Electronic Products announces winners of the 2023 Product of the Year Awards

The annual awards, now in its 48^th year, recognizes outstanding products that represent any of the following qualities: a significant advancement in a technology or its application, an exceptionally innovative design, a substantial achievement in price/performance, improvements in design performance and a potential for new product designs/opportunities. EP editors evaluated 100+ products across 13 categories. Here are this year’s winners (note that there are two winners in the Analog/Mixed-Signal ICs category):

• Analog Devices, Inc. and SiTime Corp. (Analog/Mixed-Signal ICs)
• Axiado Corp. (Digital ICs)
• Fraunhofer FEP (Optoelectronics)
• NXP Semiconductors (RF/Microwave)
• NXP Semiconductors (Development Kits)
• Omron Device and Module Solutions (Electromechanical)
• Phoenix Contact (Interconnects)
• Prophesee (Sensors)
• Renesas Electronics Corp. (IoT Platforms)
• Rohde & Schwarz (Test & Measurement)
• TDK Corp. (Modules)
• TDK Corp. (Passives)
• Texas Instruments Inc. (Power)

Analog Devices, Inc.: Apollo MxFE advanced software-defined signal-processing solution ( Analog/Mixed-Signal ICs)

The Apollo MxFE is Analog Devices, Inc.’s most advanced software-defined, direct RF-sampling, wideband mixed-signal front-end platform and reported as the industry’s first integrated radio that is capable of directly interfacing to the emerging 6G frequency bands from 7 GHz to 15 GHz. It offers instantaneous bandwidths as high as 10 GHz, while directly sampling and synthesizing frequencies up to 18 GHz (Ku band). It also claims state-of-the-art high-dynamic–range RF analog-to- digital converter (ADC) and RF digital-to-analog converter (DAC) cores with the best spurious free dynamic range and noise spectral density available on the market today.

The on-chip digital-signal processing (DSP) is dynamically configurable, allowing for fast changes between narrowband and wideband profiles without taking down the JESD link. Other DSP features include a real-time FFT sniffer, a full-rate programmable FIR filter, a 128-tap complex FIR filter, fast-hopping NCOs, DDCs/DUCs and a fractional sample-rate converter. The Apollo MxFE supports JESD 204B/C and a very short reach (VSR) interface.

These features are important, as data-intensive applications keep increasing, driving the need for wider bandwidths, higher-speed conversion and processing and analysis of data for 5G, 6G, Wi-Fi 7 and 8, radar, signal intelligence and other applications at the network edge. As a result, customers need a solution that enables higher-speed data conversion and processing capabilities, while reducing electronic testing complexity, ADI said. In addition, the solution reduces overall system size, complexity, weight and power and future-proofs product designs. Apollo MxFE targets aerospace & defense, instrumentation and 6G communications, enabling applications such as X-Band phased array radar, wide spectrum electronic surveillance, test and measurement and 6G network simulation.

Axiado Corp.: AX3000/AX2000 trusted control/compute unit (Digital ICs)

Axiado Corp. calls the AX3000/AX2000 trusted control/compute units (TCUs) a new category of forensic- enabled cybersecurity processors that are designed to detect and combat cyberattacks on next-generation servers, cloud data centers, 5G infrastructure and network switches, and it is the industry’s first fully integrated AI-driven hardware security platform. The TCUs combine silicon, AI and data collection, and software into a small (23 × 23-mm BGA), power-efficient (drawing less than 5 W) SoC with unique AI functionality designed for security.

The TCUs reside at the lowest layer of the hardware stack and integrate all security functions within a single SoC or module. The hardware-anchored approach protects critical infrastructure from sophisticated cyberthreats, even if network functions are compromised, and isolates compromised systems from the network and thwarts ongoing attacks, Axiado said. They also offer protection from ransomware and side-channel attacks, such as differential power analysis, volt- age glitching and clock manipulation that are used to extract cryptographic keys.

The single-chip solution uses real-time and proactive AI with preemptive threat detection and comprehensive protec- tion, provided by a dedicated coprocessor. The TCU delivers AI-based real-time threat mitigation with forensic-enabled hardware fingerprints, as well as platform monitoring and optimization (clocks/voltages/temp) using AI and machine learning (ML). The SoC includes root of trust, a baseboard management controller, a trusted platform module, a hardware security module, SmartNIC and firewall. 

