In 2013, it can be intelligent to wear in the first year, and all walks of life are deemed to be the next wave of hotspots after smartphones. The major research institutions have also painted, of which the UK IMS Research predicted that the 2016 wearing product market has reached 6 billion US dollars. ABI Research predicts that the shipments of global wearable smart devices in 2018 can reach 500 million units, and the annual composite growth rate reaches 50%.
However, in the development of wear equipment, it is also facing a non-clear product definition, and the industrial chain and ecological environment are not sound enough, and the defects of rigid demand are too difficult. In order to meet the growing wear market, major semiconductor manufacturers have launched or prepare a variety of high performance and low-power MCU, MEMS, and surrounding products. On December 20th, a wearable electronic device application and technology forum was held on December 20, which attracted the wearable sectors, Tiberium, North Gaozhi, Bluetooth Sig, to discuss the current discussion The development status of the industry and the future development trend.
Two development directions of smart watches
The Northern Gao Zhi Technology Manager Shang Ming has introduced the history of smart watch development in detail, and also mentioned the main two development directions of the current smart watch:
The first of which is a scheme that is implemented using a mobile phone AP such as MTK. This solution generally adopts a higher-frequency master platform, such as Samsung's Galaxy Gear. At the same time, its product positioning is also a communication module, which can be run independently of the phone. Generally, this product uses the Android system to realize dial-up calls, short message transcend queries, mail-proceeds viewing, while supporting the installation of the app to uninstall. Due to the high frequency, the standby time is generally within 1 to 3 days. At present, Shenzhen has many companies that have been engaged in mobile programs to do a similar project, but the AP manufacturers supporting this product are relatively small, so most smarts use mobile phone platforms.
Another product is implemented using low-power MCU (microcontrollers). Currently, semiconductor manufacturers, including STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Silicon Lab provide corresponding products and solutions. Its product positioning is mainly the accessories of smartphones, with differentiated functions. Its function is relatively simple, and the RTOS real-time operating system of embedded small kernel is used. Shang Ming said that North Gaozhi is currently mainly inclined to MCU solution. The EFM32 program uses Silicon Lab based on Cortex-M series products, and the cloc frequency can do 48MHz, plus ultra-low power RTOS systems (RTX, Freertos, μC / OS-II / -III), the standby power consumption can be less than 1μA, and the operating power consumption can be 220μA / MHz. Product standby time can be more than 10 days.
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Bei Gao Zhi Technology Product Manager Shang Ming
He also believes that the future wearing equipment is only possible to succeed. The focus of its products is to standby time rather than performance. In the future, wearable devices must be combined with technology and fashion (saying that human words are doing more beautiful and exquisite); at the same time, it is necessary to make cross-domain technology integration (speaking, all kinds of hardware data interfaces, various Mobile Internet applications, cloud services, and Sensor technology integrate, allowing consumers' experience to be improved).
EFM32 solutions support PIN to PIN compatible, support QFN, BGA112, BGA120
Mainstream low power display introduction
For current wear devices, the master, screen, Bluetooth are basically three major parts that constitute the entire hardware solution. Shang Yanming said that North Gaozhi as a component agent, except for EFM32 solutions, while also agents a variety of low-power display screens for wearable products.
Currently used low-power display except for common TFTs (iPod Nano screens), Sharp recently introduced Memory LCD. The pixel point on this screen is designed to store a charged capacitor. When the liquid crystal pixel is displayed, only extremely low standby currents, almost no power consumption is required when not refreshing. Features Similar to memoryable memory. The display imaging of the screen is the principle of transmitting. This screen is a bit similar to the E-Ink screen. Since there is no light source itself, there is a need to add backlight, but only black and white two colors, no grayscale. The advantage is that the static power consumption is extremely low, only 5μA, dynamically refreshed at 16μA, while the TFT screen power is generally in the MA level.
The E-Ink screen is also a common low-power screen, and the Tiberman is an E-Ink screen. Because only the display pixel is refreshed, there is a real saving ability after power failure, and it can also achieve the facial publicance. Its product feature is that the curvature can meet the multiple needs of the ID design. However, the disadvantage is that the refresh rate is slow (200ms), and the experience is not very good when needed to implement some dazzling interfaces. At the same time, its cost is also high, and the price of 1.77 inch is currently about 20 US dollars.
Mirasol screen is a low power display technology launched by Qualcomm. Imitate the color of the butterfly wings and peacock feathers, allowing the display to keep the display clearly with sunlight reflection. Since its screen only needs to consume electric power when the pixel color changes, the power consumption is extremely low, especially suitable for a long time to display fixed electronic devices. The mirasol screen is also the same as the E-Ink screen, but Mirasol can achieve some colorful effects. Shang Ming also frankly, it is not easy to get this screen, and the specific experience will be more known after product production.
These types of screens are several low-power screens of North Gaozhi's main agent. According to the author's roadside social news, Apple's iWatch will use the OLED screen, the size is between 1.75 ~ 1.8 inches, and its standby can be Make it in a week.
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Semiconductor senior market engineer
ST MCU positioned for different products
It is highly destroyed the ST's STM32 MCU platform and how to provide hardware and software solutions provided by this platform.
According to reports, the current ST is divided into four categories for the STM32 MCU of wearing equipment, where L0, L1 is low, and F429 \ F401 is high.
Different power consumption is mainly determined by different product positioning. Where L0 and L1 are mainly positioned in smart wristbands, the advantage is to use low power RAM, and data remains only 1.5 / 0.8μA operating current. The F401 is positioned at high-end smart wristbands, sports watches, etc., its main frequency is 84MHz, which uses the industry's minimum package 3 × 3mm WLCSP, its advantage is the best balance of power performance.
Renhang also said that in fact, the performance of each offered MCUs is similar, and ST provides related algorithms in addition to providing hardware. Such as sleep quality testing, motion detection, free fall, walking, running, etc., each algorithm is different. He also focused on the indoor navigation algorithm of ST, which is also a technique currently prequoped. Its use scenario is mainly to navigate in places where GPS searches such as indoors or tunnels. At present, the industry's universal implementation of indoor navigation is to increase WiFi or Bluetooth module, and this algorithm can be implemented using the comes with the accompanying accelerometer and gyroscope.
The F429 is positioned in high-end smart watches, using Chrom-Art Accelerator technology, two-fold, and its advantage is a built-in TFT LCD controller and an SDRAM controller.
Finally, he said that in the future, the number of MEMS sensors equipped with wearable devices has more and more, but also uses a HUB (Cooperation Socket) to control all sensors, then hand it over to the AP operation, that is, Sensor HUB technology. The current Android4.4 system has supported this technology, while the MCU can be used to act as this HUB function.
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