New-Tech Europe Magazine | Q1 2023

Q1 2023

16 Multiturn Position Sensor Provides True Power-On Capabilities with Zero Power 20 Powering the computational tsunami driven by AI, machine learning and big data 24 A safe, rugged and reliable connector system to ensure that power, signalling and water don’t mix 26 The Age of Inference - Future Pervasive AI Architectures for Edge and Cloud Look Unified and Scalable"

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About New-Tech Magazines Group Read To Lead ‘New-Tech Magazines’ A world leader in publishing high-tech and electronics, producing top quality publications read by tens of thousands professionals from all over the world especially from Europe, innovative electronics, IoT, microwave, homeland security, aerospace, automotive and technological industries. Our specialized target audiences prefer New-Tech Europe because they know that our publications are a reliable source of the latest information in their respective fields. Our multidimensional editorials, news items, interviews and feature articles provide them with a full, well-rounded picture of the markets in which they operate - an essential asset for every technological leader striving to stay ahead, make the right decisions, and generate the next global innovation. Moreover, as an attractive platform for advertisers from around the world, New-Tech Europe has become a hub for bustling international commercial activity. Here, through ads and other promotional materials, Israeli readers obtain crucial information about developers and manufacturers worldwide, finding the tools, instruments, systems and components they need to facilitate their innovative endeavors. Targeting the needs of both the global and european industries and global advertisers, New-Tech Magazines Group constantly expands and upgrades its services. Over the years, the company has been able to formulate a remarkably effective, multi-medium mix of offerings, combining magazine publications with useful online activities, newsletters and special events and exhibitions.

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Contents

10 LATEST NEWS 16 Multiturn Position Sensor Provides True Power-On Capabilities with Zero Power 20 Powering the computational tsunami driven by AI, machine learning and big data 24 A safe, rugged and reliable connector system to ensure that power, signalling and water don’t mix 26 The Age of Inference - Future Pervasive AI Architectures for Edge and Cloud Look Unified and Scalable 28 Waterproof Circular Connectors for High Mating Cycles 30 Practical Guidelines To Achieve Quality Connector Solder Joints 36 Industry Outlook 2023: Four IC design megatrends to watch 38 Mobile players and policy makers must collaborate to accelerate 5G rollout in Europe

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40 OUT OF THE BOX 42 NEW PRODUCTS 50 INDEX

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Intel Hits Key Milestone in Quantum Chip Production Research

the thousands or potentially millions of qubits required for a commercial quantum computer.

Intel demonstrates exceptional yield of quantum dot arrays, showing promise for large scale qubit production using transistor fabrication technology.

Additionally, the cross-wafer yield enabled Intel to automate the collection of data across the wafer at the single electron regime, which enabled the largest demonstration of single and double

The Intel Labs and Components Research organizations have demonstrated the industry’s highest reported yield and uniformity to date of silicon spin qubit devices developed at Intel’s

Photo credit: Intel Corporation

quantum dots to date. This increased yield and uniformity in devices characterized at low temperatures over previous Intel test chips represents a crucial step toward scaling to the thousands or potentially millions of qubits required for a commercial quantum computer. “Intel continues to make progress toward manufacturing silicon spin qubits using its own transistor manufacturing technology,” said James Clarke, director of Quantum Hardware at Intel. “The high yield and uniformity achieved show that fabricating quantum chips on Intel’s established transistor process nodes is the sound strategy and is a strong indicator for success as the technologies mature for commercialization. “In the future, we will continue to improve the quality of these devices and develop larger scale systems, with these steps serving as building blocks to help us advance quickly,” Clarke said. Full results of this research will be presented at the 2022 Silicon Quantum Electronics Workshop in Orford, Québec, Canada on Oct. 5, 2022. For further exploration, you can read about Intel Labs’ research in quantum computing and other breakthroughs in hot qubits, cryogenic chips, and its collaboration with QuTech.

transistor research and development facility, Gordon Moore Park at Ronler Acres in Hillsboro, Oregon. This achievement represents a major milestone for scaling and working toward fabricating quantum chips on Intel’s transistor manufacturing processes. The research was conducted using Intel’s second generation silicon spin test chip. Through testing the devices using the Intel cryoprober, a quantum dot testing device that operates at cryogenic temperatures (1.7 Kelvin or -271.45 degrees Celsius), the team isolated 12 quantum dots and four sensors. This result represents the industry’s largest silicon electron spin device with a single electron in each location across an entire 300 millimeter silicon wafer. Today’s silicon spin qubits are typically presented on one device, whereas Intel’s research demonstrates success across an entire wafer. Fabricated using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the chips show remarkable uniformity, with a 95% yield rate across the wafer. The use of the cryoprober together with robust software automation enabled more than 900 single quantum dots and more than 400 double dots at the last electron, which can be characterized at one degree above absolute zero in less than 24 hours. Increased yield and uniformity in devices characterized at low temperatures over previous Intel test chips allow Intel to use statistical process control to identify areas of the fabrication process to optimize. This accelerates learning and represents a crucial step toward scaling to

