Electronics For You Plus - July 2014 in

EFY Survey: pCB
Industry of India
Wearable
Electronics
Manufacturing
Flexible Electronics ` 100
july 2014
Vol. 3 No. 3 | ISSN 0013-516X | Pages: 152+8 | UK #5; US $10

For You
Agilents Electronic Measurement Group,

including its 9,500 employees and 12,000
products, is becoming Keysight Technologies.
Learn more at www.keysight.com

EFY Survey: pCB
Industry of India
Wearable
Electronics
Manufacturing
Flexible Electronics ` 100
july 2014
For You
Raspberry pi
The DIY Board Thats
Changing Electronics
Raspberry Pi: A Tinkerers Dream
Innovative Products Powered
oscilloscopes
by Raspberry Pi
Interfacing Dot Matrix LED
with Raspberry Pi
Special
Oscilloscopes:
Top 5 Whats New?
Do-IT YoURSELF
Web-Based Device Controller Buyers Guide:
With Arduino Board
Arduino-Based FM Receiver Budget Friendly
Vol. 3 No. 3
USB LED Light cum Battery Charger
Telephone Tapping Using FM
Oscilloscopes
ISSN 0013-516X Designing Dual-Priority
Pages: 152+8 UK #5; US $10
Encoder Using LabView
Plus, many more make your
own projects inside
contents
30
electronics for you Plus | July 2014 | Vol. 3 No. 3
64
Technology Focus Buyers Guide
Mind-Reading Pets and Hijacking Planes: Budget-Friendly
RPi Innovations Go Into Overdrive Oscilloscopes
12 eStyle Buyers Guide Editor : Ramesh Chopra
Android KitKat Smartphones: A

Treat For All
Hands-On Editorial : Editorial Secretary
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(Technical queries: [email protected])
22 Wearable Electronics
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Telephone Tapping Using FM (Head Office)
42 Telecom Technology Efficient 5V Relay Driver

Difference Counter for In and Out Gates Mumbai : Ph: 022-24950047, 24928520
New Frontiers of UAV Civilian Applications E-mail: [email protected]
diy: Tips & Technique 99-104
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50 Internet of Things
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Designing Dual-Priority Encoder Using LabView
C++ Implementation of Digital FIR Filters Using
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52 Embedded Design
Analogue Components for IoT 77 Innovation
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Come a Long Way
113 Industry Focus
PCB Industry in India: Marching Ahead
JAPAN :
Tandem Inc., Ph: 81-3-3541-4166
70 Defence Electronics E-mail: [email protected]
Part 4 of 4: Defence Lasers and

Optronic Systems: Gas Laser
126 Interview There exists a phenomenal growth
singapore : Publicitas Singapore Pte Ltd
Ph: +65-6836 2272
Electronics opportunity in the voice and music arena
Joep A.J. van Beurden, chief executive officer, CSR PLC taiwan : J.K. Media, Ph: 886-2-87726780 ext. 10
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First Look! The Latest Home And Office Products
3G Wi-Fi Router Astrums NFC Enabled Portable Speaker

from Lapcare With Bluetooth for those who love to enjoy music on the go
With built-in power bank for

small offices, smartphone A strum Holdings has introduced
near field communication (NFC)
enabled portable Bluetooth speaker
users and travellers
Symphony BT-027N for those who love
L apcare has launched wireless

3G router Smart 3G Wi-Fi, a
multi-functional router with power
to enjoy music on-the-go. It also has a
built-in noise-filtering microphone for
conferencing. The speakers recharge-
bank for small offices, smartphone able battery allows up to 10 hours of
users and travellers. It provides play time.
150Mbps connectivity on the move. Some other features of the speaker
The router can support up to are: 6W RMS output, Bluetooth ver-
32 Wi-Fi-enabled devices simul- sion 3.0, one-touch NFC support, 2
taneously, once set up as a Wi-Fi + 2 drivers with passive 360-degree
hotspot. Its built-in power bank has sound, rechargeable lithium-ion bat-
a 4400mAh battery to easily charge tery (3.7V/1300mAh), aux and TF, and
smartphones, iPhones and tablets. anti-skid surface. It is available with a
It weighs 124 gms and supports a carry-in one-year warranty. Price: ` 3200
built-in USB card reader, allowing
users in the network to directly ac-
cess data from the card reader.
The router complies with Lenovo Introduces All-In-One PC
802.11b/g/n standards and has a With eco-friendly technology through its Cisco EnergyWise certified
connection range of 30m indoors Desktop Power Manager
and 50m outdoors. For on-the-
go users, the router has wireless
network-attached cloud storage. P C maker Lenovo has unveiled the
new ThinkCentre E73z All-In-One
(AIO) with eco-friendly technology
S/ 4670 S 65W/ Intel Core i5-4440s/
4430S 65W/ Intel Core i3-4340/ 4330 /
41303/ Intel Pentium G3430/ G3420/
Price: ` 1899
through its Cisco EnergyWise certified G32203. The graphics are supported by
Desktop Power Manager. The E73z is Integrated 2013 Intel HD.
designed to optimise space. To make The PC has 1600x900 (16:9), 50.8cm
it more reliable, it has ThinkVantage (20-inch) wide LED display and In-
software, PC auto lock utility, hard- tegrated HD audio/ 2x2W speakers.
ware password manager, rescue and It can support up to 16GB DDR3
recovery, and USB port disable option memory and up to 2TB storage.
in BIOS. There are several options available for
The desktop is available with keyboard and mouse.
various operating systems
Price: Starting ` 40,000 plus taxes
such as Windows 8/ 8
Pro/ 8 Single Language/
7 Home Basic 32/ 7 Home
Premium 32/ 7 Home
Premium 64/ 7 Profes-
sional 32/ 7 Professional
64/ 7 Ultimate 32/ 7 Ul-
timate 64. Likewise, there
are various processor op-
tions: Intel Core i7-4770S
65W/ Intel Core i5-4670
8 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

First Look! The Latest Home And Office Products
Intex Launches Low-Cost

GizMo Quad-Core Phone
ByTes One of the cheapest quad-core smartphones in market
Kindle Cloud Reader Now H ome grown manufacturer, Intex,

has launched its budget offering
in the quad-core segment with new
camera with LED flash and a 2MP
front-facing camera. The dual-SIM
device runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Available In India
Amazon's Kindle Cloud Reader, a
Aqua i5 Mini smartphone. The Intex out-of-the-box. It comes with 4GB in-
free Kindle reading app, that ena- Aqua i5 Mini smart- built storage expandable up to 32GB
bles customers to read Kindle books phone features via microSD card.
instantly, with only their web browser, an 11.4cm (4.5- Connectivity options
is now available to customers in India. inch) FWVGA include 3G, GPRS/
Kindle Cloud Reader enables you to IPS display with EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS,
read your books online or offline, with a 480x854 pixel Wi-Fi with hotspot
no download or installation required. functionality, Micro-
resolution.
As with all Kindle apps, Kindle Cloud
The phone USB, Bluetooth and FM
Reader automatically synchronises your
Kindle library, as well as your last page
is powered by radio with recording.
read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights a 1.3GHz quad- It decks in a 1500mAh
for all of your Kindle books, no matter core MediaTek battery to deliver a
how you choose to read them. MT6582 pro- talk time of up to five
cessor and has hours, and a stand-
Nokia Brings Z Launcher To by time of up to 180
1GB RAM. It
Android Devices
sports an 8MP hours.
Nokia has just introduced Z Launcher,
currently in its pre-beta phase, which
autofocus rear Price: ` 6850
aims to make it easier for Android
users to navigate around their devices.
According to a blog post by Nokia, As
soon as you install and start using Z
Xolo Launches First Windows Tablet
Launcher, it starts learning what you The tablet PC is powered by an AMD Temash A4-1200 processor
use throughout the day and automati-
X
cally surfaces whatever youre most olo has become the first Indian The tablet PC device comes
likely to need at the right moment.
manufacturer to launch a Win- preloaded with Microsoft Office suite
There is a Scribble feature in the Z
launcher, which allows users to draw
dows-powered tablet in the Indian and has 2-megapixel rear camera
the first letter of whatever they are market. Dubbed the Xolo Win, the tab- and 1-megapixel HD front camera.
looking for on their phones apps or let is available on Flipkart along with Besides, the Windows 8.1 operat-
contacts. The launcher will show the an exchange offer where users can get ing system is available in the tablet,
results accordingly. In addition, users a minimum of ` 3000 off on the device. which also has Wi-Fi, micro-HDMI
can add extra letters to further refine The offer allows users to trade in their and micro-USB capabilities. The de-
the results. old smartphone, tablet or laptop for vice does not support 3G connectiv-
Apple iOS 8 Will Let You Find the Xolo Win device. ity though.
Your Parked Car The tablet has a 25.7cm (10.1-inch)
Price: ` 19,999
Apples new iOS 8 operating system display with 1366x768 pixel resolution.
will reportedly let you find your car It has dimensions of 266x167.8x12
using your smartphone. The new mm and weighs 750 grams. In
OS, which was introduced at Apples addition, the device is powered
Worldwide Developer Conference by an AMD Temash A4-1200
recently, will add the feature to iOS- processor along with the Radeon
based devices like the iPhone and
HD 8180 graphics chip. It has
iPad. It is worth noting that Apples
2GB RAM and 32GB internal
competitor Google had added the
feature to its Google Now smart as- memory. It runs on a 3550mAh
sistant a month ago. Li-Ion battery, which gives it
six hours of battery life.

Buyers Guide
Android KitKat Smartphones: A Treat For All

Buying a phone has a lot to do with its OS, but it is not the only criteria. A powerful processor,
high-definition screen and a powerful camera are equally important. If they were not,
Motorola would have easily become the market leader in the last six months
prasid banerjee
W
hen the Android operating
system was introduced,
it was meant to provide
advanced functionality with cheaper
phones. But no manufacturer, except
Motorola, seems to have paid heed
to this. With the KitKat (Android 4.4)
update, now Google promises a lot,
including the fact that KitKat would
work well in any phone with 512MB
or more RAM. It means you should be
able to buy a cheaper phone with the Samsung Galaxy S5 cost at a hefty sum addition, it has a powerful 2.3GHz
latest OS (cue Moto E). of ` 45,000 or more (with the exception Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 proces-
So, when it comes to buying a Kit- of Nexus 5). But to see their value for sor and the pure un-layered version
Kat phone, it really is a matter of value money, you have to take their features of the KitKat OS. This was the phone
for money. In other words, the best into consideration. that Google had launched with KitKat
KitKat phone for you should depend Almost all the phones in this range and till date it remains one of the best
on the money you are willing to spend. have heavily layered versions of the KitKat devices to buy. It is also avail-
The KitKat OS may work well even in OS. HTC gives you its Sense user in- able at a very affordable price (for this
cheaper phones, but a faster proces- terface (UI), which in our opinion is the range of smartphones) of ` 33,000.
sor and other features could make the best OEM-provided UI in the market. The down side with Nexus 5
phone much better. Samsung offers Touchwiz, and then though is that, with Googles Android
there are others. Silver project, this phone is rumoured
High-end smartphones But if its the pure Android experi- to have gone out of production. Be-
Flagships like the HTC One (M8), Sony ence you want, you should be look- sides, Nexus 5 lacks a high-end cam-
Xperia Z2, LG Google Nexus 5 and the ing at only Nexus 5, which sports a era. While KitKat makes it attractive,
market leader (in terms of units sold) full-HD 12.6cm (4.95-inch) screen. In its 8-megapixel camera would not be
Android KitKat Smartphones to choose from

HTC One (M8) Samsung Galaxy S5 Sony Xperia Z2 Moto G Moto E
Price: ` 49,900 Price: ` 51,500 Price: ` 49,990 Price: ` 13,999 Price: ` 6999
hh Camera: 4-Ultrapixel hh Camera: 16-megapixel hh Camera: 20.7-megapixel with hh Camera: 5-megapixel hh Camera: 5-megapixel
hh OS: Sense UI on Android 4.4.2 hh OS: Touchwiz on Android 4.4.2 4k video hh OS: Pure Android 4.4.2 hh OS: Pure Android 4.4.2
hh Display: Full HD hh Display: Super AMOLED, 16 hh OS: Android 4.4.2 hh Display: 720-pixel HD display hh Display: qHD display
hh Processor: 2.3GHz Qual- million colours hh Display: Full HD Triluminous display hh Processor: 1.2GHz Qual- hh Processor: 1.2GHz Qual-
comm Snapdragon 801 hh Processor: Exynos 6 hh Processor: 2.5GHz Qualcomm comm Snapdragon 400 comm Snapdragon 200
octa-core Snapdragon 801

Buyers Guide
good enough for most buyers. Moreo- tanium Octane, Octane Plus, Titanium
ver, it doesnt compare well to the likes Hexa and some others.
of Xperia Z2, Galaxy S5 and One (M8). Selection in this range is quite
This leaves us with the layered ver- tricky actually, because while the
sions of high-end Android smartphones. prices in the low-end and high-end
Let us start with the one that is selling smartphones remain quite close, the
the most, the Samsung Galaxy S5. It has a mid-range is pretty vast. For exam-
16-megapixel camera, which shoots amaz- ple, while Moto G is priced at around
ing pictures, albeit a little oversaturated on ` 14,000, the Canvas Knight and some
the colours. The Galaxy S5 also has one of others are priced nearer to or above
the best screens in the market. Its Super ` 20,000. So, while the choices are more,
AMOLED display is a treat for any user, the price difference is also bigger.
and its screen is slightly bigger than of The best value for money in this
Nexus 5 at 13cm (5.1-inch), which makes it segment is definitely given by Moto
not so tough to use with one hand either. G, which has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm
The problem with the S5 though is Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor
in its UI and design. The S5 looks and along with 1GB of RAM and the KitKat
feels too plastic, even with its faux- OS. Canvas Knight and others sport
leather dotted back cover. Samsung has octa-core processors. So, if you want to
wasted too much space on the screen spend less than ` 15,000, Moto G could
and the UI just doesnt give you a high- be the best choice for you.
end feel. Why is it a big deal? Because Above ` 14,000, the competition
youll be spending ` 51,000 to buy it. is really between Canvas Knight and
Xperia Z2 and HTC One (M8) on the Karbonns devices, for now. But Canvas
other hand have hit the jackpot when it Knight doesnt seem to do well in terms
comes to the design and pricing. Both of battery life. With the exception of Ti-
these devices are priced at ` 49,900, which tanium Hexa, the others are all octa-core
is a very strategic pricing in this range, and units, while the Hexa has a hexa-core
they both have pretty good camera. The processor. Karbonn Titanium Octane
Xperia Z2 has a 20.7-megapixel EXMOR though is the cheapest octa-core device
RS camera, while the M8 uses HTCs Ul- available in the market, at ` 14,490.
trapixel technology. Our choice is the M8,
which has HTCs new dual-lens technol- Low-end smartphones
ogy along with the 4-Ultrapixel camera. In the under ` 10,000 range, you can find
Xperia Z2 seems to make the pictures a bit good devices priced at around ` 8000 or
dull, compared to the M8 and S5. less. But there seems to be only Moto E
All the three are flagships from the smartphone in this range that sports the
respective companies and lack nothing KitKat OS. The device is priced at ` 6999
in terms of processor power. While M8 and gives you a 5-megapixel rear cam-
and Z2 have the 2.5GHz Snapdragon era, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB
801 processor, Galaxy S5 sports Sam- RAM and a pure Android experience.
sungs Exynos 6 octa-core processor. But Moto E right now is the best smart-
for us, HTC gains a big plus because of phone to buy in this range. We dont see
the Sense 6.0 UI that comes with M8. a better device coming up in this range
HTCs custom UI, while being as far anytime soon. Even though KitKat is
away from pure Android as possible, is perfect for such devices, with the addi-
arguably the best of all the UIs. Sonys tional layering that OEMs do, it is going
UI, though pretty simplistic, doesnt re- to be hard to match the performance that
ally add much to the device. the Moto E delivers. Motorola has made
a masterstroke with this device and it is
Mid-range smartphones no surprise that it went out of stock less
If you are looking to spend under than 24 hours after it was launched.
` 25,000, you have options like Moto G,
Micromax Canvas Knight, Karbonn Ti- The author is a correspondent at efy

technology nEWS
Most happening, fact-filled current affairs from around the world
Worlds smallest nanomotor

that runs the longest
Engineers at the University of Texas at
Austin, USA have developed worlds
smallest nanomotor which they claim
to be the fastest-ever developed. The
Nanomotor, as they call it, is 1/500th
the size of a grain of salt! It is the fast-
est with ultra-high speed and is able to
run the longest.
The Nanomotor is seen as a signifi-
cant step towards manufacturing min-
iature machines. It can be used in first-
of-its-kind devices, which can be fitted
in applications that require unprec-
edented precision, such as controlled
biochemical drug delivery to live cells Worldd smallest and fastest Nanomotor (Courtesy: www.crazyengineers.com)
and cell-to-cell communication.
One of the unique features of it is A chipset when fitted into a smart- 10x bigger charge capacity compared
its large driving power. It is able to phone will help project video on a to regular graphite-based anodes
deliver 15 continuous hours of rotat- surface with 122cm (48-inch) diagonal allowed 63 per cent increase in the
ing speed at 18,000 rpm, equivalent to view. Several of these chipsets together total cell capacity and makes the bat-
the speed of a motor in a jet airplane will be able to beam larger, more com- tery about 40 per cent lighter at the
engine. The other nanomotors avail- plex images. The first iteration of the same time. Based on their observa-
able today are able to run at speeds up chip will only project 2D videos but the tions, they built prototype batteries
to just 500 rpm and can last only for a next version, expected to follow soon (using silicon as anode) that could
few minutes. after, will feature holographic capabil- be charged 16x faster compared to
The Nanomotor is capable of reach- ity, Hussein S. El-Ghoroury, founder standard Li-Ion batteries.
ing and staying in places which were of Ostendo was quoted as saying. Earlier, an Israeli startup called
beyond imagination earlier. Courtesy The chip essentially consists of an StoreDot came out with a proto-
its size of one micrometer, it can easily image processor with a wafer made up type charger that can replenish your
fit inside a human cell. One amazing of miniaturised light-emitting diodes smartphone battery in half a minute.
aspect of the nanomotor is its field (LEDs). The system so formed can con- StoreDot recently demonstrated their
of nanoelectromechanical systems trol the colour, brightness and angle prototype charger at Microsofts Think
(NEMS). With this, the machine is able of over a million individual beams of Next Conference successfully charg-
to push forward the frontiers of cheap- light, says the report. ing a Samsung Galaxy S4s battery
er and more energy-efficient systems. (2600mAh) in under half a minute. The
These batteries can charge catch is the charger works only with
Coming soon: holographic your phone in ten minutes the Galaxy S4 for now.
projections from cell phones Researchers at the University of Cali-
Holographic projections from your fornia, Riverside Bourns College of Laser tech that can sense
very own smartphone could be a real- Engineering simply replaced standard objects from ten metres
ity soon, suggests a new report by the graphite-based anodes in Li-Ion batteries A new laser technology has been
Wall Street Journal. California-based with silicon, and the results were simply developed which can sense objects
start-up Ostendo Technologies has outstanding. Li-Ion batteries so obtained from as far as ten metres (approx. 30
reportedly built the worlds first-ever can charge a device like your power- feet). The technology, developed by
hologram projector chip that could hungry smartphone in just ten minutes! researchers from the University of
emit videos and 3D images from Researchers Mihri and Cengiz California, Berkeley can sense objects
smartphones and other screens. Ozkan observed that, silicon with its from 10 times farther than any other

technology nEWS
laser system available today. It can add a lot to smartphones,
3D video games and self-driving cars.
According to the researchers, the technology can let a
self-driving car spot a roadblock from half a block away or
allow you to answer your phone from across a room. It is a 3D
imaging technology based on LIDAR (Light RADAR) system,
which sends a feedback using a light-emitting laser. It is actu-
ally quite good, since the system isnt bulky or huge at all.
A class of lasers known as MEMS tunable VCSELs have
been used to create the technology. The laser could be what
Google needs in order to perfect its self-driving cars and
could also add a lot to the existing smartphone technologies
that we have.
This 3D printer creates fruits in custom taste,

texture, size
Now we have a 3D fruit printer that can print the real edible
fruits. Cambridge, UK-based design studio cum innovation
lab, Dovetailed, has made this revolutionary 3D printer. The
makers of the printer have worked on crafting physical and
digital experienc-
es, which change
the behaviour.
The innova-
tors have used
the technique of
molecular-gas-
tronomy, called
spherification,
3D fruits (Courtesy: www.crazyengineers.com) to make the 3D
printing machine
combine individual liquid droplets with different flavours
into a desired shape of the fruit, only in a few seconds.
The team behind the 3D printer opines that this 3D
printer could be a great help for the chefs and foodies. No
prerequisites are required in using this 3D printer. So any-
one can use it, even with no knowledge of the molecular-
gastronomy technique or cooking. The printer prints fresh
and organic 3D fruits.
The printer lets you have the liberty of creating your
own custom-designed fruits. It means that you can make
your own fruits that havent existed before, in shapes, sizes,
tastes and textures!
This augmented reality helmet is truly a guardian

A new Android-powered helmet for motorcyclists was
unveiled by a company called Fusar Technologies at the
Augmented World Expo 2014. The helmet, known as Guard-
ian, is fitted with an Android board and two wide-angle
cameras. In addition, it also holds part of the Epson Moverio
Android-powered head-mounted display.
It is a fully integrated and connected device that motor-
cyclists can wear, that allows them to have a full cognitive
awareness of whats going on around them, says Ryan
Shearman, founder and CEO of Fusar Technologies. The

technology nEWS
Guardian GA-1 motorcycle helmet (Courtesy: www.augmentedrealitytrends.com)
helmet provides the rider with a detailed heads-up display

through the Epson Moverio. It consists of a rear-view cam-
era, which also shows what is behind them on the display.
Lastly, their speed and navigation information is also shown
on the display.
The helmet has video recording capabilities as well.
The device records everything passively, but the footage
is locked into hard memory if an accident is detected. So
basically, the helmet has its own Black Box feature built into
it. The developers are currently working on the program,
which may eventually even inform a rider about a danger-
ous situation before it materialises.
This self-learning humanoid could pose

threat to the BPO industry
Millions of college graduates looking for jobs in the BPO in-
dustry, as well as the hundreds and thousands of engineer-
ing graduates looking forward to being employed by the IT
industry, are in for a shock. Amelia, a humanoid program
designed by New York-based IPSoft, could well be a viable
alternative to humans in jobs like office accounting and
finance to tech support voice calls.
IPsofts software platform, designed by Chetan Dube, a
former New York
University math-
ematics professor,
could give the In-
dian US$ 70-bil-
lion and the entire
global US$ 400-bil-
lion export-ori-
ented IT services
The world of self-learning Bots has finally arrived cum BPO industry
with IPsofts Amelia (Courtesy: www. zdnet.com) a serious run for
the money. How,
you ask? Amelia with a software algorithm that efficiently
mimics the human brain can carry out natural language con-
versations in a fraction of the time that humans take today,
much to their dismay.
However, Amelias importance grows when subjected
to more complex questions as the humanoid can answer the
same in mere minutes, thanks to its self-learning algorithm.
www.efymag.com Electronics For You | July 2014 19

technology nEWS
According to IPsoft, Amelia has the These 2D FETs do
ability to function at one-fourth the not have the issue
billing rates for human engineers and o f p e r fo r m a nc e
could challenge even the most innova- drop-off under high
tive of human resources departments voltages and can
while handling tasks. provide high elec-
tron mobility, even
Here comes a 3D-printed robot if they are scaled
At the inaugural Code Conference, or- to a monolayer in
ganised at Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif, thickness.
a cute, 60cm tall figure, called Jimmy, Fabrication of Artists view of one of the Googles 180 satellites (Courtesy: www.rt.com)
walked on to the stage, introduced it- the 2D heterostruc-
self and waved its arms. Jimmy is a 3D- tures was done by the layers of a tran- easier. Additionally, cadmium arsenide
printed robot from the house of Intel. sition metal dichalcogenide, hexagonal could be a good candidate for every-
Although Jimmy is just a research boron nitride and graphene arranged day use, claim the researchers.
robot so far, the company has plans up by relatively weak electric forces Graphene is increasingly being
to sell the fully-customisable, 3D- or van der Waals that attract neutral used in a plethora of applications in
printable robot kit in the market by molecules to one another in gases. electrical industry. It could be used to
the year end. The consumer version The bonding of the interfaces via develop better batteries as also in cre-
of Jimmy will be priced starting van der Waals and the usage of a ating super-strong yet flexible screens.
around US$ 1600 (about ` 95,000) multi-step transfer process prepares a However, major drawbacks do deter
and will be sold via 21stcenturyrobot. platform for making complex devices its use on a large scale.
com. The kit will have all the parts based on crystalline layers. It removes
that cannot be 3D printed, including the constraints of lattice parameters Googles 180 satellites to
the motors, batteries, processor and that tend to restrict the performance bring Internet access across
wires. The hardware design will be and growth of conventional hetero- the world
freely available so anyone with a 3D junction materials. The study was pub- Looks like Googles fascination with
printer can print it. lished in journal ACS Nano. bringing the Internet access to inhos-
The consumer model of Jimmy pitable areas around the world knows
robot runs on Intel Edison platform, A new wonder material to no bounds. A recent report by the Wall
which is a low-cost computer on a replace graphene Street Journal has revealed that Google
chip, much like Arduino but with Graphene is undoubtedly no less than is looking to build a total of 180 small,
much wider functionality. Jimmy can a wonder material that could trans- high-capacity satellites and set them
perform a range of tasks including form our lives in the days to come. out into low orbit so as to aid in pro-
singing, dancing, tweeting, translating However, cadmium arsenide is even viding the Internet connections.
and, most importantly, delivering cold better. Heres how... These satellites could reportedly
beers. It is an open source robot and Graphene has a major drawback entail a cost of a $1-$3 billion. But once
allows the developers to create their that, it is functional only in two dimen- in orbit these are more likely to pay for
own apps and users to download them sions. This means building complex themselves. Further, if all goes well,
so that they can pieces of hardware out of the material Google could double its satellite count,
run whatever they is not such an easy task. Taking note, so that more and more areas could be
want on their ma- researchers from Oxford, Stanford and covered. This would be an extension to
chines. Intel will the Lawrence Berkeley National Labo- Googles Project Loon through which
also make a mar- ratory decided to continue looking and it aims to substantially increase its ad
ketplace for such found cadmium arsenide, an unlikely revenue by bringing more and more
apps and designs. saviour that could very well prove to people online.
Heres a video (please scan the QR be a viable alternative to graphene. Google earlier acquired Titan
code) showing how Jimmy works! For starters, it can transmit electric- Aerospace, a company that makes
ity at tremendous speeds, much like solar-powered drones, which was in
New 2D transistors pave way graphene. However, unlike the latter, acquisition talks with Facebook just
for faster electronics cadmium arsenide can also work in all a few months ago. Google is eying to
Researchers have now come up with three dimensions. This means build- use the technology provided by Titan
worlds first two-dimensional field- ing transistors and sensors out of this to assist its Project Loon, which aims
effect transistor (FET) which will enable material in all probability will be much to connect people to the Internet in far
the development of faster electronics. flung areas.
Check efytimes.com for more news, daily
WEARABLE ELECTRONICS
Wear Your Future

During a Formula 1 race, a driver experiences wrenching forces of more than 4.5G. His
heart rate may exceed 180 beats per minute and his blood pressure could rise by half.
With soaring temperatures inside the cramped cockpit he will also dehydrate, typically
losing 2-3 litres of water during the race. Yet the driver must concentrate well enough to
achieve lap times that might vary by just a tenth of a second. This is tough, on both mind
and body. Hence it is not just the performance of the car itself which an array of sensors
keeps an eye on, wirelessly transmitting data about the engine, suspension and so on to
the pit crews. The drivers own vital signs are constantly monitored, too. Economist
DEEPAK HALAN
What are wearable

computers all about
Way back in 1961 two mathemati-
cians, Edward O. Thorp and Claude
Shannon, developed miniature com-
puterised timing devices to help them
cheat at the game of roulette. Later,
The Eudaemonic Pie - a book written by
IBM Linux Watch (IBM Linux Watch, 2000) & A US Army Land Warrior soldier (Source: http://
American author Thomas A. Bass in IBM watch pad 1.5 (IBM WatchPad 1.5, 2001) www.army-technology.com/projects/land_warrior/)
1985 tells the story about a few Uni- (Source: http://www.itworld.co.kr/)
versity of California, physics graduate
students. They develop very-small-size
computers which are clandestinely
worn on modified platform soled
shoes, to predict casino roulette games.
In the early 1980s, Steve Mann, one
of the forerunners of wearable technol-
ogy, produced a backpack-mounted
computer to control photographic
equipment. Later in 1994 he developed Anaesthesiologist keeps his attention on the
Wearable electronic sensors on a finger
patient while viewing vital signs via Google
a headset that was able to send images Glass (Source: http://www.medical.philips.com/ (Source: http://jasminepark182.com/)
to the Internet. A few years later IBM main/about/future-of-healthcare/)
carried out some trials on wearable
computing on the ThinkPad, and by wearable device and user, it is always systems under its Land Warrior pro-
2001 it presented the first model of a on so that there is no botheration of gramme. A computer manages a day-
wristwatch computer known then as switching off. Wearable-computer-based light video electro-optic sight, a ther-
the WatchPad. Thereafter several inter- devices seamlessly merge with our daily mal sight mounted on the soldiers M-4
esting developments took place in the lives in the sense that we dont need to carbine, a multichannel wireless com-
field of wearable computing. stop doing something to operate the munications system, a helmet-mounted
Wearable computers, or body-borne device. Rather the wearable devices act display system and lightweight body
computers, are small electronic devices more as an extension of our mind and armour. From the helmet-mounted
which are worn by the user under, with body and sometimes also in a way like display, a soldier can view his environ-
or on top of clothing. This type of wear- an artificial body part. ment through the sensors mounted on
able technology is especially useful for his rifle. Using GUI, he can switch to a
applications that demand advanced War with wearable zoom-able map, where he can plot his
computational support, that is, more technology own position, determine the locations
than hardware-coded logic. Since there is Since the mid-1990s, the US military of his squad members and locate sus-
continuous communication between the has been refining prototype soldier pected and confirmed enemy positions.

These positions are funnelled into the
squad leaders maps from intelligence
sources like the Predator unmanned
aerial vehicle. The computer also ties
into the soldiers communications sys-
tem, from which he can read and send
real-time text messages via a voice
interface to other squad members and
view still images from his rifle camera.
As a result, Land Warrior-equipped
soldiers are able to cover more ground
with fewer men, see farther, shoot with
greater accuracy and communicate
more covertly.
DARPA has also developed light-
weight, low-cost electronic yarns that
can be woven into a network of sen-
sors, actuators, logic algorithms and Rewalk exoskeleton: Wearable robotic legs The MindMesh, an EEG-based thinking cap
power sources, and can be twisted and (Source: http://www.glorysurgery.com/) (Source: http://www.interaction-design.org/)
crumpled as any other clothing. These
smart uniforms are an example of how an alarm is sounded in the next room, from samples of blood, urine, etc itself,
the newest technologies are improving but the doctor does not have to imme- without the requirement of any lab
the efficiency, safety and power of the diately abandon the current procedure. equipment. These sensors can be put
oldest weapons platform of allthe He communicates with the patient on catheters to sense heart conditions
foot soldier. It can also relay GPS monitoring data system that has sent in real-time basis, sewn into gloves so
information, and the design includes the alert and then takes a call if whats that surgeons can use their fingers as
Interceptor body armour, designed to happening in the adjoining room can sensing instruments during surgery
stop small fragmentation munitions. wait or needs immediate action. and even be placed on body parts,
The other area where wearable such as arms, like a bandage. This new
Transforming healthcare computing is transforming healthcare technology could yield surgical robots
Wearable technology will enable is sensors-based tools. These are gener- that can network with their environs
surgeons to monitor a patients vital ally made up of gold conductive lines via touch.
parameters and react to variations at and ultra-thin sheets of silicon, and Hence we are moving towards in-
the same timewithout ever having can transmit electric signals to the skin. corporation of multifunctional silicon
to lose sight of the procedure or the Sensor-based tools enable doctors to semiconductor device technologies in
patient. Hence, doctors will have all feel the pulse rate, pressure and other the shape of soft, 3D, form-fitting skins,
the key information and facts, hands- vital signs more accurately, resulting in apt for wearing not only on the finger-
free, in split seconds, when they need a more precise surgery. This novel tool tips but also other body parts as well.
it most, say in the operation theatre. is based on three basic ideas: For example, a device could encase the
Google Glass is a wearable technol- 1. Using a special process, thinner complete 3D surface of the heart to fa-
ogy device that has a tiny prism on the flexible silicon can be developed which cilitate different sensing and stimulat-
right side to display information by is more elastic ing functions, thus allowing advanced
means of a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connec- 2. Semiconductor devices and surgical and diagnostic possibilities.
tion to the MyGlass app on Android arrays of the micro materials can be
and even iOS devices. Researchers printed instead of being forged The powerful powered
from Philips, in collaboration with Ac- 3. Good flexibility can be provided exoskeleton
centure Technology, have been experi- by stretchable interconnects that con- In the movie Batman: The Dark Knight
menting to discover the possible uses nect arrays about 200 micrometres Returns - Part 2, Batman puts on a
of Google Glass in healthcare since it apart. powered exoskeleton for his combat
allows doctors to virtually be in two This results in flexible electronics with Superman. This enables him
places simultaneously, thus making and is behind monitoring devices that to lift the Batmobile easily with one
patient care so much more efficient. include LED and photo sensors as well hand and fight on equal terms with
Imagine a surgeon or nurse attending as components. These sensors are so Superman. A powered exoskeleton is
to a patient and carrying out a proce- powerful that they can identify if there a mobile machine and also goes by the
dure that needs both hands. Suddenly is a disease or not, and the intensity, name of powered armour, exoframe,

or exosuit. It basically consists of an organisations, government labs as well
outer framework which is put on like as academia to overcome the hurdles.
a dress, and a powered system of mo-
tors or hydraulics contribute some or Wear do we go from here
complete energy for limb movement. Today, we use corneal transplants to
Since it very much resembles the exter- mend defective eyes. In the future, we
nal skeleton that supports and protects may simply be able to insert artificial
bodies of insects and other animals, it eyes with zoom capabilities, infrared
has earned the name exoskeleton. sensors and night vision. We already
The main purpose of a powered have The MindMesh, an EEG (electro
exoskeleton is to impart more strength encephalo gram)-based thinking cap
and fortitude to the wearer. These that allows the user to hook different
machines are mostly used in Defence gadgets to their brain.
to aid soldiers lug heavy items and For example, a blind person can
sometimes more than that. The US plug in a camera and use it as an eye.
Army is in process of creating an Iron In time to come, wearable will evolve
Man-like suit that imparts superhuman into embeddable, which could be
strength to the user. This exoskeleton is sensors placed under the skin or swal-
called the Tactical Assault Light Opera- lowed. Today, the Proteus smart pill
tor Suit (TALOS) and will have strata is capable of communicating a text
of smart materials built-in with sensors to a doctor or some well-wisher from
as well as a wearable computer very within the body to convey that the
much like Google Glass. It can keep an medicine has been consumed. Some
eye on soldiers critical parameters and years from now, we are likely to have
multiply the available strength using reached a stage wherein ingestible de-
hydraulics. vices will be transmitting images from
Powered exoskeletons also en- inside the human gastrointestinal tract
able firemen and other rescue workers to help doctors diagnose the cause and
endure hazardous conditions. In the bring down the need for surgery and
healthcare sector their application other invasive procedures.
ranges from carrying out very accurate The market potential for wearable
surgeries to enabling nurses to shift computing stems from its diversity
bulky patients. And then there are sev- from watches and fitness trackers
eral other very important uses for peo- to sensor-filled clothes and Google
ple with disabilities and special needs. Glass. In December 2013, Google
ReWalk is a commercial exoskeleton Glass informed us via its Google+
and a bionic walking assistance device social network page that users of its
that uses powered leg attachments to Internet-linked eyewear will now be
enable paraplegics to stand straight, able to click photos merely by wink-
walk and climb steps. ing. Now there are speculations that
The system is power-driven by a soon you and I will be able to pay
backpack battery and controlled by a the taxi driver simply by winking at
simple wrist-mounted remote which the cab meter, and what not. As per
detects and enhances the users move- Credit Suisse, a leading financial ser-
ment. There are several challenges that vices company, the market for wear-
need to be overcome before powered able technology will rise tenfold to as
exoskeletons can become popular. One high as 50 billion US dollars by 2016
of the most potent issues is creation or 2018. The next big revolution in
of a high yet compact power supply information technology will not reside
that is large enough to enable an exo- in your pocket or on your office table;
skeleton to function for long periods you will be wearing it!
without any external power source.
Right now multiple industries have The author is currently associate professor at
pooled in their expertise and are work- School of Management Sciences, Apeejay Stya
ing in close collaboration with R&D University

Technology Focus
Raspberry Pi: A Tinkerers Dream

Come True
The Raspberry Pi has spurred so much interest in last one year that we decided to uncover
what makes it such a great catalyst for innovation
gaming console of 2001.

sd card reader
Write your OS to SD Card One little hack that users of the Pi
1336744
camera expansion
have been doing is to overclock the
tft touch screen
Using the CSI Connector
Using the DSI connector device from its normal 700MHz clock
hdmi-dvi-d adaptor
1428271 micro usb power speed to speeds of 800MHz or, in some
5V from mains
hdmi cable
1841275
cases, even 1000MHz.
This lets you run applications faster,
hdmi/dvi sd card
TV or Monitor Class 2, 4, 6, 10* > 2 GB by making use of the higher compute
linux os power now available on tap from the
Debian Squeeze
Arch Linux Fedora board. There have been users who
ARM
have clocked the Pi at such high speeds
10/100 ethernet
Connect the Raspberry
gpio
Its up to you
that they needed to use an additional
Pi to the Internet
stereo audio jtag heat-sink and cooling to keep the CPU
3.5 mm jack Test/Debug
3712242 (a Broadcom system-on-chip used in
usb peripherals
Mouse / keyboard / 1826382 mobile phones) from burning up.
powered usb hub

Expand your ports 8704341 tv Connect electronics lying
Composite video to
older TVs
around to your Pi
These endless possibilities with a Raspberry Pi, is how every Tinkerers dream comes true! This little ` 3500 computer can do a lot
of the things your desktop PC can do
for just a fraction of the price. Some of
Kids caption it carried. This later its hottest features include being able to
T
Dilin Anand and Sneha Ambastha
turned out to be a blessing in disguise. work with peripherals that were previ-
he Raspberry Pi board, lov- The fact that this board is so simple ously the sole property of a traditional
ingly called the Pi, is not that even kids can work on it has led computer.
just a developer board but to it becoming the numero uno choice USB keyboards, mice, HDMI moni-
also a small easy-to-work for rapidly prototyping ideas that keep tors and projectors, music systems,
with computer at a rock- popping up in innovators heads all memory cardseverything fits in. It even
bottom price. You can use it to connect over the world. supports an RCA connector to be able to
peripheral devices, or even to control P. Chow Reddy adds, At the EFY output video to your older TVs. It means
entire systems. It gives you the power launch of Raspberry Pi during the first you can use your Pi with most IT and
to convert an idea into reality in a snap. Electronics Rocks session by Eben Upton consumer electronics devices without
The thought behind the creation through video conference, a few demos having to seriously re-engineer the board.
of the Pi was to replace expensive on applications were mind boggling. The
computers from schools science labs. most interesting demo over there was Some exciting
What happened, however, was that it controlling of Raspberry Pi with wrist enhancements
evolved into a board now used by hob- watch ez430 from Texas Instruments. From interfacing through inter-integrat-
byists, startups and researchers, and ed circuit and display serial interface
even in industrial applications! Lets you squeeze out buses to slapping on IR receivers, sen-
P. Chow Reddy, managing direc- every bit of CPU power sors and camera boards, the Pi is built
tor, Interleaved Technologies informs The Pi comes with a CPU that per- to handle a lot of additional hardware
that the Raspberry Pi initially faced forms similarly to the Pentium II without breaking a sweat. Some of the
a problem in its entry into industrial which was introduced in 1997. Its GPU things you can do with it are:
applications because of the Made for performance is comparable to a XBOX Move your Pi. Lift things, open

