From capacitors to test equipment, engineers can find components that consumers don’t even know are inside their gadgets.
CES, the annual convention where wild and crazy consumer gadgets appear &msash; often only once—took place again on January 5 to 8 in Las Vegas. While you may have seen reports of flying cars and 96-inch TVs, products for engineers also appeared. After all, who cares about the latest gadgets when you can see semiconductors, capacitors, and other components? Here’s a rundown of the good stuff that makes those gadgets possible in the first place.
Analog Devices consumer, automotive, digital healthcare, and industrial demos
The company’s wide product lines find applications across many industries. At CES 2023, Analog Devices demonstrated products found in many consumer, automotive, digital healthcare and industrial demos.
Bosch IMU-based smart sensors
Bosch, known to consumers for appliances, introduced two smart sensors for home devices. The BHI360 is a programmable 6-axis IMU-based sensor system that combines a gyroscope and accelerometer with a 32-bit microcontroller. That combination lets you fully customize the sensor for your application. An integrated sensor library enables 3D audio with head orientation for personalized sound experiences or lets you add simple gesture recognition to your deign.
The BHI380 adds additional algorithms that include self-learning AI software for applications such as fitness tracking, which simplifies training and tracking for personalized workouts. Dedicated swim-tracking software measures swimming style that can improve strokes in the water. The pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) algorithm helps users reach their destination, even when the GPS signal drops out for a few minutes.
CEVA wireless IP in V2X
Wireless connectivity IP developer CEVA announced that V2X communications provider Autotalks has integrated its CEVA-XC4500 communication processor and CEVA-BX1 digital signal controller into its V2X chipsets.
CommScope Wi-Fi 7 cable modem
Wi-Fi 7 has yet to become a standard, but such details never stopped companies from developing and demonstrating products based on what they expect the standard to include. CommScope demonstrated its SURFboard G54 DOCSIS 3.1 quad-band Wi-Fi 7 cable modem. “Quad band” refers to:
- 2.4 GHz band for IoT and low-bandwidth devices
- 5 GHz low band for Wi-Fi 5 devices
- 5 GHz high band for Wi-Fi 6/7 devices
- 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi 6E/7 devices
The cable modem supports 320 MHz-wide channels — at least for now until the 6 GHz band fills with competing traffic. It also supports Wi-Fi 7’s multi-link operation (MLO), which aggregates channels across frequency bands to take advantage of unused spectrum.
Kyocera AVX RF capacitors
Consumer electronics, like all electronic devices, depend on capacitors for filtering, power delivery, and other uses. At CES 2023, first-time exhibitor Kyocera AVX showed its UBC series of ultra-broadband capacitors that cover a frequency range from 7.2 kHz to 70 GHz. Capacitance values cover 10 nF, 100 nF, and 220 nF.
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem
Products such as the cable modem featuring Wi-Fi 7 — 802.11be once the standard is ratified in 2024 — need semiconductors to bring wireless communication to life. At CES 2023, MediaTek introduced a complete ecosystem of Wi-Fi devices, which the company said is production ready. Based on the company’s Filogic series, the demonstration followed MediaTek’s first Wi-Fi 7 demonstration at CES 2022. In addition to supporting 320 MHz channels and MLO, Wi-Fi 7 will use 4096QAM modulation.
Novelda UWB occupancy and proximity sensors
Ultra WideBand (UWB) technology has seen a rebirth as a positioning and detection technology. At CES 2023, Norwegian sensor manufacturer Novelda demonstrated its UWB occupancy sensor to detect human presence that you can use to save energy by turning on lights only when needed. The company’s proximity sensor lets devices such LCD screens detect an approaching person so it can illuminate itself just when needed.
Quectel automotive grade 5G NR Release 16 modules
Wireless module manufacturer Quectel introduced its AG59x series of automotive-grade 5G Release 16 modules. Based on the Qualcomm SA525M, the AG59E and AG59H modules support 5G NR standalone radios, non-standalone networks, and C-V2X PC5 direct communications. Both modules support 4 ×& 4 MIMO antenna systems with data rates of 4.4 Gb/sec down/900 Mb/sec up (AG59H) and 2.4 Gb/sec down/ 550 Mb/sec up (AG59E). The AG59x modules are pin compatible with Quectel’s AG55xQ and AG57xQ, which lets global OEM and Tier 1 customers upgrade their devices through a drop-in replacement. The AG59x provides host interfaces including PCIe 3.0, USB 2.0 & 3.1, SDIO, I2S, SPI, I2C, UART, PCM, ADC, (U)SIM, 1PPS, GPIOs. It also supports RGMII and SGMII interfaces for in-vehicle Ethernet.
Rohde & Schwarz automotive radar and UWB testing
Test equipment manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz demonstrated its ATS1500C radar test chamber. Engineers can use it to evaluate interference and RF performance of radar sensors for autonomous vehicles. The company also demonstrated ultra-wideband testing equipment for smartphone and automotive applications based on the CMP200 radio communication tester in combination with the ATS800R anechoic chamber.
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