Februari - Maart ‘16 de jaargang - nr. 1 | verschijnt ... · 3. Global web access to configure...

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1 newsletter Verantw. Uitg.: Peter Simkens | DSP Valley vzw., Gaston Geenslaan 9, 3001 Leuven, Belgium tel. +32 (0) 16 24 14 40 | fax +32 (0) 16 24 14 49 | www.dspvalley.com 3 4 5 6 designing smart products Februari - Maart ‘16 | 17 de jaargang - nr. 1 | verschijnt tweemaandelijks | afgiftekantoor: 2800 Mechelen 1 | www.dspvalley.com | P2A6695 Preface 3 Technology Flash 1 u KU Leuven – iMinds - μPnP: Plug-and-Play Peripherals for the Internet-of-Things 1 u Intrinsic-ID and Invensense develop the Trusted Sensor for IoT 3 In the spotlights 4 u Altran - Strategic collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover & 4 report Telecom & Media sector in Europe u Imec supports Airobot with the commercialization of a close range flying 5 system for drones u Imec supports Ghent-based start-up Sensolus with optimization 5 of GPS tracker for Internet-of-Things applications u Barco Silex validates interoperable VC-2 lightweight video compression 6 solution for ASIC/FPGA – ready for UHD and 4K transport u University of Antwerp - NEXOR consortium – Next Generation of Heterogeneous 6 Sensor Networks, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) u Sofics’ clipping circuit protects wireless interface circuits against excess voltage 8 u Sigasi founder featured in book about entrepreneurs 8 u intoPIX Honored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Wayne Award 9 u Xetal Named One of the 18 Most Promising European Start-Ups 10 u MinDCet supporting STEM education in Belgium 10 Embedded corner 10 u KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2016 11 Contact Information 12 KU Leuven – iMinds - μPnP: Plug-and-Play Peripherals for the Internet-of-Things continuation on page 2 Creating, deploying and configuring applications for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) still remains complex. Micro Plug- and-Play (μPnP) tackles this complexity problem by offering a near-zero con- figuration approach that empowers non- expert end-users to quickly take their IoT infrastructure online.

Transcript of Februari - Maart ‘16 de jaargang - nr. 1 | verschijnt ... · 3. Global web access to configure...

Page 1: Februari - Maart ‘16 de jaargang - nr. 1 | verschijnt ... · 3. Global web access to configure all nodes remotely. Global access to each μPnP network is provided through a JavaScript

1newsletterVerantw. Uitg.: Peter Simkens | DSP Valley vzw., Gaston Geenslaan 9, 3001 Leuven, Belgiumtel. +32 (0) 16 24 14 40 | fax +32 (0) 16 24 14 49 | www.dspvalley.com

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designing smart products

Februari - Maart ‘16 | 17de jaargang - nr. 1 | verschijnt tweemaandelijks | afgiftekantoor: 2800 Mechelen 1 | www.dspvalley.com | P2A6695

Preface 3

Technology Flash 1u KU Leuven – iMinds - μPnP: Plug-and-Play Peripherals for the Internet-of-Things 1

u Intrinsic-ID and Invensense develop the Trusted Sensor for IoT 3

In the spotlights 4u Altran - Strategic collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover & 4

report Telecom & Media sector in Europe

u Imec supports Airobot with the commercialization of a close range flying 5

system for drones

u Imec supports Ghent-based start-up Sensolus with optimization 5

of GPS tracker for Internet-of-Things applications

u Barco Silex validates interoperable VC-2 lightweight video compression 6

solution for ASIC/FPGA – ready for UHD and 4K transport

u University of Antwerp - NEXOR consortium – Next Generation of Heterogeneous 6

Sensor Networks, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

u Sofics’ clipping circuit protects wireless interface circuits against excess voltage 8

u Sigasi founder featured in book about entrepreneurs 8

u intoPIX Honored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Wayne Award 9

u Xetal Named One of the 18 Most Promising European Start-Ups 10

u MinDCet supporting STEM education in Belgium 10

Embedded corner 10u KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2016 11

Contact Information 12

KU Leuven – iMinds - μPnP: Plug-and-Play Peripherals for the Internet-of-Things

continuation on page 2

Creating, deploying and configuring

applications for the Internet-of-Things

(IoT) still remains complex. Micro Plug-

and-Play (μPnP) tackles this complexity

problem by offering a near-zero con-

figuration approach that empowers non-

expert end-users to quickly take their IoT

infrastructure online.

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continuation from page 1

1newsletter

μPnP in a nutshellμPnP offers a coherent hardware & soft-

ware toolkit that enables the automated

configuration of new peripherals into

the IoT. Key differentiators include:

1. Low-cost, low-power peripheral identification. μPnP automatically

identifies connected embedded periph-

erals and installs their corresponding

driver software. Identifying a peripheral

with μPnP consumes 1 million times

less power than USB. Any existing IoT

peripheral can immediately be repack-

aged as a μPnP-peripheral.

