In the past 27 years, we have received many awards, but even for Gleichmann Electronics’ successful team this award is something really special. At NEC Electronics’ European distribution meeting in Dusseldorf in December 2006, Gleichmann Electronics was the first distributor ever to receive the award for “Best Performing System LSI Distributor”. Why are we so particularly pleased to receive this award? Because in 2006, Gleichmann Electronics once again significantly increased the number of designwins booked? Of course we are pleased about that, but then again we are used to it. Above all, we are pleased about the renewed trust of customers in our technical and logistics competence, as reflected by this award. We would like to take this opportunity to once again express our sincere thanks to all our customers. At NEC Electronics, System LSI stands for System Large Scale Integration. For Gleichmann Electronics, System LSI is much more than just another one of many new buzzwords. System LSI actually describes brie. y and conciselyan ongoing, everyday company philosophy: Gleichmann Electronics staff’s capability to support customers with extensive, technical specific know-how, even for the design of demanding applications. Gleichmann Electronics’ - for a distributor - unusual, in-depth technical competence is particularly effective in focus sectors such as: Building Management, Motor Control, Healthcare, Industrial Automation and Connectivity. For all of these segments, complementary system solutions can now be offered by means of ‘mirrored marketing structure for initiatives’, as agreed one year ago with NEC Electronics.

Among others, is the new innovative “Out-of-the-box ZigbeeTM” concept, which we present to you in detail for the first time in this Newsletter. Independent of the respective application and operating usage, our extensive support measures always have two things in common: The recommended solutions from our application teams not only help customers drastically reduce their own design efforts, but also guarantee, by means of an optimal matching of the components already during the evaluation phase, a maximum of compatibility and certainty.

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Out-of-the-box Zigbee™

NEC Electronics Corporation, Skyley Networks Inc. and Uniband Electronic Corporation (UBEC) is introducing development kits, including both software, hardware, and tools, that enable OEMs and system developers to quickly and easily develop low power, wireless peer-to-peer mesh networks ideal for the rapidly growing field of industrial automation and building management systems, lighting controls, automated meters, sensors, and security systems.

Effortless network development A key feature of NEC Electronics’ new Zigbee™ kits is the availability of the Skyley software development kit (SDK) featuring an easy to use graphical user interface (GUI), which allows effortless network development, and includes a network sniffer, network viewer, node setting tool, and node monitor tool, for easy implementation of peerto- peer mesh networks. The development of a wireless application cannot be completed in isolation. Because of the nature of connectivity applications it is very important that developers are able to test their prototypes in an environment similar to that in which they will finally be used. Multiple nodes may need to be set up and communications monitored between these nodes. Inherently this demands a working knowledge of both wireless technology and networking. Developers of wireless applications no longer need to have a deep understanding of these areas in order to establish quite complexmesh networks. By using the Skyley SDK, nodes can be easily set up, wireless traffic monitored, and networks viewed and debugged easily on a laptop.

A multi-chip solution from a single vendor

The hardware platform, consists of several evaluation boards based on All Flash™ microcontrollers by NEC Electronics, which offer the . exibility of flash-based programming and excellent power consumption levels, combined with UBEC’s UZ2400 transceiver device, which integrates a wireless RF transceiver operating at 2.4 GHz, physical (PHY) layer baseband and media access control (MAC) layer architecture. Developers will be able to choose 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32- bit microcontroller platforms depending on their technology and cost preferences. This is the key advantage presented by a multi-chip solution from a single vendor. NEC Electronics solution provides the flexibility for developers to find the best combination of technologies to ful. l their requirements.

Real applications straight out of the box
Included with the development kit is the 802.15.4 MAC driver software and the ZigbeeTM protocol stack. Combined with the Skyley SDK developers can begin programming real applications straight out-of-the-box. The kits will be certi. ed for compliance with the Enhanced ZigBee™ Standard, to be unveiled by the ZigBeeTM Alliance early next year. The complete kits are available from NEC Electronics including all of the described components. The kits for the 8-bit 78K0, 16-bit 78K0R and 32-bit V850ES will be available in early 2007.

