New-Tech Europe Magazine | February 2018

February 2018

New-Tech Europe February 2018

22 IoT technology is catching up with our visionary dream 26 From "sensors to sunset" 30 Testing Bluetooth ® low energy systems 34 Securing IoT Nodes

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Internet of Things

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February 2018

About New-Tech Magazines Group Read To Lead ‘New-Tech Magazines’ A world leader in publishing high-tech and electronics, producing top quality publications read by tens of thousands professionals from all over the world especially from Europe, innovative electronics, IoT, microwave, homeland security, aerospace, automotive and technological industries. Our specialized target audiences prefer New-Tech Europe because they know that our publications are a reliable source of the latest information in their respective fields. Our multidimensional editorials, news items, interviews and feature articles provide them with a full, well-rounded picture of the markets in which they operate - an essential asset for every technological leader striving to stay ahead, make the right decisions, and generate the next global innovation. Moreover, as an attractive platform for advertisers from around the world, New-Tech Europe has become a hub for bustling international commercial activity. Here, through ads and other promotional materials, Israeli readers obtain crucial information about developers and manufacturers worldwide, finding the tools, instruments, systems and components they need to facilitate their innovative endeavors. Targeting the needs of both the global and european industries and global advertisers, New-Tech Magazines Group constantly expands and upgrades its services. Over the years, the company has been able to formulate a remarkably effective, multi-medium mix of offerings, combining magazine publications with useful online activities, newsletters and special events and exhibitions.

Editor: Tomer Gur-Arie COO & CFO: Liat Gur-Arie Journalist: Amir Bar-Shalom Technical journalist: Arik Weinstein U.S journalist: Sigal Shahar Graphic Design: Hadas Vidmayer Concept design: Maya Cohen

mayaco@gmail.com Technical counselor: Arik Weinstein Sales and advertising:

sales@new-techmagazine.com Account Manager: Tatiana Yamin Account Manager: Irit Shilo Account Manager: Rinat Zolty Meroz Account Manager: Ricky Shlezinger Project Manager: Ayelet Arran Project Manager: Yaara shahaf Administration: Shir Ben David Editorial coordinator: Lihi Levi Mail: Office: info@new-techmagazine.com Publisher : NEW-TECH MAGAZINE GROUP LTD Data system: Liat Tsarfati Administration: Lihi Levi

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Contents

10 LATEST NEWS 20 NUS engineers invent tiny vision processing chip for ultra- small smart vision systems and IoT applications 22 IoT technology is catching up with our visionary dream 26 From “sensors to sunset “ 30 Testing Bluetooth ® low energy systems 34 Securing IoT Nodes 40 TSN: Converged Network for Industrial IoT 44 Lowering the barriers to IoT application development 46 Cooling for high-performance industrial computers 50 MC272561-DRAGONFLY and SmartMesh IP ® 52 Arrow Electronics new IOLinkChips solution reduces software development time and costs 54 IP-Classes in Rugged Computing 58 24GHz radar sensing 60 Simulation Speeds NB-IoT Product Development 66 7 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT… why the network of the future will be DPI-enabled

22

26

30

68 OUT OF THE BOX 70 NEW PRODUCTS 82 INDEX

34

www. new- t echeurope . com

New-Tech Magazine Europe l 9

Latest News

Hamburg Port Authority collaborate in 5G research in industrial environment

Hamburg, Germany – Testing of 5G is to commence in an industrial environment in the Port of Hamburg, with the Hamburg Port Authority, Deutsche Telekom and Nokia commissioning an 8000-hectare area with which to carry out key tests of various aspects of 5G functionality, including network slicing. 5G will be tested with

for the first time in Germany. The two-year research project – ‘5G MoNArch’ (5G Mobile Network Architecture for diverse services, use cases, and applications in 5G and beyond) – aims at turning 5G mobile network architecture concepts into practice. A main goal is to gain knowledge and experience from using 5G network slicing in