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Latest News

WirelessCar reaches 10 million connected cars worldwide

challenges, large and small, to deliver robust and highly reliable services to our customers. We take that wealth of experience to benefit current and potential OEMs in launching best-in class connected car services. Of course, we would not be where we are today without this collective knowledge from having ten million cars on the road!” From a delivery and operational

WirelessCar, a leading innovator of connected vehicle services, announced a major milestone of reaching ten million connected cars in over 100 countries. Since its founding in 1999, WirelessCar has worked with many of the largest global automakers to develop, deliver and operate digital services worldwide. Over the past twenty-plus years, WirelessCar has been

credit: WirelessCar

an important part of the extensive mobility ecosystem. As the automotive industry continues to change at a rapid pace, WirelessCar has proven to be flexible and innovative, leading the charge towards automotive digitalization and realizing the true value of connected car services. “WirelessCar is here to make a difference,” said Niklas Florén, CEO of WirelessCar. “Each new car validates our growth journey and shows that we evolve and bring innovation and scale to the future. With ten million safer, smarter and more sustainable connected cars, we showcase both for our customers and ourselves that we make all the difference today and are prepared for what is to come.” Since its very first customer, Volvo Cars, together with whom it launched emergency call and Volvo On Call in 2000, WirelessCar has grown steadily: in the number of connected cars, people, OEM customers, and impact. The benefits of this growth are directly realized in its collaboration with OEMs, as new insights make WirelessCar and its services even better. Greg Geiselhart, WirelessCar’s VP Sales & Marketing: “Reaching ten million connected cars across the world is no small feat. Over the years, we have overcome both technical and commercial

perspective, WirelessCar has proven to be a trusted partner when it comes to fulfilling its customers’ requirements for scalability, availability and reliability 24/7/365. “To manage over ten million vehicles across more than 100 markets, we constantly investigate new possibilities to be efficient in our deliveries,” said Jessica Nymark, COO of WirelessCar. “This covers not only utilizing new technologies, but also optimizing our way of working as well as applying the knowledge we gain from our services in operation to continuously evolve them.” Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, WirelessCar’s focus on technological innovation will become even more important. “While scaling from zero to ten million vehicles we have led the industry through several technological shifts such as the adoption of public cloud, microservice architectures, modern IP communication protocols and mobile apps,” said Tomas Carlfalk, CTO of WirelessCar. “On the journey to 100 million connected vehicles, we are already leading the way with our SaaS product offerings that enable OEMs to increase the speed of innovation of value-added, end user services.”

EVR Motors signs fourth commercial agreement in India and establishes Indian manufacturing facility

he new activity will see EVR become the first Israeli automotive company to have its own manufacturing facility in India. EVR’s breakthrough electric motors now cover most vehicle categories. First motors will be supplied to vehicle manufacturers in the second half of 2023

The latest partnership, with RSB Group, one of India’s most prominent Tier-1 automotive suppliers, follows commercial agreements signed with Badve Group, Napino, and EKA Mobility in the last year EVR Motors, an Israel-based electric motor innovator focused on making high power-density electric motor, has signed

New-Tech Magazine Europe l 11

Latest News an agreement with RSB Group, one of India’s most prominent Tier-1 automotive suppliers.

executing EVR’s India business strategy and has previously held key corporate positions in prominent automotive companies in India. EVR’s electric motor product line now comprises four motor families, from 3KW to 135KW. EVR’s first motors were designed for 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers and are suited for a wide range of additional applications. The recent

The agreement with RSB is EVR’s fourth commercial agreement in India signed during the past eight months. Other agreements are in place with Badve Group, Napino, and, most recently, EKA Mobility. Each of the partners is in various phases of setting up production lines to provide electric motors based

credit: Ksenia Polyak

expansion of its motor line allows EVR to enter high demand segments such as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and e-buses. Compared to standard motors, EVR’s electric motors are 30%-50% lighter and smaller, cost significantly less and can be tailored to user requirements. Over the last year, EVR was granted ten patents for its new technology, and more patents are expected. EVR has recently demonstrated its electric motors with several vehicle manufacturers in India, Japan, and Europe. The company showcased at the 16th Auto Expo 2023 exhibition at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India, earlier this month. “The establishment of EVR India and the agreement with RSB are additional milestones in our unprecedented momentum in the Indian market, which is racing towards electrification at an incredible pace,” said Opher Doron, CEO of EVR Motors. “We approach this market with our cost-efficient, best in class electric motor offering. We have succeeded in partnering with leading Tier-1 manufacturers who have superb industrial capabilities, innovative drive, and extensive customer bases. These collaborations enable us to develop and provide electric motors for most types of vehicles.”

