accenture, cementing or soon to be outdated technologies. billion in 2027 (Brandessence Market
this notion, has forecast that starting Replacement of devices compatible Research). As a matter of fact, even ICE
2023, smartphones with 5G capabil- with 4G by those compatible with 5G powered vehicles enabled with security
ity will sell more than 4G-compatible is also leading to an increase in the features like camera and connectivity
smartphones. As against 614 million demand of semiconductors. However, require a good number of semicon-
4G smartphones forecast to sell in as a lot of fabs are still struggling to ductors. Moreover, as the autonomous
2023, a total of 995 million 5G hand- update to the latest tech, there con- driving feature starts becoming more
sets have been forecast to sell in that tinues to be a shortage of the same in common, the quantity of semiconduc-
year. These numbers will keep on the market. tors demanded by automotive OEMs
increasing to 1,143 million 5G hand- The shares of TSMC, a manufac- will see an even sharper incline.
sets in 2024 compared to 470 million turing vendor for a lot of fabless semi- Since 2020, automotive OEMs have
4G handsets same year. conductor companies, have delivered been ramping up the production of EVs
“The 5G has not gone up in vol- 106.87 percent RoI during the last one and hence demanding more and more
umes in terms of deployment by year. TSMC operates more than one semiconductors from companies. The
operators. But 5G demand is going fab based on the latest technologies likes of Audi have already announced
to increase during the next couple of and it is known as one of the fabs to to be EV-only brand by 2026.
years, and products for it would ramp always be on the top of the technology Batteries and charging points are
up in the coming years,” says Hemant. game. The company is targeting to start two other industries that are directly
The chip volume and RF frontend volume production using its latest 3nm related to the EV ecosystem, and both
modules for 5G and 5G mmWave tech in the second half of 2022. of these require semiconductors in
are expected to double in premium TSMC had a market cap of $604.33 good numbers. Batteries require semi-
smartphones, and 5G semiconduc- billion on 28th June 2021. Its stock conductors because developments
tor revenue—including baseband prices rose from $56.33 per share in the semiconductor arena can help
processors, RF, and power manage- (June 2020) to $116.53 per share (June provide longer battery life and range,
ment—will increase from near zero in 2021). and charging points because they are
2018 to $31.5 billion in 2023, the vast all electric.
majority of which will be driven by Automotive, EVs, and battery “With congestion in the public
smartphones. industry transport sector, a lot of people are
A report by PMI has forecast that A lot of experts and consulting organi- investing in buying private vehicles.
the global 5G semiconductor solutions sations are of the view that the period Remember the amount of electronics
market would be worth US$10.8 bil- of 2021 to 2030 will be the decade in these vehicles. Forget about high-end
lion by 2029. It was valued at around of electric vehicles (EVs). India and cars and talk to Maruti and you will be
US$1.5 billion in 2020. The growth many other countries have already surprised to know the number of elec-
and development in the ICT sector to announced aggressive policies to tronics items that go into an entry seg-
improve wireless data networks, com- increase the adoption of EVs. The ment car like Alto 800,” says Menon.
munication technologies, and solu- global sales of EVs in 2020, as per a “Then look at two-wheelers and
tions through fifth-generation network report by Canalys, increased by 39 you will find semiconductors worth
usage are expected to fuel the growth percent in a year to 3.1 million units. at least $7-8 going into an entry level
of the global 5G semiconductor solu- This is when the total passenger car two-wheeler. The mandating of Bharat
tions market. market declined 14 percent. Stage-6 emission standard for all vehi-

54 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

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 Opportunities
cles has added to the semiconductor
BoM in two-wheelers. Note that in
higher end two-wheeler models, the
semiconductor BoM is much higher
as the vehicle has a sophisticated ECU,
multiple sensors, etc. All of this has
pushed up semiconductor consump-
tion in the petrol two-wheeler seg-
ment. EVs have even more electronics
and semiconductor components,”
says Menon.
India, one the fastest developing
countries in the world, has announced
a production linked incentive scheme
worth 181 billion rupees dedicated
towards promoting ACC battery manu-
facturing in the country.
“From a market size perspective,
India produced around 25 million
two-wheelers in 2019. As we see more
functionality getting added in terms of
sensors, controllers, communication
protocols, entertainment options, etc,
the semiconductor and electronic BoM
is going to sharply increase in the days
ahead,” Menon explains.
The shares of NXP Semiconduc-
tors, one of the leading suppliers
of automotive semiconductors and
solutions, delivered an RoI of 88.78
percent during the last one year. The
company’s market cap as of 28th
June 2021 was around 56.3 billion
dollars. The stock price for NXP rose
from $108.15 per share (June 2020) to
$204.17 per share (June 2021).
The US, China, and India
The increasing importance of semi-
conductors can easily be gauged
from how the world’s superpowers
as well as India are making efforts to
enable a superior local semiconductor
ecosystem in their respective geogra-
phies. For starters, the USA alone has
approved $52 billion in spending for
domestic semiconductor manufactur-
ing and research as an important step
towards strengthening the country’s
leadership in the industry.
“We are in a competition to win
the 21st century, and the starting gun
has gone off,” the US President Joe
Biden has said in a statement recently.
He added, “As other countries con-
tinue to invest in their own research
and development, we cannot risk fall-
ing behind. America must maintain its
position as the most innovative and
productive nation on Earth.”
56 august 2021 • electronics For you express
Similarly, India, one of the fastest
developing countries in the world, is
also working on envisaging a plan to
facilitate the semiconductor ecosys-
tem in the country. It is expected that
the government of India will approach
setting up of a fabless cum ATMP/
OSAT ecosystem soon by offering
handsome incentives to global heavy-
weights.
China, on the other hand, has
already given more than 40 billion
yuan ($6.19bn) in combined funding
during the first five months of 2021 to
more than 100 semiconductor compa-
nies. According to a report by Research
and Markets, the investments in
new fabs or capacity expansion will
exceed US$160 billion in China over
the coming 5-7 years. This is expected
to drive an increase in China’s equip-
ment spending to more than $40 bil-
lion in 2025, with sixty percent of the
investments going to memory fabs.
All semiconductor compa-
nies, whether fabless or fab, have
been spending billions of dollars in
researching and developing the latest
avatar of semiconductors and process-
es that enable faster and efficient man-
ufacturing. In a recent interaction with
Sunil Banwari, Advantest Corporation,
we learnt that the top semiconductor
producers are exploring industry 4.0
manufacturing capabilities in order
to combine them with semiconductor
design and fabrication.
“The shortage is likely to continue
at least till the middle of the next year.
That definitely fuels this trend that you
have unearthed. With AI and 5G pick-
ing up, I think the market is going to be
good for them. What Covid has done is
accentuated the peak of the semicon-
ductor industry,” says Hemant.
While the semiconductor industry
is cyclical in nature, at the moment
it seems far away from witnessing a
down curve, primarily because the
demand for modern electronics has just
started going up. For investors it might
be a good idea to invest in shares of
such companies, but for governments
it would be a good idea to go all guns
blazing towards creating a superior
semiconductor ecosystem.
Mukul Yudhveer Singh is a
business journalist at EFY
www.EFYMag.com
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 Interview Strategy

I Am Grateful That We Have Been

Able To Create An End-To-End
ODM Story In India
Original design manufacturing, referred to as ODM,
gets fierce competition from countries like China and
Taiwan in Asia. However, VVDN Technologies, an
ODM headquartered in Gurugram, has proved that
nothing is impossible when approached with the
right mindset. Puneet Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder,
VVDN Technologies in a discussion with Mukul
Yudhveer Singh sheds light on how VVDN
overcame the obstacles

