Circuit Protection

Protection of Surveillance Cameras from Lightning Surges

Surveillance cameras have become ubiquitous in today's world. Whether we're taking a morning jog in the neighborhood, escorting our children to school or commuting to work, chances are security cameras are monitoring us. Americans are captured on security cameras about 238 times weekly. The widespread adoption of security cameras on both private and public properties is on the rise, primarily due to ease of installation and the sense of safety they offer. Once set up, cameras promptly begin recording images and videos, allowing authorized users to access real-time video feeds over the internet via smartphones or other devices. 

Securing Automotive Interfaces Against Potential ESD Hazards

Today's automobile stands at the forefront of technological advancement with a vast array of sophisticated functions such as self-driving capability, GPS navigation, hands-free phone operation via Bluetooth further enhanced by Apple CarPlay^TM and Android Auto^TM along with many cutting-edge features that improve safety and comfort. The more features are added to an automobile, the more semiconductor components are used. The semiconductor components employed in automotive applications must satisfy the qualification criteria outlined in AEC-Q standards. This international standard specifies the qualifications necessary for packaged integrated circuits and discrete devices utilized in in-vehicle electronic systems. As more interfaces are used for high-speed signal transmission, more semiconductor components are added to automotive systems.

Is ±2kV HBM ESD Protection Enough for IoT Devices?

Application of IoT and the Importance of ESD Protection

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical devices embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet. It shares the data with a Cloud server or a gateway to analyze and take corresponding actions (Figure 1). One noteworthy application of IoT is in agriculture. The amount and time of water irrigation are decided based on IoT sensors that gather information on soil moisture content, nutrients, fertilizer amount, and weather information—helping farmers make smart decisions to prevent wasting resources. IoT applications have also become very popular in manufacturing and industrial automation, from factory floors to department stores, tracking machine performance, measuring product quality, and asset tracking to real-time location systems. In smart home automation, IoT-based systems have made our homes safer and easily maintainable.

Protecting Keyboards From Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Events

The Importance of Keyboard ESD Protection

Since the dawn of computers, the keyboard has been the primary communication mechanism between human and machines. Over the years, many technologies and interfaces have changed, but the keyboard has barely changed in both form and function. Recently, I bought an exclusive wireless keyboard. Initially, it communicated with the computer via Bluetooth without any issues. However, after a month or so, it suddenly stopped. When I opened the internal circuit, I was surprised that the keys had no electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. Any electronic device's keypad, side keys or push buttons are vulnerable to ESD due to constant human interaction with them. Adding ESD protection devices in a keyboard/keypad/side keys can avoid disastrous situations such as the failure of my keyboard. Let us discuss ESD in general and how we can protect our electronic devices from it.

Complete Protection for HDMI-SDI/SDI-HDMI Converters

Whether you are watching an action replay of a baseball game on a giant screen at a stadium, a movie on your large-screen TV or streaming a video on your laptop computer, a high-quality audiovisual (AV) experience is always expected. Ultra-High-Definition Serial Digital Interface (UHD-SDI) and High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) are two standards for digital AV transmission. UHD-SDI standardizes the transmission of uncompressed and unencrypted digital AV signals over coaxial or fiber optic cables. HDMI is a digital interface for transmitting high-definition, high-speed digital multi-track audio and uncompressed video signals from HDMI-compliant sources to AV displays. Even though they both can transport ultra-high-definition AV signals from a source to a display, HDMI is preferred to connect consumer gadgets such as computers, gaming consoles, Blu-ray/DVD players, televisions, projectors, etc. UHD-SDI is preferred for high-end applications such as professional indoor/outdoor video production and television broadcasts because it supports long-range transmission and a rugged connection with the help of a physical lock mechanism at each end of the cable. UHD-SDI coaxial cable can transfer signals up to 300 feet, whereas HDMI cables struggle with excessive signal degradation even within 50 feet. These two interfaces can be used together via an HDMI-SDI or SDI-HDMI converter. For example, as shown in figure 1, an HDMI display would be used for confidence monitoring of an SDI stream to avoid the need to use specially calibrated SDI-specific displays.

Protecting the Health of a Fitness Tracker

Not too long ago, my only fitness tracker was a pedometer in my pocket to measure my daily step count. Things have since changed very quickly. I now have a smartwatch on my wrist to track my daily activities, including steps completed, distance covered, calories burned, heart rate, and breathing pattern. I also receive alerts for messages, take calls, listen to my favorite podcast, and check the weather via my smartwatch. These are all in addition to seeing the accurate time of the day. Due to all these innovative features, wearing a smartwatch and using it as a fitness tracker is the trend for the health-conscious population worldwide. While these wearables help people remain fit, extra care needs to be taken by the manufacturers to protect these wearables from electrical overstress (EOS) and electrostatic discharge (ESD) generated from the body of the person wearing these devices.

HotSwitch® – The eFuse For Your Next Design

HotSwitch® is a new product line of devices from Semtech with an integrated load switch or eFuse that protects electronics systems against typical electrical transients and steady-state fault conditions. Primarily, the HotSwitch device turns on or off the current flow to a power rail as-needed. It detects electrical surges and secures the downstream subsystem by disconnecting the load from the power source. At the same time, the devices in Semtech’s HotSwitch portfolio provide an enhanced shield against inrush current, overvoltage, under voltage, reverse current, short circuit, and over-temperature faults. Figure 1 shows how a system is protected by a HotSwitch device.

Guarding LVDS Devices in Vehicles

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have published regulations that require all cars, SUVs, trucks, and vans to have rear-view visibility systems that started May 1, 2018. In fact, until recently, the rear-view camera was the only camera used in many car models and was considered an excellent safety feature. Modern vehicles have evolved significantly in the past few years, adopting innovative safety features that include blind-spot detection, surround-view monitoring, forward and rear collision warning, lane keep assistance, and autonomous parking assistance. These features utilize cameras and sensors to inform the driver about the car and its surroundings via the dashboard display. Now, there are at least six cameras present in high-end vehicles. There may be video display systems in cars like DVD players and TVs for passengers.

Celebrating Innovation, Earth Day and Every Day

Happy Earth Day!

Side-Wettable Flanks for Automotive Industry

Since its initiation in the early 20th century, the automotive industry has evolved significantly, adopting many innovations, changes and adaptations. Modern cars feature sophisticated capabilities such as the backup camera, a full-featured infotainment system, smartphone docks, GPS navigation, Bluetooth connectivity, and several other advanced features. Not only that, some of the recent car models are capable of autonomous driving, forward and rear collision detection, and autonomous parking. It is easily imaginable that the numbers of electronic components used in a vehicle are proliferating. At the same time, the requirement for miniaturization of the electronic components is becoming critical to make space for new components.

The semiconductor industry is producing leadless packages of integrated circuits (ICs) to make room for the enormous number of electronic components and meet modern-day vehicles' safety and reliability requirements. A big challenge is the lack of visibility of the solder joints on the printed circuit boards (PCBs) during the post package assembly process. The connections are beneath the package and are not visible from the top and the side. So you cannot say for sure if the IC is adequately bonded to the PCB or not. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been using X-ray machines to detect unreliable solder joints. It is expensive and time-consuming to do so.

Moreover, this has not proven effective with multilayer boards or boards with complex layouts and routing procedures. Each vehicle PCB has to go through a strict automatic visual inspection (AVI) post assembly to comply with safety and reliability standards. The goal is to ensure that every electrical joint is adequately soldered and connections are reliable.