EV as power source; Matter 1.0 official; open IoT standard; LoRaWAN battery-powered relay; Renesas joins forces with mixed-signal MCM company.
Infineon opened a new factory in Cegléd, Hungary, for assembly and test of high-power semiconductor modules for EVs. “The new manufacturing capacities will help Infineon accommodate the growing demand for electromobility applications,” said Infineon’s COO Rutger Wijburg in a press release. Production ramp-up started in February 2022. Infineon also announced it will work on the EEBus Initiative e.V., an initiative for the standardization of energy management systems that can connect power generators and end user devices. The EV may eventually be used as energy storage and a source of power for the energy grid or as a household energy source to power electrical appliances in the home when needed.
Electric vehicles — with their heavy batteries — generally weigh more than internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered cars, which is why the trucking industry in the United States is asking the U.S. government for higher limits on what can be carried on U.S. roads, according to one report.
The role of AI/ML in automobiles is widening as chipmakers incorporate more intelligence into chips used in vehicles, setting the stage for much safer vehicles, fewer accidents, but much more complex electronic systems.
Switching to electric trucks could save 9,300 lives in the U.S. state of California if all the new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold were zero-emission by 2040, as estimated by the American Lung Association — a non-profit health advocacy organization — in its report “Delivering Clean Air: Health Benefits of Zero-Emission Trucks and Electricity.” The report predicts that the cleaner air, especially in communities near trucking and shipping centers, could mean 9,300 fewer deaths, 270,546 fewer asthma attacks, and 1,320,710 fewer lost workdays in California alone. Nationally, by 2050 the health benefits could avoid 66,800 related deaths and save $735 billion public health costs. In California, the transition would generate $103 billion in public health benefits. The study focused on trucking corridors with 8,500 or more trucks trips per day. The ALA points to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that 72 million people live near truck freight routes in U.S. Now if only the grid could be cleaned up. California is the fifth largest economy in the world if it were a standalone country and the largest state economy in the United States, which makes California newsworthy.
Improvements in thermal management will be needed to prevent EV chips and subsystems from overheating as they process more data from more sensors, and communicate with each other and the outside world.
Synopsys added IntelliJ support to its Code Sight Standard Edition. Code Sight is a tool that developers can use to find and fix security defects before they commit their code. IntelliJ is a popular integrated development environment (IDE).
Thinking like a hacker is critical as designs become more heterogeneous and domain-specific.
NIST says October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance’s (CSA) — with over 550 technical companies as members — released its open IoT standard Matter 1.0 specification and certification program. The specification is a global IP standard for the Internet of Things (IoT). Infineon sits on the board of CSA and highlighted its products that already comply with Matter 1.0. Matter 1.0 is a standard for IoT interoperability.
Samsung Foundry has certified Cadence’s 8nm RFIC design reference flow to develop 5G RFICs for use with sub-6GHz to millimeter wave (mmWave) applications.
Synopsys announced that its digital and custom design tools and flows were used on multiple successful test chip tapeouts on Samsung Foundry’s 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) technology. Synopsys also announced a new tool for signoffs of advanced process node designs to help ensure PPA targets are met. The tool, called Synopsys PrimeClosure, combines Synopsys’ engineering change order (ECO) signoff tools, PrimeECO and Tweaker ECO, with design metrics checks of PPA, timing, clock network, voltage drop, variation, and aging. PrimeECO can be integrated with Synopsys’ Fusion Compiler RTL-to-GDSII and PrimeTime static timing analysis.
Siemens EDA’s Calibre nmPlatform tool is also now certified on the Samsung Foundry’s 3nm process. Siemens’ Aprisa digital implementation solution is now certified for Samsung Foundry’s advanced 4nm processes.
A new relay feature in the LoRaWAN specification extends LoRaWAN coverage for metering, utilities, smart cities, and industrial applications in difficult environments. The LoRa Alliance added battery-operated relays to the LoRaWAN open standard for IoT low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs). The relays transport LoRaWAN frames between end devices and the network server via a battery-operated node when there is insufficient coverage from the gateway. “With relay, we’re providing a standardized solution that allows for full end-to-end communications in extremely challenging underground, metal and concrete environments where sensor signals could use a boost or redirect to reach either the gateway or end-device,” said Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance in a press release. The TS011-1.0.0 LoRaWAN Relay Specification document describes the relaying mechanism.
Renesas and Jariet Technologies, a designer of mixed-signal, multi-chip modules and ICs for ultra-high-speed data converters and transceivers — are in strategic alliance, in which Renesas is investing US$7 million into Jariet’s new round of funding.
Industry organization SEMI is welcoming members and other industry stakeholders to participate in its Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC), a group that will collaborate on reducing the semiconductor industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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