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New high-speed optocouplers for 1 Mbit/s

Four new devices, PS8501L1/ L2 and PS8502L1/L2, have been added to NEC Electronics’ growing line-up of high-speed optocouplers. They are targeted for safety applications and provide a transfer speed of 1 Mbps. The optocouplers are supplied in an 8-pin DIP package with 8 mm creepage and isolation voltage of 5000 Vrms. All devices have an open collector output for increased flexibility in circuit design. In addition the PS8501 base pin can be addressed from outside. Maximum propagation delay time (t_PLH/t_PHL) is 0.8 ìs. The PS8502 has an internal ITO shield and a guaranteed minimum common mode transient immunity (CMH, CML) of 15 kV/ìs. Supply voltage and output voltage can be up to 35 V.

These optocouplers are ideally suited for motor control, test and measurement equipment, communication interfaces and many other applications in harsh industrial environments.
All parts are fully RoHS compliant. International safety certificates are available. These optocouplers are available now. For prices and delivery details please contact your local Gleichmann representative.

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Semiconductor solutions for Healthcare applications

The Healthcare market is increasingly becoming a greater portion of the overall semiconductor market with signi. cant growth expected worldwide. NEC Electronics recognises that within this market there are multiple applications and many different forces affecting development trends. Some are general trends such as the movement from post care to pre-care, others are legislative trends that have to be adhered too. However, the most important trend is the growing demands of the consumer. This is driving the requirement for more intelligent medical devices, which in turn are demanding the following features:

Performance Low Power Consumption High Speed (MIPS) Reliability Accurate Measurement High Quality Grades Enhancements Space Saving Packages Human to Machine Interface (HMI) As well as providing this within an extensive product range, NEC Electronics assists your time to market by utilizing our dedicated application team plus infrastructure of application notes, reference designs, software & demo tools. Quality grade guidelines NEC Electronics classifies the required quality grades needed for medical device as per FDA – Food & Drug Administration classifications: Class 1 devices ¨C Standard quality grade (S) Class 2 Diagnostic devices ¨C Standard quality grade (S) Class 2 Dosing devices ¨C Special quality grade (A) (Subject to availability) Class 3 devices ¨C not supported by NEC Electronics i.e. pacemaker, defibrillator, internal body devices NEC Electronics, as a solution's provider, offers an excellent mix of technologies: Microcontrollers (8 bit/ 16-bit/32-bit) TFT LCD (Mono/Colour) ASIC (Cell based/ Gate Array/ARM) USB2.0 MOSFET, Optocoupler & Commodity devices

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Huge embedded memory for V850 All Flash

For the last year, NEC Electronics’ V850 All Flash generalpurpose microcontrollers have combined the rich functionality of a well-established high performance MCU with the flexibility of Flash memory, making it ideally suited to both entry level and next-generation 32- bit designs, and in no small part contributing to NEC Electronics’ position as the worldwide number one 32-bit microcontroller provider!
This line-up is now being further enhanced by the introduction of V850ES/JJ3, which takes V850 All Flash to new levels by embedding up to 1 MB of Flash memory onchip! Part of the V850 All Flash J Series family, V850ES/JJ3 is ideally suited to lower power applications using a 3 V supply and with a hunger for memory, offering high performance operation, complex system control and numerous functions (including digital-toanalog conversion) all in a single device.
Available in a 144-pin package, V850ES/JJ3 offers either 768 K or 1 M Flash, both with an equally attractive 60 K RAM onboard. At the heart of the micro is the V850ES RISC CPU core, offering an impressive 29 MIPS at 20 MHz, enabling V850ES/JJ3 to deliver on the latest application trends requiring large amounts of embedded Flash such as graphical user interfaces, multi-language products, voice synthesis and recognition, or the use of complex communications protocols. In addition to the high performance core, V850ES/JJ3 offers an abundance of general purpose functions on-chip, with a combination of multiple high performance 16-bit timers, up to 16 channels of 10-bit A/D conversion, D/A conversion, DMA, Real Time Output, multiple serial interfaces, integrated safety functions and on-chip debug.

