EEs Talk Tech - An Electrical Engineering Podcast show

EEs Talk Tech - An Electrical Engineering Podcast

Summary: Inspired by over-the-cubical-wall conversations about the changing world of electronics and electrical engineering, Daniel Bogdanoff and Mike Hoffman set out to create an electrical engineering podcast. Covering a broad range of topics from the basics of electrical engineering to the tough engineering problems of tomorrow’s technologies, Daniel & Mike bring in members of Keysight’s engineering team to provide their unique perspectives.

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  • Copyright: © 2018 Keysight Technologies, Inc.

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 The Huge Challenge of Testing USB 3.2 – #33 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:08

USB 3.2 testing is darn hard! We talk compliance test specs, USB 3.2 testing BKMs, and pre-spec silicon. Guest Jit Lim sits down with Mike Hoffman and Daniel Bogdanoff to talk about the new difficulties engineers are facing as they develop USB 3.2 silicon.   https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/The-Huge-Challenge-of-Testing-USB-3.2-Electrical-Engineering-Podcast-33.mp3 Agenda: In the last electrical engineering podcast, we talked about how USB 3.2 runs in x2 mode (“by two”) This means there’s a lot of crosstalk. The USB Type C connector is great, but its small size and fast edges means crosstalk is a serious concern. When we test USB, we want to emulate real-world communications. This means you have to check, connect, and capture signals from four lanes. For testing Thunderbolt you always have to do this, too. Early silicon creators and early adopters are already creating IP and chips for a spec that isn’t released yet. 2:00 They’re testing based on the BKM (Best Known Method) 3:30 Jit was just at Keysight World Japan, where many people presented BKMs for current technologies. Waiting for a test spec to be released is not an excuse for starting to work on a technology. 4:50 How many companies are actually developing USB 3.2 products? The answer isn’t straightforward – the ecosystem is very complex and there are multiple vendors for a single system (like a cable). 6:30 Many USB silicon vendors will develop an end-product and get it certified to prove that their silicon will work. They then sell the silicon and IP to other companies for use in their products. 7:50 Daniel listened to an interesting podcast about how Monoprice reverse engineers complex products and sells them for cheaper: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/11/28/366793693/episode-586-how-stuff-gets-cheaper 9:40 There are some BNC cables at the Keysight Colorado Springs site that were literally wire pulled and built in the building. 10:00 Has anything changed as USB technology advances? There are a lot of new challenges – multiple challenges, retimers, multiple test modes Testing retimers is nontrivial, they are full receivers and full transmitter. 11:30 When a new spec is developed, what does that look like? How far does the test group go when setting a new spec? The spec doesn’t look at how to test, it just looks it what it should do. Then, there’s a compliance test specification (CTS). This is developed by a test group, that looks at how things should be tested. So, there are two groups. the first asks “what should the spec be?” and the second asks “how do we test that group?” 13:30 How many people are testing USB 3.2? Even though the compliance test specification is not developed yet? There are non being shipped, but there is a lot of activity! 14:30 What are the main challenges? Basics. When you have 10 Gbps over copper on a PCB, people are failing spec! There are issues with some devices passing only intermittently. Especially over long cables and traces. 15:45 Cheap PCBs make things even more tricky. So, there’s very

 USB 3.2 + Why You Only Have USB Ports On One Side of Your Laptop – #32 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 24:03