How has been the journey of VVDN Technologies

in India?
VVDN was started in 2007. Me and all the other
founders of VVDN were in California when we start-
ed thinking of starting the organisation. It was clear
to all of us that we would make VVDN a company
that offered complete product engineering services.
We knew what we had envisaged was not usual as
India had been a software-centric country.
Our experience of working in the United States
made executing VVDN a little easy for all of us.
Initially, we developed video, 2G, 3G, and telecom
products. The market response during those days
encouraged us to stay on the product engineer-
ing side. By the time we developed these
products, we realised that the Indian
ecosystem, when it comes to hard-
ware supply chain, mechanicals,
and embedded software chain, was
very weak.
So that is where we focused
on and started on the journey
to do design and manufactur-
ing of electronic products in
India. In the process, we
realised that to be suc-
cessful we would have
to make sure that we
are not dependent on
external supply chains
or countries like
China and Taiwan.
The supply chain
had to be created Puneet Agarwal
in India. To con- CEO and Co-founder,
trol the timeline VVDN Technologies

www.EFYMag.com
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 Interview
and components availability we started
working on building an ecosystem here
in India itself.
The last eight years have all been
about significant vertical integration for
VVDN. We are now manufacturing com-
plete electronics via multiple SMT lines,
product assembly lines in our factories.
We have also got rid of the mechanical
dependence by starting our own mould-
ing and die-cast facilities, among others.
The key to our success has been
identifying and addressing areas where
we were dependent on others. The
thought process has always been to
do everything in-house. We have been
creating products and solutions that can
attract local as well as international con-
sumers, which has enabled us to create a
global ecosystem for our customers.
The complex products we are
working on today involve Wi-Fi access
products, network switches, 5G base sta-
tions, IoT products, products for electric
vehicles, sensors, and more. I am grate-
ful that we have been able to create an
end-to-end ODM story in India.
What’s the secret of VVDN’s success?
There are at least three points that
have helped us.
First, we began with creating a right
pool of talent that should be able to
believe that a lot of core innovation and
IP could happen in India. In simpler
words, we knew from the beginning that
we will have to innovate ourselves. For
example, we started investing in innovat-
ing 5G products four years ago. We had
the IPs for the same long time ago, but we
didn’t have any customers for them.
We just invested in creating a team
that could work on creating the IPs, and
once the IPs were created in about two
years’ time, these behaved like magnets
to attract customers. Mind it, it’s not
easy putting together an excellent prod-
uct engineering team in India.
The second thing is the prowess to
create prototypes and working samples
quickly so that you can deliver these
for validation to your potential custom-
ers and existing customers. How much
you can do in-house is also a factor that
plays a major role. The vertical integra-
tion that we have done during the last
few years has enabled us to deliver
working samples within weeks.
The third thing is talking about man-
ufacture of products irrespective of their
size (a small Bluetooth headband or a
5G base station). The kind of machinery
and equipment we have invested in has
allowed us to manufacture these prod-
ucts from the same factory.
60 august 2021 • electronics For you express
VVDN’s Secrets to Success!
1. Staying ahead of time by knowing market trends and what the customer might be looking for
next.
2. Collaborating with universities in India and hiring students before they complete their studies.
3. Partnering with silicon companies and getting early access to yet-to-be-launched silicon.
4. Establishing R&D labs in universities and colleges and giving students complete access to the
same.
5. Inviting potential customers for one-on-one conversion.
6. Visiting the brands for meetings instead of merely following up on phone.
7. Investing in building an ecosystem for product development in India.
8. Hiring international teams for managing operations in countries like the USA, Taiwan, and
South Korea.
The last one is our strategic tie-ups and we do it in two ways.
with universities. We have done it One is our partnership with silicon
really well. In Coimbatore we have a companies like Intel and Qualcomm. It
complete VVDN campus inside a uni- is a simple fact that if a new silicon is
versity. We have a team of 500 people coming up then these companies have
there and the University is hosting us put in a lot of effort to develop that. By
for the entire R&D. We also hire from working closely with such companies,
that University. Most of the people we get access to a lot of information,
hired from such universities are given which is an indicator of where the
roles in the innovation and IP teams. market is headed.
We are in the process of replicating The second area is the work done
that model in tier II and tier III cities by in-house marketing research teams.
as we believe that the focus on R&D These teams are clubbed with technical
and innovation is more in such cities. evangelists. Every marketing research
Please note that we offer jobs to stu- team at VVDN has at least one technical
dents of such universities while they evangelist. Their responsibility is to find
are completing their PhD or MTech. We synergies between what the customers
strive to keep ourselves ahead of time. are looking for and what we are devel-
oping. It is their responsibility to find
How many IPs are owned by VVDN for gaps between what has been asked for
design and manufacture? and what we can deliver.
The products are always tied to a
brand; that is what an ODM is about. How much of your revenue do you
ODMs are never about owning a brand. dedicate towards research?
When you talk about a product, it has Right now, about 25 percent of our
many components, it has software and revenue is going into research on an
many other things. What matters to annual basis.
our customers is time to market.
For example, if an organisation How do you attract brands to do busi-
wants to launch a product in the ness with you? Does branding help?
market, its first ask will be how soon Yes of course, branding always
can we give them the product and helps. However, converting any oppor-
get into manufacturing from concept tunity from a brand to real business is a
stage. That is where we use the tons of different thing; it is a complete lifecycle.
IPs that we have created at VVDN. To You have to take it through several steps
answer your question, every product of working on the product. Then comes
that VVDN develops has some IP and understanding their needs and their
knowledge that is created in-house by time to market. Finally, making sure
the VVDN team. that the relationship is long-lasting.
We give our customers the right We have dedicated business devel-
to own the product IP, but within that opment teams in different regions. We
product there are certain other IPs that also invite CXOs of our customers to
are owned by the VVDN team. These our facilities and show them around. I
IPs are used to manufacture and engi- cannot recall a single invitation which
neer products at VVDN. has not landed us any contract. The way
we have set it up makes it easier for cus-
How do you create IPs? What’s the tomers to compare what we offer. Let
overall market research approach of me tell you clearly that what we present
VVDN? in the media is not even ten percent of
IPs help you stay ahead of time, the actual abilities we possess.
www.EFYMag.com
 Interview
How do these invitations work?
Our research teams start identifying
and working on what a potential cus-
tomer is looking for before we actually
send out invites to that customer. Within
business units like 5G, IoT, and Vision
we make roadmaps that are intended to
keep us at least five years ahead of time.
We don’t create just marketing
research documents, we create IPs
that are looked upon by big brands as
futuristic technologies. If you are able
to understand what a brand wants in
advance, you can easily create an invita-
tion that they will not say no to.
These invitations are general
meetups and not big events. We prefer
one-to-one invitations because that helps
us keep up with the confidentiality levels
required by our customers. Most of these
meetings are scheduled at our facilities
because that is how we can show our
customers what we are capable of doing.
Then there is an experience room
where customers can get to see most
of the products and solutions we have
worked on in the past. I think that also
helps customers to be confident about
us. In short, we prefer physical meets
over phone calls with our customers.
Do you also participate in events?
Yes, we have been participating in
a lot of events, and we are also a part of
various organisations run by the govern-
ment of India. VVDN actively participates
in various panel discussions and semi-
nars conducted by these organisations.
India vs global revenue, what’s it like?
Is there any change in strategy for
acquiring global clients?
Presently, India contributes around
40 percent of our revenue whereas the
rest 60 percent is from other countries.
However, the India growth, owing to
Make in India, is high at the moment.
The growth in India, and outside India,
is increasing at a phenomenal rate.
There is a slight change in strategy
for international markets. Costs as well
as the product sets for India and for inter-
national markets are different. We also
see a difference between the Indian and
international customers from a mindset
perspective. We have hired local teams in
countries like the USA and South Korea,
and that has made our tuning work for
all the regions of the world.
In one sentence, Indian customers
are always going to compare you with
products coming from countries like
Taiwan and China. At VVDN we have
learned to create products which meet
the cost criteria of customers.
62 august 2021 • electronics For you express
How did you create a local ecosystem
when others have been struggling to
do so for decades?
Let me be honest and give a lot of
credit to what the government of the
country has done in the last five years.
We have seen a huge growth not just
from a manufacturing perspective but
also from the business perspective
during the last five to seven years. We
have had customers who are more will-
ing to do local R&D and manufacturing
in India.
To be very frank, it is just the
mindset that one needs to establish an
ecosystem. Once you have the mindset
you will automatically find ways to
make that happen. Today, when we
meet different government departments
like NITI Ayog or MeitY, I find that they
are equally interested to take the manu-
facturing capabilities of India to the next
level. I do not see any lack of intention.
Why we were able to do so was
because we depended on ourselves
from the very beginning. We were able
to identify which products or catego-
ries would be the best to start with
in order to build a local ecosystem.
Applying for PLI schemes was never
a strategy for us but bringing the right
products and right customers to India
was always on our mind.
We never got influenced by short-
term factors and focused on the long
term, and hence made the right invest-
ments. Now, automatically, we have
not only become eligible for govern-
ment schemes but also for unstoppable
growth. How much you are dependent
on others and how you can reduce
that dependency is the key to growth.
Rather than focusing on extracting ben-
efits from government schemes, one
should focus on building your capabili-
ties first.
What has enabled you to compete
against global ODMs?
It all starts with our deep product
engineering capabilities. Brands look
at us as a single window to get their
problems solved and products manu-
factured. They do not have to go to
different places to get different parts of
a product done.
Second is creating facilities where
infrastructure to develop products are
all under one roof. In terms of ship-
ping time, we are today competing with
ODMs from China, Taiwan, and the USA.
Could you elaborate on your collabora-
tion with universities?
We have a concept of hiring people
when they are in their third or fourth
year. We hire them well in advance and
bring them to our core offices for R&D.
I believe that R&D does not have space
for pressure. The lesser the pressure, the
better the innovation and the product
gets.
We hire people before they even
complete their studies. Similarly, we
also support PhD students who work for
at least one or two years with us before
they have completed their studies. This
is only possible when you go to them,
as travelling for students is difficult.
Hence, we are establishing R&D labs
inside universities. Students from these
and nearby universities are given access
to such labs.
By the time they complete their
studies, they get acclimatised with how
we work and our product engineering
culture. This has helped us file more IPs.
There is mutual benefit for us as well as
the universities.
How does collaboration with silicon
companies help?
Our relations with silicon companies
are quite unique. As we buy silicon from
them, we are customers for them. This
relationship gets extended in the form
of R&D work we do with these silicon
companies in terms of hardware and
software. We get access to solutions that
haven’t even entered mass manufac-
turing stages. That way our team gets
familiar with silicon that is yet to be
launched in the market.
The use-cases found in the process
are taken to our customers by our teams
and, as I said earlier, this is one more
step which helps us keep ahead of the
time. Customers benefit because they
know where the market is headed and
what products they might need. In
short, we complete the loop between
companies, technologies, and products
that they will need.
What’s the plan ahead?
We have applied for multiple PLIs on
offer by the government of India. I think
we have just touched the tip of the ice.
The customers have started looking at
India as a blue-eyed country. We want
to make sure that we create an infra-
structure that enables us to grab these
opportunities—whether it is electronics
assembly lines, or mechanical facilities
like moulding and injection, or R&D
labs. VVDN is committed towards its
goal of being a premier product engi-
neering and manufacturing company in
India dedicated to creating opportuni-
ties and transforming lives.
www.EFYMag.com
 Industry News
Industry Updates