Alongside the other V850 All Flash lines, including the H Series, which is suited to applications requiring a large number of analog lines, and I Series, boasting dedicated 3-phase motor timers, the J Series microcontroller family is the ideal upgrade platform for exploiting 32-bit performance in a wide variety of applications such as:
Access control
Point of sale
Industrial controls and drives
PC peripherals
Home automation
Home appliances
Factory automation
Power meters
Medical appliances
Instrumentation

With the addition of these latest devices, NEC Electronics now boasts a comprehensive line-up of 208 All Flash microcontrollers, ranging from cost-efficient 8-bit devices, to market leading power/performance 16-bit devices, to high performance 32-bit devices, with a wide selection of memories and pin counts to suit the needs of diverse applications.
All of these are supported by NEC Electronics’ market-leading lowcost CUBE tools.
IECUBE offers full emulation and trace functionality whilst the new MINICUBE2 makes best use of on-chip debug as well as full Flash programming, all in a single tool supporting 8-, 16- and 32-bit microcontrollers, enabling almost any application to get up and running very quickly. Both tool chains are supported by the IAR ‘C’ Compiler suite with an appetizer version available so you can start developing immediately. For all V850 devices, additional software support is also available via the Greenhills Workbench if you prefer. Samples for V850ES/JJ3 are available now, with mass production rolling out from May 2007, so why not see what 1 M Flash can do for your application today? For more information, please visit our homepage.

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Now over 200 ALL FLASH microcontrollers available

With the introduction of two new 32-bit V850/JJ3 micro- controllers NEC Electronics’ high end range now boasts up to 1 MB of embedded Flash memory. Combined with the introduction of 14 new 16-bit 78K0R/Kx3 microcontrollers announced earlier this year, NEC Electronics now has 208 All Flash microcontrollers available and over 1000 micro- controllers in total.

Adding to the 16-bit and 32-bit microcontroller line
V850 J Series microcontrollers all boast large Flash memory sizes to meet the needs of ever increasing software footprint for 32-bit industrial applications. In addition J series microcontrollers include an abundance of peri- pherals. The latest 78K0R/Kx3 microcontrollers boast a class leading power/performance ratio removing the need for customers to compromise power consumption for performance.

Unified Tools for ALL FLASH microcontrollers
With this wide range of microcontrollers now available it is important that developers can easily mix and match a variety of different controllers to meet the complexity now demanded of industrial products. The MINICUBE2 on-chip debug and . ash programming tool enables developers to use multiple variants of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers without worrying about acquiring a number of debug tools. A single MINICUBE2 now supports on-chip debug features for the entire range of 208 All Flash microcontrollers. Users only need to flick a switch and the MINICUBE2 will support a different All Flash microcontroller. NEC Electronics has extended their unified tool strategy to ICE tools as well in the fully featured IECUBE tools that include more extensive debug options.

Start development now with easy to use starter kits
Earlier this year NEC Electronics launched the V850 ALL FLASH Starter Kit, a low cost kit designed to introduce developers to the power of V850 32-bit microcontrollers. In addition a new 78K0R starter kit is now available allowing developers to become familiar with the latest line of 16-bit high performance, low power microcontrollers from NEC Electronics. The 78K0R starter kit, COOL-IT, includes several demonstration programs to illustrate simple motor control, etc. It even includes the possibility to run the device from a capacitor to demonstrate the low power efficiency of 78K0R devices. The COOL-IT 78K0R starter kit is priced at 24.99 Euros to allow easy entry and will be available in January 2007. 78K0R devices are sampling now.

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Mini but mighty

NEC Electronics extended its portfolio of low-voltage power management devices with the launch of EFLiP, an Ecologically Flip chip PowerMOSFET for Li-Ion battery Protection circuits, that boast the industry’s smallest-in-class footprint. EFLiP comes across in tiny dimensions, 1.62 mm square and just 0.48 mm thick, answering the requirements of ever-shrinking Li-Ion battery powered consumer products. The two new devices, UPA2350 and UPA2351, with builtin dual N-channel PowerMOSFET reduce the required PCB area of a traditional TSSOP-8 package by as much as 86%, ideal for the protection circuits in lithium-ion battery packs for portable battery - powered applications such as MP3 players, cell phones, PDAs and others. Outstanding UMOS4 processor technology Despite this remarkable package shrink, NEC Electronics achieved low on-state resistances of 28 mΩ (UPA2350) and 32 mΩ (UPA2351) to extend battery life by applying the outstanding UMOS4 process technology. Needless to say that both devices are completely lead-free, in compliance with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Furthermore, to reduce the risk of ESD damages, the devices have built-in gate-protection diodes to lower overall system costs and reduced form factors.

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Ultra high luminance 12.1” TFT colour LCD module for industrial use

NEC Electronics Europe has begun shipping samples of its new 12.1” (31 cm diagonal) super video graphics array (SVGA), amorphous silicon, thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) module, part number NL8060BC31-36. The new LCD enables display of vivid colours even in environments with high ambient light such as outdoors in sunny weather or indoors in direct sunlight. This new 12.1” model boasts a high-intensity back-light system and improved efficiency of back-light use due to optimized design, resulting in luminance of 1100 cd/m2, the highest luminance level in the class of color LCD modules for industrial use.