on EVR’s innovative and proprietary electric motor topology. As a result, EVR’s electric motors, are expected to be supplied to vehicle manufacturers in multiple categories from the second half of 2023. Both the RSB Group and EKA Mobility agreements see EVR developing electric motors for Light Commercial Vehicles using its breakthrough proprietary Trapezoidal Stator RFPM topology. This signifies EVR’s entry into the passenger vehicle, light commercial vehicle, and e-bus sectors, expanding from its initial markets in the 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler segments. EVR is establishing a wholly owned subsidiary, EVR India, to serve the organization’s growing customer base in the country. EVR India will manufacture unique electric motor coils, a patented key component of EVR’s electric motor topology, for the company’s partners in India and globally. EVR India will include a team of about 30 people for engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, and customer support. EVR India will provide partners with a low risk, cost-effective supply of critical motor parts to simplify their production setup and create improved economies of scale. The company has appointed Sajal Kishore as managing director of EVR India. Kishore has been instrumental in formulating and

IBM and NASA Collaborate to Research Impact of Climate Change with AI

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center announce a collaboration to use IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology to discover new insights in NASA’s massive trove of Earth and geospatial science data. The joint work will apply AI foundation model technology to NASA’s Earth-observing satellite data for the first time. Foundation models are types of AI models that are trained on a broad set of unlabeled data, can be used for different tasks,

and can apply information about one situation to another. These models have rapidly advanced the field of natural language processing (NLP) technology over the last five years, and IBM is pioneering applications of foundation models beyond language. Earth observations that allow scientists to study and monitor our planet are being gathered at unprecedented rates and volume. New and innovative approaches are required to extract knowledge from these vast data resources. The goal of

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Latest News

senior research scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Building these foundation models cannot be tackled by small teams,” he added. “You need teams across different organizations to bring their different perspectives, resources, and skill sets.” “Foundation models have proven successful in natural language processing,

this work is to provide an easier way for researchers

to analyze and draw insights from these large datasets. IBM’s foundation model technology has the potential to speed up the discovery and analysis of these data in order to quickly advance the scientific understanding of Earth and response to climate related issues. IBM and NASA plan to develop several new

credit: NASA

technologies to extract insights from Earth observations. One project will train an IBM geospatial intelligence foundation model on NASA’s Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset, a record of land cover and land use changes captured by Earth orbiting satellites. By analyzing petabytes of satellite data to identify changes in the geographic footprint of phenomena such as natural disasters, cyclical crop yields, and wildlife habitats, this foundation model technology will help researchers provide critical analysis of our planet’s environmental systems. Another output from this collaboration is expected to be an easily searchable corpus of Earth science literature. IBM has developed an NLP model trained on nearly 300,000 Earth science journal articles to organize the literature and make it easier to discover new knowledge. Containing one of the largest AI workloads trained on Red Hat’s OpenShift software to date, the fully trained model uses PrimeQA, IBM’s open-source multilingual question answering system. Beyond providing a resource to researchers, the new language model for Earth science could be infused into NASA’s scientific data management and stewardship processes. “The beauty of foundation models is they can potentially be used for many downstream applications,” said Rahul Ramachandran,

and it’s time to expand that to new domains and modalities important for business and society,” said Raghu Ganti, principal researcher at IBM. “Applying foundation models to geospatial, event-sequence, time-series, and other non-language factors within Earth science data could make enormously valuable insights and information suddenly available to a much wider group of researchers, businesses, and citizens. Ultimately, it could facilitate a larger number of people working on some of our most pressing climate issues.” Other potential IBM-NASA joint projects in this agreement include constructing a foundation model for weather and climate prediction using MERRA-2, a dataset of atmospheric observations. This collaboration is part of NASA’s Open-Source Science Initiative, a commitment to building an inclusive, transparent, and collaborative open science community over the next decade. Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

Sentry Enterprises and Infineon collaborate to fuel biometric access control and cold storage crypto wallet platforms

Sentry Enterprises, a technology-leading company focused on transforming what identity means across the physical and digital worlds, selected Infineon’s latest generation SLC37x Secure Element chip family to fuel its biometric platforms. Sentry Enterprises is the creator and maker of the SentryCard biometric platform, a privacy-centric, proof of-identity solution, along with the soon-to-be-released

Sentinel biometric cold storage crypto wallet. Sentry’s identity platform competes horizontally across all security, payment, and crypto sectors, and other market segments. Sentry is in the process of finalizing its next-generation “universal identity platform” that incorporates biometric hardware, a cutting-edge card operating system, as well as integrated mobile applications and back-end systems.

