Atmel Announces World´s Fastest ADC

Philips Selects InterDigital´s Advanced HSDPA Technology For Its 3G Platform

Microchip Introduces PIC10F Microcontrollers

NEC Develops Low Standby Leakage Technology

Atmel Announces World´s Fastest ADC

Atmel, the developer and manufacturer of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the second in a series of high-speed integrated ADC and DMUX devices, with a new 10-bit ADC offering a clock frequency of 2 Gsps, and an embedded 1:4 LVDS demultiplexer for direct interface with standard FPGAs.

The new AT84AS004TP is fully-compatible with Atmel´s AT84AS003TP 10-bit 1.5 Gsps ADC and DMUX released earlier this year, providing identical form-factor, pin-out and functions. It allows easy upgrade from existing designs operating at slower data rates or the possibility of creating a family of products from the same board design, for high-speed digitization applications such as broadband test and measurement equipment, high speed data acquisition, telecommunications and defense.

The new device provides dynamic performance of ENOB (Effective Number Of Bits): 7.8 bits, SFDR: —55 dBFs and SNR: 51dB at 2Gsps in 1st Nyquist conditions. Gain flatness remains flat (±0.2 dB) from DC to 1.5 GHz, allowing use over the second Nyquist zone.

The AT84AS004TP is delivered in an EBGA317 package and operates over Commercial and Industrial temperature ranges. Samples are available now with production quantities in September 2005, at a unit price of $595 for a 1K-piece quantity.

Source: Atmel

Philips Selects InterDigital´s Advanced HSDPA Technology For Its 3G Platform

InterDigital Communications, the designer, developer and provider of wireless technology and product platforms, announced an agreement with the semiconductor division of Royal Philips Electronics to bring InterDigital´s HSDPA technology into the family of Nexperia cellular system solutions. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology will provide to mobile phones and other mobile devices a fast, cost-effective way to download email, music and video content and to surf the web.

InterDigital offers its standards-compliant HSDPA solution as a set of technology blocks for incorporation into existing UMTS Release 99/Release 4 chips or as a separate coprocessor chip for initial deployment. The advanced receiver-based technology solution supports Category 10 functionality, efficient power control and delivers quality of service enhancements and is scalable to Release 6 of the standard, High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology.

HSDPA technology is an optional upgrade available for WCDMA/UMTS networks and terminals. It offers a seven-fold increase in theoretical data speeds (14Mbps) for the downlink compared to today´s WCDMA networks (2Mbps). In real life, these theoretical maximum data rates are rarely achieved, but the practical performance of HSDPA can be compared with current ADSL broadband, whereas WCDMA is more comparable to basic ISDN. HSDPA not only offers higher raw data rates but also it is much better designed to handle IP traffic. Therefore, end-users will experience faster response times and shorter download times. They can also download packet-data over HSDPA at the same time as having a speech call.

Source: InterDigital

Microchip Introduces PIC10F Microcontrollers

Microchip introduced two new additions to its PIC10F series of 6-pin microcontrollers: PIC10F220 and PIC10F222. Each novelty, encased into a 6-pin SOT-23 package, combines an 8-bit ADC and an 8-bit PIC microcontroller with flash memory.

The new products differ by higher 8MHz internal clock generator and are well-suited for battery applications judging by 2.0-5.5V voltage and low energy consumption (100nA standby current). While samples are already available, the volume production is to be launched in Q4 this year.

Source: Microchip

NEC Develops Low Standby Leakage Technology

Two NEC Corp. units have developed technology to lower standby power for mobile devices by combining high-k technology and a body-biasing scheme. In the laboratory, the team achieved a 1.4 picoAmpare standby leakage current for NFET and 0.3 picoAmpare for PFET. The researchers claimed these are the lowest leakage current ever achieved.

The NEC researchers targeted ultra low-power technology to reduce power consumption of system-on-chip devices to 1/30 of conventional chips, enabling the design of a battery lasting 10 times longer than present systems. The new technology is the core of NEC´s "Ultimate Low Power" initiative, and it is applicable at both the 65- and 45-nm nodes.

Standby power was negligible compared to the operating power of transistors at 180 and 130 nm. In scaled-down devices, lower supply voltage reduces active power consumption but standby power consumption often increases due to higher leakage current. At 65 nm, leakage power consumption is expected to exceed active power consumption for many devices.

Therefore leakage current suppression is essential for low standby power (LSTP) devices used in low-power applications such as mobile products. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) predicts that higher dielectric constant (high-k) material would arrive in gate insulator used in LSTPs around 2006. The NEC group demonstrated the low leakage with high-k (HfSiON) insulator film, and intends to implement the newly developed technology in its 65-nm node LSTP devices scheduled to be available in 2006.

Source: EE Times

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