Silicon Labs has launched a pair of Bluetooth Low Energy system-in-packages: BGM220S is small – 6 x 6mm 1.1mm tall BGM220P is slightly larger, optimised for greater range “BGM220S and BGM220P are among the first Bluetooth modules to support Bluetooth Direction Finding, all while delivering up to ten-year battery life from a single coin cell,” according to the company. The small ...
Communications
Add noise for clearer signals
Adding just the right amount of noise can improve signal to noise ratio in certain non-linear systems. The effect is known as ‘stochastic resonance’, where mixing of noise and signal in the system non-linearity can sometimes push a previously buried signal just above the noise floor. Now researchers at Penn State University have exploited it to improve the sensitivity of ...
UCL breaks data transmission speed record
The world’s fastest data transmission rate has been achieved by a team of UCL engineers who reached an internet speed a fifth faster than the previous record. Working with two companies, Xtera and KDDI Research, the research team led by Dr Lidia Galdino (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering), achieved a data transmission rate of 178Tbit/s – a speed at which ...
Drone controlled from anywhere over multi-modal network
A system allowing drones to be controlled from anywhere in the world using only an intrrnet connection has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory run by the US Department of Energy. The technology is being licensed by Horizon31, of Knoxville, Tennessee. The founding team of Horizon31 developed the technology at Oak Ridge. “To make these unmanned systems commercially ...
Bridge chip links one-wire bus to ten I2C or SPI peripherals
Maxim has introduced a chip to interface devices equipped with I2C or SPI bus connections to its ‘1-wire’ bus. Called DS28E18, it is intended to knock cost out of networks that connecting I2C and SPI sensors to a host by reducing the number of copper wires needed for up to 10 nodes to two wires. Busses over 100m long are ...
Anritsu boosts MP1900A analyser for 400 and 800Gbit Ethernet
Anritsu has added forward error correction symbol capture and bathtub test to its 116Gbit/s PAM4 error detector (MU196040B) for developers of 400 and 800Gbit/s Ethernet devices. For use in the company’s MP1900A signal quality analyser, the functions can be downloaded from the MP1900A website. “Data centres are investigating speed upgrades from 100Gbit Ethernet to 400Gbit Ethernet and in future to 800Gbit ...
mmWave for 6G
Wireless communication in mmWave bands, which range from 20 GHz to 300 GHz, is expected to be a key enabling technology for 6G wireless systems, because the huge available bandwidth can accommodate ultra-high data-rate communications. Within that range of mmWave bands CEA-Leti’s research is investigating D-band, a new spectrum at 140 GHz that may play a major role for 6G ...
ISSCC 2020: No-crystal oscillator hits 30ppm over temperature and 10 years of ageing
At the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco earlier this year, Texas Instruments revealed details of its on-chip bulk acoustic wave oscillator technology, that can replace external crystals in Bluetooth and other RF transceivers. The firm is claiming better than ±30ppm frequency stability over -40°C to 85°C, package stress and 10 years of ageing. The resonator is ...
Perovskite photo diode doubles as an LED
A perovskite photo diode that becomes a viable LED when its bias is reversed has been created at Linköping University in Sweden, allowing bidirectional communication between two identical devices. “We have managed to integrate optical signal transmission and reception into one circuit, something that makes it possible to transmit optical signals in both directions between two identical circuits,” said LiU ...
Microsoft recruits ST, Renesas, NXP, Microchip and Qualcomm for Azure MCU kits
STMicroelectronics, Renesas, NXP, Microchip and Qualcomm have signed up to offer 32bit MCU development kits featuring Microsoft’s Azure RTOS ThreadX, one of the components of the its Azure RTOS embedded application development suite. “Their MCUs are embedded into billions of devices. This allows embedded developers to access reliable, real-time performance for resource-constrained devices, and seamless integration with the power of Azure IoT to connect, ...
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