Author: Techtime

Autotalks Merged DSRC and C-V2X into a unified V2X

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By Roni Lifshitz, Techtime

Autotalks launched its 2nd generation V2X (Vehicle to Everything) chipset, and revealed that it is the only available solution capable of supporting both DSRC and C-V2X direct communications (PC5 protocol). The chipset supports DSRC based on 802.11p/ITS-G5 standards and C-V2X based on 3GPP specifications. In recent years, V2X diverged into two different technologies, DSRC and C-V2X, with fundamentally different architectures, making it difficult to harmonize a single global solution.

While DSRC-based V2X is deployed in the US, Europe and Japan, C-V2X is gaining momentum in other regions. Autotalks chipsets were designed from the ground up to meet all the requirements and to deliver dual-mode (DSRC and C-V2X) functionality on existing automotive qualified AEC-Q100 grade 2, while maintaining the present software API.

DSRC and Cellular: The difference between Direct and Network communication
DSRC and Cellular: The difference between Direct and Network communication

Autotalks’ PC5 solution utilizes the globally defined 5.9 GHz ITS spectrum for V2X and is cellular network agnostic (no cellular SIM or coverage required, works without or with any 3G/4G/5G cellular modem). Separating V2X from the cellular Network Access Device (NAD) improves the cost-effectiveness of Telematic Control Unit (TCU) deployments. The separation of V2X from in-vehicle infotainment ensures that the purpose of the V2X system, which is giving drivers alerts of on-road dangers, is not compromised.

Furthermore, V2X isolation come hand in hand with cyber security protection. Autotalks from Kfar Netter, Israel, was founded in 2008, is considered a V2X chipset market pioneer. “Our 2nd generation chipset can now support PC5,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “It is a revolutionary stride. This demonstrates that a truly secure global V2X solution could have only been developed by a company that has multidisciplinary experience in creating Automotive safety communication solutions.”

For more information about PC5, click: Autotalks Whitepaper.

Mantis Vision discovered the “Emotional Economy”

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About a month after the acquisition of Alces Technology from Park City, Utah, USA, the Israeli 3D mobile sensing provider Mantis Vision is taking hold of the Artificial Intelligence startup BrainVu, and entered a totally new territory. BrainVu has developed an AI powered platform based on patents and know-how developed in the Virtual Reality and Neurocognition Lab in the Technion, Israel.

The comapny was founded in 2016 by Shay Hillel CEO, Prof. Miriam Reiner CSO and CTO Zeev Hadar. It uses remote smartphone/AR/VR camera to extract physiological bio-markers that indicate changes in brain activities and deduce human mental responses including: processing Cognitive Load, Stress Level and Emotional Engagement. The technology is based on the ability to analyze a spectrum of unique eye measurements to identify changes in alertness, attention and mental effort. This know-how was developed  in the Virtual Reality and Neurocognition Lab in the Technion, directed by Prof. Miriam Reiner.

This is an unexpected move of Mantis Vision, which until now focused more on hardware than software. Mantis Vision’s current patented Structured Light smart decoding technology allows to build small form factor 3D sensing devices and content. Recently it was incorporated into the Xiaomi Mi8 flagship mobile phone for facial authentication. This will be the first Android phone with true 3D camera.

In July this year Mantis Vision announced the closing of $55 million raising with a total investment of $84 million to date. The latest investment was led by Luenmei Quantum with the participation of  Samsung Catalyst Fund.

“The Mobile Tactical Radar market Gains Momentum”

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Photo above: Dov Sella, RADA’s CEO. “The armed conflict in Ukraine has made the change”

After almot a decade since it entered the short range multi-mission radar market, RADA Electronic Industries believes the market begins to move. This week RADA announced the receipt of $3.5 million in new radar orders from an existing customer which is a leading US military force, and are comprised of recurring follow-on orders for counter-UAV surveillance solutions, along with first order for advanced eCHR radar.

The eCHR is evolved from RADA’s Compact Hemispheric Radar (CHR), currently in use for Active Protection Systems (APS) and Hostile Fire Detection (HFD) solutions for combat vehicles.  The eCHR introduces provides increased detection and tracking ranges and advanced beam forming needed for use in APS, Vehicle Protection Systems (VPS), Counter-UAV and perimeter surveillance solutions.

Dov Sella, RADA’s CEO, said there is a growing momentum in the US market, centered around counter-drone (C-UAV) and very short range air defense (VSHORAD) demand. “Our software-defined and multi-mission eCHR radar, ordered at this stage for C-UAV use.” The announcement came only a few days after it was revealed that RADA’s Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars (MHR) are embedded in the Rafael’s Drone Dome counter-drone solution, which will be delivered to the British Army in the coming months.