2. Remote peripheral discovery, deployment & usage via stand-ard IPv6 Multicast. μPnP connects

IPv6 multicast addresses directly to

physical phenomena to enable low-

overhead peripheral discovery and

remote access. Peripheral services

can be remotely accessed using CoAP

over both unicast and multicast,

allowing for efficient and easy inte-

gration with third-party technologies.

3. Global web access to configure all nodes remotely. Global access to

each μPnP network is provided through

a JavaScript library that establishes a

NAT-proof connection between clients

and the μPnP gateway.

4. Ultra low power and reliable mesh networking. The μPnP software stack

is fully compliant to IEEE, IETF and IPSO

standards, and integrates easily with

third-party solutions. In combination

with Linear Technology’s SmartMesh

IP, μPnP achieves 10 years of battery

lifetime and 99.999% reliability.

μPnP in actionμPnP was awarded third place in the

IPSO Challenge 2015, which evaluat-

ed IoT prototypes on their innovation,

breadth of applicability, marketabil-

ity, and ease of use (http://challenge.

ipso-alliance.org/, http://challenge.ipso-

alliance.org/challenge2015/meet-the-

2015-semi-finalists/micropnp). The ten

semi-finalists presented their prototype

for an industrial jury at the Designers of

Things conference in Silicon Valley.

Beyond the IPSO Challenge, iMinds-Dis-

triNet is taking μPnP out of the lab and

into industrial reality. First step was to

deploy a μPnP enabled temperature and

humidity monitoring application for the

server room at KU Leuven’s Computer

The top figure shows µPnP enabled devices with various peripherals for (tempera-ture, humidity, motion) sensing and actuation (a buzzer or a switch). µPnP enables automated IoT configuration as evaluated in the server room of the Computer Science Department at KU Leuven.

Science Department (see Figure 1).

Currently, iMinds-DistriNet is preparing

prototypes in agricultural automation,

transport & logistics and e-healthcare.

iMinds-DistriNet track record in industry collaborationiMinds-DistriNet is an internation-

al research group at KU Leuven with

extensive expertise in secure and distrib-

uted software, including middleware.

More information: https://distrinet.

cs.kuleuven.be. Currently, iMinds-Dis-

triNet is actively involved in about 35

regional and European projects, often

in close collaboration with industry. The

know-how of iMinds-DistriNet was at

the basis of Ubizen, a spin-off company

specialized in secure e-business and

related security services (now part of

Verizon). n

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T E C H N O L O G Y F L A S H

Internet of Things (IoT) applications are

often driven by data that is gathered

by sensors in the field. Sensors are at

the heart of any IoT application but

until now, sensor security has not been

addressed because of cost and size

restrictions. With the increasing aware-

ness of IoT security this can no longer

be ignored. TrustedSensor is the first

sensor product that integrates security

without compromising on performance

and efficiency.

In order to develop a strong sensor

data security solution that is easy to

integrate into a device and does not

affect the performance of the sensor or

the device, InvenSense partnered with

Intrinsic-ID.

Intrinsic-ID and Invensense develop the Trusted Sensor for IoT

Trusted Sensor Concept

Trusted Sensor booth at CES 2016

Intrinsic-ID CEO Pim Tuyls at Invensense Developer Conference

“Our solution extracts a cryptographic

key from the unique silicon properties

of the sensor chip,” says Pim Tuyls,

President and CEO of Intrinsic-ID. “This

enables secure and reliable authentica-

tion of data from the sensor to a host

processor and prevents anyone from

manipulating the interfaces or replac-

ing the sensor without authorization,

all with minimal impact on the cost and

design of the sensor”.

The TrustedSensor™ solution will

be available in early 2016 for the

InvenSense FireFly platform for motion

sensors and will become a standard

feature in InvenSense’s sensor road-

map. Developers and OEMs will be able

to purchase the complete solution from

InvenSense.

Prototype has been showcased at CES,

January 2016 and at the InvenSense

Developers Conference November

2015. n

key enabling technology for a large

area of smart electronic applications,

ranging from health to automotive or

energy. Therefore, the clus-

ters in the Silicon Europe

Alliance will look for

cooperation with more

application oriented

clusters in Europe.

• Finally, the third level

wants to reach out to

Silicon Europe Alliance starts internationalization with “ESCiP” projectAfter finishing the strategic plan on

how to improve the competitiveness of

the European semiconductor industry,

based on an inter-cluster cooperation

model, the Silicon Europe Alliance has

now started some first implementation

activities of this strategic plan.

