Temperature sensing has come a very long way in recent years. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Doug Gates from Melexis about the latest innovation in medical grade temperature sensing. They take a closer look at the different kinds of applications that can use this kind of sensing technology, the role that emissivity and field view play in temperature sensing, and what sets the Melexis’ MLX90632 apart from other temperature sending solutions on the market today. 

There has been a lot of innovation in the world of automotive designs over the last several years and this innovation also includes the LED lights at the rear of our vehicles. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Nick Ikuta from ROHM Semiconductor about ROHM’s automotive LED driver ICs. They take a closer look at why their four channel outputs, energy sharing function, and integrated protection functions make these new driver ICs a great solution for rear lamp design.

Not sure what current sense amplifiers are and why you would need them? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Seema Venkatesh from Analog Devices about the what, why, and how of current sense amplifiers. They take a closer look at why these high precision current sense amplifiers can be a critical addition to your system and how the MAX40080 current sense amplifiers can solve a variety of design challenges in your next design. 

Nowhere is the need for the reduction of board space more important than in the realm of high-performance servers. One way we can reduce complexity and reduce overall board space in our server designs can be found in the connector solutions we choose. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with David Einhorn from Amphenol about how Amphenol double-density cool edge interconnects can not only reduce space but also lessen complexity and give us greater flexibility.

With the sheer amount of automotive software cost and complexity today, we need a way to maximize software reuse across our process platforms. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Daniel Balser from NXP take a closer look at the software ecosystem for NXP’s S32K3 MCU. They investigate how real-time drivers, a comprehensive safety software platform, and high performance security system will help you tackle the cost and complexity of automotive software development.

Industry 4.0 with its variety of sensing solutions and fieldbus systems can make communication pretty tricky but single pair ethernet can change all of that. In this episode of Chalk, Amelia Dalton chats with representatives from three different companies: Analog Devices, HARTING and Würth Elektronik to discuss the benefits of single pair Ethernet, what the new IEEE standard means to SPE designs, and what you should consider when working on your next single pair Ethernet design.

Today sensor technology has become integral to our everyday lives. And in the future, sensor technology will mean even more than it does today. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with David Jones from Infineon about the future of sensor technologies and how they are going to impact our lives in the post-pandemic world. They investigate how miniaturization, built-in antennas in-package and the evolution of radar technology have helped usher in a whole new era of sensing technologies and how all of this and more will help us live healthier and happier lives.

Wide band gap materials such as silicon carbide are revolutionizing the power industry. At the same time, they can also introduce byproducts including overheating, short circuits and over voltage. The question remains: how can we use silicon carbide without those headache-inducing side effects? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Rob Weber from Microchip about Microchip’s patented augmented switching technology can make those silicon carbide side effects a thing of the past while reducing our switching losses up to 50% and accelerating our time to market as well.

If you are designing a robot, a drive system, or any electromechanical system, the dynamic series of connectors from TE Connectivity might be a great solution for your next design. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Jennifer Love from TE Connectivity about the design requirements common in robotic applications and why this new flexible connector with its innovative three point contact design, audible locking system, and dedicated tooling make it a great solution for all kinds of robotic designs.

Can you design a machine learning application without a deep knowledge in machine learning? Yes, you can! In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Yann Le Faou from Microchip about a machine learning approach that is low power, includes an expertise in communication and security, and is easy to implement.

There are many ways that machine learning can help improve our IC designs, but when it comes to quality of results and design iteration - it’s a game changer. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Nick Ni from Xilinx about the benefits of machine learning design optimization, what hierarchical module-based compilation brings to the table, and why extending a module design into an end-to-end flow can make all the difference in your next IC design.

Today there is growing demand for energy storage with more power, longer range, and longer run time. But the question remains: how can we increase our energy storage given the energy storage mediums on the market today? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Anthony Huyhn from Analog Devices about the benefits of high voltage energy storage, why stacked battery cells are crucial to these kinds of systems, how high voltage energy storage systems can reduce conduction loss exponentially and what kind of high voltage charging solutions from Analog Devices are on the market today.

Did you know that you can create custom modular connector solutions from off the shelf components that are robust, save PCB space and are easy to assemble? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Phill Shaw and Nazario Biala from HARTING about the Har-Modular PCB connector system that gives you over a billion combination possibilities for data, signal and power.

If you are working on a mission-critical design, there is a very important list of requirements that you will need to consider for your electromechanical controls including how well they have been tested, availability of inventory, and the quality of the components. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with John Saathoff from Littelfuse electromechanical solutions offered by Hartland Controls, the benefits Hartland brings to the table when it comes to mission-critical designs, and how you can get started using Hartland Controls for your next design.