USB 3.2 DOUBLES the data transfer capabilities of previous USB specifications, and could mean the end of having USB ports on just one side of your computer. Find out more in today’s electrical engineering podcast with Jit Lim, Daniel Bogdanoff, and Mike Hoffman.   https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/USB-3.2-EEs-Talk-Tech-Electrical-Engineering-Podcast.mp3 1:00 Jit is the USB and Thunderbolt lead for Keysight. 1:30 USB 3.2 specifications were released Fall 2017 and released two main capabilities. USB 3.2 doubles the performance of  USB 3.1. You can now run 10Gb/s x2. It uses both sides of the CC connector. In the x2 mode, both sides of the connectors are used instead of just one. 4:00 The other new part of USB 3.2 is that it adds the ability to have the USB silicon farther away from the port. It achieves this using retimers, which makes up for the lossy transmission channel. 5:00 Why laptops only have USB ports on one side! The USB silicon has to be close to the connector. 6:30 If the silicon is 5 or 6 inches away from the connector, it will fail the compliance tests. That’s why we need retimers. 7:15 USB is very good at maintaining backwards compatibility The USB 3.0 spec and the USB 3.1 spec no longer exist. It’s only USB 3.2. The USB 3.2 specification includes the 3.0 and the 3.1 specs as part of them, and acts as a special mode. 9:00 From a protocol layer and a PHY layer, nothing much has changed. It simply adds communication abilities. 9:55 Who is driving the USB spec? There’s a lot of demand! USB Type C is very popular for VR and AR. 12:00 There’s no benefit to using legacy devices with modern USB 3.2 ports. 13:45 There’s a newly released variant of USB Type C that does not have USB 2.0 support. It repurposes the USB 2 pins. It won’t be called USB, but it’ll essentially be the same thing. It’s used for a new headset. 15:20 USB Type C is hugely popular for VR and AR applications. You can send data, video feeds, and power. 17:00 Richie’s Vive has an audio cable, a power cable, and an HDMI cable. The new version, though, has a USB Type-C that handles some of this. 18:00 USB 3.2 will be able to put a retimer on a cable as well. You can put one at each end. What is a retimer? A retimer is used when a signal traverses a lossy board or transmission line. A retimer acquires the signal, recovers it, and retransmits it. It’s a type of repeater. Repeaters can be either redrivers or repeaters. A redriver just re-amplifies a signal, including any noise. A retimer does a full data recovery and re-transmission. 21:20 Stupid Questions: What is your favorite alt mode, and why? If you could rename Type-C to anything, what would you call it?      

 Power Supply EMI + BW Woes – #31 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 27:33

Kenny shares his experience debugging 800 MHz EMC issues at an unnamed engineering site. The culprit? A power supply! Sometimes, that 1:1 probe just isn’t enough… Daniel Bogdanoff and guest host Erin chat with Kenny Johnson about the impact of power supplies on conducted and radiated emissions. https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Power-Supply-EMI-and-Bandwidth-Woes-31-1.mp3 Video: Links to discussed topics: Decoupling Capacitor Optimization for Power Integrity Webcast: https://www.keysight.com/main/eventDetail.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=2908999&nid=-35724.0.08 Slides: https://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/29March2018WebcastSlides.pdf How to Design for Power Integrity Video Series: Slides: https://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/5_Power_Integrity_Ecosystem.pdf Kenny’s Favorite Probe https://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1938466/high-voltage-probe-10001-30-kv-50-mhz?cc=US&lc=eng Agenda: 00:00 Kenny likes textbooks 1:30 Kenny is a power integrity expert 2:00 Mobile device design is hard, Kenny feels bad for designers 2:15 Power integrity is coupled in with their radio, and makes it hard to pass EMI and EMC 3:20 EMI/EMC is failing, but: Hardware guy has good data Software guy has good software Power guy looks to have no issues 4:45 FCC, ETSI 5:00 Types of EMI and EMC are: Conducted emissions Radiated emissions 6:00 Example: The IoT processor is only clocking at 5 MHz, but the EMC engineer is picking up noise up to 750-800 MHz. And, the system is dropping bits. 7:15 The 1:1 passive probe was hiding the higher frequency noise. Then, they were able to trigger on the power supply and see the noise in the data line – power supply induced jitter. A common rule of thumb is to have 20 MHz of bandwidth, but that’s not always enough! 10:50 Optimizing decoupling capacitors. How to choose the right capacitors? Where to place decoupling capacitors? 11:50 Many complex components come with design guidelines (voltage regulators, capacitors, etc.). But, it shouldn’t be treated as law. 13:00 Helpful resources 13:40 If you’re working on more prosaic devices (they aren’t crazy fast), even if you aren’t having an EMI issue, the same part of the board that’s having the EMI issues can also pollute the antennas. 14:30 How much bandwidth should you get? 15:25 Kenny connects to his device at full bandwidth, then pulls up an FFT. Then, he bandwidth limits to where the FFT rolls off. 16:15 A new power rail probe goes out to 6 GHz. Why do we need this much bandwidth? Higher BW noise! 18:00 Kenny saw a startup hub in Boston. It had a lot of different startups that pooled their collective resources to get access to higher end test equipment. 19:00 Kenny feels like the free tools are good for qualitative measurements, but not for quantitative measurements. 20:46 – Adam Savage – “Buy the cheapest tool first. If you break it, go buy a nice one.” 21:30 Kenny is part of the inspiration for this podcast. 24:45 Stupid Questions: What’s the worst possible power integrity advice you could possibly give to someone?