An important action line in the strategic

plan is the support to international busi-

ness development for the participating

cluster members. This internationaliza-

tion will happen at 3 different levels:

Pre

fac

e

• A first level focuses on the partnering

and matchmaking in Europe between

businesses and/or research institutes

from different clusters in the Silicon

Europe Alliance. As such, this process

aims at bringing together different

players, often technology providers,

from the semiconductor industry;

• The second level emphasizes on creat-

ing market value, starting from the

available technologies and competen-

cies in the micro/nano-electronics as continuation on page 4

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Jaguar Land Rover partner to develop future software platform for intelligent vehi-cles and machinesAltran, global leader in innovation and

high-tech engineering consulting, and

Jaguar Land Rover announced a strate-

gic collaboration to develop and market

a unique and ground-breaking open

software platform. This platform will

revolutionize traditional Electrical and

Electronic (E/E) automotive architectures

by bringing together cutting-edge indus-

trial and engineering techniques with

the processes, methods and tools found

in the consumer electronics industry.

Altran report on Telecom & Media sector in EuropeThe new Altran report entitled “Value

migration in the Telecom and Media

sector in Europe: a European tragedy?”

analyzes the value migration game over

the last decade, with a global scope. The

report examines the market capitaliza-

tion of 41 companies in 6 key Telecom

& Media segments: Telecom Operators,

Telecom Vendors, Terminal Vendors, IT

Vendors, Internet Companies (OTT’s),

Media Companies.

The analysis highlights how Europe was

sidelined compared with major US and

Asian companies in a market that could

experience its next technological revolu-

tion in the upcoming years. Some inter-

esting points that are raised concern the

exponential data traffic growth for the

years to come which relies on FTTH as in

4G and is the only way to meet demand.

Besides, the development and operation

of FTTH networks provide gains in effi-

ciency due to lower operating costs.

Increases in speed, in both networks,

open a range of new services where

operators must invest if they want to

compete. Among them are TV services

across multiple devices, music, games

and other streaming media content

that operators must make available to

their customers. They must also include

services based on other technologies

such as Cloud, internet of things (IoT)

or M2M where several strategies are

adopted: infrastructure investments, or

partnerships with or purchase of com-

panies that already offer these services.

While in this domain, telecom operators

face intense competition from current

players and new entrants, in particular

from OTTs. Read the full report on the

Altran website or via this link: http://

tinyurl.com/jz56tdr

n

Altran - Strategic collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover & report Telecom & Media sector in Europe

-with Minalogic (FR), Silicon Saxony

(DE), mi-cluster (GR), High Tech NL

(NL)and Distretto Green & High Tech

Monza-Brianza (IT), under the lead of

DSP Valley (BE)- has started the prepa-

ration of some first activities, which will

result in a “European Week” in Taiwan

in early June.

Needless to say, these internationaliza-

tion activities are being organized

at the benefit of the Silicon

Europe Alliance cluster

members. We hope to get

a lot of them on board of

our activities!

Best regards,

Peter Simkens

Managing Director

DSP Valley

other regions beyond Europe. In the

internationalization plan which is

part of the Silicon Europe strategic

plan, two target regions already have

been selected: Taiwan and the United

States.

For the third level with the internationali-

Pre

fac

e zation beyond Europe, targeting Taiwan

and the US, a team of six clusters of the

Silicon Europe Alliance, has been grant-

ed financial support by the European

Commission, under the “COSME Go

International” program. The ESCiP team

(“ESCiP”: European Semiconductor

Cluster Internationalization Project)

The ESCiP team at the project kick-off at the Corallia offices in Athens (GR)

continuation from page 3

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I N T H E S P O T L I G H T S

Imec has supported Airobot, a Hasselt-

based start-up that develops profession-

al drone performance equipment, with

the commercialization of its Airobot

Ranger, a drone add-on module for the

safe navigation of drones.

When inspecting or filming objects at

altitude with drones it is very diffi-

cult to judge the distance between the

drone and the object. Airobot solves this

problem by offering a distance meter,

comparable to a parking sensor for cars.

The Airobot Ranger clearly indicates on

a tablet the distance to an object such

that the drone can capture detailed

images of that object in a safe way.

Applications are e.g. drones for inspec-

tion and surveillance, and for profession-

al photography of buildings. Airobot has

Sensolus, a Ghent-based start-up that

develops low power solutions for Internet-

of-Things (IoT) applications, has collabo-

rated with imec for the optimization of its

sticknTrack GPS tracker with integrated

low power SigFox communication chip

(www.stickntrack.com). Imec has thor-

oughly reviewed the current hardware

module of Sensolus and has made sug-

gestions for future optimizations. This

collaboration was enabled by the ESA

Business Incubation Centre Flanders for

which Sensolus has been selected.

