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Innovation rewarded
By Steven Keeping

The hands were shaken, the trophies dispensed and the bubbly consumed at Adelaide’s Technology Futures Conference (TFC) Gala Dinner, sponsored by EDN, as the inaugural EDN Innovation Awards proved a resounding success.

The seed for the Awards program was planted at the previous TFC in 2004, when we at Elec tronics News were considering how we could help the SA-based Electronics Industry Association (EIA) and Australian Electrical & Electronic Manufacturers Association (AEEMA) in their mission to promote electronics to a wider audience. We decided the best way to do that was to come up with a way to highlight the excellence of the design work that goes on every day in Australia.

With AEEMA and the EIA’s support and endorsement, the result of the initiative is the EDN Innovation Awards. which culminated in Adelaide. The premise for the EDN Innovation Awards was to celebrate excellence in Australian electronics, and below you’ll see that the winning and highly commended projects are of the highest calibre.

What was also notable about this first year of the Awards was the quality of the student entries. If the future of Australian electronics is in the hands of individuals such as these, we have every prospect of a prosperous future.

We would like to thanks for the generosity of the major sponsor National Instruments, and the individual category sponsors Altium, Agilent Technologies, Braemac, Adilam, Soanar and Arrow Electronics.

These companies already stand apart in their own right as organizations of vision, and it is pleasing to see them united in a common cause for Australian electronics. Without them, the Awards would not have been possible.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the judges, Prof Trevor Cole, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Sydney University and Professorial Fellow at Macquarie University’s Institute of Innovation, Ric Clark, CEO National ICT Australia Ltd and Matthew Henderson, MD Australian Technology Connections.

For too long electronics engineers have worked in the shadows, without public recognition - even though their achievements continue to earn a place in the spotlight. The EDN Innovation Awards will help to put that right.

Entries for the 2006 EDN Innovation Awards open in November this year.

2005 Innovator of the Year - sponsored by National Instruments

Winner - Saindhav Tamhane, Codan, for his 6700 Series medi um power block up converter (MBUC). The Award was presented by National Instruments, the major sponsor of the EDN Innovation Awards, and was handed out by Jeremy Carter, Oceania Branch Manager for the company.

The task for the design team was to create the industry's first small, lightweight, single box MBUC solution that could be mounted on the antenna. The design also had to be fully compliant to satellite regulatory requirements IESS308, 309, 401and 601, the R&TTE Directives, ETSI EN301 443 (Satellite Earth Stations and Systems), Electrical Safety Standards (EN60950-1), EMI/EMC Standards (ETSI EN301 489-1/12) and meet Codan’s own stringent standards for quality and reliability.

The design requirements distilled down to two primary challenges: The integral AC input power supply, and the DC bias circuit controlling the FETs within the power amplifier

The ntegrated AC input power supply required high conversion efficiency, low interference to RF and digital circuits, combined with high-quality input protection. The protection was achieved through several layers of surge and inrush limiting, together with over temperature and over-voltage protection. EMC/EMI was achieved through careful design and separation of conductive and radiated sections of the circuit.

However, the breakthrough in design was achieved by the introduction of synchronous DC rails to eliminate cross-talk, beat frequencies and interference paths between the various DC supply rails and the RF and digital circuits within the MBUC, without the need of multiple DC-to-DC converters.

Selection of the drain and gate bias of the FET devices is critical in establishing the RF performance of the power amplifier. However, the power efficiency of these devices is poor (typically 35 percent). Significant input energy is transferred into thermal energy.

The Codan engineers approached the challenge by developing a hybrid biasing system. When a pre-set current limit is reached the bias automatically switches to constant current through a soft clamp arrangement. This allows a minimum condition to be set for power consumption and thermal dissipation without compromising RF performance.

The judges were particularly impressed by Codan’s methodical approach to the product which resulted in a first class design on a tight design schedule. This typifies the winning approach adopted by this leading Australian company.

Best student project - sponsored by Altium

Winner - Darren Hayes, LaTrobe University, for his local position sensor. Highly commended in this category was Hugh Considine, Australian Science & Mathematics School for his project Breaking down the language barrier. The Award was presented by Craig Rose, manager, sales and support Australia of Altium. In addition to its sponsorship, Altium also presented a Unified Nexar-Protel 2004 license along with a NanoBoard-NB1 to both the individual winner and the winner’s university.