Fraunhofer FEP: Ultra-low–power OLED microdisplay (Optoelectronics)

The Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP has developed OLED microdisplays in a 28-nm backplane technology on 300-mm wafers for the first time as part of the “backplane” project funded by the Saxon State Ministry of Economics, Labor and Transport. Fraunhofer FEP has manufactured components with a display diagonal of 0.18 inches and pixel sizes of only 2.5 µm, which correspond to a pixel density of 10,000 dpi, which has not been achieved in the global OLED microdisplay market.

OLED microdisplays have been predominantly developed on 200 mm with conventional CMOS technologies and the associated backplane design, which have limited the number and size of pixels, Fraunhofer FEP said. The newly developed OLED microdisplays have a 1,440 × 1,080-pixel resolution in monochrome or 720 × 540 pixels in full color.

What is significant about these OLED microdisplays is the high resolution, small pixel size (2.5 µm) and the ability to achieve a wide range of refresh rates (from 0 Hz to up to 480 Hz). The small-node technology delivers several benefits—in addition to the extremely small pixel sizes and higher resolutions in a smaller area—including the ability to deliver novel control concepts that can reduce power consumption, particularly in mobile applications, Fraunhofer said. This can result in advances in resolution, power efficiency and control for potential applications in a variety of industries.

The new OLED microdisplays will be offered by Fraunhofer FEP as evaluation kits to provide customers with access and testing opportunities for their own system integration and to enable joint customer-specific microdisplay developments with the industry. The new displays, also thanks to the smaller size, can be used in lifestyle products,

such as sports glasses or as head-mounted displays in motorcycle helmets, and in industrial wearables, such as logistics or for remote maintenance solutions. 

NXP Semiconductors: OrangeBox Automotive Connectivity Domain Controller Development Platform (Development Kits)

NXP Semiconductor’s OrangeBox Automotive Connectivity Domain Controller Development Platform provides a secure unified wireless connectivity platform for automotive solutions, meeting the needs of software-defined and connected vehicles and other advanced safety, autonomous driving, cloud connectivity and infotainment features. There is a trend to centralize wireless technologies in the automotive industry to better address cybersecurity and RF coexistence challenges.

The OrangeBox development platform addresses the design challenges of connected cars that use a variety of wireless technologies and require advanced security to protect against cyberattacks, which are typically distributed throughout a vehicle’s architecture. There are a lot of different wireless technologies in the car—Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—but also V2X, cellular and UWB, and all of them are in one place in a single domain controller with OrangeBox. This provides a new approach to secure automotive connectivity and makes it much easier to provide a cybersecurity solution when all the wireless interfaces for the external world are in one place. It also helps manage RF coexistence, especially where multiple different technologies coexist in a small space, such as in a connected car.

Designed to streamline development and security via a domain-based architecture, the platform integrates a variety of NXP wireless technologies, including broadcast radio, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth, as well as secure car access with UWB and Bluetooth Low Energy, and 802.11p-based V2X.

By unifying automotive wireless connectivity through a domain-based architecture that complements emerging zonal architectures, OrangeBox enables auto makers to leverage state-of-the-art security solutions driven by the latest AI and ML technologies, NXP said.

In addition, the modular design provides the flexibility to meet the various regional requirements and keeps pace with the continual evolution of each of the different connectivity solutions. 

NXP Semiconductors: A5M36TG140-TC, A5M35TG140-TC and A5M34TG140-TC RF amp modules (RF/Microwave)

NXP’s top-side–cooled RF amplifier modules, using the company’s new top-side–cooling package technology for RF power, enables smaller, thinner and lighter radio units. The modules can reduce the thickness and weight of the radio by more than 20% while helping to reduce the carbon footprint for the manufacture and deployment of 5G base stations. They also help make it easier to install and blend the 5G base stations into the environment at a lower cost.

While top-side cooling for digital solutions has existed, this is an industry-first top-side–cooling package innovation developed by NXP for RF power. NXP has filed several patents that demonstrate this package innovation is new and useful for 5G infrastructure markets.