Sensolus’ SticknTrack solutions consists

of a gps module for localization and

a state-of-the-art SigFox low power

communication module, combined

with a cloud-based platform on which

Sensolus has built applications and ser-

vices for sensor management. Thanks

to the SticknTrack tracker a customer

can locate his objects during several

the ambition to launch this solution on

the market and has defined the technical

specification for this technology. Thanks

to its successful collaboration with imec

Airobot was able to select the right tech-

nology for the realization of a compact

module for professional drones.

Together with Airobot imec has selected

and measured electronic building blocks

years via tablet, pc or smartphone,

without having to recharge or replace

the battery. Projects are carried out in

e.g. logistics, arts, sailing, and even for

tracking herds of sheep. The tracker has

credit card-size dimensions, and serves

as an install-and-forget solution thanks

the multi-year autonomy of the battery.

The integrated SigFox module enables

long-range low power wireless commu-

for the Airobot Ranger, and suggested

several optimizations. In the next step,

imec supported Airobot with the selec-

tion of a proper low power wireless

communication module and with the

integration of this module together with

ranging sensors and a system proces-

sor on a PCB. Finally imec suggested

improvements for the control of the

sensors. n

nication and is specifically developed for

IoT applications.

Imec has performed a functional review

of the SticknTrack tracker for reliabil-

ity, manufacturability, testability, energy

consumption and the quality of the wire-

less connection (a.o. system architecture

and component selection, antenna solu-

tion and integration). Imec has made

suggestions for future improvements to

the current design.

This collaboration illustrates imec’s

broad range of collaboration opportuni-

ties for the local industry, and for SMEs

and start-up companies in particular. By

providing access to imec’s technology,

knowledge, competences, infrastructure

and ecosystem, imec wants to sup-

port local innovative companies in their

design of smarter, cheaper, more pow-

erful products. n

Imec supports Airobot with the commercialization of a close range flying system for drones

Imec supports Ghent-based start-up Sensolus with optimization of GPS tracker for Internet-of-Things applications

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1newsletter

Barco Silex, leading provider of IP cores

for the audiovisual industry, has vali-

dated its hardware solution for light-

weight, low-complexity video compres-

sion against the SMPTE 2042-3 refer-

ence. The low-footprint core is now

ready to be integrated in both ASIC

and FPGA designs without need for

expensive footprint. This opens up new

possibilities for equipment manufactur-

ers as they get a low-cost, interoperable

compression solution to upgrade video

transport to high-definition formats

such as UHD and 4K.

Barco Silex’ solution implements the

VC-2 Low Delay codec. Originally con-

ceived at the BBC labs, VC-2 LD is a

lightweight, low-cost, patent-free solu-

tion that can either be added to the

existing hardware or run in software.

It compresses video 4:1 visually lossless

and allows for sub-millisecond delays,

which is essential for video applications

Barco Silex validates interoperable VC-2 lightweight video compression solution for ASIC/FPGA – ready for UHD and 4K transport

NEXOR is a consortium of the University

of Antwerp, consisting of the following

research groups: ANSYMO (Flanders Make); CoSys-Lab (Flanders Make); ENM - APL; MOSAIC (iMinds).

Our expertiseThe NEXOR consortium provides for an

integrated approach covering the com-

plete value chain of heterogeneous sensor networks starting from a sin-

gle sensor design, distributed sensor

communication to complete system

modelling, simulation and testing.

Competence areas are:

• Software-intensive Systems (SIS) – Foundations, techniques, methods

and tools for the design, analysis

and maintenance of SIS supporting

increased application complexity (e.g.

computational resources, parallel

computation, interactive behaviour,

hybrid systems supporting interac-

tions of software with physical com-

ponents, software evolution).

• Software reengineering:

Evolution of object-oriented soft-

ware systems supported by quality

assurance and automated testing.

• Model-driven approach: Analysis

of the implications of technical choic-

es during the design phase, i.e. qual-

ity and safety guarantees as required

by the IEC and ISO safety standards.

• Embedded technologies for CPS

– Software, application and system

design complying with constraints

such as limited performance, cost,

safety, energy consumption.

• Methods and tooling: embed-

ded coding, static code analysis

(e.g. MISRA-C), exploiting multicore

and functional safety for embedded

software.

• Model-driven engineering: vali-

dation of embedded software in

the area of control systems support-

ed through modelling in different

formalisms, model transformations,

(co-)simulation, automatic design

space exploration, code generation,

test framework generation.

• IoT - Distributed systems and com-

munication networks with focus on:

• Embedded distributed hetero-geneous systems: combining enti-

ties ranging from low-level embed-

ded devices to high-level cloud

resources, focusing on scheduling,

University of Antwerp - NEXOR consortium – Next Generation of Heterogeneous Sensor Networks, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

NEXOR strives towards the next generation of autonomous sensor networks that provide communication, monitoring, and control of physical components and processes. The consortium members offer a unique mix of complementary & interdisciplinary expertise supporting industrial companies during system design and devel-opment through an integrated know-how on heterogeneous sen-sor networks and cyber-physical systems that combines modelling, testing, sensing, data processing, networking, and management.