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Latest News

The focus of this platform is to provide solutions that address today’s security vulnerabilities while positioning itself for the future of Web 3.0 and self sovereign identity applications. “Our expertise in biometric solutions has proven to be the essential foundation for building a leading global identity ecosystem. Collaborating with Infineon to integrate the SCL37x Secure Element into the SentryCard and Sentinel biometric platforms provide the perfect balance between performance, power and uncompromising security,” said Mark Bennett, CEO at Sentry Enterprises. “There is no question that privacy-centric, biometric solutions will play a critical role in the security, identity, and emerging crypto markets,” said Arnaud Moser, Senior Director of Americas, Smart Cards and IoT Security, Infineon. “We believe that Sentry is the first commercially scalable player in this arena, and we are very pleased that

they have selected Infineon’s SLC38 Secure Element to strengthen their platform.” Sentry uses Infineon security controllers, which are certified to the security level CC EAL 6+, and designed for Digital Identity use cases like electronic passports, physical access cards, physical tokens, and more for secured identification and authentication. Infineon is pleased to collaborate with Sentry to bring more secured innovative and convenient solutions to market. Sentry’s biometric platform provides a critical missing element in today’s highly connected world – a user controlled absolute proof-of-identity that readily integrates with the world’s existing infrastructure. Establishing absolute proof of-identity and trust are paramount to protecting critical infrastructure, enterprise and government assets, as well as the rapidly growing cryptocurrency markets.

New report shows quantum technologies thriving in Europe Europe’s globally-competitive q u a n t u m t e c h n o l o g y ecosystem, comprised of SMEs, corporations, leading scientists, projects, start ups, and spin-offs, is showing strong signs of growth, a new report shows. Europe’s 1500 quantum scientists across 236 organizations filed 105 patents (with 64 already granted) and published 1313 scientific papers (with a further 223 under review). Investment in quantum

technologies has been vital in establishing strong growth within the sector. According to the report, during the ‘ramp

The new study published by the European Commission called

“Taking the lead in the quantum revolution” shows Europe’s quantum technology ecosystem is thriving with a suite of solutions being developed by projects, start-ups, and spin-offs for a number of applications, including sensing, communication, and computation. The driving force behind many of the continent’s quantum technology breakthroughs since 2018 is the Quantum Flagship – Europe’s €1 billion, ten-year research and innovation program, the report reveals. Growth from Ramp-Up Phase Since the initial four-year ‘ramp-up’ phase (2018-2021) began,

up’ phase, the European Commission invested €150 million to support 24 consortia involving leading research institutions and companies. This growth phase was complemented by the QuantERA project – a network of 39 public Research Funding Organizations (RFOs) supporting research and innovation in Quantum Technologies – which leveraged a combined €88.9 million. These combined activities helped establish 25 start-ups and spin-offs which are working to commercialize communication, computation, simulation, sensing, and metrology solutions. The report notes the Flagship’s efforts to move advanced

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quantum technologies from the laboratory to industry with a suite of prototypes and products ready for market.

resonance (NMR). The quantum microscope developed by Metaboliqs will provide researchers with a unique tool that significantly advances cell analysis and creates new opportunities for in vitro diagnostics and medical research. European Quantum Outlook The report finds that the initial ramp-up phase has established strong foundations upon which Europe can build its globally competitive quantum ecosystem of SMEs, corporations, investors, and leading researchers. The success of the Flagship’s ramp-up phase has enabled significant investment from major national quantum initiatives, creating funding comparable to that already committed by the Flagship (€2 billion in Germany, €1.8 billion in France, and €670 million in the Netherlands). The authors note that coordinating research at national and European levels is more critical than ever, given that no single country can carry out the complex endeavors required to develop quantum technologies by itself. At the time of publication, the first quantum computers are being acquired and deployed in EuroHPC. Similarly, the Flagship continues to mature other qubit approaches so that they can be sufficiently deployed over the coming years. As the Flagship moves into its second era, it will continue to mature its quantum computers and develop the most promising new technologies, such as photonic quantum computing. Several projects have secured a second phase of European funding to establish, maintain and implement a strategic research roadmap in targeted quantum pillars, such as the EuroQCI and EuroQCS projects launched to develop quantum infrastructures. At the end of 2022, updates to the Strategic Research and Industry Agenda (SRIA) and the Strategic Industry Roadmap (SIR) from the Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC) were published based on the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). These updates introduced the industrial perspectives for quantum technologies and the Flagship’s links to other quantum initiatives, such as the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC), the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure initiative (EuroQCI), and the European Chips Act. A new Strategic Research and Industry Agenda will be published in 2023, reflecting the Flagship’s progress so far and setting goals for its future. The Commission will continue to support the Flagship until 2027 with at least €500 million in funding from Horizon Europe.