use cases like traffic lights management, data processing from mobile sensors and virtual reality. To provide connectivity, an antenna has already been installed on the Hamburg television tower at a height of more than 150 meters. The primary focus of the project is on testing 5G applications in an industrial setting in the Port of Hamburg. Such settings require a telecommunications network which is highly reliable and secure. At the same time, it needs to support a diverse range of services and applications. The Port of Hamburg, which is both, a logistics hub and a touristic attraction, provides an environment for testing a variety of use cases that place very different demands onto a 5G network. For example, the Port Authority wants to use mobile communications to manage traffic lights within the port area, as well as collecting and processing environmental measurement data in real-time. Finally, virtual reality applications can be applied to monitor critical infrastructure such as watergates and construction areas, thus enhancing safety in the port. The project partners are now testing if these services, each of which have specific network demands, are reliably working on just one mobile network infrastructure. This is made possible by using dedicated virtual networks, known as “network slices”, in the 5G testbed. Each of these supports a specific service: for example, separate virtual networks will be used to control traffic lights and to transmit environmental measurement data. Network slicing is a key architectural feature of 5G, enabling networks to dynamically and flexibly adapt to the requirements of different applications. The trial in Hamburg will test several network slices under ‘live’ conditions in an industrial setting,

a real-world environment, prove and improve the underlying technical concepts and methods. The Hamburg testbed will integrate 5G into control and monitoring systems for traffic and infrastructure in an industrial sea port environment. A second testbed, in Turin, Italy, will focus on multimedia applications. 5G MoNArch is supported and financed as part of Phase II of the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP), under the auspices of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. Claudia Nemat, Board Member for Technology and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom, said: “This testbed in Hamburg is an important development step along the road to 5G. We need practical experience which we can get in the Port of Hamburg. Our goal is to understand how we can best adapt our network to customer requirements. The production industry and the logistics sector in particular are going to reap the benefits of 5G as a powerful lever for many applications.” Peter Merz, Head of End-to-End Mobile Network Solutions from Nokia Bell Labs, said: “The 5G field trial in the Port of Hamburg is thrusting open the door to a new world of business applications, with the potential to drive change in many areas. This is about making industrial processes much faster and more flexible. For the first time, all of this is going to be tested under live conditions in Hamburg – the importance of this project cannot be rated highly enough.” Jens Meier, CEO of the Hamburg Port Authority, said: “5G offers a level of security, reliability and speed never seen before in mobile networks. HPA is opening up completely new use cases. We can start gathering experience of this cutting- edge technology right now and shape the standard. This is going to benefit the whole City of Hamburg, not just the port.”

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Latest News

Bosch opens IoT campus in Berlin

Bosch is bringing together its global IoT activities at a new hub in the German capital. In the presence of Berlin’s mayor Michael Müller, the Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner inaugurated the company’s new IoT campus at the Tempelhofer Hafen in the creative Ullsteinhaus district. Ber-lin is a hotspot for many important players working on

analog, seamlessly transported into the age of connectivity.” Campuscombines laboratory character with IoT vibe Visitors to the Bosch IoT campus immediately notice that the open-plan, three-story ensemble offers an unconventional working environment. Instead of

desks, a caravan, workshops, and forest-themed workspaces catch the eye. “Associates helped to develop this creative environment. They have everything they need to create new IoT solutions either by themselves in quiet work zones, in agile teams, or together with customers and partners,” Hahn said. In total, Bosch has invested some 3 million euros in the location and its unusual workspaces. The workshops are there to help associates build prototypes quickly and easily, for example. In contrast, the caravan is all about user experience: together with customers and users, it is a place where prototypes can be tested in the very early phases of a project. All of this is based on the design thinking method of innovation, which is widespread in the software development world. “We want to understand customer needs in creative and structured processes, generate a lot of ideas quickly, and test them directly with future users,” Hahn said. From prototypes to productive solutions In order for customers and associates to get an even better idea of how a prototype becomes a productive solution, the campus itself functions as a kind of living IoT lab. The caravan has been converted into a Bosch smart home, and the office kitchens are equipped with connected home appliances. Associates are also encouraged to integrate new applications into their everyday work on an ongoing basis. One very recent example is an app that uses geodata to guide associates to the next free meeting room of the required size. “The internet of things only works when people connect with each other, which is why we are creating a lot of space for encounters and inviting the IoT community to come here to the campus,” Hahn said.

and with connected solu-tions. They include software and hardware providers, technology partners, and start-ups. “With our new premises, we are building bridges between our own IoT experts and others in Berlin’s creative and digital scenes,” Denner said. “The inauguration of the Bosch IoT campus is another important building block for Berlin as a digital capital,” Müller said, speaking before guests from politics, business, and the media. “We believe in openness for the internet of things – open ecosystems and open collaboration and partnership. This idea is also re-flected in the campus concept,” Denner added. More than 250 Bosch associates are working at the new campus. Over the next few years, the number of associates is expected to rise to around 400. They come from a range of different domains within the company. The IoT experts will advise and support customers during the development and implementation of projects for connected solutions. These encompass, for instance, solutions for Industry 4.0, connected mobility, smart cities, and smart homes. The new location is also the headquarters of Bosch Software Innovations GmbH, which was previously located at Berlin’s Schöneberger Ufer. This Bosch subsidiary has been playing an active role in shaping the internet of things for around ten years. IoT consultants, software developers, project managers, trainers, and other specialists have now realized more than 250 international IoT projects. Michael Hahn, a member of the executive management of Bosch Software Innovations, emphasized the significance of the new IoT campus: “With its cloud-based Bosch IoT Suite software platform, Bosch is a leader in technology. We are now combining this expertise with our broad knowledge of IoT consulting and applications at our new Berlin location. Our customers and partners will benefit from having their companies, some of which are still