 BONUS: EEs as Astronauts – Audio Exclusive | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 2:48

Astronaut Kay Hire answers the question: “What advice would you give to an engineer hoping to become an astronaut?”   https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Electrical-Engineers-as-Astronauts-Audio-Exclusive.mp3

 Weather CubeSats – #30 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 19:41

We have surprisingly little knowledge of weather. When specifically does a cloud rain? How do these clouds form? We don’t have good answers to these questions. Getting those answers is an electrical engineering problem – one that a handful of professors and NASA are solving with CubeSats. Historically, we’ve used large satellites and ground-based systems to track weather patterns, but CubeSat arrays are becoming a viable option. In this episode, Daniel Bogdanoff sits down with the leading researchers in this area to hear about the challenges and advancements being made in this area. Interviewees: Charles Norton – JPL Engineering and Science Directorate POC Joel T Johnson – ECE Department Chair and Professor at The Ohio State University Christopher Ball – Research Scientist at The Ohio State University Dr. V. Chandrasekar (Chandra) – ECE Professor at Colorado State University Eva Peral – Radar Digital Systems Group Supervisor at JPL https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Weather-CubeSats-EEs-Talk-Tech-Electrical-Engineering-Podcast-30.mp3 Agenda Intro Space is changing. Big, expensive satellites used to be our only option. But, as you’ve probably heard on this podcast, when it comes to technology the world is always shrinking – and satellites are no exception. And that’s what we’re exploring today, specifically, the way cubesats (miniature satellites) are revolutionizing the way we look at earth’s weather. Hi, my name is Daniel Bogdanoff, and welcome to EEs Talk Tech. In our last episode, I brought you all along with me to Wallops flight facility in Virginia for a rocket launch. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and I wanted to cover more than was reasonable for a single episode. So today, we’re blending the style of last episode and our standard interview-style podcast. I sat down with some EE professors from Ohio State University and Colorado State University to talk about their cube sat projects – all of which monitor weather using radiometers or radar and are pretty high tech. I also apologize in advance for the background noise during the interviews, I’ve done the best I can to minimize the noise and voiceover parts I feel are hard to hear. I’ve also used clips from their NASA TV presentations wherever possible. Let’s get started, and hear a little bit about the advantages of CubeSats from Charles Norton. Advantages of CubeSats [1:05] Cubesats are nice not just because they’re cheaper and smaller. Thanks to the miniaturization of new technologies in both their physical size and their power consumption, we can deploy more systems, more rapidly, and at a lower cost. They also require smaller teams to develop and operate, and can even have higher measurement accuracy than existing assets. CubeRRT [3:51] At its core, CubeRRT is all about making radiometry measurements better by processing out man made emissions – leaving only the earth’s natural emissions. From NASA: “Microwave radiometers provide important data for Earth science investigations, such as soil moisture, atmospheric water vapor, sea surface temperature and sea surface winds. Man-made radiofrequency interference (RFI) reduces the accuracy of microwave radiometer data, thus the CubeSat Radiometer Radio Frequency Interference Technolog

 The Long Road to Space – #29 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

I went for a rocket launch, and stayed for the science. Have you ever wondered what it actually takes to get a rocket into space? And why we go there at all? I hadn’t. Come with me on a behind the scenes tour of Wallops Flight Facility. Space balloons, sounding rockets, and a bonafide rocket launch! https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Long-Road-to-Space-EEs-Talk-Tech-Electrical-Engineering-Podcast-29.mp3 Links: Thank you again to Laurie Bonneau, John Mitchell, and John Huntington, NASA, and Orbital ATK/Northrup Grumman for letting me use your amazing photos! Check out Laurie B’s Flickr page here John M’s Flickr page here and John Huntington’s coverage of the launch. Keysight oscilloscope probe promotion here. Agenda: 0:00 – Getting to Wallops Flight Facility 4:40 – “What’s on Board” Science Briefings 8:03 – CubeSats 9:32 – Concrete in Space? 11:10 – Cold Atom Laboratory and Bose Einstein Condensates 15:09 – Launch Pad 0A Visit 15:50 – Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) 19:29 – Range Control Center 21:23 – Space Balloons 24:25 – Sounding Rocket Machine Shop and Test Lab 28:53 – Astronaut Kay Hire 31:04 – OA9 rocket launch day! Transcript: On the Virginia coast, hours away from any major airport, you’ll find what appears to be a sleepy little town. It’s not a tourist town or a beach town, that’s further down the road. Driving through, you’ll see an abandoned roller rink and billboards for opioid abuse programs, a retro country radio station, and the seafood restaurant in the next town over. There’s a single diner is nestled in a gas station, right across the street from a house with a half dozen American flags and a huge “support our troops” sign in the front yard. But when you drive a little further, you might start to wonder if there’s more to this town than meets the eye. Down the road from the diner is the smallest Lockheed Martin building I’ve ever seen. Drive a minute longer, and the forest clears. Immediately, you know there’s more to this town. Your eyes are first drawn to giant satellite communication antennas, and then to radar installations and what look to be airplane hangers emblazoned with the NASA logo. Of course, all of this is surrounded by fences with stern warnings for trespassers and loiterers – keeping gawkers at bay, leaving them to wonder what’s going on in there. Thanks to you, who follow us on YouTube and the EEs Talk Tech podcast, I wasn’t left to wonder. And now, neither are you. NASA granted me and select others special access to tour the facilities. S