Delivering a streamlined 5G radio design, the top-side– cooling technology enables the power amplifier to be mounted on the side of the heat sink, removing the separate RF shield and eliminating the need for the copper coin in the printed-circuit board (PCB). It also reduces the size of the filter and the number and length of the connectors and enables all components to be mounted on the same side of the PCB and cooled directly with the heat sink, which also acts as the RF shield.

NXP’s first top-side–cooled RF power module series is designed for 32T32R, 200-W radios covering 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz. The devices combine the company’s in-house LDMOS and GaN semiconductor technologies to enable high gain and efficiency with wideband performance, delivering 31-dB gain and 46% efficiency over 400 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth.

NXP also offers top-side–cooling development boards to help speed up design and reduce manufacturing complexity. 

Omron Device and Module Solutions: G9KA-E PCB relay (Electromechanical)

Omron Device and Module Solutions’ G9KA-E, 300-A, 1,000-VAC PCB relay supports high-current applications with high-capacity load ratings, claiming the highest-power–capacity AC PCB relay on the market. Switching 300 A, 1,000 VAC was previously available via manual-assembly, screw-terminal contactors only, Omron said. Bringing this high-power switching to a PCB allows for downsizing of equipment and provides for less manual wiring.

The SPST-NO relay reduces the need for complex temperature designs and the inclusion of heat-transfer devices due to low contact resistance, compared with similar relays. The G9KA-E was developed with extremely low, 0.2-mΩ contact resistance to negate the need for extensive heat-mitigation componentry in high-power designs, Omron said. The high-capacity and low-contact–resistance characteristics make the G9KA suited for PV inverters/power conditioners and industrial inverters, as well as UPS systems. 

Phoenix Contact: FR 1.27 board-to-board connector (Interconnects)

Phoenix Contact has redesigned its standard FP 1.27 board-to-board connector. The new FR 1.27 product family with a pitch of 1.27 mm features a redesigned contact system that can significantly enhance an end product’s performance.

These new connectors also offer several improvements. The current rating per contact has increased from 1.4 A to 2.3 A, allowing the connector to be used for higher-power applications. More position sizes, both smaller and larger, were also added. However, the biggest improvement is the increase in the data rate from 3 Gbits/s to 28 Gbits/s.

Phoenix Contact said it is the first supplier to reach 28 Gbits/s in this connector size. These new achievable data rates will deliver greater flexibility in design and open up new innovation possibilities.

Prophesee, GenX320 image sensor (Sensors)

Prophesee claims a lot of firsts with the GenX320  image sensor. It is the industry’s smallest and most power-efficient event-based vision sensor and the first developed specifically for integration into ultra-low–power edge AI vision devices. It was designed to improve the integration and usability in embedded at-the-edge vision systems, including AI accelerators and edge SoCs, with a focus on event data pre-processing and formatting, data interface compatibility and low-latency connectivity to different process- ing platforms, including low-power neuromorphic processors.

The fifth-generation Metavision sensor, available in a tiny, 3 × 4-mm die size, is delivered as a 320 × 320 6.3-μm pixel BSI stacked event-based vision sensor offering a tiny 1/5-inch optical format. Key features include low-latency microsecond resolution timestamping of events with flexible data formatting, on-chip intelligent power management modes that reduce power consumption to as low as 36 µW and enable smart wake-on-events, and deep-sleep and standby modes. It is also AI-ready with on-chip histogram output compatible with multiple AI accelerators and sensor-level privacy enabled thanks to the event sensor’s inherent sparse frameless event data with inherent static scene removal.

Unlike traditional cameras, event sensors do not use one common acquisition rate (frame rate) for all pixels, but each individual pixel defines the timing of sampling points by reacting to changes of the amount of incident light, Prophesee said. In Prophesee’s patented event-based sensors, each pixel intelligently activates itself depending on the contrast change (movement) it detects, which enables the acquisition of only and all essential motion information, continuously at the pixel level.

