New Electronics Dec12 2006

THE
DESIGN
CYCLE
FORTNIGHTLY
W W W. N E W E L E C T R O N I C S . C O . U K
12 DECEMBER 2006
Make it yourself!
After the home office, how about the home factory?
A research project at Bath University
is helping to bring the idea of self replicating
machines closer to reality.
I N C L U D E S
W I R E L E S S
Special Report:
Applications Special
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
S P E C I A L
F E A T U R E
Plus: Digital technology boosts audio performance Analogue outdoes digital

M2M meets the need to talk Networks get more personal Wireless technology
means cable is on the run ATCA brings change of focus to comms industry
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The Maxim logo is a registered trademark of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The Dallas Semiconductor logo is a registered trademark of Dallas Semiconductor Corp.
2006 Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. All rights reserved.
CONTENTS
Photograpy: Donald Maclellan
12 DECEMBER 2006 VOL 39 NO 22
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
COVER STORY
After the home office,
how about the home
factory? Researchers
are working towards
making self replicating
machines a reality. 14
DIGITAL TECHNIQUES
Sounds good!
Digital design know how helps target
digital tv deficiencies.
SYSTEM DESIGN
BACKPLANES & BOARDS
The ATCA effect
ATCA is bringing changes in end user
markets and suppliers alike.
26
INTRA DESIGN
REGULARS
Comment
Smoothing the bumps
of semiconductor
market swings.
5
News
Micron invests $10m in
its UK design centre. 6
German researcher
creates ultra thin chip
process.
8
Powerline silicon plugs
into the market.
10
Asian distributors may
be looking at Europe. 12
ADVANCE IN THE
PROFESSION
Davinder Lotay has set
sail and is in control of
his destiny.
53
Appointments
SIGNAL PROCESSING
Analogue outdoes digital
Signal processing the analogue way has
unmatched virtues, including low power.
SPECIAL REPORT
29
INTER DESIGN
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
SPECIAL FEATURE
Lets get personal

Its taken a while, but personal area networking
is finding a range of applications.
37
40
54
10
BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
19
APPLICATIONS SPECIAL
Closer to the birds
Power modules enable an electrically
powered glider to get airborne.
19
DSPs enable diagnostics

Fixed and floating point dsps enable a
new breed of medical diagnostic devices.
20
Life saver!
How an rf chipset has allowed the development
of a sophisticated avalanche rescue device. 23
The need to talk

The M2M market is starting to boom. But if
only people could agree what M2M is.
33
Cable on the run

Industry is going wireless, but how are the
various techniques being used?
47
29
Whos there?
A compact radar sensor allows the user to
find out how many people are in a room
and where they are.
24
PRODUCT NEWS
Inter Design
System Design
44
50
40
91NEL0615152.pgs 07.12.2006 15:29
Design with confidence.

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Design your next-generation systems with confidence.
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Distributors Arrow Electronics (UK) Ltd: 01279 626777 EBV Elektronik UK: 01793 849933
Copyright 2006 Altera Corporation. All rights reserved. Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylised Altera logo, specific device designations, and all other words and logos that are
identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names
are the property of their respective holders. Altera products are protected under numerous U.S. and foreign patents and pending applications, mask work rights, and copyrights.
COMMENT
SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET
Smoothing the bumps

Are the violent swings in the semiconductor market a thing of the past?
he semiconductor industry is performing in a manner

that, you would expect, might justify the odd
celebration or two. Figures from the Semiconductor
Industry Association (SIA) show sales are at record
levels for the fourth month in a row. Its latest report claims sales
in October 2006 reached $21.9billion, some 9% up on the same
month in 2005. Times are good. In fact, the SIA is bullish
enough to predict that semiconductor sales will reach $321bn in
2009; not bad, when you consider that this years sales are
expected to be $250bn.
Demand in Europe is growing more quickly than anywhere
else, underlining its resurgence. Sales grew by 3.4% on a month
to month basis and by 11.2% on a three month rolling average.
And yet the alarm bells are ringing, if only very quietly. Even
while it is predicting strong growth for the industry, the SIA is
pointing out, ever so politely, that global economic conditions
could impact the market. There are signs of slower overall
economic growth and a slowing economy could impact sales of
semiconductors, said SIA president George Scalise. Another
pointer comes from SEMI, the equipment manufacturers
association. It says the book to bill ratio has dipped below 1,
Graham Pitcher, Editor gpitcher@findlay.co.uk
meaning orders for production equipment are slowing.

The cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry is
legendary and balancing supply and demand has, seemingly,
been impossible. Reckless investments and knee jerk contractions
have not helped. But as the industry becomes more mature,
those violent swings are likely to be replaced with more gentle
adjustments. Crashes, such as that in 2001, are hopefully a
thing of the past.
Editor Graham Pitcher US Correspondent Paul Dempsey (newelectronics.usa@cox.net)

Contributing Editors David Boothroyd, Louise Joselyn, Vanessa Knivett, Roy Rubenstein Art Editor David Walters Illustrator Phil Holmes
Sales Director Tricia Bodsworth Business Development Director Lee Nye Circulation Manager Chris Jones (circulation@findlay.co.uk)
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N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e w e l e c t r o n i c s . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
FRONT PAGE NEWS
IMAGING EXPANSION
Imaging investment
$10m expansion plan at UK imaging design centre. Graham Pitcher reports.
icron Europe is planning a

$10million expansion of its
Bracknell based Imaging Design Centre, which is tasked to develop the companys foundation IP. These building
blocks are used in image sensors manufactured in the US and Italy.
The investment will result in more
design engineers and increased laboratory facilities, design tools and information systems infrastructure. The talent
Media processor
for handhelds
As part of its corporate desire to address
non desktop, non workstation applications, 3DLABS has announced the
DMS-02. Aimed at handheld devices,
the media processor is capable of
H.264 video playback in 720p high
definition format.
Our engineering teams were asked
to deliver a breakthrough in handheld
media processing and the DMS-02
shows we have achieved just that, said
Hock Leow, 3DLABS president. The
ability to play back a full 720p resolution H.264 video on your hdtv from a
portable device consuming less than
1W is an incredible achievement.
The DMS-02, manufactured on a
130nm process by an undisclosed partner, incorporates 24 floating point
processing elements arranged in
three clusters of eight dual ARM
926EJ cores running at 200MHz,
multilevel caches and three bidirectional video stream ports.
Nick Murphy, vp technology, said
the coarse granularity of the architecture
gave a good trade off between power and
cost. Although the DMS-02 has three
media processor clusters, you can have
as many clusters as you want.
Each processing element can also do
ram accesses, a feature which the company says is essential for 3d graphics.
Meanwhile, parent Creative Technologies is to spin 3DLABs off into a
separate entity. Creative has approved
the spin off and its the best way forward, Leow believed.
pool in the UK and Europe is impressive, said Dr David Burrows, director of

the Imaging Centre, and we are already
recruiting engineers with experience in
systems design, cad, software IP development, analogue, mixed signal and digital ic design, layout and verification.
Mark Durcan, Microns coo, pictured, added: Our Bracknell facility is
a major asset in creating high quality
sensors aimed at fast growing markets
Bridging the gaps

In a parallel to the development of North and South bridges in the
pc world, Cypress has unveiled the West Bridge a move aimed at
helping embedded systems builders to keep pace with interface
standards.
Devices in the West Bridge family will act as companion chips to
embedded cpus, off loading data intensive operations and reducing
power consumption along the way.
At the heart of the family is proprietary technology. SLIM the
Simultaneous Link to Independent Media manages multiple
dedicated paths between peripherals, memory and processor to
support maximum data throughput. SLIM also supports data
transfer between peripherals without the host processor being
involved.
The first member of the family, called Antioch, is intended to
provide a direct path from High Speed USB 2.0 interfaces to mass
storage devices in mobile handsets .
Cores for celebration!

Tensilica has unveiled the seventh generation of its Xtensa configurable
processors in the shape of the LX2 and
Xtensa 7 cores. Both feature architectural enhancements which reduce
power consumption by up to 30%.
Steve Roddy, vp of marketing, said
the developments were all about
power. The cores are aimed at devices
where ultra low power consumption is
important. Weve learned what the
market needs.
Amongst the upgrades are: enhanced
configuration choices, reduced execution
speculation; and an optional wider
instruction fetch buffer.
Meanwhile, the company has
added four Diamond Standard VDO

processor engines to its portfolio. The
video subsystems are programmable to
support most popular video codecs,
including H.264 Main Profile, VC-1
Main Profile and Mpeg4 Advanced
Simple Profile. Roddy noted: Its an
opportune time to develop a core that
chip manufacturers can integrate.
in security, automotive, medical, notebook computer and digital camera

applications.
The company is currently building
image sensors using 1.75um pixels.
Amongst these is the first 8Mpixel
image sensor in a 1/2.5in optical format. However, it is also working
towards 1.4m pixels, for higher quality images from space constrained
devices such as camera phones.
WiMAX chipset
demod in Hong Kong
Intel has completed the design of its first
mobile WiMAX baseband chip, pairing
it with a previously announced multiband WiMAX/WiFi radio to create the
WiMAX Connection 2300 chipset.
This chipset was demonstrated last
week at the 3G World Congress in
Hong Kong by executive vice president
Sean Maloney. WiMAX Connection
2300 will help speed the deployment of
mobile WiMAX and accelerate the
availability of a new wave of personal
broadband laptops, he claimed.
The baseband chip features multiple input/multiple output (MIMO)
functionality to enhance signal quality
and data throughput and the chipset
brings Intel a step closer to an integrated wireless SoC. This, it claims, will
help drive WiMAX adoption by maximising useable space in mobile devices.
Class D for flat screens

Cirrus Logic has unveiled the CS4525,
a single chip Class D amplifier for flat
panel digital tvs.
Based on a 24bit multibit Delta
Sigma architecture, the CS4525 features a dynamic range of 100dB and a
patent pending thermal warning and
fold back technology, which scales back
output levels automatically if internal
chip temperatures produce excessive
heat.
For more on the CS4525, see the article on p26 of this issue.
80 dB CMRR @ 50 kHz, all in 15 mm2.

With instrumentation amps, analog is everywhere.
AD8250/AD8251: Programmable gain

instrumentation amps (PGIA)
Unmatched speed and accuracy at the lowest power

consumptionjust 3.5 mA
Digital gain settings:

G = 1, 2, 5, 10 (AD8250)
G = 1, 2, 4, 8 (AD8251)
3.5 mA supply current at 50 kHz,
75% lower than other offerings
Slew rate: 20 V/ s
Settling time: 0.5 s to 0.01%
Gain drift: 10 ppmC
Input offset drift: 1 V/C
Input offset: 100 V
Price: $4.95 @ 1k
By delivering an unprecedented combination of 12 mHz bandwidth

and outstanding dc precision, Analog Devices AD8250/AD8251
programmable gain in-amps eliminate the need for compromise
in instrumentation designs. With the industrys lowest power
consumption and smallest footprint of any PGIA, these devices
improve performance, allowing for greater channel densities.
For instrumentation applications

Data acquisition
Biomedical analysis
Test and measurement
Industrial process control
The AD8250 and AD8251 leverage our innovative iCMOS (industrial

CMOS) process technology to enable fast, accurate measurement
and robust signal conditioning over
wide voltage ranges. These PGIAs are
SINGLE CHIP COMPETITOR:
112mm2
tailored to operate with high performance
MULTICHIP SOLUTION:
PulSAR ADCs, such as the AD7621,
~80mm2
AD7671, AD7685, and AD7946, as well
as the ADR431 and ADR435 voltage
AD8250:
SMALLER
15mm2
references and ADG1209 multiplexer.
90%
PACKAGE
SIZE
The AD8250/AD8251 are available in a 10-lead MSOP.
www.analog.com/PGIA-AD825x-EU
Tel: +44 (0)1932 358 530 Fax: +32 (0)11 300 635
2006 Analog Devices, Inc. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.
US NEWS
ULTRATHIN CHIPS
Cracking idea
German research centre outlines ultrathin chip process. Paul Dempsey reports.
he Institute for Microelectronics

Stuttgart (IMS CHIPS) proposed a
new approach to ultrathin chip assembly and fabrication at this weeks International Electron Devices meeting in
San Francisco. It hopes the work will
spur greater interest in low cost alternatives to complex SoC design, such as
system in package.
The Pick, Crack & Place (PC&P)*
technique avoids risks to yield posed by
process steps such as wafer grinding.
Chip thickness is defined in preprocessing by forming buried cavities beneath

wafer surfaces within the chip areas.
The next steps involve annealing at
1100C for 30min and epitaxial film
deposition at 1100C in silicon
hydrochloride at 760Torr.
IMS CHIPS has two ways of following this recipe. After using the first, direct
photolithographic alignment can be
used, notwithstanding difficulties in photoresist spin on. For the second, global
wafer flat alignment is used. Subsequent

steps are common to both options.
During cmos stages, trenches are
etched to free the chips, leaving anchor
points at corners or sides. The anchors
keep the chips attached to the substrate
during final wafer handling, but allow
devices to be cracked off and transferred
with conventional pick and place tools.
* A Seamless Ultra Thin Chip
Fabrication and Assembly Process. Proc.
IEDM 2006
Manufacturing
technique set
to cut led costs
Matsushita and the Nagoya Institute of
Technology have unveiled a low cost
manufacturing technique for blue/
white gallium nitride based leds.
GaN led manufacture has, until
now, required the use of expensive silicon carbide or sapphire substrates. Previous attempts to use silicon substrates
have yielded poor quality photonic crystals and the substrates themselves have
absorbed much of the diodes output.
Matsushitas approach* patterns
photonic crystals directly on silicon
substrates and a 70% leap in performance is claimed. The process begins
with the formation of two dimensional
periodic arrays of patterned grooves,
with pitch from 0.8m to 1.6m, on a
seed substrate. This is followed by
metal organic chemical vapour deposition of GaN for epitaxial growth.
InGaN multiple quantum well
active layers are then grown and, after
a highly reflective p-type electrode has
formed on the surface, the wafer is
bonded onto a thermally conductive
silicon substrate using tin-silver solder.
Finally, the seed substrate is chemically etched away and a Ti/Pt/Au electrode for an n-type ohmic contact is
formed.
* Highly Efficient GaN based LEDs with
Photonic Crystals Replicated from Patterned Si Substrates. Proc. IEDM 2006.
SiGe process matches