 DDR5 Rx Testing is a Whole New Ballgame – #28 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Receiver testing (Rx) was never a concern for DDR design. Until now. The margin for error ran out, and now Rx testing is getting standardized. We sit down with Stephanie Rubalcava to explore the challenges of this new ground. Video:   Audio: https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ddr5-rx-testing-with-the-experts-28-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast.mp3 Agenda: 1:00 This is the first time in the industry that high-accuracy, standardized receiver measurements need to be done 2:20 DDR is very different from traditional memory in terms of testing 3:10 Process of getting specs defined 3:50 What a DDR receiver test (DDR Rx Test) looks like 4:50 Even being just 100 mV off when testing can make a part appear to fail 5:20 The BERT sends out a signal to test the channel, but what’s really being tested is the DIMM and device’s ability to receive data under certain conditions 6:30 Receiver types across different devices? There’s a DQS data clock signal, and a data signal. There are also command and address lines in DDR. 6:50 For Rx testing, we’re calibrating the signal going into the receiver 7:30 JEDEC develops a lot of the testing standards 8:10 Two components of test standards: compliance and characterization. Compliance asks “do I meet the spec?” Characterization asks “how well does my system perform, and where is my fail point?” 9:35 Receiver test as whole is a challenge for engineers They need new kinds of calibration, DDR fixtures, and tests. 12:20 DDR Transmitters (DDR Tx) are progressing with DDR5 as well as receivers. We do have the DDR Tx history testing all the way back to DDR1. There are similar specifications for characteristics of DDR transmitters and DDR receivers. 13:20 DDR Transmitter testing is at “the ball of the part” and checks for signal characteristics.    

 Battlebots 2018 & the Hardcore Robotics Team – #27 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

“I tend to not turn Tombstone on outside of the arena. It scares the crap out of me…” – Ray Billings, Hardcore Robotics team captain. We sit down with BattleBots’ resident bad boy to talk about the engineering behind the world’s meanest fighting robots. We also talk robot carnage. Because we know you’re really here for robot carnage. https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/battlebots-2018-and-the-hardcore-robotics-team-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-27.mp3 Agenda: 00:03 Ray Billings leads the Hardcore Robotics Battlebots team, and is the “resident villain” on Battlebots. 00:40 Mike went to high school with Ray’s son 01:15 Ray’s robot, “Tombstone” is ranked #1 on the Battlebots circuit. Highlights here. 1:34 The winner trophy for Battlebots is a giant nut. 2:00 Ray doesn’t turn on the robot very often outside of the arena 2:35 Ray’s carnage story: he bent a 1” thick titanium plate 3:20 You have to see combat robots live to get the full experience 4:10 The first match of Battlebots 2018 should be one of the most epic Battlebots fights of all time 4:30 Ray has done over 1,000 combat robot matches in 17 years 5:00 How Ray got into Battlebots 6:25 The main robot is called an offset horizontal spinner. It spins a 70-75 lb bar at 2500 rpm. 7:40 The body is 4130 choromoly tubing. The drive motors were intended for an electric wheelchair, and the weapons motor is from an electric golf cart. 8:20 Normal electrical motors are not designed to work for combat robots. Ray significantly stresses the motors. 8:50 The weapon motor was designed to be used at 48V 300A, but Ray uses it at 60V and 1100A (at spinup). This would overheat and destroy the motor, so it shouldn’t be done long-term. 9:40 – 70-80kW at spinup, and no start capacitor. He just uses a big marine relay. 10:00 Ray’s robot has 1 second to be lethal 10:30 If there’s a motor-stall potential mid match, Ray will turn off the motor to save batteries/electronics 11:00 What’s the weak point of Ray’s robot? One match, the weapon bar snapped in half. 11:40 Ray uses tool-grade steel, so it won’t bend, it’ll just snap. 12:40 The shock loads can break the case. The weapon motor looks like it’s rigidly mounted, but because it’s on a titanium plate it has some shock absorber. There’s also a clutch system in the sprocket to help offset shock. 13:40 Ray’s robot has to take all of the force that the opponent’s robots do (equal and opposite), but if it’s coming in a direction you want vs. one you don’t want you can design-in protection. 14:40 What test challenges were faced during assembly and design? It’s been highly iterated. There are no shortcuts for designing combat robots. You have to see where something breaks, then adjust. 15:45 When Ray started in 2004, his robot was just a “middle of the pack” robot. With years of iteration, it’s now a class-dominant robot. 16:45 Ray spins up the robot at least once before a competition. It’ll pick up debris from the ground and throw it aro

