RISC-V is growing rapidly. Semico Research has projected that 62.4 billion RISC-V CPU cores will be sold in 2025. While that’s only about 6% of the overall CPU core market, RISC-V is an emerging technology that most designers should follow and become increasingly familiar with. RISC-V is becoming more commercially attractive as a result of […]
Wearables
Battery life analysis and maximization for wireless IoT sensor nodes and wearables
In addition to proper hardware design and power consumption testing, an accurate estimation of battery life is an important aspect of designing wireless Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes and wearables. For some medical or industrial devices, in particular, users’ lives can be at stake if the battery does not live up to expectations. Some […]
Batteries and charging for wireless IoT nodes and wearables
Battery selection for a given wireless Internet of Things (IoT) node or wearables design is complex. Among the important factors are: how long the device is expected to operate with a single battery; the choice between various primary and secondary battery chemistries; the nominal and cut-off voltage of the electronics; the energy/current consumption profile, the […]
Power conversion considerations for wireless IoT sensor nodes and wearables
Power system considerations are an important aspect of all system designs. In the case of wireless Internet of Things (IoT) nodes and wearables, power system design is complex, with the need to balance numerous performance tradeoffs. It is critical to arrive at a successful design that maximizes both battery life and overall functionality. Fortunately, there […]
Tiny MEMs resonators integrate load capacitors
SiTime Corporation announced that it has entered the $2 billion precision resonator market with the ApexMEMS family of MHz resonators. These new devices are the third-generation of SiTime silicon MEMS technology and are available in a variety of MHz frequencies for high-volume electronics. Mobile and IoT applications such as Bluetooth wearables and wearables, high-speed connectivity […]
mmWave radar sensors feature one-inch cube form factor
D3 Engineering announced its DesignCore RS-6843AOP and RS-6843AOPU mmWave Radar Sensors. These miniature sensors enable the implementation of many different mmWave radar algorithms to measure, detect, and track. The production-intent sensors feature a 1-inch cube form factor, heat-spreading metal body, and mounting tabs. They may be used with a PC or embedded platform to facilitate […]
Super-small tactile switch aims at smartphone, wearable device use
A surface-mounted tactile switch for smartphones and wearable devices is billed as being the world’s smallest. Shipment of samples of the switch will start in late October 2020, and mass production shipment will start in April 2021. As the use of 5G is spreading rapidly, not only in smartphones and smart watches, but also for […]
Kyocera miniaturizes electronics connector by 5% for wearables
Kyocera Corp. announced its new 5811 series board-to-board connectors have been miniaturized to be about 50% smaller than conventional products and optimized for wearable devices. The 5811 Series connectors feature a 0.35 mm-pitch to save space, perform well in high current and are highly durable. Samples are available globally now. The demand for wearable devices […]
IMS 5G Summit: Design challenges remain (part 1)
Just because 5G is rapidly rolling out doesn’t mean everything works and it’s time to move on. Indeed, the design challenges are just beginning, as this two-part series from IMS 2020’s 5G Summit shows.
What is the secret sauce for wearables?
First, let’s consider the usual suspects: Type of sensor or sensors used: accelerometer, barometer, magnetometer, gyroscope and more Type of power source: battery, rechargeable battery, energy harvesting Other electronics to compute, store and conserve power consumption and more What the wearable does – measures and then communicates: activity tracker, electrocardiogram (ECG), fall detection, compass and […]