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Latest News

Mobile System on Chip Designs, Embedded Processing Lift MPU Market

IC Insights, Inc. Though accounting for less than half of total MPU sales, data- handling cellphones, tablets, and MPUs for embedded processing applications to keep MPU market active through 2022. Microprocessors, which first appeared in the early 1970s as 4 bit computing devices for calculators, are among the most

drivers in microprocessors during the first half of this decade, but slowdowns

have hit both of these MPU categories since 2015. Market saturation and the maturing of the smartphone segment have stalled unit growth in cellular handsets. Cellphone application processor shipments were flat in 2016 and 2017 and are forecast to rise just 0.3% in 2018 to reach a record high of nearly 1.8 billion units in the year. The microprocessor business continues to be dominated by the world’s largest IC maker, Intel (Samsung was the world’s largest semiconductor supplier in 2017). Intel’s share of total MPU sales had been more than 75% during most of the last decade, but that percentage is now slightly less than 60% because of stronger growth in cellphones and tablets that contain ARM-based SoC processors. For nearly 20 years, Intel’s huge MPU business for personal computers has primarily competed with just one other major x86 processor supplier—AMD—but increases in the use of smartphones and tablets to access the Internet for a variety of applications has caused a paradigm shift in personal computing, which is often characterized as the “Post-PC era.” This year, AMD looks to continue its aggressive comeback effort in x86-based server processors that it started in 2017 with the rollout of highly parallel MPUs built with the company’s new Zen microarchitecture. Intel has responded by increasing the number of 64-bit x86 CPUs in its Xeon processors. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and others are also increasing emphasis of processors and co-processor accelerators for machine-learning AI in servers, personal computing platforms, smartphones and embedded processing. The 2018 McClean Report shows that the total MPU market is forecast to rise 4% to $74.5 billion in 2018, following market growth of 5% in 2017 and 9% in 2016. Through 2022, total MPU sales are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4%. Total microprocessor units are expected to rise 2% in 2018, the same growth rate as 2017, to 2.6 billion units. Through the forecast period, total MPU units are forecast to rise by a CAGR of 2.1%.

complex integrated circuits on the market today. During the past four decades, powerful microprocessors have evolved into highly parallel multi-core 64-bit designs that contain all the functions of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU) as well as a growing number of system-level functions and accelerator blocks for graphics, video, and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications. MPUs are the “brains” of personal computers, servers, and large mainframes, but they can also be used for embedded processing in a wide range of systems, such as networking gear, computer peripherals, medical and industrial equipment, cars, televisions, set-top boxes, video-game consoles, wearable products and Internet of Things applications. The recently released 2018 edition of IC Insights’ McClean Report shows that the fastest growing types of microprocessors in the last five years have been mobile system-on-chip (SoC) designs for tablets and data-handling cellphones and MPUs used in embedded-processing applications. The McClean Report also forecasts that 52% of 2018 MPU sales will come from sales of all types of microprocessors used as CPUs in standard PCs, servers, and large computers. As shown in Figure 2, only about 16% of MPU sales are expected from embedded applications in 2018, with the rest coming from mobile application processors used in tablets (4%) and cellphones (28%). Cellphone and tablet MPUs exclude baseband processors, which handle modem transmissions in cellular networks and are counted in the wireless communications segment of the special-purpose logic IC product category. A little over half of 2018 microprocessor sales are expected to come from x86 MPUs for computer CPUs sold by Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices. Cellphone and tablet SoC processors were the main growth