Technology Focus
tion from Star Trek! mimic features of a security camera at a
See the Pi. The possibilities much lower cost.
available for a Raspberry Pi Hear the Pi. Raspberry Pi has certain
that can observe visual images limitations when it comes to audio. It
are amazing. While previous has an audio peripheral connection
tinkerers and hackers used which is limited in a number of ways,
webcams to give the power of resulting in the problem that there is no
Engineers Choice (Courtesy: Poll conducted by EFY at
sight to their Pi, the Raspberry way to capture audio using a Pi alone.
different social networking sites) Pi Foundation decided to em- Audio output is limited to two
power its boards users with partsanalogue via on-board 3.5mm
doors and windows, mess around with their in-house camera board. stereo output jack and digital only via
robotics and sense temperature using Thus the Rpi Camera module was on-board HDMI output. While HDMI
the Gertboard (a board that plugs into born. With a 5-megapixel sensor on a provides the potential for high-quality
the Raspberry Pi and enables you to board, the module is a much-awaited audio rendering, it cannot be used to
interface your Pi with other devices). accessory that connects to the Pi via capture voice. The analogue option
If you want something more serious, a ribbon cable. While there are many gives an output quality that is only de-
check out the DoodleBorga three- other webcams available that can be cent at best, which cannot be compared
horse-power robot made available from connected to the Raspberry Pi via USB, with digital quality output.
PiBorg. They have a lot of other add- the module launched by the founda- This creates a necessity for Audio
on boards available for the Pi, mostly tion has the benefit of delivering excel- Pi, which has many audio features. It
targeting robotic applications. Their lent video and imaging quality. extends the audio output analysis of a
collection includes motion and direction Another interesting module is Raspberry Pi beyond the HDMI output
sensors, motor controllers and an LED the Pi NoIR version, which comes in through its on-board HD codex and
board that they call LEDBorg. Apart a black PCB and has the IR filter re- processor. It has on-board 24-bit voice
from these cool accessories, PiBorg gets moved from the camera system. What processor that users can use with their
brownie points from us, as their name is this means is that your Pi can now see PC to record the audio events, or to build
an offshoot of the amazing Borg civilisa- near-IR wavelengths, enabling it to some kind of a karaoke system with the

Technology Focus
built-in powerful audio codex engine. Major contributors to this report Abhishek Rao, says, One
That is why many people now im- competitor, the RIoT board,
mediately think of using their Wolfson/ mainly focuses on markets
Raspberry Pi setup as a more flexible, like mobile and tablet where-
lower-cost wireless media streaming as BeagleBone is looked up
system. to for more of industrial ap-
Pi on Air. Low-power RF module plications due to its ability
is an addition to its existing wireless to provide more number of
protocols. A member from DesignSpark. Abhishek R. Rao P. Chow Reddy Pallab Maji I/O (input or output) func-
technical marketing managing director, senior research fellow,
coman online community sponsored manager, element14 Interleaved Technologies NIT Rourkela tionalities required for such
by RS Componentssays, The RF applications. If we look at
module is a USB device to provide bi- a very small form factor of SO-DIMM. the Raspberry Pi, its compatibility with
directional link to any device support- The good thing about the Com- Arduino enables more than 300 add-on
ing serial communications, like another pute module is that it retains the pro- shields which can be used to give this
Raspberry Pi. Frequency, bandwidth, cessing power of BCM2885 SOC with board an edge over all the other boards
power output and data rates can be 512MB RAM and on-board Flash stor- in terms of cost, and in terms of applica-
configured to allow multiple devices age but outsources all its peripherals tions that can be realised.
to communicate with each other and to to companion I/O board. This makes it A report by Mouser Electronics
other RF devices without any interfer- very easy for many Raspberry Pi users suggests that the Galileo, a product of
ence. to switch to Compute module for their Intels effort with Arduino, does not al-
The RF technology employed in final applications. low us deeper control of the processor.
Pi board enables significantly greater The Compute module lets design- This report also suggests that ARM is
range (up to 300m depending on the ers explore full flexibility of BCM2885 the most popular processor with multi-
terrain) and lower power consumption SOC because of the availability of more ple tools and licensed by many, which is
than other wireless protocols such as GPIOs and interfaces. And the com- not the case with Intels products.
Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The host device can panion I/O board provides access to But Michael Leonard in one of his
send and receive up to 180 bytes of data processor interface in much better man- reports at Makezine suggests that despite
per packet to other hosts within range, ner, giving liberty to designers to make built-in graphic support, BeagleBone
making it particularly useful for sense custom systems with ease. Besides, the Black is not powerful enough to support
and control applications. compute module will encourage many 1080p. However, if we look at the facts
designers to come up with a variety of and features of Raspberry Pi, it has an in-
What is the Raspberry Pi companion I/O boards having different tegrated graphical Video core processor,
Foundation up to? interfaces, peripherals and applica- composite video output and a full-size
The foundation recently announced tions. HDMI connector. Its capability of HDMI
Compute module designed for engi- Pallab Maji, senior research fellow, audio output and addition of Arduino
neers so they can harness the complete NIT Rourkela says, While we were compatible shields and components
power of the Raspberry Pi for embed- working on a robot project based on Pi, leaves no options for Michael Leonard
ded applications. It is quite small and we found that certain gesture-controlled but to support Raspberry Pi over others
comes in a 3.5cm6.5cm size. The mod- applications were required for which in a report by him.
ule is compact enough to be mounted we had to connect an Arduino board to Pallab says, I have an old monitor,
on a SO-DIMM socket, which is found Raspberry Pi for a better performance. and when I connect that monitor to Bea-
in most motherboards these days. Once I think the Compute module is going gleBone, certain things need to be taken
this module is plugged into a moth- to bring many different in-built capa- care of. Whenever I connect the Beagle
erboard it would act as a stand-alone bilities for the designing aspect, like the board to a VGA converter for a display
system and could be used as an add-on increased number of interfacing options on the monitor, I do not meet with
card for any particular application that along with a better processing speed. much success. Since Beagle board does
customers might be developing. not provide the necessary +5V power to
A member from DesignSpark.com Is Raspberry Pi the only the device connected to the HDMI port,
an online community sponsored by RS one capable of fueling I have to provide an external power
Componentssays, Most of the times
innovation? to the converter. Second, special cable
in final applications a designer may not There is great competition between the needs to be considered as Beagle board
need a complete Pi (complete Raspberry different development boards available has a micro HDMI port whereas my
Pi board with all its connectors and in- today, and this forces us to question monitor has an HDMI port.
terfaces), he may only need a slice of it. ourselves: Which development board Sneha Ambastha is a technical journalist at EFY and
Compute module may be that slice, with should be used and why? Dilin Anand is a senior assistant editor at EFY

Technology Focus
Mind-Reading Pets and Hijacking

Planes: RPi Innovations Go Into
Overdrive
In the two years since its release, the Raspberry Pi has literally gone placesfrom reaching
near-space in a balloon to crossing the Atlantic. Let us take a look at the latest slew of crazy
innovations powered by this little board
Dilin Anand
A
board designed to be
used by students, the
Raspberry Pi (RPi) end-
ed up being the love af-
fair for an entire hacker
communitynerds and geeks with a
penchant for tinkering with technol-
ogy. While the previous article in this
section looked at what the Pi itself has
evolved into, this article looks to see
if there is any similar maturity in the
applications that it powers.
Almost every project powered by
the RPi has one thing in common. It
very rarely uses high-tech components, A drone that can hijack drones
yet the applications that come out of
the lab are mind-boggling! Here are Your home can hear. Since your Your drone can hijack drones. What
some examples: dog can already talk to you, getting could be worse than a drone that has
Your dog can talk. Imagine if your your home to understand English the capability to hijack other drones?
dog could talk to you, like we saw in should be easier than before. The Well, one that could do it autono-
the movie UP. Well, now dogs actually numerous voice-recognition home- mously, without a human to control it.
can. Aptly named, No More Woof automation systems currently in the And that is exactly what the SkyJack
is a headset built by the research lab market lack the soul with which Ap- does. Running on a Parrot AR.Drone
Nordic Society for Invention and ples Siri responds. That is where the quadcopter with the RPi on board, it
Discovery. Perhaps one of the best RPi comes in with Siris mind, in the can easily hack other Parrot drones
examples of using existing technology form of SiriProxy. This is a combina- nearby, hijacking their wireless con-
in newer fields, this headset reads the tion of Siris soul in the body of an nections and even taking over their
dogs mind using electroencephalo- RPigetting us that much closer to flight pattern. If your Mumbai pizzeria
gram (EEG) sensors. This product taps Hal 9000. Once your dog learns to drone did not deliver their pizza in 30
the minor fluctuations in brain waves speak, this could be the easiest way to minutes, look to the sky and you might
as your dog thinks of you, love, food, take care of things around the house. possibly see it flying behind a SkyJack.
squirrels and you again. The device Want to take out garbage? Ask your
comes with an EEG reader, a process- dog and he will pick up the bag, pass Raspberry Pi
ing unit and brain-computer interface, the voice-recognition security lock, ask gets professional
all built into the headset, with its aim your RPi to disable the gardens sprin- Apart from all these wonderful hob-
to further strengthen the connection kler system and get rid of that garbage byist creations, did you know that
between man and mans best friend. in the neighbours lawn. the RPi also has its share of cool in-

Technology Focus
dustrial applications? Have a look at built an RPi-powered military
some of them: mode-S logger that automati-
Test labs for electronics engineers. cally decodes mode-S mes-
A web-enabled RPi and a programma- sages through an RTL-SDR
ble test and measurement device called dongle using a RPi. Since
the Red Pitaya have come together to there are hundreds of mes-
create this awesome utility. The Red sages every second, the RPi
Pitaya is a portable, programmable, takes the brunt of the com-
multifunctional test and measurement puting power needed to sift
device. It serves as an oscilloscope, a through those messages and
function generator and a frequency log only the new ones to the
and spectrum analyser, all in one go! database. A lot more serious
The Red Pitaya is connected to a net- industrial applications can BrewPi brewing beer
work as a web server, and users can be expected soon with the
connect to it by simply entering its IP launch of the modular RPi Compute innovation is definitely a catch. Named
address in the web browser. Interfac- Module, which specifically targets in- the FishPi, it communicates through
ing with the RPi allows access to the dustrial applications. satellite and is able to make naviga-
Red Pitaya console. This application tional and environmental measure-
was started at KickStarter and is now RPi projects breaking ments and observations. Sitting within
shared in a step-by-step approach on R&D ground an unmanned marine surface vessel
DesignSpark.com community by one The RPis biggest achievement is is the RPi built to cross the Atlantic
of their community members. connected to its roots. Being a board Ocean while taking scientific measure-
Command and control microbrew- primarily designed for kids to learn ments. Additionally, a drone project
ery. The microbrewery business just with, it inherently becomes the number uses the RPi as its sole navigational
got a whole lot easier and productive one choice for interdisciplinary engi- computer to ensure that the mission is
with the RPi-powered brew environ- neers who have very little idea about successful.
ment control. It does away with the electronics. What does this mean? It Seeking crabs. David Soriano, an
fancy and expensive equipment that means, scientists and researchers opt associate professor of chemistry at the
you traditionally need, and instead for the RPi whenever they need to University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, has
allows you to brew your first batch tinker with electronics. been using an RPi-controlled webcam
of beer with a couple of sensors and a Going Pi high. The AirPi is an to monitor fiddler crabs. As part of
web-enabled RPi. This little set-up al- automatic air-quality and weather- the research project, these are being
lows the brewer to connect to his brew- monitoring device capable of monitor- offered thermal polypeptides, rich
ing room from anywhere in the world ing information about temperature, in the amino-acid tyrosine. Tyrosine
through the Internet and monitor the humidity, air pressure, light levels, starts the pathway to melanin pigment
temperature and humidity, both of UV levels, carbon monoxide, nitrogen production in the crab, and David is
which are very essential to ensure that dioxide and smoke level through the watching for colour changes that result
the beer is drinkable. Internet. Chasing high-altitude bal- from it.
Pi joins the Army. There seem loons is a sport for those sending RPi Pi for social sciences. In the Aix-
to be an increasing number of RPis GPS-enabled gear to the outer limits of Marseille Universit in France, Sebas-
featuring in military applications. the Earths atmosphere. Dave Akerman tiaan Matht, from the Laboratoire de
Reddy explains, The developer has outfitted his balloons payload with Psychologie Cognitive, has been run-
taken proper care in the PCB design a custom RPi computer that sported ning his graphical experiment builder,
and could not observe any emissions a GPS radio, a webcam and various OpenSesame, on RPi. OpenSesame
from the traces too. This suggests that sensors and trackers. His latest set of is a graphical, open-source experi-
the devices and components used on flights was done at St Albans School ment builder for the social sciences,
this board are of industrial grade, can in Ireland on the 7th of June 2014. It which allows you to build complex
sustain extreme conditions and thus flew high with trackers ALBANFLOAT experiments with minimum effort. The
can be used for defense applications. with live image downloads from the plug-in framework and Python script-
The catch here is that boards other sky, and ALBANDATA with a number ing allow you to incorporate external
than the Raspberry Pi do not pass this of environmental trackers. devices, such as eye trackers, response
test, and so engineers can start using Life of Pi. A floating research boxes and parallel port devices, into
the Raspberry Pi in their applications station that is based on top of an au- your experiment.
confidently. tonomous vehicle for long-term data-
One person from LiveATC has logging operations, this RPi-powered The author is a senior assistant editor at EFY

MANUFACTURE
Part 1 of 2
Flexible Electronics: The Next
Ubiquitous Platform
Just as the IC replaced discrete circuit board electronics, flexible electronics will almost
inevitably, by virtue of the ever-demanding end-user, supersede solid-state ICs. So let us
find out a bit more about flexible electronics, the materials required for their fabrication, the
fabrication processes and the applications
K. MOHAN KUMAR engineering. Living organisms are in- other elements of the circuit to assure
trinsically flexible and malleable. Thus, ease of manufacture and reliability.
F
lexible electronics is lightweight, flexibility is a necessity for successful The materials and technologies
rugged, bendable, roll-able, port- integration of electronics in biological behind flexible substrates are an
able and potentially foldable. systems. Further, in order to carry out important consideration for flexible
Ever-evolving advances in thin-film daily tasks, flexibility is less likely to electronics. Perhaps two of the main
materials and devices have fuelled hinder over stiffness. flexible substrate candidates are plastic
many of the developments in the field and stainless steel. Although stainless
of flexible electronics. These advances Materials steel is incompatible with standard
have been complemented with the de- The fundamental properties of thin- deposition temperatures, it results in
velopment of new integration process- film materials, as well as the quality of a substantially heavier system due
es, enabling wafer-scale processes to various device interfaces, give rise to to its higher mass densitya critical
be combined with flexible substrates. inherent limitations in device perfor- consideration for portable flexible
Diodes and transistors are two mance. Each element of the flex circuit technologies. Also, stainless steel is
of the most common active thin-film must be able to consistently meet the not particularly deformable, and is
devices used in digital and analogue demands placed upon it for the life of thus unsuitable, in particular, for wear-
circuits. While they have been suc- the product. In addition, the material able electronics. Plastic substrates are
cessfully used in flexible platforms, must work reliably in concert with the lighter and deformable alternatives.
their performance and applicability is Substrates need to be solvent-
limited by requirement of exotic device Single-sided flex
resistant, so that standard optical
architectures and novel materials. In photolithography process can be used.
order to achieve the goal of full-system Back-bared flex Additional substrate requirements
integration in next-generation flexible include low cost (allowing large area,
systems, a paradigm shift in design Double-sided flex mass production) and moisture resist-
and fabrication is necessary. ance. Table I compares some of the
There are many potential applica- Multilayer flex more critical properties of some key
tions of flexible electronics in health- plastic substrates.
care, automotive, humanmachine One of the main challenges facing
Rigid flex
interfaces, mobile communications and plastic as a next-generation substrate
computing platforms, and embedded is the substantially reduced processing
systems in both living and hostile en- Sculptured flex temperature window. The maximum
vironments. Besides, there are market- Polymer film Copper
fabrication temperature is related to
specific applications, such as human- Adhesive Laminate the glass-transition temperature above
machine interactivity, energy storage Fig. 1: Examples of basic and selected flexible
which inelastic deformation takes place
and generation, mobile communications circuit construction and the substrate no longer retains its
and networking, touching the applica-
tion of flexible electronics on ubiquitous COVERLAY POLYIMIDE
ADHESIVE
computing platforms throughout. COPPER
ADHESIVE
BASE MATERIAL
Flexibility in electronic materials POLYIMIDE
is very attractive for medical and bio- Fig. 2: Single-sided flex circuit

MANUFACTURE
original dimension, which is essential ness selection is typically a function
for photolithography. As an example, of the application.
polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) sat-
isfies all requirements and tolerates Metal foil
temperatures as high as 160oC. A metal foil is most commonly used
More recently, a number of elec- as the conductive element of a flex-
Contact
tronic devices and circuits have been Coverlay ible laminate. A metal foil is the ma-
demonstrated, utilising paper as a terial from which the circuit paths
substrate and/or as a gate dielectric. Adhesive Coverlay are normally etched. Coppers ex-
Such approaches lead to electronic cellent balance of cost and physical
devices with the potential for en masse and electrical performance attributes
integration at low cost, which are also Fig. 3: Sculptured flex circuit make it an excellent choice.
disposable and fully recyclable.
Base material COVERLAY POLYIMIDE

ADHESIVE
PLATED COPPER
COPPER PAD
A polymer film provides the founda- BASE MATERIAL
ADHESIVE
POLYIMIDE
tion as a base material for flexible elec- ADHESIVE
COPPER PAD
PLATED COPPER
tronics. Under normal circumstances, COVERLAY
ADHESIVE
POLYIMIDE
the flex circuit base material provides
most primary physical and electrical Fig. 4: Double-sided flex circuits
properties of the flexible circuit. In the
case of adhesive-less circuit construc- Coverlay
Adhesive
tions, the base material provides all of Copper
Adhesive
the characteristic properties. Polyimide
Base
While a wide range of thickness is Adhesive
Copper
possible, most flexible films are pro- Adhesive
Coverlay
vided in a narrow range of relatively Adhesive
Copper
thin dimensions from 12m to 125m Adhesive
Polyimide
(1/2 mil to 5 mils). But thinner and Base
Adhesive
thicker materials are possible. Thinner Copper

Adhesive
materials are, of course, more flexible. Coverlay
For most materials, stiffness increase Fig. 5: Multilayer flex circuits

is proportional to the cube of thick-
ness. This means that, if the thickness
}
Solder mask
Copper
is doubled, the material becomes eight Pre-preg Rigid
FR-4
times stiffer and will only deflect 1/8 Pre-preg
}
Polyimide Coverlay
as much under the same load. Adhesive
Copper
There are a number of materials Adhesive
Polyimide Base
Flex
Adhesive
used as base films, including polyester Copper
Adhesive
(PET), polyimide (PI), polyethylene
}
Polyimide Coverlay
Pre-preg
naphthalene (PEN) and polyetherim- FR-4 Rigid
Pre-preg
ide (PEI). These, along with various Copper
Solder mask
fluropolymers (FEPs) and copolymers
polyimide films, are most prevalent Fig. 6: Standard stack-up of a 4-layer rigid-flex circuit
owing to their advantageous electri-
cal, mechanical, chemical and thermal material. Because of the earlier diffi- There are actually many different
properties. culties associated with polyimide ad- types of copper foil. In certain non-
hesives, many polyimide flex circuits standard cases, the circuit manufacturer
Bonding adhesive presently employ adhesive systems of may be called upon to create a specialty
Adhesives are used as the bonding different polymer families. However, laminate by using a specified alternative
medium for creating a laminate. When some newer thermoplastic polyimide metal foil, such as a special copper alloy
it comes to temperature resistance, adhesives are making important in- or other metal foil in the construction.
the adhesive is also typically a perfor- roads.
mance-limiting element of a laminate, As with the base films, adhesives Types of flexible circuits
especially when polyimide is the base come in different thicknesses. Thick- There are a few basic constructions of

MANUFACTURE
Some important features of single- plication of the supporting dielectric
sided flex are: enables integral exposed fingers to be
1. Very thin construction, under produced. All holes are etched, provid-
Start with PET film
0.1mm-0.2mm (0.004-0.008 inch) ing the flexibility to create precisely-
2. One conductor layer located apertures of any shape or size
3. Reverse-bared or back-bared pads at any position on the circuit.
4. Supported and unsupported Sculptured circuits are in use across
Step 1: Print Conductor
finger areas a wide spectrum of applications from
motor sports to missiles. Sculptured
Back-bared flex circuits circuits, when combined with flexible
Double access flex, also known as or rigid circuits, provide an extremely
Step 2: Print dielectric
back-bared flex, are flexible circuits cost-effective solution to complex in-
having a single conductor layer but terconnect problems by reducing cost,
they allow access to selected features of simplifying assembly and increasing
the conductor pattern from both sides. reliability.
Step 3: Print additional multilayers
While this type of circuit has certain Sculptured flex circuits offer many
Fig. 7: Construction of polymer thick-film flex circuit benefits, the specialised processing benefits, including robust contact
requirements for accessing the features areas, nil or low tooling cost, reliabil-
flexible circuits, but there is significant limit its use. ity and cost-effectiveness. Their ap-
variation between the different types in A dual-access flex circuit is simply plications include power circuits and
terms of their construction. Following a single-sided flex circuit that is manu- custom-built circuits.
is a review of the most common types factured such that its conductive mate-
of flexible circuit constructions. Flex- rial can be accessed from both sides of Double-sided flex circuits
ible circuits have a rich history and are the circuit. Flexible Circuit is a front Double-sided flex circuits are flex
extremely diverse in their nature. This runner in this technology, which uti- circuits having two conductor layers.
diversity opens them to use in a wide lises specialised lasers and processing These can be fabricated with or with-
range of applications, with new applica- to skive open the polyimide layer of out plated-through holes, though the
tions being developed on a regular basis. the base material to allow dual access plated-through-hole variation is much
It is hard to predict where the tech- to the single copper layer. While this more common. When constructed
nology will go next. However, roll-to- type of circuit has certain benefits, the without plated-through holes, the con-
roll processing is likely to play an im- specialised processing requirements nection features are accessed from one
portant part. Flexible electronics opens for accessing the features limit its use. side only, and the circuit is called Type
the door to foldaway smartphone These flex circuits find application V (5), according to military specifica-
displays, solar cells on a roll of plastic in such fields as: tions. It is not a common practice but
and advanced medical devicesif we 1. Medical it is an option.
can figure out how to make them. 2. Environmental Because of the plated-through hole,
3. Test and Measurement terminations for electronic components
Single-sided flex circuits 4. Automotive and other general are provided for on both sides of the
A single-layer flex circuit is the most electronic devices circuit, thus allowing components to
basic and consists of a flexible poly- be placed on either side. Depending
imide film laminated to a thin sheet Sculptured flex circuits on design requirements, double-sided
of copper. The copper layer is then Sculptured flex circuits are a novel sub- flex circuits can be fabricated with
chemically etched to produce a circuit set of normal flexible circuit structures. protective cover layers on one, both or
pattern specific to your design require- Their manufacturing process involves neither side of the completed circuit.
ments. A polyimide cover lay is then a special flex circuit multi-step etching Generally, these are produced with the
added for insulation and environmen- method to produce a flexible circuit protective layer on both sides.
tal protection of the circuit. having finished copper conductors One major advantage of this type
A single-sided flex is used for: whose thickness differs at various of substrate is that, it allows crossover
1. Dynamic flexing applications places along their length. The conduc- connections to be made very easily.
2. Unusual folding and forming tors are generally thin in flexible areas Many single-sided circuits are built on
applications and thick at interconnection points. a double-sided substrate, just because
3. Installation/service applica- Sculptured circuit technology they have one or two crossover con-
tions/repair enables the thickness of the copper nections. An example of this use is the
4. When there are limitations on conductors to vary at any point on circuit connecting a mouse pad to the
space/thickness the circuit. In addition, selective ap- motherboard of a laptop. All connec-

MANUFACTURE
tions on that circuit are located (a) Pre-pattern creation (a) Mask etching aerospace, medical, and test and
on only one side of the substrate, Resist
measurement.
Resist
except a very small crossover Substrate
connection which uses the second Substrate

Resist Rigid-flex circuits
Substrate
side of the substrate. Rigid-flex circuits are a hybrid
(b) Polymer spin-coating (b) Line creation
Some situations where dou- construction with rigid and flex-
ble-sided flex is used are: Resist
Polymer ible substrates which are laminated
Polymer lines
1. When circuit density and together into a single structure.
Substrate
layout cannot be routed on a sin- Rigid-flex circuits should not
gle layer (c) Plasma etching (c) Metal deposition be confused with rigidised flex
and dissolve resist
2. Ground and power plane constructions that are simply flex
applications Au Au circuits to which a stiffener is at-
3. For shielding applications Substrate tached to support the weight of
4. For dense surface-mount (d) Lift-off
the electronic components locally.
(d) Lift-off
assembly A rigidised or stiffened flex circuit
Salient features of the double- can have one or more conductor
Substrate
sided flex are: layers. Thus, while the two terms
1. Component assembly avail- (e) TFT fabrication may sound similar, they represent
able on both sides Gate (e) TFT fabrication
products that are quite different.
2. Two conductive layers Dielectric
Gate
The layers of a rigid flex are
Semiconductor
3. Fingers are an integral part also normally electrically intercon-
of the conductor patterns Source Drain nected by means of plated-through
Substrate
holes. Over the years, rigid-flex
Multilayer flex circuits (I) (II)
circuits have enjoyed tremendous
Flex circuits having three or more Fig. 8: Fabrication of short-channel transistors using spin-
coating-induced edge effect (I, side view) and the specific
popularity among military product
layers of conductors are known as process used for TFT fabrication (II, top view) designers. However, the technol-
multilayer flex circuits. Common- ogy has found increased use in
ly, the layers are interconnected (a) Imprint the polymer resist commercial products. While often
Stamp
by means of plated-through holes, considered a specialty product for
Imprinting resist
though this is not a requirement Buffer resist low-volume applications because
Conductor
by definition; it is possible to Substrate
of the challenges, rigid-flex boards
provide openings to access lower (b) Dry and wet etching are normally multilayer structures,
circuit level features. but two-metal-layer constructions
The layers of a multilayer are also sometimes used.
flex circuit may or may not be (c) Dry etching Benefits of rigid-flex circuits
continuously laminated together Source Drain
Bank
include:
throughout the construction, with 1. Use of third dimension
the obvious exception of the areas (d) Semiconductor printing creates an optimal solution for
occupied by plated-through holes. Semiconductor applications with extreme space
The practice of discontinuous lami- limitations
nation is common in cases where (e) Insulator coating and gate printing 2. Replace bulky wire harnesses
maximum flexibility is required. Gate with a compact, yet robust design
Dielectrics
This is accomplished by leaving 3. Flexible assemblies reduce
unbounded the areas where flexing (f) Via definition by dry etching connectors as well as labour, yield,
or bending is to occur. transmission and reliability issues
Multilayer flex circuits are Via 4. These hybrid circuits can have
used when circuit density and up to sixteen layers
layout cannot be routed on a sin- Fig. 9: TFT fabrication process by self-aligned, one-step,
gle layer, and for: multilayered patterning Polymer thick-film
1. Ground and power plane flex circuits
applications 6. Controlled impedance with Polymer thick-film (PTF) flex circuits
2. Shielding applications shielding are true printed circuits wherein the
3. Dense surface-mount assembly Multilayer flex circuits are used in conductors are printed onto a polymer
4. Increased circuit density high-density SMT electronic applica- base film. They are typically single-
5. EMI/RFI shielding tions, and such sectors as automotive, conductor-layer structures. However,

MANUFACTURE
two or more metal layers can be print- large areas. One such
ed sequentially, with insulating layers approach is based Comparison of Plastic Substrates for
printed between printed conductor on a novel edge ef- Thin-Film Deposition
layers. fect that is induced Max Dep. Material Properties
While lower in conductivity, PTF by spin-coating a Temp. C
circuits have successfully served in a polymer onto a pre- 250 Polymide (Kapton) Orange colour; high thermal expan-
wide range of low-power applications patterned structure, sion coefficient; good chemical
resistance; expensive; high moisture
at slightly higher voltages. Keyboards as shown in Fig. 8. absorption
are a common application, but there is Polymer TFTs, with
240 Polyetheretherktone Amber; good chemical resistance;
a wide range of potential uses for this channel widths as (PEEK) expensive; low moisture absorption
cost-effective approach to flex circuit narrow as 400nm, can
190 Polyethersulphone Clear; good dimensional stabil-
manufacture. be fabricated by this (PES) ity; expensive; moderate moisture
PTF technology consists of a simple method. absorption
set of basic building block materials, One key advan- 180 Polyetherimide (PEI) Strong; brittle; hazy colour; expensive
such as substrate, conductive inks, die- tage of this method
160 Polyethylene Clear; moderate CTE; good chemi-
lectrics, conductive adhesives and non- is that, it facilitates Napthalate (PEN) cal resistance; inexpensive; moder-
conductive adhesives/encapsulants. the use of low-res- ate moisture absorption
Underfills, required for flip chips, are olution patterning 120 Polyethylene Clear; moderate CTE; good chemi-
commonly classified as packaging techniques, such as terephthalate (PET) cal resistance; inexpensive; moder-
materials, but they are polymer-based shadow masking, to ate moisture absorption
systems that are a close kind of PTF. create highly repro- Note: CTE denotes the coefficient of thermal expansion. TMax denotes
Key capabilities of polymer thick- ducible submicrom- a maximum deposition temperature
film flex circuits are: eter features, thereby
1. Single-layer or double-layer obviating more conventional, time- patterning and mask alignment, as
screen through-hole circuitry consuming lithographic processes. shown in Fig. 9. Both p- and n-type
2. Low-cost, high-volume, roll-to- This, combined with inkjet printing, organic TFTs have been demonstrated
roll fabrication technology provides an exciting opportunity to using this method.
3. Low-cost, screen-printed ink apply on-demand material deposition In the case of n-type TFTs, Li et al
surface dielectrics and desktop-programmable wiring of reported that 20 transistors were fab-
4. Economical choice for cost-sensi- ad hoc patterns. The latter has already ricated without process optimisation,
tive applications been demonstrated for CNT and with a yield of 100% and a variation in
graphene-based inks.Though rather mobility and on/off current ratio of a
Integration process exotic, such innovative fabrication factor of 3 and 5, respectively. All the
Fabrication methods have an impor- techniques will facilitate the technolo- used techniques (imprinting, wet/dry
tant effect on the characteristics, cost gies widespread usage for fabrication etching and inkjet printing) are already
and stability. For example, instead of TFT with high transconductance. available in roll-to-roll processes. The
of using a high-mobility material to Any manufacturable device has fol- demonstrated high-resolution features,
achieve high device transconduct- lowing essential characteristics: mask-alignment-free process and
ance, it is possible to adjust the ar- 1. Superior and prespecified perfor- compatibility to roll-to-roll fabrication
chitecture. Employing short channel mance, with reproducibility, uniform- show that these and similar techniques
lengths is one way to achieve this. In ity and reliability are commercially attractive, inexpen-
conventional planar TFTs, the chan- 2. High yield to acceptable toler- sive and ready to use. It is expected
nel length is ultimately limited by the ance that these methods can be extended to
diffraction limit in the photolithog- 3. Simulations exist for both reverse the level of integrated complementary
raphy process. Vertical transistors, engineering during development and metaloxidesemiconductor (CMOS)
where the channel length is set by the right-first-time design circuit fabrication.
thickness of the semiconductor, have Some novel processes have been Part 2 of the article, in next is-
been demonstrated to achieve sub- developed to fabricate solution-pro- sue, will cover some very interesting
micrometer channel lengths, paving cessable TFTs with one-step self- aspects of the application of flexible
the way for high-transconductance aligned dimensions in all functional electronics in various sectors.
devices using conventional materials layers. The TFT-channel, semiconduct- To be concluded next month
such as a-Si. ing materials and effective gate dimen-
The author is a final year student of KMIT af-
Alternative approaches have also sion were controlled by a one-step im- flicted to JNTUH. This article is based on a paper
been developed to fabricate organic print process and subsequent pattern he prepared for a technical seminar on flexible
submicrometer TFTs uniformly over transfer, without the need for multiple electronics

Telecom Technology
New Frontiers of
UAV Civilian Applications
Applications for unmanned aerial vehicles continue to grow by leaps and bounds, especially
when they involve difficult tasks or dangerous situations
B.S. SASTRY AND B. RAMANA fan for propulsion, vertical lift/landing above UAV are under evaluation in the
and control. High aspect ratio (narrow) laboratory.
A
s part of the push to increase wings allow for 10 hours endurance
uses of civilian drones, nearly like sail-plane flight efficiency. Propulsion systems
50 companies are developing The propulsion systems for UAVs de-
some 150 different systems, ranging Flying Elephant UAV pend on their payload, endurance and
from miniature models to those with The Flying Elephant will take off mission. Also, UAVs require reliable
wingspans comparable to airliners. from any place carrying up to a ton propulsion systems in order to achieve
Some of the manufacturers are offer- of cargo, fly silently and deposit the extended flight times with minimal
ing do-it-yourself unmanned aerial cargo wherever required. It will then quantities of fuel. Some of the propul-
vehicles (UAVs) like kit planes. independently take-off and fly to the sion systems are briefly described below.
next satisfied unit. The Jumbo UAVs Diesel and petrol engines. Both
Present applications can be used for military and civilian diesel and petrol engines are avail-
Civilian uses ranging from disaster res- applications. able of different cubic centimetres for
cue missions, wildlife monitoring and Miniature wireless sensors of the compact systems. These are equipped
firefighting are some of the many ap- with electronic controller, the
plications. The idea of drones quickly sensors for the crankshaft po-
transporting life-saving parcels such as sition and inlet and cylinder
blood samples and medicines even in head temperature, an ignition
the areas where roads and infrastruc- module, injector, fuel pressure
ture are poor should be especially at- accumulator and a fuel pump.
tractive to Indian conditions. (Courtesy: Boeing) Electronic fuel injection sys-
Forest surveys conducted by a tem, delivers an optimum fuel
camera-equipped drone provide re- mix at all stages of flight, even
searchers with extensive landscape for miniature aircraft.
information in the form of 3D interac- Wankel engines. Because
tive maps. Ultimately, such maps will of the small size, weight, very
be publicly accessible via open-source low vibration and high pow-
computer vision software. For nuclear er-to-weight ratio, Wankel
decommissioning or radio contamina- engines are increasingly be-
tion cleanup, UAVs with radiation ing used in UAV aircraft. The
detection and mapping software are engine is approximately one
being used. third of the size and weight of
a piston engine of equivalent
Configuration of different
types of UAVs
The first picture on column two shows
vertical take-off and landing UAV that
combines the ability to hover with
high-speed horizontal flight. Test-
ing will result in fully autonomous
operations. Originally designed for
commercial mapping operations, the
slim vehicle uses a shrouded ducted

Telecom Technology
sive and less susceptible
to losing power compared
to conventional satellites.
Hydrogen-fuelled drones
that can stay aloft for up
to four or more days at a
time, are currently being
tested as a platform for
telecommunications pay-
loads. It is expected that
telecom-equipped drones
could revolutionise the
power output, which offers significant wireless market.
advantages for UAV aircraft. Addition-
ally, the engine rotors cannot seize, Control and guidance
since rotor casings expand more than of UAVs
the rotors; the engine is not susceptible The control and guidance of these
to shock-cooling during descent of the small unmanned aircraft are certainly
UAV. impressive. Wireless miniature sensors
Electric and fuel cells. Solar-electric are being used extensively. A variety
UAVs hold potential for unlimited of electronic subsystems have been
flight and many of the small UAVs specially developed for UAVs such as
are equipped with these propulsion the radios that communicate video and
systems. Electric UAVs kept aloft data signals back to a base camp.
indefinitely by laser power beaming An operator on the ground, with
technology represent another proposed only a laptop computer and tactical
propulsion solution for endurance. radio, could command what was de-
The electric fuel cell propulsion scribed as a swarm of UAVs without
system for UAV applications has low using a ground-control station.
noise and signature, while taking ad- Artificial intelligence is advancing
vantage of hydrogen, a high-energy to the point where the aircraft are easily
fuel. Fuel cells create an electrical cur- capable of taking off, landing and flying
rent when they convert hydrogen and themselves. Then they simply have to
oxygen into water and heat. The fuel be instructed as to their mission.
cell has about four times the efficiency Common-airborne sense and avoid
of a comparable internal combustion technology is being incorporated into
engine and the system provides seven UAVs that are used for intelligence,
times the energy in the equivalent surveillance and reconnaissance mis-
weight of batteries. sions.
Future applications Conclusion

The UAV market, whether for com- Taking advantage of improvements
mercial, industrial or military custom- in materials, structures, batteries and
ers, is growing rapidly and is expected electric motors, as well as micropro-
to expand for several years to come. cessor advances, many companies are
These are examples of the develop- coming up with innovative configura-
ment of matternet where computer- tions of UAVs.
powered drones carry objects much The knowledge and skill levels of
like Internet carries data. system integration of multidisciplinary
In future, drones will power cell technologies are available indigenous-
phones and television services. Func- ly. It is time for the Indian industry to
tioning as pseudo-satellites, UAVs take advantage of these skills.
could be deployed to a specific location B.S. Sastry is retired project director LCA, ex-con-
and stay there for days. The benefits of sultant to IT firms for automotive and aerospace
these satellites are they are less expen- division and B. Ramana is an aerospace engineer

information Technology
Software Defined Networking

Movement of distributed data centres to clouds has been the major driver towards the
software-defined networks. The cloud service providers want their networks to be flexible
and extensible
Ahzam Ali and auditing require-

ments. Business reor-
S
Edge router
oftware defined networking ganisation, consolidation
(SDN) is an innovative ap- and mergers require IT
Switches Switches L2 Switches
proach to network design and for the business changes
implementing functionality in the overnight. Providing
network. It is based on the ability to Switches self-service provisioning,
dynamically modify the behaviour whether in a private or
of network components. SDN uses public cloud, requires
software components that can be cus- elastic scaling of comput-
tomised and configured in a deploy- Fig. 1: Physical topology ing, storage and network
ment, independent of the hardware, to resources.
enable networked systems to expand Big data means
data flow control. more bandwidth. Han-
SDN is targeted towards creat- dling todays big data
ing an abstraction to the low-level Tenant or mega datasets requires
Network FW LB Internet
network and presenting a unified- A massive parallel pro-
service-facing view of the network. cessing on thousands
It makes networks more flexible, of servers, all of which
dynamic and cost-efficient, yet simpli- need direct connections
fies operational complexity. SDN is Fig. 2: Service chaining to each other. The rise
next-generation networking that proof mega datasets is fuel-
vides benefits like network and ser- they demand the creation of high- ling constant demand for additional
vice customisability, configurability, performing, scalable and adaptable network capacity in the data centres.
improved operations, with increased data centres: Operators of hyper-scale data-centre
performance. There are several differ- Changing traffic patterns. Todays networks face the daunting task of
ent approaches to SDN and its practi- applications access different databases scaling the network to unimaginable
cal implementation. and servers, creating a flood of ma- size, maintaining any-to-any connec-
chine-to-machine traffic before the data tivity and still keeping the cost of the
Whats driving SDN is returned back to end user. Users are implementation low.
A fast change in the way the Internet moving towards accessing content Movement of distributed data
is used, and the way large industry from different kinds of devices and the centres to clouds has been the major
players want to use the network and expectation is that the network would driver towards the software-defined
data, has led to the larger and power- adapt to the device specifications and networks. The cloud service providers
ful data centres. The network capacity capabilities. want their networks to be flexible and
of traditional networking equipment Rise of cloud services. The large extensible. The application of SDN lies
has grown many folds, and there enterprises have adopted the cloud in a data-centre environment, where
is a strong push towards keeping services, both private and public, the network services are fluid and are
everything in the cloud and process- resulting in an exponential growth of able to move from one hardware to
ing as much as possible within the the service. Businesses are looking for another in the network. There is a need
cloud. This is driving the demand for the agility to access applications, in- to create an instance of service dynami-
modern-day high-performance data frastructure and other IT resources on cally and then destroy the instance
centres. demand, and as and what they need. when not in use.
Here are some of the changes The services rendered by cloud de- SDN also solves the use case for
in the usage of networks and how mand enhanced security, compliance multi-tenancy environment. That

is, if I am a data centre ser- and standardising critical el-
OpenStack
vice provider, and I provide orchestrator ements of the SDN architec-
distributed data centre solu- ture, such as the OpenFlow
Openflow
tion to multiple customers, I protocol which structures
should be able to connect the SDN controller communication between
Virtual machines
different data centres securely the control and data planes
for my customers. And I of supported network de-
should be able to do this dy- vices. OpenFlow is the first
namically in case of changes standard interface designed
required in the service or specifically for SDN, provid-
configuration. In each of these ing high-performance, gran-
use cases multiple tenants in Network forwarding components ular traffic control across
a data centre share the same multiple vendors network
physical resources (physical devices.
Hypervisors Hypervisors
servers, physical storage and
physical network). Each ten- Fig. 3: Network forwarding components Network
ant is assigned its own logical management
resources (virtual machines, virtual every vendor has a different approach One of the most important aspects of
storage and virtual networks). These towards it. Some organisations are SDN is seamless network manage-
logical resources are isolated from trying to build standards around the ment. The SDN aims at delivering an
each other. SDN. application as a whole, rather than
SDN primarily helps us in the fol- One of the important aspects of each network service. The high-level
lowing two ways: SDN is to keep different components network applications are formed
1. Cloud networking. Helps gener- in the network physically separate with well-orchestrated configura-
ate private clouds for enterprises or and yet make them work together in tion of different network services.
service providers, builds and provides cohesion. For example, if we take a This demands an implementation of
network infrastructure as a service high-performance integrated-service a very powerful and open network
(IaaS) and helps build virtual private gateway, it is likely to have a firewall, management system (NMS). An NMS
clouds (VPCs) for cloud service pro- IDP/IDS, routing and switching sys- which translates a high-level business
viders (also known as MSP). tem, all built into one box. When we policy into a configuration of each of
2. Network function virtualisation take all these services to an SDN, we the different service layers, includ-
(NFV) in service-provider networks. have different software components ing routing, switching, security and
This provides value-added services doing the firewall, IDP routing and virtual machine provisioning, is the
(VAS) for service-provider edge switching. Also, in SDN only the core of an SDN network. Along with
networks, such as business-edge net- forwarding of the actual connectiv- providing easy configurability it
works, broadband-subscriber-manage- ity has to be provided by a dedicated should also provide a clear visibility
ment edge networks and mobile-edge physical hardware. All these differ- in the network and highlight prob-
networks. ent components are controlled by a lems, if any.
SDN also helps in moving a num- master component called the SDN
ber of network services to general- controller. Standards
purpose hardware, eliminating the This brings in a challenge to ONF is the main organisation driv-
need for dedicated hardware for these making sure that all these different ing the standardisation effort of the
applications. Examples of such applica- components work together and are SDN. It mainly deals with defining
tions are intrusion detection or preven- controllable by a controller in the the protocols and standardising the
tions systems (IDS/IPS), deep packet network. This requires a protocol to way services should be provided in
inspection (DPI), caching and wide be developed for the communication a network. The main idea is to keep
area network (WAN) optimisation in among the different components in an the network components and services
virtual machines instead of on physical SDN network. interoperable, so that healthy competi-
hardware appliances. To understand the very-high-level tion is maintained, and customers can
architecture of the SDN network please choose the best components from dif-
Implementation see Fig. 3. ferent vendors.
In its present state the structure of Open Network Foundation (ONF)
SDN is not very well defined. It looks (https://www.opennetworking.org) is Strengths of SDN
like every vender understands the a non-profit industry consortium that There is a complete transition of
problem they are trying to solve, but is leading the advancement of SDN the network architecture in SDN. In