III-V potential
Intel said at IEDM that a silicon germanium rf SoC it has manufactured on
a 65nm cmos process matches the performance potential of III-V materials.
The architecture, based on Intels
high performance logic process disclosed at IEDM last year, features uniaxial strain, a gate length of 29nm and
a 210nm pitch.
For nmos transistors, the device
had a cutoff frequency of 360GHz and
maximum oscillation of 420GHz. For
pmos transistors, the cutoff was
238GHz and maximum oscillation was
295GHz.
To make the process suitable for rf
SoC applications, 1.8V thick gate transistors, precision poly resistors, varactors and inductors were added to the
baseline process, said Intels paper*.
For the varactors, Intel settled on
nmos in nwell technology as offering
the highest quality and highest ratio of
maximum to minimum capacitance.
Its engineers also noted that a differential varactor layout delivered an 80%
improvement in its quality measurement over the single ended alternative.
* A 65nm CMOS SOC Technology
Featuring Strained Silicon Transistors for
RF Applications. Proc. IEDM 2006.
The walls come

down on nanotubes
Pump up the quality

Meet the radio that is literally programmed according to your make
and model of car. JVCs KD-S100 incorporates a new dsp technique
that aims to replicate the sound that booms out over a studios
speakers even in a Ford Focus.
Freescales dsps are given car specific Digital Power Station software
developed by veteran sound engineer Tony Bongiovi (second cousin
to a certain Jon). Using this software, the radio can be programmed
specifically for each car model, with more than 120 points of
adjustment. According to Bongiovi, the software is so precise that a
hatchback Ford Focus has a different tuning to a regular model.
Now on sale in the US, this toy will set you back by up to $1000
and should reach Europe early in 2007.
Manufacturing problems have held

back the commercialisation of carbon
nanotubes in electronics applications.
But a team from the University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory has
described a technique capable of fabricating nanotubes with progressively
less and less defects.
It starts by applying a preselected
voltage to a multi walled (typically four
walled) nanotube. This step causes the
outer two walls to break away. The
thinner nanotube is then bombarded
by a high powered electron beam,
which pushes out carbon atoms, creates
vacancies and introduces other defects.
However, subsequent heating of the
nanotube with a predetermined current repairs many of these.
The process can be repeated, each
time resulting in narrower and more
perfect material and the UCB-LBNL
team has produced tubes of less than
1nm in diameter in this way.
POWERLINE NETWORKING
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Plugging in
Powerline silicon debut. Graham Pitcher reports.
iConnect has launched the

PLT050, its first digital powerline
transceiver chip, and claims interest has
already been expressed by cable and
satellite equipment manufacturers.
Designed to support adsl speeds,
the PLT050 can handle throughputs of
14Mbit/s. The chip will handle standard definition tv in triple play applications,
home
theatre
and
uncompressed audio distribution as
well as VoIP and pc networking.
Robert Stead, vp of marketing,
Marvell unveils
XScale devices
Following its acquisition of Intels
communications and application
processor business, Marvell has
brought the third generation of the
XScale architecture to market.
Three members of the PXA3xx
family have been unveiled the 300,
310 and 320. The first processor in the
family to ship in volume will be the
1.2GHz Marvell PXA320, which is
scalable to 806MHz. Meanwhile, the
PXA300 and 310 are scalable to
624MHz. The 300 is optimised for
handheld devices, whilst the 310 supports 30frame/s H.264 playback at vga
resolution.
10
noted: Its built to go on the end of an

adsl link to do basic communications
around the home.
The microcontroller based PLT050
embeds SiConnects POEM technology
to deliver digital modem, baseband signal and control processing functions.
When used in conjunction with a
bidirectional analogue/digital interface
ic, a simple coupler circuit, an industry
standard PHY (Ethernet, USB or serial)
and a 512kbit eeprom for system
firmware and configuration upload, the
chip requires minimal external components to create a complete powerline

transceiver solution.
Stead is confident that products
Satellite tv breakthrough
Zetex is claiming a technical breakthrough in the development of a
4:2 IF switch aimed at satellite tv applications.
The ZXHF5000 boasts 30dB of channel isolation at frequencies of
up to 2GHz. In addition, says the company, by adding 19dB of
gain, the part avoids the 7dB insertion loss found in passive switch
solutions. This combination of high isolation and positive gain has,
until now, proven too difficult to overcome.
Geoff Stokes, senior development engineer, said the main difficulty was
in achieving isolation with integrated gain. Its affected by your choice
of package and pin layout. With 20dB of gain and 30dB of crosstalk
isolation, you need at least 50dB and thats a design challenge.
Richard Robinson, Zetex DBS marketing manager, noted the chip
was replacing four discrete parts a switch, two cable driver amps
and a threshold detector.
based on the PLT050 will appear in Q2

of 2007. More than likely, these will
be straightforward Ethernet adaptors,
he added.
Spin off raises 12m

Fabless display manufacturer Liquavista,
which span off from Philips Research
earlier this year, has raised 12million
from a consortium including Amadeus,
GIMV and New Venture Partners.
Liquavista has developed an electrowetting technology for mobile device
display screens. Electrowetting addresses
two main problems with lcds: poor readability in bright lighting; and high power
consumption.
Amadeus director Hermann
Hauser said: The next big thing in display technology has to address poor visibility and power consumption.
Liquavistas technology solves these
problems while maintaining video rate
performance.
NXP the new company

born out of Philips
Semiconductors
With all the energy of a new beginning,
fuelled by 50 years of wisdom, NXP
Semi-conductors is ready to answer
all your questions especially the
impossible ones.
Driven by the open mind and the
curiosity of a newborn, NXP is already
leading the world of vibrant media
technologies with billions of dollars
invested in research, a heritage of
25,000 patents and numerous stateof-the-art solutions in the most
demanding semiconductor sectors.
So, to discover how you can change
the world with your next innovations
go to www.what-if-you-could.com.
What if you could
What if you could

become a new you?
NEWS
DISTRIBUTION
Attracting attention
Watch out for Asian interest in Europe, says afdec. Graham Pitcher reports.
K and European distributors

should beware of Asia, according
to Adam Fletcher, chairman of distribution body afdec. Presenting afdecs latest
forecast for the sector, Fletcher claimed
a challenge for the future would be what
Asian distributors want to do in Europe.
He said: In the last five to seven
years, demand in Asia has grown. But as
China begins to slow, Asian distributors
Getting the can

QinetiQ is working with Crown
Holdings to adapt its Omni-ID
Pak rfid technology so that rfid
tags can be integrated in metal
packaging.
Less than 1mm thick, the OmniID structure collects and focuses
rf energy and enables efficient
coupling to the chip. The can
would serve as the antenna,
simplifying production of the rfid
tag and further reducing costs.
12
will be forced to improve their global

footprint. That will bring some acquisition activity that we havent thought
about before.
Aubrey Dunford, afdecs market
analyst, added: If Asian distributors do
show interest in Europe, its more likely
theyll start in Germany. The UK isnt
likely to be the number one priority.
However, he added that a plc style dis-
tributor with interests in Europe could

be a relatively easy target.
Meanwhile, afdec expects to see the
market available to distribution companies (dtam) to grow over the next couple of years as manufacturers continue
to move away from direct sales. In
2007, the dtam is predicted to reach
1.137billion, around 30% of the total
market for electronic components.
Europe needs to
control its destiny
Addressing the organisations recent
forum, MEDEA+ chairman Arthur van
der Poel said Europes electronics industry needed to get its act together if it
was to remain in control of its destiny.
European R&D in nanoelectronics today is at world class level, he said,
but if Europe wants to be in control
of its own destiny, then Europe has to
continue to fight for high quality R&D
on European soil. van der Poel
believes Europes nanoelectronics
industry is ready to face this challenge.
With the MEDEA+ programme
ending in 2008, preparations for a successor are said to be well on track, with
a white paper outlining the future due
to be published in the middle of next
year. The new programme, he added,
will have the double tasks of securing
high quality R&D capabilities and
infrastructures in Europe as well as providing technologies and solutions to
address society needs affordably.
van der Poel highlighted the breakthroughs made by the programme in the
last few years. Since its establishment in
2001, some 18,000 person years have
been invested in 75 projects, of which 44
have ended successfully. These include
work in: automotive electronics, wireless
communications, smart cards, extreme
UV lithography, and 65 and 90nm
process technology. The latter project,
van der Poel noted, has given the industry impetus and enthusiasm to collaborate on 45nm technology.
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customised opto components or displays to meet your
exact requirements
a full design and production service - complete project
management, taking your product concept expertly

through to full production
Whichever solution youre looking for, let us help.
Our opto and laser specialists can offer you free, expert
technical advice and help you find your most cost-effective
opto solutions.
Send us an outline of your opto design problem at design@pacer.co.uk
and we will contact you with a solution. For more information, request
our Bright Ideas opto solutions pack.
Pacer
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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
91NEL0615109.pgs 04.12.2006 12:09
Replication revolutionary
Which came first; the
chicken or the egg? How
self replicating machines
are becoming reality.
By David Boothroyd.
14
decade or so ago, the concept of the home

office was revolutionary, but the web and
broadband have made it a perfectly ordinary lifestyle. But what about a home factory: a
production line in your sitting room capable of
manufacturing lots of different products, virtually
for free? Surely that is a pipedream?
Not if Adrian Bowyers plans come to fruition.
The senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at
Bath Universitys Centre for Biomimetics is leading a project called RepRap the Replicating
Rapid Prototyper.
The extraordinary idea underlying RepRap is
self replication. A rapid prototyper can build
many different objects. So why not make one that
can build a copy of itself? If you can do that once,
you can do it again and again. Result: the cost falls
to virtually nothing just the raw materials and
RepRap machines become available to millions.
If it works, it will be the best application yet
of one of the most beguiling ideas in the whole of
technology: self replicating machines.
The idea of a machine that can copy itself goes
back way before the days of electronic comput-
ing, at least to the 1870s, when it featured in

Samuel Butlers novel Erewhon.
One of the first practical steps towards self replicating machines took place in the 1950s, with an
extraordinary project initiated by scientist Lionel
Penrose and his son Roger then a schoolboy, latterly, one of the UKs most brilliant scientists. They
built a system of wooden cut outs, in several
shapes, which could fit together into compound
parts. Placed in a tray and shaken, they would
assemble into specific patterns, which would also
repeat over generations. Effectively, they had built
a mechanical self reproducing system.
But the man regarded as the most brilliant figure in the entire field of self reproducing
machines and, arguably, in the whole of computing is John von Neumann. Whilst he did
most of his research in 1940s, it wasnt published
until after his death in 1966 in his book Theory
of Self Reproducing Automata.
In it, he describes a Universal Constructor; a
self replicating machine in a cellular automaton
environment (like that in John Conways game of
Life). Essentially, von Neumann demonstrated the
basically a mathematical model inside a computer, Bowyer says.

