Tekmos' Blog

When trying to pin down a precise meaning for the term IoT (Internet of Things), it quickly becomes clear that the acronym has many meanings. This article will partially answer the question. At first, IoT meant things that communicate over the internet. But it was about things, not people reading materials that were designed to be read or listened to over the internet. The term has evolved to mean anything that is connected to the internet. It has seen usage to include any sophisticated electronic device, connected to the internet or not. I personally think this later, all-encompassing meaning renders the term useless. The most useful meaning, although not precise, may be to denote the wide range of electronics that communicate over the internet.

Some terminology that can be useful is labeling sub-groups of IoT products. The first is the CIoT, The Consumer Internet of Things. This is the area where everyday people directly interface with IoT products. It includes all the home products, such as control of home lighting, heating, safety, and monitoring. The CIoT also includes wearables, such as monitoring one's vital signs, tracking exercise, a device to locate car keys, and watching a personalized TV attached to one's glasses. It includes answering one's door remotely, monitoring children and pets, and lighting systems and sound systems.

Another sub-group is the MIoT, the Machine Internet of Things. This term usually refers to older remote control of machines, such as oil wells, monitoring and controlling traffic, signaling trains and rail switching. It is primarily using the internet to communicate between machines that were previously direct wired or connected with dedicated rf links.

Another sub-group is the IIot, the Industrial Internet of Things. This usually refers to industrial applications such as precision control of lathes, industrial robots, process monitoring, process control, industrial data analytics, employee monitoring, plant security, and employee safety. Yet another sub-group is the MIoT, the Mobile Internet of Things, primarily related to vehicles, which may not actually use the internet. Often, some type of rf link is used since data must travel between mobile devices. It includes self-driving cars and trucks. It can include large engine control and sensor communications that may not actually use the internet, such as display of tire pressure while the vehicle is moving. It includes many on board communications systems such as DVD players, radios and on board phone systems. It includes driver warning systems such as drifting out of lane warning and adaptive cruise control.

Still another sub-group is MIot the Medical Internet of Things which includes medical devices like the remote monitoring of a patient's heart, home measurement of sleep disorders, the control of diffusion pumps, and the pendant used when a person needs to summon medical assistance when alone.

The concept behind a Unify SiP (System in a Package) is to stack die within a package using a Tekmos ASIC to include additional functionality and resolve testing and interconnect issues. Because this is a new approach to high density circuits, many are unaware of the details. This requires us to explain it through brochures and other marketing material.

Tekmos New SIP Business Card

The first step is to create a drawing that shows how everything fits together. We normally allow our outside artists considerable leeway in how they do our graphics. But in this case, we had to get it to be technically right. We asked our artist to draw a 4 chip Unify SiP, with our ASIC, a processor that was attached via flip-chip, an RF chip, and topped off with a MEMS. You can see the completed artwork below. We are going to use the artwork in a Unify brochure, on a business card sized brochure with a real chip for reference, and on our trade show booth.

Normally, images are drawn, which makes them hard to modify. We also asked our designer to create this image using 3-D Adobe software. This allowed us to make multiple changes in how the die were stacked and the relative sizes of the die. And it leaves the door open to future efforts to animate the drawing so that we can show how the die go together. We plan for the animation to be in the form of an animated GIF for the web, an animated PowerPoint slide, and perhaps a short video. And that's the background on our new Unify artwork.

A rapidly growing IoT area is IoT Wearables. Most people who are interested in sports, fitness, new electronic gadgets, or just observant have noticed the Fitbit. It is advertised a lot on Amazon. There are a wide variety of Fitbit products but they are certainly not the only maker of these electronic wristbands.

If one stops to think about wearing electronics, you realize it is not a new concept. The comic character Dick Tracy had a wiz bang wrist watch over 50 years ago. And it was connected to other remote devices too. What is different now is that these devices are real and available to anyone at a somewhat reasonable price. Another major difference from the past is that the connection to the internet opens up access from a device to virtually anywhere. Miniaturization of circuitry by technologies, such as Tekmos Unify, is necessary to allow the design of products that are small enough to wear.

While most of us have heard about devices such as Google Watch and Google glasses, the types of devices seem limited only by one's imagination. One of my personal favorites if the Fluffy tracker. This is a euphemistic name for a cat tracker that needs to be so small and lightweight that even a five-pound cat has no problem with it on their collar. Of course, it applies to any pet or even livestock. Another app that is intriguing is a wearable that takes thousands of body measurements and then recommends the most flattering clothing to buy online.