SDN the control and data planes are release an update components, all separated out but
decoupled, network intelligence and 4. Opening avenues for all parities controlled in unison using powerful
state are logically centralised and the to generate revenue by enabling pro- software.
underlying network infrastructure is grammability of the network through The SDN technology is still shaping
abstracted from the applications. As a open API, creating vendor independ- up and different vendors are imple-
result, a network administrator gains ence menting the solution to differentiate
unprecedented programmability, auto- 5. Centralised and automated man- themselves from the others, along with
mation and network control, enabling agement to increase the reliability of a strong standardisation effort being
him to build highly scalable, flexible the network and, because the network made by various organisations. It is
networks that readily adapt to chang- is flexible, enhancing the reliability by difficult for each of these vendors to
ing business needs. automatically reprogramming in the ignore the standardisation, but they are
OpenFlow-based SDN is cur- event of failure free to build in hooks such that their
rently being rolled out in a variety 6. Granular network control with solutions work better with their own
of networking devices and software, the ability to apply comprehensive and components than with a competitors
delivering substantial benefits to both wide-ranging policies at the session, components.
enterprises and carriers, including: user, device and application levels The main effect of the SDN will be
1. Centralised management of 7. Enhance end users experience seen by the service provider and the
networking equipment from multiple as the network adapts, the network is larger enterprises. The end users will
vendors centralised and changes in the network experience the virtue of SDN in the
2. Improved automation so that appear seamless to the end-user form of enhanced services from the
network administrators deal just with cloud, seamless usage of the network
the business policies and abstracting Conclusion and security of their data.
the underlying complication of provi- The strength of SDN lies in building a
The author has a masters degree in Communica-
sioning individual components scalable and adaptable network which
tion and 14 years of work experience in telecom-
3. Possibility of rapidly deploying can be changed to adapt to the need of munications software. He is working at Juniper
newer services, without being blocked the environment. SDN banks on build- Networks, on their next generation network man-
by any network device or a vendor to ing the network with basic individual agement solution

the Internetof
things IoT
News, views and development on the Internet of Things
Cool Tech for Kool IoT Products

The Internet of Things (IoT) is top-most on most electronics
companies agenda today. Texas Instruments (TI) is no different.
Their wide connectivity portfolio is powering several interesting IoT
products and platforms across the globe, such as the Internet of
KoolThings platform created by DeviceLab Inc. and KoolTechs
Inc. Praveen Ganapathy, director, business development, Texas
Instruments (India), speaks to Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram about
whats trending in this space
Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram of microcontrollers, processors and
analogue solutions for their complete Praveen Ganapathy
director, business development,
Which is the most exciting TI-powered application. Texas Instruments (India)
IoT product according to you? What does What do you think is the topmost secu-
it do and what value does TI add to it? rity concern when it comes to IoT prod- not fit all low-power radio technolo-
One of the most exciting products ucts, and how do you address it in your gies. So, depending on the product,
that TI is powering is the Bluetooth low chips, firmware and platform? engineers can adopt a suitable low-
energy based Internet of KoolThings One of the biggest security concerns power radio technology based on their
platform. This platform involves an for the IoT ecosystem is the breach capabilities. At TI, we are delivering
expandable multi-sensor, multi-function of personal data. As the IoT involves solutions that are compatible with
system that packs features found in several devices, security is vital at all ZigBee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Sub-1GHz,
many different consumer product layers. To avoid these circumstances, EtherCAT, Prime Alliance, G3-PLC
categories into a user-friendly iWan- several players in the IoT are opting for Alliance and others. As mentioned,
ditAll KoolThings platform. iWan- hardware with security technology. based on the end application at hand,
ditAll KoolThings includes KoolWand As part of our embedded and con- IoT players can incorporate the best
(a wearable key fob-like device) and nectivity technology portfolio we have suited connectivity solution for their
KoolBridge (a small portable wireless security solutions to prevent, detect and design, whether it is Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
hub/media player), and is expandable respond to unintended or malicious or EtherCAT, etc.
with optional KoolSensors and KoolAc- behaviour. They address the hardware, Anything new and exciting that TI is
cessories. software and connectivity spaces in the working on for its IoT customers?
TIs SimpleLink CC254x Bluetooth IoT through symmetric cryptography, One of our most exciting product
low energy wireless MCUs and TIs authentication and anti-cloning, IP pro- lines, already available in the mar-
power, battery management solutions tection and tamper protection. ket, is TIs SimpleLink solution. This
presently power the KoolWand. Ad- As a tech provider, can you tell us which range includes smart RF transceivers,
ditionally, the KoolBridge employs an wireless technologies are most product wireless networking solutions, wire-
optional RF range extender chip from TI makers seeking to imbibe in their prod- less MCUs and range extenders. Each
(CC2591) to improve the covered range. ucts? What could be the reason? product is supported with its own
In this manner, TIs versatile con- We are seeing the popularity of all design ecosystem starting with evalu-
nectivity portfolio is helping customers low-power radio technologies being ation and development tools to refer-
connect more to the IoT. In addition imbibed into IoT products. These are ence designs, training and extensive
to the embedded wireless connectiv- a critical aspect of the IoT because all online support tools. This enables you
ity technologies, customers can benefit the devices must continuously or pe- to create your wireless solution with
from the industrys leading portfolio riodically be connected. One size does TI helping you from start to finish.
Read more about the Internet of Things at internetofthings.electronicsforu.com

embedded design
Analogue Components
for IoT Applications
Numerous analogue components and chips are introduced to the market every year,
but what is influencing their evolution? Read on to find out the latest technologies in this
field, the influence of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm on analogue world and some
interesting applications powered by analogue components
Anagha P.
T
hirty years ago, almost all the
technology surrounding us was
analogue. However, in the past
decade we have witnessed a massive
shift from analogue to digital electron-
ics. The digital platform offers amaz-
ing opportunities for innovation, and
is thus promptly taking over several
aspects of modern life.
Will the digital world be able to
completely take over analogue tech-
nologies and devices? Dont think so.
What we found is that analogue is still
well-established, and innovative tech-
nologies and products are continuing STC3115 battery monitoring IC by STMicroelectronics
to emerge in this sector. What is driv-
ing this old technology? battery charger), signal acquisition This has led to the development of
modules, amplifiers, signal processors, low and ultra-low power devices that
Influence of IoT microcontrollers and integrated chips; can operate for days and months on
The IoT is perhaps one of the most dis- this is where analogue comes into play. a single battery, or without the need
cussed technology topics these days. It for recharging. For example, OPA2652
provides a huge opportunity for us to New component design operational amplifiers (op-amps) by
leverage the Internet infrastructure to elements Texas Instruments (TI) work at an input
put technology to better use. Its big- Form factor and power are major con- current as low as 300nA. On a coin cell
gest enabler is the ability to connect the siderations for smart products, and it operates for several months together.
real world with the digital world, thus the industry is getting geared up for Consider a patient-monitoring sys-
enabling people and machines to know making analogue devices suitable for tem. If the instrument is easily drained
the status of hundreds of thousands of IoT segment. However, there are some of all power and has to be charged
objects simultaneously. cases where the size and/or power every few hours, proper monitoring
Analogue components are the key are not of high relevance, like for the cannot be attained. Moreover, the
to deliver this connection between the smart-grid applications. Some of the whole charging process is troubling for
real and digital worlds. trends driving the analogue industry the user too.
While back-end of the IoT is com- are discussed in detail below. Benefits of digital in analogue
munication and connectivity forming Wearable medical devices and world. The major trick to reduce power
the digital side, the front-end generally low-power components. Many devices, is to use low voltage. We want a tech-
consists of sensors (temperature, pres- particularly portable and wearable nology that can be used in analogue
sure, motion, tilt, acceleration, shock, electronics, cannot afford battery-hun- devices, operates in low voltages, and
proximity, gas, sound, pH, infrared, gry processors and componentseven also integrates to high voltages. This
etc), actuators, power management those previously considered as low- is where digital was merged with
modules (linear regulator, converter, power. analogue.

embedded design
flexibility for designers.
Fill-level sensors and connected garbage! Somsubhro Pal Choudhury of
A Finnish start-up named Enevo Oy came up with an IoT-enabled waste-container Analog Devices believes that, the wide
monitoring service called Enevo ONe Collect. It uses low-power autonomous fill level range of different types and sizes of
and event sensors that use ultrasonic sensing and techniques to identify the status of the
data, bandwidth availability, reliability
container it is monitoring. It also features temperature sensing, and comes in an IP67-
class enclosure to endure extreme conditions. These sensors are wirelessly connected to and cost considerations will not make
a local network to send data. a one size fits all model. Customisa-
The fill levels of waste bins and recycling containers are continuously monitored in real tions and optimisations for each mar-
time using dedicated wireless sensors. The readings are sent to a server, which identifies ket vertical and sub-vertical would
the container location and analyses when and how the container is to be emptied. This be the key with the industry severely
information is sent to the waste management firms logistic system. The ONe Collect fragmented, at least in this decade,
method has saved 40% cost on waste collection and reduced environmental footprints.
he adds.
Dedicated processors. There has
For example, filtering is typically application may require low-speed and been a lot of talk about dedicated
done in analogue domain using active high-speed sensing. Depending on the microcontrollers. Many original equip-
filters. But the problem is that, these fil- condition the application may switch ment manufacturers and fabrication
ters are not tuneable individually and back and forth between low-speed plants are working on process tech-
they consume high power. By transfer- sensing and high-speed sensing. nologies that could create processors
ring the signal to the digital domain The typical approach would be optimised for and committed specifi-
and performing the filtering there, the using two separate ADCs, one for low cally to the analogue implementation
filters become individually tuneable speed and the other for high speed, in IoT applications.
and can be switched off when not in and keep one powered off when the In-built battery monitoring. As
use, which reduces power. other is being used. wearable devices are run by small bat-
Harvesting ambient light. The However, when you use a device teries, it is necessary to optimise the use
integrated boost regulator ADP5090 with wider range you can save space of these power sources. An accurate bat-
by Analog Devices Inc. is one example and money, the designing is easier, tery monitoring allows the user to know
where firms have come up with de- failure rate is reduced with fewer de- the exact state of charge of battery and
vices that can store energy from indoor vices, and the power required is almost adds intelligence to its usage.
ambient light and use the devices to the same. Highly scalable devices also For example, STC3115 battery
power the sensors. become useful in low-power applica- monitoring IC by STMicroelectron-
The ambient light is something that tions. In IoT the power has to be locally ics could give timely alert to the user
is freely and abundantly available in derived through photocell or thermo- for turning off the power-consuming
India throughout the year. Exploiting electric voltage generator. blocks when battery is lower than the
this natural resource as a viable power The supply voltages generated by user-programmed threshold levels.
source has become a growing trend in these are subjected to large variations.
wireless sensor network applications One need not worry about regulation Innovative technologies
worldwide. It eliminates the need of in it, if they have an op-amp that can driving cutting-edge
power sources like batteries. In addi- work over such large range; it avoids
analogue components
tion, it opens up huge possibilities of any intermediate stage of regulation. Shrinking the size and increasing
enabling IoT and connecting even re- Expandable platforms. It is very performance has always been the
mote/rural areas to the grid without the important to be able to incorporate challenge in semiconductor industry.
need for connected power or batteries. new hardware and software solutions The semiconductor industry has been
Size and weight. No surprise that, to a system in order to produce a better witnessing the lowering of cost and
just like lower power, size and weight end product. As a result, it is very criti- size in the last couple of decades.
of the gadget can also be an important cal to have a flexible and expandable Process nodes have been going from
consideration in the portable and design platform that is compatible to 45nm down to 28nm to 20nm, and will
wearable electronic space. There is a and can incorporate both new hard- further go down to 16nm and 10nm in
huge demand in market for smaller ware and software solutions, when- the next decade.
and lighter instruments. Size reduction ever necessary. Microchips PIC16(L) But the manufacturers challenge
is being achieved by merging circuit F170X and PIC16(L)F171X family of was to achieve spatial, monetary or
topology (whether the same block can 8-bit microcontrollers offers intelligent power efficiencies. Hence, as the limit
be reused in multiple places) and dif- analogue and core-independent pe- of Moores law reached 28 nm, they
ferent process technologies. ripherals (configurable logic cell, com- had to migrate from planar CMOS to a
Integrating different sensors for plementary output generator and zero new process technology. That is when
higher scalability. Sometimes the same crossing detector), providing increased devices using FinFET technology were

embedded design
Brand Component Takeaway according to manufacturer

Freescale Kinetis E series MCUs Electromagnetic noise immunity for systems that traditionally use 8- and 16-bit MCUs while providing high ef-
ficiency and optimal code density.
Freescale Kinetis miniature (mini) MCUs Worlds smallest ARM powered MCU; ideal for small and smart applications.
Freescale Kinetis KW2x wireless MCUs Best-in-class 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless solutions. Integrates ARM Cortex-M4 processor, and a 802.15.4 standard-
compliant RF transceiver, and provides a reliable, secure, low-power 2.4GHz platform.
Freescale QorIQ T2080 processor Dual-threaded, 64-bit Power Architecture-based device engineered for optimal network performance and energy efficiency.
Freescale Freescale Kinetis M series Designed for single-chip 1, 2 and 3-phase electricity meters and other precision measurement applications. Multiple 24-bit
MCU Sigma Delta ADCs, programmable gain amplifiers, voltage reference with low drift over temperature, phase-shift compen-
sator. Security features including a memory protection unit, external tamper detection pins, iRTC with tamper detect and a
random number generator provide protection of supplier/user data within the MCU and from the MCU to the power grid.
Freescale Kinetis L series MCUs 32-bit devices help enable ultra-low-power designs for handheld appliances, portable medical products and con-
sumer electronics applications.
Microchip Digitally enhanced power Range of intelligent DC/DC power-conversion solutions grows to include controllers supporting flyback, boost
analogue controller and SEPIC topologies. Introduced a step-up PWM controller and low-side MOSFET driver architecture, with a mid-
voltage LDO and fully-functional MCU - all integrated into a small, high-density power package.
Microchip Motor driver Cost-effective, worlds first 1.5A, three-phase brushless DC, sinusoidal motor driver in a 4x4mm package with the
AEC-Q100 quality certification.
Microchip 8-bit PIC MCU Rich set of intelligent analogue and core-independent peripherals (offload timing-critical and core-intensive tasks
from the CPU), along with cost-effective pricing and eXtreme low power (XLP) technology.
Microchip Projected-capacitive Industrys lowest-power, integrates capacitive scanning for touch-screens and touch-pads including 11 single-finger
touch controllers gestures to swipe, scroll or double tap.
Microchip Energy-measurement analogue Integrate six and eight 24-bit, delta-sigma ADCs, respectively, with 94.5dB SINAD, -106.5dB THD and 112dB SFDR
front ends (AFE) for high-accuracy signal acquisition and higher-performing end products. Two extra ADCs enable the monitoring
of more sensors with one chip, lowering cost and size.
Microchip Sensor hub Low-power, flexible sensor hub that makes implementing sensor fusion easy and provides an extremely large
selection of supported sensors, for Windows 8-based PCs, 2-in-1 convertibles, tablets and gaming applications.
Microchip 50-ohm matched WLAN front Small package and footprint, for high data rate mobile device applications.
end Module
Microchip PIC32MZ 32-bit MCUs Integrate 2MB Flash, 512kb RAM, 28Msps ADC, crypto engine, hi-speed USB, 10/100 Ethernet, CAN and many
serial channels. High performance, high memory and peripheral integration.
Microchip Power monitoring IC Highly integrated, single-phase power-monitoring IC designed for real-time measurement of AC power.
Microchip PIC24FJ128GC010 MCU Analogue SoC that integrates a full analogue signal chain, including Microchips first ever on-chip precision 16-bit
family ADC and 10Msps 12-bit ADC, plus a DAC and dual op-amps, along with eXtreme low power (XLP) technology for
extended battery life in portable medical and industrial applications.
Lattice ECP5 FPGA Combines 40% lower-cost, 30% lower power and 2x functional density in the smallest package to meet the unique
needs of fast-growing high-volume small-cell, micro server, broadband access and video applications.
Lattice MachXO3 FPGAs Worlds smallest, lowest-cost-per I/O programmable platform aimed at expanding system capabilities and bridging
emerging connectivity interfaces using both parallel and serial I/O.
Lattice iCE40 FPGA family Flexible, single-chip sensor solutions for making a new generation of context-aware, ultra-low-power mobile devices
possible. Enables always-on sensor solutions.
Lattice Automotive grade ECP3 FPGAs Smallest automotive-qualified FPGA with SERDES. Improve fuel efficiency, safety and access to entertainment.
Atmel ATPL230A PLC modem Seamless and cost-efficient solution for smart metering platforms, providing best-in-class modem features.
Atmel Smar tConnect Wi-Fi con- Integrates Atmels ultra-low-power MCUs and wireless connectivity solutions into an easy, turnkey IoT solution.
nectivity
Atmel SAM D Cortex M0+ based Entry-level, low-power MCUs packed with high-end features including Atmels patented Event System, SERCOM module,
MCU portfolio peripheral touch controller, along with a full-speed USB interface. Additional connectivity and communication options.
Atmel LIN System Basis Chip (SBC) Lower power consumption, improved LDO works down to 2.3v, MLC blocking capacitors for lower overall system
cost - industrys first device that complies with the new OEM hardware recommendations.
Atmel Cortex-A5 processor-based Smaller packaging, extended temperature support, and an alternative peripheral mix while maintaining high performance
MPUs and low-power operation along with an expanded ecosystem to include new software and hardware solutions.
Atmel Smart RF receiver IC family Lower power consumption, high sensitivity and excellent out-of-band blocking performance.

embedded design
demonstrated by Taiwan Semiconduc-
Major contributors to this story
tor Manufacturing Company.
Multiple fin-height FinFETs. The
most advanced semiconductor technol-
ogy used today can produce around
10 million transistor elements in a chip
of size one square centimetre. A new
multiple fin-height FinFET process
Bhaskar Rajiv Mantri Sanjeev Sharma Somsubhra Pal Vishal Goyal
technology has been developed at Dhandapani analog applications director (IP - sales & Choudhury senior technical
National Nano Device Laboratories country sales manager, manager, Texas marketing), Terminus managing director, marketing manager,
Freescale Semiconductor Instruments (India) Circuits Analog Devices India STMicroelectronics
(NDL), National Applied Research India Pvt Ltd
Laboratories (NARLabs). It allows up
to 20 million transistors in the same in terms of power, size and cost. These waveguide. This feature allowed the
place, which is twice the number pos- alternates could be based on graphene, scientists to make a photonic crystal of
sible today! nanotubes or various tunnel field-effect silicon nitride that acts as waveguide
Unlike the traditional field-effect transistors (TFETs). for laser light tuned to certain atomic
transistors (FETs), where gate controls There is on-going research on these transitions in caesium. The caesium
source-drain current only on one side, and other devices based on electron atom absorbs and scatters these wave-
the fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) spin as opposed to electron charge. lengths, generating forces that could
has three-dimensional fork-shaped gate Researchers at University of California, trap and manipulate the atom.
similar to a fishs fin (hence the name). Santa Barbara, have come up with the The photonic crystal is integrated
It can control the source-drain current concept and demonstration of an in- into a small, self-contained system
in the transistor from three sidesleft, tegrated circuit design scheme where that has a readily available supply
right and top. In multiple fin-height the transistors and interconnects are of caesium atoms. These units are
FinFET, like the name suggests, the fins monolithically patterned seamlessly relatively cheap to make and easy to
will have different heights allowing dif- (without obvious joints or seams) on a operate. This interesting technology
ferent amount of currents correspond- two-dimensional atomically flat sheet could serve as high-quality building
ing to associated channel height. This of graphene. block for quantum computation and
concept lets further reduction in chip The model of etching offers possi- communication. It also opens door for
area by 20%. Compared to a normal bilities for extremely energy-efficient, several experimental opportunities.
FinFET, the multiple-height FinFET has transparent and flexible next-genera-
20% higher storage capacity and 20% tion green electronics. Analogue standing tall
less manufacturing cost. Photonic IC that can manipulate Over the last few years, we have wit-
FD-SOI. STMicroelectronics, along atoms. A group of scientists from nessed the shifting of electronics world
with its partners, introduced a technol- California State University, Pasadena, from analogue to more sophisticated
ogy known as Fully Depleted Silicon claim to have developed an optical and efficient digital substitutes. But all
On Insulator (FD-SOI). It is a planar circuit that uses light to manipulate in- analogue components cannot be com-
process technology where an ultra- dividual atoms in small, self-contained pletely substituted by digital devices;
thin layer of insulator (buried oxide or units. According to them, the photonic they would coexist and complement
BOX) is positioned on top of the base integrated circuit is an integrated opti- each other. With the extensive devel-
silicon and then a very thin silicon film cal circuit with a photonic crystal that opments in the IoT segment, we see it
implements the transistor channel. can both localise and interface atoms driving many new technologies and
IC etched on graphene. Several with guided photons in the device. products in analogue components and
manufacturing units have been work- The optical properties of photonic chips.
ing on moving from silicon to other crystals are determined by factors like
alternatives, to get better performance their physical geometry and size of the The author is a technical correspondent at EFY

test & Measurement
From 50MHz to 100GHz, Bench-Top to Wristwatch

Oscilloscopes Have Come a Long Way
In this story, we explore the latest features and kinds of oscilloscopes that play an integral
role in effectively testing designs today. We also learn how new technologies in oscilloscopes
are enabling test and embedded engineers to design better
ABHISHEK A. MUTHA
Exciting innovations in the last one year
A
s an engineer, if you want to
improve your design overall, Osciums iMSO-204 and iMSO-204L are mixed-signal
oscilloscopes designed specifically for the iPhone, iPad and
effective testing is an integral iPod.
part. However, it means possessing Highlights: 2 analogue + 4 digital channels, 50MSPS sample
rate, 5MHz bandwidth, 200ns/div-10s/div
tools you can rely on and that can
Price: $399.97
provide consistent results as per re-
quirements. Gabotronics Xminilab Portable is a small mixed-signal oscilloscope
Today, oscilloscopes come in nu- with an arbitrary waveform generator and protocol sniffer.
merous shapes and sizesfrom as Highlights: 2 analogue inputs, maximum sampling rate of
small as a wristwatch to pocket-sized 2MSPS, 200kHz analogue bandwidth, 8-bit resolution, 1M
15pF input impedance, 256 buffer size per channel and input
and bench-top ones. They even have
diverse bandwidthsfrom the entry-
voltage range of -14V to +20V
Price: $118
level 50MHz to the massive 100GHz!
Let us explore the new technologies, LabNations SmartScope is a 100MS/s open source
oscilloscope for iPad, Android and PC. A must-have for every
innovations and breakthroughs in the Arduino and Raspberry Pi developer.
oscilloscopes domain that help our Highlights: 2x100MS/s 45MHz oscilloscope, 50MS/s arbitrary
engineers design better. waveform generator, digital logic analyser at 100MS/s, digital
waveform generator at 100MS/s, 200 waveforms/second data
From analogue to digital updates
Price: $179
From simple signal capture to complex
Gabotronics Oscilloscope Watch
time-domain signal analysis, oscil-
loscopes come with salient and con-
Highlights: 2 analogue inputs, 4MSPS maximum sampling
rate, 200kHz analogue bandwidth, 8-bit resolution

trasting functionalities. Oscilloscope Price: $150
manufacturers have augmented the
automated capabilities and portability digital signal processing, and respective an important role of providing real-
factor so that designers can accomplish analysis and documentation. time signals and waveform display.
swiftly and get more authentic meas- Sumit Sharma, marketing man-
urements for increased productivity. ager-India, Good Will Instrument Mixed-signal and
The invention of cathode ray tubes Co. Ltd. too believes, that with the mixed-domain
(CRTs) in the late 19th century was an rapid advancement of technology, As oscilloscopes have evolved from
important milestone for the birth of ana- the oscilloscope market has also been analogue to digital and from mixed-
logue oscilloscopes, and has changed shifting from conventional analogue signal oscilloscopes to mixed-domain
the way of waveform representation, oscilloscopes towards digital storage oscilloscopes, they have become even
believes Srinivasa Appalla, manager- oscilloscopes (DSOs). He says, In more valuable tools for analysing
product support & application, Rohde contrast to analogue oscilloscopes, the system performance or troubleshoot-
& Schwarz. However, he says, The major function of a DSO is to not only ing problems, says Pamela Aparo,
technological advancements in electron- convert signals from analogue to digi- marketing manager-electronic test &
ic designs have put new requirements tal but also store testing data, allow re- measurement, Analog Devices Inc.
on signal analysis which are not met by mote control and transmission of data Embedded system designers require
analogue scopes. Digital oscilloscopes, through various interfaces. But, he advanced testing capabilities to resolve
introduced in the 80s, are dominating also believes, Despite the strengths of their design issues, so mixed-signal
the market now because of the ability of DSOs, analogue oscilloscopes still play oscilloscopes (MSOs) emerged in the

test & Measurement
Our fast-moving world needs
Are engineers ready to make the jump from knobs to a
to analyse data fast, and also on the
smartphone/tablet interface where they use their fingers move, informs Vivek Mantri, country
to zoom in on a part of a waveform? manager-industrial segment, Scientech
Manipulating the image on an oscilloscope by using touch-screen technology is a relatively Technologies. He says, Trending tech-
easy jump for most engineers to make. A more difficult transition would be to use this kind of nology in telecom and RF segments
interface as the main screen to configure all the available functions in an oscilloscope with
additional functions integrated.Pamela Aparo, marketing manager-electronic test &
needs data analysis to be extremely
measurement, Analog Devices Inc. accurate in time to display waveforms,
The new generation of engineers is smartphone savvy and enjoys working with the scope and in frequency to display signal
like an electronic gadget. Hence the user interface of the scopes is moving towards touch-screen spectra, where MDOs are a perfect
operations.Srinivasa Appalla, manager-product support & application, Rohde & Schwarz choice. However, he adds, For most
The proliferation of consumer electronics with capacitive touch-screens and intuitive operation of the general-purpose requirements,
is creating a new set of user expectations that, as a test and measurement vendor, we are analogue oscilloscopes are sufficient.
continuing to track and evaluate.David Farrell, general manager-mainstream oscilloscopes,
Tektronix Handheld, PC-based,
Yes. If a common man can zoom his images and watch closely on smartphones then phone and even a
engineers would surely appreciate and use it with warm welcome.Vivek Mantri, country wristwatch scope
manager-industrial segment, Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd
Oscilloscopes have evolved from
beginning of 2000, informs Sharma. scopes, Tektronix. He adds, Analogue, the typical bench-top instruments to
He says, There has been a growing digital and now RF signals are coming as small as a wristwatch, providing
need for detecting digital signals which together to the embedded domain and flexibility and an array of choices.
are usually presented by two discrete creating significant changes on how Mantri defines todays generation
voltage levels. A logic analyser, work is done in designs houses and re- as tech-savy, that is more comfort-
which is the best fit for such digital- search centres, specifically with respect able with touch screens and USB data
signal measurements, has the benefit of to analysing those signals in as short a transfers. He says, They want their
multiple-channel input measurements, time as possible. oscilloscopes to be handheld, with an
usually limited to two or four channels On a similar note, Aparo says, easy interface, and prefer data trans-
in oscilloscopes. He adds, Nowadays, Mixed-domain oscilloscopes offer fers through SD cards. Different user
some system designers not only need similar benefits as mixed-signal oscillo- segments will find analogue, MSO or
an MSO but also an instrument which scopes when an engineer needs to ana- PC-based instruments useful, depend-
can afford to do frequency- and time- lyse signals in both the time domain ing on their usage. Although, he
domain analysis simultaneously. So, a and frequency domainand these are maintains, no single technology can be
mixed-domain oscilloscope (MDO) is useful in looking for problems that are suitable for all kinds of applications.
the latest trend. caused by phase instability or phase Todays handheld oscilloscopes
The continuously-evolving integra- offsets. range from 20MHz to 500MHz in
tion level of embedded designs drives Not everyone is into MDOs though. bandwidth, with sampling rates from
further feature integration into oscillo- On the contrary, Sanchit Bhatia, digital 500Msa/s to 5GSa/s, and mostly come
scopes. Appala says, Additional digi- applications specialist, Agilent Tech- with LCD displays. Typically, with two
tal channels, as part of mixed-signal nologies India believes, MDOs are an channels, these are ideally suited for
options, protocol-specific trigger and attempt to add spectrum analyser capa- use by hobbyists, students, technicians
decode options are a few examples. bility to oscilloscopes. He says, MSOs and anyone else looking for an easy-
The key requirement is a synchronised have not evolved to MDOs as yet due to to-use, affordable, single-channel PC
operation of such features for true lower specifications. In fact, in MDOs, oscilloscope.
system-level debugging. the oscilloscope and spectrum analyser PC-based oscilloscopes, comple-
In the analogue to digital era, a sig- capabilities have gone backwards. Any mented with software, provide band-
nificant number of digital designs came general oscilloscope and any entry-level width signal analysis anywhere be-
onto the analogue board, thus MSOs spectrum analyser have better specifica- tween few tens of MHz to as high as
came to light about ten years ago. The tions than todays MDOs. Support- 20GHz. These USB, modular devices
trend has evolved since, and mixed- ing his view, he adds, A stand-alone typically have one, two, four or even
domain oscilloscopes came into exist- spectrum analyser and a stand-alone eight channels with USB 2.0 or USB
ence with Tektronix leading the charge. oscilloscope are a better solution than 3.0 interface, depending on the model.
Today, mixed domain has moved to an MDO, as they offer full instrument Some of them are even loaded with
another level with the inclusion of capabilities and can be synchronised memory capacity. The software pro-
wireless RF signals, says David Farrell, using external trigger, if the application vided with these instruments is used
general manager-mainstream oscillo- so demands. to transfer instrument set ups, meas-

test & Measurement
urement data and images, and mostly second that it can read. For
Notable changes in oscilloscopes
favours the Windows operating sys- error-free results, most engi-
tem. But some oscilloscope makers are
in last one year neers know that the samples
providing support for Linux, Mac OS USB 3.0 in PC-based oscilloscopes per second figure should be
Integration of multiple instruments in one oscilloscope
X and even for Raspberry Pi. at least three to five times
Smart touch-screen interface
Interestingly, apart from these, Support for operating systems like Linux and Mac higher than the bandwidth.
engineers can now perform analysis Engineers, typically, prefer
on their iPhones and on small devices Sharing her personal experience, entry-level and mid-level oscilloscopes.
such as a wristwatch scope (see the box Aparo notes, Although knobs and But almost a year back, Teledyne
titled Exciting innovations in the last buttons are somewhat comforting LeCroy had demonstrated a 100GHz
one year.) when I start working with a new os- real-time oscilloscope targeting applica-
There are various other pocket- cilloscope, I have to say that moving tions such as CEI-25/28, CEI-56, optical
friendly oscilloscope devices available away from traditional knobs has made coherent modulation communication
in the market for engineers. At the it easier to automate certain tests, and systems, defense and radar applica-
end of the day, it all depends on the it has made it possible to save common tions, emerging 10-32Gb/s serial data
engineers preference, purpose and un- configurations. The learning curve for technologies, 100GBASE-R Ethernet,
derstanding of the devices limitations. using a new oscilloscope with multi- SAS12, PCI Express Gen4, Thunder-
People will either love it or remain ple menu levels is higher than when bolt and next-generation USB. Agilent
nonchalant with these innovations. purely analogue oscilloscopes were the Technologies had also introduced
only optionbut this is also because real-time oscilloscopes with 63GHz true
Knobs vs smart touch the new oscilloscopes can do so much analogue bandwidth in 2012. So, whats
Today, smart touch interfaces can be more. She adds, Obviously, having the significance of such extremely-high-
used to define areas where you want USB interfaces on oscilloscopes makes bandwidth oscilloscopes?
the oscilloscope to trigger. These inter- it easier to store test results and import High-speed serial standards, such
faces are fully configurable. Traditional them into other programs for writing as PCIe Gen4, MIPI MPHY and Fibre
analogue scopes were designed for op- reports or presentations. Channel, work at speeds beyond
eration using dedicated knobs and but- Although oscilloscope screens are 10Gbps, and require high bandwidth
tons. However, the latest digital scopes evolving to capacitive touch interfaces to capture the signal content, informs
incorporate touch-screen displays, with multi-touch capabilities that pro- Bhatia. He says, With the adoption
enabling new operating concepts and vide zoom capability and analysis of high-speed serial standards, band-
enhancing ease of use, informs Appal- capability with great ease, Bhatia be- width demands on oscilloscope keep
la. He says, As the model acceptance lieves that common traditional knobs increasing. On a similar note, Aparo
heavily depends on the users taste like channel scaling, offset and trig- says, Higher-bandwidth oscilloscopes
and experience, it is advantageous if ger modes, to name a few, are being are important in measuring the perfor-
instruments support multiple ways retained as the engineers are used to mance of higher-speed data links like
of operationdedicated knobs, USB operating scopes with these knobs. USB 3.0 and JESD204B interfaces. They
keyboard/mouse and touch-screen As the touch has been success- are also needed in the development of
interface. An intuitive operating inter- fully implemented in mobile systems, new high-speed digital interfaces and
face helps users to navigate faster and more electronic devices will feature fibre optics.
reduces time in setting up, executing this technology. Sharma says, In this Major significance for this kind of
and documenting measurements. fashion, a traditional hand-held oscil- breakthrough is due to trends right
Oscilloscope makers keep adding loscope is being upgraded to the full from Telecom, RF, space technolo-
features to their instruments based on touch-screen hand-held scope as a gies, to high-end medical electronics
user demand for more signal analysis. next-generation transition. This may gadgets used in telemedicine, informs
Good touch-screen implementations minimise the gap between high-end Mantri. However, he says, General-
support drag-and-drop functional- and low-end scopes and bring the purpose, lower-frequency oscilloscopes
ity for organising the display with whole new experience of using oscil- will continue to lead the market for
multiple waveform diagrams and for loscopes to engineers. their ease of use, lower cost and ver-
selection of predefined operations. satility. They are easy to service and
Other innovative user-interface con- From 50MHz to 100GHz find wide applications in production,
cepts include colour-coding of buttons An apparent factor when choosing service, testing and troubleshooting.
and knobs for guiding the user, adds an oscilloscope is bandwidth. And,
Appalla. In future, more touch-screen incidentally, the biggest impact on the Trends and tools that help
functionality, which is popular in con- price of a scope is its bandwidth and Continuous integration at design
sumer devices, will follow. the number of analogue samples per level raises new challenges for test and

test & Measurement
debugging. Embedded design is the Major contributors to this article
buzz word today, informs Appalla. He
says, Former truly-isolated functional
blocks and circuit components now
get closely integrated on circuit board
or even multi-chip level. For system
debugging, a time-correlated analysis
David Farrell Pamela Aparo Sanchit Bhatia Srinivasa Appalla Sumit Sharma Vivek Mantri
of analogue signals, such as switched general manager- marketing manager- digital applications manager-product marketing manager- country manager-
mode power supplies or D/A convert- mainstream electronic test & specialist, Agilent support & application, India, Good Will industrial segment,
oscilloscopes, measurement, Analog Technologies India Rohde & Schwarz Instrument Co. Ltd Scientech
ers, as well as digital signals of various Tektronix Devices Inc. Pvt Ltd Technologies Pvt Ltd
communication and programming

interfaces is required. Additional com- Oscilloscopes also increasingly grating 802.11 a/b/g/j/n/p/ac WLAN
plexity is given by protocol-based in- offer better bandwidth, more analy- connectivity into their product designs.
terfaces or integrated RF components. sis capabilities and better hardware The new WLAN solutions address the
The user requirements, as men- specifications, informs Bhatia. He says, growing demand toward integrating
tioned above, are drivers for standard Analysis capabilities offered today Wi-Fi in everything from home appli-
oscilloscopes. Debugging of protocol- include variety of protocol analysis ances to industrial equipment.
based interfaces, such as I2C, SPI or tools, compliance applications and Many of the new technologies
CAN, is supported with trigger and more mathematical functions. Tools being developed are also software
decoded options. Often a bandwidth such as AC calibration of probes, de- improvements that make it easier
of 1GHz is required, not only because embedding and equalisation offer for engineers to test or simulate their
of faster digital signals but also driven better reproduction of the signals on systems more quickly. Aparo says,
by fast edges of clock signals or power the scopes. This is often found in larger markets
supply switching. A suitable sample New and still not so common with like wireless communications or au-
rate of 5Gsample/s and a minimum oscilloscopes is the operation in the tomotive radar, where there is a large
acquisition memory of 10Msample frequency domain. But users request pool of engineers who are working on
enable a signal acquisition with high this functionality, informs Appalla. these applications around the world
resolution over a long observation He says, They want, for example, to and their needs converge on common
period, adds Appalla. debug EMI problems caused by power requirements or published stand-
In general, the trends in oscillo- supplies, fast edges or touch-screen ards. Talking about how it would
scopes are focused on helping engi- emission. help a design engineer, she adds,
neers answer their questions faster. In Improving software for oscilloscopes
addition to integrating logic analyser Technologies for tomorrow can reduce the time it takes a design
and spectrum analyser functions in One of the new technologies devel- engineer to understand what is not
the MSO and MDO classes of instru- oped for high-bandwidth scopes is working, or verify the performance
ments, another trend is the integration indium phosphide (InP) semiconduc- of a new platform. By pre-loading
of signal sources in the oscilloscope, tors, informs Bhatia. He says, New common tests or waveforms into the
informs Aparo. She says, This func- technologies are developed by Agilent software, engineers know there is
tion can range from a simple sine-wave labs (a research organisation within consistency in the information they
or square-wave generator to something Agilent), which focuses on higher are gathering, and this makes it easier
as complex as a multichannel arbitrary integration, low-noise front ends and to collaborate with other team mem-
waveform generator that allows us- high-speed designs. He adds, InP bers.
ers to create modulated signals. This semiconductors have very low noise High-end test and measurement
trend of integrating more features and and high transistor-breakdown volt- requires high-end semiconductors to
functions into the oscilloscope helps age at high frequencies. Thus, they make them work efficiently. Mantri
engineers get answers more quickly, can handle higher voltages at high says, So, support on making the
because it provides all the needed tools bandwidths. This helps design engi- semiconductors application-specific
in a single platform. An example of neers make high-bandwidth measure- from respective vendors can create a
this kind of integration can be wit- ments very accurately and with great big wave in this market. Compact USB
nessed in Tektronixs MDO that boasts confidence. digital oscilloscope will be a dream
of six instruments built in one, namely, Targeting embedded design engi- come into reality for service engineers
oscilloscope, spectrum analyser, logic neers, Tektronix delivered advanced on field at an affordable cost.
analyser, arbitrary/function generator, 802.11 WLAN test solutions to its
protocol analyser and a digital volt- mixed-domain and performance oscillo- The author is a senior technical correspondent
meter. scopes. Engineers can use tools for inte- at EFY

buyers guide
Budget-Friendly Oscilloscopes
Digital oscilloscopes, being expensive, have always been out of reach for many. But this
doesnt make them less desirable. Fortunately, test and measurement companies have
sensed this situation and started developing low-priced oscilloscopes with reasonable
quality and features. So we now have several wonderful low-budget options. Let us take
a look at some of them
and its monitor to display the acquired

signal. These solutions are becoming
more popular as they are compact yet
show the signal on a larger display of
a computer for better analysis. Some
of these are even multifunctional, with
additional functions of waveform
generator, logic analyser, DC supply
and multimeter. Fig. 2 shows such a
system.
Next are the small pocket-size os-
cilloscopes that can be highly useful
for field engineers. Most of these are
low-priced. Though their accuracy is
not as good as the previous options
but these are good enough for basic
analysis. Fig. 3 shows a pocket-size
oscilloscope.
There are also various open source
do it yourself (DIY) oscilloscope de-
signs available on the Internet. You can
build these systems yourself and use
Ankit Gupta and Teledyne LeCroy to introduce for basic test and measurement. Such
low-priced oscilloscopes that promise systems are very useful for students
A
good oscilloscope is an indis- reasonable acquisition quality and as they learn a lot while building their
pensable tool for you if you performance. Generally, these look like own oscilloscope and then use it with
are seriously into electronics. a standard oscilloscope with integrated better confidence. Fig. 4 shows such a
The oscilloscope helps you check the display for viewing the acquired signal system.
functioning of electronic circuits bet- as shown in Fig. 1. There are so many options avail-
ter. With advancements in technology, Another low-cost solution comes
electronics designing, testing and even from companies such as Digilent,
repairing has become much more Virtins Technology, Link Instruments,
challenging than before. Engineers Parallax Inc. and Velleman Inc., which
thus require advanced tools to solve uses processing power of a computer
measurement challenges quickly and
accurately, and a digital storage oscil-
loscope helps them do just that. But,
due to its high price, this equipment
has always been out of reach for most
individuals.
The strong desire of the engineers
to possess a good oscilloscope has led Fig. 2: An oscilloscope that shows signal on a
companies such as Tektronix, Agilent Fig. 1: An oscilloscope with integrated display computers screen

buyers guide
a specified low value to a speci-
Table I
fied high value. Typically, these
Some Low-Budget Oscilloscope Options values are 10% and 90% of the step
Specifications Tektronix Agilent Gwinstek Rigol Teledyne LeCroy height. As a thumb rule, similar to
TBS1052B-EDU DSO1052B GDS-1052-U DS1074Z 940-WAVEACE1001 bandwidth, the rise time of the oscil-
Bandwidth 50MHz 50MHz 50MHz 70MHz 40MHz loscope should be less that 1/5 of
Sample rate 1.0GS/s 2.0GS/s 250MS/s 1GS/s 1GS/s (interleaved) the fastest rise time of the signal to
half channel maximum accurately measure it.
interleaved, Sample rate. Sample rate refers
1 GS/s all to how frequently a digital oscillo-
channels
scope takes a sample of the signal.
External trigger Yes Yes Yes Yes
The faster an oscilloscope samples,
Number of channels 2 2 2 4 2 lesser the details lost while recon-
Automated wave- Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes structing the signal. In order to
form measurement accurately reconstruct a signal and
Waveform math Yes, FFT Yes, FFT Yes, FFT Yes, FFT avoid aliasing, the Nyquist theo-
I/O interfaces USB, GBIP USB USB USB USB rem states that the signal must be
(optional) sampled at least twice as fast as its
Display size 17.8cm 14.7cm 14.7cm (5.7 17.8cm 17.8cm (7 inches) highest frequency component. This
(7 inches) (5.7 inches) (7 inches) theorem assumes an infinite record
inches) length and a continuous signal, but
Overall dimensions 326mm x 324.6mm x 310mm x 313.1mm 163mm x 313mm x no oscilloscope can offer infinite
158mm x 157.8mm x 142mm x 160.8 mm 115.8mm
record length. Therefore sampling
124mm 129.2mm 140mm 122.4mm
(approx.) at only twice the rate of the highest
frequency component will not be
sufficient.
The sampling rate
that you might require
to accurately read your
signal will majorly de-
pend on the method
used for reconstructing the
signal, also called interpola-
tion. For accurate recon-
struction using sin(x)/x
interpolation, sample rate
Fig. 3: A pocket-size oscilloscope should be at least 2.5
times the highest fre-
able for each type of oscilloscope. Fig. 4: A DIY-type oscilloscope quency component of
But before looking at these options to your signal. Using lin-
evaluate which one suits your require- which a sinusoidal input is attenuated ear interpolation, the sample rate
ment, you need to understand their to 70.7% of its true amplitude. Beyond should be at least 10 times the highest
specifications. You can have correct this frequency the oscilloscope cannot frequency signal component.
measurements only when your oscil- support reasonable accuracy. To de- Record length. The oscilloscope
loscopes specifications support the cide how much bandwidth you need, cannot store infinite number of sam-
range of the signals you are trying to find out what would be the range of ples as assumed by Nyquist equation.
measure. Some of the important speci- frequencies you would need to meas- Record length determines the time
fications are: ure. Once you know the frequency that can be captured by each channel
Bandwidth. It determines the range, just use the five times rule, that of the oscilloscope.
maximum frequency signal that the is, multiply the maximum frequency Time captured = Record length/
oscilloscope can accurately measure. by five and you have the bandwidth Sample rate
The accuracy decreases with increase that you need to accurately measure Normally, an entry-level oscillo-
in signals frequency. The bandwidth those signals. scope comes with 2k to 2.5k points,
mentioned in the datasheet (say, Rise time. Rise time is the time which is more than enough. In gen-
100MHz) is actually the frequency at taken by a signal to change from eral, greater record length is better.