More recently, researchers like Matt Moses at
the University of New Mexico and Hod Lipson
from Cornell University, have made progress
towards real, physical self replicating machines.
Moses system consisted of Lego like bricks made
of polyurethane resin which were used to make a
three axis manipulator. This was subsequently
shown to be capable of assembling a duplicate of
itself. However, the machine cannot fabricate its
own plastic components and must be controlled by
an external entity. To be fully self replicating,
admits Moses, the device would have to control its
own actions autonomously and possess the instructions necessary for carrying out its duplication.
Lipson, meanwhile, made a tower of cubes
The other key element of his strategy is to give

away the RepRap for free the whole systems
electronic design, software, everything needed to
build it, will be available from the web. The logic
of this is that if you create a system that can copy
itself and anyone can have one, you have the
potential for an exponential increase in the numbers of such systems being produced and a similar fall in cost, of both the self reproducing
machines and the objects they can make.
It may sound absurdly generous, but the economics are driven by logic once a system can
copy itself (with a bit of help) it costs very little,
other than the raw materials to produce unlimited
numbers of it, which makes its monetary value
approach zero.
It is potentially extremely wealth creating but
Main picture:
Adrian Bowyer: I want to
produce machines that do
what theyre good at, whilst
we help by doing what were
good at. What that means is
making a machine that can
make all its parts. Then a
person can put them together.
Courtesy of Bath University
attached to each other by magnets, which can be

energised or not. Called molecubes, they can
rotate and manipulate other cubes in their surroundings, and by doing that produce a copy of the
original tower. The results have been intriguing.
Bowyer calls this kind of work pure self reproducing machines, because the aim is to create systems that can make exact copies of themselves
with no human intervention, apart from initial
provision of raw materials. He is not so interested
in that approach because it fails to distinguish
between the inherent abilities and drawbacks of
human beings and machines.
People, he says, find it very difficult to carve a
block of plastic to an accuracy of 0.1mm, which
is easy for a computer. Putting carved pieces
together particularly if they can only fit one way
is easy for us, much harder for a machine.
I want to produce machines that do what
theyre good at, whilst we help by doing what
were good at. What that means is making a
machine that can make all its parts. Then a person can put them together.
Clearly, making machines that do nothing but
copy themselves would be pointless. So the aim is
to create machines with a self reproducing capacity,
but which can also make all sorts of other devices,
from coat hooks to cat flaps almost anything is
possible within the size limitations of the systems
under development, currently a 300mm cube.
COVER STORY
fundamental logical required for self reproduction. His constructor has 29 possible states, allowing signals to be sent and logical operations to be
carried out. A tape of cells encodes the sequence
of actions to be performed by the machine. Using
a writing head, the machine can generate (by
printing) a new pattern of cells, allowing it to
make a complete copy of itself and the tape.
Von Neumann knew simpler forms of self
reproduction were possible, such as crystals copying themselves. But he was looking for a deeper
form of self reproduction that might be closer to
true biology or open ended evolution which
could enable biological levels of complexity to
emerge. His genius was to realise that open ended
evolution needed both a constructor and, distinct
from it, its own description, which must be
copied separately. This was remarkable, because it
came before Crick and Watsons discovery of how
nature does it using DNA. Open ended evolution
emerges because errors in copying the description
mutations generate variations which can then
evolve via natural selection.
After von Neumann, much of the research
into self reproducing machines was done in cellular automata software based models in which
self reproduction took place and Conways Life is
the most famous of these.
These bypass many of the problems of physical reality because youre dealing with what is
DreamWorks
Donald MacLellan
SELF REPLICATING MACHINES
Above: Future developments

could include using the
RepRap to make moulds and,
from them, produce anything
that is mouldable, with
materials like epoxy, concrete,
plaster of Paris or ceramics.
15
COVER STORY
SELF REPLICATING MACHINES
Above: Although aimed

initially at plastic parts,
second generation machines
will be able to produce
electrical circuitry. And future
machines may be able to
reproduce semiconductors.
Right: In September, a RepRap
machine, developed in Vienna
by Vik Olliver, succeeded in
producing the first part for itself
(circled in red).
Below: John Conways

Game of Life is one of the
most famous examples of
cellular automata software
based models that support self
reproduction.
16
itself is worth nothing,

Bowyer says. However, there
is also a moral dimension, in
that he did not want such a
system to be under the control of any individual, company, or government. If you
have a powerful technology, a good way to make
bad things happen is for only some people to have
access to it.
One requirement being asked of anyone building a RepRap is that they make two machines for
other people.
The team has set itself a deadline for distributing the first machines by 2008, but Bowyer is
quietly confident they can beat this. He is not in
complete control of the project different teams
of people are working on prototypes worldwide,
some of whom he has never met. Most recently,
in September, a RepRap machine developed in
Vienna by Vik Olliver, succeeded in producing
the first part for itself (see http://staff.bath.
ac.uk/ensab/replicator/).
First generation machines will produce only
plastic products, but the team is already planning
a second generation device that will handle low
melting point alloys, enabling RepRap systems to

deal with electrical conductors and hence produce
a combined electrical and mechanical object.
These second stage machines will have a deposition head in them that works directly on the alloy,
so you will be able to produce electrical circuitry.
And people are already working to develop inkjet
printers that can print semiconductors on plastic
sheets. Once RepRap machines are established,
there is nothing to stop them creating a semiconductor print head.
But even with plastic only output, Bowyer believes the
potential is huge. I cite plastic coat hooks as an example of
what could be produced. It
sounds completely trivial, but
an economist has told me the
worldwide market for them is
much larger than for massive
objects like gas turbines.
Clearly, it will require a
change in mind set for us to think about making
our own small plastic objects. But if it takes off
and RepRap machines cost almost nothing and
the crucial requirement for that is their capacity
for self reproducing it could happen. People
will then simply download designs for objects
from the web or create new ones themselves
using free 3d modelling software, print them
out and the home factory is born.
The self replication concept can apply not
only to the RepRap machines, but also to the raw
materials. In future, Bowyer is hoping to be able
to use a polymer called polylactic acid, which can
be made by fermentation from starch using potatoes or maize.
If you have a few tens of square metres of
ground, you can have a supply of raw material that
copies itself. And of course, the RepRap can also
make a fermenter. Also the plastic is fully
biodegradable, so it can go on a compost heap, and
the result is you have immediately a local recycling
route. That makes it extremely benign ecologically.
Further developments could include using the
RepRap to make moulds, and from them produce
anything that is mouldable, with materials like
epoxy, concrete, plaster of Paris or ceramics.
For some observers, there are two Holy Grails
of future technology and they both involve self
replication: physical machines of some kind that
can copy themselves; and software programs that
can learn and create better versions of themselves.
Why are these so significant? Because once you
reach these points, there will be an exponential
increase in what is achieved and we can sit back
and watch.
Cleaner design is good design.

Save money, resources and the environment.
For free practical advice on how to save money go to www.envirowise.gov.uk/cleanerdesign
Cleaner design concepts enable manufacturers to use less material, minimise packaging,
reduce energy use and eliminate pollution and waste.
Think clean. Design cleaner.
STAMP OUT WASTE
SPECIAL REPORT
Vicor modules enable a novel glider

using battery powered electrical
propulsion to take to the air!
By Vanessa Knivett.
Closer to the birds

G
liding is the closest we come to

free flight. But to enjoy this
freedom, gliders need to gain
height in order to reach a thermal. This
requires a winch or a tow.
Auxiliary propulsion systems make it
possible to get gliders off the ground
unaided. A conventional solution uses
combustion motors, but their performance decreases with altitude, so they must
be oversized and this imposes weight,
heat and noise burdens.
German glider company Lange
Flugzeugbau, which wanted to add an
electric engine for self powered takeoff
and climb, has used Vicor modules in the
Antares 20E, the first glider to receive the
European Aviation Safety Agencys type
certification for an electrical propulsion
system.
By integrating the battery charging
circuitry inside the plane, Lange has produced a self reliant electrically powered
glider that can make long distance flights
and be recharged at any airfield. The need
for good aerodynamic performance, however, imposes strict weight limits, particularly on batteries and charging circuitry.
One of the challenges was the integration of the battery charging subsystem.
This had to be self reliant in order to
enable long distance flights. The motor
has a nominal power of 42kW and oper-
ates from a 288V supply. The battery system has to provide enough power for five
minutes of operation, which translates
into a battery capacity of 11kWh.
The glider uses Li-ion batteries which
require tightly controlled operating conditions to deliver a consistent, reliable
output. To offer maximum capacity, the
cells must be operated between 20 and
40C, so temperature sensing and cell
heating had to be implemented. The
charging process involves: voltage monitoring and selective discharging until all
cells have the same voltage; heating until
the desired operating temperature is
reached; and battery array charging until
the total voltage reaches 288V.
Since weight has a direct impact on
performance, all components had to be
optimised. Commercially available chargers were too heavy, so a charging subsystem had to be developed. This essentially
consists of a mains front end and a high
voltage, high power dc/dc converter with
programmable output voltage. Space and
weight limitations meant the circuits had
to offer high efficiency, as a major factor
was whether heat sinks would be needed.
Vicor was the only manufacturer that
could deliver modules that were sufficiently lightweight, yet met the efficiency,
controllability and volume specifications.
The charging subsystem is divided
into two sections: the auto ranging mains

front end; and the power section, with
the dc/dc converters.
During a charging cycle, the power
section generates substantial heat. The
motor control circuitry generates substantial heat during powered flight, but
since motor and charging electronics are
not used at the same time, they can share
the same heat sink, reducing weight.
The battery array consists of 72 Li-ion
cells connected in series. The batteries
operate from 2.7 to 4V, so the circuitry
has to deliver a charge voltage ranging
from 194 to 288V determined using a
cell voltage measurement performed at
regular intervals by the charge controller.
The charge controller derives a trim
voltage from this measurement and
delivers it to the dc/dc converters so
charge voltage is updated in relation to
battery status. The controller also limits
the trim voltage so the converters cannot
deliver more than 290V, protecting
against overcharging. As it is only used
on the ground, no redundancy is needed.
The efficiency and lightweight design
of Vicors modules means the charging
unit weighs 6kg, including cabling, freeing more weight for valuable payload.
The unit consumes approximately
1.7kW and requires nine hours to fully
recharge the gliders batteries.
19
SPECIAL REPORT
DSPs enable diagnostics

Fixed and floating point dsps
enable a new breed of mri,
ultrasound and ecg equipment.
By Vanessa Knivett.
leading designer of medical diagnostic systems has used Texas

Instruments digital signal processing technology to create a line of next
generation diagnostic products, including
ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imagers
(MRIs) and electrocardiograms (ECGs).
Esaotes new medical devices feature
state of the art functionality and mobility at prices that are likely to bring these
tools to a wider range of patients and
healthcare workers.
Using TIs fixed and floating point
dsps, Esaote has been able to build its
platforms around devices that act as signal processors and as controllers for the
board functions. The TMS320C5x,
TMS320C67x and TMS320C64x dsp
20
families were used and TI tools, such as

Code Composer Studio IDE, emulators
and simulators, eased the design process.
TI offers a broad, compatible product portfolio that enabled us to develop
several very different devices using a variety of dsps, but with the same tools and
development environment, said Marco
Brusac, Ultrasound R&D manager at
Esaote. This was fundamental to our
success because it permitted us to leverage industry best performance, power
consumption and price where needed,
whilst simplifying the development
cycle, allowing us to focus on the new
applications and features that truly differentiate our product lines.
Esaotes MyLab XVision series of high
tech ultrasound systems is based on digital platforms powered by TI dsps. The
XVision products provide high resolution
and feature sophisticated technologies,
including the XStrain advanced cardiac
technique for myocardial function evaluation, the Virtual Navigator tracking system for interventional imaging and the
4D advanced technology for detailed
obstetric and general purpose evaluations.
The modular systems are compact to
ensure portability and include such innovative features as tilting lcd monitors.
Diagnostic performance and maneuverability allow them to be used in a wide
range of hospital applications and they
are also suited for mobile services.
G-scan, Esaotes open and tilting MRI
system for musculoskeletal applications,
is a diagnostic tool that is easy to use and
features a low breakeven point. This is

said to make MRI affordable for those
medical facilities with a reduced MRI
case load.
Suitable for any clinical environment,
G-scan represents a new way of looking at
extremity MRI, providing new opportunities to a larger range of patients who can
benefit from a wider availability to MRI.
Imaging of the spine in a natural,
weight bearing standing position is now
possible with the G-scan.
Esaotes new cost effective ECG product line can function as standalone units
or as part of larger, high performance
networks that allow cardiologists to integrate and manage data from multiple
diagnostic applications.
The new ECGs can be connected to
other units or linked to a pc to expand
archiving and processing functions and to
provide maximum connectivity. They can
be also be linked with low cost pc printers and communication modules, allowing them to compete in cost sensitive
applications, such as low cost 12 channel
electrocardiography and telemedicine.
Esaote is tapping into the performance, power and price points of our
fixed- and floating point dsps to create
cutting edge medical diagnostic equipment that is available to everyone, said
Cyril Clocher, DSP Catalog business
development manager EMEA at Texas
Instruments. We look forward to working with them in the future as they further push the boundaries of healthcare
information systems.
In addition to dsps, Esaotes products
leverage TIs analogue signal chain and
power management technology. For
example, the OPA364 precision 1.8V
operational amplifier and the ADS8320
low power 16bit a/d converter are optimised for low voltage, battery operated
systems.
Energy-saving inverter designs:

50% less cost, size and time.
Fairchild offers online motor design tools.
Integrated power modules simplify your designs

Smart Power Modules (SPM) are just what you need to
dramatically improve the performance/cost ratio of variable
speed designs. Available for motor ratings from 50W to
7.5kW, every SPM includes:
Our SPM series includes solutions for consumer

and industrial inverter designs, as well as options
for switched reluctance and PFC.
Fairchilds combined power and motion design expertise
If you prefer to build your own drive with discrete

components, all the building blocks inside our
SPM, including IGBTs, HVICs and MOSFETs are
also available for your motion power path.
Best-in-class packaging technology that reduces board

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If energy and cost savings are your problem,

Fairchild has your solution.
An integrated drive and protection solution built with our

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SPM
Motor
Description
Series
Ratings
Motion-SPM 50W to 7.5kW 3-phase IGBT or MOSFET inverter
SRM-SPM
PFC-SPM
2kW
Single-phase asymmetric bridge
1kW to 3kW
Partial switching converter module
3kW to 6kW
Power Factor Correction (PFC) module
problem solved
For more motor design information, including