Hayes set out to improve the accuracy of a transmitter locator in applications on the sports oval to within 0.5 m. He also designed the locator so that its position could be recorded at a rate of better that 25 times per second. The project used 16 channel simultaneous sampling, 8-bit ADC and phase detection with quadrature determination. Hayes is now working for Aviation Data Systems.

Hayes’s project impressed the judges because it included several complex elements of both digital and analogue design which he used to significantly improve on existing solutions.

Best application of benchtop test instrumentation - sponsored by Agilent

Winner - Eapen K Eapen, Aus tralian Arrow for his Instru ment cluster test tool. Highly commended in this category was Christian Goslich, Fischer Industries for his Automated vigilance tester. Jennifer Liston, Director, Electronics and ICT of AEEMA, presented the Award on Agilent’s behalf.

The Instrument Cluster Test Tool is a fully integrated benchtop test system that can manually or automatically test an instrument cluster based on user input and/or on a set of test cases defined by a test engineer. It uses test software built using NI LabVIEW and off-the-shelf Agilent instruments to provide the required stimuli to the device. It enables automation and scheduling of multiple test cases. Refer to the attached document for functional block diagram of the test system.

A PC based Graphical User Interface (GUI) was implemented using LabVIEW. A PC sound card and microphone setup in conjunction with LabVIEW sound functions was used to validate the speaker output of the instrument cluster. To facilitate automation, several programmable devices were used and controlled using GPIB. The test tool was also fully configurable so that any or all of the remote systems could be disabled when they were not available at a particular workbench. In addition to the above mentioned features, all controls and indicators on the user interface can be remotely controlled using script files and LabVIEW interface functions. A major factor in attaining full automation was the use of vision inspection technology with the use of digital cameras and vision software.

An Agilent Dual Channel PSU through GPIB was used to supply power to the test system. The flexibility of a programmable PSU enabled simulation of the varying voltages of a car battery as well as real time current and voltage measurements. An Agilent DAU with a 20 Channel Actuator was used to provide switching to all hardware inputs such as battery, ignition, communications input, trip buttons and hardwired telltales. An Agilent Multifunction Module was used for simulating two scroll wheels, as well as for performing more sensitive voltage measurements.

Two Sony Firewire cameras were used in conjunction with NI IMAQ software for pattern matching, intensity measurements, gauge angle measurements and optical character recognition (OCR) to provide real time visual feedback of the LCD, stepper motor functionality and telltale operation.

Using NI TestStand enabled customisable scheduling of test cases along with reporting of test iterations.

Eapen’s project impressed the judges because it integrated several complex test instruments yet remained simple to operate and interpretate.

Best application of a microcontroller - sponsored by Braemac

Winner - Lawrence Vella, Ford Motor Company for his On- board data acquisition system. Highly commended in this category was Bruce Lehman, PNE Industries for his business change station. Mark Chapman, the State manager for Braemac presented the Award to the winner.

The heart of the CAN OBDAS Logger is a Rabbit microprocessor board RCM2300 supplied by Dominion Electronics. It has a very low cost of $85. This micro board has 256kByte of Flash EPROM and 128 kByte of SRAM and is easily programmed by an efficient compiler.

The CAN operation is handled by a Philips SJA1000 which is a stand alone controller for CAN used within automotive and general industrial environments and a TJA1050 high speed CAN transceiver. These two components were supplied by Adilam Electronics. To enable the stored data to be uploaded to a notebook PC a max232 was used for serial communication. A 3.3 V lithium battery was used to backup the SRAM in the event that the car battery is disconnected. The only connection to the car is between the diagnostic connector in the fuse box and the four terminal orange connector. Via this link any data on the CAN bus could be obtained. In this case it logged 150 variables.

The loggers are required to remain in the vehicles for up to three months without being uploaded and because of the limited SRAM a statistical method of data collection was used. A large unsigned long integer array was set aside. Slices of this array were used for each of the variables, for example, the first 128 locations were set aside for the engine speed RPM and the next 128 locations for the road speed. The CAN bus is continually monitored and all variables uploaded, but every second all the data is logged. Analogue parameters such as vehicle speed, engine rpm and manifold pressure are stored. When the data is uploaded the result is 128 data locations with varying counts that can be displayed in Excel that truly represent the manifold pressure characteristics over a 3 month period. For variables like the handbrake, footbrake and headlight switches require only two locations: one for the total time the switch was on and the other for the count of on/off operations.