buyers guide
advanced features of expensive os-
Table II
cilloscopes, such as math functions
Some PC-Based Oscilloscopes and USB storage, also with these
Manufacturer Model Bandwidth Sample rate Multifunction oscilloscopes.
Dynoninstruments ELAB-080 60MHz 80MS/s Yes Being mostly compact in size,
Bitscope BS50 70MHz 40MS/s Yes these can be used as bench-top
oscilloscopes and also moved eas-
Virtins Technology VT DSO-2820R 80MHz Yes
ily, if required. Their display size
Link Instruments MSO-19 60MHz Repetitive mode: 1GS/s Yes ranges from 12.7cm to 17.8cm (5 to 7
Single shot: 200MS/s inches), which is enough for proper
Jyetech DSO 094 (Dual channel) 10MHz 50MS/s No viewing. But some vendors boast
of utilising the same space more ef-
Parallax PropScope USB 25MS/s Yes
Oscilloscope
ficiently with advanced features like
auto-hide menu panel and sectional
Picotech PicoScope 2104 10MHz Repetitive mode: 1GS/s; Yes
Single shot: 50MS/s
zooming.
Dynoninstruments S2X100 50MHz 100MS/s Yes PC-based oscilloscopes

Easysync DS1M12 250kHz Repetitive mode: 20MS/s Yes A PC-based oscilloscope is normally
Synchrotech USB-SCOPE50 75MHz 1GS/s No a small piece of hardware that is at-
tached to a computer to acquire the
waveform, but waveform cap- signal and show it on the computers
Table III ture rate refers to how quickly display. In most cases the power sup-
Some Pocket-Size Oscilloscopes an oscilloscope captures a ply too is derived from the computers
Manufacturer Model Bandwidth Sample rate waveform. The oscilloscopes USB port, which makes them very
Jyetech DSO 094 10MHz 50MS/s
with better waveform capture handy and easy to carry along. A
(Dual channel) rate capture fast transients lot of multifunction options are also
better. available, such as additional signal
Velleman APS230 2 x 30MHz 240MS/s
P robe s pe c ific at ions . generator, logic analyser, multimeter,
Velleman HPS10 2MHz 10MHz Probes specifications are as 5V DC supply, digital I/Os and spec-
Velleman HPS50 12MHz 40MHz important as that of oscillo- trum analyser.
scope. The probes bandwidth The multifunction oscilloscopes
Velleman PPS10 2MHz 10MS/s
should match the bandwidth are perfect for students and hob-
uni-trend UT81B 8MHz 40MS/s of the oscilloscope. Here also byists, who do not require higher
Seeedstudio DSO Nano v2 0-200kHz 1MS/s the five time thumb rule accuracy but need all the tools at one
works perfectly. place. Availability of the signals on a
Seeedstudio DSO Nano v3 0-200kHz 1MS/s
The probe will be in direct bigger display is also a treat for the
contact with the circuit and eyes. The window software for these
To capture and debug serial bus you should not overload it. Otherwise, the oscilloscopes provide analysis and
will need record length as high as measurements will not be correct. Re- storage tools. Table II shows some
1M points. sistive loading greater than 10M-ohms of the PC-based systems available
External trigger. External trig- and capacitive loading less than 10pF in the market.
gers allow you to stabilise repetitive is acceptable for a probe.
waveforms and make them appear Pocket-size oscilloscopes
static on the display by continuously Integrated display type Pocket-size oscilloscopes are easy to
displaying the same section of the oscilloscope carry along and normally work on
input signal. Generally, oscilloscopes Table I show some low-budget battery. The frequency range that
are available with edge and pulse- integrated-display oscilloscopes you get in these oscilloscopes is lim-
width trigger. But advanced trigger- available from different manufactur- ited. Some expensive ones do sup-
ing options like A and B sequence, ers, including their brief specifica- port signals in megahertz range but
video, communication (CAN, SPI, tions. The bandwidth you can get in the low-budget ones are normally
etc) and logic triggering can help you this budget will mostly be less than for kilohertz range only. So these
debug faster. 100MHz, which is more than enough cannot be used for debugging high-
Waveform capture rate. Sample for basic analysis and testing, if you frequency signals; they only support
rate indicates how fast the oscilloscope go by five times thumb rule dis- basic testing and are very handy in
samples the input signal within one cussed earlier. And you get a lot of field work.

buyers guide
Some of these also come with wire-
Table IV
less connectivity, such as Bluetooth.
Using them you can view the signals
Some DIY-Type Oscilloscopes
remotely within a defined distance. Model Bandwidth Sample rate Website link
There are a few that you can connect to
AVR DSO 10MHz 50MS/s http://www.ulrichradig.de/home/index.php/avr/avr-dso
you Android device and view the sig-
nals wirelessly. Table III shows some DSOAMk3 5MHz 20MS/s http://alternatezone.com/electronics/dsoamk3.htm
of the pocket-size oscilloscopes from eOscope 20MHz 40MS/s http://www.eosystems.ro/index.php/projects/eoscope
different vendors.
06201P 1MHz 5MS/s http://www.jyetech.com/Products/LcdScope/eDSO062.html
DIY-type oscilloscopes PIC12F675 http://www.semifluid.com/2006/01/31/pic12f675-oscilloscope/
Lot of designs are available on the Oscilloscope
Internet to build oscilloscopes your- PPMScope 500kHz 1MHz http://jonw0224.tripod.com/ppmscope.html
self and use them for basic testing.
In most cases, complete designs SX28 http://www.sxlist.com/techref/ubicom/sxoscope/index.htm
including schematic, layout and
source code are available. Their per- signals on a computer monitor while oscilloscopes offer reasonable quality,
formance, however, will depend on others have integrated LCD displays. including the DIY ones. However, one
the quality and proper assembly of Those using computer monitor for from a reputed manufacturer is more
the components. display are more comfortable than likely to give accurate measurements
DIY-type oscilloscopes are mainly those with integrated displays. Table and performance.
microcontroller based. The most IV shows some of the DIY-type oscil- It is only the beginning; we are
popular microcontrollers for oscillo- loscopes. likely to see a lot of better and cheaper
scopes belong to AVR and PIC series. From all the above types and options in future.
Their frequency range also is not options, choose the one that suites
very high. Some of them display the your taste and requirements. All the The author is a technical editor at EFY

defence electronics
Part 4 of 4
Defence Lasers and Optronic Systems:
Gas Laser Electronics
Carbon dioxide and helium-neon lasers are the two commonly used gas lasers used in
tactical military applications. High-power lasers, such as carbon dioxide gas dynamic lasers,
hydrogen fluoride/deuterium fluoride lasers and chemical oxy-iodine lasers, which can
generate mega-watts of CW power for directed-energy weapon applications, are also broadly
classified as gas lasers. These lasers are pumped by gas dynamics or by chemical reactions.
Focus in this concluding part of the article is on gas laser electronics with emphasis on the
role of electronics in gas lasers having potential for tactical military applications
Dr Anil K. Maini and Nakul Maini

Power
C
+ Supply
arbon dioxide laser-based HR Brewster Brewster Output
mirror window Gas mixture window coupler
range finders and laser radar
and helium-neon laser-cavity-
Laser
based ring-laser gyroscope inertial Output
navigation sensors are among the com-
mon military applications exploiting Fig. 1: Longitudinally-excited gas laser
use of gas lasers. In addition, such gas
lasers as gas dynamic carbon dioxide

lasers, chemical oxy-iodine lasers, all Power
gas-phase iodine lasers, hydrogen HR Brewster
Supply
Brewster Output
mirror window + Electrode window coupler
fluoride and deuterium fluoride lasers,
though not electrically or optically
pumped, these are largely exploited Gas flow Laser
Output
to build high-power directed-energy
Electrode
weapons. We shall, however, confine
our discussion in this article to electri- Fig. 2: Transversely-excited gas laser
cally-excited gas lasers having military
applications. broadened gas lasers, such as helium- breakdown point. At the breakdown
In both carbon dioxide and helium- neon and carbon dioxide, is another point, large number of molecules in the
neon lasers, the power supply used area that relates to gas laser electronics. gas mixture are ionised and conduc-
to initiate and subsequently sustain tivity increases significantly. Increase
electrical discharge through the gas Negative resistance in discharge current causes further
mixture contained in a sealed envelope characteristics reduction in discharge resistance with
constitutes the primary and essential Gas-discharge characteristics, when the result that the voltage required
component of electronics. The active excited electrically, are the key to de- to sustain the discharge actually de-
medium is usually excited either by sign of power supplies for gas lasers. creases with increase in current. This
passing an electric discharge current Typical gas-discharge characteristics, gives rise to what is called negative
along the length of the tube known as as applicable to carbon dioxide and resistance region in the gas-discharge
longitudinal excitation in both types helium-neon lasers, exhibit negative current-voltage characteristics.
of gas lasers (Fig. 1), or by an electric resistance in their current-voltage re-
discharge perpendicular to the length lationship. The current is zero initially, Helium-neon
of the laser tube known as transverse which may rise to a few nano amperes power supplies
excitation which is common in carbon after the applied voltage exceeds a The generalised form of a gas-laser
dioxide lasers only (Fig. 2). Frequency- certain threshold causing some ionisa- power supply essentially comprises
stabilisation electronics used in the tion of the gas mixture. This current a high-voltage generation circuit that
case of actively-stabilised Doppler increases slowly till it reaches the provides the starting voltage, either

defence electronics
in the form of a high-voltage trigger the breakdown voltage of the gas mix- to sustain the discharge plasma is cas-
pulse or a DC voltage level, to initiate ture in question. The current-limiting caded to a voltage multiplier chain of
the gas discharge, and a power supply feature is provided by a resistance diodes and capacitors to produce the
with current-limiting feature to deliver called ballast resistance, which limits starting voltage. The voltage at the out-
the steady-state current to sustain the the discharge current to desired value. put of multiplier chain drops to almost
discharge. Amplitude of high-voltage There are three commonly-used the voltage level present at the output
trigger pulse needs to be greater than circuit topologies for designing heli- of DC power supply due to inherently
um-neon laser power poor regulation of the multiplier chain.
supplies. In one of the In the second commonly used cir-
topologies, an AC-DC cuit topology, the DC power supply
or DC-DC (in case is connected directly to the plasma
of portable systems) tube through the ballast resistance. A
power supply produc- high-voltage trigger pulse of 10-15kV
ing an output voltage is applied to the tube to initiate the
slightly higher than discharge. Once gas mixture is ionised,
Fig. 3: Generalised block diagram of helium-neon laser power supply the voltage required the DC power supply takes over to
sustain the discharge.
In the third topology, constant
power output fly-back converter
is used. The DC to DC converter is
designed to produce an open circuit
output voltage of 10-15kV and a power
output delivery rating equal to prod-
uct of a little more than the required
magnitude of DC voltage and desired
discharge current. As a consequence,
the converter output voltage rapidly
drops to the desired value after the
Fig. 4: High-voltage multiplier chain for odd multiplication factor discharge is initiated.
Diode-capacitor
multiplier chain
There are two common voltage mul-
tiplier configurations, one for the odd
multiplication factors (Fig. 4) and the
other for even multiplication factors
(Fig. 5). The output voltage in case of
multiplier configuration shown in Fig.
4 is given by:
nVm
VO=
2
1+[n(n 1)/12CRL]
Fig. 5: High-voltage multiplier chain with even multiplication factor
In the case of multiplier chain with
even multiplication factor, the output
voltage is given by:
nVm
VO=
2
1+[n(n /2+1)/6CRL]
In both cases, C1=C2=C3=C4=C5=C6=

C7=C8=C, n is the multiplication fac-
tor, f is frequency of operation equal
to power-line frequency for AC-DC
power supply and the switching fre-
quency in case of a switched mode
Fig. 6: Voltage multiplier chain with unequal capacitors power supply. VP is the peak ampli-

defence electronics
tude of the voltage applied to the input This is possible for large value of ca- capacitor type voltage multiplier chain,
of multiplier chain. Also, in both cases, pacitance C. as shown in Fig. 7. The push-pull cir-
multiplied output voltage is equal to Another voltage multiplier circuit cuit generates a high-frequency square
nVP, provided the bracketed term in that offers a superior performance is waveform across transformer second-
the denominator is zero or negligible. the one that uses unequal capacitors. ary, which is then multiplied to gener-
ate the starting high voltage for the
discharge tube. The push-pull circuit
here is configured around a switching
control IC type LM3524.
It may be mentioned here that, a
large number of control ICs intended
for switching power supply design are
commercially available. Some of the
other popular type numbers include
TL497, TL594 and TDA8130. Their
data sheets contain typical application
circuits for switching supply design.
When discharge occurs, the volt-
age falls to a lower value to supply the
sustaining discharge current through
the ballast resistance. The rest of the
voltage is dropped across the multiplier
Fig. 7: Push-pull converter with cascaded multiplier chain chain components. In some cases, the
Fig. 8: Fly-back converter with high-voltage trigger circuit
Fig. 6 shows the circuit sustaining voltage may be tapped from

configuration. an earlier point in the chain for better
overall performance. In that case, the
Helium-neon output of the multiplier chain feeds the
power supply discharge tube through a relatively high
circuits resistance of the order of tens of mega-
The most commonly ohms and the sustaining voltage feeds
used helium-neon laser the tube through the ballast resistance.
power supply circuit is a The other common circuit topol-
push-pull type high-fre- ogy is the one where the power supply
quency switched mode generates the voltage required to sus-
DC-to-AC power supply tain the discharge and a high-voltage
Fig. 9: Constant power output fly-back converter cascaded to a diode- trigger circuit generates the starting

defence electronics
Power supplies for ring
laser gyroscope sensors
A ring laser gyroscope comprises a
helium-neon ring laser cavity with
two counter-propagating laser beams.
A ring laser gyroscope, which is the
heart of the inertial navigation sys-
tems of modern aircraft, missiles etc,
makes use of a ring helium-neon laser
in a closed cavity. Without going into
details of its operational principle, it
Fig. 10: Commercial helium-neon laser power supplies would suffice to mention here that
stability of discharge current in each
nally driven fly-back type DC-to-DC arm of the ring laser cavity is very
converter. The ballast resistance is split crucial for proper functioning of the
into two resistances. device. Also, it is important to have a
Initially, when there is no discharge, stable value of difference between the
the voltage appearing after RSENSE is currents in the two arms.
equal to open circuit voltage. A frac- A power supply configuration
tion of this voltage is compared with that achieves this is shown in Fig. 12.
VREF and the comparator drives the As shown in the figure, there are two
high-voltage trigger circuit configured current-sense loops controlled by the
around SCR, R-C components and trig- same reference voltage. Another possible
Fig. 11: Helium-neon laser with inbuilt power
ger transformer. As soon as discharge approach could be to use a precision ref-
supply is struck, voltage appearing after RSENSE erence for one arm and then use the ac-
drops and the drive pulses are with- tual controlled current flowing through
drawn from SCR gate. The power that arm as the reference for controlling
supply provides the discharge cur- current in the other arm. The preferred
rent through series connection of re- circuit topology for the power supply
sistors constituting ballast resistance. is an externally-driven PWM-controlled
In the third circuit topology, the fly-back converter generating a regulated
converter circuit is designed to de- output voltage equal to the sustaining
liver an output power equal to the voltage at the required plasma current.
product of the required sustaining
voltage at the power supply output Carbon dioxide laser
and the discharge current. Since it is power supplies
a constant-output-power converter, Carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers are oper-
the output voltage would increase ated in both CW and pulsed-output
without limit in the ideal case in the modes. CW lasers are either DC-
event of zero current drawn from the excited or RF-excited. Pulsed-output
power supply. When the output volt- lasers are mainly transversely-excited
age exceeds the required initiating atmospheric-pressure (TEA) lasers.
voltage, the plasma current drawn Power supply circuits for DC-excited
from the power supply forces the lasers are similar to the ones described
output voltage to fall to the sustain- in earlier paragraphs in the case of
ing voltage governed by the output helium-neon lasers. Different power
power capability of the converter. supply circuits discussed in the case of
Compact helium-neon laser helium-neon lasers are equally valid
power supplies are commercially for carbon dioxide lasers.
Fig. 12: Helium-neon power supply for ring laser available both as AC-operated Present-day TEA CO2 lasers use
gyro cavity bench-top versions as well as DC- Marx bank capacitor systems. In this
operated supplies for OEM market system, the arrangement of individual
voltage to initiate the discharge. Fig. (Fig. 10). Helium-neon lasers with an capacitors is such that they are in par-
8 shows a typical circuit. The power integrated power supply are also avail- allel during the charging process and
supply is configured around an exter- able (Fig. 11). in series during the discharge opera-

defence electronics
versus frequency curves, which is
60MHz in the case of carbon dioxide
laser and 1400MHz for helium-neon
laser emitting at 632.8nm. With active
stabilisation techniques, such as dither
stabilisation, optogalvanic stabilisation
and stark cell stabilisation, these lasers
can be frequency stabilised up to an
accuracy of 1MHz.
Fig. 16 shows block diagram of
Fig. 13: Marx bank power supply arrangement dither stabilisation scheme. The grat-
ing allows selection of various lines
within the laser tuning curve. The
output of the low-frequency oscillator,
when applied to the PZT, moves the
grating along the axis and hence var-
ies the output. The other input to the
frequency synchronous detector is the
Fig. 14: Power supply for RF-excited carbon dioxide laser error signal, which corresponds to the
deviation in the laser output frequency
from the line centre.
In fact, the magnitude and phase of
the error signal determine the location
of operational point with respect to the
centre of the Doppler broadened gain
curve. While the amplitude decides
how far or close to the line centre the
operational point is, the phase decides
which side of the line centre it is lo-
cated. Though Dither stabilisation is
Fig. 15: Carbon dioxide laser power supplies simple to implement, the disadvantage
of this technique is the presence of fre-
tion. This means, if each capacitor in delivering capability. Frequency of quency modulation in the output as a
the bank were charged to a voltage V, operation is in the range of 50MHz result of laser dithering.
then the total voltage available across to 150MHz. RF power is fed to the Optogalvanic stabilisation tech-
the tube for discharge operation would laser cavity through impedance- nique is particularly suitable for
be nV, n being the number of capaci- matching network. The laser cavitys carbon dioxide lasers. It makes use
tors. mechanical structure combined with of variation in discharge impedance
Fig. 13 shows the Marx bank power RF discharge can be considered as an due to alteration in internal radiation
supply arrangement where the switch- electrical load comprising complex field intensity. Fig. 17 shows a typical
es are open during the charging. They impedance. Power transfer efficiency optogalvanic frequency stabilisation
are triggered simultaneously to the from the RF source to the discharge is set up.
closed position to initiate discharge. a key operational feature of the laser An AC signal is applied to the
Though the Marx bank shown here that is made more complicated by the cavity length transducer resulting
uses four stages, Marx bank systems fact that the discharge impedance is in frequency modulation of the laser
with higher number of stages are also power dependent. and therefore modulation of the plas-
used. Marx banks are particularly suit- CO2 laser power supplies too are ma-tube impedance. The impedance
able for producing fast-rising pulses. commercially available both as bench- variation, which is proportional to
Power supply of an RF-excited top laboratory systems as well as com- the slope of the output power versus
CO2 laser comprises an RF source pact versions for OEM market (Fig. 15). frequency curve of the laser, is meas-
and an impedance-matching network ured by exciting the plasma-tube by a
(Fig. 14). The RF source may further Frequency stabilisation high-speed current-regulated power
be split up into an RF oscillator and a of lasers supply and measuring the resulting
cascade arrangement of RF amplifiers, Carbon dioxide and helium-neon variation in voltage-drop across the
depending upon the output power lasers have Doppler broadened gain plasma-tube. This voltage is applied

defence electronics
Fig. 16: Dither frequency stabilisation
Fig. 17: Optogalvanic stabilisation schematic
Fig. 18: Stark cell stabilisation block diagram
to the synchronous detector. The ramp may be applied instead. Also ics in military lasers and optoelectron-
other input to the synchronous de- superimposed on this is a relatively ics is completed. While introduction
tector is the reference signal used to high-frequency sinusoidal or square to role of electronics, solid state laser
modulate the laser cavity length with waveform. The frequency is 5kHz, electronics and semiconductor diode
the help of PZT. The error signal pro- typically. The beam at the output of laser electronics were discussed in
duced at the output of synchronous the stark cell is thus modulated in the earlier parts, important building
detector is used to stabilise the laser both amplitude and frequency by the blocks of electronics used in com-
frequency. applied high-frequency signal around mon gas lasers are discussed in this
Stark cell stabilisation technique the line of interest. concluding part. Different circuit
allows dither-free frequency stabi- The laser beam is phase-sensitively topologies in use for design of power
lisation. It also allows stabilising detected with high-frequency signal supplies for carbon dioxide and he-
frequency anywhere on the Doppler applied to the stark cell as reference. lium neon lasers have been discussed
broadened gain versus frequency The output of phase-sensitive detector at length, highlighting important
curve of the lasers. Fig. 18 shows the is the frequency-discriminant error design-related issues with reference
block diagram of stark cell stabilisa- signal. The error signal is amplified to gas lasers for military applications.
tion. and then fed back to the PZT through Different techniques of frequency
A part of the output laser beam is a suitable interface. One of the end stabilisation of gas lasers, which is of
made to pass through the stark cell. elements of the cavity is mounted on paramount importance in applications
An appropriate value of DC voltage the PZT. The error signal adjusts the such as laser radar, have also been
is applied to one of the stark plates length of the cavity in the feedback covered.
to make the stark-shifted molecular mode to lock the laser frequency to the Concluded
transition of the gas contained in the centre of the Doppler profile of the line
Dr Anil Kumar Maini is a senior scientist, currently
cell precisely coincide with the carbon of interest.
director of Laser Science and Technology Centre,
dioxide laser output line of inter- With this article, the four-part se- DRDO, Ministry of Defence, while Nakul Maini is
est. A slowly varying linear voltage ries focussing on the role of electron- technical editor with Wiley India Pvt Ltd

EFY Plus DVD
This Months DVD Contents

This months DVD brings you circuit modelling along with PCB EDA tools for students and
small businesses. Also included are a neural network simulator and a machine learning tool
for enthusiasts. Have fun!
pankaj V. SpiderPCB LTspice IV
FidoCADJ Spider PCB brings the hierarchical LTspiceIV is a high performance Spice
The latest version of FidoCADJ includ- layout to the PCB industry, providing simulator, schematic capture and
ed in the DVD is an-easy-to use graphi- not only a hierarchical schematic but waveform viewer with enhancements
cal editor with a library of electrical also a layout tool for the PCB designers. and models for easing the simulation
symbols and footprints (traditional and It is an easy-to-use PCB EDA tool for of switching regulators. New enhance-
SMD). It is not a simulation tool but an students and small businesses. Using ments to Spice have made simulating
agile EDA tool with graphical flexibil- Spider PCB, you can easily follow the switching regulators extremely fast
ity for hobbyists. FidoCadJ is available classic top-down design, bottom-up im- compared to normal Spice simulators,
for multiple platforms like MacOSX, plementation. You can draw the sche- allowing the user to view waveforms
Linux and Windows. This makes it a matics on the way down, starting with for most switching regulators in just a
perfect choice for exchanging sketches block-diagram form in the top-most few minutes. Supported OS: Mac OS,
in forums and newsgroup discussions hierarchical level and adding more and Windows. Size: Windows (14.5MB), Mac
with just a few clicks. Supported OS: more detail while going towards the OSx (48.9MB)
Windows, Linux, MacOS. Size: Windows component level. Supported OS: Win-
- 840kB, MacOSX - 10MB, Linux - 574kB dows. Size: 1.5MB AIM-Spice
Developed at the University of Cali-
JMCAD SimCAS fornia, with its first release in 1972,
If you are looking for a suitable pro- SimCAS is a free, open source, very Automatic Integrated Circuit Model-
gram for modeling and simulation simple and flexible analogue simulator. ling Spice, or AIM-Spice, uses the Spice
of complex dynamic systems, here This simple tool can run on Windows format for describing analogue circuits.
is a small and effective Java-based and Linux. It is not as powerful as Unlike Spice, which uses control re-
program for you. With JMCAD you Spice or Qucs but provides a handy cords, AIM-Spice uses point-and-click
can create virtual prototypes on your GUI-based analogue simulation envi- type controls. This DVD includes
desktop and make sure your design ronment. It uses symbolic equations AIM-Spice for Windows, while you
works properly before committing to to define various components and can also get the Linux version by send-
prototype. It combines the simplicity solves the net system by using a Com- ing an email to [email protected].
and clarity of a block-diagram interface puter Algebra System (CAS) algorithm Supported OS: Windows, Linux. Size:
with a high-performance mathematical without using a matrix. Supported OS: Windows - 3.66MB
engine, providing fast and accurate Windows, Linux. Size: Windows - 2.4MB,
solutions for linear, non-linear, con- Linux - 525kB Qucs
tinuous time, discrete time, multi-rate Qucs is a circuit simulator with well
and hybrid systems. Supported OS: Weka advanced Graphical User Interface
Windows, MacOSX, Linux (with Java). Weka is a machine learning tool which (GUI) which allows setting up of
Size: 2.3kB helps in analysing large data and ex- schematics and presenting simulation
tract the most relevant information. results in various types of diagrams.
GPUTILS This DVD brings you the latest version It supports various circuit simulation
GPUTILS is a collection of open source of Weka, which is written in Java and types along with the availability of
replacements for the Microchip PIC can be run on any platform. It provides mathematical equations and use of a
microcontroller utilities comprising an you with a collection of machine learn- subcircuit hierarchy (with parameter-
assembler, dis-assembler, linker and ing algorithms for solving real-world ised subcircuits). Supported OS: Win-
object file viewer. GPUTILS can be data mining problems. Supported OS: dows, MacOSx. Size: Windows (53.783
used to develop code for over 250 PIC Windows, MacOSX, Linux (with Java). MB), MacOSx(67.7MB), Ubuntu (411.5
processor types involving standard Size: 32-bit Windows - 51.1MB, 64-bit MB)
configure make, and make install steps. Windows - 52.5MB), MacOSX - 81.6MB,
Supported OS: Windows. Size: 928kB Linux - 23.1MB The author is a technical journalist at EFY

EFY Plus DVD
FidoCADJ: Vector Drawing Software

FidoCADJ is a simple, intuitive application that helps users create vector drawings
for schematics as well as printed circuit boards. You can select from a wide range
of preset components and print or export your designs to various file formats
Pankaj V.
F
idoCADJ is a Java-based multi-
platform editor for more than just
electronics. It offers a very clean
and intuitive environment to help us-
ers design their electronics with ease.
FidoCADJ is not a simulator, but it of-
fers an agile and effective environment
for hobbyists. While there is no netlist
concept, it comes with a library that in-
cludes electrical symbols and footprints
(traditional and SMD) to assist you in
your drawings.
FidoCADJ generates electronic
circuit outputs with a very compact tex-
tual description in various file formats. FIdoCADJ
This makes it very easy to include these
drawings in text messages and exchange UTF-8 encoding on all formats.
your sketches in forums and newsgroup Unlike other CAD tools and its pre- Advisory note
discussions. decessor FidoCAD, FidoCadJ includes There are no separate modes of operation
for PCB and schematic in FidoCADJ. These
Some regard FidoCADJ as a Ja- an interpreter that can recognise and cor-
appear only at the moment of printing the
va-based modification of FidoCAD rectly interpret any file with or without drawing. Hence it is advised to set the
software, which can only be run on standard header. Moreover, it can also program to resize a schematic according to
Windows. However, it is actually a com- correctly interpret commands containing the size of the page, otherwise the print may
have the size of a postage stamp.
pletely re-written program that offers text, as long as the number of incorrect
full compatibility with FidoCAD files, lines does not exceed a value set inter- editing a drawing. Some of the features
and allows for showing and modifying a nally in the program (approx. 100). This and functionalities in FidoCADJ, which
file using FidoCAD format. It is not just ensures a fast and efficient functionality, account for ease of use of this intuitive
an adaptation or extension for FidoCAD. wasting no time, for example, in trying tool, are discussed below.
If you are familiar with FidoCAD, to open a very large binary file. The vacuum-tube radios and switch-
getting used to FidoCadJ will not be A simple coordinates system in es of old times inspire the elements of
a problem. In fact, many commands FidoCADJ identifies a very large area ease of use in this tool. When you press
and procedures are quite similar to the only by whole and positive coordinates. a button, it remains in that position until
original application including some ex- The fixed unit length of in x and y axes another function from the toolbar is se-
tensions as well. at 127m allows to obtain a good resolu- lected. So you dont need to press again
tion (about 200 dots per inch) for even and again for the same element in your
Compact and efficient the smallest SMD packages, without circuit. Also, you can easily edit or mod-
A major advantage of working with being too fine for everyday use. ify the parameters like coordinates or
FidoCADJ is its simple text format. rotation of any drawing element just by
With no header description required, a Intuitive environment double-clicking on it in selection mode.
simple coordinate system for drawing FidoCADJ offers graphical flexibility Intuitive ruler. Drawing a PCB re-
and various drawing elements, it offers and several intuitive drawing features. quires measuring distances in the work-
a compact and efficient storage format In the toolbar situated on the top of the ing area. This tool offers an intuitive
for the drawings. From the latest version window, you will find the most used ruler feature that allows you to easily
included in this DVD, it uses only the and common features for creating and check any track width, the clearance
www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | July 2014 1I

EFY Plus DVD
between two tracks or the total size of a Installing FidoCADJ
card. You can just right click and drag to
Installation file can be found in EFY Plus DVD that came with this magazine. FidoCADJ is a Java-
open a ruler in green for your help.
based tool, so Java is a pre-requisite to run this tool on any platform.
Keyboard shortcuts. From selecting The application is distributed as an executable .jar file, which is a Java archive. For many
multiple graphic elements to drawing operating systems, you can just double click on the file to run the application, provided that a
a PCB pad, there are various drawing recent version of Java is installed on the system. The minimum Java version needed to run
FidoCadJ is the version1.5, which has been around for a few years now.
commands available in FidoCADJ.
But, in some cases it might be useful to run the application from a command line (for
These allow you to rapidly select vari- example, the terminal in the Unix systems, or the MS-DOS Prompt in Windows). To do so, you
ous features that let you design faster can use the following command lines:
(as shown in the table), without having 1. java -jar fidocadj . Jar
2. java -jar fidocadj . jar ~/ FidoCadJ / test . Fcd (To open a specific file with the application,
to manipulate your mouse. include it in the command line)
Flexible graphics. It also offers three Supported OS: Windows, Linux, MacOS (with Java)
different zoom settings for graphical flex- HDD space required: Max 10MB
ibility with the buttons like Fit, Show Grid
and Snap to Grid. You can automatically selection of any preset ele-
select the most suitable zoom settings ment in the drawing. Keyboard Shortcuts
in order to show the whole drawing on Export with effects. Fi- Keyboard Command Description
shortcuts
the screen by pressing Fit button. Show doCADJ allows you to ex-
Grid makes it easy to toggle between port your drawings through A or Spacebar Select For selection of different elements
visible and invisible grids. Finally, the several file formats, so you R Rotate To rotate selected elements
elements added will stick to the nearest can create simple sche- S Mirror To mirror the selected elements
step of the grid utilising the Snap to Grid matics for use. The gen- L Line For inserting a line
T Text For inserting a test-string
button. (Note: To carefully align various erated electronic circuits
B Bezier For drawing a Bezier curve
elements, Alt key should be kept pressed can be printed or exported
P Polyline For drawing a polyline
while using the other cursor keys.) to PNG, JPG, SVG, EPS,
K Curve For drawing an open or closed
Partial customisation of command PGF, PDF, or to a script
natural cubic spline curve
bar. FidoCADJ also allows you to file format. Also, you can E Ellipse For drawing an ellipse
partially customise the command bar. apply anti-aliasing and G Rectangle For drawing a rectangle
In particular, you can either choose to black-and-white effects to C Junction To insert an electrical junction
see the icon on each button or both the the drawings. To export the I PCB Track To draw a PCB track
icon and its text description. These two current drawing, select File Z PCB Pad To draw a PCB pad
selectable formats for the icons can be Export. With Black&White Esc Terminate To terminate new insertions
changed from the menu File Options. option, you can print any
Any change in the settings will be ap- visible layer in solid black. tronics. Its intuitiveness and handy set
plied at the restart of the application. For the bitmap file formats, it may be of features make it an easy-to-use and
Easy search and navigation. The li- useful to enable the option Anti aliasing. learning tool for hobbyists. Moreover,
braries include all the standard symbols While exporting to any vectorial format, being free, Java-based and multi-plat-
used in electrical schematics and a wide it will be beneficial to specify the scaling form, it can be of great use.
selection of footprints for drawing PCBs. factor. Anti aliasing reduces the annoying But it need not be considered
A quick search text field allows for the effect of the quantisation that is visible uniquely for electronics design as cus-
quick searching inside the included especially on diagonal lines. tomisation of its libraries can prepare
libraries and the results appear in the Customised libraries. As mentioned it for any type of 2D drawing and for
form of a tree, allowing you to eas- above, FidoCADJ includes a collection many other situations, provided those
ily navigate through by typing up and of libraries of symbols and footprints specific libraries can be made available.
down arrow keys. (traditional and SMD) for assistance in FidoCadJ is the official drawing tool
Macros. The FidoCADJ applica- your drawings. It allows you to custom- of ElectroYou, an Italian social network
tion offers you a quick access to all the ise and manage these by defining new for electronics. It is a free GPL Licensed
electrical components, lets you preview symbols and libraries with the luxury software tool that can be downloaded
them in a dedicated pane, and insert of modifying the existing ones. In some for free at http://fidocadj.sourceforge.
them into the working environment specific cases you can also replace the net/. You can participate in the forums
with the help of just a few clicks. The existing libraries with the external ones. and blogs related to this tool at http://
tool includes these electrical compo- sourceforge.net/p/fidocadj/discus-
nents in the form of various macros or An effective 2D design tool sion/997486
symbols in the libraries. A tree list at the Summarising, we can regard FidoCAD
right side of the window enables easy as an effective tool for designing elec- The author is a technical journalist at EFY
II July 2014 | Electronics For You Plus www.efymag.com

EFY Plus DVD
Simulate Your Circuits

Using Qucs
In this article we explore the features and functions of Quite Universal Circuit
Simulator (Qucs) and go through a step-by-step analysis. Qucs is available
for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu (open source) in the DVD accompanying this
months issue of EFY Plus
ABHISHEK A. MUTHA Qucs GUI is well advanced and
allows setting up schematics and
A
n open source electronics presenting simulation results in
circuit simulator software various types of diagrams. Apart
released under GPL, Quite from representation in DC, AC,
Universal Circuit Simulator (Qucs) S-parameter, noise and transient
provides the user with capabilities analysis, mathematical equations
to set up a circuit with a graphical and use of a sub-circuit hierarchy
user interface. It can simulate circuit (with parameterised sub-circuits)
behaviour, and supports pure digital are also available. Qucs can also
simulations using VHDL and/or Ver- import existing Spice models for
ilog languages. use in your simulations.
Qucs is much simpler to use and Fig. 1: Combined schematic and data visualisation Qucsator, the simulation
handle than other circuit simulators back-end, is a command-line
like gEDA or PSpice. It also supports circuit simulator. It takes a net-
a growing list of analogue and digital work list in a certain format as
components as well as Spice sub-circuits, input and outputs a Qucs data-
which makes it easier to work with. set. It has been programmed
for usage in the Qucs project
What is Qucs all about but may also be used by other
Qucs is an integrated circuit simulator applications.
that enables you to set up a circuit with Qucs comes with a huge
its intuitive graphical user interface array of components and mod-
(GUI) and simulate the small-signal, els including HICUM, BSIM2,
large-signal and noise behaviour of the BSIM3 and BSIM6 to list a few.
circuit. Post simulation, you can view It also provides semiconductor-
the simulation results on a presenta- based components and models
tion page or window. Fig. 2: Data display with 3D diagram such as PMOSFETs, MOSFETs,
op-amps, diodes and many
Qucsator and GUI more.
The GUI is based on Qt by Digia. The While some examples have
software aims to support most kinds been included in this story to
of circuit simulation like DC, AC, S- demonstrate some of the abili-
parameter, harmonic balance analysis ties of Qucs, many more are
and noise analysis to name a few. The available within the program
in the DVD.
Top three functions of Qucs Features and their
1. Schematic capture functions
2. Analogue and digital simulations
Qucs consists of several stand-
3. Data visualisation Fig. 3: Data display with different kinds of data
representations (diagrams) and data markers alone programs interacting
www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | July 2014 III