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SPECIAL REPORT
Life saver!
RF chipset aids avalanche rescue.
By Graham Pitcher.
valanches are a constant danger

to skiers and when they happen,
its important that rescuers get
to those affected as quickly as possible.
The primary objective of an avalanche
rescue mission is to get to the right spot
easily and quickly, because the chances of
survival diminish after 15 to 20 minutes.
In order to meet such demanding
requirements, rescuers need a device they
can rely upon to operate easily, read
clearly and understand unambiguously.
Swiss electronics manufacturer
Ascom has just developed such a device ;
the PULSE Barryvox. The product uses
Nordic Semiconductors nRF905 multiband transceiver as part of the system
used to transmit the vital signs data of a
buried person to the searching device.
The nRF905 transmits on either the
European 868 or US 915MHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical bands. The
Barryvox device uses a patent pending
dual band antenna that allows the wireless link to operate on both frequency
bands with optimum impedance matching for the strongest possible signal
response.
We selected Nordics nRF905
because the chip is very compact and
needs only few additional components,
explains Andreas Ehrensperger, dsp applications engineer at Ascom. This was in

line with the objective to make the 210g,
personal organiser sized device the smallest and lightest avalanche transceiver to
use both analogue (acoustic signal) and
digital technology on the market.
The nRF905 operates at a low voltage and has low power consumption,
making it well suited to battery applications, continues Ehrensperger.
Nordics products offer excellent
cost/performance and are reliable. We
have used many Nordic chips over the
years and have been impressed by their
field reliability. And as a multiband
device, the nRF905 can operate on both
frequencies we intend to use 868MHz
in Europe and 915MHz in the US.
Each member of a ski, snowboard or
climbing party carries a Barryvox device
that transmits a continuous signal. If an
avalanche buries one or more members,
other members of the group switch their
transceivers from transmit to receive
mode so their unit scans for rescue beacon signals from the devices carried by
users buried under the snow.
The receiving unit can detect multiple signals on the 457kHz frequency,
together with a vital signs signal trans-
mitted by the Nordic nRF905 on either

the 868 kHz (in Europe) or 915 kHz (in
the US) bands. This allows rescuers to
prioritise their efforts to reach those victims that are still alive in the vital first 15
to 20 minutes after an avalanche.
The PULSE Barryvox is the first beacon that can detect and transmit vital
signs. It has an lcd that shows distance
and direction (360), leading rescuers
quickly to buried survivors. An overview
of all detected signals including their
vital status is given. An analogue mode
with an amplified acoustic speaker is
built in. The challenge to date has been
that most devices require some expertise
not to mention a cool head to operate effectively.
Extensive use of dsp technology and
specially optimised algorithms that precisely separate signals and accurately
associate them with each unique source,
search speed and reliability in multiple
burial situations is significantly
enhanced.
The detection and transmission of
vital data is made using a very sensitive
motion sensor and W-Link (Wireless
Link), allowing effective pre-excavation
triage (prioritized rescue) thus increasing
the chances of survival.
23
compact through the wall

radar sensing device from
Cambridge Consultants allows
security and emergency service personnel
to evaluate the position and movement
of people in rooms and buildings.
Prism 200, which is the size of a briefcase and can be carried and used with one
hand, features three advances that make
through wall radar technology a practical
proposition: a battery powered portable
radar device; smart radar signal processing that senses human movement and
position even in environments with
many reflecting surfaces; and meaningful
data presentation in forms to suit the user,
including plan, elevation or 3d views.
To commercialise this technology,
weve talked to the spectrum of potential
SPECIAL REPORT
Compact radar sensing device allows

the position and movement of
people in rooms and buildings to be
determined. By Graham Pitcher.
the angle of arrival of echo signal returns
accurately, yielding information that
provides both horizontal and vertical
data so that 3d positions can be determined. UWB technology is also said to
make the system good at resolving the
distance of objects.
Fast digital signal processing is performed on the echo results to distinguish
between objects which are static, such as
furniture, and objects that move. The
Whos there?
users and spent more than a year
refining the hardware and creating a man machine interface
that provides critical intelligence in an intuitive form,
says Alan Wiltshire, product
manager. The result is a
switch on and go unit that
can deliver high level location information that helps
tip the balance in favour of
security operatives in a
broad range of dangerous or
time critical situations.
Prism is an impulse
radar, which operates by
transmitting a very short
pulse and then listening for
echoes from objects that the
pulse bounces off. The system operates at 100Hz using
ultra wide band principles,
in the 2GHz region of the
spectrum.
An array of antennas
allows the system to measure
24
system achieves this by maintaining a

memory of background signals and
observing changes above and beyond
that database.
Prism 200 will monitor several subjects and track movement, even in difficult environments such as offices, with
their angular surfaces and metal objects
which can act like a hall of mirrors to a
normal radar. Cambridge Consultants
advanced signal processing software is
designed to distinguish moving people
from these reflections, distilling vital
information that can help observers to
determine the real situation inside a
building, and what is the best position
and time for a tactical entry.
The position of each subject is clearly
indicated on the screen and people can be
tracked as they move, to build information on behaviour and room layout. Users
can choose to see this information in plan,
side elevation or 3d views, or all three
simultaneously. When using the 3d view,
the users viewpoint can also be rotated.
The radar antennas inside are arranged
in such a way that prism 200 has a wide
field of view: 120 horizontally and 90
vertically. The radar also has four user
selectable ranges of up to 20m.
prism 200 can be held against a wall
or mounted on a tripod in a stand
off position. The radar uses ultrawide band (UWB) radar pulses that
pass easily through standard
building materials including
bricks, blocks, concrete, timber, plaster and tiles. The radiated power is very low and the
unit is inherently safe to use.
The ergonomics of the finished radar unit have been a
key focus of the development
process. The packaged system, which measures 210 x
300 x 450mm and weighs
5.4 kg, includes a lithiumion battery pack that provides power for more than
three hours of continuous
use. It can be used almost instantly:
the embedded system displays
results within two seconds of the
device being powered up.
he fact that its a wiggly world out

there means data converters are an
essential part of any system that
wants to process information in the digital domain. And there are many systems
that take advantage of technology such as
digital signal processing to improve their
performance.
However, once that processing has
taken place, theres often the need to
return data to the real world. And that
requires digital to analogue conversion.
This technique is found in a number of
applications, but one of the most
demanding is, surprisingly, audio.
Jason Rhode is vice president and
general manager of Cirrus Logics mixed
signal and audio division. He said:
Audio, in general, means frequency.
You can use general purpose or industrial devices, but you really need to use
specialist parts when it comes to audio.
Digital design know how helps

consumer electronics manufacturers
target digital tv deficiencies.
By Graham Pitcher.
Theres a number of reasons for this, he

notes. One of them is the number of
standards which need to be supported.
We have to support sampling rates all
the way from 32kHz to 192kHz and
thats non continuous. But theres one
other reason why special parts need to be
used in the audio world. Fussy customers, Rhode explained.
One of Cirrus latest offerings for the
audio sector is the CS4350 which the
company says is a complete stereo audio
converter noteworthy for its superior
audio quality and ease of design.
The CS4350 features an on chip
phase locked loop (pll) based master
clock that supports 24bit resolution and
sampling rates of up to 192kHz. It also
has a dynamic range of 108dB.
By integrating the pll in the CS4350,
Cirrus has taken away the need for
mode at sample rates from 30 to 54kHz,

in double speed mode from 60 to
108kHz and in quad speed mode from
120 to 216kHz.
Rhode said: This on chip pll is good
for emi and means the customer doesnt
need a high speed master clock elsewhere
in the system.
Rhode noted another benefit of the
master pll. A lot of systems today
stream audio over usb. This uses a
master clock of 12 or 24MHz and
those frequencies dont relate to
audio sampling rates; 48kHz is not
an even multiple, so you have to
generate this.
Rhode points out another
interesting development
within the audio world.
Somewhere along the
way, the consumer
designers to route an external master

clock across their pcb. Instead, they can
lock on to the incoming left right clock
signal (LRCK), rather than the video
clock or other high speed clock sources.
This reduces interference and clock jitter
sensitivity. In stand alone mode, the master clock runs at 256 times the LRCK frequency when the CS4350 is running in
single and doublespeed mode. When in
quad speed mode, the master clock is
128 times LRCK.
The device operates in single speed
audio people have

got into specmanship. There are
applications where
performance
is
important,
but
more often, what a
manufacturer is
most
worried
about is the customer, who will
select a product
based on specs.
He believes that manufacturers have
been pushing on such parameters as
dynamic range and distortion in the last
few years largely due to perception.
From a distortion point of view, he
continued, theres not a speaker thats
better than 80dB of total harmonic distortion, but people are now insisting upon distortion figures of
Sounds good!
26
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
DIGITAL TECHNIQUES
more than
100dB. Thats
good for us,
because were
a high performance supplier and we
typically target
higher end systems.
The device is
based on the
delta-sigma architecture. Its a switched
current design, Rhode noted. Its surprising that a system that can achieve
100dB thd is based on a delta-sigma
architecture.
One reason why Cirrus has been able
to achieve this figure is the availability of
better design tools. Simulation is an
example, Rhode noted. These
tools can tell you if you have a
problem, but there can be digital
interference and theres no simulation package that does that.
Whilst there has been a huge leap
in the capability of the tools, they
dont capture everything.
And that means performance comes down to
design expertise. What
lets you hit 105dB instead
of 90dB is having smart
people who keep
working until they get there, Rhode

claimed.
The thing that separates good design
engineers and great ones, he continued,
is faith. They ask what do you want
the spec to be? and they get it done.
Another example of faith, in Rhodes
opinion, is the CS4525 Class D amplifier. The faith here is the ability to put
more than 90dB into a switching stage.
Thats hard and you have to think a lot
about sync and similar issues.
The CS4525 is aimed squarely at the
rapidly expanding flat panel digital tv
market. But, said Rhode, digital tvs
dont always have the best sound. So he
sees a great opportunity for product differentiation by small and large manufacturers alike.
Allowing this differentiation, the
CS4525 integrates a stereo a/d converter,
a sample rate converter, digital audio
processor and a complete 30W Class D
when you start talking about digital

pwm, Rhode observed, its all about
discrete time steps, so theres a transition
that results related to the input signal
frequency.
Rhode says this is addressed using
delta-sigma modulation. We take a low
frequency (48kHz, 24bit) audio input
and run it through a digital delta-sigma
modulator. This produces a 4 or 5bit
Somewhere along the way, the consumer audio people have got into
specmanship. There are applications where performance is important,
but, more often, a manufacturer is most worried about the customer.
Jason Rhode, Cirrus Logic
amplifier, including the controller and

power stage. The device also supports
incoming analogue and digital audio signals, and its power stage is efficient
enough to remove the need for a heat
sink in system designs.
Component size is an important factor in the flat screen tv world. Whilst
the devices have a large area, they invariably are thin. And, with the electronics
located behind the flat panel, mounting
height is becoming a differentiator. But
thermal performance is even more
important, said Rhode, and the 4525
is the first part where weve done a lot of
finite element analysis. If youre delivering 30W at 85% efficiency, thats a lot
of power.
The part also takes advantage of pulse
width modulation technology. But
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e o n . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
word at a higher sample rate, say

384kHz. We can then turn this word on
its side and use each word to generate the
pulse width. That needs some heavy duty
mathematics within the algorithm.
The CS4525 also features a patent
pending thermal warning and fold back
technology, developed to cope with different compression levels amongst audio
sources. When the volume gets turned
up too high and the chip starts running
hot, this technique scales back output
levels automatically. This is said to be
particularly important for flat panel tvs,
which generate significant amounts of
heat within slim form factors.
With digital tv, Rhode concluded,
the focus is absolutely on video and people are very tolerant of audio quality.
Were looking to change that.
27
28
SIGNAL PROCESSING
INTRA DESIGN
Analogue
outdoes digital
Signal processing the analogue way. By Roy Rubenstein.
igital may get much of the

attention but, for certain signal
processing tasks, analogue has
virtues that are unmatched. Speed, compact layouts and extreme low power can
all be achieved on an analogue design
implemented in a deep sub micron
process.
We designed an analogue 90 audio
phase shifter a Hilbert Transformer,
says Professor Peter Saul, partner and
cofounder of Saul Research. Just after
that, an article appeared describing a dsp
version. The [dsp] spec was marginally
better, but the power consumption was
1000 times greater.
Saul Research is a family firm that
happens to be a fabless design house. Its
services range from feasibility studies to
delivered prototype analogue signal processing (asp) ics. Most of our customers
come along with a question as to
whether their chip can be made at all, or
economically, says Saul. We start with
the customers idea, then turn it into a
prototype.
ASP refers to complex circuits where
the signal passes through several analogue stages. Just as with dsp, the signal
is transformed or characterised. For asp,
signal filtering is common while other
tasks include complex manipulations

such as phase shifting as well as log and
antilog conversions.
Applications using asp tend to be low
power, low noise. We do lots of circuits
for radio handhelds and radio links
between equipment, says Prof Saul.
Sensors are another; for example, circuits that measure capacitance changes
due to MEMS movement. Such applications are for battery powered, portable
equipment put in the field and left for
months.
Fab choices
For a company undertaking an asp ic

design, choice of foundry is a key decision. Even getting fab access can be an
issue if the design run involves prototype
numbers only. Another issue is selecting
the right process, given the wide choice.
Europe has three main cmos
foundries: austriamicrosystems; X-Fab;
and AMIS. There are also specialist firms
such as Zarlink offering a bipolar
process, and IHP for silicon germanium.
Saul Research has designed products
using several foundries. As a small business, we have to have access to a
foundrys design data without being able
to promise a very large order, he says.
This can be an issue with foundries