Congress suspects scam behind removal

of Ravi Shankar Prasad from MeitY
Congress, the main opposition party
in India, is suspecting that the
removal of Ravi Shankar Prasad
from the cabinet could have links
with fear of a controversy erupting
in the upcoming Parliament session.
The party citing a latest report from
Comptroller & Auditor General of
India also hinted towards a possible
scam in the Ministry of Electronics &
Information Technology (MeitY). The
party noted that the Department of
Telecommunication (DoT) has been
allotting projects to various private
partners worth tens of millions with-
out issuing any tender. Ravi Shankar Prasad

people (on the move)

Krishna Moorthy appointed as the president and CEO
of IESA
India Electronics and Semiconductor
Association (IESA) has announced the
appointment of K. Krishna Moorthy, an
electronics industry veteran, as the president
and CEO. Moorthy’s professional career
spans over four decades of global experience
in systems, semiconductors, and IP products
in diverse domains. In his tenure as a working
professional, Moorthy has mentored a few startups in IoT
products and semiconductor solutions to revenue generation
stage.
Virtual Forest appoints Sandeep Kejriwal as co-founder,
COO & CFO
Virtual Forest, an India based company
manufacturing energy-efficient consumer
electronics and providing electronics
manufacturing services, has appointed the
former EMC India CFO Sandeep Kejriwal
as co-founder, COO & CFO, to lead the
overall strategy, operations, and financial
management for the organisation. Alongside
his CFO role at EMC’s (now DELL-EMC) Global R&D Centre in
Bangalore, he had also served as regional chairperson for the
NASSCOM GIC Forum. In the past, he has worked at senior
leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard, EXL Service, and
Goodyear India.
Sunil Banwari joins Advantest Corporation as VP
Sunil Banwari has started working with
Advantest Corporation as its vice president of
cloud solutions division. Banwari, based in the
USA and Taiwan, was previously associated
with AT&S India as its chief operating officer.
He has previously worked with Intel and ON
Semiconductor as well. Banwari has also
been associated with Anadigics, Natel EMS,
and Smiths Group plc in the past.
Addverb appoints Johnny Christian Andersen as GM
Home grown robotics startup Addverb has
appointed Johnny Christian Andersen as
the general manager for the Europe region.
The company noted this appointment as
a key intersection for putting Addverb on
the global map. Andersen has previously
worked with the likes of KVM International,
Vorning Group, Danish Energy Systems,
Weiss, Hydratech Industries, and Korber Supply Chain. He
was associated with Korber before joining Addverb in July
2021.
Verizon India appoints Vijayaraman Subramanian
as VP and MD
American multinational telecom
conglomerate Verizon has appointed
Vijayaraman Subramanian as its vice
president and managing director for its
Indian unit. Subramanian takes over this
role from Kalyani Sekar who moved to
the US to take on a global leadership role
within the organisation. Vijay, who has been with Verizon
India since its inception in 2001, has led multiple business
teams.
Mahindra Electric appoints Suman Mishra as CEO
Mahindra Electric has appointed Suman Mishra as the
chief executive of Mahindra Electric and
chief executive designate of Last Mile
Mobility business after current CEO and
MD Mahesh Babu decided to quit in order
to pursue interests outside the company.
Mishra, who earlier held the position of
senior VP of Business Transformation,
Insight and Analytics, Automotive Sector,
is a performance transformation expert with 20 years
of experience in strategy and end-to-end performance
transformation across sales, manufacturing, products, costs
and purchasing and supply chain.

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You express • august 2021 63

 Industry News
Telecom PLI attracts
investment options worth
45 billion rupees
More than 35 firms have shown inter-
est in investing about 45 billion rupees
under the production linked incentive
(PLI) scheme for telecom gear manufac-
turing. The government of India, under
the scheme, had originally envisaged to
attract investments of about 30 billion
only. A total of 36 companies, including
India based Akshata, Dixon Technolo-
gies, HFCL, Tejas, Tech Mahindra, and
VVDN Technologies have shown inter-
est. Jabil, Foxconn’s Rising Star, San-
mina, Sterlite Technologies, and Cisco
are in the list of international applicants.
IT hardware PLI: Indian
companies prepare two
billion rupees push
Indian companies including the likes
of VVDN, Dixon Technologies, Info-
power Technologies, and Micromax
(Bhagwati Products) have committed
over two billion rupees in investments
around the recently approved produc-
tion linked incentive (PLI) scheme for
promoting local manufacturing of IT
products. The Ministry of Electronics
& Information Technology (MeitY)
has approved 14 (Indian and interna-
tional) companies under the recently
approved IT hardware PLI scheme.
The scheme is promising incentives
worth over 73.5 billion rupees over a
four year period starting April 2021.
Reliance forays into
Green Energy space
Reliance Industries Chairman and
Managing Director Mukesh Ambani
has announced that Reliance will be
investing 750 billion rupees in setting
up four giga-factories to make renewa-
ble energy goods like solar photovoltaic
cells, hydrogen fuel, batteries, and fuel
cells over the next three years. While
addressing an annual shareholder
meeting, he also announced that the
conglomerate will set up 100GW solar
power generating capacity.
Electronics exports reach
a new peak in March
Electronics exports in India have been
rising steadily in the last few months
and reached a new peak in March,
having touched 98.12 billion rupees,
right before the second Covid wave
struck. Mobile phones contributed
around 34 percent of the overall elec-
tronics exports, recording the highest
exports (worth 34.21 billion rupees)
in the category. It is worth noting that
mobile phones have held the top posi-
tion for quite some time now. Telephone
equipment including mobile phones
and components also make up the larg-
est share of electronics imports in India.
India’s electronics imports
from China on rise again
India’s electronics import bill, which
stood at $19.1 billion during 2019-20
was $20.3 billion during 2020-21. How-
ever, the good news is that these figures