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Latest News

Worldwide user organization founded for open IoT platformMindSphere

Working hand in hand with 18 partner companies, Siemens AG is founding “MindSphere World”, a worldwide user organization for the cloud-based open IoT operating system MindSphere. Its aim is to expand the global reach of the ecosystem based on MindSphere. The organization is also designed to afford support to its individual members in

industry as well as startups, we aim to establish and drive forward an eco-system based on MindSphere. With this end in mind, the Association members are joining to form MindSphere World – initially in Germany and then extending out into the international arena.” The members of the organization meet in committees to deal with

developing and improving IoT solutions on the MindSphere platform and in tapping new markets in the digital economy. This will include suggestions about the requirements placed on the IoT operating system MindSphere by the industry and recommendations on setting out uniform rules for data utilization. Another role of the organization will be to promote science, research, and teaching in the MindSphere environment. “The foundation of MindSphere World represents another major step forward in promoting the ecosystem surrounding MindSphere as an open IoT platform. The broad-based expertise and the offering of all the MindSphere World partners will open up totally new digitalization potential for users everywhere,” said Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG Klaus Helmrich. The inaugural meeting of MindSphere World took place in the recently opened innovative development and work environment “MindSphere OpenSpace”, a part of the new branch of Factory Berlin. Over an office space of more than 13,000 square meters, Factory Berlin – an initiative supported by the German Government, Siemens and other companies – brings established technology companies together with developers and startups. The key focus of the new startup campus is the Internet of Things. On the threshold of the age of digitalization, the “MindSphere OpenSpace” creates ideal conditions for the MindSphere World members and other users such as startups to drive forward the development of apps and digital services and to tap whole new markets. Jan Mrosik, Chair of the Management Board of MindSphere World and CEO of the Siemens Digital Factory Division, added: “By bringing together a worldwide community comprising industrial and IT companies of all sizes from all sectors of

issues such as the requirements placed on MindSphere by industry, data governance concepts and the Assocation’s PR work. “MindSphere’s open structure offers a wide range of benefits for us as users, in particular due to the manufacturer- independent link-up of machines and plants and also when it comes to the development of apps. Within the framework of MindSphere World, we can now also talk to other users about ways in which disruptive technologies are changing the face of the economy in general, and about the resulting business potential which could be utilized for IoT-based solutions,” said Bruno Geiger, Member of the Management Board of MindSphere World and COO/CTO of Eisenmann. “Because the development of standards plays a decisive role when it comes to establishing a worldwide ecosystem, the members of MindSphere World will be working together to come up with recommendations for standards in relation to MindSphere-based apps. We’ll also be drawing up suggested solutions for enabling interoperability between different MindSphere-based solutions,” said Andreas Oroszi, Member of the Board of Management of MindSphere World and Senior Vice President Digital Business at Festo. The founder members of “MindSphere World” alongside Siemens AG include the companies: ASM Assembly Systems GmbH & Co. KG, CHIRON Group SE, Eisenmann SE, Festo AG & Co. KG, Gebr. Heller Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Grob-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Heitec AG, Index-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, J. Schmalz GmbH, Kampf Schneid- und Wickeltechnik GmbH & Co. KG, Kolbus GmbH & Co. KG, Kuka Aktiengesellschaft, FFG Europe & Americas (MAG IAS GmbH), Nordischer Maschinenbau Rud. Baader GmbH +Co. KG, Rittal GmbH & Co. KG, Sick AG, Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co. KG, Michael Weinig AG

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Latest News

Bosch, Vodafone, and Huawei enable smart cars to communicate with each other

Successful tests: Cellular- V2X improves driver assistance systems that no longer just alert drivers, but actively support them as well For the first time in Europe: Bosch, Vodafone, and Huawei field-test Cellular-V2X. In real time: car-to-car communication makes driving more relaxed, more efficient, and safer.

and exchange data directly. Direct communication between vehicles provides information about what is happening in parts of an intersection not visible to the driver, over the crest of a hill, or on the freeway beside or behind the driver’s own car.

Seeing beyond the sensors’ reach ACC adaptive cruise control maintains the speed specified by the driver and − thanks to a radar sensor − the preset distance to the vehicle in front as well. ACC detects a vehicle that suddenly cuts in front as soon as it enters the radar sensor’s detection range. When cars communicate directly and in real time using Cellular-V2X, it is possible to detect such events sooner. Through mobile telephony, connected cars can directly transmit information, such as their position and speed, to all vehicles within a radius of more than 300 meters. Moreover, they can do so without going through any intermediate channels via the base stations and with virtually no delay. As a result, a vehicle knows the driving behavior of others around it. If, for example, a car suddenly cuts in front of another vehicle, ACC knows what is about to happen − even before it registers with the driver or the radar sensor. The car then automatically adjusts its speed earlier than it would have before, so that the vehicle cutting in can do so smoothly. Once enough distance to the car in front has been re-established, ACC automatically accelerates to the preset speed. Even in congested traffic, this function makes driving even more relaxed and stress-free for drivers, while also preventing abrupt braking and acceleration on the freeway. Overall, traffic becomes smoother and more efficient. Thanks to the foresight provided by the technology, vehicles can go with the flow.