Accordingly, high brightness can be maintained even when a touch panel is installed. Furthermore, it achieves a wide operating temperature range of -10° C to +70° C. These new enhanced features make this new model ideal for installation in ATMs, vending machines, point-of-sales systems, for gas-stations and for GPS navigators.

NEC LCD Technologies has long been addressing the challenge of securing high visibility of LCDs for industrial use in environments with high ambient light and has succeeded in overcoming such issues through application of its proprietary Natural Light Technology (based on trans. ective LCD technology). However, in cases where a touch panel is required there is often a decrease of light-transmittance and surface re. ection causing deterioration in LCD screen visibility. For such application the new NL- 8060BC31-36 is the perfect solution.

NEC LCD Technologies will also begin selling another three new amorphous silicon TFT colour LCD modules. The new products comprise of a 12.1” (31 cm diagonal) super video graphics array (SVGA) TFT colour LCD module, part number NL8060BC31-42, an 8.4” (21cm diagonal) super video graphics array (SVGA) TFT colour LCD module, part number NL8060BC21-04 and a 7.0” (18 cm diagonal) wide quarter video graphics array (WQVGA) TFT colour LCD module, part number NL4823BC37-05. All three new models achieve high brightness of 400 cd/m2, a high contrast ratio of 600 : 1, a wide viewing angle of 160 degrees horizontally and 140 degrees vertically (contrast ratio greater than 10 : 1), a quick response time of 25 ms and a wide operating temperature range of -20° C to +70° C.

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New PowerMOSFET with leading-edge 0.25-micron UMOS-5 process technology

NEC Electronics introduced a high-performance Power- MOSFET fabricated with NEC Electronics’ newest and most advanced process technology for MOSFET. The new Power-MOSFET will enable smaller and more powerful batteries to power the next generation of portable electronics devices. The 0.25-micron UMOS-5 process, one of the world’s most advanced MOSFET technologies, enables a 30- percent smaller size compared to former technologies and an industry-leading low on-state resistance of 5.3 milliohms (mΩ) per mm square. This advanced battery protection solution will allow manufacturers to design powerful, cost-effective lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that can deliver higher output current while remaining protected against overheating.

The growing use of advanced features in cell phones, digital still cameras and portable game players has resulted in rapidly increasing power requirements for these portable consumer electronics devices. Battery manufacturers need cost-effective, small format components that deliver higher perform- ance with lower power consumption levels. As a leading provider of PowerMOSFET for Li-ion batteries, NEC Electronics remains committed to delivering high-performance, reliable devices to ease the development process and enable manufacturers to meet the demands for batteries to power the next generation of portable electronics devices.

NEC Electronics’ UMOS-5 process technology represents one major advance: Compared to the established UMOS-4 process technology the structure of the gate electrode is improved, and therewith the channel width can be doubled. This major advance helps battery manufacturers to design low-cost, highperformance batteries in smaller packages, or higher performing batteries in packages of the same size. In addition, the low on-state resistance, 5.3 mÙ/mm2, marks a new industry low in PowerMOSFET for Li-ion batteries.

Samples of the UPA2450CTL PowerMOSFET are available in January. Mass production is scheduled to begin in spring 2007 (availability is subject to change). For more information about the new PowerMOSFET and other devices of the NEC Electronics Power- MOSFET portfolio contact your local Gleichmann representative.

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10 Mbit/s high-speed optocouplers in new 8 mm creepage package

NEC Electronics (Europe) is offering new series of highspeed optocouplers. The PS9587 series is a 10 Mbit/s optocoupler with a GaAlAs LED on the input side and an open collector ouput. The output side consists of a photo diode and a signal processing circuit on one chip. With the new package and its extended dimensions the PS9587 series are ideally suited for high safety applications. The optocouplers are supplied in an 8-pin DIP package with 8 mm creepage and isolation voltage of 5000 Vrms. The PS9587 has an internal shield between input and output side that allows a common mode transient immunity (CMh, CMl) of minimum 15 kV/µs. It is designed for high speed logic data interfaces with 5 V supply voltage line. The maximum propagation delay time (t_PLH/t_PHL) is 75 ns, the pulse width distortion 10 ns and the data rate 10 Mbit/s.