IC design has come a very long way in a short amount of time. Today, our SoC designs frequently include integrated analog, 100+ Gigabit data rates and 3D stacked DRAM integrated into our SoCs on interposers. In order to keep our heads above water in all of this IC complexity, we need a unified circuit simulation workflow and a fast signoff SPICE and FastSPICE architecture. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Hany Elhak from Synopsys about how the unified workflow of the PrimeSim Continuum from Synopsys can help you address systematic and scale complexity for your next IC design.

Multicore processing is more popular than ever before but how do we take advantage of this new kind of processing? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Jeff Hancock from Siemens and Amelia Dalton investigate the challenges inherent in multicore processing, the benefits of hypervisors and multicore frameworks, and what you need to consider when choosing your next multicore processing solution.

When it comes to our always-on, critical systems we need to carefully consider power protection and maintainability. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton and Dwight Larson investigate the issues that surround hot-plugging into an energized power supply, the best solutions to consider, what the different hot-swap circuit topologies look like for a variety of applications and why the MAX15090B/C with its innovative current foldback startup may be the best solution for your next design.

New applications and technology are driving demand for even more compute and functionality in the devices we use every day. System on chip (SoC) designs are quickly migrating to new process nodes, and rapidly growing in size and complexity. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Rod Metcalfe about how machine learning combined with distributed computing offers new capabilities to automate and scale RTL to GDS chip implementation flows, enabling design teams to support more, and increasingly complex, SoC projects.

The advantages and benefits of fiber optics are a mile long…but how can you design with them? How can you clean them? How do you repair them? Need a bit of a refresher? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with David Kuklinski from Neutrik about the OpticalCon advanced, OpticalCon LITE and Opticalcon DragonFly fiber optic solutions from Neutrik. They take a closer look at what benefits each of these solutions brings to the table, what kind of configurations are offered with each of these fiber optic solutions and what kind of performance you can expect when using them in your next design.

In order to keep up with the breakneck speed of today’s innovation in Industry 4.0, we need an efficient way to connect a wide variety of edge nodes to the cloud without breaks in our communication networks, and with shorter latency, lower power, and longer reach. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Fiona Treacy from Analog Devices about the benefits of seamless ethernet and how seamless ethernet’s twisted single pair design, long reach and power and data over one cable can solve your industrial connectivity woes.

Safety, EMC compliance, your project schedule, and your BOM cost are all important factors when you are considering what power supply you will need for your next design. You also need to think about form factor, which capacitor will work best, and more. But if you’re not a power supply expert, this can get overwhelming in a hurry. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Ron Stull from CUI Inc. about CUI PBO Single Output Board Mount AC-DC Power Supplies, what this ac/dc core brings to the table in terms of form factor, reliability and performance, and why this kind of solution may give you the flexibility you need to optimize your next design.

Dual Core microcontrollers can bring a lot of benefits to today’s modern embedded designs in order to keep all of our design requirements in balance. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Patrick Kennedy from NXP about why newer design requirements for today’s connected embedded systems are making this balancing act even harder than ever before and how the i.MX RT1170 can help solve these problems with its heterogeneous dual cores, MIPI interface, multi-core low power strategy and SRAM PUF technology can make all the difference in your next embedded design.

In the realm of automotive designs, safety must reign above all else. But the question remains: How can we innovate within the constraints of today’s safety standards? In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Rob Bates from Siemens about the role ISO 26262 plays when it comes to COTS and open source software, what certified software components are all about, and how heterogeneous multiprocessing can be helpful in your next automotive design.

If you are working on a low-power IoT design, you are going to face power issues that can get quite complicated. Addressing these issues earlier in your design process can save you a lot of time, effort, and frustration. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kristian Sæther from Nordic Semiconductor about the details of the new Nordic Power Profiler Kit II - including how it can measure actual current, help you configure the right design settings, and show you a visualized power profile for your next design.

Today, your circuit protection device needs to be versatile, handling a wide range of conditions with long-life low capacitance, low leakage, and state-of-the-art energy handling density. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Paul Smith from Bourns about IsoMOV - a new integrated circuit protection that brings together the most important circuit protection capabilities in one efficient package.

Today’s video applications require enormous amounts of compute performance on small power budgets. And, the wide variety of specifications, rates, and resolutions makes flexibility a key design requirement. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Omi Oliyide of Intel about how Intel FPGAs are ideal to take on even the most challenging video and vision designs, and explain how you can get started with this exciting technology in your next project.