opportunities galore!
Wearable electronics market $103.2 billion opportunity
by 2027
The global market for wearable electronics was estimated at
$24.4 billion in the year 2020. It is projected to reach $103.2 bil-
lion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.9 percent over the period
2020-27. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South
Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach $12.3 billion
by the year 2027. Among the other noteworthy geographic mar-
kets are Japan and Canada, which are expected to grow at 20.8
percent and 19.5 percent, respectively, over the 2020-27 period.
High-speed e-scooters saw 47% growth in 2020-21
The high-speed e-scooter segment has witnessed a growth of
47% in 2020-21 fiscal, despite overall sales having lowered by
5.4 percent. High-speed electric two-wheelers are models with
a speed above 25km/h. Low-speed (up to 25km/h) electric two-
wheelers, on the other hand, witnessed a decline of 17.9 percent
vis-à-vis FY2020. In 2020-21, 34 new models of electric two-
wheelers were launched including 19 low-speed ones.
Growing EV charging stations market offers
great opportunity
The electric vehicle (EV) charging stations market is expected to
reach a value of $103.6 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 26.4% dur-
ing the period of 2021-28. By volume, the EV charging stations
market is expected to reach 11,647.5 thousand units by 2028,
at a CAGR of 31.1% from 2021. In 2021, the hardware segment
is estimated to account for the largest share of the overall EV
charging stations market.
5G to form 26% of India’s mobile subscriptions by 2026
5G will represent around 26% of mobile subscriptions in India by
the end of 2026, estimated at about 330 million subscriptions.
4G remained the dominant technology in 2020, accounting for
61% of mobile subscriptions. 4G subscriptions are forecast to
rise from 680 million in 2020 to 830 million in 2026, increasing
at a CAGR of 3%. The technology will continue to be dominant,
representing 66% of mobile subscriptions in 2026, with 3G being
phased out by that time.

Portable lithium power packs market growing fast
The global portable lithium power packs market size is expected
to reach $282 million by 2028. It is expected to expand at a
CAGR of 13.2 percent from 2021 to 2028. With the improvement
in battery technology, coupled with the increasing demand for
portable power packs from the consumer electronics sector for
powering notebooks, mobiles, tablets, and other smart devices,
the demand for portable lithium batteries is anticipated to grow
over the forecast period.
$25.78 billion growth expected in global LED market
The LED market is expected to grow by $25.78 billion during
2020-24. The LED market is driven by the declining manufac-
turing cost of LEDs. The growing number of households and
increasing urbanisation are expected to trigger the LED market
toward witnessing a CAGR of almost 13% during the forecast
period. LED Lights is one of the fastest growing businesses in
the world, and India is considered the second biggest consumer
of these lights.

64 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

 Industry News

corporate news snippets

Samsung Electronics’ executives quizzed
over duty evasion
At least three senior executives of Samsung Electronics have
been questioned by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
(DRI) in India. These executives were questioned over possible
customs duty evasion on imports of network equipment. DRI
was examining whether the South Korea based tech giant was
misusing the free-trade agreement (FTA). India’s FTA with South
Korea makes import of network and mobile radio communica-
tions duty-free.
Is Tata entering the semiconductor space?
Tata, one of the biggest corporate houses of India, might be
gearing up to enter the semiconductor space in the country. The
corporate house might enter the vertical via the Outsourced Sem-
iconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) route. Raja Manickam, the
founder of Tessolve Semiconductors, has joined Tata as CEO of
its OSAT unit. Manickam is known to be the brains behind Tes-
solve Semiconductors. He had founded the same in 2003. It was
in 2016 that the company was acquired by Hero Electronix.
SpaceX looking to collaborate with Indian companies
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has plans to collaborate with Indian
companies in order to locally manufacture satellite communica-
tions equipment in the country. The company, at the moment, is
preparing to launch its high-speed Starlink satellite broadband
service in India. It is expected that SpaceX will introduce the ser-
vice early next year. The equipment that SpaceX might be looking
to manufacture locally in the country includes antenna systems
and user terminal devices.
TVS Motors to invest 10 billion rupees on EV vertical
Homegrown auto giant TVS Motor Company is reportedly invest-
ing ten billion rupees to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs)
under a separate vertical. The company is readying a complete
portfolio of two- and three-wheelers in the range of 5-25kW, all
of which will be in the market within 24 months. The company
is also developing integrated vehicle architecture with a critical
backend manufacturing of battery and other critical parts man-
aged in-house.
Dixon-Bharti JV to invest over two billion
to manufacture CPEs
Homegrown electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies is
applying for the telecom equipment manufacturing production-
linked incentive (PLI) scheme through a joint venture that it has
formed with conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and will invest 2
to 2.5 billion rupees for the same. In April, Dixon and Bharti had
announced that they signed an agreement to form a joint venture
that would file applications for the PLI scheme.
Schneider announces big investment in Luminous
Schneider Electric plans to infuse 3.5 billion to 4 billion rupees in
its Indian subsidiary Luminous Power Technologies. The invest-
ments will be used to pursue growth plans of Luminous, which
entail doubling the battery and inverter production capacity,
generating new employment opportunities, and ramping up its
solar business. A significant part of the investment will be fo-
cused on Luminous’ solar business, its fastest-growing segment,
from which it expects to get 40 percent of the company’s sales
by 2025.

Ola Electric signs $100 million debt-financing deal
with bank
Ola Electric and Bank of Baroda have signed the largest long-
term debt financing agreement in Indian EV industry. The 10-year
debt of US$100 million is towards the funding and financial clo-
sure of Phase 1 of the Ola Futurefactory, Ola’s global manufac-
turing hub for its electric two-wheelers. Ola had announced last
December that it would be investing 24 billion rupees for setting
up Phase 1 of the factory.
Tata power teams up with HPCL to set up
EV charging stations
Tata Power has signed an agreement with Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation Limited (HPCL), a Maharatna Oil & Gas Public Sec-
tor undertaking, to provide end-to-end EV charging stations at
HPCL’s retail outlets (petrol pumps) in multiple cities and major
highways across the country. The charging would be enabled
with the Tata Power EZ charge mobile platform.
Bharti to invest more in OneWeb, secures $2.4 billion
in funding
Bharti-backed satellite communications company OneWeb has
secured further funding on the anniversary of the successful bid
by the UK government and Bharti Global to purchase OneWeb
from US Chapter 11 to bring its total funding to $2.4 billion.
OneWeb has completed its transformation with the exercise of a
call option by Bharti to invest an additional $500 million into the
company.
Samsung sets up display manufacturing unit in Noida
South Korean electronics major Samsung Electronics has com-
pleted the construction of a display manufacturing unit in Uttar
Pradesh’s Noida. The unit was shifted from China to the state. In
December last year, Samsung had revealed that it would invest
48.25 billion rupees to relocate its mobile and IT display produc-
tion unit from China to Uttar Pradesh. This, according to the state
government, is likely to generate 1,500 direct employments and
scores of indirect jobs in the state.

haven’t crossed the figures of India’s
imports from China in 2016-17, 2017-18,
and 2018-19. India’s electronics exports
during these years stood at $21.9 bil-
lion, $28.7 billion, and $20.6 billion,
respectively. Please do notice the slump
in imports immediately after 2017-18.
Maharashtra reveals new
9.3 billion rupee EV policy
The state government of Maharashtra
has released its new 9.3 billion rupee
Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 with an
aim to incentivise and promote the
adoption of electric mobility in the
state. It is aiming to target 10% of
EVs in new vehicle registrations by
2025, which would comprise 10% of
two-wheelers, 20% of three-wheelers,
and 5% of four-wheelers. For EVs sold
without battery, 50% of the incentive
will be given to the vehicle’s original
equipment manufacturer and the rest
to the battery swapping operator.
Gujarat’s new EV policy
promises 8.7 billion rupees
as subsidy
The state government of Gujarat has
announced a new electric vehicle (EV)
policy. The policy promises subsidies
worth 8.7 billion rupees for EVs and
for setting up charging points in differ-

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You express • august 2021 65