wanting to see 100 or more wafer starts
a year equivalent to 300,000 analogue
chips,
A way around the problem is multi
project wafers (MPW), where companies split the cost of a production run
and the resulting volumes by placing
their designs on one wafer. Saul Research
has used MPW provider Europractice
extensively. It has been an enormous
help. I think we are its biggest UK industrial user when measured by numbers of
designs placed, and about third overall,
says Prof Saul. We also use more varied
processes than anyone else.
Foundries offer cmos processes with
feature sizes ranging from 0.7m to
90nm. For digital, smaller mostly means
better, but for analogue, voltage headroom becomes an issue with process
shrink.
The rule of thumb regarding the safe
limit is 10V per micron of minimum
process dimension. A 0.35m process is
good for 3.5V, usually translated as
3.3V, while 0.18m is only good for a
1.8V supply, says Prof Saul. Whilst
logic circuits can operate close to the
voltage rails, analogue circuits need
enough voltage to operate a differential
29
INTRA DESIGN
SIGNAL PROCESSING
favours analogue designs that use resistors and capacitors. We have put down
many hundreds of megohms on some
chips; single resistors of 200Mohm are
no problem on the right processes and
have been highly reproducible.
The alternative approach avoids passives, using FETs instead. This allows
designers to embrace leading edge
process dimensions. At least one or two
process generations ahead of us, says
Prof Saul. But the approach brings
design risks. One is supply voltage rejection greater power supply ripple can
appear at the circuits output; another is
component value variation. All FET
designs really only make sense for the in
house design groups, he says.
Although Saul Researchs analogue 90

audio phase shifter has slightly less
performance than a digital equivalent, its
power consumption is 1000 times less.
Nano converter
Prof Saul cites the companys recent 8bit

d/a converter design for QinetiQ to
illustrate asp design issues. The idea
was to use well known digital cells, yet
its output is clearly analogue, he says.
The converter was a proof of concept
design to show that a 0.35m process
could deliver extremely low power consumption and a sub mV bit size. The
design involved adding an analogue
switch to the converters resistor chain.
It just needed some transmission gates
similar to 4x inverters and resistors
to be added to the digital components,
says Prof Saul.
Another aspect was ensuring the
pair or current tail. That means the

voltage swing is around 1.4V [for a
0.18m process] not much for some
applications, he says.
Circuits can be designed using a
smaller voltage swing, but performance
is compromised. We are designing
3.3V devices in the 0.35m regions of a
0.18m process, says Prof Saul. This
gives us 3.3V supply, 0.18m process
compatibility and, surprisingly, better all
round performance than we would get
with either.
The designers preferred approach
also affects process choice. Prof Saul
Figure 1: A d/a converter bit
resistor
chain
Y address
M3
M4
M5
M8
output
voltage
R1
M2
M6
M7
M1
X address
30
resistor carry
resistors matched well, such that value

errors averaged out overall. Once the cell
was crafted, 256 were laid out to form
the 8bit design,
The result is a small area, 100mV d/a
converter equating to 0.4mV per bit
with a standby current of 100nA. No
one thought a 1mV per bit d/a converter
was possible, says Prof Saul. The converter, which has a tiny power consumption, gives a dc output without taking
current. Given the 2.5V reference voltage, that equates to 250nW.
As for Sauls Hilbert Transformer circuit, it is a purer asp example. The circuit was developed for a single sideband
generator and receiver circuit. One
application is for direct conversion of an
rf signal. Another use is for a medical
design. The company had a medical
device and wanted to develop a handheld version, hence the requirement for
low power, says Prof Saul. The chip
takes 120A at 3.3V.
Prof Saul believes the use of digital
cells as analogue building blocks will be
an area that designers will increasingly
explore. An inverter makes a fine broadband, high gain amplifier if the dc conditions are right and that might take
only one resistor, he says.
Similarly, rf switches can be formed
from minimally changed logic gates. For
example, a 4x gate can give good enough
performance for some applications,
while using very small chip area, and
rapid layout. Layout time is always an
issue with analogue; there are few standard circuit blocks available, he says.
A further analogue cmos design issue
is interfaces. With the right process,
50V or more is possible, or currents of
say 0.5A, says Prof Saul. These need
careful design to stay within the foundry
design rules, but it can be done.
Meanwhile, asp opportunities will
continue to be the centre of low voltage
designs as cmos processes shrink, he says.
This will include signal conditioning,
such as low noise amplifiers and filtering
in the analogue domain, as well as decision circuitry. We are talking low noise,
low power designs, Prof Saul concludes,
down to the nanoamps.
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WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT
INTER DESIGN
The M2M market is starting to

boom, say market researchers.
If only people could agree on what
M2M is. By Nick Flaherty.
2M varies, depending who

you talk to, from connecting
up machines with a simple
Bluetooth wireless link in an electronic
point of sale (EPOS) or industrial system,
to linking equipment across the wide area
with GSM, GPRS or EDGE datalinks, to
3G links carrying video for cctv.
Are these really M2M? If I have a camera linked to a cctv system that monitors
the cameras and decides what it is going to
display, thats M2M, said Doug Gillmour, sales and marketing director of leading airtime supplier for M2M systems
Mobius Networks.
The M2M market is growing through
simple applications such as utility meters,
but also through more complex systems,
such as tracking the locations of trucks in
a fleet. More than 300million utility
meters and 250m vehicles, plus more than
50m other devices could, potentially, be
connected to mobile networks in a not too
distant future, says the latest report from
Swedish market researchers Berg Insight.
The largest deployments already involve
up to half a million devices.
The need to talk

The market growth is coming from the
fact that more companies now understand
what is needed, but is challenged by suppliers who put systems together ad hoc
without understanding the issues, particularly scalability and security, says Gillmour.
A lot of people are making money out of
selling M2M as a concept, he said.
Theres a huge amount of smoke and
mirrors and unnecessary complications.
It is important the parts used are also
optimised for M2M systems. With

M2M, there are different requirements for
industrial applications with technologies
such as Bluetooth, such as latency and
synchronisation, said Markus Roemer,
applications engineer at National Semiconductor. There are synchronisation
issues in collecting data from different
sensors. Real time is not that important,
but the time stamp or synchronised transmission is. We try to optimise our devices
for latency as much as possible and send

data out as fast as possible.
Liverpool based Brainboxes has been
moving in this direction for a while with a
range of products that use Bluetooth as a
cable replacement technology.
The biggest advantage is having
machines able to communicate via the
internet, said Stephen Evans, managing
director. If you are a large company with
lots of machines out on site, you can aggregate the information for fault finding and
maintenance. At the moment, we are connecting either to the service engineer or
connecting back to a wider network with
RS232 and RS485 links via Bluetooth. If
you look at the GPRS or CDMA modems,
they often have a serial connection on
them, so an engineer can connect.
33
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT
M2M supplier Comtech has put

together a complete end to end system
with the connection software and database
that can be easily modified for different
applications. We have doubled our M2M
business in the last 12 months, said Barry
Lowe, managing director. It has become
much more of a business model sell than a
technical sell. We have to help people
prove the business model quickly at minimum cost and help them with selling the
The biggest advantage is having

machines able to communicate
via the internet.
Stephen Evans, Brainboxes
idea internally they need a system they

can see and touch.
It has combined its WEAVE database
software with the GPRS modules that go
into the equipment. Now, it is linking the database to the customer
applications. Data and alarms are
handled out of the database, with
automated notification and web
based reporting tools, but now we
are delivering the data to applications, bridging the data across the
embedded systems and IT for back
office systems, said Steve Whitehead, technical director. It has got
34
to the stage where we are not managing the

machine on its own, but combining it with
the procedures such as the supply chain
and invoicing systems.
Comtech has recently rolled out 2500
systems for Camelot for the National Lottery, and is working with lotteries in other
countries, as well as wirelessly linked and
controlled video posters for promoting the
new Nintendo Wii games console.
The airtime connection requirements
for M2M are also quite different. Three
years ago, we went to Vodafone to buy airtime, and they didnt have a route to market for their data products, said Gillmour.
We quickly found the dynamics of airtime are quite different from hardware, so
we spun off Mobius Networks as a Vodafone preferred distributor and service
provider. The bulk of our customers are
EPOS and transport.
Mobius supplies fixed, private IP, rather
than the dynamically assigned, public IP
addresses that come from the operators
with an ordinary PCMCIA modem and
SIM card. The beauty is it becomes part
of the LAN over a virtual private network
Vodafone wont give you that service, he
said. All the IP addresses go through the
Mobius access point, which also
allows con-
INTER DESIGN
solidated billing across all SIM cards on

one account, rather than having unused
airtime on each card. The access point is
running at around 6% capacity and the
company is already planning to upgrade
the link to Vodafone in February.
Higher bandwidth 3G technology is
also starting to appear in M2M links.
Over the next year, we will see a lot more
dual GPRS and 3G applications, said
Gillmour. Its not brilliant, and its expensive compared to GPRS, but its good
enough for quite a lot of applications.
What we have not had is a viable
3G/GPRS embedded engine we have
PCMCIA cards, but thats just not the
same as an embedded engine.
Its not going to change the market for
GPRS, as there are lots of applications that
are small amounts of data, said Whitehead. We are starting to see video for cctv
and video posters where you need that
kind of bandwidth. But 3G coverage is
limited to the cities and you need the systems to work the same way across the
country.
Security is important, says Gillmour. I
know of one guy who put together a system using public IP addresses and he was
shut down by a hacker just to see what
would happen. Mobius works with hardware sister company Spectre and with the
payment bureaux and banks through
another sister company Secure Etail. That
provides a loose alliance that does save the
customer time, he said. The key thing is
the difference between something that
works on the bench and producing something that works in the tens and hundreds
of thousands of units.
There are issues of scalability. The
voice operators view is if a SIM doesnt
work, they send a new one out the next
day, and thats good service. But if a fleet
of 100 trucks has a failure rate of 5%, thats
five trucks off the road.
But is M2M even the right expression?
M2M is nonsense because no one makes
M2M kit, says Gillmour. I think M2M
provides a cover for people ... to create a
sense of fear, uncertainty and doubt
among customers. Theres a lot of kit out
there that hasnt been used in a high volume roll out.

! "#$

550 kHz, 1.6 MHz, or 3 MHz frequency
options allow small passives
High power density

switching regulator
VOUT
(Down to 0.6V)
Up to 2A
VIN
(3V to 5.5V)
IN
SW
Microcontroller,
Lower power FPGA,
ASIC,
Memory,
CPLD,
Digital logic
P-FET
On
Off
EN
FB
PGND
Internal compensation
simplifies design
Ultra-low 30 nA
standby current
Cycle-by-cycle current limit

for short circuit protection

96

94

92
90
88
86
84
82
80
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1.5
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT
INTER DESIGN
he strategy from the start was

to supply personal area networking (PAN) and I was
convinced there would be tens of wireless
devices in every home. CSR has been
leading the way with its single chip Bluetooth device and James Collier, chief
technology officer and company founder,
is seeing his dream in 1998 coming true.
PAN technology is expanding from the
almost ubiquitous Bluetooth link in a billion mobile phones, to a low cost, low
power version called WiBree, to low
power, network oriented Zigbee technology, to contact based, short range Near
Field Communication (NFC) and to various versions of high speed ultrawideband
(UWB) that will provide wireless USB
links and the next generation of Bluetooth.
PAN is defined by the peer to peer
connections and so rules out the 802.11
standard wireless local area networking,
but there is an explosion in the different
technologies coming though.
WiBree is a low power version of
Bluetooth that aims to do for PAN what
Zigbee has done for control and home
automation provide a low power, low
cost wireless link.
WiBree is basically Bluetooth thats
been optimised in the radio for power
saving; the protocol is Bluetooth like, but
much smaller and less secure. Its really
product oriented Zigbee and will go in
remote controls and toys, said Eric Janson, CSRs senior vice president of sales
and applications engineering. But the
value is that it will integrate easily into
existing Bluetooth chips.
Bluetooth in particular is the first
high volume wireless PAN technology,
Its taken a while, but

personal area networking
is finding a wide range
of applications.
By Nick Flaherty.
Lets get personal

said Scott Biband, vice president and general manager of the wireless PAN group
at Broadcom. But I think WiBree is a
good move you need something that is
lower power and can run off coin cells for
sensors. Theres not a lot of overlap with
Bluetooth. Samples are expected in the
second half of next year, with production
in the first quarter of 2008 from CSR,
and in Q2 from Broadcom.
High speed UWB is emerging from
three angles as wireless USB to connect peripherals to the pc through the
WiMedia specification; as the next generation of Bluetooth (sometimes called
Bluetooth 3); and to link equipment
together in the living room.
UWB with WiMedia has been
designed for cable replacement applications, and the first is certified Wireless
USB (WUSB) with dongles and hubs.
Then we will see the pc ecosystem deploy
the technology into digital cameras,
external hard drives, personal media
players (PMP) and these kinds of
devices, said Eric Rosser, vice president
of sales and marketing at UWB startup
Staccato Communications. But we are
also seeing interest in the handsets to
connect to a pc and those other peripherals, as well as the set top box connecting to a personal media player to
download video content. In the short
term, you will see these connections by
USB but at the end of 2007, it will be
Bluetooth over UWB.
37
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT
WiBree is really product

oriented Zigbee and will go in
remote controls and toys.
Eric Janson, CSR
The value is low power the protocol

is the most power efficient per bit, even
though the system runs at 3.8GHz or at
6GHz. Transferring a 1Gbyte file can
take just a few seconds, using less total
power, compared to 20minutes for a
Bluetooth transfer.
We are going to do UWB Bluetooth
in cmos, initially in the sub 5GHz band,
because thats where the mobile terminals
will connect, said Janson. We are convinced we can do it without interfering
with mobile phones.
38
Broadcom is aiming at the 6GHz

band, sampling a two chip set in the middle of 2007 and moving to a single chip
in volume in 2009. This gives the
opportunity to create an open standard
around the world, said Biband.
But the set up issues for WUSB are
vital and are potentially holding back the
market, as there is still a mode where you
use a cable to connect peripherals the
first time they are used.
We learnt a lot from Bluetooth and
WiFi, where you can include the security.
But people wont always turn it on, said
Rosser. WUSB is a standard for pairing
and its always encrypted. It has an out of
band key exchange, either by plugging in
a cable or by numeric key comparison,
where you put in a number [on one terminal] and if the two numbers match,
that generates the key. And the keys can
be permanent, temporary or one time.
Setup is the issue with every single
wireless technology, said Janson. Radio
is, by its nature, promiscuous and will
run wild if you let it and the [WUSB]
standard is not ready for what is required
by the market.
NFC aims to make all these things
simpler to use. Instead of having to
search for a device to pair with and set up
the link, the connection can be formed
by touching a phone onto a printer or pc
and then Bluetooth or UWB can take
over to transfer the data.
NXP Semiconductor sees this as the
next step for its MiFare contactless smartcard technology, already used in systems
around the world, adding peer to peer
capability and host and slave capability so
that a phone can also be a smart tag reader.
Hold two phones together, or put
INTER DESIGN
your phone to your laptop, and they use