Highlights of the Quantum Flagship Quantum Computing – the Flagship’s researchers have been investigating the most promising scalable quantum computing platforms (superconducting, trapped ions, silicon) to assemble working quantum processors for each approach. OPENSUPERQ is building a globally competitive quantum computer system based on superconducting integrated circuits to outperform classical computers. It will be available at the national research institution, Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE) early 2023. The system is based on integrated electric circuits made from superconducting metals, combining the whole stack of necessary hardware and software components. The OPENSUPERQ quantum computer has measurement and cryogenics systems that can hold 100 qubits with state-of-the art errors in gate operations and has a processor which has already been used for a global first in quantum error correction with 17 qubits. Meanwhile, the Flagship’s researchers at the AQTION project have been developing an ion-trap quantum computer – a system using ions trapped by electric fields and manipulated with lasers. Quantum Internet – Researchers in the Flagship’s Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) project have taken the first step into offering a fundamentally new quantum internet technology by enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth. QIA has created a network around three quantum nodes 1.3 km apart, enabling the end-to-end delivery of qubits between any two-network nodes, one qubit at a time. The project has connected two quantum processors through an intermediate node, establishing shared entanglement between multiple stand-alone quantum nodes. Quantum Sensing and Metrology – The Flagship’s ASTERIQS H2020 project has developed some of the world’s most advanced quantum sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in ultrapure diamonds, which will make lightweight and efficient batteries possible for wide-spread use of electric cars in place of fuel cars. Metaboliqs is currently developing promising approaches for improving medical imaging diagnostics and spectroscopy by using more precise, practical, and efficient nuclear magnetic

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Stephen Bradshaw, Product Applications Engineer, Christian Nau, Product Marketing Manager, and Enda Nicholl, Strategic Marketing Manager Multiturn Position Sensor Provides True Power-On Capabilities with Zero Power

Introduction Posi tion sensors and encoders are ubiquitous in automotive and industrial applications where it is vital that the position of the system is known at all times. However, incumbent position sensors and encoders can only provide a single turn or 360° TPO position information. Systems that require TPO position information over multiple rotations or wider measurement range typically incorporate a backup power supply to track and memorize the multiple rotations of the single turn sensor after an unexpected loss of power, or to track multiple turn movement during key-off or power-down. Alternatively, a gear reduction mechanism can be added to the system to reduce the multiple rotations to a single turn, and in combination with a single turn sensor, to find TPO multiturn position information. These solutions

are expensive and bulky, and, in the case of the battery backup system, a regular maintenance contract is required. Rotary and linear encoders are key devices used in applications where the system designer needs to ensure that the position of a mechanical system is always known for closed-loop control, even after a loss of power either as part of the normal operating cycle or accidental. The challenge for system designers is to ensure that the TPO position is available even after a loss of power. If the system state is lost, then a lengthy and often complex procedure is required to reset the system into a known state. Incumbent Solutions Modern factories are becoming more dependent on robots and cobots to reduce cycle times, increase factory throughput, and improve

efficiency. One of the major costs and inefficiencies associated with standard robots, cobots, and other automated assembly equipment is the resulting downtime required for rehoming and intializing power-up following a sudden loss of power while operating. This resulting downtime and productivity loss are both costly and inefficient. Although this issue can be solved with backup batteries, memory, and single turn sensors, these solutions have their limitations. Battery packs have a limited life span, and maintenance/service contracts are required to manage the battery replacement. In certain environments, where there is a risk of explosion, the maximum energy that can be stored in the battery pack is limited. The reduction in energy storage leads to a shorter maintenance cycle where the batteries must be replaced more frequently.