 Industry News

INTERNATIONAL news
Intel In talks to acquire GlobalFoundries for $30 billion
The US chipmaker Intel is in talks to acquire contract chipmaker
GlobalFoundries for $30 billion. GlobalFoundries, which was
owned by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, is currently in the
hands of the Abu Dhabi government’s investment unit Global
Mubadala Investment. The talks appear to be proceeding
between Intel and Global Mubadala. With rivals like Arm quickly
rising in the semiconductor scene, Intel is straining to hold on to
its position as a leading chip maker globally.
LG Chem to invest $5.2 billion for EV batteries’ chemicals
South Korean giant LG Chem is looking to invest $5.2 billion in
four years to begin the production of essential chemicals and
materials used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This move comes
as part of the company’s plans to help countries and companies
reduce their dependence on China where the largest share of
EV battery chemicals is produced. LG explained that it will be
expanding its manufacturing capacity to meet the demands of the
battery materials market, which is forecast to more than double
from 39 trillion to about 100 trillion won ($87 billion) by 2026.
Rohde & Schwarz acquires Zurich Instruments
Rohde & Schwarz has acquired Zurich Instruments. The former
said that the acquisition of Zurich Instruments AG, a technologi-
cal leader in test and measurement, will help Rohde & Schwarz
further expand its test and measurement division. The Swiss
company Zurich Instruments AG will be run as a full subsidiary. All
functions at Zurich Instruments will remain in place, from develop-
ment and production to marketing and sales.
US solar firm CubicPV looking to invest in India
US based solar component maker CubicPV is looking at India
as a manufacturing hub as it plans to invest $1.1 billion to set up
10GW solar wafer and cells manufacturing capacity in India over
the coming five years. The company is in talks with the Indian
government to participate in the production-linked incentive (PLI)
scheme for solar equipment manufacturers. CubicPV plans to
start with 2GW of cells and wafers capacity, and then expand it to
10GW over five years at a cost of $1.1 billion.
Audi to become EV-only brand by 2026
German auto giant Volkswagen Group’s Audi will stop introduc-
ing new combustion engine models from 2026 as it is aiming to
shift its focus and investments towards electric vehicles. Audi will
launch its final ICE powered vehicle, the Q5, in 2026 which will
be manufactured up to 2033. Audi India is currently gearing up to
introduce its first electric vehicle in the Indian market.
Foxconn records all-time high sales amid rising demand
Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn has reported
an all-time high second-quarter sales record of about $48 billion in
the April-June quarter, which is about 20 percent higher than the
same quarter last year. The Apple supplier’s sales growth can be
attributed to the surge in demand for electronic devices as schools
and offices continue to be held from home amidst the ongoing
pandemic.
China’s Wingtech acquires the largest chip plant in UK
Chinese electronic software giant Wingtech Technology an-
nounced that its subsidiary Nexperia has acquired the UK’s biggest
chip plant Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) to boost global production
capacity. Nexperia obtained 100 percent ownership of the Welsh
semiconductor production facility and decided to rename it as Nex-
peria Newport. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed,
but it is worth around $87 million, according to several reports.
Apple, Intel to use TSMC’s 3nm chip production
technology
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has found
Apple and Intel as the first adopters of its 3-nanometer (3nm) chip
production technology which is planned to be deployed next year.
Apple and Intel are testing their chip designs with TSMC’s 3nm
production technology with a commercial output of such chips ex-
pected to start in the second half of next year. The most advanced
chip production tech being used for consumer products today is
TSMC’s 5nm technology, which is used for all iPhone 12 processor
chips.
AMD wins EU antitrust approval for Xilinx acquisition
Semiconductor designer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc has
secured unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $35 billion bid
for Xilinx Inc. AMD had announced the deal in October last year.
The European Commission said it had not found any issues after
a preliminary review. The proposed transaction would raise no
competition concerns in the European Economic Area given the
absence of horizontal overlaps and vertical relationships between
the activities of the companies.
MKS Instruments to buy Atotech for $5.1 billion
Semiconductor equipment maker MKS Instruments Inc will buy
specialty chemicals group Atotech Ltd for about $5.1 billion to ex-
pand its chip manufacturing capabilities. MKS, which has a market
capitalisation of about $10 billion, will fund the acquisition through
cash and debt financing.

ent cities of the state. The government
of Gujarat is promising subsidy of up
to 20,000 rupees on the purchase of
an electric two-wheeler, up to 50,000
rupees for a three-wheeler, and up to
150,000 rupees on the purchase of a
four-wheeler. Also, for any EV getting
approved by Gujarat’s RTO one will
not have to pay any registration fee.
Rajasthan government to
subsidise electric 2- and
3-wheelers more
The Rajasthan government has
announced that it would refund the
state component of the goods and
services tax (SGST) to buyers of all
EVs in Rajasthan between April this
year and March 2022. Additionally,
buyers of electric two-wheelers and
three-wheelers would be given addi-
tional cash subsidies between 5,000
and 20,000 rupees depending on the
size of the battery in the vehicles.
A major differentiator between the
Rajasthan government’s EV policy
and that of states like Gujarat or
Maharashtra is that electric cars or
buses will not be extended any cash
subsidy.
NIT Andhra Pradesh signs
MoU for academia-industry
collaborations
NIT Andhra Pradesh has signed mem-
orandum of understanding (MoU) to
collaborate with industry partners on
areas like mobile satellite communi-
cations, semiconductor design, and
power quality in renewable technol-
ogy. The MoU was signed for formal
academia-institute collaboration with
Scarlet Industries, BITSILICA, and
InstaSine Power Technologies Private
Limited.

66 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

 My Story

If We Were Not There Yesterday

Does Not Mean We Can’t Be
There Today Or Tomorrow
An alumnus of IIT Bombay, he had not heard about IIT, till his friends from the 11th standard told him they
were preparing for it. An avid rider, he went on a non-stop Bombay to Bangalore road trip to enjoy the
company of a friend who was leaving for Germany. But, the adventure nearly cost him his life.
It’s good that he was keen on working on product development, else we might not have known what we
call Ideaforge today—the startup that is shaping the drone industry day and night. He is Rahul Singh, one of
the co-founders of Ideaforge, and this is his story as told to Mukul Yudhveer Singh

N
aturally inclined towards tinkering and
experimenting with new things, it was
in the sixth standard that Rahul started
working on his first gadget. Essentially
a circuit breaker at core, his first gadget was a
modest rain alarm. However, he went on to make
many more, even complex gadgets during his
school days.
Rahul Singh “Sciences that were translating into the real
Co-founder,
Ideaforge world around us interested me the most. As a kid
I was an avid audience of the National Geographic
and Discovery channels. The programmes that I
saw on these channels really shaped my view of
the world for me,” explains Rahul.

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You express • august 2021 67

