New-Tech Europe Digital Magazine | May 2016

new products

optical sensor solutions deliver precise, ultra-low power heart rate monitoring for smart devices Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) and GoerTek Inc. (SHE: 002241) launched two high-resolution, highly integrated optical sensors. The optical chips deliver the precise measurement, small size and ultra-low power consumption demanded by ambient light sensing, proximity detection, heart rate and pulse oximetry monitoring applications in smart devices. The sensor solutions offer best-in-class performance for headphones, fitness bands, smart watches and phones. They are integrating three LED outputs, a photodetector, a low-noise analog front-end, a digital interface and a state machine into a single die. For best application results the bare die is either packaged with an infrared or a green LED or can drive up to three external LEDs. The sensors offer a fully integrated solution for optical heart rate measurement featuring an I²C interface for a programmable sample rate of up to 256 per second. This allows a significantly better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than discrete alternatives. Additionally, monitoring algorithms can filter out motion artifacts and deliver precise heart rate and pulse oximetry measurements during exercise. High optical sensor resolution enables accurate measurement across the widest possible variety of skin types, while high optical sensitivity reduces photo diode area and drives down LED power

consumption with a typical 300 μA LED current on fair skin. A standby current of just 0.3 μA further reduces power consumption. Availability Infineon and GoerTek sensor solutions are available either as bare die or as packaged products with application algorithm fromInfineon’s long-term partnerGoerTek. Packages measure just 3.94 mm x 2.36 mm x 1.35 mm. Packaged samples are available now, with volume production targeted in August 2016. In addition to the bare die chips from Infineon, GoerTek is offering starter kits and demonstration boards for designers looking to rapidly evaluate and test the technology for use in their smart applications. Cadence Next-Generation Virtuoso Platform Deployed by STMicroelectronics for SmartPower Technologies Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) todayannounced that STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has qualified and actively deployed the next-generation Cadence® Virtuoso® platform for its SmartPower technologies. The latest Virtuoso platform successfully enabled ST design engineers to improve custom routing quality and performance and significantly reduce block-planning and pin- optimization time using special pin groups and guide constraints. In addition to its successes in such areas as sensors, microcontrollers

and applications for the Internet of Things (IoT), ST is a worldwide leader in BCD (Bipolar, CMOS, DMOS) Smart Power technologies, utilized to develop ICs for automotive, power management, industrial, consumer and healthcare applications. To address the myriad of complex challenges that come with the development of these types of applications, ST turned to the next-generation Virtuoso platform to improve layout design automation without compromising the highest level of quality and reliability. Furthermore, the mixed-signal design interoperability between the Virtuoso platform and the Cadence InnovusÔ Implementation System offers best-in-class floorplanning, pin-optimization and implementation flows that led to a reduction in turnaround time. In addition to qualifying the next- generation Virtuoso platform for its SmartPower technologies, the ST SmartPower Technology R&D (TR&D) team has also updated its design kits to support the latest Virtuoso platform for production use. This platform also includes the Virtuoso Layout Suite for Electrically Aware Design. “We have been longtime users of the Virtuoso platform and have a very large user community that trusts the platform to drive the delivery of dozens of production tapeouts each year,” said Pier Luigi Rolandi, director of TR&D Smart Power Design Enablement at STMicroelectronics. “Layout design automation needs to be done in a way that is very seamless to the end user while maintaining highest level

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