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Electronics Excellence Award winners at electronica 2024
Electronic Specifier has announced three winners for its Electronics Excellence Awards at electronica 2024.
The Electronics Excellence Awards ceremony took place on the Visionary Stage, Hall B4 at 12.50pm on 14th November at electronica.
Each entry was placed into one of three categories: Power Product, Test & Measurement Product, and Electromechanical Product.
Here are the winners:
Power Product winner
Nordic Semiconductor – nPM1300 Power Management IC
Nordic’s multi-function nPM1300 Power Management IC gives developers a simple yet effective way to add a compact, highly optimised power management solution to their low-power products. The nPM1300 is the first-ever PMIC to fully integrate every system management feature needed, eliminating the need to design integral system management functions – with multiple discrete components – from scratch. The nPM1300 eliminates the complexity of PMIC evaluation and development with an associated Evaluation Kit (nPM1300 EK).
The judges liked this product because of the level of integration and functionality included in a single device. They said it was an excellence submission with multiple customer testimonials.
Test & Measurement Product winner
Analog Devices – ADMT4000
The ADMT4000 is the world’s first single chip Multiturn position sensor and operates without power or contact. There are many single-turn 360° absolute position sensors on the market today, but the ADMT4000 is the first single chip sensor brought to market with an absolute measurement range of > 360°.
The judges loved this product because it is truly groundbreaking and no directly competing solution exists. It’s highly innovative and brings multiple benefits to the design engineer.
E-Mech Product winner
SiTime – Chorus
Chorus is SiTime's new, MEMS-based clock-system-on-a-chip (ClkSoC) clock generator family, designed to provide the timing heartbeat for AI data centre and communication infrastructure applications. The Chorus family, launched in April 2024, is a new generation of MEMS-based clock generators that enable smarter, faster, and better system designs by eliminating the design complexities and reducing performance and reliability issues of conventional clock + quartz oscillator solutions.
The judges liked this product because it reduces component count, simplifies the design process, and hence saves time to market.
"Congratulations to the winners of our Electronics Excellence Awards at electronica! Your achievements highlight the innovation, dedication, and progress driving the electronics industry forward. We are proud to celebrate your contributions and look forward to the impact you will continue to make in shaping the future of technology," said Paige West, Managing Editor, Electronic Specifier.
Allegro MicroSystems' sensing innovation at electronica
Allegro MicroSystems introduced its new inductive position sensors and a series of micropower magnetic switches and latches at electronica 2024.
These advanced sensing products lower system costs, extend battery life and offer reliable performance across a variety of automotive, industrial and consumer applications.
The new micropower magnetic switches and latches, the APS11753 and APS12753, redefine position sensing with higher sensitivity options for enhanced air gap tolerance, and ultra-low power consumption using 50% less power than our existing micropower products. This makes them well suited for challenging battery-powered applications in medical, consumer and industrial markets.
"We are excited to announce our latest inductive position sensors as we continue to drive innovation in sensing technology,” commented Ram Sathappan, Senior Director, Global Marketing & Applications at Allegro MicroSystems . "Our inductive sensors deliver high accuracy, advanced diagnostics and connectivity options essential for safety-critical traction motors in electric vehicles, while the magnetic switches and latches enable designers to achieve reliable and energy-efficient position sensing in a variety of applications. We’re anticipating a lot of interest in our solutions and look forward to showcasing these innovations at electronica.”
Harwin at electronica 2024
At electronica 2024, Ryan Smart , Vice President of Product at interconnect specialist Harwin reveals details on the company's new digital design tools, manufacturing expansion and a product road map for the HRi and BBi connector families.
Women at electronica 2024 leading change through inclusion and data
The Women in Tech Forum at electronica 2024, hosted by Electronic Specifier and Women in Electronics, took place on Wednesday 13th November 2024, and what a fantastic forum it was.
The event offered a close look at leadership and inclusion within the electronics industry, kicking off with a rousing keynote speech from Jackie Mattox, Founder and CEO of Women in Electronics. This was then followed by a candid panel discussion moderated by Electronic Specifier’s Managing Editor, Paige West.
The forum, which was sponsored by Rand Technologies, Component Sense, and Littelfuse, all of whom are advocates for inclusivity in the industry, considered how more opportunities can be created for women as well as some of the challenges holding them back. Speakers discussed everything from using data to measure true progress through to acknowledging the ‘elephants in the room,’ emphasising that real change starts with honest conversations.
Creating systemic change
Focusing on what’s needed for systemic change, Jackie reflected on her own career in the electronics industry. During her speech, she spoke about how she initially didn’t see being a woman in the industry as a challenge on account of having many “amazing male mentors”, however, once she returned to the industry after a career break to raise her family, she shared how she was surprised by the little progress that had been made on gender diversity. She recalled how she walked into executive events thinking: “Where's the next generation? Where's what are we going to do? Who's taking over?”