 My Story
He recalls spending hours watching
shows related to nature, space tech-
nologies, cars, etc on these channels
and feels that they helped shape his
perception of the world around him.
“These channels are the prime
reason that I got interested in making
gadgets at a very early age. Though
I didn’t know the fundamentals of
making gadgets back then, trying my
hands on them helped me learn from
my own mistakes,” explains Rahul.
Recalling the rain alarm that he tried
to make in the sixth standard he says, “I
was aware of the fact that a successful
gadget needs to go through the phases
of designing, fabricating, and testing. As
there was no rain at that time, I poured
water over the gadget in order to create
artificial rain and test the gadget.”
In the process of creating artificial
rain, he used a steel vessel to pour
water and got an electric shock. His
attempts to build gadgets often resulted
in short-circuiting and switching off of
the electricity supply at home. Such
experiments made him realise the
essence of understanding fundamen-
tals and concepts of science.
“These experiments were hands-
on ways that led me to pick science as
something I wanted to do for the rest
of my life. The experiments were why
I chose the science stream in 11th and
12th standards,” explains Rahul.
However, a child studying in sixth
standard and experimenting with elec-
tricity is a sight that no parent would
want to see. Afterall, it is the safety
and well-being of a child that concerns
them the most. While his parents
encouraged him to learn more out of
his curiosity, he remembers being
scolded once in a while for playing
with electricity and short-circuiting the
electricity connection at home.
“My parents did realise however that
the persistent curiosity and the resultant
tinkering was a good thing. They gave
me the space to continue doing what I
was doing,” explains Rahul.
What’s IIT?
Rahul, who is a mechanical engineer-
ing (B. Tech) graduate from the Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay,
had no idea what IIT was, or what it
even meant till his senior secondary
classes. His family, which included his
elder brother, came from a business
68 august 2021 • electronics For you express
and finance background, and they also
did not know much about IIT.
“IIT was not aspirationally driven
for me. Till the time I got to 11th stand-
ard I didn’t know what IIT was, or what
it meant. My family was also not a very
science-background family. It was
through friends and peers in the school
that I was introduced to the concept of
preparing for an IIT and it made perfect
sense given my curiosity for science
and technology,” explains Rahul.
Rahul decided to consult his elder
brother on the subject of pursuing IIT.
However, as his brother was into com-
merce and finance, he also had no idea
what an IIT was. His brother then used
I have learned a lot
of life lessons from
the point of view
of a goalkeeper. I
see the work and
collaborations that
we do at Ideaforge as a
football team analogy
where different people
have different roles,
similar to positions
you play in football.
the Internet to find out and asked a lot
of people about the relevance of IIT
before giving him the go ahead.
“The only question asked by my
brother was: Are you sure you want
to go for IIT? I said yes and sat for
the entrance exams. What helped me
crack IIT was Vidya Mandir classes for
IIT entrance preparation,” says Rahul.
Though initially unsure if he would
get admitted to Vidya Mandir classes,
Rahul, upon seeing the result, realised
that the institute was probably helping
students who had a problem solving
approach and not a mugging up books
approach. “The institute was less about
books and more about the practical
problem solving approach,” he says.
Prior to clearing the entrance
exam of IIT, one major achievement
that Rahul recalls is getting admit-
ted to Delhi Public School (DPS) at
R.K. Puram in New Delhi, a dream of
almost every student in Delhi.
“DPS R.K. Puram was one school I
wanted to get into, and as I scored well
in my 10th CBSE exams, I was able to
study there. The privilege of studying
with a lot of brilliant students was
the biggest upside of studying in that
school,” says Rahul.
The go-to-person and food
Rahul, even after becoming co-founder
of Ideaforge, still goes to his elder
brother for guidance. His elder brother
has been his mentor, philosopher, and
friend throughout his life. Had it not
been for his brother’s support, Rahul
says, he would not have been able to
accomplish what he has done till date.
“I have always had the privilege of
being the younger brother. My elder
brother taking most of the responsi-
bilities has allowed me to be more risk
taking and exploratory,” says Rahul.
Rahul is proud about the great role
his elder brother has played in his
journey as an entrepreneur. Had he
not had the support of his brother, he
says, he would not have been able to
accomplish what he has done till date.
He adds, “The role of my elder
brother has helped me chart out the
journey of my life, and not just as a kid.
In fact, his presence has helped me put
together what we call Ideaforge today.
I tell you that it has not been an easy
journey, and it helps when your family
supports your plans and actions.”
While he enjoys everything his
mother cooks, Rahul’s favourite food
happens to be something that he prob-
ably has created himself. This dessert,
made of milk, breadcrumbs, crushed
cookies, and mangoes (or any other
fruit), which he used to consume while
studying, is something he still relishes.
This dish closely resembles an English
dessert known as Eton Mess. The flip
side, however, of the dish is that it’s
laden with calories.
“Apart from the simple food that
my mom cooked, something that I still
crave and enjoy is the dessert I used to
make on my own in my school and col-
lege days. When I tried the Eton Mess
recipe for the first time, it reminded me
of the dessert I used to create,” he says.
Eton Mess is a classic English dessert
made of a mixture of strawberries,
meringue and whipped cream.
He enjoys food that is not cooked
with overpowering spices. He likes eating
food that still has the natural taste of
www.EFYMag.com

vegetables. This preference to preserve
the basics is reflected in everything he
does in life. “I like things that have the
element of the base that it is carrying.
Covering anything with superficiality is
a big turnoff for me,” he explains.
Thanks to the work schedule at Idea-
forge, he has now become more practi-
cal in what he eats. Though he relies
on eating one-pot meals, he also finds
himself ordering burgers and rolls often.
Rahul loves eating Asian and European
cuisines including rice and vegetables
that are cooked together in the same pot
using as minimal spices as possible.
Wind in his hair
Rahul had always been very passion-
ate about biking. In fact, his love for
cycling goes back to his school days.
He recalls cycling at high speeds and
using speed breakers as platforms to
launch cycles in the air in his child-
hood days to showcase his expertise.
He bought an Enfield 500 bike during
his college days in Bombay, and made
several modifications to it himself.
“Speed continues to give me the
kick. My first bike ride was on my
brother’s bike. I was not supposed to
ride it fast, but I kept on testing the
limit of the bike every now and then
and ended up meeting with a few acci-
dents,” he says.
“I tweaked the Bullet 500 I bought
and played around with it. I tweaked
the bike to make it deliver more power
than it was originally meant to pro-
duce,” shares Rahul.
Rahul is still a bike person at heart.
However, he now drives a car and
plans to buy a Ducati Scrambler one
day (of course after the permission of
his family).  a goalkeeper and a striker in a football
Apart from the love for speed and
tech, Neha Chauhan, his wife, is the real
love of his life. A romantic at heart, Rahul
got married to Neha in a destination
wedding in Goa. It was just before the
lockdown that the wedding took place.
Rahul recalls, if not for the last-moment
opportunity they got, the wedding would
have been a Zoom event! The couple
invited all their friends from school
and college life, and Rahul says it was
a dream wedding for the couple. Neha
is an actress and has featured in several
roles on the big and small screens.
And on how the duo met, Rahul
answers, “We just bumped into each
www.EFYMag.com
Rahul with his co-founders and one of their drones
other one day and became the best
of friends before expressing love for
each other and getting married finally
in Goa!”
Relating life with football
Rahul, who heads the technical teams
at one of the most promising startups
of India today, used to be a part of his
college football team. He feels that
being goalkeeper on the football team
has helped him shape his professional
as well as physical life.
“I have learned a lot of life lessons
from the point of view of a goalkeeper.
I see the work and collaborations that
we do at Ideaforge as a football team
analogy where different people have
different roles, similar to positions you
play in football,” he explains.
Explaining the difference between
team he says, “A striker has to keep
trying and convert two successes out
of ten attempts. A goalkeeper on the
other hand has to keep saving, and
two failures out of ten attempts is a
catastrophic failure.”
Each member of the team, as he
learned while playing football, needs
to understand the importance of their
respective roles. Moreover, each indi-
vidual also needs to understand the
difference in each other’s roles while
playing as a team.
“You may have done 90% of the
things right but a small 10% error can
make others complain about how your
electronics For You express • august 2021
My Story
mistake made the team lose the game.
It doesn’t just happen on the football
field, it happens in real and profes-
sional life too,” he explains.
He adds, “Understanding and
cherishing one’s role is the key to suc-
cess on and off the field. Football has
had that influence on me about things
that surround me.” When asked if
he relates his co-founders (Ideaforge
team) to the football analogy he says.
“Ankit as CEO has been taking care
of the business and customers, which
means looking into sales and funding as
well. His role has been that of a striker
in the football team and that of the team
manager. Vipul and I have had transi-
tions of roles and we both have been
goalkeepers here at Ideaforge. Ashish,
who is already at the midfield, helps
us in setting up the game. Mine and
Ashish’s midfield roles include feeding
the strikers with the right thing to go
forward and score.”
Rahul’s favourite footballer hap-
pens to be German goalkeeper and
captain Oliver Kahn. Rahul is also an
ardent fan of the Formula 1 races. He
used to dedicate his Sundays to the
races, including pre- and post-race
briefings, and everything else around
the fast machines.
Anything for a friend
How much importance Rahul gives to
his friends is evident from the Ideaforge
team, where on more than one occasion
he has proved what friendship really
69
 My Story
“There was no stop sign on the same idea.
Some less known facts and I ran off a cliff. I fell 30 feet “Back in 2003 we realised that this
about Rahul Singh into a completely dry canal. My
bike and I broke a lot of things
was something that Leonardo DiVinci
had sketched about long-long back. We
Favourite Actor: Christian Bale in our body. My friend pulled now knew that the concept had existed,
Favourite Actress: Charlize Theron me out of the canal with the and we also got hooked to its simplic-
Favourite Sport: Football and Formula 1 help of some locals and I was ity,” recalls Rahul.
Favourite Sports Person: Oliver Kahn rushed to a nearby hospital. I He adds, “This project was one that
Favourite Movie: Marvel series was informed of a broken back neither relied on heavy electronics nor
Cars or Bikes: Bikes bone and shattered face,” he on heavy mechanical engineering. This
Bike I ride today: None recalls about that road trip. required a good blend of both and was
Bike I want to ride one day: Ducati Scrambler “We did two foolish things very simple in approach. Keeping things
Car I drive today: Skoda Superb at that time. One we rushed into simple for making it work continues
Favourite food: Eton Mess the road trip without carefully to be the best thing about it. Imagine
Go to person: Elder brother planning it and two we left for a helicopter which needs thousands
the road trip without having any of parts to be active and then imagine
means to him. One of these incidents medical insurance,” he says. quad-copters which are conveniently
happened around the time when Rahul He adds, “It was once again my simple. That exact thought crossed our
and his friends were about to graduate elder brother who came to the rescue. minds and Ideaforge was born.”
from IIT Bombay and hence decided to He rushed over after listening to what The journey of Ideaforge after that
go for a road trip one last time. had happened to me and took care of has been about optimising the already
“We decided to do this one long me and all the medical bills. I still bank simple systems further in order to
road trip together before graduating on him for all the decisions of my life.” make them more efficient. The team at
as some of the friends were moving to Ideaforge is now trying to build drone
countries outside India,” recalls Rahul. The drone view solutions for every part of the world.
The plan which was initially for all The story behind Rahul and his friends Back in 2007, the friends came
his friends boiled down to just Rahul coming together to start Ideaforge as together and established a company
and another friend of his as others kept a drone startup draws encouragement that’s now turning every head in India,
dropping out. Rahul’s bike was hit by from their love for robotics. All the co- instead of going for full-time employ-
a school bus on the day of the road trip founders of Ideaforge see robotics as a ment after IIT, due to lack of core prod-
and he ended up burning his back due game changer for humankind and see uct development jobs in the country
to the hot exhaust of the bike. Rahul potential in the same to change the back then. Rahul, who has done an
got medical treatment and decided to course of lives of humans. internship at one of the biggest organi-
continue with the road trip as the friend “What I feel is, if someone is sations in the country, feels that it was
accompanying him was to leave for interested in physical sciences and always product development that excit-
Germany after the trip. devices to get things done, robotics is ed him, and continues to excite him.
“I thought I couldn’t leave this the end game for them. For me a fan is “What I feel is that different indus-
opportunity and reschedule the road a robot, a light bulb is a robot. These tries in India need to collaborate and
trip. The plan was to ride from Bombay are a combination of multiple things develop solutions for the entire world.
to Bangalore, if possible, non-stop. I coming together to make something We need to carve out a name for India
look back and find that to be a foolish happen. This has always been the core in the hardware domain. If we were not
decision now,” he says. area of interest to me,” he says. there yesterday does not mean we can’t
Though they wanted to complete Rahul adds, “Interestingly, I stum- be there today or tomorrow,” says Rahul.
the ride the same day, they didn’t leave bled upon the co-founders of Ideaforge “Instead of having multiple small
early in the morning and started late. in IIT Bombay and they had the same kingdoms fighting each other, it is good
“We started the road trip at 10am view about sciences. It is because of to have one large kingdom working
and got exhausted by the time we the alignment of the same views we towards one goal,” he adds.
reached near Karnataka. My brother managed to start Ideaforge and have Rahul’s future plans include taking
called me after dinner and told me to gone through the most challenging of Ideaforge global and transforming the
stay where we were and continue the times as founders and friends.” company into a place where people
journey in the morning. But we were The first thing these friends started enjoy working and create the best drone
high on this thing that it had to be non- working upon was a hovercraft in solutions possible. Who knows, Rahul
stop and carried on with the ride late the IIT campus. Later, the hovercraft and Ideaforge’s co-founders might step
in the night,” recalls Rahul. idea transcended to a quad-copter up to disrupt the automation and robot-
This is how Rahul met with an acci- idea. The quad-copter made the co- ics industry soon, just like they have
dent that almost killed him. There was founders realise the brilliance of the done in drones’ arena!
some repair work going on at a stretch idea. They started reading more about
of the highway and Rahul fell nearly quad-copters and were astonished to
Mukul Yudhveer Singh is a
ten metres down in a canal along with see how people from different geogra- business journalist at EFY
his bike. phies of the world were trying to work