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An alternative to battery backup is the use of Wiegand wire energy harvesting modules. These modules make use of a specially treated wire where the magnetic coercivity of the outer shell is much higher than the coercivity of the inner core. The different coercivities create voltage spikes at the device output when a magnetic field is rotated. The spikes can be used to power external circuitry and record the number of turns in a ferroelectric random-access memory (FRAM). The magnetic multiturn memory that has been developed by Analog Devices requires no external power to record the number of rotations of an external magnetic field. This leads to a reduced system size and cost. Multiturn Sensor Technology At the core of themagneticmultiturn sensor is a spiral of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) material made up of multiple nanowires of GMR elements. The operating principle of the sensor is based on shape anisotropy and the generation of domain walls in a domain wall generator in the presence of an external magnetic field. As the external magnetic field rotates, the domain walls propagate through the narrow spiral tracks (nanowires) attached to the domain wall generator, as shown in Figure 1. As the domain walls move through the spiral leg structures, the state of each spiral leg element changes. Since the elements are fabricated from GMR material, the state of each one can be determined by measuring their resistance. The sensor relies only on the external magnetic field, and no additional backup power or energy harvesting technique is needed for the turn counting operation. When power is reapplied to the sensor, a reading of the turn count state is available with no further user actions or system resetting required.

Figure 1: The multiturn principle of the operation.

Figure 2: The ADMT4000 multiturn sensor block diagram.

A Combined Technology Solution that Simplifies System Design The top level block diagram of the ADMT4000, shown in Figure 2, combines the earlier described GMR multiturn sensor with a highly accurate AMR angle sensor and integrated signal conditioning IC to provide a solution that is capable of recording 46 turns or 16,560° of movement with a typical accuracy of ±0.25°. The integrated signal conditioning IC enables further system enhancements to support harmonic calibration, which can remove errors due to magnetic and mechanical tolerances from the

application. The ADMT4000 provides absolute 46 turn (0° to 16,560°) digital output via an SPI or SENT interface. The ADMT4000 is positioned opposite a dipole magnet mounted to the rotating shaft as depicted in Figure 3. ADI is preparing a magnetic reference design that will enable users with little or no magnetic design capability to easily adopt the ADMT4000 in their application. In addition to the core magnet design, this reference design will also provide immunity and robustness to stray magnetic fields, which will allow customers to implement the sensor in harsh environments. Stray fields can be generated from many

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Figure 3: The ADMT4000 typical application assembly.

Figure 4: The ADMT4000 in a robot/cobot application.

5), electrical power steering (EPS) including steer-by-wire (Figure 7), parking lock actuators, other general purpose actuators, and seat belt retractors (Figure 8). The size, cost, and operat ing temperature range of the ADMT4000 enable its use in a wide range of applications including safety critical applications in the automotive and industrial space. Automotive safety critical applications are compliant to the ISO 26262 standard and a

sources where currents are carried in a wire, in particular, when used in close proximity to electric motors or actuators. ADMT4000 capabilities are valuable in many industrial applications including robot and cobot arm joint position tracking in the event of a power outage or during power-down (see Figure 4). Other industrial applications include the absolute and TPO tracking of x-y tables in industrial automation, machine tools or medical equipment

applications (shown in Figure 5). Other rotary to linear applications include, but are not limited to the turn counting of coils, drums, spools, reels, hoists, winches, and lifts (Figure 6) when powered or movement tracking when powered down or during power outages. Additionally, TPO position sensing provided by the ADMT4000 is of significant value for automotive applications including, but not limited to, transmission actuators (Figure

Figure 5: The ADMT4000 in a rotary to linear actuator application.

Figure 6: Wire draw encoder applications.

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Figure 7: A steer-by-wire application.

Figure 8: A seat belt retractor application.

About the Author Stephen Bradshaw has a B.Eng. in electrical engineering from the University of Leeds as well an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in optoelectronics from the University of Glasgow. During the early part of his career, Stephen was responsible for the design and characterization of the lens used in the first generation of mobile phone cameras with STMicroelectronics before working on Gbps optical transceivers at Maroni and most optical transceivers at Nanotech Semiconductor. Stephen has been with ADI for over 10 years as an applications engineer supporting both LiFe and Pb-Acid battery monitoring product lines and magnetic position sensors. About the Author Christian Nau is a product marketing manager at Analog Devices and has a background in automotive electronics and sensors. He joined ADI in 2015 as a field applications

engineer and subject matter expert supporting magnetic sensors in the EMEA region. Since 2019, Christian has been working in ADI’s Magnetic Sensor Technology Group, supporting customer engagements on existing products and working on the future direction of the group covering multiple markets. About the Author Enda Nicholl is a strategic marketing manager for magnetic sensors at Analog Devices based in Limerick, Ireland. Enda was a mechanical engineer and joined ADI back in 2006. He has almost 30 years of experience in the field of sensors and sensor interface products across a broad range of applications and markets including automotive and industrial. Enda, throughout his career, has worked in product applications, field applications and sales, as well as strategic business development and marketing.

