Mixed Signal/Analog

ams has announced that the headset in the latest Huawei smartphone, the Ascend Mate 7, implements advanced noise cancellation with the company's AS3415. The high-end Android smartphone takes advantage of the ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) capability of the speaker driver to attenuate a large proportion of ambient noise from low frequencies up to around 3kHz.

A 3W stereo class-D audio amplifier and class-AB headphone driver, the PAM8009, has been released by Diodes Incorporated. Targeting the makers of LCD monitors, all-in-one PCs and video projectors, the device features power limit technology for speaker protection and an advanced DC volume control for precise 64-step gain adjustment, enabling minimal external components to be used.

Analog Devices has introduced the AD5761R, a single-chip, universal output DAC which combines a 16-bit data converter, ±2ppm/°C  2.5V reference, output buffer and gain scaling function on-chip. Additionally, ADI has announced two dual DC-DC regulators that power the DAC with two independently regulated positive and negative rails for power sensitive applications.

Integrated Device Technology has announced a high-speed multiplexer targeting the nascent NVDIMM (non-volatile dual in-line memory module) ecosystem. The 12-bit bus switch/multiplexer features a make-before-break circuit that prevents glitches when switching and AC and DC parameters optimised for DDR4, enabling the highest possible memory channel performance for NVDIMMs even when intermixed with other DIMM types.

Analog Devices has introduced a 12-bit, 8-channel ADC/DAC/GPIO combination chip, the AD5592R, which includes a 400ks/s ADC, 6μs settling time DAC, digital I/O, and a reference on a single chip. The device can be user-configured in any combination of up to eight devices, allowing a single IC to complete multiple system monitoring and control functions.

At 2015’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, imec, Murata and Huawei will present a standalone multiband electrical-balance duplexer in 0.18µm SOI CMOS. This type of duplexer is a promising alternative to the fixed‑frequency Surface-Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters implemented in mobile phones providing transmit-to-receive (TX-to-RX) isolation.

Compliant to the MicroTCA.4 specification for high energy physics applications, a dual DAC offering 250MS/S at 16-bit resolution has been announced by VadaTech. The AMC523 comes in a double module, mid-size (full-size is optional) and routes x8 or dual x4 PCIe to the backplane. A Kintex-7 FPGA with 2GB of DDR3 memory enables large buffer sizes to be storing during processing and queueing data to the host.

An 8-channel, 18-bit, 1Ms/s SAR (Successive Approximation Register) ADC with outstanding 100dB SNR performance has been released by Linear Technology. To configure the MUX and input range, the LTC2373-18 is equipped with a programmable sequencer that can store up to 16 control words. This allows users to mix and match fully differential and pseudo-differential input ranges with a variety of MUX channel configurations. 

Designed to simplify the design process of aerospace applications, the ATMX150RHA mixed-signal ASIC platform has been released by Atmel. Manufactured on 150nm Silicon on Insulator, the platform expands the company’s portfolio of radiation-hardened (rad-hard) solutions. Delivering up to 22m routable gates, the ASIC platform features non-volatile memory blocks and a flexible form factor with compiled SRAM and DPRAM blocks. 

Adding larger memory densities up to 512KB Flash and 80KB SRAM, as well as richer peripherals for high-speed control and off-chip storage, STMicroelectronics has extended its STM32F3 MCU series for high-performance, low cost applications. The STM32F3 series defines the entry point to ST’s ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller portfolio.