70 august 2021 • electronics For you express www.EFYMag.com

 Opportunities
Automotive Industry’s
New Dawn Beginning
With Two-Wheelers
Projections for electric two-wheelers are estimated to rise consistently, grabbing
about 20 percent of the total market by 2026. By 2030, this number is expected
to go as high as 60 to 70 percent
I
Siddha Dhar ndia has done well in the automotive
industry. Among the many industries
upon which the country has laid hands
on, it has noted the most growth in the
automotive space, producing many domes-
tic companies that have gone on to become
global players. But the recent climate con-
cerns have made it clearer than ever that it
is time to switch to cleaner, greener means
of living. This has brought about the era of
the electric car.
The rise of the automotive industry
heralded a new era of mobility in the early
20th century. The 21st century demands
another such evolution, which can be very
www.EFYMag.com
well brought about by electric vehicles (EVs)
to reduce, if not undo, the climatic horrors
combustibles have caused.
Disruption in the automotive industry is
going to be inevitable. And once it begins, it
is going to be extremely rapid.
EV taking over ICE
EVs score over internal combustion engine
(ICE) vehicles by numerous points, whether
it is the experience, life, or power of the vehi-
cle. Not only are they more technologically
advanced they require remarkably fewer
moving parts and so have much less wear-
and-tear.
electronics For You express • august 2021 71
 Opportunities
The global market share of the
two categories is changing inversely.
Thirty percent of the two-wheelers
sold in China, the world’s largest
automobile market, are now electric.
It is estimated that by 2040, EVs will
outsell the ICE cars globally.
Most developed as well as devel-
oping countries are now promoting
electric mobility, which falls in line
with their efforts to reduce emissions
and meet their clean energy targets.
This could mean the end of combusti-
ble engine vehicles by the end of this
decade.
Two-wheeler a clear winner
Companies like Tesla have become a
shining example of the scope of the
electric car industry. But as bankable
as it may seem, electric cars need to
overcome quite a few hurdles at pre-
sent to become a profitable business
in India.
The Indian consumer is just get-
ting used to the idea of driving a car
that runs on batteries, so the shift
from an ICE car to an electric car is
likely to take some time. As such, the
low hanging fruit for India to win big
in the EV race is probably going to be
the electric two-wheeler and three-
wheeler market.
Moreover, the foundation for elec-
tric cars is yet to be set in the country.
The infrastructure, arguably the most
important element, is yet to be devel-
oped in India. And given the initial
price at which a typical electric car is
sold in the market, the average Indian
72 august 2021 • electronics For you express
consumer cannot yet be so easily
persuaded.
The electric two- and three-wheel-
ers, on the other hand, need much
lower infrastructural investment. In
terms of their technological advance-
ments and conversion, the market
is already witnessing a spike. More
importantly, almost 80 percent of the
vehicles that run on the Indian roads
are two-wheelers or three-wheelers.
This makes two- and three-wheelers
the perfect segment through which
the electrification of vehicles in India
can begin.
The prevalence of two-wheelers is
not just high in India but all over the
world. The Asian market, for instance,
is highly reliant on two-wheelers. The
boom in the sale of electric models in
countries like China assures that this
is a market segment destined to grow.
Projections for electric two-wheel-
ers are estimated to rise consistently,
grabbing about 20 percent of the total
market by 2026. By 2030, this number
is expected to go as high as 60 to 70
percent.
Electric two-wheelers consist of two
segments, the low-speed segment (up
to 25km/h) and high-speed segment
(above 25km/h). The highest inflec-
tion point is estimated to be anywhere
between the two segments (termed
‘city speed’ by Hero Electric), while
high-speed segment is also expected
to rise, albeit as a premium category.
Market pushing for EVs
As the focus is starting to shift towards
electric two-wheelers, important
aspects are shaping up to be condu-
cive to its growth. The first tailwind
that is pushing the growth of the
electric two-wheeler market is the
efforts of the government to sup-
port the industry. Policies like the
National Electric Mobility Mission
Plan (NEMMP) and Faster Adoption
and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles
in India (FAME) Phase 1 and 2 have
been launched to push for the change.
Of course, rising climate concerns
and the need for clean mobility have
been the ultimate harbingers of this
mindset. This has led to a growing
sense of responsibility for vehicle
users who are now exploring the idea
of adopting a greener means of trans-
portation like the EVs.
Batteries, for instance, which are
undeniably an important element of
EVs, have reduced considerably in
price. What would cost $1,200 per
kilowatt-hour (kWH) is now available
at $156 dollars per kWH, decreasing
by 85 percent. A major reason for this
is that these batteries are now being
produced for mass usage rather than
for mere experimental purposes.
All of this has provided traction to
the EV ecosystem. For instance, Hero
Electric used to previously struggle to
get quality vendors. Now, however,
vendors are willing to invest into the
category and are looking at it in a seri-
ous manner.
Headwinds in EV market
However, the EV ecosystem is still
burdened with a few challenges. A
considerable speed bump right now
is the lack of customer awareness and
over-estimation of EVs’ performance.
ICE vehicles get an edge with the
initial pricing, which is set to be sub-
stantially higher for EVs. Even with
the same performance, an EV could
be 1.8 to 2.8 times more expensive
than an ICE vehicle. This difference in
performance parity prevents custom-
ers from fully understanding the scope
of electric two-wheelers, which lies
in the total cost of ownership (TCO).
The TCO of an electric two-wheeler
is much, much lower than that of an
ICE one.
Financing is another hurdle. Hero
Electric has numerous relationships
with non-banking financing com-
www.EFYMag.com
 Opportunities