EFY Plus DVD
with each other through the GUI, such your start menu or desktop. Qucs is ferent languages.
as: a multi-lingual program. Therefore, On the left hand side you will find
GUI. It is used to create schematics, depending on your systems language the Projects folder opened, as shown
set up simulations, display simulation settings, the Qucs GUI appears in dif- in Fig. 1. Usually, the projects folder
results and to write VHDL code. will be empty if you are using
Back-end analogue simulator. The Qucs for the first time. The
analogue simulator is a command line large area on the right hand
program which is run by the GUI in side is the schematic area.
order to simulate the schematic that Right above it you can find
you previously setup. It takes a netlist, the menu bar and the tool-
checks it for errors, performs the re- bars. Go to File Application
quired simulation actions and finally Settings menu to configure
produces a dataset. the language and appearance
Simple text editor. This is used to of Qucs.
display netlists and simulation log- For the language and font
ging information, and also to edit files Fig. 4: Qucs has been started settings to take effect, the ap-
included by certain components (like plication (as seen in Fig. 2)
Spice netlists or Touchstone files). must be closed either via the Ctrl + Q
Filter synthesis application. The shortcut or the File Exit menu entry.
program can be used to design various Then re-start Qucs.
types of filters.
Transmission line calculator. This Setting up schematics
can be used to design and analyse The following sections will enable the
different types of transmission lines Fig. 5: Application Setting Dialog Box user to set up some simple schemat-
(examples: micro-strips, coaxial cables). ics. For this, first create a new project
Component library. The compo- named WorkBook. Either press the
nent library manager holds models New button above the projects folder
for real-life devices, such as transis- or use the menu entry Project New
tors, diodes, bridges and op-amps. Fig. 6: New Project Dialog Project, and enter the new project
The user can extend it with additional name as shown in Fig. 3.
components. Confirm the dialogue by
Attenuator synthesis application. pressing the Create button.
The program can be used to design When done, the project is
various types of passive attenuators. opened and Qucs switches to
Command line conversion pro- the Content tab.
gram. The conversion tool is used by In the Content tab, as seen
the GUI to import and export datasets, in Fig. 4, you will find all the
netlists and schematics from and to data related to the project.
other CAD/EDA software. The sup- It contains your schematics,
ported file formats as well as usage the VHDL files, data display
information can be found on the home pages, datasets as well as any
page of Qucs. Fig. 7: New empty project has been created other data (like datasheets).
Additionally, the GUI steers other On the right hand side, an
EDA tools. For digital simulations (via untitled and empty sche-
VHDL) the program FreeHDL (see matic window is displayed.
http://www.freehdl.seul.org) is used. Now you can start to edit
And for circuit optimisations ASCO the schematic. The available
(see http://asco.sourceforge.net) is components can be found in
configured and run. the Components tab.
The window in Fig. 5 is
Getting started displayed on clicking the
Once the software has been success- Components tab. There are
fully installed on your system you can lumped components (such
start it by issuing the # qucs command, as resistors and capacitors),
or by clicking the appropriate icon on Fig. 8: Components tab sources (such as DC and AC
IV July 2014 | Electronics For You Plus www.efymag.com

EFY Plus DVD
Left clicking on the
components ports
(small red circles)
starts a wire and
clicking on a sec-
ond port finishes
the wire. In or-
der to change the
orientation of the
wire, right click it.
You can leave the
Fig. 9: Components of the voltage divider appropriately wired Fig. 12: Data display with tabular graph wiring mode by
pressing Esc key.
For any ana-
logue simulation
(including the DC
simulation), there
is a reference po-
tential required (for
the nodal analysis).
The ground symbol
can be found in the
Components tab in
the lumped com-
Fig. 10: Ground symbol as well as DC simulation in place Fig. 13: Simple filter in qucs-qt4 ponents category.
The user can also
choose the ground
symbol icon or
simply press the
Ctrl + G shortcut.
In the circuit in Fig.
7, the ground sym-
bol is placed at the
negative terminal
of the DC voltage
source.
Placing simu-
Fig. 11: Final voltage divider schematic Fig. 14: Simple schematic area lation blocks. The
type of simulation
sources), transmission lines (like mi- position. You can even drag-and-drop that is to be performed must also be
crostrip, coaxial cable, twisted pair), the components. placed on the schematic. You can do
nonlinear components (like ideal op- this by choosing the DC simulation
amp, transistors), digital components DC simulation block, which is found in the Compo-
(like flip-flops), file components (like of a voltage divider nents tab in the simulations category.
Touchstone files, Spice files), simula- DC analysis is a steady-state analysis. Labelling wires. If you want volt-
tions (AC or DC analysis), diagrams It computes the node voltage as well as age between the two resistors (the
(like Cartesian or polar plot) and branch currents of the complete circuit. divided voltage) be output in the
paintings (such as texts, arrows, cir- The circuit in Fig. 6 is for dividing the dataset after simulation, you need to
cles). voltage of a DC voltage source accord- label the wire. This is done by double
Each of the components can be ing to the resistor ratio. clicking the wire and giving it an ap-
placed on the schematic by clicking it Wiring components. Connect the propriate name. Wire labelling can
once. Then move the cursor onto the components appropriately using the also be done using the icon in the
schematic and click again to put it on wiring tool. Enable the wiring mode toolbar, by pressing the Ctrl + L short-
its final position. You can right click either by clicking the wire icon or cut or by choosing the Insert Wire
to rotate the component into its final by pressing the Ctrl + E shortcut. Label menu entry.
www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | July 2014 V

EFY Plus DVD
Additional details Operating system support for Qucs

Software: Qucs (Quite Universal Circuit Qucs is currently developed on GNU/Linux systems using the GNU auto tools (and
Simulator) CMake experimentally). For this reason it is very likely that Qucs runs on all kinds
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Ubuntu of Unix systems supporting an appropriate system interface and an installed Qt
Size: Windows - 54MB, Mac - 106MB, environment. It has been verified that Qucs can be installed on GNU/Linux, Solaris 2.9,
Ubuntu - 247.3MB MacOS 10.5, NetBSD, FreeBSD and Cygwin (Unix emulation layer for Windows). Qucs
Last stable release: 0.0.17 on June 23, is also available natively on x86 Windows (XP/Vista/7/8) systems and experimentally
2013 on x86_64 versions of these.
The dialogue is closed by pressing

the Enter key or pressing the Ok but- Some other simulation tools
ton. Now the complete schematic for
the voltage divider is ready and can be 1. EasyEDA, online schematic capture, ngspice simulation and PCB design
saved. This can by done by choosing 2. Falstad Circuit Simulator Applet, Paul Falstads online java circuit simulator
3. GeckoCIRCUITS GPL software, online applet version (Java)
the File Save menu entry, clicking
4. GNU Circuit Analysis Package (Gnucap)
the Single Disk icon or by pressing the
5. Ngspice, including Online Spice
Ctrl + S shortcut.
The final DC voltage divider is
shown in Fig. 8.
What users have to say about Qucs
Issuing a simulation. The sche-
matic can now be simulated. This is Qucs is a very powerful circuit simulator program and has features I have yet to
started by choosing the Simulation understand. It is also very user friendly. It is a great piece of software for anyone wanting to
learn electronics and the price is right. Zero.
Simulate menu entry, clicking the
This is probably the most useful open source circuit simulator I ever found. It is
simulation button (the gearwheel) or accurate and (once you learn a bit) really easy to use.
by pressing the F2 shortcut. After the Very nice product. I am a DSP guy, so I do not use circuit simulators often. I have
simulation has been done, the related some experience with Spice and OrCAD, but I have a very strong preference for Qucs.
data display is shown. Also, the Com- Easier to use and richer in features. For example, the basic OpAmp is just what you need
ponents tab changes its category to when you want to make some examples in class without drowning in the complexities of
diagrams. a real OpAmp.
Placing diagrams. Choose the Very nice program which I use mostly to simulate and display S-parameters files and
circuits.
tabular (list of values) diagram and
Courtesy: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qucs/
place it on the data display page. By
double clicking divided.V, the graph
(values in a tabular plot) is added to node first successful simulation using Qucs.
the diagram. Besides the node voltage # name.It - Transient current through
divided.V the current through the DC component name
License
voltage source V1.I is available. Only # S[1,1] - S-parameter value Qucs is a free software released under
items listed in the dataset list can be Please note that all voltages and the General Public License (GPL). It
put into the graph. currents are peak values and all noise comes with complete source code.
voltages are RMS values at 1Hz band- Every user of the program is allowed
Available dataset items width. and called upon (on a voluntary basis
Depending on the type of simulation Depending on the type of graph, of course) to modify it for their ap-
the user performed you find the fol- you have various options to choose for plications, as long as the changes are
lowing types of items in the dataset: the graph. For a tabular graph, there is made public.
# node.V - DC voltage at node node the number precision as well as type The screenshots show the main
# name.I - DC current through of number notation (important for schematic and data display area of the
component name complex values). Press the Ok button Qucs GUI on the lower right corner, the
# node.v - AC voltage at node node to close the dialogue. menus and icons at the upper part and
# name.i - AC current through In the tabular graph, as seen in the project/contents/component/ac-
component name <image 9>, the value of the node tion/diagram selection on the left-hand
# node.vn - AC noise voltage at node voltage divided.V is 0.5V. That is ex- side.
node pected since the resistors are of equal
# name.in - AC noise current through values and the DC voltage source The author is a senior technical correspondent at
component name produces 1V. EFY. This article has inputs from Qucs recently
# node.Vt - Transient voltage at node Congratulations! You made your released documentation
VI July 2014 | Electronics For You Plus www.efymag.com

EFY Plus DVD
LTSpice IV: Ideal for SMPS

Simulations
LTSpice IV is a free, high-performance Spice tool to virtually model, simulate
and analyse electronic circuits, particularly switching regulators, before actually
building them using electronic components
Anagha P.
L
TSpice, formerly known as
SwitcherCAD, is the fourth-
generation free Spice simulation,
schematic-capture and waveform-
viewer software solution with en-
hancements and models offered by the
semiconductor manufacturer Linear
Technology Corporation (LTC).
This software features built-in
component models to help obtain ac-
curate results for non-linear designs.
It also comes with various advanced
and full-fledged capabilities that let PLL
you precisely test circuit functionali-
ties. Exceptionally good simulation of Meant for whom?
switched mode power supply (SMPS) LTSpice IV can be used to design
controllers and regulators is said simple and complex switching
to be one of the key features of this regulators and run simulations for
product. these circuits. The ease to learn,
Its speed of simulation has greatly simplicity of usage and extensive
improved as compared to the previous help files make it a good choice for
Spice programs, without compromis- students. The advanced simulation
ing on the accuracy of simulation, due and analysis capabilities make it a
to the introduction of mixed-mode great tool for creating professional-
simulation capability and many other grade circuits by electronics engi-
enhancements. In a few minutes it can neers.
perform detailed cycle-by-cycle SMPS Many students, novice engineers
simulations and analyse them. and experienced professionals in Simulation
It is to be noted that LTSpice is not such fields as radio-frequency elec-
SMPS-specific Spice. It has all the fea- tronics, power electronics, digital Stable and feature-rich
tures of any other typical analogue and electronics and other disciplines use The software is highly stable, and the
mixed-signal simulation program, with LTSpice IV. Those users who want to number of nodes you can create using
an added benefit that it is fast enough create their own schemes of integrated LTSpice is unlimited. The application
to simulate a SMPS interactively. This circuits and test them can also use this comes with a library that has a varied
improved performance is an advan- Spice circuit simulator. While it cannot collection of predefined components
tage for simulating general analogue generate printed circuit board (PCB) like resistors, capacitors, inductors,
circuits and would aid all electronics layouts, netlists can still be imported diodes, wires, BUS taps, text boxes,
engineers. into layout programs. labels etc that can be added to the cir-
www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | July 2014 VII

EFY Plus DVD
cuit. You can simulate a large number based on transient, AC, noise and DC
LTSpice IV Facts
of analogue components from LTC as analysis.
well as other discrete passive devices LTSpice is capable of computing License type Freeware
contained in the library. Third-party bill of materials (for certain circuits), Developer Mike Engelhardt, Linear
models, like MOSFET components, can heat dissipation of components and Technology Corporation
be imported to the workspace and inte- generate complete efficiency reports Latest version 4.21x
grated in your schematic; their configu- of the SMPS circuits you have drafted. Operating systems hh Windows
ration can be displayed without using This lets you determine the points with and requirements Version: Windows 2000 and
internal nodes and without affecting higher energy dissipation and thereby later (Runs on both 32-bit
and 64-bit operating system)
the switching waveforms. take measures to minimise the energy Processor: Pentium 4
It is possible to configure each wastage in the circuit. hh Linux
component in the schematic individu- Via Wine Windows simulator
ally by right-clicking on it. This way Easy to use hh OS X
Via Crossover, Parallels, or
the user can modify the functions and A user with no previous knowledge DARWINE
parameters. For example, the resist- about the device, Spice or schematic
ance, tolerance level and power rating capture can get a detailed simulation of development and provide a good start-
of a resistor, parasitic properties and power systems with just a few mouse ing point for draft. You can also create
the amplitude of a voltage source can clicks. A good collection of pre-drafted your own design using the schematic
be changed. and verified demo circuits can be used editor with the help of a large number
Further, the general-purpose sche- to start building the custom circuit, of macro models of power devices pro-
matic and symbol-capture and editing and the parameters can be suitably vided in the software package.
tools can help the user insert all kinds modified to fit different power sup-
of geometrical figures and shapes found ply requirements. All these features Support
in complex output designs. It supports make LTSpice easy to understand and The software is updated often. You can
unlimited schematic size and hierarchy. operate. check for updates and install them by
You can also generate netlists and cross built-in menu command Tools > Sync
probe simulation data. Installation and getting Release. You have to close all other
started windows and establish an Internet con-
Advanced options This download includes fully-func- nection before the update can be made.
The enhancements to Spice makes the tional LTSpice IV, help files, over 1100 Comments about the software and
simulation of SMPS very fast and easy macro models for 80% of LTs power bug report can be directly mailed to
compared to typical Spice simulators. products, numerous operational ampli- [email protected]. By registering
This allows you to view and evaluate fiers, resistors, transistors and MOS- with MyLinear account at www.linear.
waveforms for most switching regu- FETs. The installation file LTSpiceIV. com, you would be able to receive free
lators in a few minutes compared to exe is a self-extracting gzip compressed samples, literature, product updates
hours required by other similar Spice file. Double clicking on it installs LT- and so on. Blogposts and video tuto-
simulators. Spice IV in the computer as it extracts. rials for different functions that can
Once the schematic is created, you Windows Vista users should right click be done using this tool are available
can evaluate the validity of the scheme on file and select Run as administra- in the website (Design Support > De-
with the help of built-in compiler and tor option. sign Simulation Page > LTSpice IV >
simulator. LTSpice provides you with Hundreds of demo circuits are LTSpice Blog). For additional support
advanced simulation and analyses op- available for download at Linear you could also join the Yahoo group
tions that can outperform some paid Technology website, all of which were LTSpice IV and LTSpice wiki www.
Spice simulators. It has features like designed and reviewed by the firms ltwiki.org, which are not affiliated to
steady-state detection, step response factory applications group. Linear Technology.
computation and Fourier analysis. The pre-drafted test fixtures (JIG)
You can also plot circuit simulations are used for testing models during The author is a technical correspondent at EFY
VIII July 2014 | Electronics For You Plus www.efymag.com

innovation
Drishti: For Airport Visibility Measurement

rugged. The availability of complete
This highly-precise and cost-effective knowledge base to the component
transmissometer developed by Council level allows cost-effective servicing
of Scientific and Industrial Research- and maintenance.
National Aerospace Laboratories Modern design
(CSIR-NAL) is a significant contribution
Built on an industry-standard FPGA
to the field of electronics and airport design platform, Drishti makes good
instrumentation in India use of virtual instrumentation concept.
Miniaturised, highly-precise, modular
optics with provision for manual and
automatic alignment has been used in
its design.
The use of electronic modulation
technique for modulating lamp inten-
sity and synchronous demodulation
technique for improving signal-to-
noise ratio make Drishti highly effi-
cient. It is provided with landline and
Wi-Fi communication from runway to
air traffic control (ATC) room. It also
features web-enabled remote accessi-
bility for data and health monitoring of
the system from anywhere in the coun-
try. The system facilitates automated
Drishti at New Delhi Airport measurement of RVR (50-2000 metres)
and MOR (10-10,000 metres).
the price of an imported system, yet The system

Anagha P.
gives more precise readings than it. Drishti, developed by CSIR-NAL for
V
isibility on the runway is The device is rugged, has high Indian Meteorological Department
extremely important for safe mean time between failures and is (IMD), meets the specifications for
landing and take-off of an air- nearly maintenance-free. In fact, the visibility measurement instruments
craft. Hence visual-range accessors are Drishti system installed in New Delhi set forth by ICAO and WMO. It has
mandatory for all airport runways. airport in 2011 has never had a failure a field-programmable gate array
Till now the transmissometers or maintenance issue to date! (FPGA)-embedded hardware and web-
used in Indian airports were imported. Virtual instrumentation concept enabled data acquisition software built
The requirement of a highly-accurate, with a combination of modular hard- in LabView environment.
cost-effective, low-maintenance, in- ware and software design has made It basically comprises of a transmit-
digenous, state-of-the-art system on serviceability easier, while weather- ter (a lamp with spectral characteristics
par with more-expensive imported proof enclosures (IP65) for the elec- similar to runway lights) that sends
systems prompted development of the tronics hardware make the system collimated beam of light and a receiver
Drishti transmissometer at CSIR-NAL.
What is a transmissometer?
Indigenous, economical Visual range depends on several environmental factors like fog, snow, rain and storm. It
and rugged is commonly measured as meteorological optical range (MOR) or runway visibility range
Drishti is the only indigenously- (RVR). A transmissometer, also referred to as transmittance meter, is an instrument used
developed transmissometer of its kind to measure the transmission coefficient of the light passing through the atmosphere and
thereby determine the MOR and/or RVR.
available today. It costs just one-third

innovation
Installed systems
Features
After evaluating the performance
Transmitter Lamp with spectral characters similar to runway lights of Drishti system in the critical fog
Receiver Photo diode and suitable electronics. Photopically corrected to match season of December 2011 to Febru-
the human-eye response ary 2012, Indian Meteorological
Background 2 to 40,000 candela per square metre (cd/m2) covering the range Department requested CSIR-NAL to
luminance monitor of night, twilight, normal day and bright day install three more systems at Indira
(BLM) Measurement accuracy of 10%
Gandhi International Airport, New
Software Suitable Windows-based software in LabView environment Delhi, which is the most stringent and
Communication to Through Wi-Fi and landline crucial airport of India to cover the
control tower requirement of 2012-13 fog season. In
a record time of three weeks, the team
and Wi-Fi. developed the systems, installed them
From Inception to Fruition6 months
A multi-disciplinary and received the International Class I
June 2011: Concept and design field product, the suc- certification.
September 2011: Developed prototype cess of which is attrib- Currently there are seven Drishti
December 2011: Field installation at IGI Airport, New Delhi
uted to the effective and systems operating in three Indian in-
December 15, 2011: Two Drishti systems started functioning
at IGI Airport Runways 29 and 11 efficient use of phys- ternational AirportsIndira Gandhi
December 26, 2011: Drishti received International Class I ics, material science International Airport of New Delhi
Certification and several engineering (five systems), Lucknow International
streams, such as elec- Airport (one system) and NSCBI
tronics, computer science, communica- Airport of Kolkata (one system). A
The team behind Drishti tion, civil, environmental, structural, partnership agreement is signed with
Dr Shubha V.Chief Scientist electrical and mechanical engineering. Indian Meteorological Department,
Dr T.G. RameshHonorary Consultant who are the sole buyers, users and
G. SivakumarSoftware Engineer Challenges certifying agency for civilian airports,
Arul PaliganMechanical Engineer
R. Krishna MurthyMechanic There were several technical con- on 20th May 2014 and soon all the ci-
V. JithurajAssistant straints the team had to overcome vilian airports of the country will have
during the development of this prod- Drishti systems.
(an optical detector and associated uct. Since Drishti is a field equipment,
electronics photopically-corrected to it should be capable of withstanding Copyrights, patents,
match the human-eye response) that harsh environment conditions like rain, awards and recognition
is set up at a characteristic distance to fog, lightning and climatic variations The Drishti system holds 14 copy-
collect the transmitted beam. (extreme heat of about 55C during rights. There are four patents and a
Drishti is a 30-metre baseline sys- summer and snow in winter). As safety trademark filed for Drishti under Intel-
tem covering low and high visibility of aircraft cannot be compromised, a lectual Property Management Division
ranging from less than 25 metres to real-time operating system that works (IPMD)CSIR. Drishti has also been
about 10,000 metres. It is suitable for round the clock was necessary. Also, certified with International Class I
installation in all categories of air- the system should be rugged with high NOTAM (Notice to Air Man).
portCAT I, CAT II, CAT III A and mean time between failures. The system has been recognised
CAT III B. It also has provision for var- The Drishti team was able to meet by various organisations and has won
ying the baseline anywhere between 15 all these challenges successfully using several prestigious awards like the
metres to 75 metres as per international virtual instrumentation concept. With Aeronautical Society of India Award
standards. a highly customisable application for Indigenisation of Aeronautical
The instrument is set up parallel development software and modular Equipment, best innovation award of
to airport runway. A detector collects electronics hardware, a user-defined 2012 and 2013 by CSIR-NAL and IETE
the transmitted light beam and meas- system was developed. Increased reli- Diamond Jubilee Corporate Award for
ures the attenuation of light intensity ability was achieved by reducing the performance in Electronic Instruments
caused while traversing through the part count to minimum. Eco-friendly, & Instrumentation in 2013. It has also
atmosphere. It works on the principle miniaturised, high-precision optics received NRDC Meritorious Invention
that, higher the attenuation factor, were used. The effects of weather and 2012 award and IESA Technovation
lower will be the visibility of the run- climate were offset by housing the elec- 2013 award for Most Innovative Prod-
way. Data from field site is transmitted tronics, mechanical hardware and the uct.
to ATC room, which is usually located precision optics in environmentally-
4 to 5 kilometres away, through cable controlled enclosures. The author is a technical correspondent at EFY

Career
Data Analytics will be the

Next Big Thing for Engineers
There is a growing demand for engineers in the data analytics (DA) field, with some
companies particularly looking for electronics engineers with a penchant for programming
and mathematics. Of course, jobs in DA pay really well too! So let us find out the skills,
salary and what lies ahead for a career in DA
Abhishek A. Mutha that DA will be one of the coolest and that graduates from other streams
the fastest growing career paths in do not have. In short, he says, If
T
oday, most of the jobs available the coming decade, and we have seen an engineering graduate is looking
in data analytics (DA) are for studies that highlight a shortfall of for a career in data analytics, he/
computer science graduates, qualified candidates to meet the job she should focus on improving his/
but there are some companies that requirements in this space. her numerical computation skills,
particularly look for electronics engi- learn some numerical programming
neers. An engineering degree with a Why engineers language and explore the area of
knack for programming, statistics and Basically, engineers have a good blend statistics.
mathematics is the latest choice for of learning in technology, mathemat- Engineering graduates with a good
employers hiring in the DA domain. ics and data science. Sudeshna Datta, knowledge of programming and busi-
Anand Sankaran, senior principal EVP and co-founder, Absolutdata says, ness can have a well-defined career
architect, Verizon Data Services, India Engineers have been critical to the path in this sector. Harvard Business
informs that many universities in the growth of the analytics market in India School predicts that there is a serious
US, Europe and India have started spe- and are very apt to make a career in dearth of data scientists in the US
cialised courses both at graduate and DA. To add, now there are institutions alone. With open data movements
undergraduate levels to cater to the in- who help engineers learn the basics of gathering steam across the world,
creasing demand for DA professionals. machine learning and big data in the scope for engineering graduates to
The exponential growth in DA is curriculum.
catalysed by an unprecedented avail- However, Ashish Soni, chief Four Major Categories
ability of data, thanks to a steep fall analytics officer, Costarch believes
Hiring Data Analysts
of storage cost and the ubiquitous that engineering graduates fit into
need to extract valuable insights from the area of DA only if they have an 1. IT companies
2. KPOs (knowledge process outsourcing)
a volume of data to solve business inclination towards number crunch-
3. Captive analytics units
problems. He says, A recent article in ing. Their quantitative and computer 4. Niche analytics firms
the Harvard Business Review predicts skills give them the competitive edge
IT-software Bengaluru
Manufacturing and engineering Up to ` 500,000 (entry level) Mumbai
BFSI ` 500,000 to ` 1,000,000 (junior level) Delhi NCR
CRM/BPO/ITeS ` 1,000,000 to ` 1,500,000 (mid level) Chennai
Consulting services Over ` 1,500,000 (senior level) Hyderabad
Others Others
Fig. 1: Top five industries for data analytics (Data Fig. 2: Salary breakup of data analysts Fig. 3: Top five locations for data analytics
courtesy: TimesJobs.com) (Data courtesy: TimesJobs.com) (Data courtesy: TimesJobs.com)

Career
Demand areas
If you are someone who is good at discovering and Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.
com explained, DA is a high-demand
communicating meaningful patterns in data and are looking for profession that is going to continue
a career in data analytics, target IT software companies, and be to attract the best and brightest tech-
prepared to relocate to the southVivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com nological minds for a long time to
comemany CIOs today started out
as DA specialists. DA is the job of find-
Notable Organisations Typical Entry-Level ing business insights in figures and
Hiring in this Domain Job Profiles in Analytics factsat a junior-to-mid-level career
this comprises extracting information
1. Tata Communications 1. Business analyst from raw data. At a mid-to-senior-level
2. Ericsson 2. Data analyst/data scientist analyst
position, this information is processed
3. Amazon 3. Data manager
4. GE into knowledge that is leveraged for
4. Data engineer
5. IBM business growth.
6. Honeywell He further adds, If you are some-
7. Shell For engineers, roles will also be one who is good at discovering and
8. NTT Data of programmers, specifically for Java, communicating meaningful patterns
Python and R. in data and are looking for a career in
make a career in data analytics is Freshers with good knowledge of DA, target IT software companies and
huge, says Kaushank Nalin Khand- Hadoop and cloud computing will be prepared to relocate to the south
wala, manager, Data Centre and Ana- have a distinct advantage. as Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad
lytics Lab, IIM Bangalore. For experienced graduates, roles account for almost half of the jobs
range from business intelligence special- available in this sector.
Current opportunities ists, programmers, open source experts According to the data provided
for engineers to Hadoop engineers, cloud computing by TimesJobs.com, the top indus-
In the coming decade, social, mobile, experts, Java, Python, text mining spe- tries hiring DA professionals is the
analytics and cloud (SMAC) are the cialists and domain specialists. IT industry with about 42 per cent
strategic focus areas for many technol- share of jobs followed by the manu-
ogy companies. The entry-level roles Pay package facturing and engineering industry
in analytics are in the areas of data At PayScale.com, the average salary indi- with a share of 10 per cent. Bank-
modelling, data visualisation, business cated for an entry-level data analyst is ` ing, financial services and insurance
analysis and reporting. 257,383 per year. The skills that increase (BFSI) and ITES-BPO (information
Apart from their core field, engi- pay for this job the most are SAS, SPSS technology-enabled service-business
neers are now hired by IT companies, and quality improvement/QA. process outsourcing) have 9 per cent
KPOs, captive analytics units and A mid-career data analyst earns and 4 per cent of the jobs, respec-
niche analytics organisations across an average salary of ` 400,236 per tively (refer pie charts).
various entry-level roles, such as year. The highest paying skills as- Apart from Bangalore and Mumbai
management trainees, analysts and sociated with this job are database, that feature in the list of top locations
assistant managers in the risk, mar- SAS, Microsoft SQL server and SQL for jobs in the DA field with 25 per cent
keting and analytics consulting roles. (refer charts). and 16 per cent, respectively, Delhi
Over the last 14 months, the spike in Some industry experts preferred shares 19 per cent of the jobs and,
big data roles has also added to the to keep the pay packages confiden- Chennai and Hyderabad with 10 per
mix. tial and the others gave us a basic cent of the jobs each. Remaining jobs
There are a lot of opportunities for idea. At Costarch, Soni informs, We are scattered in other locations (refer
fresh engineering graduates who have do recruit engineers to work in this pie charts).
the right kind of skill set. The entry- domain with our company but we
level roles generally involve a profile do not have any fixed pay package Skills expected
where the graduates are required to for our recruits and it depends very Both freshers and experienced gradu-
aggregate, compile and screen the much on their skill sets. But to give ates should have a balanced mix of left
data and also prepare a datasheet for you an idea, the entry-level pack- brain and right brain skills, informs
further analysis. In addition, they may age varies between ` 240,000 and ` Anand. They need to be able to both
also be asked to explore the data to 450,000 and for experienced profes- count and connect the dots, be curious
find some insights before applying any sionals, it varies between ` 500,000 enough to question everything they
data analysis technique. to ` 1,000,000. see and sceptical enough not to ac-

Career
Expert Advice for a Career in Data Analytics

I see two distinct paths for a career in DA. One could choose to focus on a career that
is about extracting information from data or go further and choose a career that is about
distilling business wisdom from data. The latter is harder, riskier but challenging and in the
long run, more rewarding. Do not choose a career just because it has a buzz around it;
choose a career that creates a buzz within you. You could be twice lucky, if the career you
are interested in is also the one the market is interested in. Anand Sankaran, senior
principal architect, Verizon Data Services India
There are a lot of resources available on the Internet. All I can advise is that keep
improving your skills in this area because there is a big shortage for right kind of talent in
this area. Explore the platforms that deliver massive open online courses to develop your
skills and knowledge about the area. Ashish Soni, chief analytics officer, Costarch
Get your skin in the game. Learn as much as you can. Take up courses from free
online resources such as Coursera, EDX, Amazon web services. Play with open data sets.
There is a lot of scope for entrepreneurship with Cloud computing, analytics, big data and
open data movements gathering momentum. Time to think big and make a good impact.
Kaushank Nalin Khandwala, manager, Data Centre and Analytics Lab, IIM Bangalore
cept every answer

they hear, be both Major contributors to this report
an analyst and an
artist.
Key skills in-
clude logical think-
ing, analytical bent
of mind, strong
grip on mathemat- Anand Sankaran
senior principal
Ashish Soni
chief analytics officer,
Kaushank Nalin Sudeshna Datta
Khandwala EVP and co-founder,
ics, statistics and architect, Verizon Data Costarch manager, Data Centre Absolutdata
Services India and Analytics Lab, IIM
concepts of prob- Bangalore
ability. Madhukar
says, Those who
are comfortable playing with numbers making, surely the trend is changing.
complemented with data visualisation, Eventually data-based analytics is go-
good business understanding and ing to be the space to watch out for!
communication skills will do very With encouraging career pros-
well. pects and amongst the most well-paid
Talking about AbsolutData, Datta careers, DA jobs surely seem to be
says, The major areas that we expect the next big thing for engineers to
people to be strong are quantitative consider. It is already beginning to
ability, problem-solving skills, good revamp businesses and their abil-
aptitude and lateral thinking. On the ity to compete by helping them make
other hand, Soni notes, The skill sets smarter decisions. Analytics is the new
required to excel in this area include, career choice for those who want to
interest in number crunching, good stay ahead.
logic reasoning, knowledge and expe- Analytics is not too much into
rience with some statistical package, tools or technologies, it is a method of
programming knowledge and should thinking that permits the use of knowl-
be able to think out of the box. edge, tools and technologies to extract
valuable insights from data. Analytics
Future jobs and careers exist in most large
DA is a 23 billion dollar industry, in- companies in almost every industry
forms Datta. She says, Over the last vertical.
decade, India has witnessed a change
in even top tier strategy consulting The author is a senior technical correspondent
companies using data-based decision at EFY

dIy: project
Quiz Game Controller sani the

o
Dr D.K. Kaushik and Ashok Sharma tion is asked by the quiz

master, any of the partic-
T
his PIC16F877A microcon- ipating teams can press
troller-based quiz controller, the button and give the
designed for up to six players answer within the al-
or teams, is suitable for school and col- lotted time. A buzzer
lege quiz competitions. It is similar to sounds and a big 12.7cm
a fastest-finger-first system in which (5-inch) 7-segment dis-
the player who presses the button first play shows the number
gets the first chance to answer the quiz. of the team that presses
Here, each team is assigned a their pushbutton switch
unique number and provided with a first. Authors prototype
pushbutton switch. As soon as a ques- Fig. 1: Authors prototype is shown in Fig. 1.
L TP1
TP2
BR1=1A
230V 1 IC3 3 1 IC4 3
AC, 50Hz BR1 7805
7812 LED7
MAINS
2 2 POWER
C1 C2 C3
470u 0.1u R4
0.1u
N X1 35V 680E
X1=230V AC PRIMARY TO 15V, 500mA

TP0
SECONDARY TRANSFORMER
R1
10K LED6 R3
C4 1K
10u , 16V TP3 PZ1
LED5 PIEZO
11 32
R2 1.2K BUZZER
1 VDD VDD LED4
MCLR 40
2 RB7
S7 RESET RA0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
RB6 39
3 RA1 RB5 38 LED3
RNW1 37
4 RA2 RB4
1 36
5 RA3 RB3
10K RB2 35
6 RA4 RNW2 T1 BC547
RB1 34 LED2
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 RA5 100E
RB0 33 LED1
8 RE0 IC1 15
RC0
1
S1
9 RE1 PIC16F877A RC1 16
10 RC2 17
RE2
RC3 18
19 RD0 1 COMMON 9
RC4 23 IN1
S2 20 RD1 24 R5
RC5 2 16
21 IN2 OUT1
RD2 RC6 25
DIS1
22 RD3 RC7 26 3 15 R6 8
S3 IN3 OUT2
27 RD7 30 7
RD4 IC2 a CA
28 RD6 29 4 IN4 14 R7 6
RD5 OUT3 b
Vss Vss OSC1 OSC2 ULN2003 5 c
S4 5 13 2
14 IN5 OUT4 d
31 12 13 1
R8 e
XTAL1 6 OUT5 12 10
S5 IN6 f
20MHz R9 9 g
7 IN7 11 4 dp
OUT6
C5 C6 R10 CM
S6 8 10
33p 33p GND OUT7 3
R11
S1S6 = PLAYER1PLAYER6
R5R11 = 1K
GND
LED1LED6 = PLAYER1PLAYER6
Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the quiz controller

dIy: project
Circuit and working which forms the heart of the circuit, has
Test Points As shown in Fig. 2, the quiz game 8-bit processor with 8kB Flash memory,
Test point Details controller circuit is built around the 368-byte data memory and 256-byte EE-
TP0 0V popular PIC16F877A microcontroller PROM. In addition, it has three timers.
TP1 12V (IC1), driver ULN2003 (IC2), transistor A 7-segment (common-anode) display is
TP2 5V BC547 (T1), 7-segment display (DIS1), connected to the PIC controller through
TP3 Low when S7 is pressed some LEDs and switches. buffer ULN2003 on port C (RC0-RC6).
PIC16F877A. This microcontroller, Six pushbutton switches are con-
nected to port D (RD0-RD5) of the
microcontroller. This port is used as
the input port. The logic values of these
switches are scanned by the program
through this port at a very fast rate of
about 6 microseconds. The microcon-
troller keeps scanning the positions of
the switches and, when a switch shows
logic 1, it sends a signal to port B (RB7)
and the buzzer sounds.
Port B of the microcontroller acts as
output port for the LEDs also. Six LEDs
(LED1 through LED6) connected to port
pins RB0 through RB5 of IC1 are used
as visual indications. For example, if
the third team presses the switch first,
Fig. 3: Code compilation in Proton IDE LED3 will glow along with sounding of
the buzzer, and at the same time digit
3 will be displayed on DIS1.
Switch S7 is connected to pin 1 of
microcontroller for manual reset. Resis-
tors R1 and R2 and capacitor C4 form
the power-on reset circuitry.
ULN2003. The 7-segment display
DIS1 (SUNR400CA or its equivalent)
is driven by ULN2003 driver IC2. Pins
RC0 through RC6 of microcontroller
are connected to input pins IN1 through
IN7 of IC2. Its output pins OUT1
through OUT7 are connected to the seg-
ments a through g of DIS1.
Power supply. The power supply is
derived from 230V AC mains primary
to 15V, 500mA secondary transformer
X1. Bridge rectifier module BR1 rectifies
secondary output of the transformer,
capacitor C1 filters it and sends to input
of 7812 regulator IC3. The 12V regulated
DC output from IC3 is sent to input of
7805 regulator IC4 to power buzzer and
DIS1. The 5V DC from 7805 powers the
microcontroller.
Software
The program for microcontroller is writ-
ten in Basic and compiled using Proton
Fig. 4: Actual-size PCB layout for the quiz controller IDE v2.0. After compilation of the code

dIy: project
Parts List
Semiconductors:
IC1 - PIC16F877A microcontroller
IC2 - ULN2003 driver
IC3 - 7812, 12V regulator
IC4 - 7805, 5V regulator
T1 - BC547 npn transistor
BR1 - 1A bridge rectifier
DIS1 - 12.7cm (5-inch) 7-segment
display (common anode)
LED1-LED6 - 5mm white LED (high
intensity)
LED7 - 5mm red LED
Resistors (all -watt, 5% carbon):
R1 - 10-kilo-ohm
R2 - 1.2-kilo-ohm
R3, R5-R11 - 1-kilo-ohm
R4 - 680-ohm
RNW1 - 10-kilo-ohm resistor network
RNW2 - 200-ohm resistor network
Capacitors:
C1 - 470F, 35V electrolytic
C2, C3 - 0.1F ceramic
C5, C6 - 33pF ceramic
Miscellaneous:
XTAL1 - 20MHz crystal oscillator
X1 - 230V AC primary to 15V,
500mA secondary
transformer
S1-S6 - Pushbutton switch
S7 - Tactile switch
PZ1 - Piezobuzzer
efy Note
The source code of this project is
included in this months EFY DVD
Fig. 5: Component layout for the PCB and is also available for free down-
load at source.efymag.com
(quiz_mm.bas), if everythings fine, its component layout in Fig. 5. All the
you will see Compilation Success components are easily available in elec- on DIS1 and the buzzer should ring.
for Target Device 16F877A (20MHz) tronics components shops. After as- Simultaneously, the corresponding
message at the bottom of the screen, as sembling of the components properly LED near the switch should glow. The
shown in Fig. 3. The hex code gener- on the PCB, power supply connections LED and display switch off after six
ated by Proton IDE is used to burn into should be checked. seconds while the buzzer stops ringing
the PIC16F877A using PICSTART Plus Install the 7-segment display DIS1 after two seconds.
programmer. suitably so that it is visible to the quiz When a question is asked by the
master and the audience. It requires at quiz master, any team can respond by
Construction and testing least eight wires to connect to the PCB. pressing their switch. The switch first
An actual-size, single-side PCB layout Connection detail for each segment pressed is recognised by the micro-
for the circuit is shown in Fig. 4 and (a through g) is provided in Fig. 5 controller. Any other switches pressed
at DISP1. Next, install all six switches thereafter do not get registered. So the
(S1 through S6) at different locations team who pressed the button first can
where the six contesting teams can be allowed to give the answer.
reach them. House each switch and its For any problem in the display you
corresponding LED in a transparent can press reset switch S7 momentarily
enclosure, so that when you press the and check again. For further trouble-
switch and LED glows, it is visible to shooting, you can also verify the volt-
the quiz master. ages at various points given in the test
Switch on the power supply to points table.
start the quiz. On pressing any switch Dr D.K. Kaushik is principal and Ashok Sharma
(S1 through S6), the corresponding is technical assistant at Manohar Memorial (P.G.)
number (1 through 6) should appear College, Fatehabad (Haryana)

dIy: project
Arduino-Based FM Receiver Abhijeet

Rai
Madhuram Mishra
10K
VR1
his project is of an FM radio based on Philips
3
TEA5767 digital radio-receiver module.
2
VDD
Vss
VO
The radio receiver uses I2C interface with
D7
14
Arduino UNO development board. The TEA5767
D6
13
module offers such features as stereo or mono
D5
outputs, radio station scanning and signal strength
12
D4
indication. The authors prototype on a breadboard
FREQUENCY DOWN
S1
FREQUENCY UP
S2
11
D3
is shown in Fig. 1.
16X2 LCD
10
LCD1
D2
Circuit and working
9
D1
8
10K
10K
The circuit of the Arduino-based FM receiver,
R2
R1
D0
shown in Fig. 2, is built around Arduino UNO board
7
R/W EN
(board1), TEA5767 radio receiver module (FM1),
TP4
LM386 low-power amplifier (IC1), 162 LCD (LCD1)
TP3
and 8-ohm speaker (LS1). A/VEE
RS
4
K
Arduino UNO board. Arduino is an open source