Channels like deceleration and engine kW power output were calculated from other collected parameters.

The data is uploaded via a RS232 link at 57600 baud, to a program that written with National Instruments Lab Windows CVI. This program produces two files, one an Excel file which enables engineers to manipulate the data any way they like, and a binary file which then can be loaded into another program that created in CVI that graphically displays all the data in a very friendly format.

The judges were impressed with Lawrence’s design because he developed a sophisticated data acquisition unit using his own board for only $200 in parts, based on a Rabbit microprocessor.

Best wireless design or application - sponsored by Adilam

Winner - Jefferson Harcourt, Grey Innovation for its Infusion compact Internet radio device. Highly commended in this category was Neil Abraham, Codan for its 2110 manpack transceiver. Keith Anderson, president of Adilam Electronics presented the Award to the winner.

Infusion is a highly portable consumer product providing access to streaming media via Wi-Fi Internet access points. Using a pre-provided list of radio streaming websites, a consumer can listen to various formats of streaming services, record songs and use an inbuilt FM radio.

Torian Developments introduced Infusion at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year to demonstrate the power of their new iRoamer technology. Developed by Grey Innovation, Infusion is the first of its kind and provides users with a portable Internet radio connection allowing them to tune into any radio station, anywhere in the world while in a wireless hotspot.

No other technology that provides both the convenience and mobility of a Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) network. It is the preferred technology for connecting users to the Internet, hence the reason for its selection.

Many busy public areas are now Wi-Fi hotspots. This includes a large number of airport lounges, cafes and hotels. An increasing number of professionals and travellers are demanding fast and secure Internet access wherever they are. Wi-Fi networks will soon be found in urban areas and will provide coverage in the central city metropolitan areas. Wi-Fi wireless technology is at the heart of Infusion. The product was designed around this specific technology and could not function with out it.

The judges were impressed with how Infusion used cutting edge 802.11g chipsets to produce the world’s first portable compact internet radio device.

Best PCB-based power supply - sponsored by Soanar

Winner - Jared Steinohrt, Auslog for its gamma ray sensor HV power supply. Highly commended in this category was Louise Lloyd, SETEC for its BCE-350 series power supplies. Robert Crabbe, chief executive officer of Soanar presented the Award.

Steinohrt had to design a new PCB from scratch, going back to basics and using the simplest of circuits to minimise power consumption. Trying to get rid of as many power-consuming components as possible, he took the timing circuit and custom-built transformer from a standard Auslog PCB and added variable input voltage regulation circuitry (which in turn varied the output voltage), voltage doublers and filters to increase the voltage output. High voltage diodes and capacitors were used to multiply the voltage up to and beyond the required 1100 VDC since DC-DC converters consumed too much power and also would not operate at the high voltages required.

The input voltage was specified as 9 V, which was decreased from the original 24 V as the handheld tool needed to run off a 9 V supply. The voltage ripple at the output also had to be less than 200 millivolts peak-to-peak, which was critical for radiation level monitoring. To overcome this problem, Steinohrt put a resistor and capacitor filter network on the output to minimise the ripple. The current PCB design came out at 80 millivolts peak-to-peak (maximum) when under its required full load (a photomultiplier tube). The new populated PCB cost under $100 to make whereas competitors’ designs were custom-made for each particular photomultiplier tube and so resulted in prices exceeding $900, with greater power consumption.

The judges were impressed with the way Jared threw out the traditional solution and redesigned this high voltage power supply to run off single 9 V battery for at least 100 hours.

Best analogue design or application - sponsored by Arrow

Winner - Saindhav Tamhane, Codan for his 6700 Series medium power block up converter. Highly commended in this category was Joe Bayer, Minelab Electronics for his Class-D amplifier. Gert Labuschagne, vice president of Arrow Electronics Australia and New Zealand presented the Award to the winner. (See “Innovator of the Year” above for project details).

The judges were impressed by the way the team showed design flair to produce a lightweight unit while meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

25 May 2005

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