Inside Mesh Networks


Ad-hoc wireless mesh networks will be the great enabler for the IoE. Part one discusses the technology behind them. Mesh networks have a huge upside when it comes to the Internet of Everything, but there are also some big issues that have to be resolved. “One of the real challenges with mesh networks is there is not a lot of control of the devices that are joining and leaving the networ... » read more

Inside Mesh Networks


Mesh networks could revolutionize communications in the future. Independent of the Internet we know today, wireless mesh networks (WMN) allow both ad-hoc and fixed wireless “nodes” to form a communications net that can become a very powerful information sharing hub. The idea is that all devices, both user-controlled and autonomous, would be open to act as relay points for the transmissio... » read more

Emerging IoT Applications Require Careful Consideration


The Internet of Things (IoT) is creating opportunities in the existing space held by traditional semiconductor applications, typically falling into categories that include industrial, fitness, health and lifestyle to apparel, safety and productivity. But there also are new, inventive devices. In the last several months, we’ve seen the launch of a canine Fitbit, a hybrid dog collar, and dyn... » read more

Full-Circuit ADC Verification With Analog FastSPICE


Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) are critical components in high-speed, high-resolution applications where an analog or RF signal has to be processed, stored, or transported in digital form. ADC performance requirements vary by application and include resolution, dynamic range, linearity, power consumption, speed, bandwidth, SNDR (Signal-to-Noise and Distortion Ratio), and ENOB (Effective Nu... » read more

A Primer For The 802.XX Physical Layer


This is the second installment of the 802.XX for the IoE series of articles. The first one was published in the August issue and addressed the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. In this article, we will examine the elements of the physical (PHY) layer of the 802.11 protocol stack. For reference, the protocol stack is shown in figure 1. The best designs, like everything else, are built on a so... » read more

Inside The 5G Smartphone


Amid a slowdown in the cell phone business, the market is heating up for perhaps the next big thing in wireless—5th generation mobile networks or 5G. In fact, major carriers, chipmakers and telecom equipment vendors are all rushing to get a piece of the action in 5G, which is the follow-on to the current wireless standard known as 4G or long-term evolution (LTE). Intel, Samsung and Qualcom... » read more

Challenges At Advanced Nodes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss finFETs, 22nm FD-SOI and how the how the market will segment over the next few years with Marie Semeria, CEO of [getentity id="22192" e_name="Leti"]; Patrick Soheili, vice president of product management and corporate development at [getentity id="22242" e_name="eSilicon"]; Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec; and Subramani Kengeri, vice president of global ... » read more

Tech Talk: 22nm FD-SOI


Subramani Kengeri, vice president of global design solutions at GlobalFoundries, discusses the evolution of 22nm FD-SOI and its advantages, including single patterning in the middle end of line, 0.4 volt operating voltage, and how it compares to finFETs in terms of performance. [youtube vid=5fa1AcIGcUw] » read more

Moore Memory Problems


The six-transistor static memory cell (SRAM) has been the mainstay of on-chip memory for several decades and has stood the test of time. Today, many advanced SoCs have 50% of the chip area covered with these memories and so they are critical to continued scaling. “The SRAM being used in modern systems is similar to the SRAM they were using in the 1970s and 1980s,” says Duncan Bremner, ch... » read more

Electronic Labeling Takes Off


One hit product for the Internet of Things (IoT) market is the electronic shelf label (ESL). The ESL is rapidly replacing the paper price labels on store shelves throughout Europe and Asia, as well as within retail giants such as Walmart in the United States. But why are retailers replacing nearly zero cost paper labels with an electronic widget that sells for on the order of $5 each (prici... » read more

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