Silicon Labs

The key to success in today's embedded market is the ability to respond quickly to fluctuations in market demand, last-minute design changes and competitive challenges. Microcontrollers (MCUs) have provided versatile, configurable platforms for embedded systems for many years in this respect, giving developers the flexibility to implement new system features easily and efficiently through firmware updates and I/O changes.

Most people know Silicon Labs for its analog and mixed-signal technology. The company has core expertise in integrating high-performance analog peripherals with digital circuits in CMOS. This expertise is embodied in a number of IP blocks such as analog-todigital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs), digital isolation, digital phase-locked loops, USB, RF, and sensors.

Designing a smart water or gas meter can present a vexing low-power challenge for embedded control systems requiring RF connectivity. These metering applications are inherently battery powered, and the battery life for these systems is expected to exceed 20 years. This requirement is dictated by the utility provider since a single service call from a technician often exceeds the entire cost of the smart meter.

Timing devices represent a substantial, steadily growing multi-billion-dollar market that encompasses both clock generator and buffer ICs and frequency control devices. The large size of the timing market is not surprising if you consider that virtually all electronic devices contain a timing IC.

Wireless transmitters, receivers and transceivers are becoming more common in these systems. Key features include high levels of integration, very low power operation, fast start-up from low-power states, high receiver sensitivity (greater than -118 dBm) and high transmit powers without external power amplifiers (up to 20 dBm). More advanced features include automatic packet handling, integrated FIFO and variable frequency and modulation schemes.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI), once the exclusive concern of equipment designers working with high-speed signals, is no longer limited to a narrow class of high-end applications.

Designers of industrial and consumer devices have rapidly adopted the universal serial bus (USB) as the interface of choice for enabling connectivity to other applications due to its ease-of-use, plug-and-play functionality and robustness. Although USB connectivity has become a key requirement for most embedded applications, in most cases, it is just one of many design requirements for a typical application.

The smart meter market is projected to grow by double digits over the next several years as consumers upgrade from traditional electromechanical meters. Smart meters use the latest integrated circuit (IC) technology to accurately measure and report the amount of power consumed. Although smart meters are more sophisticated than electromechanical power meters, a primary concern in smart meter design is the integrity of measurement data, which can directly impact a utility provider's billing revenu

Ever since the first watermills and windmills were used to generate electricity, energy harvesting has been an attractive source of energy with great potential. In recent years, energy harvesting technology has become more sophisticated and efficient, and energy storage technologies, such as supercapacitors and thin-film batteries (TFBs), have become more cost-effective.

USB has become an enormous success in industrial and commercial applications as it continues to replace many legacy serial connections (i.e. RS-232, 485). It is becoming the interface of choice for enabling connectivity to new applications with its ease of use, plug-and-play functionality and increased robustness.