Prophesee’s Metavision platform uses neuromorphic techniques to achieve greater efficiency and performance to improve safety, productivity and the user experience for a range of vision-enabled systems in consumer, industrial, automotive and other application areas. Thanks to the inherent advantages of event-based vision and the specific implementation by Prophesee with these GenX320 sensors, it expands the reach of the company’s technology platform into the intelligent edge market segments, including AR/VR headsets, security and monitoring/detection systems, touchless displays, eye-tracking features and always-on smart IoT devices.

Renesas Electronics Corp.: Quick-Connect Studio (IoT Platforms)

The Quick-Connect Studio  from Renesas Electronics Corp. enables the fast prototyping of new IoT systems, enabling remote designs before engineers have physical boards, kits or connectors. Called the industry’s first cloud-based system development tool to dynamically create IoT hardware and software online to quickly validate prototypes and accelerate product development, engineers can visually drag and drop device and subsystem blocks on the cloud to build their solution.

Renesas said the platform automatically generates, compiles and builds software to enable no-code development. Users can build a full solution in the cloud and quickly deploy to hardware in less than 10 minutes.

Engineers can perform hardware and software development simultaneously, which Renesas said is a radical shift in the industry. It also enables designers to build software immediately, with the ability to quickly reconfigure and test product ideas, reducing code development effort by 95% and design risk by allowing engineers to validate designs before committing to a hardware layout.

The Quick-Connect Studio offers an intuitive, graphical interface so that designers don’t need to learn new programs, and it also allows code to be compiled remotely and then downloaded to a physical configuration by leveraging production-grade software as the base for project development. It can be used to prototype a range of new IoT systems, including air-quality sensor solutions, smart home and industrial applications.

Rohde & Schwarz: MXO 5 oscilloscope (Test & Measurement)

The Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) MXO 5 Series oscilloscope, available in four- and eight-channel models, builds on the company’s next-generation MXO-EP processing ASIC technology, introduced with the MXO 4, with higher measurement performance. The new MXO 5 claims to show more of a signal’s activity in both the time and the frequency domains than any other oscilloscope.

R&S touts the fastest eight-channel oscilloscope with 4.5 million waveforms per second and 18 million waveforms per second across multiple channels, an industry-leading spectrum simultaneous acquisition rate of 45,000 FFT/s and the ability to simultaneously display four time-independent spectra. It offers digital triggering on all eight channels, which the company said surpasses its competitors in the accurate isolation of small signal anomalies. It also features standard simultaneous acquisition memory of 500 Mpoints across all eight channels, or double the standard memory of the competition.

Other features include an 18-bit vertical resolution architecture and 12-bit ADC, a large 15.6-inch full-HD capacitive touchscreen and an intuitive user interface. It also delivers whisper-soft audible operating noise.

SiTime Corp.: Epoch Platform MEMS OCXO (Analog/Mixed-Signal ICs)

SiTime Corp. designed the Epoch Platform MEMS oven-controlled oscillator (OCXO) family to address the challenges of quartz-based OCXOs that are prone to performance degradation in the presence of environmental stressors. These MEMS OCXOs are resilient to thermal shock, airflow and vibration.

A key advantage of the Epoch Platform MEMS OCXO is its eight hours of holdover, which is 2× better than quartz OCXOs, for continuous network operations. A synchronized network relies on multiple, redundant timing sources to ensure continuous operation, and one of these sources is an ultra-stable, local oscillator, typically an OCXO, which will “holdover” the network and ensure continued operation when other timing sources are impacted, SiTime said.

Legacy quartz OCXOs, due to their performance degradation in the presence of environmental stressors, result in electronic system developers compromising on real-world performance, reliability, size, power and warmup time to achieve the one benefit that a quartz OCXO could deliver—a stable clock reference, the company said.

In comparison with quartz OCXOs, the MEM OCXOs also offer 3× lower power at 420 mW, 3× lower aging at ±0.08 ppb/day, 3× better ADEV under airflow (5e–12 at 10 seconds averaging time) and 2× faster time to stability (60 seconds) in a 25× smaller package size of

9 × 7 × 3.73 mm. Other features include any frequency between 10 and 220 MHz (programmable up to six decimal places of accuracy); ±1-, ±3- and ±5-ppb frequency stability over temperature; operating supply voltages of 2.5, 2.8 and 3.3 V; and digital control with 5e–14 resolution via I2C and SPI. The operating temperature range is –40°C to 95°C.