 Secret Specs, LPDDR5, and Interposers – #26 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Keeping specs secret is just part of the job. Getting a usable, working spec is another. We sat down with Jennie Grosslight to learn why JEDEC guards a spec, the basic DDR architecture, and geek out  about the challenges of probing DDR. Hosted by Daniel Bogdanoff and Mike Hoffman, EEs Talk Tech is a twice-monthly engineering podcast discussing tech trends and industry news from an electrical engineer’s perspective. https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/secret-specs-lpddr-and-interposers-26-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast.mp3     Agenda: 1:00 How are electrical engineering and protocol specifications defined? 2:00 Bigger companies tend to drive specifications because they can afford to put money into new products Sometimes small or midsize companies with an idea can make something new happen, but they have to push it 2:50 Most memory technologies have a couple players: 1. The chipset and the memory controller industry 2. The actual devices that store data (DRAM) 3:30 There’s a tremendous amount of work between all the players to make all the parts work together. 5:00 Why JEDEC keeps information about new products private as they’re being developed: If you spread your information too wide then you can get a lot of misinformation. Fake news! Early discussions also might not resemble the end product 6:20 DDR5, LPDDR, and 3D silicon die stacking are new and exciting in memory 7:00 We keep pushing physics to new edges 7:20 Heat management in 3D silicon is a big challenge 8:20 LPDDR5 is the new low power memory for devices like cell phones and embedded devices 9:10 5G devices will likely depend on low power memory 10:20 Once the RF challenges of 5G are figured out there will be even more challenges on the digital side. Systems have to deal with large bandwidths and low latencies 11:10 Higher performance and lower power is driving development of LPDDR5 It will be interesting to see if improvements are made in jumps or very slowly 12:00 Dropping voltage swing and increasing speed both make the eye smaller Making the eye smaller makes you more vulnerable to crosstalk 12:20 – Completely closed eyes for DDR5 13:00 How to probe DDR? We use a lot of simulation because the circuits are so sensitive 14:20 Crosstalk is often a problem when making DDR and LPDDR measurements 14:50 Economics drives everything so new technology is often based on existing systems 15:40 What comes next is up to who comes up with the best idea 16:40 What will drive change is when the existing materials can no longer meet performance 17:50 Power is important for big data farms as well as cell phones 19:50 GDDR and DDR 21:00 Chipset rank on a DIMM The pieces share a common data bus so you need to know the order to properly test 24:20 DIMM interposer used for logic measurements for servers

 DDR5 and 3D Silicon – #25 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

“You reach critical certain thresholds that are driven by the laws of physics and material science” – Perry Keller DDR5 marks a huge shift in thinking for traditional high-tech memory and IO engineering teams. The implications of this are just now being digested by the industry, and opening up doors for new technologies. In today’s electrical engineering podcast, Daniel Bogdanoff and Mike Hoffman sit down with Perry Keller to discuss how engineers should “get their game on” for DDR5.   Audio: https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ddr5-and-3d-silicon-ees-talk-tech-25.mp3 Sign up for the DDR5 Webcast with Perry on April 24, 2018! Agenda: 00:20 Getting your game on with DDR5 LPDDR5 6.4 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) “You reach critical certain thresholds that are driven by the laws of physics and material science” – Perry Keller 1:00 We’re running into the limits of what physics allows 2:00 DDR3 at 1600 – the timing budget was starting to close. 2:30  With DDR5, a whole new set of concepts need to be embraced. 3:00 DesignCon is the trade show – Mike is famous for his picture with ChipHead 4:00 Rick Eads talked about DesignCon in the PCIe electrical engineering podcast 4:40 The DDR5 paradigm shift is being slowly digested 4:50 DDR (double data rate) introduced source synchronous clocking All the previous memories had a system clock that governed when data was transferred. Source synchronous clocking is when the system controlling the data also controls the clock. Source synchronous clocking is also known as forward clocking. This was the start of high speed digital design. At 1600 Megatransfers per second (MT/s), this all started falling apart. For DDR5, you have to go from high speed digital design concepts to concepts in high speed serial systems, like USB. The reason is that you cant control the timing as tightly. So, you have to count on where the data eye is. As long as the receiver can follow where that data eye is, you can capture the information reliably. DRAM doesn’t use an embedded clock due to latency. There’s a lot of overhead, which reduces channel efficiency 9:00 DDR is single ended for data, but over time more signals become differential. You can’t just drop High Speed Serial techniques into DDR and have it work. The problem is, the eye is closed. The old techniques won’t work anymore. 10:45 DDR is the last remaining wide parallel communication system. There’s a controller on one end, which is the CPU. The other end is a memory device. 11:15 With DDR5, the eye is closed. So, the receiver will play a bigger part. It’s important to understand the concepts of equalizing receivers. You have to think about how the controller and the receiver work together. 12:20 Historically, the memory folks and IO folks have been different teams. The concepts were different. Now, those teams are merging 13:00