Rafael Drone Dome with Radar from RADA
Rafael’s Drone Dome counter-drone solution equipped with radar system from RADA

Rada’s technology is based on Pulse Doppler, Software-Defined Radars, using armored Active Electronically Scanned Array Antenna. The British Army is the first customer for this system. Several initial systems are being purchased, with additional potential orders in the coming quarters. In fact, Rafael and RADA won the tender published by the UK Ministry of Defense, ahead of the Italian company Leonardo and its radar partner Elta (a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries).

For RADA this is big. The last deals represent movement in the market. It has been more than a decade since the company had started to develop its own Tactical radar systems for ground forces. At the beginning the company had only Rafael as a sole one potential customer. In 2016 Rafael needed small and chip radar for an Active Protection Systems, aimed to protect Israeli Merkava tanks against RPG threats.

But Rafael switched sides and produced the Trophy system in cooperation with Elta. Later, RADA joined the Iron Fist Soft & Hard Kill Active Protection System against RPG, ATGM, HEAT & KE Rounds, made by IMI Systems. They still offer the system to customers and it is under evaluation in the US Army. But sales were rare and by 2016 the company almost reached bankruptcy.

RADA’s Compact Hemispheric Radar (CHR), currently in use for Active Protection Systems
RADA’s Compact Hemispheric Radar (CHR), currently in use for Active Protection Systems

During a meeting with Techtime, Dov Sella said that the armed conflict in Ukraine has made the change: “Western armies were impressed by the effectiveness of the Russian tanks. They entered fighting zones with perimeter defense and short range missiles to neutralize local threats. This, and the American lessons from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan plus the emergence of the drone threats, brought major armies to realize the importance of short range mobile and multi-mission radars needed to protect their front line forces.”

The result was a turning point in 2017. RADA supplied more than 100 radar systems to the US Marines, and dozens more to the Israeli Defense Force, and now it is preparing itself for near future mass production of radar systems. Accordingly, its Market capitalization (Cap) in Nasdaq jumped from $5.8 million in 2016 to $96 million today. Sella estimates that the first massive orders in this market will start in 2019, the that the big boom is expected in 2020. “According to my calculation, the annual worldwide radar market for Mobile Active Protection Systems may reach approximately $300 million for the next 15 years.”

CEVA expects revenues from Apple starting Q3

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Photo above: Intel XMM 7360 LTE Advanced modem

By Yohai Schwiger, Techtime

CEVA from Herzliya, Israel, is expected to report meaningful incomes from future iPhones following Apple decision to switch suppliers and give orders to Intel instead of Qualcomm.  A recent report from COWEN, indicates that with Qualcomm excluded entirely from the 2018 iPhone in lieu of CEVA-based Intel modems, CEVA is poised to increase both its unit share and royalies coming from  Apple.

COWEN: “We believe it should drive a powerful mix shift beginning in late 3Q18 when the phone begins shipping. Management indicated that Intel will be using a new DSP core for the iPhone modems manufactured at Intel’s foundry, which we estimate could bring 30-40% initial ASP bump for CEVA – in addition to the 50% unit share increase. By our math, this could present a $10M+ incremental revenue opportunity over the next four quarters for CEVA.

CEVA is a leading licensor of signal processing platforms (DSP) and a primary player in artificial intelligence (AI) processors. The analysts Matthew Ramsay, Joshua Buchalter and Ethan Potasnick believe that 4.9G/5G basestation chip royalties represent the largest near-term incremental revenue opportunity for CEVA.

“We continue to see a $20M+ incremental evenue opportunity from just Nokia and ZTE by 2020. In fact, CEVA recently announced an agreement with a 3rd 5G basestation customer and remains in discussion with a fourth (likely Samsung and Ericsson since Huawei does its own DSPs).”

On Semi Choose Optimal Plus to monitor its Production

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ON Semiconductor revealed that it is collaborating with Optimal Plus from Holon, Israel, to gather, analyze and build actionable insights out of the company’s manufacturing data. Following an initial pilot project that demonstrated in the company’s manufacturing operations, ON Semiconductor and Optimal Plus will further connect the ON Semiconductor global manufacturing footprint.

“Partnering with Optimal Plus is a key element to enable the shift from detect to predict and eventually prevent,” said Mark Goranson, ON Semiconductor VP for manufacturing. Mitch Mooney, GM of ON Semiconductor Nampa, Idaho operations, mentioned that Optimal Plus provides advanced analytics with real-time visibility of test operations. “We expect significant benefits in capital efficiency, yield enhancements and quality improvements.”