Ideally suited for industrial applications
These optocouplers are ideally suited for factory automation networks, test and measurement equipment, communication interfaces and many other applications in harsh industrial environments.

Fully RoHS compliant
All parts are fully RoHS compliant using nickel- palladium- gold plating. Common international safety certificates are available.

Pricing and availability
The high-speed optocouplers are available now. For price and delivery details contact your local Gleichmann representative.

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LCDs for mobile industrial applications

NEC Electronics and NEC LCD Technologies have identi. ed a growing demand for small, portable display products in industrial markets. Responding to this development, NEC Electronics has begun shipping samples of 3.5“ quarter-VGA TFT modules with industrial characteristics and a commitment to long-term availability.
One result of the emergence of a networked information society has been the recent spate of portable devices appearing on the market. Some of these devices are equipped with semi-transmissive LC display modules. Semi-transmissive LCDs give customers a choice of two operating modes depending on ambient light: transmissive mode uses a backlight system as a spectral source, while reflective mode uses an ambient light as a spectral source.
Conventional semitransmissive LCD modules always have to deal with the dilemma of balancing the brightness of transmissive mode and the reflective ratio of reflective mode. This is primarily because each pixel of a semitransmissive LCD has to be separated by a transmissive construction area and a reflective construction area.
Through a combination of several core technologies, SRNLT technology and adaptive design technology, NEC LCD Technologies has solved the problem of simultaneously achieving high brightness and a high reflective ratio in semitransmissive LCDs. This breakthrough offers a wealth of benefits to manufacturers of portable information devices and NEC Electronics is now making these benefits available to its industrial customers as well.

NL2432HC22-40J: 3.5“ (8.9 cm diagonal) QVGA TFT LCD This panel is based on NEC LCD Technologies’ optimized super-reflective natural light (SRNLT) technology and realizes high luminance of 220 cd/m2, a high reflective ratio of 15% and backlight power consumption of 384mW, equivalent to that of conventional products. High contrast ratios of 150 : 1 in transmissive mode and 15 : 1 in reflective mode contribute to a bright and clear display in any kind of ambient light. This module weighs around 10% less than conventional products, despite the addition of a timing controller and a DC/DC converter. The module offers a range of benefits in terms of development cost, lead time and portable device miniaturization. Target applications include global positioning systems (GPS), portable meter reading equipment, barcode scanners, radio frequency identification (RFID) devices and other handheld indoor or outdoor equipment. NL2432HC22-41K: 3.5“ (8.9 cm diagonal) QVGA TFT LCD with touchpanel The basis for this module is the LCD panel just described, which is combined with an integrated resistive touchpanel. Typical luminance is slightly reduced – to 200 cd/m2 – but all other features remain unchanged. For both products NEC Electronics is committed to long-term availability plus the company’s usual phase-out procedures for industrial TFT LCD modules. NEC LCD Technologies will continue to commercialize products with high addedvalue such as displays with high image performance and high specifications. This applies equally to small LCD modules that are used in portable and handheld devices.

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Personal Profile of Craig Langley – Gleichmann Electronics UK Ltd.

He was recruited to open a Gleichmann office in Scotland and is responsible for developing sales in Scotland and Ireland. Craig’s other role is to develop the Healthcare market for Gleichmann in Europe. Originally from South Wales, Craig enjoys country hopping around the UK and after University lived most of his adult life in the South East of England before moving to the Edinburgh area last year. His working life has been spent mainly in distribution as an FAE, Product Manager and in various Business Development roles for LCDs, Micro-controllers and Single Board Computers.

Before joining Gleichmann Craig was working in the Marketing Department of NEC in the UK and was responsible for launching the ERTEC product.

Since moving to Scotland Craig says he is really enjoying the outdoor life and loves exploring the castles, cycling and playing the great golf courses. Now he just needs to get a taste for the great whisky !

He is 36 and married with two children aged 5 and 2.

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Spotlights

European Quality Centre

The new European Quality Centre has been established at NEC Electronics Europe‘s headquarters in Düsseldorf to provide enhanced quality assurance and failure analysis service to automotive customers in the region.

Industrial solutions Among the many markets we serve, Industrial represents a major share of our business. This new brochure details the numerous dedicated Industrial solutions and services from NEC Electronics, including details of key trends and the advanced technologies supporting them.

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