It is Friday afternoon, and the traffic on the A9 freeway near Munich is congested. Navigation requires complete concentration. Other vehicles are constantly cutting in front of the car, forcing the driver to brake abruptly − which is the cause of many accidents, slow-moving traffic, and stress. Intelligent mobile telephony can alleviate some of these problems and help prevent potentially dangerous driving situations from becoming even more critical. Known as Cellular-V2X (vehicle to everything), the technology makes it possible for a car to communicate with other vehicles and its surroundings through mobile telephony. Since February 2017, Bosch, Vodafone, and Huawei have been performing trials of the new, high-performance technology − the first companies in Europe to do so. The A9 freeway in Bavaria is the location for the field tests with the first 5G test modules. For the first time, the companies are demonstrating that driver assistance systems such as ACC adaptive cruise control also benefit from the direct, instantaneous exchange of information between vehicles. Until now, Cellular-V2X has been used as a real-time alert system when changing lanes on the freeway or when the car ahead suddenly brakes. ACC not only warns the driver, but also automatically accelerates and brakes. The new mobile telephony system thus paves the way for automated driving. Achieving the goal of fully connected traffic will involve teaching vehicles to communicate with each other

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Latest News

Advantech Opens Expanded European Service Center in Eindhoven to Drive Industry 4.0 Growth

Global Intelligent Systems leader Advantech officially opens its new European Service Center — with dignitaries from Taiwan and the Netherlands — invited to tour the newly expanded smart facility, warehouse and production plant. The Advantech European Service Center (AESC) will double the

the European Service Center is Advantech’s first step towards becoming Europe’s most comprehensive IoT solutions provider and will help us reach our target of €350m revenue by 2025.” “At Advantech we’ve been at the cutting edge of technology innovation for nearly 35 years and we’re confident this

size of its warehouse and office space and see production capacity nearly tripled, helping the firm drive regional growth and meet customers’ growing Industry 4.0 needs. Taiwanese Ambassador to the Netherlands, Mr. Chou Tai Chu joins Eindhoven Mayor, Mr. John Jorritsma and Mr. Jeroen Nijland, Commissioner for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), to tour the new facility. They are accompanied by Advantech Co-Presidents Miller Chang, Linda Tsai and the firm’s Co-Founder, Executive of Board and Acting General Manager of Advantech Europe, Chaney Ho. Also attending are Europe executives Hans-Peter Nüdling, Jash Basindhar, MC. Chang, Peter Marek, Reinier Middel and Jeff Shih. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Advantech Europe, according to Chaney Ho, Executive Director of Advantech and General Manager of Advantech Europe “Since 2010, the One Europe strategy has served as the foundation of Advantech Europe and from 2014 Advantech has been highly focused on vertical markets to serve customer needs. This year, in order to strengthen Advantech’s leading position in the European IoT market, we are going to promote and expand our presence in local markets across many application domains,” he explains.“Through mergers and acquisitions and by working together with local partners, Advantech now has more than 400 locally-hired employees working in 14 offices in 10 European countries. We opened new branches locations in Barcelona and Stockholm last year and major investments are being made to collaborate closely with local industries, governments, educational institutions and research organizations. The completion of

expanded European HQ will give us the perfect launching pad to both showcase our products in action and meet the growing demand in the region for Industry 4.0 solutions.” Serving as Advantech’s European headquarters, the building features a range of smart technology innovations, including a completely renovated reception area (iReception) with iVisitor digital sign-in for visitors, and a smart meeting room management system (iMeeting). Also featured are Smart Energy control and monitoring built on Advantech’s own Smart Power Meter, Digital I/O, and Power Relay Modbus products, and WebAccess HMI/ SCADA software. It offers intelligent functionality to monitor and control light and temperature — reducing costs and carbon emissions and thus improving the user experience. The Internet of Things (IoT) extends further in the facility to an iLunch booking system which centralizes staff food orders made via POS terminal or their PC or smartphone app, and automatically distributes them to third-party catering companies. Digital signage throughout the facility is on hand to offer staff and visitors useful information when and where they need it most. In the production area of the new plant, Advantech practices Industry 4.0 with a highly customized CTOS Manufacturing Execution System (iCTOS MES), process automation, machine automation, and equipment/environment monitoring. Real-time data is collected, analyzed and then displayed in a Situation Room to help managers take action, monitor KPIs, speed improvement cycles and support a high degree of product customization.