Data is essential for Operations Optimization

Optimal Plus solutions collects, clean and aggregates data from multiple manufacturing locations into coherent information. For semiconductor companies, it spans all manufacturing operations touchpoints where product data is generated, from MES and WAT to Wafer Sort, Final Test and System Level Test. The solution includes deep, multi-stage product analytics for near real-time response capabilities. A core element of the deployment will be enabling ON Semiconductor to lower their Defective Parts Per Million (DPPM) rates to the single digit range.

Dan Glotter, Optimal Plus Founder and CEO: “Together, ON Semiconductor and Optimal Plus are demonstrating how operations optimization is keeping manufacturers ahead of an increased adoption of Industrial IoT, electric vehicles, machine vision and other disruptive applications in automotive and industrial end markets.” Other costumers in the semiconductor’s industry include Qualcomm, Marvell, AMD and Nvidia.

GlobalFoundreis aborts 7nm Development

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Photo above: GlobalFoundries’ Fab-1 in Dresden, Germany

The second largest semiconductor’s foundry (The first is TSMC), GlobalFoundries, announced a departure from the race to achieve smaller transistor nodes.  The company said it is putting its 7nm FinFET program on hold indefinitely and restructuring its research and development teams to support its enhanced portfolio initiatives. Mainly shifting the development resources to make its 14/12nm FinFET platform more relevant to the clients, and to add innovative IP and features including RF, embedded memory, low power and more. “This will require a workforce reduction, however a significant number of top technologists will be redeployed on 14/12nm FinFET derivatives and other differentiated offerings.”

The newly appointed CEO of GlobalFoundries, Tom Caulfield, mentioned that the demand for semiconductors has never been higher. But, “The vast majority of today’s fabless customers are looking to get more value out of each technology generation to leverage the substantial investments required to design into each technology node. This industry dynamic has resulted in fewer fabless clients designing into the outer limits of Moore’s Law.”

The ASIC Business will be Independent Company

saicIn addition, GF is establishing its ASIC business as a wholly-owned subsidiary, independent from the foundry business. This independent ASIC entity will provide clients with access to alternative foundry options at 7nm and beyond, while allowing the ASIC business to engage with a broader set of clients, especially the growing number of systems companies that need ASIC capabilities and more manufacturing scale than GF can provide alone.

“Lifting the burden of investing at the leading edge will allow GF to make more targeted investments in technologies that really matter to the majority of chip designers in fast-growing markets such as RF, IoT, 5G, industrial and automotive,” said Samuel Wang, research vice president at Gartner. “While the leading edge gets most of the headlines, fewer customers can afford the transition to 7nm and finer geometries. 14nm and above technologies will continue to be the important demand driver for the foundry business for many years to come.”

Mellanox leads the European plaCMOS project

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Mellanox Technologies from Yoqneam, Israel, revealed today that it is the coordinator of the plaCMOS is a research project on photonic integration, supported by the Horizon2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. This revolutionary project may shape a new direction for the Silicon Photonics Industry. The goal of the PlaCMOS project is to develop and demonstrate the next generation optical-electronic CMOS platform that will enable transceivers capable of real-time communication with data rates exceeding 200 Gb/s.

PlaCMOS will be based on the latest BiCMOS technology, and co-integrate it with a ferroelectric plasmonic modulator and a SiGe detector technology. By exploiting plasmonics rather than photonics, plaCMOS will not only be able to extend the bandwidth far beyond 100 GHz but also reduce the footprint of Photonics to the micrometer scale.

The wonder of Plasmonics

Plasmonics deals with the interaction between electromagnetic field and free electrons in a metal. Since electrons in thin films metals such as Gold and Silver  can be excited by the electric component of light, it is possible to directly determine the wavelength of light be electric fields created via electric circuitry.

The PlaCMOS project is planning a new chip, that includes all the analog, digital and optics in a single die and will be manufactured in a standard CMOS process. The technology demonstrator will be based on BiCMOS technology, a ferroelectric plasmonic modulator and a SiGe detector. It will be a single channel 200 Gb/s NRZ transmitter and receiver pair, and an ultra-compact 4×50 Gb/s transceiver directly interfacing a multicore fiber. Later, a full switch will be built in Mellanox facility in Israel.

The other participants in the program include Micram Microelectronic GmbH from Germany, The IHP institute from Germany, IBM Research GmbH from Switzerland, ETH Institute from Switzerland, Saarland University (Germany) and The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).

For more information: PlaCMOS