NFC to exchange configuration data,
then Bluetooth takes over, said
Francesco Prato, business development
manager at NXP. But the lack of a standard is holding this back.
Right now. the plan is for NFC to
roll out commercially in Q1 2008 at the
latest, he said. It depends on the market and the [mobile phone and ticket system] operators, as we are talking about
integrating this with the SIM card and
flash in the phone. We cant get commercial deployment before there is an
interface standard to the SIM and there
is an ETSI standards group working on
that. We expect it will come to market
quicker in the US with CDMA as that
does not use a SIM card.
NXP is already integrating the NFC
technology with its own in house Bluetooth development. We have our own
combo chip, but Bluetooth is not necessarily number one in the market, he said.
All of this is happening now. We
should see certified WUSB products in
January in the US and Japan and we
expect Korea and Europe to make a decision in December, so they should be available in January, said Rosser. Bluetooth 3
will be in the 6 to 8GHz band, so we hope
to have a dual band, single die with multiple protocols and automatic setting.
There are also moves to implement
60GHz technologies for links between
high definition set top boxes and screens,
promoted by the WirelessHD (WiHD)
alliance. But this is being done with
UWB at 6GHz, says Bruce Watkins,
chief operating officer of Pulse-Link.
Will all these technologies cause confusion in the market? Most people dont
think so its about different technologies
for different application areas. Frankly,
in the next decade, there will be no winner, said Janson. But there will be more
combination chips Bluetooth and
UWB, Bluetooth and WiBree, Bluetooth
and NFC, Zigbee and something else.
Consumers dont care what UWB,
WiHD, WiMedia, 802.15.3c or whatever else comes along means until one
becomes ubiquitous, Watkins concluded.
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Industry is going wireless. But how are the various technologies being used? By Antony Adshead.
able is on the retreat. In almost

every data application, one form
of wireless networking or another
is supplanting copper and fibre, whether
in the last few metres with personal area
networks or in the last mile with WiMax.
The key technology areas mobile
phone networks, wireless lan and short
range, low bandwidth methods of transmission such as Zigbee are becoming
pervasive. So, what levels of adoption are
they achieving and what are their chief
uses in industry?
Mobile phone based remote monitoring and control benefits from wide
areas of coverage and bandwidth ranging
40
from a few kbit/s on GSM networks to a

few Mbit/s with 3G. In many applications, sheer bandwidth is not necessary
and effective monitoring and control
networks have been built which capitalise on mobile networks ability to
cover wide areas of the countryside.
British Waterways, for example, has
used Vodafones GPRS network to monitor flow rates, pumps and water levels on
2000 miles of rivers and canals. Where
previously staff had to manually check
often remote locations, data is now
polled in seconds using sensors connected to modems which transmit to the
organisations SCADA centres where key
details are shown on a geographical

information system.
Elsewhere, industrial and medical
gases supplier Cryoservice has connected
30 of its delivery and engineering staff to
back end applications using O2s GPRS
network and XDA II PDAs supplied by
Handheld PCs. This allows real time
tracking of deliveries and work assignments, proof of delivery and stock control
via flyingSpark field services software
which is also linked to satnav on the PDA.
Neil Grimshaw, CryoServices financial controller, says: By automating
many of the tasks the engineers previously had to do manually, such as
DebutArt: Barry Downard
WIRELESS SUPPLEMENT
timesheet recording and reporting back

to head office, the solution has created a
20% to 30% time saving.
Wireless lan technologies come into
their own when the requirement is for
less range, but more bandwidth. And the
technology has seen high rates of adoption in warehouse applications.
Angelo Lamme, EMEA wireless product manager for Symbol, points out the
benefits of WiFi to industrial users.
Wireless networking can be, and is being,
used in any industry where mobility is
essential to the business, he says. Specific industries are suited to the use of
wireless. For example, it is much easier to
realise the benefits of wireless networking
if you operate in the transportation and
logistics, manufacturing, or retail sectors,
where WiFi can be used to trace goods and
maintain control over inventory with a
very clear return on investment. These
sectors have seen the largest increase in
uptake of wireless lan technology.
One user of WiFi in the warehouse is
Shrewsbury based pressing manufacturer
Stadco, where voice activated warehousing systems are used for a Jaguar contract.
Instead of keyboard or barcode driven
systems, it uses Voiteq voice control systems in which a wireless control processor is worn on a waist belt, connected to
headphone and microphone. Instructions generated by manufacturing and
warehousing software direct the operator
and ask for a response, for example,
telling the operator to go to location X to
collect a stillage, then prompting a
response to confirm that action.
Group systems manager David Lloyd
said the system produced near perfect
accuracy and slashed operator working
times. It is amazingly accurate, he says.
It takes 15 to 20 minutes to train operators in the system and it is then 99.9%
accurate. In any stock control system, the
keyword is accuracy. The only way this
can fail is if the operator puts in the wrong
information, but even then everything is
recorded so there is an audit trail.
Building on WiFi is Wimax, or IEEE
802.16. At the early stages of adoption, it
offers the potential to replace copper in the
last mile and to support up to 75Mbit/s
over tens of miles. In a few cases, entire

cities have achieved WiMax coverage.
Another new kid on the wireless block
is Zigbee. Based on the IEEE 802.15.4
standard, access to the specifications is
controlled by the Zigbee Alliance. The key
benefits are cheapness, simplicity and long
battery life when compared with similar
personal area network technologies, such
as Bluetooth. Transmission range is up to
75m, bandwidth is up to 250kbit/s and
nodes can be arranged in star, peer to peer
or mesh topologies. The ability for Zigbee
units to form mesh networks is seen as a
key advantage, because that configuration
can reroute should one node go down.
Expectations for Zigbee are high. Market

research company Harbor Research says that,
by 2008, there will
100million wireless sensors in use, up from about 200,000 today.
The worldwide market for wireless sensor
networks, it says, will grow from $100m
in 2005 to more than $1billion by 2009.
Although expectations are high, we
are still at the early stages of adoption,
says Tony Lucido, VP of marketing with
fabless semiconductor company Jennic,
which develops Zigbee microcontrollers.
Last year was the year of technical
evaluation; this is the year of product
development, he says. Zigbees primary
advantage is that it is standards based and
N e w E l e c t r o n i c s w w w. n e o n . c o . u k 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
INTER DESIGN
ideally suited to low data rate and long

battery life. Bluetooth, for example, has
a battery life of 100hr, whilst Zigbee has
battery life of one or two years. Installation costs are quite low compared to
wired technologies where you are dealing
with many units.
Zigbee is particularly suited to building
automation and to control and monitoring applications in industrial, medical and
residential environments. A lot of attention is being placed on development of
Zigbee based wireless light switches, blind
and window shade controls, thermostats,
home security devices, consumer electronics remote controls and medical sensors.
Although its early days, there are
some industrial Zigbee implementations.
In Turkey, for example, a Hugo Boss textiles plant has automated its stock control and production monitoring using
RC2200 Zigbee modules from Norwegian Radiocrafts. Zigbee modules
which have a form factor of 16.5 x
35.6mm are attached to batches of
clothing and fixed nodes at sewing and
pressing machines register their presence
at that stage of production. Management
can track order status and productivity,
whilst operators can receive instructions
instantly. Plans are afoot
to capture maintenance
and quality data for display on large panels in
production areas.
In general, though,
Zigbee has yet to gain
traction in the mainstream, says John Corbett, sales director with
systems supplier Ember.
It has been gaining ground in the past
year or two, but we are still in the early
adoption phase. Many people are still sitting on the fence to see how things go.
Lucido thinks many will be getting
off the fence soon. In one or two years,
well see a plethora of Zigbee compliant
products coming to market and be surprised by the range from domestic control of heating, lights and burglar alarms
to industrial locations with 1000 nodes
using the same underlying technology,
he says.
41
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
The path to
low risk wireless
F
rom concept to design, industry approval to manufacture,

Spectre has an enviable reputation as the leading wireless
distributor in the UK and Ireland. Whether your product
needs hardware and software integration at chip level, module
integration or end product connection, Spectre provides the widest
possible wireless product range available.
Open standards such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, TCP/IP, WLAN,
GSM/GPRS and 3G are now available off the shelf.
Spectre has built up its expertise in this area taking communications to the Industrial, Instrumentation, Medical, EPOS, Security
and Gaming markets. The advantages of remote diagnostics,
upgrading firmware, fault reporting and stock management are

well understood.
By using these off the shelf standards such as GPRS, TCP/IP
and back office software, a Spectre customer can quickly be in
communication with their products in the next room or around the
world.
Working with its sister company, Mobius Networks - Vodafones
preferred data distributor means that systems can be robust,
have dual redundancy and be truly bi-directional with fixed
IP/Peer to Peer. The only air time provider qualified to BS EN ISO
9001:2000, our customer service is the best in the industry.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE EMAIL WIRELESS@SPECTRE-ONLINE.CO.UK.
Real life GSM/GPRS M2M applications The rise of the machine

T
he rise of Machine to Machine (M2M) data comms via the

extensive GPRS network is now becoming easier and quicker to
implement, thanks to an impressive range of industrial GPRS
modules available off the shelf,
Security and Datalogging are two of the best known applications
for M2M via the GPRS network, and two successful projects
supported by Spectre are highlighted below.
ITT Flygt Datalogger/Telemetry Outstation

IP65 Ultra low-power data logger/telemetry outstations
Uses alkaline batteries that power the unit for up to 7 years
Designed for monitoring small I/O in harsh conditions when
mains power is not readily available
Sold into a wide range of applications in the utilities and
industrial markets
Guardall Security System GSM Module

Enables alarm reporting and
uploading/downloading
Can be connected onto the PX/QX bus
that allows easy installation and set up
Can be used over any network
Offers additional option of SMS
messaging for alarms
Compatible with all networks
Find out today how Spectre can

help you integrate industry standard communications into your
product, and open up a whole new
world of opportunity. Email
wireless@spectre-online.co.uk for
more information.
THE RISE OF THE MACHINE IS HERE. MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU.
THE Two-Way Radio Processor

B
ased on 37 years of two-way radio IC design

experience, CML presents one-for-all radio-chip
providing a comprehensive feature-set as standard, along
with a roadmap of function enhancements available through
CMLs FirmASIC component technology.
Adoption of the CMX7031 on a manufacturers radio
platform enables multi-standard radios to be conceived in a
single design. Professional and leisure two-way radios are
all target applications within the capabilities of the
CMX7031.
The specific functions of the CMX7031 device are determined by
uploading its Function Image during device initialisation. A new
Function Image may be later provided to supplement and

enhance device functions, expanding or modifying end-product features without the need for expensive and time-consuming design changes. The benefit is a significant reduction in
time-to-market along with commercial advantages over
Custom ASIC, Structured ASIC, FPGA and DSP solutions.
The CMX7031 product is a full-function, half-duplex,
audio, signalling and data processing IC, suitable for
implementation in professional and leisure radio applications
(PMR/LMR, Trunking, GMRS, FRS, PMR446 and MURS), in the fields of
Marine VHF, aviation and amatamateur radio to name but a few of the
applications suited to the CMX7031.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CML, PLEASE EMAIL WIRELESS@SPECTRE-ONLINE.CO.UK.
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
ZigBee low cost, low power

mesh radio at its best
U
S based chip manufacturer Ember, in partnership with communication specialist distributor Spectre, has supported several UK
based ZigBee designs, which are now in full production. Applications
where ZigBee can be utilised are wide and varied, from the usual
monitoring and control for industrial applications to home automation.
ZigBee is now gaining a lot of momentum in Europe and the US.
Its low power, low cost, device interoperability and mesh networking
capability make it ideal for many applications, where a proprietary
radio technology would have traditionally been required.
Telegesis ETRX2 ZigBee Wireless Mesh Networking Module

The combination of Embers ZigBee compliant meshing platform and
the Telegesis module make ZigBee technology very easy to use,
enabling customers to build a solution remarkably quickly.
Designed to be easily integrated into any third party/OEM product

without RF design experience
ETRX2 enables you to add powerful wireless networking
capabilities to your products and quickly bring them to market
The modules AT-style command line interface allows you to
quickly integrate meshing radio technology without complex
programming
Small form factor, SMT module with 12 general-purpose I/O lines
and 2 analogue inputs
It has a UART interface with DMA and is CE/FCC approved
Development kits are available to speed product integration
Uses Ember EM250 Chip
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EMBER OR TELEGESIS,
PLEASE EMAIL WIRELESS@SPECTRE-ONLINE.CO.UK.
A breakthrough design for VoWiFi phones