Making sure your motor control design is efficient and ready for primetime can be a complicated process. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Alan Li from Toshiba about the basics of brushless motor control, more advanced variables including lead angle control and intelligent phase control and most importantly, how you can simplify your next brushless motor control design.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air can be a key indicator in indoor air quality and improving our indoor air quality can have a slew of benefits including increased energy efficiency, increased cognitive performance, and also the reduction of the risk for viral infection. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Bernd Zimmermann from Sensirion about the reasons for measuring carbon dioxide in our indoor spaces, what this kind of measurement looks like, and why Sensirion’s new SCD4 carbon dioxide sensors are breaking new ground in this arena. (edited)

Condition based monitoring (CBM) has been a valuable tool for industrial applications for years but until now, the adoption of this kind of technology has not been very widespread. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Maurice O’Brien from Analog Devices about how CBM can now be utilized across a wider variety of industrial applications and how Analog Device’s portfolio of CBM solutions can help you avoid unplanned downtime in your next industrial design.

Rugged and reliable designs today have a specific set of design requirements that may not be found in other industries including robustness, durability, and the ability to resist harsh environments. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Dickson from TE Connectivity about the KISSLING product family which includes a wide variety of rugged and reliable solutions for your next design.

Power over Ethernet has come a long way since its initial creation way back in 1997. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Alan Jay Zwiren from Microchip about the past, present, and future of power over ethernet including details of how a PoE system works, why midspans are crucial for power over ethernet connectivity and why Microchip can be your one stop shop for your next PoE design needs.

IoT Security certification schemes can be complex, but security identities and security certification inheritance can make this aspect of your IoT design quite a bit easier. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mike Dow from Silicon Labs about the current state of global security regulations, the difference between physical and logical attacks, and how Silicon Labs SoCs and modules can help you solve the security demands of your next design.

In many ways, Industry 4.0 is encouraging innovation in the arena of brushless motor design. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with CJ Waters of onsemi about the components involved in brushless motor design and how new applications like collaborative robots can take advantage of the benefits of BLDCs.

Connectivity is going to play a vital role in the future of connected and autonomous vehicles. One of the keys to the success of our future automotive designs will be the incorporation of service-oriented gateways. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brian Carlson from NXP about the role that service-oriented gateways will play in the future of connected and autonomous vehicles and the details of NXP’s new S32G2 vehicle network processors that are going to make all of this possible.

As our devices get smarter, our communication needs get more complex. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Marc Hervieu from STMicroelectronics joins me to discuss the various topologies present in today’s wireless connectivity, and how the innovative architecture and flexible use of resources of the STMicroelectronics STM32WB microcontroller can help you with your wireless connectivity concerns in your next embedded design.

If you are working on a connection or IO constrained design, a one wire solution could be a great way for you to power and operate your I2C or SPI endpoints. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Scott Jones from Maxim Integrated about the DS28E18 communications bridge: a one wire solution that can help you address a variety of system level challenges including protocol conversion, wiring limitations, and communication distance concerns.

Demands on WiFi are growing exponentially, and our aging standards and technology are struggling to keep up. Luckily, WiFi 6 and 6E represent a leap in WiFi capabilities for our systems. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tony Testa of Qorvo about the ins and outs of WiFi 6 and 6E with their increased speed, capacity, and efficiency.

Vibration sensing is an integral part of today’s connected industrial designs but Bluetooth, WiFi, and Zigbee may not be the best solution for this kind of sensing in an industrial setting. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Andrew Lund about LoRaWAN for vibration sensing. They investigate why LoRaWAN is perfect for industrial vibration sensing, the role that standards play in these kinds of systems, and why 3 axis detection and real-time monitoring can make all the difference in your next industrial design.

Today’s automotive designs are more complicated than ever, with a slew of safety requirements, internal memory considerations, and complicated power issues to consider. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Marcelo Williams Silva from Infineon about the Traveo™ II Microcontrollers that deal with all of these automotive-related challenges with ease. Amelia and Marcelo take a closer look at how the power efficiency, smart IO signal paths, and over the air firmware updates included with this new MCU family will make all the time-saving difference in your next automotive design.

The combination of system-on-module technology with advanced SoCs with programmable logic offer the ultimate in functionality, performance, flexibility, power efficiency, and ease of use. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Karan Kantharia of Xilinx about the new Kira SOM, and how it enables faster time-to-deployment versus conventional component-based design.

May 21, 2021 -- Your next MCU needs to be more than just smart. It needs to be power-efficient, have ample memory, and industrial-grade security. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Zach Metzinger of Maxim Integrated about the latest member of the DARWIN family with a new RISC-V co-processor.

