ICs & Semiconductors

ON Semiconductor has introduced the LC898212XA-MH, an Auto Focus (AF) Control IC for camera modules in smartphones. The device is highly integrated, is programmable and has been designed to provide fast and accurate auto focus convergence while consuming less power and generating less noise interference. The space-saving design has been optimised to enable thinner and lighter smartphones.

Silicon Laboratories has introduced the industry’s first crystal-less USB-to-I2S audio bridge designed to support a wide range of codecs and digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) used in USB-based audio applications. The new CP2114 audio bridge chip simplifies the process of transferring audio data from USB to I2S without time-consuming code development, speeding time to market for USB audio accessories such as speakers, headphones, music boxes, point-of-sale terminals, navigation systems and VoIP systems.

Wolfson Microelectronics has introduced the WM7121 and WM7132, the company’s first high performance top and bottom port silicon analogue micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones with offer matching frequency responses, designed to deliver outstanding audio quality to a wide range of consumer electronics applications.

Texas Instruments (TI) has unveiled the industry’s first quad-channel XAUI/10GBASE-KR transceiver that can support multiple 10G/40G Ethernet standards, as well as proprietary data rates from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps. The flexible TLK10034 physical layer (PHY) serializer/deserializer (SerDes) allows engineers to use one SerDes for all of their protocol needs, instead of stocking multiple devices.

OmniVision Technologies, a developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, has added the OV480 to its automotive product line. The device is a powerful companion processor designed to enhance camera performance in wide field-of-view (FOV) applications for automotive vision systems. The OV480 operates in conjunction with OmniVision’s high performance AutoVision sensors to deliver electronic distortion correction and enhanced low-light performance.

Xilinx is looking to accelerate the automotive industry’s development and deployment of a new generation of automotive driver assistance systems (ADAS). At the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Convergence 2012 event, Xilinx unveiled its automotive ARM-processor based Zynq-7000 All Programmable system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform that can reduce the cost and the time-to-market of driver assistance solutions by using programmable system integration to lower the bill-of-materials while still meeting sophisticated technical requirements that lay behind systems requiring driver assurance-critical image-to-vision and in-vehicle networking capabilities.

Designed to enable developers to add multiple connectivity, processor and metrology options to their smart meter designs, Texas Instruments has announced a modular and scalable Smart Meter Board (SMB) development platform that supports one-phase to three-phase smart electricity meters with the smart grid’s most prolific communications protocols. The Smart Meter Board is a development platform that incorporates key smart grid devices from TI’s broad portfolio of embedded, analogue and connectivity solutions to demonstrate the capabilities of a smart meter.

Melexis has introduced the first of its new line of commercial, off the shelf, packaged MEMs pressure sensors. The MLX90809 is a highly accurate, AEC Q100 qualified relative pressure sensor specifically targeted at 1 Bar applications. The company’s proprietary piezo-resistive MEMS technology with a high accuracy sensing element, low noise analogue front end and 16-bit sigma-delta analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) combine to offer an impressive level of performance.

Atmel Corporation has announced new automotive-qualified maXTouch controllers for in-car control systems. These new devices are intended to bring a smartphone experience into contemporary cars, even for drivers wearing gloves. Expanding the Atmel portfolio of maXTouch automotive-qualified devices, the new mXT143E and mXT224E touch controllers have been designed for small automotive touchscreens and touchpads up to 7 inches in diameter such as centre stack displays, navigation systems, radio human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and rear-seat entertainment systems.

Freescale Semiconductor is extending its QorIQ T1 and T2 families of 64-bit processors with four new products, including a quad-core T1040 “router on a chip”– the industry’s first embedded 64-bit processor to integrate a gigabit Ethernet switch.With these additions, the QorIQ families will now represent one of the most scalable, pin-compatible portfolios of embedded 64-bit multicore communications processors available. The new products target entry-level to mid-range networking, printing and security device applications.