particular automotive safety integrity level (ASIL). The ADMT4000 will be supplied as either ASIL-QM or ASIL B(D) to suit applications that do and don’t need the advanced ASIL or SIL functionality. Conclusion The ADMT4000 and the f i rst integrated TPO multiturn position sensor are set to significantly reduce system design complexity and effort, ultimately resulting in smaller, lighter, and lower cost solutions. The ease of use of the ADMT4000 will enable designers with and without magnetic design capability to add new and improved functionality to current applications and open the door to many new applications. To find out more about the ADMT4000 and the magnetic reference design, please contact your local ADI sales team who will be happy to discuss your requirements and applications or visit analog.com/magnetics.

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Powering the computational tsunami driven by AI, machine learning and big data

Ajith Jain, Vice President HPC Business Unit

Unleash new levels of compute performance with vertical power delivery As high-performance AI processor power levels continue to rise and core voltages decline with advanced process nodes, power system designers are challenged with managing ever increasing power delivery network (PDN) impedance voltage drops, voltage gradients across high-current, low-voltage processor power pins, transient performance specifications and power loss. In the case of clustered computing, where tightly packed arrays of processors are used to increase the speed and performance of machine learning, PDN complexity rises significantly as current delivery must be done vertically from underneath the array. Designing a PDN using the Vicor Factor i zed Power Archi tecture (FPA™) with current multipliers at

the point-of-load instead of legacy voltage averaging techniques, allows a significant step up in performance. This is enabled by the characteristics of point-of- load (PoL) power components: high current density, reduced component count and very importantly, flexibility in placement. PoL power components thus enable current to be delivered laterally and/or vertically to AI processor core(s) and memory rails, significantly minimizing PDN impedances. Understanding the peak current demands with today’s power delivery networks Modern day GPUs have tens of billions of transistors, a number which is growing with every new generation and product family and which is made possible by smaller process node geometries. Enhancements in

processor performance then follow with every new generation, but this comes at the price of exponentially increased power delivery demands. Figure 1 shows the dramatic increase in current requirements due to reduced transistor geometry and core voltages. Peak current demands of up to 2000A are now a typical requirement. In response to this power delivery challenge some xPU companies are evaluating multi-rail options where the main core power rails are split into five or more lower-current power inputs. The PDN for each of these rails must still deliver a high current while also needing individual tight regulation, which puts pressure on the density of the PDN and its physical location on the accelerator card. To further add to this complexity, the highly dynamic nature of machine learning workloads, result in very high di/dt transients lasting several

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microseconds. This creates stress across the PDN of a high-performance processor module or accelerator card. The architecture of a typical power delivery network is highlighted in Figure 2. Best practices for optimizing the power delivery network The work by the Open Compute Project® (OCP®) consortium has helped establish a framework of standards for designing rack- and card-based processor developments. The Open Rack Standard V2.2 defines a 48V server backplane and a 48V operating voltage for open accelerator modules (OAMs) used predominately for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning workloads. To maintain compatibility with legacy 12V systems, the standard stipulates the ability to meet 12-to-48V and 48-to-12V requirements. Focusing on powering the processor, or PoL, is fraught with technical challenges. The technical advances highlighted in the previous section focused on the downward trend of voltage scaling, the requirement for tight core voltage tolerance and the upward trend of current consumption. At the board level, the impact of these factors manifests in multiple ways. The peak cur ren t dens i t i es encountered are extreme for any PCB. Routing power paths capable of these huge loads demands careful attention. Highly dynamic workloads can create spiking voltage transients, which sophisticated processors find disruptive and potentially damaging. Yet, a processor board has hundreds of other passive components, memory and other ICs essential to its operation that also need placement. Then there are the I2R losses. Power path trace lengths need to be short. To achieve this the power conversion

Figure 1: In most cases, power delivery is now the limiting factor in computing performance as new processors consume ever increasing currents. Power delivery entails not just the distribution of power but also the efficiency, size, cost and thermal performance.