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I N T H E S P O T L I G H T S

Barco Silex validates interoperable VC-2 lightweight video compression solution for ASIC/FPGA – ready for UHD and 4K transport

that require (near) real-time operation.

Most importantly, VC-2 LD has been

accepted as a standard (SMPTE 2042),

which ensures equipment supplier sup-

port and interoperability. To prove its

solution is ready for the AV market, the

video experts from Barco Silex have now

validated their ASIC/FPGA implementa-

tion against the latest available VC-2

conformance reference software. In

addition, they have proven the interop-

erability between their implementation

and the BBC’s open-source software,

encoding through their IP core and

decoding with the software.

“We kept true to the design goals of

VC-2 LD and created an IP block of

minimal size and complexity,” says Jean-

Marie Cloquet, product manager of

Barco Silex’ video division. “The result

is a core that can be integrated on

any FPGA of choice, even if that is a

mid- or low-range chip. With this core,

adding VC-2 to your hardware toolbox

has become a cost- and time-efficient

way to upgrade your video transport to

the high-definition formats, without the

need to invest heavily in new infrastruc-

ture and storage.”

Barco Silex ships its blocks, with a func-

tional simulation test bench, synthesis

and implementation scripts, and full

documentation. The IP solutions have

been made with easy integration in

mind. In addition, the experts at Barco

Silex are ready to assist customers, be it

to discuss ideas, help draw up efficient

designs, even down to executing full

integration projects. n

University of Antwerp - NEXOR consortium – Next Generation of Heterogeneous Sensor Networks, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

resource management and distrib-

uted software paradigms.

• Management and control of IoT networks: novel network control

(e.g., MAC scheduling, routing) and

management (e.g., fault detection,

security, resource allocation, QoS)

for highly dynamic, heterogeneous

and constrained wireless network

environments.

• Low-power communications:

ultra-low power communication,

low power embedded systems, and

RF localization. Specifically investi-

gation of low power physical and

MAC layer protocols of, as well as

localisation using Sub-1Ghz trans-

mission technologies.

• Sensor Processing – Analysis, design

and implementation (hardware, soft-

ware) of the complete information

extraction hierarchy covering

• Low level, real-time signal process-ing on the raw sensor measurements;

• Sensor fusion combining data from

multiple heterogeneous sensors;

• Data mining extracting useful

information from large amounts of

sensor data.

Industrial casesThis expertise is deployed in socially rel-

evant application areas such as mobil-ity, logistics, manufacturing, smart cities, home/building automation, energy efficiency.

Our offerNEXOR targets typical questions that

arise during industrial system design and

development providing added value in

an integrated way.

• Feasibility – acquire necessary know-

how through expertise and infrastruc-

ture to build conceptual prototypes.

• Sustainability – comply with con-

straints such as limited performance,

cost, and energy consumption.

• Safety – ensure strict safety standards.

NEXOR is active in national and inter-national initiatives with partners from

industry and academia focused on EU

programmes such as Horizon 2020, ECSEL, EUREKA, AAL, COST Actions. In addition, we offer a clear focus on

industrial valorisation within the strate-

gic research institutes iMinds (ICT) and

Flanders Make (Manufacturing).

n

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1newsletter

Sigasi founder featured in book about entrepreneurs

Sigasi founder Philippe Faes is one of 21

entrepreneurs being featured in the book

“Hoek Af” from author and startup-

expert Eric Kenis. All people with a story

and an idea – slightly eccentric, diehards,

headstrong – who had ups and downs

and still put their dreams into action.

Philippe Faes and his co-founder Hendrik

Eeckhaut are engineers, and became

entrepreneurs out of necessity. They

were frustrated with existing hardware

design tools like Emacs and Vim, and

felt that there was a need for new and

better options. They thought that the

power of IDEs like Eclipse and Visual

Studio should be available to hardware

designers too.

Nobody else was marketing their idea,

so they decided to do it themselves and

became entrepreneurs. In retrospect,

when they started their company Sigasi

7 years ago, they had little idea what

creating and fostering a company was

all about. So yes, they made mistakes

- and Faes talks freely about them in

the book. “After we gathered enough

funds to start Sigasi, we only focused

on developing our software. Our first

mistake. Almost no one knew what we

were doing. Our product was good.

The problem was that the market didn’t

know that we existed. We should have

gone to the customer much faster. Test

our product, our ideas, determine what

was working and what not.”