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Latest News

ST Technologies Help Neonode Add Touch Interaction to Any Object, Surface, or Space

State-of-the-art silicon chips from STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, have enabled new zForce AIR™ touch-sensing modules from Neonode, the optical sensor technology company. Neonode’s compact, low-power,

are relayed up to 500 times per second with virtually zero delay. “ST’s leading-edge chip-design capabilities and manufacturing processes have enabled us to build an innovative, high- performance optical-sensor system that is highly complex yet cost-competitive,” said Andreas Bunge, CEO of Neonode. “The advanced mixed-signal SoC and

and easy-to-use modules add touch interaction to any USB- or I2C-connected object and work with any type of display or surface, including steel, wood, plastic, glass, skin, or even nothing, able to detect touch interactions in mid-air. The innovative approach uses laser-generated infrared light to track touch or gesture control, combining millimeter precision with ultra-fast response. The non-visible-spectrum light doesn’t impact display quality, add glare, or shift colors. The new Neonode family of touch-sensors uses a programmable mixed-signal custom System-on-Chip (SoC) and an STM32 Arm ® Cortex ® microcontroller from ST for scanning laser diodes and IR beams to determine the exact position and movements of fingers, hands, or other reflective objects in the light path. Multiple objects can be tracked simultaneously and interpreted as touches or gestures with extreme accuracy: the coordinates THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minnesota, USA – VersaSense, an exclusive supplier of Industrial IoT products for Digi-Key Electronics, a global electronic components distributor, has been selected as the winner of the 2018 “IoT Sensor Company of the Year” award from IoT Breakthrough. The mission of the IoT Breakthrough Awards program is to recognize the innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the globe in a range of IoT categories, including Industrial and Enterprise IoT, Smart City technology, Connected Home and Home Automation, Connected Car,

STM32 microcontroller at the heart of our new zForce AIR modules deliver the right combination of touch-control precision in real-time, low power consumption, and configurability.” “This innovative sensing technology can make any object, surface, or space touch- interactive, bringing complete freedom of design,” said Iain Currie, Vice President North Europe Sales, STMicroelectronics. “Neonode’s decision to use ST technologies confirms our enabling role in the development of advanced applications that break new ground in man- machine interaction.” Now available for immediate shipment worldwide through Digi- Key Electronics, the zForce AIR™ Touch Sensor modules will be displayed on ST’s stand at Embedded World 2018 (February 27 – March 1, Nuremberg). and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 3,000 nominations from companies all over the world. “IoT sensors are the backbone to the Internet of Things market. VersaSense products enable customers to connect in a secure, reliable and easier way while reducing the total cost of ownership for industrial sensing and control systems,” said David Stein, VP, Global Semiconductors at Digi-Key. “We want to congratulate our partner VersaSense on being named the 2018 IoT Sensor Company of the Year by IoT Breakthrough.”

VersaSense, an Exclusive Digi-Key Supplier, Honored with IoT Sensor Company of the Year

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Latest News

New optics solution fromVTT – 360-degree panoramic view onto single sensor matrix

VTT has developed a new solution for thermal infrared applications, making it possible to fold a 360-degree panoramic view on a single sensor matrix. The concept guaranteeing optimal image quality is especially suitable for security, surveillance, military, and building diagnostic applications, where the objects to be imaged lie in the horizontal

costly price tag, and the latter fails to provide a fully concurrent panoramic view, because of the delay caused by the turning of the camera. The key component of VTT’s new optics design is a monolithic lens element that folds a panoramic field of view on a single thermal sensor matrix. Therefore, there is no need to use several expensive

directions from the camera. In thermal imaging, infrared radiation emitted by objects being imaged is detected and used for showing the temperature variations of the target scene in the form of an image. The fields of application for this technology and its use have been growing steadily, including military systems, building diagnostics, electrical or mechanical inspection, medicine, surveillance, bioeconomy, firefighting, and many others, where there is a recurring need to cover a wide horizontal field of view in the imaging. The commercial solutions for providing broad panoramic thermal imaging available so far have been based on either having several thermal cameras looking at different directions, or a single rotating camera. The first choice comes with a

thermal cameras. In addition, the broad 360-degree panoramic view can be captured on a single shot. The optics solution developed is particularly well suited for situations where a continuous panoramic thermal image close to the horizontal plane is needed. “This concept enables the development of affordable and powerful products for the applications of broad horizontal thermal imaging. The optics design can be modified according to the desired vertical field of view or, for example, image sensor properties. This ensures the optimal image quality for the specific application,” says Kimmo Solehmainen, Key Account Manager at VTT.