16
15
electronics prototyping platform based on flexible,

easy-to-use hardware and software. It is intended for
artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in
AREF
GND
SCL
SDA
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
TX 1
RX 0
creating interactive objects or environments. ARDUINO DIGITAL
Arduino UNO is a board based on ATmega328
BOARD1
DRIVER
330E
USB
microcontroller. It has 14 digital input/output pins,

R3
ATMEGA328
six analogue inputs, a USB connection for program-

POWER
ANALOG
INPUT
GND
GND
ming the on-board microcontroller, power jack, an
3.3V
RST
Vin
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
5V
ICSP header and a reset button. It is operated with

a 16MHz crystal oscillator and contains everything
needed to support the microcontroller. It is easy to
use as the user simply needs to connect it to a com-
BATT.1
puter with a USB cable, or power it with an AC-to-

9V
DC adaptor or battery, to get started. The microcon-

5
troller on the board is programmed using Arduino

DATA
CLOCK
R/W
BUSMODE
Vcc
TP1
programming language and Arduino development

TEA 5767
FM1
GND
environment.
ROUT
LOUT
TP5 9 MPXO
TP0
GND
10 ANT
6
8
VR2
ANT.
10K
LM386 2
6
IC1
4
LS1 = 8OHM, 0.5W SPEAKER

1
7
TP2
8
25V
22u
C1
100u, 25V
10E
25V
C3
R4
10u
C2
LS1
Fig. 1: Authors prototype Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of the Arduino-based FM receiver

dIy: project
Pins A4 and A5 of the Arduino mode or 3-wire bus mode, selectable hardware programmer. It communi-
board are connected to DATA and via BUSMODE pin. In this project, the cates using the STK500 protocol. You
CLOCK pins of the FM module (FM1), module is operated in I2C mode by can also bypass the boot loader and
respectively. Pins 10 through 12 of the grounding the BUSMODE pin. program the microcontroller through
Arduino board are connected to EN, The module also provides 4-bit ICSP (in circuit serial programming)
R/W and RS pins of LCD1 while pins 2 level information via the bus. There header, but using boot loader pro-
through 5 are connected to data pins of is autonomous search tuning function gramming is quick and easy. Select the
the LCD. Pins 7 and 8 of the Arduino inbuilt in the module along with many correct board from Tools Board
board are connected to tactile switches more features. menu in Arduino IDE and burn the
S1 and S2 to increase and decrease FM Pins 3 and 6 of TEA5767 module program (sketch) through standard
frequency, respectively. (FM1) are connected to ground. Pins 7 USB port in the computer.
TEA5767 receiver module. The and 8 of FM1 provide outputs for right The source code for the same is
TEA5767 is a single-chip electronically- and left channel, respectively. provided with auto-scan function as
tuned FM stereo radio module for LM386 amplifier. The output well as without auto-scan function.
low-voltage applications with fully- signals from the module are very Programming steps. The program
integrated intermediate frequency low and inaudible, so we need to use for this circuit performs the following
(IF) selectivity and demodulation. The an audio-amplifier circuit. Here, for functions:
TEA5767 module is shown in Fig. 3. testing purpose, we use low-voltage 1. Initialising the TEA5767 module
Its operating power supply can range power amplifier LM386 at the left 2. Writing the data to TEA5767
from 2.5V to 5V (maximum). channel output. Use VR2 to adjust the module
The radio module is completely volume in the speaker. If you want 3. Reading the TEA5767 module
adjustment-free and requires a mini- stereo output, you should use another values
mum of small and low-cost external LM386 with the same configuration at 4. Displaying information on the
components. The oscillator in TEA5767 the right channel output of the module. LCD screen
operates with a 32.768kHz or 13MHz 5. Scanning available FM channels
external crystal. The module can be Software program 6. Increasing or decreasing the
configured to operate either in I2C The software of this project is written frequency by a unit defined value of
in Arduino programming language. particular MHz.
Test Points The Arduino UNO is programmed us- The source program is well com-
ing Arduino IDE software. ATmega328 mented, which can be seen by opening
Test point Details
on Arduino UNO comes with a boot the file in Arduino software.
TP0 0V loader that allows you to upload new Writing data to TEA5767. The use-
TP1 5V code to it without the use of external ful details about writing the byte and
TP2 9V reading the byte can be obtained from
Parts List page numbers 13 through 16 of the
TP3 Low when S1 is pressed
Semiconductors: datasheet (Rev.5).
TP4 Low when S2 is pressed
FM1 - TEA5767 digital radio-
TP5 Output of FM1 receiver module Wire.BeginTransmission(0x60);
LCD1 - 162 LCD This is used to start I2C communi-
BOARD1 - Arduino UNO board
IC1 - LM386 low-power amplifier
cation with the TEA5767 module
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon): The address of TEA5767 is 0x60
R1, R2 - 10-kilo-ohm during writing
R3 - 330-ohm
R4 - 10-ohm The address of TEA5767 is 0x61
VR1, VR2 - 10-kilo-ohm preset during reading
Capacitors: Wire.write(0x00);
C2 - 10F, 25V electrolytic This is used to send data to the I2C
C3 - 100F, 25V electrolytic device byte by byte
Miscellaneous:
S1, S2 - Tactile switch
The significance of various bytes
BATT.1 - 9V battery in TEA5767 is also mentioned on page
LS1 - 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker numbers 13 through16 of its datasheet.
ANT. - 75cm hookup wire antenna
Fig. 3: TEA5767 digital radio receiver module The data byte sequence for the write
mode is shown in Fig. 4; the remaining
detail can be found in the datasheet.
DATA BYTE 1 DATA BYTE 2 DATA BYTE 3 DATA BYTE 4 DATA BYTE 5
Bitwise operators used for pro-
WRITE MODE gramming the first two bytes of
Fig. 4: Write mode data sequence TEA5767 are explained below:

dIy: project
efy Note
and is also available for free down-
load on source.efymag.com
operation is for search-up or search-

down operation. The implementation
of these operations has been included
in the code.
R1 and R2 are pull-up resistors
connected at digital pins 7 and 8 of
Arduino board, respectively.
Construction and testing

An actual-size (Arduino shield type),
Fig. 5: Actual-size PCB layout for the Arduino
single-side PCB for Arduino FM re-
FM receiver Fig. 6: Component layout for the PCB ceiver is shown in Fig. 5 and its com-
ponent layout in Fig. 6. Assemble the
Bitwise operators Buffer [i]= Wire.read (); components on the recommended PCB
& (bitwise and) Wire.read (); is used to read the val- to avoid assembly errors. Double check
| (bitwise or) ues of all the five bytes in Read mode. for any overlooked error. TEA5767 is to
^ (bitwise xor) Displaying values on LCD screen. be mounted on solder-side of the PCB.
~ (bitwise not) The task of displaying values is per- A 75cm (wavelength/4) hookup
<< (bitshift left) formed by reading the values of bytes wire antenna should be connected at
>> (bitshift right) of the TEA5767 in read mode. pin 10 of the TEA5767 module.
Since structures of the first and the 1. The available frequency is dis- Switch on the circuit and use switch
second bytes are different, different played on LCD screen by reading first S1 or S2 to change frequency. Pressing
bitwise operators are used. byte stored in buffer(0); this value is S1 momentarily increases the frequency
Read mode. In read mode, we have stored in buffer during read operation and S2 decreases the frequency. Long
to note the following changes: 2. If search mode is high, a scan is pressing of any of the two switches will
1. When a station is found in search displayed on the screen enable auto scanning.
mode, as instructed during write op- 3. The signal strength is stored in LCD1 shows the selected frequen-
eration, the ready flag (RF) in first byte the 4th byte which can be obtained by cy, signal strength and whether the
is set to 1. That is, RF=1 reading the buffer(3) sound is mono or stereo.
2. The values of signal strength 4. The reception type is displayed To test the circuit for proper func-
level in 4th byte on screen by reading the buffer(3). tioning, first verify the correct voltages
3. Stereo or mono reception in 3rd Searching/changing the frequency. at various points as given in the test
byte Switches S1 and S2 are used to change points table.
For reading the values from the station/channel search or switch to
TEA5767, the following method is auto-scan mode. Search-up or search- The author is a final-year student of B.Tech (ECE)
used in the code by creating a buffer down operation depends on the switch from Truba Institute of Engineering & IT, Bhopal
as follows: pressed. The 7th bit of 3rd byte in write (MP)

dIy: project
Web-Based Device Controller t Rai
With Arduino Board

Abhijee
Priyanka Kumari 90 degrees. If the pulse is longer than hardware and software. It is intended
1.5ms, the shaft turns closer to180 de- for artists, designers, hobbyists and
A
rduino board can also be used grees as shown in Fig. 3. anyone interested in creating interac-
to control electrical devices Arduino UNO board. Arduino is tive objects or environments.
and appliances over the Inter- an open source electronics prototyping Arduino UNO is a board based
net. Just by clicking a few buttons on a platform based on flexible, easy-to-use on ATmega328 microcontroller. It
webpage, the devices can be operated consists of 14
from a remote location. For this the digital input/
board needs to be Ethernet-enabled output pins,
using Ethernet shield. This project six analogue
illustrates the point by using Wiznet inputs, a USB
W5100 Ethernet shield to control a TP1 connection for
servo motor and an LED. M1 = 5V, SERVO
MOTOR
programming
the on-board
Circuit and working microcontroller,
Fig. 1 shows circuit of the web-based power jack, an
device controller. The circuit is built ICSP header
around Arduino UNO board (board1), TP2
and a reset but-
Arduino Ethernet shield (shield1) and M1 ton. It is op-
servo motor (M1). TP0
erated with a
Servo motor. A servo motor mainly 16MHz crystal
consists of a DC motor, gear system, LED1 oscillator and
position sensor (generally a potentiom- R1 contains every-
eter) and control electronics as shown SHIELD1
680E thing needed
in Fig. 2. The DC motor is connected GND
to support the
to a gear mechanism, which provides Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the web-based controller microcontroller.
feedback to a position sensor. The po- It is very easy
tentiometer allows the control circuit to to use as the user simply needs to
Potentiometer
monitor the current angle of the servo Control Electronics
connect it to a computer with a USB
motor. If the shaft is at correct angle, Gear system cable or power it with an AC-to-DC
the motor shuts off. If the circuit finds adaptor or battery to get started.
that the angle is incorrect, it will keep DC Motor The microcontroller on the board is
the motor on until the angle is correct. programmed using Arduino pro-
A normal servo is used to control the gramming language and Arduino
angular motion up to 180 degrees. development environment.
Angle of rotation. The angle of Arduino Ethernet shield. The
servo motor rotation is determined by Servo Horn/Arm Arduino Ethernet shield allows an
the duration of a pulse that is applied Fig. 2: Servo motor components Arduino board to connect to the
to the control wire. The servo expects Internet. It is based on the Wiznet
a pulse every 20 milliseconds (0.02 W5100 Ethernet chip, which provides
seconds). The length of the pulse will 0
1ms 1ms
a network (IP) stack capable of both
determine how far the motor rotates. 90 TCP and UDP. It supports up to four
A 1.5-millisecond pulse, for example, simultaneous socket connections. Use
makes the motor turn to the 90-degree 1.5ms 1.5ms
the Ethernet library to write sketches
position (often called the neutral posi- 180 which connect to the Internet using
2ms 2ms
tion). If the pulse is shorter than 1.5ms, the shield.
the motor turns the shaft lesser than Fig. 3: Servo positions The Ethernet shield connects to

dIy: project
Test Points
Test point Details
TP0 0V
TP1 5V
TP2 PWM signals for servo motor (M1)
Parts List
Semiconductors: Fig. 5: An actual-size Fig. 6: Component
Board1 - Arduino Uno board PCB for the controller layout for the PCB
Shield1 - Arduino Ethernet shield Fig. 4: Ethernet shield on top of Arduino
LED1 - 5mm LED
Resistor (1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
burn the program (sketch) through
R1 - 680-ohm SD card. standard USB port in the computer.
Miscellaneous: On the Mega, the hardware SS pin
M1 - 5V servo motor
(pin 53) is not used to select either Construction and testing
W5100 or SD card, but it must be kept An actual-size, single-side PCB for
efy Note as an output, otherwise SPI interface the web-based device controller using
The source code of this project is wont work. Arduino is shown in Fig. 5 and its com-
included in this months EFY DVD Note that, because the W5100 and ponent layout in Fig. 6. Assemble the
and is also available for free down- SD card share the SPI bus, only one components on the recommended PCB
load at source.efymag.com can be made active at a time. If you to minimize assembly errors. Carefully
are using both peripherals in your assemble the components and double-
an Arduino board using long-lead program, this should be taken care of check for any overlooked error.
stackable headers (refer Fig. 4). This by the corresponding libraries. If you To check working of the project, fol-
keeps the pin layout intact and allows are not using one of the peripherals in low the steps below:
another shield to be stacked on top, if your program, however, you will need 1. Connect the servo as shown in the
needed. to explicitly deselect it. To do this with circuit diagram (Fig. 1)
The Ethernet shield has a standard the SD card, set pin 4 as an output and 2. Power up the Arduino board
RJ-45 connection, with an integrated write a high to it. For the W5100, set through power adaptor
line transformer and Power over Eth- digital pin 10 as a high output. 3. Connect Ethernet shield on top of
ernet (PoE) enabled. The reset button on the shield re- the Arduino board
There is an onboard microSD card sets both the W5100 and the Arduino 4. Connect the Ethernet shield with
slot, which can be used to store files for board. LAN cable through your router
serving over the network. It is compat- Digital pins 4 and 7 of the shield 5. Ping the IP address 192.168.0.160,
ible with the Arduino UNO and Ardui- (Shield1) are connected to LED1 and or change the IP address as per your
no Mega (using the Ethernet library). control pin of servo motor (M1), re- router setting.
The onboard microSD card reader is spectively. You need to change the IP address
accessible through the SD Library. in the source code, recompile and burn
When working with this library, digital Software into the microcontroller
pin 4 of the Arduino cannot be used. The software for this project is written Now you can access the servo (M1)
The shield also includes a reset in Arduino programming language. and LED1 using this IP address on your
controller, to ensure that the W5100 The Arduino UNO is programmed us- browser. If the connection is successful,
Ethernet module is properly reset on ing Arduino IDE software. ATmega328 you can see following user-interface
power-up. Previous revisions of the on Arduino UNO comes with a boot controls on your browser:
shield are not compatible with the loader that allows you to upload new 1. Turn on LED, Turn off LED
Mega board and need to be manually code to it without the use of external 2. Rotate Left, Rotate Right
reset after power-up. hardware programmer. It communi- You can switch on/off LED1 and
Arduino communicates with both cates using the STK500 protocol. You also control the servo motor M1 by
the W5100 and SD card using the SPI can also bypass the boot loader and clicking the appropriate button.
bus (through the ICSP header). They program the microcontroller through To test the circuit for proper func-
are connected to digital pins 10, 11, 12 ICSP (in-circuit serial programming) tioning, verify correct 5V supply for the
and 13 on the UNO and pins 50, 51 and header, but using boot loader pro- circuit at TP1 with respect to TP0.
52 on the Mega. On both the boards, gramming is quick and easy.
pin 10 (slave select or SS pin) is used Select the correct board from Tools The author is a final-year B.Tech (ECE) student of
to select the W5100 and pin 4 for the -> Board menu in Arduino IDE and Ansal Institute of Technology, Gurgaon

dIy: circuit
USB LED Light Cum Battery Charger s.c. dwiv

edi
T.K. Hareendran docked to USB. The light source is a

standard 1W white LED. Fig. 1 shows
N
Parts List
owadays, many devices with the authors prototype.
Semiconductors:
rechargeable batteries use
USB power to recharge them Circuit and working IC1
T1
- MCP73831 Li-ion charger
- IRFZ820A MOSFET
while they are connected. The USB in- Fig. 2 shows the circuit diagram of USB LED1, LED2 - 5mm LED
LED3 - 1W white LED
terface has the ability to power devices, LED flashlight cum charger whose
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
which can be used to charge a battery. front end (charger) is wired around the R1, R2 - 1-kilo-ohm
Here is an interesting yet simple advanced Li-ion linear charge-manage- R3 - 2.2-kilo-ohm
R4 - 10-kilo-ohm
circuit of a compact USB LED flash- ment chip MCP73831 (IC1). The 8-pin VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm linear potmeter
light with built-in lithium-ion (Li-ion) IC has features like high-accuracy cur- Capacitors:
battery and a dedicated battery-char- rent and voltage regulation, battery C1, C2 - 10F, 16V electrolytic
Miscellaneous:
ger circuit. It charges the battery in a conditioning, charge termination and
S1 - On/off switch
clever manner whenever the device is charge status indication. IC1 is fol- BATT.1 - 3.7V/3.9Wh Li-ion battery
lowed by a commonly- USB1 - USB B type connector
- 2-pin terminal connector
available 3.7V/3.9Wh
mobile phone Li-ion
battery and the 1W
Test Points
white LED (LED3) with
a simple MOSFET-based Test point Details
driver (T1). TP0 0V
The charging power TP1 5V
supply is derived from TP2 Battery voltage
the USB and the battery
charging is fully con- charging and glowing of LED2 indi-
trolled by MCP73831. cates that the battery is fully charged.
Glowing of LED1 indi- Switch S1 is used to turn flashlight
Fig. 1: Authors prototype cates that the battery is LED3 on or off. Here, a potentiometer
(VR1) is added deliberately to adjust
the intensity of the light output from
TP1 TP2
S1 near 0% to 100% in a smooth manner.
FLASH LED3
R1
1K
S1 = ON/OFF SWITCH
LIGHT 1W LED Note that, in this circuit configuration/
4
application, a current-limiting resistor
VDD VBAT 3 D
C1 LED1 IC1 BATT.1 is not very crucial for the white LED3.
10u CHARGING MCP73831 3.7V
16V
LED2
1
STAT
Vss
PROG 5
C2
VR1 G Construction and testing
10u 10K POT
T1
USB1
CHARGED 2
16V
S
IRFZ820A
An actual-size, single-side PCB for the
R3
USB B TYPE R2
R4
MOSFET circuit is shown in Fig. 3 and its com-
1K 2.2K
10K ponent layout in Fig. 4. After assem-
TP0 bling the circuit on a PCB, enclose it in
a suitable plastic box. Use heat sink for
Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of USB LED flashlight cum battery charger LED3 or buy the IC with an embedded
heat sink and connect
it to the PCB using
external wires. Before
using the circuit, verify
the test point voltages
given in the table.
The author is a freelance
technical writer and circuits
Fig. 3: PCB layout for the circuit Fig. 4: Component layout for the PCB designer

dIy: circuit
Telephone Tapping Using FM s.c. dwiv

edi
Karunesh Shukla 24SWG enamelled copper wire wound

over 5mm air core. L1 is made of 8
T
his is an interesting circuit turns, L2 of 6 turns and L3 of 10 turns Parts List
which you can connect to a with a tapping at fourth turn. Vari- Semiconductors:
D1-D4 - 1N4148 diode
telephone line to listen to the able capacitor VC1 is used for tuning T1, T2 - BC547 npn transistor
conversations through any FM radio the transmitted frequency. Diodes D1 Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
R1 - 220-ohm
receiver. Power for the circuit is drawn through D4 rectify the telephone line R2 - 33-kilo-ohm
from the telephone line itself, so it does voltage which drives the circuit. R3 - 10-kilo-ohm
R4 - 47-kilo-ohm
not require a power supply of its own. Working of the circuit is simple. R5 - 390-ohm
The telephone wires act as the antenna Connect the circuit in parallel to the Capacitors:
for the audio signal. telephone line to listen to the conver- C1, C3 - 22pF ceramic disk
C2 - 100nF ceramic disk
sation between the calling and the C4 - 1nF ceramic disk
Circuit and working called parties. Keep switch S1 on and C5 - 10pF ceramic disk
C6, C7 - 47pF ceramic disk
Fig. 1 shows the circuit diagram of tel- tune your FM radio until you hear the C8 - 100F, 25V electrolytic
ephone tapping circuit using FM. The conversation. VC1 - 50pF variable capacitor
circuit is built around transistors T1 Miscellaneous:
and T2 and bridge diodes D1 through Construction and testing CON1

S1
- 2-pin connector
- On/off switch
D4. Coils L1 through L3 are made of An actual-size, single-side PCB for L1 - 8 turns, 5mm dia, 24SWG
air core
L2 - 6 turns, 5mm dia, 24SWG
air core
L3 - 6 turns + 4 turns, 5mm dia,
R1 TP3 24SWG air core
L2
220E R2
R3 VC1 6T D2 D1
R4 C1
10K 47K 22p 50p L3
6T+4T
33K 1N4148 1N4148 Test Points
C2 C7
C6 L1 Test point Details
47p 8T TP1 S1
100n 47p
CON1 Across TP0 9V-12V, provided S1 is switched
C5 TP0
C8
and TP1 on during conversations
T1 10p
C4 BC547 100u Across TP2
1n C3 25V D4 and TP3 6V (approx.)
R5 T2 D3
22p 1N4148
390E BC547 1N4148
TP2 tapping a telephone line using FM is
GND
shown in Fig. 2 and its component
CON1 = TELEPHONE LINE
layout in Fig. 3. After assembling the
Fig. 1: The telephone tapping circuit circuit on PCB, enclose it in a suitable
plastic box.
Fix 2-pin connector CON1
for connecting the telephone
line. Fix switch S1 on front panel
of the box. Before using the
circuit, verify the test point volt-
ages mentioned in the table.
The author is a B.Tech (ECE) from Prasad
Institute of Technology, Jaunpur, UP. He is
currently working as a senior hardware
Fig. 2: An actual-size PCB layout for the circuit Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB R&D engineer at ESP Safety Pvt Ltd, Delhi

dIy: circuit
Efficient 5V Relay Driver

Parts List
Semiconductors:
IC1 - MAX4624 analogue switch
D1, D2 - 1N4007 rectifier diode
EFY LAB of 5V. Note that the voltage re-
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
quired to turn a relay on (pick-
T
R1 - 4.7-ohm
his design idea outlines e d i up voltage) is greater than that R2 - 27-kilo-ohm
s.c. dwiv Capacitors:
a method to use an ana- required to keep it on (dropout C1 - 100F,16V electrolytic
logue switch and discrete voltage). The relay normally C2 - 0.15F ceramic disk
components to reduce the power has a 3.5V pick-up voltage and Miscellaneous:
S1 - On/off switch
dissipated in relay actuation. We intro- a 1.5V dropout voltage, yet the circuit RL1 - 5V, 1 c/o relay
duced a power-saving relay-driver circuit allows it to operate from an interme- CON1 - 2-pin terminal connector
for a 12V relay in May issue. Presented diate supply voltage of 2.5V. Table I CON2 - 3-pin connector
here is an MAX4624-based circuit to compares the relays power dissipation

drive a 5V relay in a more efficient way. with fixed operating voltages across it, Table I
Relays are often used as electrically- and with the Fig. 1 circuit in place. Relay Power
controlled switches. Unlike transistors, When you close switch S1, current Voltage Power
their switch contacts are electrically flows in the relay coil and capacitors
5V normal operating voltage Around 450mW
isolated from the control input. On the C1 and C2 begin to charge. The relay
2.5V with circuit shown in Fig. 1 Around 112mW
other hand, the power dissipation in a remains inactive because the supply
relay coil may be too much for battery- voltage is less than its pick-up voltage.
operated applications. You can lower The RC time constants are such that Table II
this dissipation by adding an analogue C1 charges almost completely before Test Points
switch that allows the relay to operate at the voltage across C2 reaches the logic Test point Details
a lower voltage. threshold of the analogue switch. When
TP0 0V
C2 reaches that threshold, IC1 connects
Circuit and working C1 in series with the 2.5V supply and
TP1 2.5V
TP2 Between 4V and 5V without
Fig. 1 shows circuit diagram of the effi- relay coil. This action turns on the relay connecting relay
cient 5V relay driver. The circuit is built by boosting the voltage across its coil to
around 1, low-voltage, single-supply around 5V (twice the supply voltage). C1, should be sufficiently small to allow
SPDT (single-pole, double-throw) ana- As C1 discharges through the coil, C1 to charge rapidly, but large enough
logue switch MAX4624 (IC1). the coil voltage drops back to 2.5V to prevent the surge current from ex-
Power consumed by the relay coil minus the drop across D1, but the ceeding the peak current specified for
equals V2/RCOIL. The circuit lowers this relay remains on because that voltage the analogue switch.
dissipation (after actuation) by applying is above the relays dropout voltage The value of C1 depends on the re-
less than the normal operating voltage (1.5V). Component values for this cir- lay characteristics and on the difference
cuit depend on between input voltage and the relays
R2 D1 C1 TP2 the relay charac- pick-up voltage. Relays that need more
S1
27K 1N4007 100u teristics and the turn-on energy require larger C1 values.
TP1 1 6 16V N/O
IN NO
supply voltage. The values for R2 and C2 are selected to
2 V+ IC1 COM 5
MAX4624
D2
N/C
The value of R1, allow C1 to charge almost completely
1N4007
which protects
3 4
CON1
GND NC
RL1
CON2 before C2s voltage reaches the logic
C2 FOR LOAD
2.5V
0.15u
R1
4.7E
5V 1C/O
RELAY
the analogue threshold of the analogue switch.
TP0
switch from the
S1 = ON / OFF SWITCH GND initial current Construction and testing
Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the efficient 5V relay driver surge through An actual-size, single-side PCB for ef-
ficient 5V relay-driver is shown
in Fig. 2 and its component lay-
out in Fig. 3. After assembling
the circuit on PCB, enclose it in
a suitable plastic box.
Before connecting the load,
verify that the voltages at vari-
ous points are as per Table II.
The circuit is based on Max-
Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB for the circuit Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB im application notes.

dIy: circuit
Difference Counter for In and Out Gates

Petre Tzv Petrov release S1, its pole returns to its Also, resetting occurs through capaci-
original position at terminal 1. tor C7 whenever power is switched on.
S
ometimes, we need to chabhaiy Thus, for every action of press-
a The outputs of IC1 are decoded by
vivek pan
know whether someone ing and releasing switch S1, CD4511 (IC2), which has internal 4-bit
is still inside a building there is an increment in display latch, decoder and output drivers. The
before it is locked. And if so, DIS1 till 9. Pressing switch S3 internal latch is always enabled be-
how many persons are still inside? momentarily resets the counter to 0. cause pin 5 (LE) is connected to ground
There can be many other similar situ- Switch S2 is also an SPDT switch permanently. The outputs of IC2 drive
ations for which the circuit presented that works exactly like switch S1, but common-cathode 7-segment display
here can come handy. But it needs it is used for decrementing the count LTS543 (DIS1). Since pin configura-
separate in and out gates to work and in DIS1. Switch S2, together with gates tions may be different for the other
can count up to nine persons (inside) N3 and N4 of IC4 generates a pulse for displays, always check their datasheets
only. Though, it can be extended to decrementing the counter in IC1. Parts List
count more. The counter can be expanded to Semiconductors:
display more digits through the output IC1 - CD40192 up/down decade
Circuit and working pins 12 and 13 of IC1, if needed. High- counter
IC2 - CD4511 BCD to 7-segment
Fig. 1 shows circuit of the difference level signal on pin 14 (reset) clears all driver
counter, built around four ICs, for use internal triggers. That is, when switch IC3 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator
IC4 - CD4011 quad NAND gate
between entrance and exit doors. Switch S3 is pressed momentarily, IC1 is reset.
D1 - 1N4001 rectifier diode
S1, which is an SPDT switch, together LED1 - 5mm LED
with gates N1 and N2 of CD4011 (IC4) Test Points Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
R1-R4 - 10-kilo-ohm
generates a pulse for incrementing R5-R11 - 330-ohm
Test point Details
counter CD40192 (IC1). CD40192 is a R12 - 22-kilo-ohm
BCD pre-settable up/down (bidirec- TP0 0V R13 - 1-kilo-ohm
TP1 5V Capacitors:
tional) counter. The counter moves up C1-C3, C5, C7 - 0.33F ceramic disc
or down with the positive clock edges TP2 Low to high signal when S2 is C4 - 47F, 16V electrolytic
applied to its corresponding pin 5 (clock pressed and released C6 - 470F, 25V electrolytic
TP3 Low to high signal when S1 is Miscellaneous:
up) or pin 4 (clock down). S1-S2 - SPDT foot switch
pressed and released
When you press S1, its pole comes S3 - Tactile switch
TP4-TP7 Binary values (0 or 1) equivalent to the CON1 - 2-pin terminal connector
in contact with its terminal 3, which is
respective displays shown on DIS1 DIS1 - LTS543 7-segment display
connected to pin 5 of IC4. When you
S1 S2 = SPDT SWITCH S3 = TACTILE SWITCH C1 C3, C5, C7 = 0.33u TP1 D1 1N4001

3 IC3 1
S3 7805
C4
R4 2 R3 RESET C5
GND C1 C2 C3 47u 2
10K S2 10K R13 C6 0.33u
16V
EXIT 1K 470u CON1
1 C7
TP2 25V 915V
3 TP4
15 16 7 16 LED1
J1 Vcc A Vcc
TP5
Vcc 14
13
12
11
10
8
9
1 J2 11 1 B 13
PRESET a
TP6 R5
N4
N3
10 J3 3 2 C 12 8 3
Q1 b
IC4 TP7 R6 CC CC
9 J4 IC1 2 6 D IC2 11
CD4011 Q2 c
CD40192 CD4511 R7 5 dp a 7
N2
N1
7 GND
5 CLK UP 6 5 LE 10
Q3 d
R8
4 BL 9
1
4 CLK DOWN Q4 7 e 10 g b 6
3 LT 15
R9
14 RESET BORROW 13 f
TP3 ENTRANCE f e d c
8 GND 12 8 GND 14 R10
1 3 CARRY g 9 1 2 4 DIS1
R1 S1 R12 LTS543
R2 R11
10K 2 22K
10K
TP0 R5 R11 = 330E
GND
Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the difference counter

dIy: circuit
CON1 and can be AC or DC in the
range 9-15V.
Construction and testing

An actual-size, single-side PCB for the
difference counter is shown in Fig. 2
and its component layout in Fig. 3.
Mount the components on the
PCB to save time and avoid assem-
Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout for the counter bly errors. Carefully assemble the
components and double check for
any overlooked error. Check/verify
the voltages at various points as per
the table.
You may use any type of SPDT
switches (S1 and S2) to check the
increment and decrement in DIS1 dis-
play. But for practical application, S1
and S2 should be SPDT foot switches,
which could be fitted in level with the
floor at the entrance and exit doors,
Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB respectively.
The author was a researcher and assistant profes-

before use. we have used 330-ohm resistors.
sor in Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and
Resistors R5 through R11 are usu- Power supply of the circuit is built expert-lecturer in OFPPT (Casablanca), Kingdom
ally in the range of 120 to 470 ohms, around linear regulator 7805 (IC3). The of Morocco. Now he is working as an electronics
depending on the type of DIS1. Here, input voltage is applied to connector engineer in the private sector in Bulgaria

diy: tips & technique
Interfacing Dot Matrix LED

with Raspberry Pi
habhaiya
vivek panc
Somnath Bera to manipulate the I2C bus using follow- Once the software is installed, re-
ing commands (also refer Fig. 4): boot your Raspberry Pi so that these
Y
ou will find in this article pro- $ sudo apt-get update effects take place permanently. Also
jects for interfacing an 88 and $ sudo apt-get install python-smbus install Python and python-dev on
a 57 dot-matrix display with i2c-tools Raspberry Pi using following com-
Raspberry Pi. mands (also refer Fig. 5):
Since Raspberry Pi does not have $ sudo apt-get install
enough GPIOs, we have used its I2C python python-dev
bus to connect to MCP23017 IO ex- For interacting with
pander to have 16 additional GPIOs for the GPIO through Py-
connecting to LED dot-matrix display thon, you have to install
such as 88 or 57. Pin 3 (SDA) and the GPIO Python librar-
pin 5 (SCL) are I2C pins on Raspberry Fig. 1: Adding the lines in /etc/modules ies. The latest library
Pi board. Some libraries in the form available is RPi.GPIO-
of a GPL Python script, taken from 0.5.5.tar.gz. Download
Adfruit.com, are used in this project to the same from the link
manage the extended GPIOs. below:
First, you will see how a single 8x8 Fig. 2: Editing the raspi-blacklist.conf file http://raspberry-
LED matrix is interfaced with GPIOs gpio-python.googlecode.
through MCP23017. Then you can com/files/
expand the project to interface more Unzip or extract the
dot-matrix displays. tar file by using com-
mand (also refer Fig. 6):
System set up tar zxvf RPi.GPIO-
To use I C on Raspberry Pi, you need
2 Fig. 3: Commenting the code 0.5.5.tar.gz
to enable a few things inRaspbian Now change directo-
Wheezy operating system as these are ry to the RPi.GPIO-0.5.5
not enabled by default. This is a fairly and write the following
easy process. First you edit the mod- command (also refer Fig.
ules file using the command: Fig. 4: Install the Python-smbus and I2C tools 7):
$ sudo nano /etc/modules $ sudo python setup.py
and add the following two lines install
(also refer Fig. 1): The command will
i2c-bcm2708 install Raspberry Pi
i2c-dev GPIO library into Py-
Save the file and exit nano. Next, Fig. 5: Installing Python packages thon. Now reboot the
open the raspi-blacklist.conf file by Raspberry Pi using com-
writing the command (also refer Fig. 2): mand:
$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/ $ sudo reboot
raspi-blacklist.conf
Comment out the code by putting Fig. 6: Extracting the tar file Project 1:
# symbol at the beginning of the two
Multiplexing of
lines as given below (also refer Fig. 3)
8x8 dot-matrix
and then save and exit.
display
#blacklist spi-bcm2708 In this project, you will
#blacklist i2c-bcm2708 use two separate files
Now install the necessary software Fig. 7: Installing the setup.py one to create a template

up the microprocessor and damage
it. Also ensure the reset pin 18 of
MCP23017 is connected with +5V
rail.
Circuit and working

To test the I2C connection on Raspberry
Pi, open the terminal and issue the fol-
lowing command:
Fig. 8: Multiplexing with GPIOs using 8x8 dot-matrix display $ sudo i2cdetect -y 0
or
$ sudo i2cdetect -y 1
If your Raspberry Pi is version 1
then use 0, else 1, and watch the screen
shown in Fig. 10 appear at the terminal
prompt.
Congratulations! Your Raspberry
Pi has successfully detected the hard-
R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 ware at 0x20 address. The address is
R1 R8 = 470E
13 3 4 10 6 11 15 16 020 because all the three address pins
1
GPB0 GPA7 28 9 (A0, A1, A2) of MCP23017 are set low.
2 27
3
GPB1 GPA6
26
14 If you had set only A0 high (connected
GPB2 GPA5
4 GPB3 GPA4 25
8 to +5V) the address would have be-
5
GPB4 IC1 GPA3 24 12 come 021.
6 GPB5
MCP23017GPA1
GPA2 23 1 This signifies one fundamental
7 22
8
GPB6
21
7 issue with I2C communications: You
GPB7 GPA0
2
PIN2 9 20 can connect any number of devices
RASPBERRY PI
VDD INTA
5
18
RESET INTB 19 on the I2C bus (pin 3 and pin 5) but
PIN6 10
Vss NC 11
all devices should have unique ad-
PIN5 12 A2 17 DIS1
PIN3 13
SCL
16 dresses. So, setting A0, A1 and A2
SDA A1 8X8 CC DOT MATRIX DISPLAY
14
NC A0 15 pins will define different addresses
for different devices. You can also
control the device by issuing ap-
Fig. 9: Circuit of 8x8 dot-matrix display propriate command. You may try
this as explained below to gain more
the changes in letter.py code confidence.
and the same will be drawn on There is another way of testing the
the LED matrix. I2C connection on Raspberry Pi. Con-
Make the connections as nect an LED on A0 pin and issue the
per the circuit shown in Fig. 9. following commands:
MCP23017 (28-pin DIP) is used $ sudo i2cset 0x20 0x00 0x00 # this
here as it has 16 GPIOs8 for will switch on the LED on A0
rows and 8 for columns of 8x8 $ sudo i2cset 0x20 0x00 0x01 # this
Fig. 10: Testing I2C connection LED matrix. Remember to use will switch off the LED on A0
current-limiting resistors, whose The command line program is easy,
values can be between 470 ohms provided you understand the binary
and 1-kilo-ohm, in series with and hex conversion. Adafruit.com has
the LEDs. an excellent library using which we
Fig. 11: Running the Python code Four wires are connected to can manipulate these GPIOs in a far
the Raspberry Pitwo for I2C more lucid way. The files include Ada-
of figures on the 8x8 dot- matrix (us- and two for 5V supply and ground fruit_I2C.py, Adafruit_MCP230xx.py,
ing 1s) and the other to control the connections. letter.py and mcplight9.py
GPIOs for drawing figures on the Before testing, make sure that 5V Now open the terminal and write
LED matrix. So whatever letter or supply is going to the correct pin in the command given below (also refer
character you want to display, make Raspberry Pi board, else it will heat Fig. 11):

efy Note
The source codes of this project are
and are also available for free down-
load at source.efymag.com
R1 R5 = 470E R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
$ sudo python mcplight9.py 1
GPB0 GPA7 28 13 3 11 10 6
9
Now you will see different charac- 2
GPB1 GPA6 27
3 26
ters visible on your dot-matrix display 4
GPB2 GPA5
25
14
GPB3 GPA4
as shown in Fig. 8. Each character will 5
GPB4 IC1 GPA3 24 8
be displayed on the LED matrix one 6 GPB5 GPA2 23 5

7 MCP23017GPA1 22
after another. 8
GPB6
21
1
GPB7 GPA0 7
PIN2 9 20
Project 2: Multiplexing of
RASPBERRY PI
VDD INTA
18 19
2
INTB
5x7 dot-matrix display PIN6 10
RESET
Vss NC 11
PIN5 12 17 DIS1
A2
Similarly, by using Adafruit libraries, PIN3 13
SCL
A1 16 5X7 CA DOT MATRIX DISPLAY
SDA
as you did in the first project, you can 14
NC A0 15
do the multiplexing of 5X7 dot-matrix

display. The libraries include Ada-
fruit_I2C.py, Adafruit_MCP230xx.py, Fig. 12: Circuit diagram of 5X7 dot-matrix display
efy.py and mcplight9.py.
First make the connections as on the 5x7 LED matrix. Save and exit sequentially, one by one, on the 5x7
shown in Fig. 12. Then open the nano the nano editor. dot-matrix display.
editor by writing the command: Now run the code by using the
The author is an avid user of open source soft-
$sudo nano efy.py command: ware. Professionally, he is a thermal power expert
Now write the efy.py code. This $sudo python efy.py working as an additional general manager at NTPC
python script will create the word EFY It will display E, F and Y characters Limited

Modify Servo Motor habhaiya
for Continuous Movement

vivek panc
Pooja Juyal in Fig. 2. Breaking the motion-

3. There are two sets of wires; one hindering points
S
ervo motors are widely used coming out of the motor and one com- 8. To break the motion-hindering
in precise control applications, ing out of the potentiometer. Cut the points, the rim of the rivet needs to be
but most of them can rotate up wires coming out of the potentiometer removed. For doing so choose a drill
to 180 degrees only. Presented here and do not damage the wires coming bit which is a little bigger than the in-
is a process for modifying servo mo- out of the motor, as shown in Fig. 3. ner hole of the tiny rivet, as shown in
tors so that these can rotate up to 360 4. Open the top cover of motor to Fig. 8.
degrees in either direction (clockwise take out the potentiometer, as shown 9. While drilling, do not press hard
and anticlockwise). This would permit in Fig. 4. and try not to get any grease on con-
the motors use for wider applications 5. Pay attention to the gear contact. Stop drilling as soon as doughnut-
without using additional controllers. figuration (better take a photograph shaped rim of the rivet drills out, as
The modification of a servo motor of it) as this will be needed during re- shown in Fig. 9.
can be done using the following com- assembly, as shown in Fig. 5.
ponents and tools: 6. The knob shown in Fig. 6 helps
1. Two 2.2k , 1%, 0805 resistors limit the servos movement.
2. Soldering iron 7. Slowly pull the gear arrangement
3. Multimeter and potentiometer out of the casing.
4. Wire cutter Try to minimise the movement be-
5. Precision screwdriver tween the gear arrangements. Cut the
wires hanging from potentiometer, as
De-assembling shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 5: Assembly of top part of the motor
the servo motor
1. Remove any tags or stickers from
the body of motor and open its front
cover by removing the screws holding
the motor together, as shown in Fig. 1.
2. Slowly open the front cover.
There is circuit board, potentiometer
and motor inside the casing, as shown
Fig. 6: Knob of the motor
Fig. 1: Removing the front cover Fig. 3: Cutting the wires of potentiometer
Fig. 2: Circuit inside the casing Fig. 4: Opening top cover of the motor Fig. 7: Removing the gear arrangement of motor

Fig. 11: Removing the limiter Fig. 15: Soldering the rivet back
Fig. 8: Removing the rim of the rivet

Fig. 12: Removing the limiter
Fig. 13: Removing the knob Fig. 16: De-soldering the wires from driver board
Fig. 9: Drilling the rim
Fig. 14: Placing the shaft and end-stop back
10. Now remove the end-stop and

put it aside, as shown in Fig. 10.
11. The bumps on the potentiom-
eter also help in preventing a continu-
ous rotation, but breaking these will
damage the motor. So follow the tech-
nique mentioned below:
The limiter and foil contact are
pressed close together. Remove the Fig. 17: Soldering the two 2.2k resistor on board
limiter using pliers or cutter, as shown
in Fig. 11. the limiter by snipping it, as shown in
12. Detach the limiter completely Fig. 12.
without affecting the shaft. The foil 13. Now remove the knob (men-
Fig. 10: Removing the end stop contacts will come off easily. Remove tioned in step 6), as shown in Fig. 13.