Machine health monitoring is a key benefit in the Industry 4.0 revolution. Integrating data from sensors for vibration detection, motion detection, angle measurement and more can give a remarkably accurate picture of machine health, and timely warning of impending failure. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Alex Chernyakov of ROHM Semiconductor about the key considerations in machine health monitoring, and how a new line of accelerometers for industrial applications can help.

Cloud providers face a variety of challenges with moving data from one place to another. In modern data centers, flexibility is a key consideration - on par with performance. Software-defined hardware acceleration offers a major breakthrough in flexibility. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kartik Srinivasan of Xilinx about the details of Smart NICs with the new Alveo SN1000 with composable hardware.

Designing cloud-connected applications with FPGAs can be a daunting engineering challenge. But, new platforms promise to simplify the process and make cloud-connected IoT design easier than ever. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tak Ikushima of Intel about how a collaboration between Microsoft and Intel is pushing innovation forward with a new FPGA Cloud Connectivity Kit.

Modern and future automotive systems will put enormous demands on RF. We need reliable, high-bandwidth, low-latency, secure wireless connections between cars and infrastructure, from car to car, and within systems on each car. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Owen Barthelmes and Kelly Freeman of Amphenol RF to talk about interconnects for these new, challenging automotive RF systems.

Over-voltage protection is an often neglected and misunderstood part of system design. But often, otherwise well-engineered devices are brought down by over-voltage events. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Todd Phillips of Littelfuse about the new IEC 623689-1 standard, what tests are included in the standard, and how the standard allows for greater safety and design flexibility.

There are a bewildering number of choices when designing with an MCU. It can be a challenge to find one with exactly what your design requires - form factor, cost, power consumption, performance, features, and ease-of-use. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brad Rex of Renesas about the small-but-powerful Renesas RA family - a flexible and scalable collection of MCUs that may be exactly what your next project needs.

Once a design goes to tape-out, the real challenges begin. Teams find themselves drowning in data from design-process-test during production ramp-up, and have to cope with data from numerous sources in different formats in the manufacturing test supply chain. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Laird of Synopsys in part three of our series on the Silicon LifeCycle Management (SLM) platform, discussing how Yield Explorer and SiliconDash give valuable insight to engineering and manufacturing teams.

Acceleration is becoming a critical technology for today’s data-intensive world. Conventional processors cannot keep up with the demands of AI and other performance-intensive workloads, and engineering teams are looking to acceleration technologies for leverage against the deluge of data. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tom Spencer of Achronix about the current revolution in acceleration technology, and about specific solutions from Achronix that take advantage of leading-edge FPGAs, design IP, and even plug-and-play accelerator cards to address a wide range of challenges.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) design brings a new level of demands to the engineering team, particularly in areas like thermal performance, reliability, and scalability. And, packaging has a key role to play. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Joel Boone of Phoenix Contact about challenges and solutions in IIoT design packaging.

In-chip monitoring can significantly alter the lifecycle management landscape. By taking advantage of modern techniques, today’s more complex designs can be optimized even after they are deployed. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Stephen Crosher of Synopsys about silicon lifecycle management and how to take full advantage of the optimization opportunities available for scalability, reliability, and much more.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could keep on analyzing our IC designs once they are in the field? After all, simulation and lab measurements can never tell the whole story of how devices will behave in real-world use. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Randy Fish of Synopsys about gaining better insight into IC designs through the use of embedded monitors and sensors, and how we can enable a range of new optimizations throughout the lifecycle of our designs.

LED lighting is revolutionizing lighting design. Engineers now need to consider a host of issues such as power consumption, spectrum, form factor, and reliability. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Peter Swift from Amphenol ICC about the latest in LED lighting technology, and solutions for indoor and outdoor applications.

Today’s dense, complex designs can be extremely challenging from an EMI perspective. Re-designs of PCBs to eliminate problems can be expensive and time consuming, and a manufacturing solution can be preferable. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Chris Burket of TDX about Flexield noise suppression sheets, which may be just what your design needs to get EMI under control.

For truly high-performance systems, liquid immersion cooling is often the best solution. But, jumping into immersion cooling requires careful consideration of elements such as connectors. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brian Niehoff of Samtec about connector solutions for immersion-cooled applications.

Physical verification of IC designs at today’s advanced process nodes requires an immense amount of processing power. But, getting your design and verification tools to take full advantage of the compute resources available can be a challenge. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Manoz Palaparthi of Synopsys about dramatically improving the performance of your physical verification process. 

New advances in PCIe demand new connectors, and the challenge of maintaining signal integrity has only gotten tougher. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Matthew Burns of Samtec about why PCIe isn’t just for PCs, what PCIe over fiber looks like, and how Samtec’s team of signal integrity experts can help with your next PCIe design.