Last year, about 40% of new

smartphones included Near Field

Communication (NFC). Analysts predict

that by 2017 there will be 1 billion NFC

enabled phones. Clearly, the use of NFC

is ramping up because it can simplify

aspects as diverse as communication,

secure payments, user authentication,

and retail loyalty programs for instance.

Adding NFC functionality to an inte-

grated circuit involves connecting the

wireless interface pins to an antenna/

coil. The voltage on those pads strongly

depend on the distance between and

alignment of transmit/read devices and

the power of the transmitting device.

Simulations by one of our customers

showed a worst case of almost 10V

between pads, which is rather high for

advanced CMOS technology.

There are basically 2 ways to cope with

this excess voltage.

1. Designers use transistors that can tol-

erate voltage up to 10V. Fortunately,

many NFC applications also require

on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM).

Such NVM circuits typically use a

thicker gate oxide and foundries

provide high voltage transistors for

such embedded flash process flavors.

Several of Sofics’ customers have

used those NVM transistors for the

first stage of the antenna circuit.

The problem is that high voltage

transistors are easily damaged during

electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress. A

parallel on-chip ESD protection cir-

cuit (with 10V tolerance) is the easi-

est solution. Sofics has ESD clamps

on several technology nodes that

are used for the protection of NFC

antenna pads.

2. It is possible to reduce the excess

voltage with a so-called clipping or

limiting circuit. The simple approach

is to use a set of diodes but due

to the large amount of current the

diode perimeter is rather large. This

leads to high leakage current dur-

ing non-clipped operation. Sofics

Sofics’ clipping circuit protects wireless interface circuits against excess voltage

A typical, simplified NFC approach: Near field (max. 10m) communication between 2 devices.

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I N T H E S P O T L I G H T S

intoPIX has been presented with the

prestigious IABM Peter Wayne Award

for Design and Innovation for its TICO

lightweight compression. With this

game changing technology, intoPIX and

broadcast equipment vendors are eas-

ing the transition to IP and UHDTV

4K in Live production workflows while

ensuring interoperability with existing

SDI infrastructures.

The Peter Wayne Award for Design

& Innovation was inaugurated by the

IABM in 1990 in memory of a former

deputy chairman of the association and

recognizes new products and technolo-

gies that offer a significant contribution

to the broadcast and media industry.

Judged by a panel of renowned spe-

cialists, the award has become highly

sought after as recognition of outstand-

ing technical achievement. intoPIX was

selected for this accolade from a lis t of

18 nominated companies.

intoPIX Honored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Wayne Award Award for TICO Lightweight Compression used in 4K Over IP Workflows

Sigasi CEO Philippe Faes (left), with his co-founder Hendrik Eeckhaut

About SigasiSigasi (Ghent, Belgium) is the company behind Sigasi Studio - an intelligent VHDL

hardware design tool that features advanced programming assistance for engi-

neering teams who create microchips for strictly regulated and safety sensitive

environments. Sigasi Studio is sold worldwide to industry leaders in medical, tele-

com, automotive, defense and aerospace. It reduces development times, enhances

design team efficiency and takes the manual labor out of hardware design.

Sofics’ clipping circuit protects wireless interface circuits against excess voltage

Without excess voltage limiting circuits the voltage can get close to 10V. The Sofics’ clipping circuit limits the voltage between the +/- antenna pads to 3.6V during functional operation. The clip-level can be set at 2.2V for compatibility with low power 1.8V interfaces too.

has designed a novel clipping circuit

to solve those issues. The clipping

circuit was used to protect the NFC

antenna pads in an ultra-low power

Bluetooth chip with ‘Touch-to-pair’

functionality. The product, pro-

cessed in TSMC 55nm technology,

is running in mass production and is

used for all kinds of home automa-

tion and IoT applications.

n

“We are honored to have won this

award”, says Gael Rouvroy CTO at

intoPIX. “It is a recognition of our tech-

nology contribution to ease the transi-

tion to UHDTV and IP-based infrastruc-

tures” n

Learning lessons and passing them onAll 21 entrepreneurs featured in “Hoek

Af”, including Davy Kestens (Sparkcentral)

and Maarten Vandenbroucke (Gatewing

and Ticto), talk openly about the lessons

they’ve learned along the way. “I learned

a lot from biographies of famous entre-

preneurs. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson,

… men who have achieved an incredible

things, and whose mistakes can teach

you a lot. An entrepreneur who identi-

fies his own mistakes and puts them on

paper, that’s always interesting to read”,

says Faes.

The book launch comes at a significant

time for Philippe Faes. At the same

time his company Sigasi is taking a next

big step. With a new look & feel and

web site to support them, this group

of dedicated tech enthusiasts have just

released revised versions of their hard-

ware design tools – now called Sigasi

Studio Starter, Sigasi Studio Creator and

Sigasi Studio XL. “We are now catering

to the needs of every VHDL designer

worldwide”, Faes proudly announces.

