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Design Challenges Shift for Embedded Analog Systems

When it comes to analog, developers have to decide what to incorporate into SoCs and what to keep external. (Source: Synaptics)

DELEGATING OPERATIONS ON EMBEDDED CPUs a large array of sensors. This is because routing digitized data from
Synaptics’ Gillespie cited a second challenge: determining which each channel to digital, or connecting per-channel control bits from
operations to perform on the embedded CPU or CPUs—that is, which digital, can take quite a bit of space.
in special-purpose processors and which in analog circuitry. “Sometimes, it’s useful to design compact and efficient serial inter-
“You need a lot of analog expertise to call this decision properly,” faces for these data transmissions,” Gillespie said.
he said. “To do an efficient SoC today, you need deep skill with a Geha echoed this sentiment, while also explaining how Infineon’s
wide variety of processing cores, not just with a CPU and its bus PSoC microcontrollers enable designs to act on and/or send aggregated,
architecture.” pre-processed and formatted sensor data over serial communication
Moreover, at high frequencies, it’s often necessary to pre-process interfaces to host processors. He also mentioned the above issues as
signals with a dedicated DSP or video codec core right next to the a key challenge besides interfacing embedded processors with analog
data-conversion stage. You also must use a design methodology that circuitry.
can reliably integrate the high-bandwidth analog blocks with your “In some newer applications, which require higher dynamic
digital and memory IP—especially for designs that take inputs from range, extra attention is required to ensure that the operation of the
embedded processors will not degrade the
performance of the analog circuitry,”
Geha said.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR ANALOG IN
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS?
When asked about what’s next in this design
space, Geha said that while embedded pro-
cessors seek to be more energy-efficient, the
responsibility will be on the mixed-signal
circuit operating close to the real world to
make high-quality decisions in the always-on
domain at extremely low power.
“As a result, computing may move closer
to the sensor than what has been done in
the past,” he said. “This, combined with the
ability to sense multiple measures in real time
and extract meaningful second order, will be
unique challenges in the future.”
Geha added that there might also be a
case to integrate analog into the same die
as the microprocessor. For some markets,
however, such as certain healthcare seg-
ments, analog should be in a chiplet at earlier
technology nodes, enabling heterogenous
system-in-package solutions. ■
This article ran as part of the EE Times Special
Programmable analog blocks in a PSoC microcontroller include the data converters, Report: Embedded in the IoT Era, which may
comparator and capacitive sensor. (Source: Infineon Technologies) be read at bit.ly/3lxWhwV.

MARCH 2023 | www.eetimes.eu