C
SR's reference design for voice-over-Wi-Fi phones

sets new standards of
performance in this exciting market:
An exceptionally small bill of materials
Incredibly low power consumption
(up to 20 hours talk/400 hours standby from a
1500mAh battery!)
It's based on UniFi-1 Portable, CSR's ground-breaking
single-chip 802.11b/g solution for 'deeply embedded'
battery-powered systems. Designed from the outset for portable
applications, UniFi incorporates innovative power saving mechanisms.
The UniVox reference design is provided with CSR's

UniVox Development Solution (DEV-SYS-UNIVOX1A). There are no royalties or license fees to pay.
Just add your user interface (and optimise the MMI
provided - or use it as it is), create the surrounding
phone
plastics, and it's ready for mass production.
UniFi-1 Portable b/g is a multi-mode Wi-Fi
solution capable of 802.11b or g
operation - with 802.11h dynamic
channel switching for quality of service (QoS). (An
alternative variant with 802.11a/b/g is also available).
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CSR, PLEASE EMAIL WIRELESS@SPECTRE-ONLINE.CO.UK.
Website: www.spectre-online.co.uk
FIND OUT MORE AT SPECTRES FORTHCOMING WIRELESS

SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN CAMBRIDGE IN FEBRUARY 2007
by emailing your details to: wireless@spectreonline.co.uk. Spectre (Communications) Ltd, Walker
Road, Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire LE67 1TU
Telephone: +44 (0)1530 511170
Email: wireless@spectre-online.co.uk
Website: www.spectre-online.co.uk
WIRELESS PRODUCT NEWS
ZigBee application kit
RF & MICROWAVE
The ZigBee/802.15.4 application kit from Rabbit Semiconductor
interfaces a RabbitCore module with MaxStream XBee wireless
ZigBee modules. By adding ZigBee technology to an Ethernet
enabled Rabbit embedded control device, designers can create a
low cost, robust wireless infrastructure that allows them to monitor
remote devices, exchange data between devices, and control I/O
from a secured pc on the internet.
The is a reference application that comes with the hardware and
software needed to implement a ZigBee wireless control network in
various topologies. The simple configuration software allows users
to set up a network, discover nodes and establish communications
between similar ZigBee devices.
The RabbitCore module acts as the network coordinator to
monitor and manage two other battery powered XBee equipped
nodes. This allows users to access and control a ZigBee/802.15.4
network from anywhere in the world.
Rabbit Semiconductor: visit www.rabbit.com
RF & MICROWAVE
Alpha Micro Components has launched the iTegno 3898i PCMCIA
GPRS modem to meet growing demand for flexible internet
connectivity.
The iTegno 3898i, a multifunctional PCMCIA modem, offers SMS,
voice calls, wireless internet, email and fax and is designed to
provide dependable wireless data access solutions without the need
for a hotspot.
The quad band device provides real time access to information at a
maximum speed of 85.6kbit/s using GPRS technology. Because users
only pay for the volume of data sent and received, this can translate
into lower costs for longer connection.
Alpha Micro: visit www.alphamicro.net
Omron has launched a mass producable polymer UWB antenna,
aimed at high data rate wireless transmission applications, including
wireless home internet, streaming hdtv video and cable replacement.
44
INTER DESIGN
The omnidirectional UWB antenna is said to display 0dBi gain,

flatness within 3dB, and a VSWR significantly less than 3.0 from 3.1
to 4.9GHz.
Key benefits of Wi-PlaDs antennas include flexibility, allowing
antennas to be produced in a variety of shapes, enabling compact
and individual product designs. They also offer improved omni
directional gain.
Wi-PlaDs antennas are available in two forms: the S1 is targetted at
wall powered applications, such as consumer tv receivers, whilst
portable and other applications, where space is the primary driver,
are served by the N1.
Omron: visit www.omroncomponents.co.uk
The AD9352 and AD9353 from Analog Devices are fully integrated,
direct conversion transceivers for WiMAX wireless networks. Offering
a complete rf and mixed signal system on a chip, the dual band
AD9352 operates from 2.3 to 2.7GHz and 4.9 to 5.9GHz, whilst
the single band AD9353 operates from 3.3 to 3.8GHz.
Integrated are 12bit, 160Msample/s a/d and d/a converters, along
with smart system features such as self calibration, automatic gain
control, transmit power control, and automatic frequency control.
The devices offer a noise figure of 3.5dB, along with adjacent
channel and alternate channel rejection capability 8dB greater than
the 802.16 standard requires. A highly linear transmit path brings
spectral purity and an error vector magnitude of -37dB at 0dBm
output power.
Analog Devices: visit www.analog.com
The Narrow Band Evaluation Kit
from Radiometrix can be used to
evaluate all products in the
companys portfolio of narrow
band multichannel and single
frequency modules.
Radio modules can be assessed
for their suitability in terms of
many attributes, including
operating range, functionality,
reliability, and robustness in a
multiuser environment with
several other modules set up on
different channels.
The kit can help engineers to
identify noise and interference
sources, as well as helping to
ascertain what type of antenna
should be used. It consists of a
controller board and carrier
boards for separately available
modules.
Radiometrix: visit
www.radiometrix.com
The MLX71121 rf receiver ic from Melexis can address the
European 863 to 870MHz SRD bands or the North American ISM
bands at 902 to 928MHz. It can also cover the 315 and 433MHz
bands.
The device has a dual rf input, which allows users to set up an
antenna diversity system previously found only in high end wireless
systems. This can improve the reliability of the rf communications link
by selecting the rf input which provides the best signal quality.
The MLX71121 operates from a 2.1 to 5.5V supply, with a typical
current consumption of 9.6mA. Receiver input sensitivity is as low as
-114dBm for ASK and -104dBm for FSK signals, respectively.
Melexis: visit www.melexis.com
BACKPLANES & BOARDS
number of sectors, but the

communications sector in particular, have undergone a radical change in the way they develop
systems. No longer do companies in
these industries create perfect fit solutions essentially using almost unique
components to build products which
have only one application.
Today, these industries are adopting a
platform based approach, where the perfect fit of the past is replaced by commercially available products. Not only
does this affect the system builders, it
also has a big effect on those companies
who used to design boards to order.
One such company is Radisys, which
SYSTEM DESIGN
ATCA is bringing changes in end

user markets and suppliers alike.
By Graham Pitcher.
communications networking, worth
$200million in Echiesons view. We do
boards that go into telecoms equipment
and most of our R&D today is going into
ATCA. ATCA, the Advanced Telecommunications Architecture, has an allure,
Echieson noted. It allows companies to
get a platform from another company
who will keep it up to date. They dont
have to worry; all they need to do is to
The ATCA effect

started out in the design to order business some 19 years ago. We were good
at designing and delivering at high quality, said Todd Echieson, the companys
vp of communications networking product management. The issue here is that
its not a scalable business; what you
make is only good for one customer.
Moving with the market, Radisys has
made what Echieson calls a strategic
shift to producing standard solutions.
Were moving away from good business
to get better leverage from our R&D.
Were designing products that can be
used by multiple customers. Echieson
admitted the move was a big shift.
Were moving from being custom
driven to being market driven. Were
now saying we think the market needs
this and being there with that idea.
Nevertheless, Radisys will continue
retain an interest in the perfect fit market, albeit in customisation, rather than
turnkey developments. It also has a more
than passing interest in the embedded
world through its commercial division.
The largest part of Radisys business is
net as short sighted. Staying with gigabit Ethernet switching architectures for
the next year or so represents a short term
choice. The best long term solution is
10Gbit Ethernet.
And Radisys is looking to meet that
need now. We determined the market
needed a 10Gbit Ethernet switch,
started developing it and its now in trials with customers. Its part of our focus
of delivering application ready integrated platforms.
Radisys sees ATCA getting good market acceptance. Were seeing momentum build, he said. All Tier 1 telecom
equipment manufacturers (TEMs) bar
one have active ATCA projects and
deployment. Tier 2 and 3 companies are
all over it because it gives them time to
market and time to money advantages.
ATCA is also bringing a change in
outlook amongst those Tier 1 companies.
Most of the Tier 1s have been doing system integration themselves. Now, some
are taking platforms from third party
vendors and starting to outsource their
sync road maps.

In fact, Echieson says
Radisys is looking to bring as complete a platform to customers as
possible. Our advantage is that,
because of our flexibility, we can say
that customers have a choice and
can find solutions that meet their
needs. Its standards based customisation, but how can we build that
in? The answer is ATCA.
At the core of ATCA is the
switching fabric, making it possible
to mix such technologies as Gigabit Ethernet, 10Gigabit Ethernet, Fiber Channel and PCIExpress. ATCA defines the base
fabric as Gigabit Ethernet, with
other fabrics for the backplane.
This allows the right fabric to
be selected for the application.
But Echieson sees Gigabit EtherThe Promentum ATCA-3000, aimed
at storage intensive applications,
features a 147Gbyte SCSI disk.
47
BACKPLANES & BOARDS
Once, our engineers were hardware

guys. Today, one third are
software, one third are hardware and
one third systems engineers.
Todd Echieson, Radisys
integration. If they can get high quality

delivery, theyll get more comfortable
with outsourcing.
Alongside accessing multiple
sources, Tier 1 companies
have the opportunity to
rationalise their portfolio.
TEMs who had five or
six platforms and single use
boards can move to an
ATCA platform and use
that across multiple applications. This means they
have fewer single use boards
and none are single customer boards, Echieson
explained,
because
Radisys, for example, is selling to other customers.
Radisys has defined the
48
SYSTEM DESIGN
markets it wants to address in two ways,

says Echieson. Weve looked at the market from the top down and from the bottom up. The top down view determined
where ATCA volume would be and
Radisys believes there are four sectors:
switching; network processing; security;
and platform integration. Then, from the
bottom up, we determined what those sectors need; what are the building blocks?
But its not just the market thats
changing; theres change within Radisys.
Once, all our engineers were hardware
guys, Echieson said. Today, one third
are software, one third are hardware and
the other third are systems engineers. Its a
big change in how we develop products.
But he reminds you that ATCA was
designed from the ground up as a telecom platform. The problem there is
that can bring overheads that other applications dont need. The solution in those
cases may well be micro TCA (TCA).
And COM Express is another contender.
Our 10Gbit switch has a COM
Express site, Echieson continued,
which allows the user to put a control
processor on the switch and to upgrade
when you need to. You may not want to
change the switch, but you might want
to take advantage of COM Express to
access the latest processor.
Echieson believes there is a lot of confusion between TCA and ATCA Mezzanine Cards, or AMC. AMCs provide
another level of granularity to ATCA, he
claimed, while TCA will end up being
Above: The ATCA-7010 is a 10Gbit/s

single slot ATCA module which is compliant with PICMG 3.0 and PICMG 3.x standards. The module includes dual Intel
IXP28xx network processors.
Below: The 12U high Promentum ATCA6000 can accommodate three shelves and
act as host to a range of ATCA modules.
more niche. Neither does Echieson

believe TCA will be as off the shelf as
ATCA. People will mould it to their
needs, he contended.
Radisys has been active in the definition of TCA and Echieson points out
the standard was only completed in July.
So none of the TCA solutions out
there are conforming to the standard.
But although Radisys has a number of
AMC projects in development, its also
going to be looking at TCA next year,
but these will be vertical, rather than
broad based, he said.
So, whilst mosr opportunities for
ATCA will be found in telecoms, other
applications are emerging. There are big
opportunities in the military and aerospace sectors, Echieson claimed, with
suppliers specialising in producing a set of
modules. This inter market segment will
play a significant role in increasing the system and module volumes, especially over
time and will bring with it even larger
economy of scale, he concluded. For
ATCA, the future is now!
SYSTEM DESIGN
PRODUCT NEWS
Signal source reduces test costs

TEST & MEASUREMENT
The N9310A rf signal generator from
Agilent is said to reduce the cost of test
significantly.
Covering frequencies from 9kHz to
3GHz and full range of modulation
types, the device has an external IQ
source. User friendly features include a
multiplelanguage display, 6.5in tft colour
display and USB connectivity.
Meanwhile, its compact size allows easy
installation and maintenance.
The N9310A expands Agilents range
of rf signal sources to a broader
consumer base. It can be used in high
volume consumer electronic
BACKPLANES & BOARDS
An ADLINK single board computer from

Acal combines Intels Pentium M/Celeron
M processor with DDR2 technology and
gigabit connectivity.
The cPCI-3915 is available in single or
dual slot cPCI form factors, both offering
50
manufacturing, low cost R&D, service

installation and maintenance. Students
will be able to focus on RF circuit
experimentation and exercises, as the
N9310A offers sufficient performance for
many basic research projects.
Agilent: visit www.agilent.com
an sodimm slot for up to 1Gbyte of DDR2