India’s
Anyone who
Electronics
Magazine stops learning
RANKING AS PER
ELCINA-IMRB is old, whether
REPORT

at twenty
or eighty.
—Henry Ford

Don’t
Be A
Eco electric car touch multimedia system with charging battery status on the screen

Loser!
panies (NBFCs) and banks but the
number of vehicles that are getting
financed is quite low at present. How-
ever, we expect that to change now
given the rise in demand for EVs.
Manufacturing is another aspect,
which is still not robust enough. Bat-
tery cells, for example, are still not
manufactured in the country. With
the lack of indigenous components,
there is lower value addition to these
vehicles. But this can also be seen as
a blessing in disguise.
The biggest opportunity
Apart from Central government’s
policies, the majority of state gov-
But that too is witnessing a change.
The recently announced production
linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the
manufacture of ACC battery cells is
a huge support for the industry. It
brings about infinite opportunities for
the interested participants to explore
You don’t know
the electric battery market, which is
how much you
inevitably going to become a necessity
don’t know.
by the end of this decade.
Going by the demand and supply
parameters, we believe the battery
price is going to stabilise around $110
per kWH, after which there is going
to be a technology shift that, in all
Amaze

towards manufacturing incentives.

moving Read
probability, right now looks to be
towards solid-state batteries.
ernment policies are more linked This presents electric batteries a major
opportunity to be tapped into given
Yourself!
Read Electronics For You
But building vehicles from scratch can how its importance is going to explode
be an expensive proposition given the in the next few years. You’ll realise how much you
investment and supply chain factorsto keep There up-to-date
is also, of course, a need for didn’t know, and didn’t
that need to fall in place. EV com-with the tech chargers,
controllers, world motors, driv- know that you didn’t know!
ponent manufacturing, on the other etrains, plastics, mechanicals, and
hand, is a huge business opportunity other components that can be manu-
that can be tapped into. factured in India for the EVs. Scan This Code
In fact, there are numerous oppor- It is clear that the era of EVs has To Subscribe:
tunities which exist in the EV space. begun, and the ICE vehicles will now http://subscribe.efy.in OR

Batteries are one such aspect that can have to take a bow and leave the
offer the most innovative opportuni- stage. The EV market in India is still
ties. Battery assembly or cell manu- very nascent, but EVs are on the way,
facturing can be impressive business which means it is the right time to act,
propositions if done right. Battery innovate, and to grow.
assembly, in particular, is not only a The article is based on the talk ‘Sustainable
lucrative business but also a Tomuchsubscribe, Scan
visit efy.in or Mobility Solutions OR This- Opportunities & Challenges’ by
simpler one as compared to complete
contact us at: 011-4059660
Naveen Munjal, ManagingCode Director, Hero Electric,
battery manufacturing, which Email:
needs support@efy.in
which was presented at MOVES 2021, Tech World
expertise. Congress
Also available 2021.magazine outlets
at all leading

www.EFYMag.com electronics For You express • august 2021 73

74
104 AUGUST
august2021 electronicsFOR
2021• •electronics For express
You
YOU www.EFYMag.com
www.EFYMag.com electronics
electronics FOR YOU express
For You • •
august
AUGUST2021 75
2021 105
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Client name Page No.
Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.binayLED.com)............................................................ Gatefold
Creatronics.......................................................................................................................................49
Daikoku Innovations (www.daikokuinnovations.com).........................................................................9
Digi-Key Electronics (www.digikey.in).................................................................................................4
EFY Group of Publications: Subscription Scheme (subscribe.efy.in)...............................................35
element14 India Pvt Ltd (in.element14.com).....................................................................Front Cover
HIOKI INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED (https://hioki.co.in)........................................................................75
I.T. Solutions India Pvt Ltd (www.itsipl.com)..................................................................................... 11
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) (https://www.istem.gov.in).............................................................29
kitsNspares.com...............................................................................................................................59
Liquid Instruments (www.liquidinstruments.com).............................................................................79
LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com)....................................................................................23
Martins Electronic Devices & Instruments (www.medielectronics.com)...........................................57
Millennium Semiconductors (www.millenniumsemi.com).................................................................15
MORNSUN GUANGZHOU SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD (www.mornsun-power.com)......7
Mouser Electronics India PVT Ltd (www.mouser.in).........................................................................80
Client name Page No.
National Controlling & Equipments (www.nacei.com)......................................................................77
O/E/N India Ltd (www.oenindia.com)................................................................................................74
Open Source India (www.opensourceindia.in).................................................................................17
Pasternack (www.pasternack.com)..................................................................................................33
Pico Technology (www.picotech.com)..........................................................................................5, 31
Powersem Semiconductors Pvt Ltd (www.powersem.com).............................................................25
Premier Industries (www.solderwire.co.in).......................................................................................76
Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd (https://sakthipower.com)..............................................................77
Sanjay Technologies (www.sanjaytechnologies.co.in).....................................................................57
STMicroelectronics Private Limited (www.st.com)............................................................................13
Surya Power Packs (www.primeproducts.in)....................................................................................76
Synchroknot Cloud (https://synchroknot.cloud/)...............................................................................29
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Universal Electronic Agencies (http://www.easternradio.co.in).........................................................76
VARTA Microbattery Pte. Ltd. (https://www.varta-ag.com)...............................................................25
ViscoTec India Private Limited (www.viscotec-india.com)................................................................55

ADVERTISERS’ PRODUCT CATEGORIES INDEX

Products Page No.
Batteries & Power Supplies
Martins Electronic Devices & Instruments..................................... 57
MORNSUN GUANGZHOU SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
CO., LTD....................................................................................... 7
National Controlling & Equipments................................................ 77
VARTA Microbattery Pte. Ltd. ....................................................... 25
Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ................................................... 77
Surya Power Packs ...................................................................... 76
Components (Including Active & Passive)
Digi-Key Electronics ....................................................................... 4
element14 India Pvt Ltd ................................................ Front Cover
LWI Electronics Inc. ...................................................................... 23
Millennium Semiconductors ......................................................... 15
Mouser Electronics India Pvt Ltd .................................................. 80
O/E/N India Ltd ............................................................................. 74
Powersem Semiconductors Pvt Ltd ............................................. 25
Products Page No.
STMicroelectronics Private Limited .............................................. 13
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Universal Electronic Agencies ...................................................... 76
Industrial & Manufacturing Equipment
ViscoTec India Private Limited ..................................................... 55
Materials (Including Chemicals & Consumables)
Premier Industries ........................................................................ 76
Optics & Optoelectronics
Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd. ...........................................Gatefold
PCBs, Assemblies & Sub Assemblies
Sanjay Technologies .................................................................... 57
Plugs, Sockets & Connectors
Sanjay Technologies .................................................................... 57
Reseller and Distributors
Digi-Key Electronics ....................................................................... 4
element14 India Pvt Ltd ................................................ Front Cover
Products Page No.
LWI Electronics Inc. ...................................................................... 23
Millennium Semiconductors ......................................................... 15
Mouser Electronics India Pvt Ltd .................................................. 80
TME SLOVAKIA ........................................................................... 27
Services
Sanjay Technologies .................................................................... 57
Switches & Relays
O/E/N India Ltd ............................................................................. 74
Test & Measurement Equipment (Including Indicators
& Monitors)
Creatronics.................................................................................... 49
HIOKI INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED .................................................. 75
Liquid Instruments ........................................................................ 79
Pico Technology ....................................................................... 5, 31
Wires & Cables
Sanjay Technologies .................................................................... 57

78 AUGUST 2021 • electronics FOR YOU express www.EFYMag.com

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