Multi-million pound battery project led by Imperial College London announced

Imperial College London are leading a team of the UK’s top battery experts to support the development of next generation batteries. Fundedby the Faraday Institution, the Multi-Scale Modelling Fast Start project is a new £10million programme bringing together scientists, engineers and mathematicians. The aim of the

models that can be harnessed to build better systems.The project was announced today at the Royal Society’s conference on energy storage for automotive and grids in London. It is one of four projects funded by the Faraday Institution’s Fast Start Projects scheme.

"We want to support the growing UK battery industry, which should enable the UK to benefit economically from and promote electric vehicle uptake." – Dr Greg Offer

work is to develop a better understanding of the fundamental science going on inside batteries and capture this knowledge in

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Department of Mechanical Engineering While the project’s work will be of benefit to many areas and applications the team are primarily focussing on improving battery packs for electric vehicles. Designing the needed high performance, cheap and safe battery systems requires an in-depth knowledge of materials science and engineering applications. This is why the collaborative team spans seven universities from a wide range of disciplines. “The project will develop the modelling tools that industry need to bridge the gap between the fundamental science and the engineering of battery systems,” says Dr Greg Offer, the Principal Investigator from Imperial’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, “Our focus on battery packs for electric vehicles is because we want to support the growing UK battery industry, which should enable the UK to benefit economically from and promote electric vehicle uptake.”

Key to the project’s work is the group’s “multi-scale” approach. This means the team will produce models from atoms to applications across both length and time scales. They will apply their methodologies to both current and future battery chemistries. The modelling tools will make it easier to design battery systems tailored to the specific product and its proposed use. Electric vehicles and batteries are a very important strand of the Government’s Industrial Strategy. To ensure that the team is supporting that vision they will work with multiple industrial partners to ensure the outputs of the research are useful, useable and valuable. “We are always looking for practical applications, that the fundamental science can be built on to provide insight into larger problems” says Dr Offer, “I expect big things from the team over the next three years with real world impact and solutions being used in academia and industry.”

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi launches a venture capital fund to invest up to $1 billion over five years

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the world’s leading automotive alliance, announced the launch of Alliance Ventures, a new corporate venture capital fund that plans to invest up to $1 billion to support open innovation over the next five years. In its first year, the fund expects to invest up to $200 million in

benefit from the global scale of the Alliance. This new fund reflects the collaborative spirit and entrepreneurial mind-set at the heart of the Alliance.” The new fund is unique because it offers potential partners access to the global scale and scope of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, which sold more than 10

start-ups and open innovation partnerships with technology entrepreneurs focused on new mobility, including vehicle electrification, autonomous systems, connectivity and artificial intelligence. With further annual investments, Alliance Ventures is set to become the largest corporate venture capital fund in the automotive industry over the period of Alliance 2022, the strategic midterm plan launched last year by Renault- Nissan-Mitsubishi. Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive officer of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, said: “Our open innovation approach will allow us to invest and collaborate with start- up companies and technology entrepreneurs, who will

million vehicles in 2017 through 10 separate brands with a presence in all major automotive markets. Alliance Ventures will invest in start-ups to bring new technologies and businesses to the Alliance while ensuring a fair financial return. The fund will make strategic investments at all start-up stages and will incubate both new automotive entrepreneurs and forge new partnerships. The first deal by Alliance Ventures will be a strategic investment in Ionic Materials, a promising US-based company which is developing solid-state cobalt-free battery materials. The equity acquisition coincides with the execution of a joint-development agreement with the Alliance for the purpose of R&D cooperation.