 Memory, DDR5+, and JEDEC – #24 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

“It’s a miracle it works at all.” Not the most inspiring words from someone who helped define the latest DDR spec. But, that’s the the state of today’s memory systems. Closed eyes and mV voltage swings are the topic of today’s electrical engineering podcast. Daniel Bogdanoff (@Keysight_Daniel) and Mike Hoffman sit down with Perry Keller to talk about the state of memory today and it’s inevitable march into the future. https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/memory-ddr-and-jedec-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-23.mp3 Agenda: 00:00 Today’s guest is Perry Keller, he works a lot with standards committees and making next generation technology happen. 00:50 Perry has been working with memory for 15 years. 1:10 He also did ASIC design, project management for software and hardware 1:25 Perry is on the JEDEC board of directors JEDEC is one of the oldest standards body, maybe older than IEEE 1:50 JEDEC was established to create standards for semiconductors. This was an era when vacuum tubes were being replaced by solid state devices. 2:00 JEDEC started by working on instruction set standards 2:15 There are two main groups. A wide bandgap semiconductors group and a memory group. 3:00 Volatile memory vs. nonvolatile memory. An SSD is nonvolatile storage, like in a phone. But if you look at a DIMM in a PC that’s volatile. 3:40 Nonvolatile memory is everywhere, even in light bulbs. 4:00 Even a DRAM can hold its contents for quite some time. JEDEC had discussions about doing massive erases because spooks will try to recover data from it. DRAM uses capacitors for storage, so the colder they are the longer they hold their charge. 4:45 DRAM is the last vestige of the classical wide single ended parallel bus. “It’s a miracle that it works at all.” 5:30 Perry showed a friend a GDDR5 bus and challenged him to get an eye on it and he couldn’t. 6:10 Even though DDR signals look awful, it depends on reliable data transfer. The timing and clocking is set up in a way to deal with all of the various factors. 7:00 DDR specifications continue to march forward. There’s always something going on in memory. 8:00 Perry got involved with JEDEC through a conversation with the board chairman. 8:35 When DDR started, 144 MT/s (megatransfers per second) was considered fast. But, DDR5 has and end of life goal of 6.5 GT/s on a 80+ bit wide single ended parallel bus. 9:05 What are the big drivers for memory technology? Power. Power is everything. LPDDR – low power DDR – is a big push right now. 9:30 if you look at the memory ecosystem, the big activity is in mobile. The server applications are becoming focused with the cloud, but the new technology and investment is mobile. 10:00 If you look at a DRAM, you can divide it into three major categories. Mainstream PC memory, low power memory, and GDDR. GDDR is graphics memory. The differences are in both power and cost. For example, LPDDR is static designs. You can clock it down

 Data Analytics for Engineering Projects – #23 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