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1newsletterI N T H E S P O T L I G H T S

Xetal Named One of the 18 Most Promising European Start-UpsOpenAxel is a European project

-launched in October 2013- with the

goal to support ICT companies in accel-

erating their business growth through

internationalisation and cross-border

financing. One of its key activities is to

detect the 18 most promising start-ups

in Europe who will, among other things,

go to Silicon Valley to meet top rated

CEO´s and investors, and participate to

the OpenAxel Showcase at the at the

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in

2016.

Xetal has been selected as one of the

9 winners of the second (and last)

call among more than 1100 european

start-ups. Making Xetal “one of the

most promising European startups!” to

quote Agustin Moro Cañada (Wayra –

Telefonica) from the OpenAxel team.

“This is an amazing opportunity for

us to be introduced in Silicon Valley”

– says Francesco Pessolano, CEO of

Xetal, – “And it comes at a moment

where we see significant sales growth

especially in Italy thanks to our partner

SeeingSmart“. n

About XetalXetal is innovating the way buildings adapt to people’s needs. Xetal has devel-

oped Kinsei: an innovative indoor people localization technology that does not

require a person wearing or carrying any type of device or phone. Kinsei relies

on proprietary positioning sensors placed on walls, beds or door frames to detect

and track one or more people with an accuracy of about 30cm. When such

an accurate position information is used together with knowledge about the

room itself, it is possible to understand what is happening in the room, what

people are doing and determine, what is likely to happen next. Kinsei does not

use cameras, audio or any other identification technology making it the perfect

technology for cases which require respect for personal privacy.

MinDCet supporting STEM education in BelgiumThe STEM CharterOn November 22th 2015 MinDCet

signed the STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering, Mathematics) charter

together with other selected organi-

zations, universities and high-tech

companies. With this charter MinDCet

wants to testify from practice how

interesting, useful and socially relevant

Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics are.

The signatories to this charter, the

STEM ambassadors, want to stimulate

the interest and passion for STEM, to

increase STEM -ability and expertise,

and render STEM educations and pro-

fessions more attractive. To tackle the

challenges of tomorrow, we need to

collectively handle science, technology,

engineering and mathematics in a smart

and dynamic way.

The STEM ambassadors will jointly sup-

port the vision “STEM for tomorrow”:

http://stemvoordetoekomst.be/charter.

php

Come & See MinDCet in 2016MinDCet continues to develop new

products and IP also in 2016. As a tradi-

tion these new developments will be

shown and demonstrated at tradefairs

and conferences throughout the world.

Don’t hesitate to visit our booth at one

of the following events:

• APEC (Applied Power Electronics

Conference) - March 20-24: APEC

Long-Beach, California, USA

• PCIM (International Exhibition and

Conference for Power Electronics,

Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy

and Energy Management) - May 10-12 Nürnberg, Germany

• Electronica - November 14-17:

(Trade Fair) München, Germany

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E M B E D D E D C O R N E R

for engineers working at the cutting

edge of IC design and application to

maintain technical currency, and to

network with leading experts.

KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS has histori-

cally had a large impact on the field

of integrated power management and

continues to do so with paper 12.2

“A 94.6%-Efficiency Fully Integrated

Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter

in Baseline 40nm CMOS Using Scalable

The 94.6% Efficiency, Fully Integrated DC-DC converter, designed at ESAT-MICAS, that has been presented at ISSCC2016

Marco Vigilante, part of the mm-Wave

research group, presented paper 20.10

“A 68.1-to-96.4GHz Variable-Gain

Low-Noise Amplifier in 28nm CMOS”.

He added: “We demonstrated with

measurement a low-noise amplifier

that achieves the highest reported gain

over the widest -3dB bandwidth in

the 70/80GHz bands, thanks to the

circuit techniques developed in MICAS.

This results in a record gain-bandwidth

product in excess of 0.8THz”.

KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2016

In February 2016, researchers

from the KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS

(Microelectronics And Sensors)

research group have presented 4

papers at the International Solid-State

Circuits Conference (ISSCC), held yearly

in San Francisco. As the foremost glob-

al forum for presentation of advances

in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-

chip, ISSCC offers a unique opportunity

Parasitic Charge Redistribution”. “We

introduced a novel technique that sig-

nificantly reduces the dominant para-

sitic losses in Switched-Capacitor con-

verters”, commented presenting author

Nicolas Butzen. “This allowed us to

achieve the highest reported fully inte-

grated DC-DC conversion efficiency to

date, without the use of expensive

high-density capacitors.”

KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS also showed

the next step in readout schemes for

X-ray imaging in collaboration with the

Large Area Department (LAE) of Imec

Belgium, with “A flexible thin-film pixel

array with a charge-to-current gain

of 59 µA/pC and 0.33% non-linearity

and a cost-effective readout circuit for

large-area X-ray imaging” (paper 16.5).