14. Put the shaft and its end-stop
back to original position (apply some
petroleum jelly on shaft inner side), as
shown in Fig. 14.
Modification
15. For modification, solder the rivet
back in its position, as shown in Fig.
15. Spin the shaft to ensure it rotates
easily. Fig. 18: Re-assembling the gears
16. De-solder the wires from the

driver board, as shown in Fig. 16.
17. Mount two resistors to make the
driver sense that the potentiometer is
always on its centre position. The re-
sistors should be of 1% tolerance to en-
sure the precision required. The value
of the resistors should be 2.2-kilo-ohm
each, and 0805 package, as shown in Fig. 20: Modified servo motor
Fig. 17.
Fig. 19: Assembling the potentiometer inside case
fit inside the housing and none of them
Re-assembly is getting pinched. Put the screws back
18. Re-assemble all the parts of gear the case, as shown in Fig. 19. Do not and the servo motor is ready, as shown
assembly in their correct order (refer try to rotate the gear assembly at this in Fig. 20.
to the previously-clicked pictures of time.
the gear assembly), as shown in Fig. 18. 20. Put back the PCB inside the The author is working as an assistant manager at
19. Push potentiometer back into case. Ensure that all the wires properly Samtel Avionics Ltd

dIy: software
Designing Dual-Priority Encoder

Using LabView sani the
o
Paluru Sunitha and Naga Sunil Round LED (this is where we see the
Manohar Bole output) and drop it on to Front Panel
and label it as output A2. Similarly, se- Step 6. Select Modern -> Decora-
I
n priority encoder, if two or more lect other three such outputs and label tions -> Recessed Frame and adjust its
inputs are equal to 1 at the same them as A1, A0 and AVALID. These size such that the outputs (A2, A1, A0
time, the input having the highest will be used for the first-highest-prior- and AVALID) are positioned inside the
priority will take precedence. In case of ity encoder output. Following the same frame for neat appearance. Similarly,
dual-priority encoder, the circuit iden- steps as above, label them as B2, B1, B0 arrange the remaining outputs (B2, B1,
tifies both the highest-priority and the and BVALID for the second-highest- B0 and BVALID) in another recessed
second-highest-priority asserted signal priority encoder output. Arrange them frame.
among a set of input signals. Presented in sequential order as shown in Fig. 1. Step 7. Use A[2:0] and AVALID to
here is an eight-input dual-priority identify the high-
encoder designed using LabView est-priority request,
versions 12. In LabView, Front Panel where AVALID is
serves as the user interface and Block asserted only if at
Diagram contains the graphical source least one request in-
code that defines the functionality of put is asserted. Use
the virtual instrument (VI). Following B[2:0] and BVALID
are the steps required to design dual- to identify the sec-
priority encoder using NIs LabView: ond-highest-prior-
Step 1. Open LabView and press ity request, where
Ctrl+N followed by Ctrl+T keys to BVALID is asserted
open the tiling Front Panel and Block only if at least two
Diagram. request inputs are
Step 2. Go to Front Panel and from asserted.
the menu bar select View->Controls Right click on
->Modern->Push Button (this is where the Front Panel,
we give input), drag and drop it on select Modern-
to Front Panel and label it as input I0. Fig. 1: Front Panel >Decoration->Thin
Similarly, select seven such inputs and Line with Arrow
label them as I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6 and I7. option and drag
Arrange them in sequential order as and drop on the
shown in Fig. 1. Here, input I7 has the Front Panel and
highest priority. place the arrow to
Step 3. Select View->Controls-> each input line as
Modern->Boolean-> Vertical Toggle shown in Fig. 1.
switch and label it as En, place it Step 8. Go to
above the inputs. This is an active low Block Diagram
enable input. workspace (refer
Step 4. Select Modern-> Decora- Fig. 2) and select
tions-> Flat Frame and adjust its size View-> Functions
such that all the inputs are positioned -> Programming->
on its left side for neat appearance. Structures-> Case
Double left click on the Front Panel Structure and drop
and type dual priority encoder and it on to Block Dia-
drag it inside the frame. gram. (Note. Three
Step 5. Select Modern-> Boolean-> Fig. 2: Block Diagram Case Structures are

dIy: software
drop it on to inside the main Case Structure. If la-
Block Diagram. bels in the menu appear as True and
Give the output False, modify them to 0 and 1, respec-
of Bool to (0, 1) tively. Right click on case selector or
to one of the in- menu, select Add Case After option
puts of Equal ?. and label it as 2. Similarly, do the same
Place cursor on for the other five cases and label them
the second input as 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
of Equal ? and Step 17. Connect the output of the
right click on it. Select function of I7 to selector terminal
Select Create- ? of the inner upper Case Structure.
>Constant and Step 18. Select case 0 and then se-
put value 1. lect Programming->Boolean-> False
Step 12. Se- Constant and connect the output
lect Program- of False Constant (labeled as F) to
Fig. 3: Block Diagram after clean up ming-> Com- the Round LED A2, which is placed
parison-> Select outside the Case Structures. An open
function and box called Tunnel will be created on
drop it on to both main and upper Case Structure
Block Diagram. boundaries.
It has three input Step 19. Place the curser on the out-
lines, namely, put wire of F. You will find a hot spot.
true (t), select Click on it and draw two more wires
(s) and false (f). to connect to A1 and A0, respectively.
Connect the out- Thus we have connected F to A2, A1
put of Equal ? and A0 to represent the binary num-
to s input of ber for the case 0. That is, the binary
Select function. number for decimal number zero for
Step 13. Re- [A2 A1 A0] is [0 0 0]. Now, if case 1 is
peat steps 10, 11 selected, the binary representation of
and 12 for re- outputs A2 A1 A0 will be 0 0 1. Here,
maining inputs F should be connected to A2 and A1
Fig. 4: All Tunnels closed (I6, I5I1), ex- for the 0s. For 1 we will consider the
cept for I0. True (T) Constant by selecting Pro-
used in this project; this will be con- Step 14. Place cursor on the true (t) gramming->Boolean-> True Constant
sidered as main Case Structure.) The input of Select function, right click on option. That is, connect T to A0. For
labels in the menu at the top of the it and create a constant of value 7 for case 2, the binary output of [A2 A1 A0]
Case Structure will appear as True and input I7. Similarly, do it for all inputs is [0 1 0] and for case 3 the output is [0
False. First consider the True condition. with constant value decreased by 1 for 1 1], and so on.
Step 9. Select Programming-> each input of Select function, which Step 20. Similarly, connect False (F)
Boolean-> NOT gate and drop it on to are arranged in descending order as and True (T) constants to outputs (A2,
Block Diagram. Place the cursor at out- shown in Fig. 2. A1, A0) for remaining cases to repre-
put of vertical toggle switch (En). You Step 15. Connect the output of sent the corresponding binary number.
will see a hot spot. From there pull a Select function corresponding to I1 to We can follow the same technique for
wire and give it as input to NOT gate. false (f) input of Select function corre- the inner lower Case Structure.
The output of NOT gate is connected sponding to I2. Similarly, connect the Step 21. Select another Select
to the selector terminal ? of the Case remaining outputs of Select function function and place in the main Case
Structure. to false (f) input of the Select function, Structure. Connect output of Equal ?
Step 10. Again, select Program- except for I7. Create a constant 0 for correspond to input I7 to the s input
ming-> Boolean-> Bool to (0, 1) func- the false (f) input of Select function of of Select function. These are used to
tion and drop it on to Block Diagram. input I1. select the second-highest-priority re-
Connect the output of I7 to input of Step 16. Add two Case Structures quest. Similarly, do it for the remaining
Bool to (0, 1) function. as explained below. Select Program- inputs, except for I0.
Step 11. Select Programming-> ming-> Structures-> Case Structure, Step 22. Connect t inputs of Select
Comparison-> Equal ? function and drag and drop it on to Block Diagram functions from the output of previous

dIy: software
second Select func- efy Note
tion of I7 to selector
terminal ? of the
inner lower Case
and is also available for free down-
Structure. And then load at source.efymag.com
repeat steps 18 and
19 for outputs B2, connect all the Tunnels on right side
B1 and B0. of Case Structure to False (F) constant.
Step 26. Select Then all the Tunnels will be closed as
Programming-> shown in Fig. 4.
Numeric-> Com- Step 31. Return to Front Panel. Save
pound Arithmetic the VI and press the Run Continuously
and drop it on to button to check for the operation of
Block Diagram. Ex- dual-priority encoder. Give different
tend it so that it inputs and check the outputs for iden-
has eight inputs. tifying the first-highest and second-
Fig. 5: Output with both first and second-highest priority Now, connect the highest priority request.
eight outputs from
Boolean (0, 1) func- Checking the output
tions to the eight Fig. 5 shows the result for dual-priori-
inputs of Com- ty encoder operations for first-highest
pound Arithmetic. and second-highest priority requests
Change the mode of when the inputs I7, I5, I3 and I0 are
Compound Arith- asserted. Here, I7 has the highest
metic to Add by priority, after that the next-highest
right clicking on it priority will be given to I5. Hence,
and select Change all the output LEDs A2, A1 and A0
Mode-> Add op- glow, which is equivalent to 111 (also
tion. This will add a a binary representation of 7) in the
+ sign to it to make highest-priority box. In the second-
it an adder function. highest-priority box, B2 and B0 are on
Step 27. Select and B1 is off, which is equivalent to
Programming-> 101 (also a binary representation of 5).
Comparison- The output LEDs both AVALID and
Fig. 6: Output with only first-highest priority >Greater ? and drop BVALID are asserted, because more
it on to Block Dia- than one input is asserted.
Select functions as shown in Fig. 2, ex- gram inside the main Case Structure. Fig. 6 shows the result when only
cept first Select function of I7. Give the output of Compound Arith- one input I2 is asserted. Here, output
Step 23. Connect output of Select metic adder to the first input x of LEDs A2, A1 and A0 show the highest-
function corresponding to I1 to the Greater ?. Place cursor on the second priority request 2 as 010 (binary repre-
f input of the Select function corre- input y and right clicking on it create sentation of 2) and the output LEDs B2,
sponding to I2. Similarly, repeat the a constant of value 1. B1 and B0 are turned off. The output
same connection at the Select func- Step 28. Connect the output of LED AVALID only is asserted, because
tions corresponding to I3 through I6 Greater ? to Round LED BVALID we asserted only single input and there
inputs, except for I7. And then create a and draw another wire from output is no second-highest-priority request.
constant 0 at f input of Select function of Compound Arithmetic adder to Here, note that the circuit will be on
corresponding to input I0. input of another comparison function only when the enable input (En) is in
Step 24. Select another Case Struc- Greater Than 0? Give the output of it off condition, because it is an active
ture and drop it on to Block Diagram to another Round LED AVALID. low enable input.
inside the main Case Structure. If la- Step 29. Press Ctrl+b keys to re-
bels appear as True and False, modify move broken wires and press Ctrl+u The authors Paluru Sunitha and Naga Sunil Mano-
them to 0 and 1, respectively and then keys to clean up the diagram on the har Bole were third-year B.Tech (electronics and
communication) students from Maharaj Vijayaram
add six more cases and label them as 2, Block Diagram as shown in Fig. 3. Gajapathi Raj College of Engineering, Vizianagaram
3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Step 30. Change the case to False when they sent this project, under the guidance of
Step 25. Connect the output of the condition in main Case Structure and Associate Professor M. Satyanarayana, last year

dIy: software
C++ Implementation of Digital FIR

Filters Using Blackman Window
Ahlad Kumar where hd(n) is an infinite-duration
impulse response and w(n) is the
T
his utility program can be a window function. There are various sani the
o
handy tool for anyone working windows available in signal processing

in the field of signal processing literature. However, in this article we
with interest in implementation of the specifically discuss Blackman window.
project through C++ programming. In the case of Blackman window, w(n) 2. It prompts you to enter filters
Although this work can be easily is given as: type
implemented in Matlab using simple 2n 4n
3. It prompts you to enter window
inbuilt functions, the real challenge of w[n]=0.420.5 cos +0.08 cos length (N) from 1 to 200
N1 N1
designing and understanding the con- =0 where n=0,1,2......, N1 4. It prompts you to enter the cutoff
otherwise
cept of filter design will be missed out. frequency. The software is designed to
------ eqn(2)
In order to understand the depth of accept the values in radians between
designing an FIR filter using window Plot of eqn(2) can be seen graphi- 0.2 and 2.6
functions, coding in C++ is a must. De- cally as shown in Fig. 1. 5. The program outputs normalised
scribed here is a C++ implementation filter response. This is a filter response
of finite impulse response (FIR) filters Software design which is designed to pass through a
using Blackman window method. Here, we have developed C++ based cutoff frequency of 1 radian
software for designing FIR filters using 6. The program outputs actual
FIR filters Blackman window to get frequency filter response. This is a filter response
The term filter is often used to denote response. The resultant software has which is designed to pass through a
systems that process the input in a the following salient features: cutoff frequency specified by the user
specified way. In this context, filtering 1. Welcome screen of Blackman
describes a signal-processing operation window design Software structure
that allows signal enhancement, noise The software is designed to follow the
1
reduction or increased signal-to-noise 0.9 structure as shown in Fig. 2, where
ratio. Systems for the processing of dis- 0.8 the details of each file are explained as
0.7
crete time signals are also called digital given below.
0.6
Amplitude
filters. Depending on the requirement 0.5 1. MAIN.CPP. This file contains

and application, the analysis of a digi- 0.4 the menu-driven program for user
tal filter may be carried out in time do- 0.3 inputs
0.2
main, z-domain or frequency domain. 0.1
2. FUNC.H. It is a header file con-
A common application of digital 0 taining code related to Blackman win-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
filters is to modify the frequency re- Time (samples) dow coefficients calculation
sponse is some specified way. An ideal Fig. 1: Blackman window 3. BLACK.H. It is a header file
low-pass filter is one of the common containing code for supporting C++
examples of digital filters which passes graphics
the frequencies up to a specified value BLACK.H GRAPH.H 4. GRAPH.H. It is a header file
and blocks other frequencies. One way again to support graphic content in
to approximate the ideal low-pass C++
response is to do truncation of the im- FUNC.H
pulse response by multiplication with Output responses
the window functions. Mathematically, of the filter
it can be expressed as follows Now, the results obtained after run-
MAIN.CPP ning the software is presented for
hd(n)w(n) 0nN1
h(n)= ------ eqn(1) Blackman window for a low-pass FIR
0 otherwise
Fig. 2: Software flow filter for different window length N to

dIy: software
4. The amplitude
and shape of the
end-ripple remains
the same but it gets
shifted towards the
edge and finally out
of the pass band for
larger values of N
5. As N increas-
es, the ripples in
Blackman Lowpass filter Blackman Lowpass filter the pass band get
actual filter; normalised filter actual filter; normalised filter smoothed out. A key
Fig. 3: Frequency response of low-pass filter with N=49, Fig. 5: Frequency response of low-pass filter with N=149,
difference in the ob-
fc=1.2 fc=1.2 served responses of
the rectangular is the
absence of the Gibbs
phenomenon. This
owes itself to the
smoother shape of
the Blackman win-
dow in the time-
domain, with the
notable absence of
a discontinuity that
would lead to the
Blackman Lowpass filter Blackman highpass filter Gibbs phenomenon.
actual filter; normalised filter actual filter; normalised filter 6. As N increases
Fig. 4: Frequency response of low-pass filter with N=99, Fig. 6: Frequency response of high-pass filter with N=45, the widths of the
fc=1.2 fc=1.2 lobes decrease in the
stop band
observe the effect of N on frequency From Figs 3 to 5, we have following
response. All values of |H(j)| are in observations when N increases from 49 Other frequencies
decibels. A normalised frequency scale to 149 at cutoff frequency (fc)=1.2: In the next section we present the
is used. 1. The widths of the pass band and outputs of high-pass, band-reject and
Low-pass filter. Simulation of low- side lobes decrease band-pass filters.
pass filter using Blackman window is 2. The slope of the transition band Frequency response of high-pass
done through the software. Figs 3 to increases, that is, the band develops a filter with N=45, fc=1.2 is shown in Fig.
5 are the outputs of the low-pass filter sharper cutoff 6. Frequency response of band-reject
for different window length of N=49, 3. As N increases, the number of filter with N=67, with lower cutoff
99 and 149, respectively. ripples increase in the pass band frequency (fl)=1.2 and upper cutoff

dIy: software
ing. Its impact on
consumer electron-
ics is evident by the
advent of high-def-
inition televisions
and digital imag-
ing. Its application
in the field of bio-
medical and signal
processing includes
Blackman bandreject filter Blackman bandpass filter
actual filter; normalised filter actual filter; normalised filter enhancement of the
Fig. 7: Frequency response of band-reject filter with N=67, Fig. 8: Frequency response of band-pass filter with N=91,
quality of signals
fl=1.2 and fu=2.0 fl=1.2 and fu=2.0 under interest us-
ing various digital
dows XP, 32-bit PC using Turbo C++ filters. These filters can also be used in
efy Note version 3. For running Turbo C++ on applications like noise removal. The
The source code of this project is 64-bit PC with Windows 7 or Windows filter routines can be easily coded to
included in this months EFY DVD 8, a separate Turbo C ++ IDE is avail- hardware description language like
and is also available for free down- able for download. You need to copy Verilog or VHDL and can turn out
load on source.efymag.com
the source code and relevant header to be a good project for students or
files into bin folder before running the designers working in real-time image
frequency (fu)=2.0, is shown in Fig. 7. program. and video processing.
Frequency response of band-pass filter
with N=91, fl=1.2 and fu=2.0 is shown Applications The author is an M.Tech from ABV-Indian Institute
of Information Technology and Management,
in Fig. 8. Digital signal processing finds applica- Gwalior, and B.Tech from Jamia Millia Islamia in
The program was tested on Win- tion in almost every field of engineer- New Delhi

useful websites
Raspberry Pi: Getting Started

Raspberry Pi has always been a favourite for engineers and hobbyists. Here are some of the
websites that will help you understand and start using your Raspberry Pi
niraj sahay
raspberrypi.org
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. This
computer can be used in electronics projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does,
like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. The website is the home for this little wonder and
is updated with all the information that you would need to get started. The forum on the site is very
active and has approximately 95,000 members discussing nearly 75,000 topics.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
elinux.org
The purpose of this website is to preserve and present information about the development and use
of Linux in embedded systems as well as open source projects and tools for general embedded
development. The website has pages related to different embedded hardware. Each page has lots
of information on the boards that you want to try out. The site can prove to be a good resource for
learning Rasberry Pi.
http://elinux.org/RPi_Hub
adafruit.com
Adafruit was founded in 2005 by MIT engineer Limor Ladyada Fried. Her goal was to create the best
place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and
skill levels. The site has 503 tutorials on different topics and is growing daily. Apart from shopping,
blogs and forum the site has a dedicated section for understanding different electronics hardware. The
tutorial on Raspberry Pi in the learning section of the website is divided into different parts and caters
to all your learning requirements on the subject.
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/raspberry-pi
wiringpi.com
The Raspberry Pi has a 26-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) connector which carries a set
of signals and buses. There are eight general-purpose digital I/O pins that can be programmed
as either digital outputs or inputs. The website is a good resource for developers designing with
Rsapberry Pi. WiringPi is a GPIO interface library for the Raspberry Pi and includes a command-line
utility gpio which can be used to program and set up the GPIO pins.
http://wiringpi.com/
suntimebox.com
If you are a beginner and do not have any knowledge about this little computer, this is the right
place to start. The site has good tutorial on Rapberry Pi and Android programming. The site teaches
you how to use, program and understand the Raspberry Pi in simple-to-understand language. The
complete tutorial is divided into different courses. These courses use practical examples, visual
images, videos and audio clips to explain many of the concepts used for learning the Raspberry Pi.
http://www.suntimebox.com/raspberry-pi-tutorial-course/
industry FOCUS
PCB Industry in India: Marching Ahead

Poor government policies and increased imports have always been major threats to
PCB manufacturers and suppliers in India, but the industry is growing and expanding to
other verticals, and still harbours huge potential. Let us see how
Anagha P. and Dilin Anand of approximately 35% year over year, very good in this sector. In spite of the
says Viral Bhulani, president, Indian dramatic devaluation of rupee in the
I
ndia has become a strong and Printed Circuit Association (IPCA). He previous year, the suppliers of PCBs in
attractive global destination for adds, Furthermore, with the Internet India were generally able to maintain
PCB manufacturers over the past of Things coming into play in the elec- the prices.
few years. The global PCB manufac- tronics arena, manufacturing units are The customers have also
turing market is expected to increase now getting orders for become more value-con-
from $62.3bn in 2013 to $74.31bn in PCBs that scious; more than ever they
2018, growing at a compound annual now demand reliable and
growth rate (CAGR) high-grade PCBs. These
of 3.6%, accord- two factors coming to-
ing to a Research gether help drive local
and Markets re- PCB manufacturing.
port published Besides, with the
this year. Internet of Things
By regional cominginto play in
growth rates, Asia the electronics arena,
Pacific (APAC) is manufacturing units
likely to be the leader are nowgetting or-
of the industry over dersfor PCBs that
the next five years. are highly custom-
Industry growth is an- ised and specially
ticipated to be driven processed for spe-
by expanding demand cific purposes, for which
for high-end products om Indian PCB industry has strengths in.
clpcb.c
from consumers in India esy: s are highly The ability of Indian PCB firms to
Court
and China. customised and specially closely work with the customers, and
processed. the excellent technical services they
Whats driving the For small batches of PCBs, domes- provide, have led many designers to
Indian market? tic products turn out to be cheaper, choose domestically-manufactured
According to an Indian Electronics while still providing better quality PCBs over imported ones. Availability
and Semiconductor Association (IESA) than imports. This has enabled domes- of flexible payment schemes, ability to
report, supported by the Department tic manufacturers to grow by taking handle sudden demand for increase
of Electronics and Information Tech- over business from foreign competi- in production, or demand for slowing
nology (DeitY), PCBs feature among tors. down a little, makes Indian PCBs a
the top four components contributing The local PCB industry not only better option for domestic electronics
to the bill of material (BoM) across serves the domestic market but also manufacturers.
major electronic products consumed, serves the export market; around 24 Krishna Rao, chairman, Sulakshana
particularly in products such as power per cent of the total PCBs manufac- Circuits Ltd, is confident that, in the
supplies, set-top boxes, car radios and tured annually is exported. Indian PCB next 10 years, plants that manufacture
many other digital instruments. manufacturers have also enhanced raw materials for PCBs will come up
Regardless of the issues dis- their capabilities from single- and in India, and that this would enhance
cussed, we foresee many opportunities 2-layered PCBs to 16- or even 24-lay- the industry.
in the Indian industry. The demand for ered PCBs. The PCBs export has grown The presence of supporting organi-
PCBs in this market has only increased by nearly 26%. sations is also somewhat of a boon to
over recent years, and there is a CAGR The stability of prices is usually industry growth, though not all deci-

industry FOCUS
the ecosystem or infrastructure for
SWOT analysis for the Indian PCB industry
large-scale and most advanced manu-
Helpful Harmful facturing techniques. Most important-
Internal Strengths Weaknesses ly, the lack of investment incentives to
hhFlexibility in terms of handling high-mix, hhLack of automation and technological bear the risk in India hampers growth
low-volume batches upgrades
of the PCB industry here.
hhAbility to face frequent pull and push from hhInability to produce mass volumes
customers hhInherent absence of infrastructure and Indian PCB manufacturers can,
hhReadiness to adopt design changes ecosystem for creating PCBs in large generally, handle small and medium
hhFlexible payment terms quantities and of high complexities batches effectively. They are flex-
hhInfrastructure to effectively handle the pro- hhInsufficient go-to-market expertise
ible enough to accommodate design
duction of low- and mid-range PCBs in low hhLack of educated, skilled and trained
and medium quantities manpower changes at lower tool cost and can
hhHigh quality of products, unlike the PCBs hhLack of strong investments and afford- work with smaller panel sizes to
imported from China able finance produce small to mid-size quantities.
hhGood customer services and technical hhHigh cost of production
support hhLow export incentives compared to com-
However, high-end and large batches
hhAbility to customise products and offer petitors like China of PCBs are still imported in most
specialised processes for the customer cases.
External Opportunities Threats Automation and adaption of the
hhIncreasing demand for PCBs in India hhTaxation and excise issues with raw latest technologies is slow in the in-
hhPopularity for domestically manufactured materials dustry. One of the reasons is the lack
PCBs in low-end and mid-range applica- hhDependency on import of raw materials,
of good investment. Though PCB
tions and production and testing equipment
hhImport not feasible for low- technology hhHigh cost and insufficient availability of industry has lot of potential, convinc-
boards in small batches power ing potential investors has been a
hhPositive and responsive approach of De- hhEnvironmental measures and lag in imple- challenge.
partment of Electronics and Information menting them
Technology (DeitY) hhDuty-free PCB imports being dumped in
The electronics manufacturing in
hhModified Special Incentive Package the market the country drives demand for PCBs.
Scheme (M-SIPS) by government of India hhBureaucratic hurdle: lengthy and time- As manufacturing has remained low
hhValue consciousness of customers consuming processes for approvals and the demand for PCBs has also re-
hhRequests for highly customised, high- clearances of new projects
quality boards for specific applications mained low.
Another issue is the changes and
sion makers believe that they have been Which industry shows the highest PCB demand?
instrumental enough. DeitY has set
electronic hardware production target Most of the PCB demand in India comes from mobile phones, consumer electronics,
automotive, power electronics and industrial automation segments. Energy meters
of US$ 400 billion by year 2020 which, if
and telecommunication industry come next. It is expected that in the next five years,
it materialises, will create huge demand
demand for PCBs would considerably increase from LED lighting and solar sec-
for PCBs. The department is positive, tors. Currently two million mobile phones are being imported into India. Indian PCB
responsive and very keen in promoting manufacturers are gearing up to this demand while some claim to already have the
electronic manufacturing in India, says capability to meet the demand.
Satish Athavale, managing director,
Shogini Technoarts Pvt Ltd.
Indian Printed Circuit Association Reasons for low manufacturing base in India and lack
(IPCA) is a non-profit, voluntary, proof competitiveness
fessional organisation formed in 1985 hh Large capital investments required for setting up PCB manufacturing units is inhibiting
with a mission to promote the PCB manufacturers to set up new units, especially for multilayered PCBs, whose demand is
industry in India and represent their expected to grow at a significant rate.
interests. The members of this organi- hh High investment required in pollution control equipment due to stringent pollution stan-
sation include PCB manufacturers, de- dards and polluting nature of industry.
signers, electronic manufacturing ser- hh Inverted duty structure, as inputs for manufacture of PCBs are subject to 5% to 10%
vices (EMS) companies and suppliers customs duty while PCBs attract nil duty under the ITA-1.
of PCB machines and raw materials. hh Lack of availability of skilled labour.
hh Lack of availability of raw materials like pure-grade silicon and copper laminates re-
Whats holding India PCB quired for fabrication of the printed circuit boards.
Inc. back? hh Lack of availability of raw materials at competitive prices.
hh Lack of access to new technology and state-of-the-art capital equipment.
One of the biggest drawbacks is that
Rajoo Goel, secretary general, ELCINA Electronic Industries Association of India
the Indian industries inherently lack

industry FOCUS
History of PCB industry in India

hh The making of PCBs in India was started by scientists and
research institutes in the late 1950s.
hh Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) established the first
commercial PCB manufacturing facility in India in 1968,
for in-house requirements. This was followed by Indian
Telephone Industries and some other defence and space
research institutes.
hh The first private sector firm that manufactured professional-
grade PCBs came up in 1970s.
hh The first boom in PCBs manufacture was between 1985 and
1990. It did not last long due to low domestic demand, lack
of infrastructure, high cost of capital, low investments and
lack of skilled manpower.
hh The Indian Printed Circuit Board Association was set up in
1985 when a few leading PCB technocrats met in Mumbai
(then known as Bombay).
hh The entrance of multinational companies (MNCs) and for-
eign firms into the Indian market led to the second boom
that started in 2001. Exports started picking up and quality
reached world-class standards.
advances in technology and Indian manufacturers inabil-

ity to keep pace with them and stay ahead in R&D. This is
again a function of scale and profitability.
The high cost of electricity and frequent load-shedding
make it difficult to run advanced machines.
Almost the entire raw material required for PCB
manufacturing is imported, out of which 90% is from
China. It is believed that Indias entire demand of PCBs
can be met by just one major PCB plant in China. We
cannot get raw materials at competitive prices due to the
lack of volumes.
Since there are no manufacturers in India for copper-
clad laminates, solder mask inks, photopolymer film and
chemicals used in plated-through-hole (PTH) process, the
manufacturing companies have to keep huge inventory of
imported raw material, which blocks their working capital.
Low taxes on imported PCBs has led to flooding of cheap,
low-quality PCBs in the market, which is a threat to Indian
manufacturers.
There are virtually no technical institutes in India
to give training in various aspects of PCB manufacture.
Hence we greatly lack the skilled manpower or specialised
personnel in the field.
Foreign challenge. In India, Japanese companies like
Suzuki prefer to source their PCBs from Japanese firms
while Korean companies like Samsung source theirs from
Korea. This results in very little business going to the In-
dian manufacturers. Anyway, the local players are unable
to compete with Chinese exporters who get 17% export
incentive.
It would be incorrect to say that the market for PCBs
is not growing. The problem is that almost 75% of do-
mestic demand for PCBs is met by imports and, in ad-

industry FOCUS
dition, a large number of PCBs are Major contributors to the story
being imported as fully-assembled
boards. These go straight into finished
products assembled in India as part of
the low-value-added manufacturing
model followed by most companies
in India.
Amit Agrawal, Krishna Rao, Rajneesh Garg, Rajoo Goel, Satish Viral Bhulani,
Government policies and director, Advance chairman, managing director, secretary general, Athavale, president, Indian
their impact Technologies Sulakshana
Circuits Ltd
Garg Electronics ELCINA Electronic managing director,
Industries
Printed Circuit
Shogini Technoarts Association (IPCA)
Association of India Pvt Ltd
The industry feels that the Indian gov-
ernment does not take a proactive ap-
proach to encourage PCB manufactur- managing director, Garg Electronics,
ing in India. The current government This would be of value only to large Some solutions that
policies benefit only the large indus- industries. However, some say that the government can
tries. The bureaucratic hurdles are too there are provisions for smaller indus- implement to support
much for the small-scale industry to tries, and that it is a wrong perception this industry are:
handle. The processes to get approvals that M-SIPS can be of value to only
and clearances for projects are lengthy, large industries. hh Elimination of inverted duty structure
hh Sorting out excise and customs duty
complicated and consume a lot of time, Preferential Market Access (PMA).
procedural issues
energy and money. The revised PMA policy mandates
hh High import tariff on PCB imports. Nil
The Central and state governments local sourcing of electronics for gov- duty on raw material imports.
can play a major role in establishing ernment departments, except the hh Imposing anti-dumping duty or safe-
PCB industry in India, which is a high- Ministry of Defence, for a period of guard duty
value-added manufacturing activity 10 years. While the revised policy hh Interest subsidies or low-interest loans
requiring high capital investment. The mandates sourcing of sensitive tel- for PCB manufacturers
industry needs government support ecom and electronic equipment (and hh Quicker, easier reimbursement of
for access to technology, low-cost fi- technology) from domestic equipment CENVAT
nance and infrastructure to establish makers, it has exempted the private
PCB manufacturing clusters where the sector from the changed rules. How- will ensure local sourcing of PCBs by
entire value chain can flourish in a sup- ever, it will cover the schemes and product manufacturers, thus contrib-
portive environment. grants made by the Central govern- uting to higher value addition. This
According to Amit Agrawal, direc- ment. This will give impetus to the de- shall also meet the requirements of the
tor, Advance Technologies, corruption mand of PCBs in India and eventually local EMS players who source PCBs in
is a major curse on our system. He boost the indigenous manufacturing bulk. This would go well with DeitY
mentions that two Indian firms, that in the country. strategy of PMA, which enlists PCB
had started manufacturing PCB lami- and its contribution to bill of materials
nates, closed down recently due to the Looking towards the future in its notifications.
poor policies and torture from the India has a good number of PCB India possesses a good chance of
government. manufacturers in the country. How- elevating itself as a global supplier of
Moreover, duty-free import for ever, the local capability is restricted PCBs. The country is already export-
PCBs has encouraged dumping of to producing single-, dual- and multi- ing 20 to 30 per cent of the total pro-
cheap, Chinese PCBs in India, reduc- layered PCBs of up to 12 layers, and to duction of PCBs. However, the vol-
ing the demand for Indian PCBs. 16 to 24 layered PCBs in some cases. umes and the subsequent price points
But some policies introduced by the The PCBs needed in products with in comparison with China is a major
government of India in last two years high demand, like telecom, consumer hindrance as is the ability of Indian
hold a ray of hope for the Indian PCB and automotive applications, require PCB makers to handle complex prod-
industry. complex multi-layered PCBs that are ucts that require more than 24 layers.
Modified Special Incentive Package not available locally, thus necessitat- Government support in the form of
Scheme (M-SIPS). M-SIPS is an invest- ing imports. lower excise duties and rebates for up-
ment-based scheme that is aimed to Building on the existing capability, gradation of capital equipment could
offset disability and attract investment special initiatives need to be offered make a positive impact.
in almost all verticals of electronic sys- to encourage indigenous design and
tem design and manufacturing (ESDM) manufacturing of multi-layered PCBs Anagha P. is a technical correspondent and Dilin
sector. According to Rajneesh Garg, of up to 64 layers and beyond. This Anand is a senior assistant editor at EFY

industry nEWS
corporate news new ventures calendar new appointments
Incubation centre for In Focus

electronics start-ups gets Piyush Goyal is new energy minister
DeiTY nod Piyush Goyal has been appointed as the Central governments new minister for Power,
Coal and New and Renewable Energy. He is expected to pay special attention to solar
The Department of Electronics and energy. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) currently oversees the Solar
Information Technology (DeitY) has Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which is responsible for directing the Jawaharlal
given a go ahead to the setting up of Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).
an incubation centre to provide physi-
Sanjay Kapoor joins Micromax as chairman
cal as well as technology infrastructure
Micromax has hired ex-Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor as the new chairman. Prior to
to electronics start-ups from across the this appointment, Kapoor was the CEO for India and South Asia of Airtel (March 2010
country. After incentivising and nur- through May 2013), though he was with the company in other positions since July 1998.
turing the IT services industry during
its initial years, the Software Technol-
Vineet Taneja joins Micromax as CEO
Micromax has hired Vineet Taneja, the ex-Samsung India chief, as the new CEO. Taneja
ogy Parks of India (STPI) is looking to
was the country head for IT and mobile businesses of Samsung India till recently.
do the same for product companies,
specifically in the electronics sector, Vimal Kapur appointed president of Honeywell Process Solutions
with the now approved Electropre- Vimal Kapur has been named president of Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS). HPS is
neur Park to be set up in the national a Honeywell business that supplies automation control, instrumentation, etc.
capital. The same will boost domestic Deshpande, ex-president ELCINA, passes away
manufacturing of electronics and en- Ram G. Deshpandes untimely and sudden demise on 31st May has shocked the
courage entrepreneurship across India. industry. Originally from Philips, he rose to become managing director of Vishay
Under the project, the government Components. After retiring a few years ago he set up his own company to work in
plans to set up an incubation centre education sector. He was president of ELCINA for two years (2003-2005).
for electronics start-ups in Delhi. This
centre aims to incentivise ten compa- non-conventional sources of energy, The proposed JVs will be between
nies every year over the next five years. plans are now underway to build two state-owned oil sector firms such as
These companies will be short-listed by state-owned joint ventures (JVs) to Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), Bharat
a board comprising stakeholders from oversee the construction of renewable Petroleum Corp. Ltd, Hindustan Pe-
the government as well as the industry energy projects across the country. troleum Corp. Ltd, Oil and Natural
and academia. The proposal has been Currently, the oil and renewable en- Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC), Oil India Ltd
sought by STPI in association with the ergy ministries are drafting a proposal and Solar Energy Corp. of India and
Delhi University and India Electronics for the setting up of the two JVs. the Indian Renewable Energy Devel-
and Semiconductor Association (IESA).
Once up and running, the incu-
bation centre will give electronics
start-ups unrestricted access to experts
within their domain as well as men-
tors, shared consultants and services.
Further, these start-ups will be able to
seek investment from foreign investors
and venture capitalists, among others,
to boost their growth and potential.
JVs to oversee construction of

renewable energy projects
In line with the BJP-led NDA govern-
ments plan to come out with a com-
prehensive National Energy Policy
to balance power generation in the
country through conventional and Renewable energy project

industry nEWS
opment Agency. One of the JVs will
Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics
be intended to oversee large-scale,
Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events
grid-integrated projects while the other
Name, Date and Venue Topics to be covered Contact address for details
will target off-grid projects. While one
Elasia 2014 An international exhibition on Manish, Triune Exhibitors Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
July 25-28, 2014 power, electrical and lighting Phone: +91-9310492923, +91-80-43307474/ of the JVs will be led by ONGC, the
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi +91-80-22352770, E-mail: [email protected] other will be spearheaded by IOC. The
Defence and Aerospace SES 2014 Exhibition showcasing Indian ELCINA Electronic Industries JV partners will initially fund the new
5th Strategic Electronics Summit defence electronics sector, Association of India, New Delhi
July 30-31, 2014 buyer-seller meetings and Phone: (011) 26924597, 26928053; +91-9911445890 firms as part of their corporate social
Bangalore International industry study on strategic E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Exhibition Centre electronics sector opportunities Web: www.elcina.com responsibility (CSR) contributions.
IPCA-EFY Expo 2014 Exhibition for all OEM Indian Printed Circuit Association, Bengaluru By judiciously mixing conventional
August 6-8, 2014 manufacturers, LED, solar, Phone: (080) 25210109, 25210309 and non-conventional sources, the
Auto Cluster Exhibition Centre automobile, medical, defence E-mail: [email protected]
Pune and R&D material suppliers government plans to substantially aug-
and end-users
ment power generation capacity in the
NEPCON South China 2014 sourcing platforms for Tim Wang
August 26-28, 2014 South Chinas electronics Phone: +86-21-2231-7016 country. Meanwhile, the government is
Shenzhen Convention & manufacturing industry E-mail: [email protected] looking to use cleaner fuels to address
Exhibition Center, China Web: http://www.nepconchina.com/ehome/
the problem of growing pollution.
IFA 2014 A global trade show for Messe Berlin GmbH, Messedamm 22
September 5-10, 2014 consumer electronics and Phone: +49-30-3038-2217
IFA Exhibition Grounds, Berlin home appliances, presents E-mail: [email protected] Indias domestic solar
manufacturing in problem
the latest products and Web: http://b2b.ifa-berlin.com/
innovations
ELCINA-EFY Awards Awards for excellence in EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd The Directorate General of Anti-Dump-
September 12, 2014 electronics hardware Phone: 26810601/2/3, +91-8800094213
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi manufacturing and services E-mail: [email protected] ing (DGAD) has recommended to the
Electronica India 2014 and Covers the whole spectrum MMI India Pvt Ltd Finance Ministry that India should im-
Productronica India 2014 of the electronics industry Phone: +91-9819418496; Fax: +91-22-42554719
September 23-25, 2014 from electronics production E-mail: [email protected]
pose anti-dumping duty on international
BIEC, Bengaluru to electronic components Web: www.electronica-productronica-india.com solar panels imported from the US,
3rd Electronics Rocks 2014 A platform for design EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd China, Malaysia and Taiwan, and awaits
October 10-11, 2014 engineers, R&D engineers, Phone: 26810601/2/3, +91-8800094213
Nimhans Convention & Exhibition entrepreneurs, academicians, E-mail: [email protected] an approval for the same. Meanwhile,
Centre, Bengaluru hackers and hobbyists Web: www.electronicsrocks.com/
including talks, workshops,
Tata Power Solar insists that the Finance
discussions, product launches Ministry should step up and approve
and design challenges
the same as soon as possible since Indias
OSI Days 2014 Open Source conference in EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd
November 7-8, 2014 Asia that aims to nurture Phone: +91-088000 94211 domestic solar manufacturing sector
NIMHANS Convention Center
Bengaluru
and promote the open source E-mail: [email protected]
ecosystem in the sub-continent
could collapse by the end of the year
without anti-dumping duties.
Electronica/Productronica 2014 Electronic components, MMI India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
November 11-14, 2014 production equipment, Phone: (022) 42554700, 42554723 The reality is that in the last three
Munich, Germany systems and applications E-mail: [email protected]
years there has been so much overca-
Intersolar India Exhibition and conference for MMI India Pvt Ltd
November 18-20, 2014 the solar industry featuring Phone: (022) 42554700 pacity and so much dumping that if we
Bombay Exhibition Centre, photovoltaics, PV production E-mail: [email protected] do not take dramatic action now, then
Mumbai technologies, energy storage
and solar thermal technologies within six months the Indian manu-
2nd EFY Expo- Western India For manufacturers, EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd facturing industry will be dead. They
Edition 2014 engineers and traders to Phone: 26810601/2/3, +91-8800094213
November 26-28, 2014 source electronics components, E-mail: [email protected] are already in fairly bad shape. People
Bombay Convention & Exhibition products and services and to Web: www.west.efyexpo.com have invested hundreds of millions
Centre, Mumbai find latest offerings and dealers
and distributors for products of dollars in equipment and facilities
LED Expo 2014 Exhibition and summit on MEX Exhibitions Pvt Ltd and that are now just sitting idle. Its
December 5-7, 2014 LED lighting products and Phone: +91-9312285142
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi technology E-mail: [email protected]
a shame. Ajay K. Goel, CEO of Tata
2015 International CES A mega consumer electronics Consumer Electronics Association
Power Solar was quoted as saying.
January 6-7, 2015 event where new innovations Phone: +1 703-907-7605 Domestic manufacturers claim they
Las Vegas Convention Center and technologies are Web: www.cesweb.org
Las Vegas, USA showcased are bearing the brunt, losing out on
Electronics For You Expo 2015 Covering complete electronics EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd business to the tune of ` 10,000 million
February 26-28, 2015 ecosystem, including Phone: 26810601/2/3, E-mail: [email protected] as more and more project developers
Hall 7 (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) innovation, manufacturing, Web: www.efyexpo.com
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi design and sales prefer buying international panels at
EFY Awards To give recognition to the EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd lower costs rather than going for in-
March 13, 2015 leading enterprises and Phone: 26810601/2/3, +91-8800094213
Bengaluru individuals in the Indian E-mail: [email protected]
house products. (Anti-)dumping is a
electronics field Web: www.efyawards.com short-term solution. The government
Look up under Events section in www.electronicsforu.com for a comprehensive list has to provide a level playing field
Since this information is subject to change, all those interested are advised and allow the Indian manufacturers to
to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment. grow. Anti-dumping (measures are) a