It seems most large labs have a go-to data person. You know, the one who had to upgrade his PC so it could handle insanely complex Excel pivot tables? In large electrical engineering R&D labs, measurement data can often be inaccessible and unreliable. In today’s electrical engineering podcast, Daniel Bogdanoff (@Keysight_Daniel) sits down with Ailee Grumbine and Brad Doerr to talk about techniques for managing test & measurement data for large engineering projects.   https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/data-analytics-for-engineering-projects-23-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast.mp3 Agenda: 1:10 – Who is using data analytics? 2:00 – for a hobbyist in the garage, they may still have a lot of data. But, because it’s a one-person team, it’s much easier to handle the data. Medium and large size teams generate a lot of data. There are a lot of prototypes, tests, etc. 3:25 – The best teams manage their data efficiently. They are able to make quick, informed decisions. 4:25 – A manager told Brad, “I would rather re-make the measurements because I don’t trust the data that we have.” 6:00 – Separate the properties from the measurements. Separate the data from the metadata. Separating data from production lines, prototype units, etc. helps us at Keysight make good engineering decisions. 9:30 – Data analytics helps for analyzing simulation data before tape out of a chip. 10:30 – It’s common to have multiple IT people managing a specific project. 11:00 – Engineering companies should use a data analytics tool that is data and domain agnostic. 11:45 – Many teams have an engineer or two that manage data for their teams. Often, it’s the team lead. They often get buried in data analytics instead of engineering and analysis work. It’s a bad investment to have engineers doing IT work. 14:00 – A lot of high speed serial standards have workshops and plugfests. They test their products to make sure they are interoperable and how they stack up against their competitors. 15:30 – We plan to capture industry-wide data and let people see how their project stacks up against the industry as a whole. 16:45 – On the design side, it’s important to see how the design team’s simulation results stack up against the validation team’s empirical results. 18:00 – Data analytics is crucial for manufacturing. About 10% of our R&D tests make it to manufacturing. And, manufacturing has a different set of data and metrics. 19:00 – Do people get hired/fired based on data? In one situation, there was a lack of data being shared that ended up costing the company over $1M and 6 months of time-to-market.      

 Radar and Electronic Warfare | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Phil Gresock, Keysight’s Radar Lead, sits down with us to discuss the basics of radar and give us a peek into the world of aerospace electronic warfare. https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/radar-and-electronic-warfare-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-22.mp3 Agenda: 00:20 Adaptive cruise control for cars works really well. 1:00 the history of radar – the original radar display was an oscilloscope in WWII. (radar test equipment) http://www.pearl-harbor.com/georgeelliott/scope.html 1:45 Early warning radar 2:00 The rumor that carrots are good for your eyesight was a British misinformation campaign. 2:58 The British had the “chain home radar system” all along the coast that pointed to their western front. They wanted early warning radar because they had limited defensive forces. By knowing what was coming, they could allocate defenses appropriately. 3:45 Radar originally was a defensive mechanism. 3:50 How does radar work? You send out a pulse that is modulated on a carrier frequency. If that pulse gets reflected back, we can do some math and work out how far away something is. 4:30 Typically, there’s a specific frequency used. For long range radar, like search and early warning radar, a lower frequency is used. 5:15 What does a modern radar system look like? It depends on the application. Early warning systems are often anchored on old oil rigs. The rigs have a radome installed on them. 6:25 How does radar detect something so small and so far away? A lot of it depends on the frequencies and processing techniques you use. 6:40 There are some radar techniques you can use, for example bouncing off of the sea, the earth, the troposphere. 7:15 Radar also has some navigational benefits. For example, wind shear flying into Breckenridge airport. A change in medium is measurable. 8:10 Radars also get installed on missiles to do some last-minute corrections. 8:35 Ultimately, the goal of radar is to detect something. You’re trying to figure out range, elevation (azimuth), velocity, etc. Different target sizes and ranges require different pulse widths, different frequencies, etc. Azimuth is easy to determine because you know what direction your radar is pointing. To detect velocity with radar you can use doppler shift. 10:30 Radar cross section analysis gives even more information. 11:00 There are spheres in space for radar calibration. You can send pulses to the sphere and measure what you get back. Radar calibration sphere in low earth orbit: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA532032 (for full paper, click the “full text” link) 11:40 There are also reflectors on the moon so you can use laser telescopes to measure the reflection. Mirrors on the moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment 12:30 NASA put reflectors in space. 12:58 So, you send a pulse out and get a return signal, but there was a scattering effect. There are libraries for what a return pulse for different objects looks like so you can identify what you are looking at. 14:00 Radar counter intelligence techniques. Firs

 Intro to RF – EEs Talk Tech Electrical Engineering Podcast #21 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