“By using active pixels in current-mode

instead of passive pixels, we were able

to demonstrate the highest reported

gain and linearity”, said first author

Florian De Roose.

Paper 22.4 “A 172µW Compressive

Sampling Photoplethysmographic

Readout with Embedded Direct Heart-

Rate and Variability Extraction from

Compressively Sampled Data” was pre-

sented by Pamula Venkata Rajesh. He

commented: “We demonstrated an

ultra-low power PPG readout employ-

ing compressive sampling (CS) with

embedded feature extraction directly

from CS data. The ASIC enables reduc-

tion of LED power consumption by

up to 30 times without significantly

degrading the accuracy of heart rate

estimation.”

Professor Wim Dehaene, head of

MICAS, concludes: “Altogether, these

papers cover a broad spectrum of top-

ics and clearly show how the MICAS

research group at KU Leuven remains

at the highest international level in the

field of analog, digital, mixed-mode, RF

and mm-wave IC design.”

n

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SAVE THE DATE

This publication has been realized with the support of these organizations.

1newsletterC O N T A C T I N F O R M A T I O N

KU Leuven - iMinds - μPnP: Plug-and-Play Peripherals for the Internet-of-Things • p. 1Mr Sam Michiels, IOF Industrial Research Manager or Prof. Danny Hughes, KU Leuven • Tel. +32 16 32 70 68

www.micropnp.com • [email protected] or [email protected]

Intrinsic-ID and Invensense develop the Trusted Sensor for IoT • p. 3Boris Kennes, Director Product Management Intrinsic-ID • Tel. +31 40 8519 020

www.intrinsic-id.com • [email protected]

Altran - Strategic collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover & report Telecom & Media sector in Europe • p. 4Caroline Nicque, Internal Communication Officer Altran • Tel. + 32 2 739 57 96

www.altran.com • [email protected]

Imec supports Airobot with the commercialization of a close range flying system for drones • p. 5& Imec supports Ghent-based start-up Sensolus with optimization of GPS tracker for Internet-of-Things applications • p. 5Kris Hermus, Innovation Program Manager Flanders, imec • Tel. +32 16 28 15 06 www.imec.be • [email protected]

Barco Silex validates interoperable VC-2 lightweight video compression solution for ASIC/FPGA – ready for UHD and 4K transport • p. 6Mr. Geert Decorte, Sales and Marketing Manager Barco Silex • Tel. +32 10 45 49 04

www.barco-silex.com • [email protected]

University of Antwerp - NEXOR consortium – Next Generation of Heterogeneous Sensor Networks, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) • p. 6Dr. Ir. Anna Hristoskova, Research & Innovation Manager • Tel. +32 3 265 32 14;

https://www.uantwerpen.be/nexor/ • [email protected]

Sofics’ clipping circuit protects wireless interface circuits against excess voltage • p. 8Mr. Bart Keppens, Director Marketing, Sofics • Tel.: +32 59 27 59 15 • http://www.sofics.com • [email protected]

Sigasi founder featured in book about entrepreneurs • p. 8Mr. Philippe Faes, CEO Sigasi • Tel. +32 485 06 18 93 • www.sigasi.com • [email protected]

intoPIX Honored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Wayne Award • p. 9Mrs. Katty Van Mele, Director Business Development intoPIX • Tel. +32 10 23 84 70 www.intopix.com • K.vanmele@intopix.

com

Xetal Named One of the 18 Most Promising European Start-Ups • p. 10Mr. Francesco Pessolano, CEO Xetal • Tel.: +32 15 634 499 • www.xetal.eu • [email protected]

MinDCet supporting STEM education in Belgium • p. 10 Mr. Mike Wens, CEO MinDCet • Tel.: +32 16 40 95 28 www.mindcet.com • [email protected]

KU Leuven ESAT-MICAS at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2016 • p. 12Patrick Reynaert, professor ESAT-MICAS KU Leuven • Tel. +32 16 32 18 78

www.esat.kuleuven.be/micas/ • [email protected]

Contact Information

All tradem

arks or registered trademarks m

entioned in this newsletter are the intellectual property of their respective ow

ners.

16-06-2016 Belgium, venue to be confirmed

Business-to-Business Forum 2016

DSP Valley expects you on the yearly

B2B Forum! An entire day filled with

interesting 1-on-1 meetings with some

of the leading executives of the smart

systems industry in the BeNeLux and

Europe, with a pre-screening, guar-

anteeing a high level of relevance for

your business development. This very

efficient format allows you to have 10 to

12 high-quality meetings in just 1 day.

Make sure your company/organization

is part of this must-attend event and

already register by sending an email to

[email protected]

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