This train of thought sparked the idea for what would become Women in Electronics, which was founded by Jackie, Monica Highfill, and Amy Keller to address this gap. She shared how Women in Electronics is built on the principles of honour, authenticity, courage, and commitment, and that these values guide its mission to create opportunities for women in tech and to encourage a culture where everyone can participate in leadership roles.
X-FAB announces SMART photonics collaboration at electronica 2024
This collaboration will see X-FAB’s silicon photonics platform integrate with SMART Photonics’ Indium Phosphite (InP) chiplets using micro-transfer printing (MTP) for heterogeneous integration.
To learn more about this collaboration, Electronic Specifier’s Harry Fowle spoke with Rudi De Winter, CEO of X-FAB, on what this collaboration means for the future.
The next step
X-FAB aren’t new to the world of photonics, as De Winter says, “We started within photonics around six or seven years ago now on a more customer specific basis, since then we’ve only been growing within photonics.”
And growing they have been, X-FAB is now one of the most recognised and reliable names when it comes to silicon photonics being a specialist with its own platform. Yet, whilst silicon is strong in many ways, it has its limitations – and this trend is no different in the photonics industry.
“Silicon is okay, of course it is, but it is not the most optimal solution for photonics,” explains De Winter. “This is why we are collaborating with SMART Photonics, who specialise in InP integrated photonics. It is this combination of our specialised knowledge of silicon, and SMART Photonics specialised knowledge of InP that we believe will produce stronger results.”
ADI in industrial Ethernet
At electronica 2024, on the DigiKey booth, Caitlin Gittins speaks with Peter Canty, Applications Manager, at Analog Devices about how Industrial Ethernet solutions are enabling factory automation and creating the factory of the future.
ADI’s specific solutions are discussed, including its security measures, the evolution of Industrial Ethernet products, and their technical benefits in smart manufacturing, with real-world examples provided. The conversation also explores the unique enhancements of Industrial Ethernet, its applications in industrial settings, and the significant advantages it offers.
The conversation concludes with insights into how Industrial Ethernet contributes to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and enterprise connectivity, as well as the ways it addresses key challenges faced by automation engineers.
onsemi unveils the Treo Platform at electronica 2024
onsemi has unveiled its Treo Platform at electronica 2024, its most advanced analog and mixed-signal platform to date.
To learn more about this new platform, Electronic Specifier’s Harry Fowle spoke with Koel Appeltans, Director of Process and Platform Architecture at onsemi, about all the highlights.
Meet the Treo Platform
At its core, the Treo Platform is built on a Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process technology that operates on a 65nm node. This supports a wide voltage range of 1-90V as well as operating temperatures of up to 175°C. Thanks to this impressive temperature tolerance, “things can become even smaller whilst maintaining the same performance,” describes Appeltans, which massively improves integration.
The Treo Platform features a modular architecture, similar to those seen on SoCs, as well as constantly evolving IP building blocks that contribute to compute, power management, sensing, and communication subsystems. This development is something that Appeltans describes as: “a change in design methodology for onsemi.”
Owing to the 65nm process node it is built upon, Treo is able to deliver local intelligence and compute for what onsemi describe as ‘flexible configuration,’ as well as improved performance and accuracy. As Appeltans puts it: “A 65nm node, which competes strongly with the 110-130nm you typically find elsewhere, allows us to serve many different applications across various industries from one solution.
“Not just this, but with improved digital performance comes longevity.” This is thanks to the components becoming much more adaptable as time goes on.
Texas Instruments opens new Frankfurt distribution centre
Texas Instruments (TI) has announced the opening of its new, state-of-the-art product distribution centre in Dreieich, Germany, outside of Frankfurt.
This new distribution centre includes 9,000 square meters of space and new automation features. The new centre has the capacity to quickly ship up to 7,500 orders per day of a broad range of TI analog and embedded processing semiconductors across Europe.
“Our new product distribution centre offers faster, more efficient, flexible and reliable service for TI’s customers in Europe to meet semiconductor demand now and in the future,” said Stefan Bruder, President of Texas Instruments Europe. “Our new centre in Dreieich is the latest addition to TI’s global product distribution network which, combined with our convenient purchasing options, provides an improved customer experience from product selection to shipment.”
Located near many of TI’s industrial and automotive customers, as well as the Frankfurt Airport, the new distribution centre enables faster product delivery in Europe. The pick, pack and ship process is fully automated and orders are ready to ship within 15 minutes or less. Customers in central Germany can expect same-day product delivery, while next-day delivery is available to customers in most European countries.
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