Figure 2: Typical high-performance processor PDN

New ideas, architectures, topologies and technologies are the path to a more reliable, scalable power delivery network. The Vicor Factorized Power Architecture (FPA™) is the foundation for delivering more efficient power for today’s unprecedented high performance computing demands. The Vicor FPA divides the task of a power converter into the dedicated functions of regulation and transformation. A high-efficiency, high-density solution is achieved by separating them and optimizing them individually. FPA in conjunction with the Sine Amplitude Converter (SAC™) topology underpins several

modules should be close to the processor to reduce trace heating. The likelihood of PCB flexing due to the processor load currents and localized thermal gradients of the processor demand board stiffeners. Also, the converter's power efficiency specification should be as high as possible to prevent further thermal management challenges. Unleashing the power of the processer Delivering enough power to the processor today needs innovation to try to get ahead of the status quo.

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innovative architectures that can help unleash the full power of today’s high performance processors. Vicor power converter technology takes advantage of an unique Factorized Power Architecture that not only optimizes the power converter efficiency but also enables very low PDN losses associated with low voltage, high-current power delivery to the PoL (ASIC or a CPU or a GPU etc..) Lateral power delivery is an innovative technique where the two current multipliers (Vicor VTM™ modules) flank the north and south side or the east and west side of the processor. This technique is preferable for load currents of ~800A at 0.8V nominal with an associated 70µΩ of PDN at 100°C. Using these numbers, we can compute ~45W of power loss. A heat sink that covers both the 2.8mm tall current multipliers and the processor as shown in the picture would be a good thermal solution. This architecture is excellent for powering graphics accelerator cards (OAM or otherwise), networking ASICs and APUs used in hyperscale data centers or supercomputer cabinets. The Lateral-vertical power delivery technique is similar to lateral power delivery, but with this difference: only 70% of the power is delivered laterally using the current multipliers that flank the sides of the processor. An additional current multiplier on the bottom side of the processor will deliver the remaining 30% of the load current directly to the processor BGA. The hybrid of lateral and vertical achieves a reduction in PDN loss by almost a factor of four! This technique also frees board space to accommodate a second high current rail (aux) or HBM memory rails on the top side of the board around the processor.

Figure 3: Factorized Power Architecture (FPA™) factorizes the power into the dedicated functions of regulation and transformation. Both of these functions can be optimized and deployed individually to provide a high-density and high-efficiency solution.

Figure 4: Leveraging FPA, Vicor minimizes the “last inch” resistances with several patented solutions involving lateral power delivery (LPD) and vertical power delivery (VPD). All enable processors to achieve previously unattainable performance levels to support today’s exponentially growing HPC processing demands.

Vertical-lateral power delivery, on the other hand, takes advantage of pushing >50% of the load current through additional current multipliers on the bottom side of the processor. This technique enables a further 50% reduction in PDN loss compared to the lateral-vertical approach. A 1200A design can now realize a PDN resistance of a mere 10µΩ, resulting in fewer than 14.4W of power loss.

In this case, heat sinks can be placed on both the top and bottom sides of the load as space permits. This architecture is especially effective for applications that cannot afford power components on the top side of the board in order to accommodate high-speed signal routing from the periphery of the ASIC. Examples are CPO, NPO and networking / broadband communication devices.

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Vertical power delivery is the ultimate solution in terms of delivering very high current at low processor core voltages with the lowest PDN resistance. In this case, current multipliers and bypass capacitors are stacked on each other to form an integrated power module (geared current multipl ier) that can be mounted directly underneath the processor by displacing the bypass capacitor bank. Vicor GCMs are custom-built devices that map the current multiplier pinouts to the AI processor BGA in addition to being able to provide all the bypass capacitor needs within the module itself. This technique opens up the top floor of the PCB for high-speed signal routing from the periphery of the processor to realize a solution with the highest signal integrity. Applications such as

power losses across the PDN. The propriety architectures, topologies and small module size are unique in the power industry. And for the next generation processors to operate at full capacity they need a power solutions that that can adapt, scale and deliver high-density power. Robust, reliable power modules in conjunction with innovative topologies are essential in a dynamic systems where power requirements change rapidly. AI, machine learning and edge-computing will never have enough power for tomorrow using traditional power architectures. To meet that perpetual need you need to innovate today and be prepared to adapt and scale for tomorrow using modular power.

CPO (co-packaged optics, networking processors) and high-speed signaling ASICs can take advantage of this power delivery technique. The Vicor architectures are flexible enough to be adapted a wide variety of high-performance computing solutions. Vicor solutions can reduce motherboard resistances up to 50x and processing power pin count more than 10x. Leveraging a Factorized Power Architecture (FPA™), Vicor minimizes the “last inch” resistances with patented solutions combining, lateral power delivery (LPD) and vert ical power del ivery (VPD). All enable processors to achieve previously unattainable performance levels to support today’s exponentially growing HPC processing demands. The FPA architectures are unmatched in current density and in reducing

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