Michelle Winny, Editor of Electronics looks at some of the highlights and ‘low-lights’ of Electronica 2012 with the launch of many progressive innovations taking the halls by storm, from wireless to power and beyond
If you visited Electronica in Munich in November then you may well have been caught in the chaos that descended on the city as parts of it were plunged into darkness on the Thursday of that week, caused by an untimely power outage, crippling the city’s train networks. A stunt pulled by the show organisers to demonstrate the modern world’s dependency on all things electrical perhaps but unlikely, or just a coincidence, proliferated by the sudden extra power usage created by the abrupt swell of visitors to the city, as thousands of Electronica goers continued to flock to Munich?
Either way it was pandemonium that sent show visitors scurrying to find alternative routes to Munich fairground leaving not a taxi to be had and even more escalated journey fares for those lucky enough to find one. But German efficiency prevailed and the show went on with electricity being fully restored to the city by midday.
At the show another successful year was already taking shape as visitors continued to traverse the litany of halls packed with exhibiters, with electronics for just about every conceivable application and yet more for any ideas just at the brink of a eureka.
One area experiencing significant advance is that of wireless technology, with this market set to grow dramatically as our thirst to access the Internet from anywhere gathers pace along with the advance of the user interface, revolutionising the way we interact with devices.
An interesting example of technology driving forward the user interface, presented at the show was that of a new IC unveiled by Microchip that enables intuitive, gesture-based, non-contact user interfaces. This advance comes in the form of the company’s new MGC3130 IC and is an electrical-field (E-field)-based, configurable 3D gesture controller. For end applications the device offers fast position tracking with free-space gesture recognition.
Sensing technology is also advancing the user experience, highlighting this, RS Components showcased a working demo of the soon to launch Raspberry Pi camera module.
This camera module, which contains a five megapixel camera phone sensor interfaces to the widely adopted Raspberry Pi board and uses CSI for data and I2C for control. The camera module thus enables users to record 1080p at 30 frames per second in H264 video format adding an extra feature to any design integrating this technology.
Further drawing on the Raspberry Pi phenomenon, an exclusive deal between element14 and PiFace Digital was announced. This is a new easy to use board that allows the Raspberry Pi to control and sense physical devices, such as lights, motors and sensors. This development is the brainchild of British inventor and designer Dr Andrew Robinson and was created to drive efforts to engage and inspire the future generation of engineers, supporting an outreach programme at the School of Computer Science at The University of Manchester.
This solution is available as an assembled I/O expansion board and stacks on top of the Raspberry Pi to let users make easy screw-terminal connections to control devices such as motors and solenoids and read basic sensors and switches. The PiFace Digital concept aligns with Raspberry Pi in its aim to encourage the interest of very young, school age students to learn about programming and electronics.
To further the adoption of more advanced High Frequency RFID systems, a new RFID reader IC was released by Melexis. The company’s new MLX90130 consists of an integrated analogue front end and a built-in data framing engine to help create high reliability, high performance RFID-enabled devices.
Whilst a single-chip wireless solution for industrial, scientific, medical band (ISM) applications was debuted by Atmel Corporation in the form of the company’s ATmegaRFR2 AVR family. This range of devices integrates low power using advanced hardware assist, RF performance and additional memory options for wireless applications.
Combining both wireless and power technology, three new energy-efficient products were announced by Energy Micro. The new products included the company’s Cortex-M0+ and Cortex-M4F microcontroller series and ultra low power, multi-standard radio transceivers with integrated Cortex-M3 cores.
Whilst an AC Front End module for high, density, high efficiency AC to DC power conversion was released by Vicor Corporation in the form of the company’s VI BRICK. This new module is an AC-DC converter which operates over the universal AC input range of 85-264V to deliver a fully isolated and PFC regulated 48V output.
On the lighting front, a new family of LED-driver ICs was introduced by Power Integrations that are aimed at consumer, commercial and industrial lighting applications. The company’s new LYTSwitch IC family delivers tight regulation and high efficiency for tube replacements and high-bay lighting in TRIAC-dimmable bulb applications.
Norbert Bargmann, Deputy CEO of Messe München summarised: “The results of this year’s fair confirm the electronics industry’s significance as the most important branch of industry in the world… Everyone was here.”
And so the show closed on a positive note with conservative optimism for 2013 and ahead.
Electronica 2012