industry nEWS
Snippets The commission will include rep-

resentatives from the industry as well.
E-waste market to grow at 30 per cent The ministry is very positive towards this
A recently published report by TechSci Research titled, India E-Waste Management Market proposal, M.N. Vidyashankar, president
Forecast & Opportunities, 2019 revealed that the countrys e-waste market is expected to of the Indian Electronic and Semiconduc-
grow at a CAGR of around 30.6 per cent during 2014-19. The report stated that the southern tor Association (IESA), was quoted as
and western regions are the largest contributors to the countrys e-waste market. saying. The proposed commission would
Renewable Energy installed capacity stands at 12.95% also oversee hastening of the progress of
The India Renewable Energy Status Report 2014 released at the Green Summit 2014 electronic clusters being set up in different
in Bengaluru has revealed that the total installed capacity of green/renewable energy parts of the country.
stands at 32,269.6 MW, or is approximately 12.95 per cent of the potential available According to a Frost & Sullivan report,
in the country as on 31st March. The overall renewable energy potential from various the electronic design and manufacturing
sources in India is approximately 249,188 MW.
sector in India is expected to grow at 9.9
Karnatakas revised solar policy approved per cent (CAGR) to touch US$ 94.2 billion
The Karnataka government has cleared the revised solar energy policy for the state. Under by the year 2015. This is twice the growth
the policy, farmers will be encouraged to set up solar power plants to produce solar energy rate of the global ESDM market. But, at
up to 3 MW and sell it to electricity companies. The solar energy will be purchased by the
present, nearly 65 per cent of the demand
companies at a tariff fixed by the Karnataka Energy Regulatory Commission. The farmers
will get financial support to install solar plants on their land. The farmers will also be able to for electronic products is met by imports.
rent their land to investors for solar power generation at a rate fixed by the government. Sadly, even the 35 per cent balance that
is made in India is primarily low-value-
Renesas new subsidiary in India added manufacturing.
Renesas Electronics Singapore recently spun off its India operations into a new subsidiary,
for which Sunil Dhar has been appointed as the managing director. Since 2011, we have
been operating via our branch offices in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. In the last three years,
Philips re-entering mobile
Renesas has gained significant traction in the Indian market. Setting up a wholly-owned handset market
subsidiary will allow us to expand our footprint to accelerate business growth. says Dhar. Philips could not stay away from the
CeramTec opens office in India charm of Indian mobile handset market
for long and has made a re-entry in the
CeramTec, the manufacturer of technical high-performance ceramics for electronics and
many other applications, has opened an office in Panaji, Goa. The company deals in a market. The new range of mobile phones
variety of highly-specialised ceramic materials where other materials, such as plastic or from Philips include both smartphones
metal, cannot withstand the extremely high loads. and feature phones.
According to a company spokesper-
means to an end, after a while once the max. Surprisingly, the three companies son, the Philips brand of feature phones
industry gets on its own two feet and were followed by Datawind in the and smartphones have been launched
reaches a certain scale, then those du- fourth place. This is perhaps because in India by Sang Fei Consumer Com-
ties can be scaled back. Goel added. of the absence of many tablet sellers munications Co., a joint venture between
in the country. This rating is of course Royal Dutch Philips Electronics and
Tablet market in India drops in terms of the shipments received by Shenzhen SED Industry Co. Sang Fei
The tablet market may be growing all each company and not in terms of the has launched these phones about seven
over the word, but India does not seem to actual number of tablets sold. years after China Electronics Corpora-
play a big role in it. According to a recent tion (CEC), the parent group of Sang
report released by the IDC, the Indian Setting up of Electronics Fei, acquired the global mobile phone
tablet market has fallen by 32.8 per cent Commission proposed business of Philips. The acquisition hap-
year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014. Electronics industry representatives and pened in February 2007.
The report said that only 780,000 tablet semiconductor associations have urged According to the companys website,
shipments were seen in the quarter. newly appointed Minister for Commu- Sang Fei has come up with a new series
Further, the IDC reports that a lack nications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, of Philips mobile phones. The India
of new buyers and the norms for compli- to set up an independent Electronics business of these phones will be headed
ance with the Bureau of Indian Standards Commission, much like the Telecom by SS Bassi, Sang Feis head of SAARC
(BIS) are responsible for the drop in the Commission, to address all matters operations, who has worked with Lenovo
sales of tablets. The lack of a decent budg- pertaining to the electronic design and India and Reliance Communications in
et is also the reason for the drop in the manufacturing sector. The first of its the past. Philips had a range for feature
sales of Android tablets in the country. kind Commission will play a key role phones in India, till the time of acquisition.
The IDC report also noted that in tackling all problems the industry is The company slowly disappeared and
Samsung is the top tablet vendor in facing, insisted the representatives. the space was filled by the home-grown
India, followed by Apple and Micro- manufacturers.
Check efytimes.com for more news, daily
new products
Recently introduced in India, From near and far
than seven effective bits almost com- ings up to 5A per contact. Engineered
TEST & MEASUREMENT pletely eliminates signal distortion. for wire-to-wire and wire-to-board
With a sampling rate of 5 GS/s and applications,
All-in-One Instrument a maximum memory depth of 50M its crimp and
National Instruments (NI) has samples per channel, the oscilloscopes snap-in recep-
launched VirtualBench, which has can accurately record the long signal tacles are used
five essential instruments needed by sequences required when analysing the to terminate
any designer/engineermixed signal data content of serial protocols such as AWG 20 to 30
oscilloscope, digital input/output, I2C and CAN. wires. Header assemblies for wire-to-
programmable power supply, digital Rohde & Schwarz, New Delhi board interconnections include vertical
multimeter and function genera- Phone: 011-42535400 and right-angle variants.
torincorporated into a single bench- E-mail: [email protected] Minitek Pwr 4.2 is manufactured for
top instrument Website: www.rohde-schwarz.co high-current and high-density applica-
with software tions, and supports up to 9A per con-
interface. Insulation testers tact. Both the products are designed for
Virtual- The new MI 3200 TeraOhm 10 kV is dual-row and 2 to 24 circuits, but feature
Bench reduces a digital diagnostic insulation tester greater versatility due to their diverse
the number of manufactured by Metrel and marketed wire-to-wire, wire-to-board and wire-to-
instruments, by Rishabh Instruments. panel mount capabilities. Its crimp and
space require- MI 3200 enables high insulation snap-in receptacle is used to terminate
ment and cost for the users. The features resistance measurements up to 10 T, AWG 16 to 28 wires.
that make it revolutionary are the mixed step voltage test, PI, DD and DAR cal- FCI Electronics, Bengaluru
signal oscilloscope, high integration with culation, capacitance measurement and Phone: 080-25597149, 25550852
todays technologies, and very low price withstanding voltage test. The large E-mail: [email protected]
compared to the equivalent devices of LCD screen enables real-time graph to Website: www.fci.com
other leading brands. The instrument be displayed. Results can be stored and
can be connected to PC using the stand- downloaded to a computer via USB LDO line-up
ard USB port, or connected to PC and or RS232 connection with the help of ROHMs new 16-model line-up of
tablet using Wi-Fi. The user interface is optional software. LDOs is optimised for microcontroller
very simple with all functionalities and Major applications include test- power supplies in
controls integrated into a single window, ing insulation resistance of rotating automotive body
and much similar to the UI of existing machinery, cables, transformers, HV and power train
modular instruments. generators, surge arresters and effec- systems. The new
National Instruments, Bengaluru tive measurements in high noise envi- power supplies in
Phone: 080-4119 0000 ronments, such as charged substations the BD4xxMx se-
Website: http://ni.com and switchyards. ries, together with
Rishabh Instruments Pvt Ltd, Nashik the BDxxC0A series, have been designed
Digital oscilloscopes Phone: 0253-2202202/028 for application in car infotainment
Rohde & Schwarz has introduced RTE E-mail: [email protected] systems, bringing the total number of
digital oscilloscopes that offer fast and Website: www.rishabh.co.in automotive-grade LDO offers to 43.
reliable solutions for everyday test and The BD4xxMx series utilises state-
measurement tasks such as embedded COMPONENTS of-the-art power system 0.35m BiC-
design development, power electron- DMOS processes and takes advantage
ics analysis and general debugging. Wire-to-board and wire-to- of ROHMs renowned analogue design
These are available with bandwidths of wire connectors technology to achieve less than half
200 MHz to 1 GHz. FCI has launched Minitek Pwr 3.0 and the no-load current consumption of
The scopes highly accurate digital Minitek Pwr 4.2 wire-to-board and standard products, contributing to
trigger system with virtually no trig- wire-to-wire connectors. significant energy savings. In addition,
ger jitter delivers precise results. The Minitek Pwr 3.0 is designed for a novel circuit design enables support
single-core A/D converter with more power applications with current rat- for ceramic capacitors, eliminating

new products
the need for electrolytic capacitors to their appliances during a power outage. and more efficient electronics design.
prevent oscillation, reducing both the The UPS can be used to provide Previously, MCAD designers had to
mounting area and costs. power backup for all domestic appli- model rigid-flex boards as sheet-metal
ROHM Semiconductor, Chennai ances and is equipped with various in- parts, which limited the accuracy of
E-mail: [email protected] built protection features. This system the design. With this update, designers
Website: www.rohm.com with next-generation architecture has can open the folded model of a flex-
a digital signal processing core that ible PCB in mechanical design tools to
Automotive accelerometer yields a high performance. ensure form and fit are correct. In ad-
STMicroelectronics has launched AIS- Luminous India, Hosur dition, they can run detailed analysis
3624DQ, a 3-axis accelerometer with E-mail: [email protected] on the PCB, checking on connections
digital output. It is the first to provide a Website: www.luminousindia.com and heat flow.
full-scale range of 24g (accel- Altium Designer 14.3 delivers
eration of gravity) while Power converter improvements to schematic wire
meeting the automotive Mornsun recently launched a higher dragging, with development focused
industrys demanding power Din-Rail AC-DC power sup- on maintaining connectivity while
AEC-Q100 reliability stress plythe LI120, following the LI24 (24W) improving productivity. This includes
tests. The AIS3624DQ claims to bring / LI72 (72W). It acts as the power sup- improvements to the handling of over-
all the benefits of STs market-proven ply for the industrial bus in the control lapping wires, net labels and junctions.
stacked-chip technology to the automo- cabinet, can provide all units with 24V Altium Limited
tive market. This solution is based on supply, and can be used in industrial E-mail: [email protected]
companys 20.3cm (8-inch) wafer manu- control/electric and other distributed Phone: +91 95915 91919 / +91 90366 04755
facturing of MEMS products and offers a power systems. Website: www.altium.com
more competitive solution than the others The LI120 adopts a new circuit de-
who produce on 15.2cm (6-inch). sign and embeds power factor correction, LEDs & LED LIGHTING
The product offers selectable full- which takes its
scale range including 6g/12g/24g. Other efficiency up to LEDs for headlights
features of the automotive accelerometer 92 per cent, while Everlights high-power Argus series
include 16-bit data output, two digital pushing its stand- of LED headlight modules feature low
output lines (interrupt generators), nine by power con- thermal resistance and
user-selectable output data rates (ODR), sumption down a high heat dissi-
power down, low power and normal to 0.75W. With pation rate. The
power modes, SPI and I2C digital output 35mm installation overall package
protocols, embedded self-test and up width, it saves considerable space for size is reduced to
to 10,000g shock survivability. Housed users. In addition, the Din-Rail mount- allow flexible space
in a QFN 24L (4x4x1.8 mm3) package, ing protects a circuit from the damages for the component manufacturers to
the AIS3624DQ is currently available as caused by over voltage, overload or con- design their headlight products.
engineering samples. tinuous short circuits. This is a line of high-performance
STMIcroelectronics, Noida Mornsun India headlight LED modules based on
Phone: (0120) 2352999 Phone: +91 9820194705 ceramic substrates featuring high
Website: www.st.com E-mail: [email protected] heat dissipation rate up to 170W/
Website: www.mornsun-power.com mK, far better than those provided
POWER SUPPLIES by conventional ceramic substrates. A
SOFTWARE single chip running at 1A provides up
Home UPS system to 1200lm. With a properly designed
Luminous Power Technologies intro- 3D PCB Design Tool heat dissipating mechanism, a single
duced Zelio in April, a pure sine-wave, Altium has announced the latest chip provides highly stable perfor-
state-of-the-art home UPS system, update to its signature PCB design mance even at 1.2A. The single-chip
designed to software, Altium Tj design that has passed the 150C
work with Designer 14.3. high-temperature test is perfect for the
the most sen- The software has harsh, extremely hot environment in a
sitive home been updated to headlight assembly.
appliances. Zelio has a unique feature provide improved Everlight Electronics India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
that displays the power back-up in support and new Phone: 080-41633111, 080-41623111
hours and minutes, which allows con- features that facili- E-mail: [email protected]
sumers to plan their day and manage tate design reuse Website: www.everlight.com

Letters
LETTERS
EFY: You may refer to DIP Trace,

Live Telecasting Spot An Error Award Winner
on Your Web FreePCB and Layout Editor software
included in the DVDs provided with In the e-Style First Look section
I saw Live Telecasting on Your Web EFY Plus February and April issues. To published in June issue, specifi-
DIY article published in May issue. buy the back issues contact EFY associ- cations of the Intex Aqua I5 HD
This is an informative and interesting ates KitsnSpares on info@kitsnspares. is wrongly mentioned as 1GB of
project. My son has done this project com RAW instead of 1GB of RAM.
and successfully telecast a birthday Madhuram Mishra
party on the Internet. I thank you for FM News Channel Using Through e-mail
publishing this type of do-it-yourself Raspberry Pi
article! I liked Personal FM News Channel
Sanak Kumar Using Raspberry Pi & RSS DIY article Errata
Electrical Manager published in November 2013 issue. 1. In the component layouts for
BHEL, Bhopal Where can I buy one Raspberry Pi the PCBs of Real Time Clock with
EFY: Thanks for the feedback! board and accessories for making this Temperature Logger and Safety
project? Timer for Home Appliances cir-
Article for EFY Karthik Hegde cuits published in March issue,
I want to write an article for EFY Through e-mail the 0.1u value printed between
on Digital Image Processing with EFY: You can purchase Raspberry Pi XTAL2 and R2 and between IC3
topics ranging from basic imaging board from KitsnSpares. For details, 7805 and LED1, respectively, is
algorithms like Sepia, Grayscale, you may visit their website at http:// not required.
Negative, etc to a bit advanced image kitsnspares.com/user1/buyproduct. 2. In the Wi-Fi Embedded
processing like kernel filters and frac- asp?id=79 Webcam circuit published in Sep-
tals. The language can be either Java tember 2013 issue, under Software
or Python, as per your choice. Making FM Transmitter section, in second paragraph, EFY
Abdul Fatir I am a student interested in making an EVD should be read as EFY DVD.
IIT, Roorkee FM transmitter circuit. Please give me 3. In the Humidity Indicator
EFY: Please see the guidelines for related circuits. and Controller circuit published
contributing articles at http:// Ram in February issue, switch S1
efymag.com/Guidelines_for_EFY_ should be read as on/off switch
Through e-mail
instead of 0n/off switch in com-
authors.doc and email your articles I want short-range as well as long-
ponent layout for the PCB.
to [email protected] range FM transmitter circuit diagrams.
Praveen S. Javali
Please help.
Remote Control Tester In the Temperature-Sensing
Bikram
Diodes Selector circuit published
The Remote Control Tester circuit Nepal
in January issue, the IC1 (7818)
published in May is interesting. EFY: You may refer to Wireless and IC2 (7809) should have been
But easier method is to use a digi- FM Microphone circuit published included in the parts list.
tal camera or camcorder. Point the in January issue under Circuit Ideas Akkanagamma S.M.
remote towards the camera and section. This circuit is nothing but
press any button. You will be able a simple FM transmitter with loud-
to see IR LED flashing on camera speaker used as a microphone. Multiplexing techniques sub head-
screen. You may also refer to long-range ing, in second paragraph, TDMA is
Krishna Murty FM transmitter circuit from wrongly mentioned as Time Division
Through e-mail http://electronicsforu.com/new- Multiplex Access instead of Time Divi-
electronics/lab/search_lab. sion Multiple Access. Again, in fourth
PCB Design Software asp?words=transmitter paragraph, FDMA is mentioned as
I need PCB design software that does Frequency Division Multiplex Access
not require Internet connection dur- High-Speed DWDM instead of Frequency Division Multiple
ing installation. Please help. Technology Access.
J.C. Adhyaru In High-Speed DWDM Technology Madhuram Mishra
Vadodara, Gujarat article published in May issue, under Bhopal

immediately return one single
image frame from the video
input object as shown in Fig. 1.
data = getsnapshot(vid)
3. Convert this RGB snap-
shot to gray. The function used
for this process is mentioned
Q.Iwith
am trying to build a project
Matlab that uses colour
below. The output is shown in
Fig. 2.
detection at its core. I have worked img = rgb2gray(data)
on various algorithms available on 4. Extract the red/green/ Fig. 3: RED component extracted from RGB image
the Internet but they do not seem to blue colour components from
work for me. Can you help me with the original RGB snapshot.
detailed steps for colour detection us- Function data(:,:,1) extracts
ing Matlab? all the red colour components
Pooja from the RGB image. Similarly,
Through e-mail for green use data(:,:,2) and for
A. Colour detection through Matlab

is fairly easy with all the required
blue data(:,:,3). The output is
shown in Fig. 3.
functions already inbuilt. The basic al- 5. Subtract the red-colour
gorithm is as follow: components from the gray-
1. Primary colours such as red, colour snapshot using below-
green and blue can be detected easily. mentioned function. You will
The algorithm actually works in sepa- get the output image as shown Fig. 4: Subtracting red from gray image
rate steps. in Fig. 4.
2. First take a snapshot from a real- diff_im =
time video. The function that you can imsubtract(data(:,:,1),
use for it is mentioned below. This will rgb2gray(data))
6. Now remove the
noise from the image
by using filter function
shown below. Median
filtering is a nonlinear
operation which is often
used in image process-
ing to reduce salt and
pepper noise. A median
filter is more effective
than convolution when Fig. 5: Converting gray image to binary image
the goal is to simultane-
ously reduce noise and preserve diff_im = im2bw(diff_im, 0.18)
edges. 7. Now you can measure the pa-
Fig. 1: Snapshot from a real-time video B = medfilt2(diff_im, [3,3]) rameters of that bright image and place
7. Convert the filtered im- a rectangular box over it using math-
age into binary image using the ematical calculations which will show
binary function shown below. the presence of red colour at that place.
You will get a bright image at stats = regionprops(diff_im,
the place of red object. The out- BoundingBox,Centroid)
put image diff_m replaces all Thats it!
pixels in the input image with
luminance greater than level Answers compiled by EFY technical editor, Ankit
Gupta. Letters and questions for publication
with the value 1 (white) and
may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You,
replaces all other pixels with D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New
the value 0 (black) as shown in Delhi 110020 (E-mail: [email protected]) and
Fig. 2: Gray image Fig. 5. should include name and address of the sender

interview
There exists a phenomenal growth

opportunity in the voice and music arena
Designing audio devices used to be simple, but modern designs are
very integrated and efficient. This interview looks at what has changed,
and helps you keep on top of the changes. Joep A.J. van Beurden,
chief executive officer, CSR plc speaks with Dilin Anand, senior
assistant editor at EFY Joep A.J. van Beurden
chief executive officer, CSR plc
Q
What is transforming the audio electronics industry?
What we see now is a single chip, a piece of silicon that
has audio codec, memory, processor and power management
long hallway. At the far end of the hallway, beyond normal
Bluetooth Smart range, were these lights that needed to be
controlled. But because it was meshed, the control was not
all rolled into one. This is like a complete voice and music a problem. We could address individual lights, a group of
platform. For instance, if you open a pair of headphones, lights, or all of them at once.
there is usually just one chip inside. This single chip takes
care of the entire sound quality and music experience that you
have when you listen to it. It is a very strong audio platform Q
What would it take to do something similar with Zigbee?
What I feel is that you can go Zigbee and get the mesh ca-
that also streams Bluetooth from your iPod or your phone. It pability, but now you need a Wi-Fi access point, and it becomes
goes into headsets, sound bars, speaker docks and then the cumbersome starting there. For instance, in Philips products that
next big opportunity is to have the same system streamed into are currently available in the market using Zigbee, there are only
the entire house using a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. three lamps and you need a separate access point for it. So, if you
have 21 lights you then have seven different queues on your
Q
Why should people get into designing devices with Blue- phone, and you can see how it goes on from there.

Q
tooth Smart?
With Bluetooth Smart, we talk about wearables such as What is interesting about designing for automotive industry?
the Nike+ FuelBand, and an enormous amount of verticals, Automotive market as a whole has a little bit more visibil-
that are still small. but a lot of people are very excited about ity, and the reason is that it is the very nature of that industry.
it because it can grow exponentially. Voice, music and auto- Design cycles are very long and it can take you up to two
motive might be the sectors which pay the bills today for us. years to start the design process, ending it and actually get-
However, Bluetooth Smart is very exciting but it is still more ting the chip into the car. Now, once your component is in the
investment than revenue, although we have shown very good car, it is not easy to get it designed out. So although it takes
growth. People talk about a 100 billion connected devices in a while to get in, the benefit is that once you are in, you stay
10 years time, a large chunk of these are going to be con- in. Cycles are longer when compared to consumer electronics
nected through Bluetooth Smart. where it is mostly six months, and therefore the visibility is
a little bit better. It is very competitive, just as competitive as
Q
What is the most exciting product that you have seen in
audio?
the smartphone which is ultra competitive.

The excitement is all about streaming audio. Two products
were launched at CES this year, which are pieces of silicon and
software that allow you to access any musical source that you
Q
How does the design process usually work in the automo-
tive industry?
We talk to the OEMs to be able to understand what it is that
have. You can take it from the cloud and stream to Spotify, or they want, so that we can put it on our roadmap. The actual sale
you can take it from the DLNA server, iPod and Android. The is usually to so-called tier 1 companies. These are companies
stream gets into your hub, and then your hub can distribute it that are selling a complete sub-system, like a head unit or a
to your entire home with even different streams to each room. powertrain or what have you, to the car manufacturer. For in-
This is really exciting and there exists a phenomenal growth stance, if you get a win with Toyota, you are going to deal with
opportunity in the voice and music arena for the coming years. a company called Denzel. Or there is another company called
Continental, or you have Visteon, or Robert Bosch. These are the
Q
When can we see mesh networking in Bluetooth Smart?
In CES, we demonstrated which I thought was a world
tier 1 customers that we physically ship to, where they integrate
it into a larger subsystem and that subsystem gets installed into
first, a design that functioned through Bluetooth Smart the car. In automotive infotainment we are moving from a world
meshed. In our booth, we had 25 different lamps that you in which we sell individual components into a completed info-
could actually address individually through what was a tainment bundle, using SoCs for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.

interview
There is no starting point

for IoT devices
If you were tracking our stories, you would know how
a product conforms to the IoT criteria. Now, it is time to
move forward so you can actually build a product for IoT.
T. Anand, managing director of Knewron, discusses with
Dilin Anand from EFY some basic elements and building
blocks for IoT-based products T. Anand
managing director, Knewron
Q
For the uninitiated, could you describe the primary build-
ing blocks of an IoT system?
The Internet of Things primarily needs three building
protocols for communicating with their devices. As a result
of that, devices connected to the Internet often cant speak
to each other, even if they want to. Protocol therefore is a
blocks to make it functional. These are, a thing itself, which prime need to be addressed at this stage. Such protocols
could be a door-lock or water-tank, etc; a connecting mecha- and mechanisms or semantics could take shape of IP in
nism, such as RF transmitter/receiver, NFC, Bluetooth, etc; coming days. Processors, on the other hand, are delivery
and a stable and secure communication method or protocol. mechanisms for the IPs. For instance, a processor can have
In order to make an IoT product, converting it into a useful ubiquitous protocol built in its hardware to enable IoT-based
and meaningful application is going to be the key. devices and applications deliver more value at lesser cost.
Built-in communication stacks could be a great advantage in
Q
What are the fundamental elements that any IoT designer
should first understand?
designing and building IoT-based devices or systems since
major time is usually spent in integration of protocol stacks
Technically, it is easier to make a product and have RF with external things.
or Bluetooth connectivity built into it. However, that does
not necessarily make it an IoT-enabled product. Because the
application that product serves doesnt dictate so. From a
designers perspective, security, identity management, se-
Q
Could you share some insight into security, or the lack of
it, in IoT?
As I foresee, most of the security issues would be related
mantics, compatibility with multiple communication stand- to intercommunication between things (or devices) connected
ards, lower power, lower costs and nil or least interference on network, where alteration of data and information might
would be the major criterion for IoT-based products. In some occur. This alteration or interference could further result into
very specific cases, safety will also be a significant factor to misrepresentation of things, disruption in interconnected
be considered. Interestingly, designers also need to answer systems or even some unprecedented stoppage of certain
many trivial but critical questions, such as: What would work. And the best way to address most of the issues would
smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, cars, locks and smart clothes, be to take pre-emptive actions in design phase of these appli-
and whatever else, would talk about with each other? cations, protocols, methods, etc. Through multilayer device
design approach, threats could be contained on the outer
Q
Should the designers wait for more suitable chip tech-
nologies?
levels, which could add to safety of the device.
People are not waiting for technologies since there is no

starting point for IoT devices. These are being designed and Q
Which areas are gaining in value, and which ones are on
the losing side?
developed continuously with recursive modifications as and Well, sensors are the future of distributed data. We are
when newer technologies become available. If we wish chip starting to move a sea of data, have our movements moni-
designers to integrate some critical protocol into their hard- tored and our environments measured and adjusted to our
ware design, developers need to start making and using it in preferences, without need for direct intervention. This means
software form for some time. On the other hand, if chip design- new opportunities for sensor designers, active sensor mecha-
ers create some enabler for better use of technology, developers nisms and wireless technology/protocol developers. Addi-
would prefer to use it rather than re-invent the wheel. tionally, as general-purpose computing is becoming a thing
of the past, most of the things that are based on it would start
Q
What would be the top two things on an IoT product de-
signers wish-list of IP?
becoming smaller and then disappear. The industrial internet
means that machines will no longer be constrained by the
Developers have embraced a plethora of incompatible quality of their on-board intelligence.

product categories index
advertisers product category index

Products Page No. Products Page No. Products Page No. Products Page No.
Automation & Robotics Shrey Plastic Moulders ..................................... 142 Materials (Including Chemicals & Safety & Security Products
Dynalog (India) Ltd (D) ....................................... 29 SPM Electronics ............................................... 143 Consumables) Matrix Comsec Pvt Ltd ......................................... 9
Indus Robotics & Automation Research CeramTec India - Innovative Ceramic
Pvt Ltd.............................................................. 69 Components (Including Active & Passive) Engineering Pvt. Ltd ...................................... 133 Sensors & Transducers
Chandsons Industries ....................................... 143 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd.............................. 59 Audac Transducers ........................................... 141
Batteries & Power Supplies Digi-Key Corporation ............................................ 5
Arham Electronics & Electricals Electronic Assembly ........................................... 49 Optics & Optoelectronics Services
(Nimra Products) ........................................... 141 Element14 India Pvt Ltd. ...................................... 1 Alfa Electronic Components ............................... 98 3B Semiconductors Pvt. Ltd. ............................ 139
Brisk Electronics ............................................... 139 Fujistsu Semiconductor Pacific Asia Limited Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd (D) ................ 18-19
Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd (M) ....................... 141 Singapore ........................................................ 51 Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd ........................................ 142 Solar Products
Elektro Power Systems .................................... 141 MediaTek India Technology Pvt. Ltd.................. 131 International Corporate ..................................... 143 Elektro Power Systems .................................... 141
Elnova Ltd (m) .................................................. 143 Microchip Technology Inc. .................................. 65 MAPP Solar Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd. ............. 143
Exide Industries Ltd (C) ...................................... 57 Millenium semiconductors ...................................11 PCBs, Assemblies & Sub Assemblies Shreyansh Electronics (D) ................................ 142
G-Tek Scientific Ltd ........................................... 137 Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd .................. 13 Anamika Enterprises ........................................ 143 Systellar Innovations ........................................ 137
Guna Power Systems (B) ................................. 141 Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. ........................... 81 Mitsutek Electronics (D) .................................... 142
Integrated Batteries India P Ltd (D) .................. 141 Renesas Electronics Singapore Pulraj Electronics Pvt Ltd .................................... 25 Telecom Products
J.K. Power ........................................................ 142 Pte Ltd ........................................................... 125 SMD Electronics Pvt Ltd.................................... 143 u-blox Singapore Pte. Ltd. India Liaison Office..... 4
Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd ..................... 142 ROHM Semiconductor ........................................ 33
Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Sancon India Pvt. Ltd. ...................................... 129 Plugs, Sockets & Connectors Test & Measurement Equipment (Including
Co. Ltd ............................................................111 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. ............................ 14 Miracle Electronic & Devices Pvt Ltd .................. 75 Indicators & Monitors)
Nippon India (D) ............................................... 137 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd .............. 45 Agilent Technologies India Pvt Ltd........False Cover
S.M Semiconductors (D) .................................. 142 Toshiba India Pvt. Ltd........................................ 125 Reseller and Distributors Agilent Technologies India Pvt Ltd.............Gate fold
Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ....................... 143 Digi-Key Corporation ............................................ 5 FLIR Systems ..................................................... 47
SM Electronic Technologies Pvt. Ltd. ................. 21 Consumer Electronics & Appliances Element14 India Pvt Ltd. ...................................... 1 Max Technology & Co. ........................................ 37
Srishti Electronics ............................................. 143 Canon India Pvt. Ltd. ........................................ 149 Embedded Systems Solutions Pvt Ltd. ............ 139 Methode Electronics India Pvt Ltd....................... 53
Stab-Brain Systems .......................................... 142 Techno Power ................................................... 141 LWI Electronics Inc. ............................................ 23 NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd .................................... 7
Madhu Subtronic Components Precision Mastech Enterprises (Hong Kong) Ltd.135
Cabinets, Enclosures & Accessories IT Products Pvt Ltd ............................................................. 41 Rohde & Schwarz ............................................... 63
S K Metal Works ............................................... 142 Embedded Systems Solutions Pvt Ltd. ............ 139 Progressive Engineers (R) ............................... 140 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd. (D) ......................... 15, 152
EFY Magazine Attractions During 2014

Month Technology Focus EFY Report Buyers Guide t&m
January Electronics of Things Industrial Automation Electronics Rework Stations Automated Test Equipment (AOI, etc)
Handheld T&M Equipment for Field

February Smart Grid Smart Grid Electronics Thermal Imaging
Engineers
March Smart & Electric Vehicles Automotive Electronics How to Make Your Lab Static Proof Function & Signal Generators
April Smart Homes Inverters & UPSSOHO & Industrial Digital Multimeters Multimeters
May FPGA (Programmable Chips) Connectors & Terminals FPGA Training Kits Data Acquisition Systems
Desktop Manufacturing Equipment

June 3-D Printers Certification & Quality Labs EMC Test Equipment
(SMT, Reflow Ovens, 3D Printers)
PCB Industry in India: Suppliers &

July Raspberry Pi Budget Friendly Oscilloscopes Oscilloscopes
Manufacturers
August Security 2.0: Latest products Aerospace & Defence Electronics Wi-fi & RF Modules Incircuit Test Systems
September Smart Robos Solar Electronics EDA Tools for Circuit Design Virtual Instruments
Development Boards (Microcontroller

October Open Source Electronics Educational & training Products Analysers (Network, Protocol, Spectrum, etc)
based)
Wireless Communication Technologies

November Security & Surveillance Soldering / Desoldering Stations RF Devices (Wireless Devices)
(Zigbee, RF to 5G & beyond)
December Smart Lighting LED Lighting Programmable Power Source Power Analysers/Power Meters/Supplies

advertisers & organisation index
advertisers index
Client name Page No. Client name Page No. Client name Page No.
3B Semiconductors Pvt. Ltd...................................................................139 Fujistsu Semiconductor Pacific Asia Limited Singapore..........................51 Nippon India (www.nipponindia.com).....................................................137
Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd........................... Gatefold / False cover Full Page Subscription Form....................................................................83 Precision Mastech Enterprises (Hong Kong) Ltd...................................135
Alfa Electronic Components.....................................................................98 Good Will Instrument Co. Ltd.................................................................148 Progressive Engineers ...........................................................................140
Anamika Enterprises...............................................................................143 G-Tek Scientific Ltd.................................................................................137 Pulraj Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.pulraj.com).............................................25
Arham Electronics & Electricals (Nimra Products).................................141 Guna Power Systems.............................................................................141 Renesas Electronics Singapore Pte.Ltd.................................................127
Audac Transducers.................................................................................141 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ..................................................................59 Rohde & Schwarz (www.rohde-schwarz.co.in)........................................63
Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd............................................................18-19 Indus Robotics & Automation Research Pvt Ltd......................................69 ROHM Semiconductor..............................................................................33
Brisk Electronics.....................................................................................139 Integrated Batteries India P Ltd (www.integratedbatteries.com)............141 S K Metal Works (www.skmetals.com)...................................................142
Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd..............................................................................142 International Corporate...........................................................................143 S.M Semiconductors...............................................................................142
Canon India Pvt. Ltd...............................................................................149 International Rectifier Hong Kong Ltd.......................................................... Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd.............................................................143
CeramTec India - Innovative Ceramic Engineering Pvt. Ltd..................133 IPCA-EFY Expo........................................................................................43 Sancon India Pvt. Ltd..............................................................................129
Chandsons Industries.............................................................................143 J.K. Power ..............................................................................................142 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (www.shavison.com)...............................14
Digi-Key Corporation (www.digikey.com)...................................................5 Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd...........................................................142 Shrey Plastic Moulders (www.shreyplasticmoulders.com)....................142
Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd....................................................................141 KitsNSpares...........................................................................................105 Shreyansh Electronics............................................................................142
Dynalog (India) Ltd (www.dynalogindia.com)...........................................29 LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com)............................................23 SM Electronic Technologies Pvt. Ltd........................................................21
EFY Group: Android App........................................................................ 117 Madhu Subtronic Components Pvt Ltd....................................................41 SMD Electronics Pvt.Ltd.........................................................................143
EFY Group: E Rocks 14...........................................................................31 MAPP Solar Energy Systems Pvt Ltd (www.mappsolar.com)...............143 SPM Electronics (spmelectronics.com)..................................................143
EFY Group: EFY Expo India.....................................................................87 Matrix Comsec Pvt Ltd (www.cognitoindia.com)........................................9 Srishti Electronics (www.acedigital.co.in)...............................................143
EFY Group: EFY Expo West....................................................................67 Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com).............................37 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd....................................................45
EFY Tech Center.......................................................................................17 MediaTek India Technology Pvt Ltd........................................................131 Stab-Brain Systems................................................................................142
Elcina Electronic Industries Association of India......................................35 Methode Electronics India Pvt Ltd............................................................53 Systellar Innovations (www.systellar.in)..................................................137
eleb2b.com..............................................................................................138 Microchip Technology Inc. (www.microchip.com).....................................65 Techno Power (www.technopowersystems.com)...................................141
Electronic Assembly (www.lcd-module.de)..............................................49 Millenium semiconductors (www.millenniumsemi.com)........................... 11 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd. (www.tektronix.com/2170)..........................15, 152
Elektro Power Systems...........................................................................141 Miracle Electronic & Devices Pvt Ltd (www.toroidal.com)........................75 Toshiba India Pvt. Ltd..............................................................................125
Element14 India Pvt Ltd..............................................................................1 Mitsutek Electronics................................................................................142 Towa Engineering Works........................................................................141
Elnova Ltd (m) (www.elnova.com)..........................................................143 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co. Ltd............................ 111 u-blox Singapore Pte. Ltd. India Liaison Office (www.u-blox.com)............4
Embedded Systems Solutions Pvt Ltd. .................................................139 Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd ......................................................13
Exide Industries Ltd (www.exide4u.com).................................................57 Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd..................................................................81
FLIR Systems (www.flir.com)....................................................................47 NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd (www.ni.com)...................................................7 Page numbers subject to final dummy corrections

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What are some of the projects featured in the magazine?

What are some of the projects featured in the magazine?

What technologies are discussed in relation to wearable electronics?

What technologies are discussed in relation to wearable electronics?

EFY Survey: pCB

Vol. 3 No. 3 | ISSN 0013-516X | Pages: 152+8 | UK #5; US $10

Agilents Electronic Measurement Group,

Learn more at www.keysight.com

12 eStyle Buyers Guide Editor : Ramesh Chopra

Android KitKat Smartphones: A

Back issues, : KitsnSpares, New Delhi

42 Telecom Technology Efficient 5V Relay Driver

Software Defined Networking chennai : Ph: 09916390422

Kolkata : Ph: 08800094202

From 50MHz to 100GHz, Bench-Top for Engineers china :

70 Defence Electronics E-mail: [email protected]

Part 4 of 4: Defence Lasers and

76 EFY Plus DVD

United States : E & Tech Media

Regulars T. Anand, managing director of Knewron E-mail: [email protected]

6 July 2014 | Electronics For You plus www.efymag.com

3G Wi-Fi Router Astrums NFC Enabled Portable Speaker

With built-in power bank for

L apcare has launched wireless

8 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Intex Launches Low-Cost

Kindle Cloud Reader Now H ome grown manufacturer, Intex,

10 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Android KitKat Smartphones: A Treat For All

Android KitKat Smartphones to choose from

12 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

14 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Worlds smallest nanomotor

16 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

This 3D printer creates fruits in custom taste,

This augmented reality helmet is truly a guardian

18 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Guardian GA-1 motorcycle helmet (Courtesy: www.augmentedrealitytrends.com)

helmet provides the rider with a detailed heads-up display

This self-learning humanoid could pose

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | July 2014 19

Wear Your Future

What are wearable

22 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

24 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | July 2014 25

Raspberry Pi: A Tinkerers Dream

gaming console of 2001.

powered usb hub

26 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | July 2014 27

28 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Mind-Reading Pets and Hijacking

30 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

32 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

34 July 2014 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

Base material COVERLAY POLYIMIDE

thicker materials are possible. Thinner Copper

For most materials, stiffness increase Fig. 5: Multilayer flex circuits