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.

One 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.

Stepper motor control has come a long way in the past few years. New techniques can give greater control, smoother operation, greater torque, and better efficiency. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Lars Jaskulski about Trinamic stepper solutions and how to take advantage of micro stepping, load measurement, and more.

Cabling and connectors for RF design are critical to performance. And, in the world of microwave and millimeter-wave design, choosing the right interconnect for your frequency band is key to signal integrity. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Matthew Burns of Samtec about what you need to know to choose the right interconnect solution for your next RF design.

Single-pair Ethernet is revolutionizing industrial system design, with new levels of performance and simplicity. But, before you make the jump, you need to understand the options for cables, connectors, and other infrastructure. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Lyndsey Walling of Phoenix Contact about the latest in single-pair Ethernet for industrial applications.

Today’s high-speed serial interfaces with PAM4 present serious challenges when it comes to test. Eval boards can end up huge, and signal integrity of the test point system is always a concern. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Matthew Burns of Samtec about the Bullseye test point system, which can maintain signal integrity up to 70 GHz with a compact test point footprint.

When it comes to temperature monitoring and management, industrial applications can be extremely demanding. With temperatures that can range from 270 to 3000 C, consumer-grade temperature probes just don’t cut it. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Ezana Haile of Microchip technology about using thermocouples for temperature monitoring in industrial applications.

December 17, 2020 - IoT design is a complex task, involving numerous disciplines and domains - including embedded design, software, networking, security, manufacturability, and the list goes on and on. Mastering all those moving parts is a daunting challenge for design teams. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Andy Reiter of Digi International about development, deployment, manufacturing, and management tools for IoT development that could help get your next design out the door.

Thunderbolt is the closest thing we’ve got to universal interconnect between a wide variety of devices and systems. With a universal USB-C connector, it can do video, power, data communication - all at scalable rates with smart adjustment. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Sandeep Vedanthi of Intel about the latest in Thunderbolt technology - Thunderbolt 4, which brings a number of benefits over previous versions.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are exciting buzzwords in the world of electronic engineering today. But in order for artificial intelligence or machine learning to get into mainstream edge devices, we need to enable true edge inference. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kris Ardis from Maxim Integrated about the MAX78000 family of microcontrollers and how this new microcontroller family can help solve our AI inference challenges with low power, low latency, and a built-in neural network accelerator. 

In control applications with strict deterministic requirements, such as those found in automotive and industrial domains, Time Sensitive Networking offers a way to send time-critical traffic over a standard Ethernet infrastructure. This enables the convergence of all traffic classes and multiple applications in one network. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Josh Levine of Intel and Patrick Loschmidt of TTTech about standards, specifications, and capabilities of time-sensitive networking (TSN).

Today’s rapid growth of power and motor control applications demands a fresh look at gate driver technology. Recent advances in gate drivers help designers hit new levels of efficiency and performance in their designs. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mitch Van Ochten of ROHM about the latest in isolated and non-isolated gate driver solutions.

In today’s fast-moving automotive electronics design environment, passive components are often one of the last things engineers consider. But, choosing the right passives is now more important than ever, and there is an exciting and sometimes bewildering range of options to choose from. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Peter Blais from KEMET about choosing the right passives and the right power distribution for your next automotive design.

ESD protection is a critical, and often overlooked design consideration in many of today’s systems. There is a wide variety of solutions available for ESD protection, and choosing the right one for your design can be a daunting and confusing task. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tom Wolf of Nexperia about choosing the right ESD protection for your next design.

In the new era of connected medical devices, securing embedded systems has become more important than ever. But, there is a lot medical device designers can borrow from current best-practices for embedded security in general. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Robert Bates from Mentor about strategies and challenges for securing modern medical devices and systems.

Recent advances in wide-bandgap materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride are transforming gate driver technology, bringing higher power efficiency and a host of other follow-on benefits. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Suravi Karmacharya of Maxim Integrated about Maxim’s MAX22700-MAX22702 family of single-channel isolated gate drivers.

MCUs continue to evolve based on increasing demands from designers. We expect our microcontrollers to do more than ever - better security, more performance, lower power consumption - and we want it all for less money, of course. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kris Ardis from Maxim Integrated about the new DARWIN line of low-power MCUs.

Adding cellular connectivity to your IoT design is a complex undertaking, requiring a broad set of engineering skills and expertise. For most teams, this can pose a serious schedule challenge in getting products out the door. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kristian Sæther of Nordic Semiconductor about the easiest path to IoT cellular connectivity with the Nordic nRF9160 low-power system-in-package solution.

Robotics projects can get complicated quickly, and finding a set of components, controllers, networking, and software that plays nicely together is a real headache. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Easley of Texas Instruments about the TI-RSLK Robotics Kit, which will get you up and running on your next robotics project in no time.

The design of HVAC systems poses unique challenges for things like motor control and circuit protection. System performance and reliability are critical, and those come in part from choosing the right components for the job. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Ryan Sheahen of Littelfuse about choosing the right components for your next HVAC design.

With the incredible pace of automotive innovation these days, it’s important to choose the right connectors for the job. With everything from high-speed data to lighting, connectors have a huge impact on reliability, cost, and design. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Glenn Heath from Amphenol ICC about the Minitek MicroSpace line of automotive- and industrial-grade connectors.