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Ionic, based in Massachusetts, is the developer of a pioneering solid polymer electrolyte that enables improved performance and cost effectiveness of high- energy density batteries for automotive and multiple other applications. By making such investments, Alliance Ventures will help identify and support the development of new technologies for potential use by Alliance members. Such initiatives are aligned with the objectives of Alliance 2022, which aims to strengthen cooperation and to double the annualized synergies generated by Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors to more than €10 billion by the end of 2022. The $200 million initial venture capital investment comes in addition to more than €8.5 billion in total annual research and development investments by the Alliance members. Alliance Ventures will be led by François Dossa, who has over 20 years of experience in investment banking, plus six years of experience within the Alliance, most recently, as chief executive officer of Nissan Brazil. The Alliance Ventures team will also draw on the expertise and business opportunities identified by a Cross-Functional Team of experts from Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. This initiative complements the Alliance strategy to seek incremental revenues, cost savings and cost-avoidance in Achronix Semiconductor Corporation, a leader in FPGA-based hardware accelerator devices and embedded FPGA (eFPGA) intellectual property (IP), announced that it completed full silicon verification of its Speedcore™ eFPGA production validation chip built on TSMC 16nm FinFET+ process technology. Rigorous bench and ATE tests were completed across full operating conditions to verify the complete functionality of the Speedcore test chip. Speedcore IP is a fully permutable architecture technology that can be built with densities ranging from less than 10,000 look- up-tables (LUTs) up to two-million LUTs plus large amounts of embedded memory and DSP blocks. Designed specifically to be embedded in SoCs and ASICs, Speedcore eFPGA IP represents the next generation of programmable logic. It enables SoC developers to design programmability into their devices to be a platform for their reprogrammable hardware accelerators, to address changing standards, or to future-proof their products. When compared to standalone FPGAs, Speedcore eFPGAs deliver smaller die area, higher performance, lower power and lower

areas including electrification, autonomous drive systems and vehicle connectivity. By the end of its strategic plan, the Alliance will launch 12 pure electric models, utilizing common EV platforms and components, while also bringing to market 40 vehicles with autonomous drive technology and developing robo- vehicle ride-hailing services. Alliance Ventures will define innovation areas and geographic markets for investment, working with existing research and advanced engineering teams, and will recruit venture capital experts to develop the platform. It is expected to be co-located in Silicon Valley, Paris, Yokohama and Beijing, close to the technology and research centers of the Alliance member companies, as well as to areas with strong innovation ecosystems. Renault (40%), Nissan (40%) and Mitsubishi Motors (20%) will jointly fund the entity, which will have a dedicated investment committee to make investment decisions and monitor their performance. “This investment initiative is designed to attract the world’s most promising automotive-technology start-ups to the Alliance,” said Carlos Ghosn. As part of the Alliance 2022 strategic plan, Renault-Nissan- Mitsubishi is forecasting that the combined revenues of its member companies will reach $240 billion and that annual unit sales will exceed 14 million by the end of 2022. overall system costs. The Speedcore silicon validation device was verified using the Speeedcore16t Validation board, a platform available to potential customers to fully evaluate Speedcore eFPGA capabilities. Users have access to a number of application-specific reference designs that operate at 500MHz and can be run through the companion ACE design tool suite to evaluate Speedcore capabilities as well as proof-of-concept exploration. A demonstration video can be found at The Achronix Validation Platform Demonstration. “The demand for Speedcore eFPGA technology has been growing exponentially since Achronix announced its availability a little over a year ago,” says Steve Mensor, vice president of marketing at Achronix. “Many companies interested in Speedcore eFPGA requested a platform to test their hardware acceleration algorithms as one of their sign-off criteria. The Speedcore16t Validation platform is an excellent tool that gives companies the ability to run their complex designs at 500MHz in hardware before finalizing their Speedcore requirements for their SoC.”

Achronix Completes Production Silicon Validation of 16nm FinFET+ Speedcore eFPGA Technology

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NUS engineers invent tiny vision processing chip for ultra- small smart vision systems and IoT applications NUS

Novel video feature extractor uses 20 times less power than existing chips and could reduce the size of untethered vision systems down to the millimetre range A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a novel microchip, named EQSCALE, which can capture visual details from video frames at extremely low power consumption. The video feature extractor uses 20 times less power than existing best-in-class chips, and hence requires 20 times smaller battery, and could reduce the size of smart vision systems down to the millimetre range. For example,

it can be powered continuously by a millimetre-sized solar cell without the need for battery replacement. Led by Associate Professor Massimo Alioto from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the NUS Faculty of Engineering, the team’s discovery is a major step forward in developing millimetre- sized smart cameras with near- perpetual lifespan. It will also pave the way for cost-effective Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as ubiquitous safety surveillance in airports and key infrastructure, building energy management, workplace safety, and elderly care. “IoT is a fast-growing technology wave that uses massively distributed sensors to make our

environment smarter and human- centric. Vision electronic systems with long lifetime are currently not feasible for IoT applications due to their high power consumption and large size. Our team has addressed these challenges through our tiny EQSCALE chip and we have shown that ubiquitous and always- on smart cameras are viable. We hope that this new capability will accelerate the ambitious endeavour of embedding the sense of sight in the IoT, as well as the realisation of the Smart Nation vision in Singapore,” said Assoc Prof Alioto. Tiny vision processing chip that works non-stop A video feature extractor captures

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