In mid-July, I went to the Wearables TechCon at the San Jose Convention Center. While not a huge conference, it was an eye opener as to the technologies necessary for wearables. Some products are just good ideas, such as linking a fob on your key chain to your smart phone so that either one can find the other if lost, or inexpensive glasses that show movies and give information. Spinoff ideas such as physiological analytics for analyzing exercise, stress, and recovery go well beyond the hardware to measure and track heartbeat. A similar idea is the real time monitoring of blood chemistry with non-invasive techniques with a wearable on one's arm. The number of companies and products needed to support the wearable products is amazing. Support areas such as flexible circuit boards and plastics to help designing products, testing services, and even universities were all represented at the conference.

There were a variety of seminars to increase one's knowledge and awareness of a field that is changing rapidly. A side benefit was an IoT Meet-Up where the main attraction was the demonstration of a set of clothes that could be used to develop natural moving avatars. Although this has been a staple of the imagery in game development, the low price of this product makes it affordable to many individuals rather than just the large game development companies. There are meet-ups on almost any topic, those on technology, especially IoT, are a great way to stay connected and current in a fast changing environment.

Production ASIC technology nodes range from 16nm up to 600nm, and the 10nm and 7nm nodes are nearing production status. With each decreasing technology node, in rough terms, the NRE doubles, the logic density doubles, and the wafer cost increases by ~25%. Going to a more advanced note can result in a cost savings as long as the volume compensates for the increased NREs.

There are two items that work against migrating to a more advanced node. The first is the anticipated production volume. Economically speaking, this can be phrased as how many production parts does it take before the unit cost savings equals the increase in NRE, and how long will it take to reach the breakeven point?

How long it takes to reach that breakeven point is important. A node selection that breaks even in 5 years is not economical. A project that breaks even in a few months is a no-brainer. Typically, an ASIC node selection needs to breakeven in under a year, with a 6 to 9 month period being ideal.

A second point to consider is that an increase in logic density at a given node does not always result in a lower cost die. A die consists of core logic that is surrounded by a pad ring that consists of the input / output buffers, the power bussing, and the scribe line (the space required to allow the die to be cut from the wafer). The I/O buffers have a minimum size that is necessary to withstand ESD damage. The pads have a minimum size because of assembly constraints. And together, this produces a pad ring that does not change size with differing technologies.

Consider the case of a 256 pin circuit with a 50u pad pitch. This die will be a minimum of 3.5 mm / side, and have a core area of 6.25mm². This tables show how many gates can be put into that 6.25 mm² space. So if a design has less than 400,000 gates, and if the 180 nm node will support the speed requirements, then there is no reason to use a smaller technology node.

Many Technology companies are spending significant money and the attention of high level managers. There are so many conferences and symposiums that one could make attending them a full time job. The need to stay current on developments is not limited to high tech companies. This article addresses one aspect of the Innovator's dilemma for companies that are not in the forefront of innovation.

The need to be aware of the developments in IoT is much greater than many companies realize. If part of your company makes garden variety electrical products, such as doorbells, you may wake up to the fact that companies, such as Ring, are making devices that let the homeowner see who is at the door on their smart phone, wherever they are. While these devices may be pricey now, it is the way things are going.

Many people remember when Kodak was almost the only name most people knew regarding taking family photographs. Of course, Polaroid was the name if one wanted the print almost immediately. Many young people do not even recognize these companies' names now. Business classes will probably study these cases and have opinions whether the companies could have adapted to the changing times better than they did.

Are sump pump manufacturers watching for the best time to have links to smart phones? What if your company has never considered having your sump pump send a text to the homeowner when the backup battery is low or about to fail? By the time you start developing a product to match your competition, they may have already made significant inroads to your market share.

There is no precise definition of IoT. Many consider it to include devices which may not actually be connected to the web. Self-driving cars and trucks are examples. The large manufacturers of cars and trucks seem to be closely attuned to technology advances but even that is not clear. Detroit was caught off guard when Japanese cars started to eat their market share. It will not be that long before self-driving cars are commonplace. One wonders if the changes in technology are really being tracked by all the supporting companies that supply both OEM companies and after-market companies. Today there are cars that can parallel park themselves. Which companies will lose market share when they are behind in making the electronics and software to let you summon your car from the parking lot to the mall entrance? It is not hard to imagine using Uber to get a ride and find that the car you summoned does not have a driver. If your company makes after-market parts for cars, you must keep up with the trends in retrofitting or have your competition steal your customers.