400/533MHz memory. On board the
cPCI-3915 are dual gigabit Ethernet ports
that use the high bandwidth PCI Express
bus to provide efficient remote
management and reliable network
connectivity vital for todays rigorous
applications.
The cPCI-3915 also features multiple
storage interfaces for a 2.5in Serial ATA
or IDE hard disk drive and a
CompactFlash card slot for OS installation
and data keeping. An optional rear
transition module provides high resolution
and dual channel support for multiple
display interfaces. The cPCI-3915 also
features three USB 2.0 ports and two
front panel DB-9 serial ports.
Acal Microsystems: visit
www.acalmicrosystems.co.uk
FREQUENCY
MANAGEMENT
Analog Devices has unveiled what it
believes to be the first clock ic to combine
low phase noise clock generation with 14
channel clock distribution at jitter levels of
less than 1ps.
The AD9516 series integrates an integer-N
synthesiser, two reference inputs, a voltage
controlled oscillator, programmable
dividers, adjustable delay lines and 14
clock drivers. This level of integration
replaces several discrete components and
reduces board space and bill of materials
costs for clocking by more than 50%.
There are five versions, each supporting a
specific frequency range. At the high end,
the AD9516-0 includes a vco that tunes
from 2.6 to 2.95GHz. Other parts cover
lower frequencies, down to the AD9516-4s
range of 1.5 to 1.9GHz. Any member of
the AD9516 family may be used with an
external VCO up to 2.4 GHz.
Analog Devices: visit
www.analog.com
The TG-5011BA from Epson uses a new
package structure to offer the smallest
2016 TCXO, covering frequencies from 13
to 52MHz. The package has a 36%
smaller surface area and 43% less volume
than the earlier 2520 (2.5 x 2mm) models.
Meanwhile, the SG-150C is a 2016
SPXO which uses improved ic properties
to achieve a precision of 20 x 10-6 with
a temperature range of -40 to 85C.
Epson Toyocom will use the new 2016
package as a common platform for ultra
compact products aimed at markets
driven by space constraints.
Epson Electronics:
visit www.epson-electronics.de
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How to get overvoltage under control
In todays wired universe, sensitive communications equipment can be exposed to

devastating electrical hazards. Raychem Circuit Protection overvoltage devices are in use
around the world, helping equipment designers and manufacturers meet safety and
performance standards and improve the reliability of network and customer premises
equipment. Our extensive line of thyristor surge protection devices, gas discharge tubes,
MOVs, PESDs, and integrated overcurrent/overvoltage protection devices offer you a
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2006 Tyco Electronics Corporation
ENGINEER PROFILE
ADVANCE IN THE PROFESSION
Seeing the light
avinder Lotays office wall has a

quote from Mark Twain: Twenty
years from now, youll be more
disappointed by the things you didnt do than
the ones you did do. So throw off the bow
lines, sail away from the safe harbour, catch
the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream
and discover. It sums up the philosophy of
the electronics graduate who left the safe
harbour of a large company to head up his
own company and discover fulfilment.
Lotay is director of Chester based
Altimex, a niche provider of optoelectronic
components and solutions for electronic
control systems and fibre optics data
connectivity. Answering an advertisement for
a managing director in 2003, he and a
business partner bought the company. Lotay
took over day to day management and set
about making his mark. It needed a lot in
terms of updating production processes and
products, but I love challenges, he says.
Altimex doubled its turnover in the first year
under Lotay and he hasnt looked back.
Davinder Lotays motivation is seeing

something finished and a happy
customer. By Elaine Essery.
Fibre optics has been Lotays passion
since the late 1980s. He was a guinea pig
on a new Engineering Optoelectronics
HND at Sheffield Polytechnic, transferred to
a similar degree course at Newcastle and
went on to complete a Masters at Hatfield,
turning down the offer of a PhD in favour of
industry. His position today is far removed
from his earlier career in the R&D
departments of organisations such as BICC
Cables and Corning. Then, he worked at the
cutting edge of technology playing around
with lasers like a child with new toys. Whilst
at Corning, he completed an MBA; one of
my best experiences.
Eighteen months of self employment
followed, before that passion for
optoelectronics led Lotay to join a large

connectivity solutions company in north Wales
as technical director. In charge of product
development, manufacturing and quality, the
role gave him exposure to a manufacturing
environment. Then Altimex and a whole new
way of working beckoned. Going from a
large company, with a car and the rest of the
benefits, to a little office which didnt even
have a carpet is a big risk, Lotay says. You
need to have a vision of what you want to
achieve and how youre going to get there,
but the rewards are huge.
Flexibility and adaptability are part of the
recipe Lotay handles purchasing, sales,
technical development, manufacturing and HR.
He employs four people and has a network of
outworkers. Running a company also takes
leadership, which, Lotay explains, is different
from managing an R&D team. Gone is the
safety net of delegation; when its your
company, you have to stay and get the job
done and youre stuck if staff dont turn up.
Altimex specialises in small batch
production and bespoke products for a
diverse customer base. Responding quickly to
individual needs is something Lotay finds
stimulating. Quick response is not possible in
large organisations, where the technical
people are removed from the customer and
the information flow between them and the
commercial guys is slow. I can talk to a
customer, capture the design concept and
meet expectations. Whilst a phone call can
alter the course of a planned day, reacting
promptly to customer demands is hugely
satisfying. Money doesnt motivate me, its
the fulfilment and joy of seeing something
finished, working and a customer happy.
Lotay has no ambition to move into large
scale manufacture, but is considering taking
over another micro organisation. Always up
for a challenge, he is open to ideas. Returning
to Mark Twain, he comments: People always
fear things are difficult, but theyre not. You
have to be positive and never look back and
wish youd done things differently.
53
Powered by
appointments
Electronic and Engineering Design vacancies
Consultancies in this sector

Tel: 020 8992 8647
Email: cv@beechwoodrecruit.com
www.beechwoodrecruit.com
Tel: 01462 442727
Email: jobs@ctr.uk.com
www.ctr.uk.com
Tel: 0870 3516622
Email: Bernieg@colbernlimited.co.uk
www.colbernlimited.co.uk
Tel: 0161 428 3568
Email: recruitment@debelder.co.uk
www.debelder.co.uk
Tel: 020 8600 1600
www.epcglobal.co.uk
AWE can offer you a

challenging career where the
opportunities are up to you!
Location: South East
Areas of work at AWE include:
Engineering - Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, Production, Structural, Systems,
Electronic, Manufacturing, Electrical.
Science - Physics, Metallurgy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Materials Science,
Mathematics, Safety, Radiological Protection
At AWE we offer an environment that needs and encourages the best and has in
place everything you need to develop a career path tailored precisely to your skills
and experience.Fewer organisations are more research led than AWE. In every area
relating to modern nuclear weaponry, our activities are challenging frontiers and
breaking through established barriers.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment, based at Aldermaston and Burghfield in
Berkshire, develops solutions to the complex problems presented by maintaining
nuclear warheads in service.We employ staff with the highest scientific and
technological skills. We are committed to stretching technology to the limits in
order to address the issues involved in our field - exploring the frontiers of
technology and challenging conventional thinking to deliver innovative solutions and
world class results.
AWE is always interested in recruiting experienced
engineers, scientists, business professionals and
support staff.
Tel: 01895443181
Email: staff@gregorys.co.uk
www.gsatechnical.co.uk
Tel: 01296 330930
Email: info@morganrem.com
www.morganrem.com
Tel: 01902 311 313
Email: careers@netrec.co.uk
www.netrec.co.uk
Tel: 01943 467766
Email: apply@networxrecruitment.com
www.networxrecruitment.com
Tel: 0121 632 5555
Email: t.priestman@progressive.co.uk
www.progressive.co.uk
Tel: 0118 958 3004
Email: contact@teambuilder.co.uk
www.teambuilder.co.uk
Tel: 0115 9483633
Email: kate.jennings@tech-search.co.uk
www.tech-search.co.uk
Tel: 01234 436 136
Email: post@vrl.co.uk
www.vrl.co.uk
Contact: To find out more and apply online, visit www.awe.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can call us on 0118 982 9009 for an application form.
Electronic Hardware Design

Engineer
Location: South East
Benefits: 40,000 p.a. Pension + Healthcare
Our client is a world leader in combustion management & control systems for
industrial boiler/burner applications with a reputation for quality and innovation.
They have been established over 30 years won awards for export and hold seven
worldwide patents on products designed and manufactured in house.
Due to ongoing product development and expansion they now require a Hardware
Engineer.
A structured mind and a keen eye for detail are considered an essential aspect for
this position.
The R&D Department is responsible for the development and future innovation of my
client's systems and there are excellent prospects to Senior positions.
Benefits include contributory private pension scheme and private health are
available.
If you are interested please call Leigh Kelleher on 020 8810 7541 or email him your
CV/details.
Tel: 01275 544568

Email: vpconsulting@blueyonder.co.uk
Tel: 01392 332 842

Email: response@webrecruit.co.uk
www.webrecruit.co.uk
Contact: Mr Leigh Kelleher

Tel: 0208 810 7541
Email: leigh@g2technologies.co.uk
Web: www.g2technologies.co.uk
Electronic and Engineering Design vacancies
Design Verification Manager

Location: UK
Benefits: c40,000-50,000 Company pension.
A large south coast based Aerospace company requires a Design Verification (DV)
Manager to manage design verification activities on a range of products.
The DV Manager will be responsible for such activities for all products within the
company portfolio of electro-mechanical Airborne Systems.
An appropriate degree in mechanical, aeronautical, electrical or electronics
engineering is required, however an HNC or HND may be accepted with suitable
experience. It is expected that candidates will have at least five years experience in
a similar position within the defence or aerospace industry. The role will be based
in Dorset but will also include supporting work at other sites in the UK and abroad.
For further information please send CV.
RF Engineer
Location: East Anglia, South East
Salary: Negotiable
Application Deadline: 15/12/2006

Due to continued growth within the Cambridge office, my client, a leader in new
generation wireless technologies is seeking an RF Engineer to develop RF circuits.
Highly competent in your field you will design transmitter circuits up to 6GHz and be
skilled in 2D and 3D RF modelling. You will be responsible for the PCB layout of
designs and have practical experience of microwave test equipment and
measurement techniques.
You will ideally have a good science degree or equivalent (Electronic Engineering,
Physics or Mathematics) with Microwave design content.
To be considered for this wonderful new opportunity forward your CV today with
details of your current salary and salary requirements.
Abatec Staff Consultants are acting as an employment agency on behalf of the
client.
Contact: Jamie Cummings

Tel: 0845 200 4972
Email: jcummings@kdconsultants.com
Web: www.kdconsultants.com
Contact: Kaya Evans

Tel: 01934 635025
Email: kaya.evans@abatec.co.uk
Web: www.abatec.co.uk/
Contract - Electronics
Engineer
RF Design Engineer
Location: South West
Salary: Negotiable
Reference: 112638
A Principal Electronics Engineer is urgently required for my client based near Bristol
to work on Civil and Military aerospace projects.
You will have a minimum of 5 years aerospace/defence experience with experience
in design and development of brushless DC motor controllers and analogue
electronic equipment working to EMC standards you may also have motor and servo
control experience which is desirable but not essential.
Location: South
Salary: Negotiable
RF Design Engineer required to design and develop new RF products.

Experience and knowledge is essential in the following areas:- Narrowband FM
techniques, synthesiser design, transmitter circuitry to power levels below 10mW,
modulation techniques such as FSK, MSK, GMSK, 4LFSK, Low noise VCO design.
A very hands on role you will provide the conceptual and detailed design input in the
field of analogue electronic engineering and motor control power engineering.
Rate will be negotiable depending on experience.
Please forward your CV today to register an interest and apply for the role.
Abatec Staff Consultants are acting as an employment agency on behalf of the
client.
Contact: Kaya Evans

Tel: 01934 635025
Email: kaya.evans@abatec.co.uk
Web: www.abatec.co.uk/
Reference: Jim01
Wood & Douglas is an internationally recognised design and manufacturer of radio

communication hardware for data, voice & video applications. Frequencies up to
10GHz with volume products centred on the 100MHz to 1000MHz spectrum.
Contact: Trish Lovelcok

Tel: 0118 9811444
Email: jobs@woodanddouglas.co.uk
Web: www.woodanddouglas.co.uk
appointments
Jimfinder in partnership with New Electronics for the latest Electronic and Engineering Design vacancies
Ultimate Precision.
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New Electronics Dec12 2006

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THE

Plus: Digital technology boosts audio performance Analogue outdoes digital

In fact, we will prove it to you.

Store System-Configuration Data

What is Your Next Design?

RTC Provides 2Min/Yr Accuracy over

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Photograpy: Donald Maclellan

12 DECEMBER 2006 VOL 39 NO 22

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Lets get personal

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

DSPs enable diagnostics

The need to talk

Cable on the run

91NEL0615152.pgs 07.12.2006 15:29

Design with confidence.

Stratix III Family:

Smoothing the bumps

he semiconductor industry is performing in a manner

Graham Pitcher, Editor gpitcher@findlay.co.uk

meaning orders for production equipment are slowing.

Editor Graham Pitcher US Correspondent Paul Dempsey (newelectronics.usa@cox.net)

FRONT PAGE NEWS

icron Europe is planning a

pool in the UK and Europe is impressive, said Dr David Burrows, director of

Bridging the gaps

Cores for celebration!

added four Diamond Standard VDO

in security, automotive, medical, notebook computer and digital camera

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The AD8250 and AD8251 leverage our innovative iCMOS (industrial

The AD8250/AD8251 are available in a 10-lead MSOP.

he Institute for Microelectronics

Chip thickness is defined in preprocessing by forming buried cavities beneath

wafer flat alignment is used. Subsequent

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The walls come

Pump up the quality

Manufacturing problems have held

iConnect has launched the

noted: Its built to go on the end of an

chip requires minimal external components to create a complete powerline

based on the PLT050 will appear in Q2

Spin off raises 12m

NXP the new company

What if you could

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K and European distributors

Getting the can

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