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ANC stands for Active Noise Cancellation, a technology designed to reduce unwanted background noise. ANC works by using microphones to pick up external sounds, which are then processed by the device to generate an « anti-noise » signal. This signal is the exact opposite of the external noise and cancels it out when combined with the original sound wave. This results in a quieter environment for the listener, allowing them to focus more on the audio they want to hear, like music or calls, without interference from external sounds.
A key technical challenge in ANC technology is minimizing the latency between environmental sound acquisition and playback to ensure an optimal noise-canceling experience.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are two distinct but related technologies that alter our perception of reality:
Augmented Reality (AR): AR overlays digital information, such as images, videos, or 3D models, onto the real world. It enhances the physical environment by adding computer-generated elements, typically viewed through devices like smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses.
Virtual Reality (VR): VR creates a fully immersive experience that isolates the user from the real world and places them in a completely simulated environment. This is usually achieved with a VR headset that covers the user’s vision and often includes headphones for an immersive audio experience.
Virtual Reality (VR): VR creates a fully immersive experience that isolates the user from the real world and places them in a completely simulated environment. This is usually achieved with a VR headset that covers the user’s vision and often includes headphones for an immersive audio experience.
Technical challenges for AR include achieving accurate spatial alignment of digital elements with the real world and maintaining high performance across various devices. For VR, challenges involve creating convincing immersive experiences with minimal latency, ensuring high resolution and field of view in headsets, and avoiding motion sickness. For both the audio beaforming management is key to offer the best user experience.
Beamforming is a signal processing technique used to direct the transmission or reception of radio frequency (RF) signals towards a specific target or device. It is primarily used in sensor arrays, such as antennas, to improve the efficiency and clarity of wireless communication. By focusing the signal in a particular direction, beamforming enhances the signal-to-noise ratio, minimizes interference, and ensures that the signal reaches the intended receiver more effectively.
Technical challenges related to beamforming include choosing the appropriate type of microphone (D-mic vs. A-mic). Analog microphones may introduce noise and require additional signal processing, while digital microphones offer higher signal-to-noise ratios and built-in processing but may involve more complex integration and higher costs.
A headset typically refers to an electronic device that incorporates semiconductor components for functionalities such as wireless communication, audio processing, and noise cancellation. These headsets often use semiconductor-based transceivers, amplifiers, and other integrated circuits to enable features like Bluetooth connectivity, active noise cancellation (ANC), and high-quality audio output.
One of the key technical challenges will be the codec selection to balance high audio quality with low power energy consumption.
Hearables devices, like True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds, hearing aids, and Over-The-Counter (OTC) hearing devices, are MCU-based in-ear devices. They support advanced functionalities such as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), beamforming for clearer sound directionality, and Voice Activity Detection (VAD) for efficient voice command interaction. These features, combined with sound amplification, enhance audio quality and usability for individuals with mild hearing impairments.
Designing MCUs for hearables involves optimizing audio quality for TWS through advanced DSP for features like ANC, ensuring ultra-low power consumption for hearing aids to extend battery life, and achieving low latency for real-time processing, crucial for features like ANC and voice detection.
A smart speaker in the context of semiconductors is an advanced audio device equipped with integrated circuits (ICs) that enable voice recognition, wireless connectivity, and interaction with other smart home devices. Semiconductor technologies in smart speakers include microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), and wireless communication modules (such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).
Technical challenges in designing a smart speaker include optimizing the integration of multiple ICs for seamless operation, managing power consumption to balance performance with battery life, ensuring accurate voice recognition in various acoustic environments, and maintaining reliable wireless connectivity while minimizing latency and interference.
A Digital Microphone (DMIC) is a microphone that converts sound directly into a digital signal, using an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) integrated within the microphone itself.
Since DMICs transmit digital signals, they are less susceptible to interference and noise over long signal paths compared to analog microphones. Additionally, they are optimized for low power consumption, making them suitable for battery-powered devices.
DMICs can interface directly with digital processors, microcontrollers, and codecs, simplifying system design in integrated circuits (ICs). They typically use I²S or PDM interfaces for communication.
DMICs are commonly used in embedded systems, such as smartphones, laptops, wearables, and smart home devices.
The first voice devices in semiconductors refer to early technologies that could process and generate speech using semiconductor components. This innovation was a significant milestone as it allowed electronic devices to produce human-like speech from digital data, leading to advancements in consumer electronics, toys, and early voice response systems
Wearables refer to electronic devices that can be worn on the body, integrating semiconductor technology to provide various functions such as health monitoring, fitness tracking, or communication. These devices often include sensors, processors, and communication modules embedded in compact, flexible, and often stretchable materials that are comfortable to wear.
Automotive-grade devices, such as automotive MCUs, are microcontrollers specifically designed and tested to meet the rigorous demands of automotive applications. They must withstand extreme temperatures, vibrations, and electromagnetic interference while ensuring reliability and safety. These devices are compliant with industry standards like AEC-Q100 and ISO 26262 for functional safety. Automotive MCUs control critical systems like engine management, braking, infotainment, and ADAS, requiring high performance, robustness, and long-term operation. Automotive grade is based on three levels: Grade 0 (-40°C to +150°C), Grade 1 (-40°C to +125°C), and Grade 2 (-40°C to +105°C).
Designing automotive-grade MCUs requires addressing extreme temperature tolerance, functional safety (ISO 26262), EMI resistance, long-term reliability, power efficiency, and real-time processing. These challenges ensure robust performance in demanding automotive environments.
Energy harvesting in the semiconductor context refers to the process of capturing and converting small amounts of ambient energy from the environment into electrical power. This energy can come from various sources such as light, heat, vibration, or electromagnetic waves. Semiconductors play a crucial role in energy harvesting by enabling the creation of efficient devices that can convert these forms of energy into usable electricity.
GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) in semiconductors refers to the integration of GNSS technology into semiconductor devices, enabling accurate location tracking and navigation. GNSS is a satellite-based system used to determine geographic positions globally, and semiconductor technology has advanced this capability by making GNSS receivers more efficient, compact, and low-power.
Key challenge: the device must operate with low power in portable or battery-powered devices while maintaining satellite signal acquisition and data processing.
High-Performance Computing (HPC) in semiconductors refers to the use of advanced semiconductor technology to develop powerful and efficient computing systems capable of handling complex and resource-intensive tasks. HPC systems are designed to deliver high-speed processing, significant computational power, and efficient energy use, making them essential for applications like artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, climate modeling, and scientific simulations.
A key technical challenge in designing CPUs for HPC is addressing voltage droop detection and silent errors. Voltage droops, caused by sudden power demand changes, can lead to reduced performance or data corruption. Silent errors, which occur without triggering system alarms, are particularly dangerous as they can compromise computation accuracy. Detecting and mitigating these issues requires sophisticated monitoring and correction mechanisms to ensure reliability Advanced power delivery systems and error detection techniques are crucial to maintain stability and performance in HPC CPUs
In the context of semiconductors, « home appliance » refers to the use of semiconductor devices in various household electronics. These semiconductors, such as power ICs, MOSFETs, and microcontrollers, play a critical role in the operation and efficiency of home appliances. Semiconductors help regulate and manage power consumption, control motors, and enable smart functionalities in these appliances. By integrating advanced semiconductor technologies, home appliances can achieve higher energy efficiency, better performance, and enhanced connectivity, contributing to smart home ecosystems
Home automation in semiconductors refers to the integration of semiconductor devices and technologies into smart home systems to automate and control various household functions. These systems use sensors, microcontrollers, and communication modules to manage lighting, climate control, security, entertainment systems, and more, often via a central hub or a mobile app.Semiconductors enable the connectivity, processing power, and energy efficiency needed for smart home devices to communicate with each other and respond to user inputs or environmental changes.
Industrial devices are exposed to harsh environments while reliability requirements keep increasing: useful lifetimes of up to 20 years shall be guaranteed for ever-more demanding combinations of voltages, temperatures and mechanical stresses. By adequately conjugating design for reliability strategies and silicon characterizations methods, our development team anticipates the aging impacts to comply with the most challenging mission profiles. With high-current capabilities (up to 1 A), wide operating temperature ranges (-40°C to 125°C), large voltage ranges (up to 5.5 V) and extended lifetimes (up to 20 years), Dolphin’s power management platforms meet the stringent constraints of any industrial applications.
IoT (Internet of Things) devices are smart, interconnected physical objects that collect, exchange, and process data through the internet. These devices, ranging from sensors and wearables to home appliances and industrial equipment, use embedded hardware and software to communicate with other devices, networks, or platforms. Designed to automate tasks, IoT devices enable real-time monitoring, control, and analytics, enhancing efficiency and user experience across various industries, such as healthcare, agriculture, and smart cities. IoT devices tend to connect to the cloud via Bluetooth technologies (Classic or LE), Wi-Fi, Cellular, LoRa, Wi-SUN, and various other radio protocols.
The key technical challenges for IoT devices largely revolve around selecting the right power management IP. Since these devices are often battery-operated, efficient power consumption is critical for extending battery life. Additionally, the choice of power management must consider RF sensitivity, as improper regulation can introduce noise or interference, degrading wireless communication performance. Balancing low power consumption with reliable RF performance is essential for optimal IoT operation.
Power metering in the semiconductor industry refers to the measurement and monitoring of electrical power usage within semiconductor devices and systems. This technology is crucial for tracking energy consumption, improving efficiency, and ensuring reliable operation of semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Power meters, which can be single-phase, two-phase, or three-phase, are used to measure and record various aspects of energy, such as active and reactive power.
The key technical challenges lie in the accuracy of the analog front-end (AFE) measurements and the safe, built-in Power computation Engine (PCE), whether for single or three-phase meters.
Home automation in semiconductors refers to the integration of semiconductor devices and technologies into smart home systems to automate and control various household functions. These systems use sensors, microcontrollers, and communication modules to manage lighting, climate control, security, entertainment systems, and more, often via a central hub or a mobile app.
A low power MCU (Microcontroller Unit) is a type of microcontroller specifically designed to operate with minimal power consumption. These MCUs are critical in battery-powered devices like wearables, sensors, and IoT applications, where energy efficiency is crucial for extending battery life. Low power MCUs achieve this by entering various power-saving modes, such as sleep or deep sleep, where they consume as little as nanoamps or microamps of current.
Wireless MCUs (Microcontroller Units) in the semiconductor industry are specialized integrated circuits that combine a microcontroller with wireless communication capabilities. These devices are crucial for enabling connectivity in various applications, particularly in the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart devices.
Wireless MCUs encompass Wi-Fi (4, 5, 6, 6E), USB, NFC, Bluetooth Classic, BLE, Zigbee, 802.15.4, LoRa, FSK, BPSK, and other sub-GHz modulations and protocols.
Key technical challenges in power management for wireless MCUs involve optimizing DC/DC converters while minimizing noise. DC/DC converters are critical for efficient power usage, but they can generate noise and electromagnetic interference (EMI), which can degrade radio performance. This is especially challenging in wireless protocols like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LoRa, where sensitive radio frequency (RF) circuits require clean power to maintain signal integrity. Ensuring proper noise filtering, isolation, and shielding is essential to prevent power-related interference, maintaining reliable wireless communication and overall MCU performance.