TDK Corp: i3 Micro Module (Modules)

TDK Corp. claims the i3 Micro Module  is the first module that combines built-in edge AI and wireless mesh connectivity capability in a compact device and provides a significant advancement in smart factories, facilitating digital transformation and enhancing efficiency in manufacturing processes. Developed by TDK in collaboration with Texas Instruments (TI), this module combines TI’s SimpleLink platform featuring the CC2652R7, an Arm Cortex-M4F multiprotocol 2.4-GHz wireless 32-bit microcontroller, with TDK’s high-performance SmartIndustrial MEMS accelerometer and digital output temperature sensor.

The i3 Micro Module is designed to provide real-time monitoring of machinery and equipment, along with data aggregation, integration and processing, delivering efficient prediction of anomalies and implementation of condition-based monitoring in a variety of industries. Key applications include factory automation, robotics and HVAC filter monitoring.

Featuring an ultra-compact design and battery-powered wireless sensor, the i3 Micro Module eliminates physical constraints like wiring, enabling users to achieve sensing at any desired position. TDK said this expedites anomaly prediction and helps extend equipment utilization life and minimize production downtime.

TDK Corp.: ModCap HF capacitor (Passives)

TDK Corp.’s ModCap HF is a modular capacitor concept designed specifically for DC-link applications that can operate at very high frequencies and offer an ultra-low equivalent series inductance (ESL) of 8 nH. These capacitors offer high performance and reliability at very high switching frequencies, making them suited for a wide range of applications, including fast-switching SiC-based inverters, compact converters for traction, renewable energy and industrial use.

The high-frequency capability is thanks to the flat capacitor windings connected in parallel, as well as the eight terminal contacts and a new type of internal busbar. This allows the capacitors to be placed close to the SiC power modules and thus absorb the high-frequency harmonics up to the frequency range of several hundred kilohertz, according to TDK.

The Mod HF capacitors feature six B25647A* series power capacitors with rated voltages ranging from 900 V to 1,600 V, a capacitance range from 640 µF to 1,850 µF and rated currents from 160 A to 210 A, with a maximum hot-spot temperature of 90°C. In addition, the ultra- low ESL value and flat equivalent series resistance (ESR) versus frequency evolution is said to minimize losses and prevent voltage overshooting on power semiconductors when the current is shut off, eliminating the need for snubber capacitors and delivering improved efficiency and cost savings. The capacitors comply with fire and smoke standards, which makes them suitable for traction applications in which safety is crucial.

All of TDK’s ModCap series capacitors use a bio-circular polypropylene (PP) film, which is an ISCC-certified raw material from second-generation renewable raw materials (bio- circular) that come exclusively from waste and residues, such as the production of vegetable oil or used cooking oil, as well as from the paper and pulp industry. Bio-circular PP raw material can be processed in the same way as conventional film and offers the same electrical and physical properties. 

Texas Instruments Inc.: Active EMI power-supply ICs (Power)

Texas Instruments claims the industry’s first standalone active electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter power supply ICs. The new portfolio of standalone active EMI filters (AEFs) can sense and cancel common-mode EMI by as much as 30 dB at frequencies between 100 kHz and 3 MHz in single- and three-phase AC power systems. This capability enables designers to reduce the size of chokes by 50%, compared with passive filter solutions, and meet stringent EMI requirements.

Thanks to the use of capacitive amplification, these new AEFs enable engineers to shrink the inductance value of common-mode chokes by as much as 80%, helping to achieve improved mechanical reliability and increased power density. These devices can be used in a range of applications, including hybrid vehicles/EVs, industrial, communications, wireless infrastructure, medical, and aerospace and defense.

The AEF ICs incorporate sensing, filtering, gain and injection stages in a SOT-23 14-pin package. It integrates compensation and protection circuitry to further reduce the implementation com- plexity and minimize the number of external components, TI said.

Overall, the EMI filter power supply ICs allow for the design of smaller, lighter and lower-cost solutions. The smaller size of the ICs offers greater design flexibility and power efficiency, while the lower material costs and simplified thermal management contribute to overall cost savings and longer product life.