We sit down with Phil Gresock to talk about the basics of RF for “DC plebians.” Learn about RF designs, radio frequencies, RADAR, GPS, and RF terms you need to know in today’s electrical engineering podcast! https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/intro-to-rf-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-21.mp3   Agenda: RF stands for radio frequency 00:40 Phil Gresock was an RF application engineer 1:15 Everything is time domain, but a lot of RF testing tools end up being frequency domain oriented 2:15 Think about radio, for example. A tall radio tower isn’t actually one big antenna! 3:50 Check out the FCC spectrum allocation chart 4:10 RF communication is useful when we want to communicate and it doesn’t make sense to run a cable to what we’re communicating to. 4:50 When you tune your radio to a frequency, you are tuning to a center frequency. The center frequency is then down converted into a range 6:30 Check out Mike’s blog on how signal modulation works: 7:00 Communication is just one use case. RADAR also is an RF application. 8:10 The principles between RF and DC or digital use models are very similar, but the words we use tend to be different. Bandwidth for oscilloscopes means DC to a frequency, but for RF it means the analysis bandwidth around a center frequency 9:22 Cellular and FCC allocation chart will talk about different “channels.” Channel in the RF world refers to frequency ranges, but in the DC domain it typically refers to a specific input. 10:25 Basic RF block diagram: First, there’s an input from an FPGA or data creating device. Then, the signal gets mixed with a local oscillator (LO). That then connects to a transmission medium, like a fiber optic cable or through the air. Cable TV is an RF signal that is cabled, not wireless. Then, the transmitted signal connects to an RF downcoverter, which is basically another mixer, and that gets fed into a processing block. 13:50 Tesla created a remote control boat and pretended it was voice controlled. 15:30 Does the military arena influence consumer electronics, or does the consumer electronics industry influence military technology? 16:00 GPS is a great example of military tech moving to consumer electronics 17:00 IoT (internet of things) is also driving a lot of the technology 18:00 The ISM band is unregulated! 19:15 A router uses a regulated frequency and hops off the frequency when it’s being used for emergency communications 20:50 RADAR, how does it work? 22:22 To learn more about RF, check out App Note 150 here: http://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=459160&id=459160&cmpid=zzfindappnote150      

 Wide Bandgap Semiconductors for Power Electronics – Electrical Engineering Podcast #20 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 0:00

Wide bandgap semiconductors, like Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) are shaping the future of power electronics by boosting power efficiency and reducing physical footprint. Server farms, alternative energy sources, and electrical grids will all be affected! Mike Hoffman and Daniel Bogdanoff sit down with Kenny Johnson to discuss in today’s electrical engineering podcast.   https://eestalktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/wide-bandgap-semiconductos-for-power-electronics-ees-talk-tech-electrical-engineering-podcast-20.mp3 Links: Fact Sheet: https://energy.gov/eere/articles/infographic-wide-bandgap-semiconductors Fact Sheet https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/12/f5/wide_bandgap_semiconductors_factsheet.pdf Tech Assessment (Good timeline information) https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/02/f19/QTR%20Ch8%20-%20Wide%20Bandgap%20TA%20Feb-13-2015.pdf Agenda – Wide Bandgap Semiconductors Use in Power Electronics 3:00 What is a wide bandgap semiconductor? GaN (Gallium Nitride) devices and SiC (Silicon Carbide) can switch on and off much faster than typical silicon power devices. Wide bandgap semiconductors also have better thermal conductivity. And, wide bandgap semiconductors have a significantly lower drain-source resistance (R-on). For switch mode power supplies, the transistor switch time is the key source of inefficiency. So, switching faster makes things more efficient. 4:00 They will also reduce the size of power electronics. 6:30 Wide bandgap semiconductors have a very fast rise time, which can cause EMI and RFI problems. The high switching speed also means they can’t handle much parasitic inductance. So, today’s IC packaging technology isn’t ideal. 8:30 Wide bandgap semiconductors are enabling the smart grid. The smart grid essentially means that you only turning on things being used, and turning off power completely when they aren’t being used. 9:35 Wide bandgap semiconductors will probably be integrated into server farms before they are used in power grid distribution or in homes. 10:20 Google uses a lot of power. 2.3 TWh (terawatt hour) NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/technology/google-details-and-defends-its-use-of-electricity.html It’s estimated Google has 900,000 servers, and that accounts for maybe 1% of the world’s servers. So, they are willing to put in the investment to work out the details of this technology. 11:50 The US Department of Energy wants people to get an advanced degree in power electronics. Countries want to have technology leadership in this area. 13:00 Wide bandgap semiconductors are also very important for wind farms and other alternative forms of energy. Having a solid switch mode power supply means that you don’t have to have extra capacity. USA Dept of Energy: If industrial motor systems were wide bandgap semiconductors took over, it would save a ton of energy. 14:45 A huge percentage of the world’s power is consumed by electrical pumps. 16:20 Kenny’s oldest son works for a company that goes around and shows companies how to recover energy costs. There aren’t many tools available for measuring wide bandgap semiconductor power electronics. 19:30 Utilit

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