Developing embedded software, and particularly configuring your embedded system can be a major pain for development engineers. Getting all the drivers, middleware, and libraries you need set up and in the right place and working is a constant source of frustration. In this episode of Chak Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brett Novak of Microchip about Microchip’s MPLAB Harmony 3, with the MPLAB Harmony Configurator - an embedded development framework with a drag-and-drop GUI that makes configuration a snap.

While technologies like GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth all offer various types of location services, none of them are well-suited to providing accurate, indoor/outdoor, low-power, real-time, 3D location data for edge and endpoint devices. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mickael Viot from Qorvo about ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, and how it can revolutionize a wide range of applications.

FPGA SoCs can solve numerous problems for IoT designers. Now, with the growing momentum behind RISC-V, there are FPGA SoCs that feature RISC-V cores as well as low-power, high-security, and high-reliability. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with KK from Microchip Technology about the new PolarFire SoC family that is ideal for demanding IoT endpoint applications.

Converting from distribution-friendly voltages like 400V down to locally-useful voltages can be a tough engineering challenge. In SELV systems, many teams turn to BCM converter modules because of their efficiency, form factor, and ease of design-in. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Ian Masza of Vicor about transforming 400V into power for SELV systems.

Today’s 4K and emerging 8K video standards require an enormous amount of bandwidth. And, with all that bandwidth, there are new demands on our interconnects. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mike Comer and Ron Orban of Amphenol RF about the evolution of broadcast technology and the latest interconnect solutions that are required to meet these new demands.

With the complexity of today’s networks, the proliferation of IoT, and the increase in remote access requirements, remote management is going from “nice to have” to “critical” in network design and deployment. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Stefan Budricks of Digi International about how Digi Remote Manager can address your remote management and security needs.

Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC) compute elements are small-form-factor barebone computer kits and components that are perfect for a wide variety of system designs. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kristin Brown of Intel System Product Group about pre-engineered solutions from Intel that can provide the appropriate level of computing power for your next design, with a minimal amount of development effort from your engineering team.

In the world of power conversion, multi-chip packaging, thermal performance, and power density can make all of the difference in the success of your next design. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Raymond Jiang about the trends and challenges in power delivery and how you can leverage the unique combination of discrete MOSFET design, IC expertise, and packaging capability of Vishay’s microBRICK™and microBUCK® integrated voltage regulators.

Industry 4.0 brings serious demands on communication connections. Designers need to consider interoperability, processing, analytics, EMI reduction, field rates, communication protocols and much more. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Piotr Polak and McKenzie Reed of Harting about using single-pair Ethernet for Industry 4.0.

Conventional fuses are rapidly becoming dinosaurs in our electronic systems. Finally, there is circuit protection technology that doesn’t rely on disposable parts and molten metal. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Jake Canon of Toshiba about eFuse - a smart solution that will get rid of those old-school fuses once and for all.

Bluetooth has come a long way in recent years, and adding the latest Bluetooth features to your next design is easier than ever. It’s time to ditch the cables and go wireless. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Beecham of Silicon labs about the latest Bluetooth capabilities including lower power, higher bandwidth, mesh, and more, as well as solutions that will make adding Bluetooth to your next design a snap.

In today’s complex designs, port protection can be a challenge. High-speed data, low-speed data, and power ports need protection from ESD, power faults, and more. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Todd Phillips from Littelfuse about port protection for your next system design.

Power modules are a superior solution for many system designs. Their small form factor, high efficiency, ease of design-in, and solid reliability make them a great solution in a wide range of applications. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Tony Ochoa of TDK about the new uPOL family of power modules and how they can deliver the power in your next design.

In the quest to accelerate and optimize today’s computing challenges such as AI inference, our system designs have to be flexible above all else. At the confluence of speed and flexibility are today’s new FPGAs and e-FPGA IP. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mike Fitton from Achronix about how to design systems to be both fast and future-proof using FPGA and e-FPGA technology.

Industry 4.0 promises major improvements in terms of efficiency, reduced downtime, automation, monitoring, and control. But Industry 4.0 also demands a new look at our interconnect solutions. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Mark Schuerman of Molex about Industry 4.0 and how to choose the right connectors for your application.

The rail industry is undergoing a technological revolution right now, and Ethernet connectivity is at the heart of it. But, finding the right interconnect solutions for high-reliability applications such as rail isn’t easy. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Egbert Stellinga from TE Connectivity about TE’s portfolio of interconnect solutions for rail and other reliability-critical applications.

Embedded security is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort. Even after your design is shipped, security vulnerabilities are certain to be discovered - even in things like the operating system. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Kathy Tufto from Mentor - a Siemens business, about how to make a plan to keep your Linux-based embedded design secure, and how to respond quickly when new vulnerabilities are discovered.

Today’s advanced designs demand advanced circuit protection. The days of replacing old-school fuses are long gone, and we need solutions that provide more robust protection and improved failure modes. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Pramit Nandy of ON Semiconductor about the latest advances in electronic fuses, and how they can protect against overcurrent, thermal, and overvoltage.

In EV and industrial applications, converting from high voltages on the power side to low voltages on the electronics side poses a big challenge. In order to convert big voltage drops efficiently, you need very narrow pulse widths. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Satya Dixit from ROHM about new Nano Pulse Control technology that changes the game in DC to DC conversion.