ON Semiconductor has utilized its strength and depth in a broad range of semiconductor disciplines – including analog, power management, sensor interface and signal conditioning – to introduce a comprehensive development resource for the wearable electronics sector. The new Wearable Development Kit (WDK1.0) combines a wide array of highly optimized components, with the objective of assisting OEMs in bringing differentiated products to market. Using it can significantly accelerate design cycles for wearable electronics while mitigating heavy engineering costs.
“Despite the growing interest in wearable electronics, to date there is simply not a solution on the market that provides the scope needed by OEMs to help them develop feature rich designs that will attract strong consumer uptake,” states AJ ElJallad, senior manager, corporate strategy and business development at ON Semiconductor. “The WDK1.0 is a multi-faceted design asset that will allow wearable technology projects to be expedited – shortening time to market and curbing the associated investment in engineering by leveraging the extent of ON Semiconductor’s product portfolio.”
For this new offering, a high efficiency programmable NCP6915 Power Management IC provides 5 LDOs and 1 DC-DC to support power requirement for the smartwatch and for additional development requirements. An NCP1855 battery charger IC, plus an LC709203F fuel gauge and a 10 watt (W) rated SCY1751 wireless charging front-end controller (supporting AirFuel compatible magnetic resonance charging) have also been incorporated. The kit’s sensor capabilities stem from the MEMS-based FIS1100 inertial measurement unit (IMU), with 3‐axis gyroscope and 3‐axis accelerometer operation enabling accurate multi-dimensional motion tracking. There is also an embedded temperature sensor included and an LC898301 driver IC for initiating haptic feedback.
Critical to the WDK1.0 is its wireless connectivity, which is addressed via an ultra-lower power nRF52832 multi-protocol system-on-chip (SoC) from Nordic Semiconductor. This features a 32-bit ARM® Cortex™ processor core and a 2.4GHz transceiver – offering support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and other relevant wireless technologies. The kit is complemented by a SmartApp which can be downloaded directly fromAndroid PlayStore and Apple AppStore. Using this, various pieces of information can be transposed, such as the steps taken, calories burnt, distance covered and activity period, as well as human-machine interface aspects like screen brightness adjustment, clock face control, alarm settings and establishing fitness goals. An Eclipse-based IDE accompanies the kit. This presents engineering teams with all the resources they need to rapidly create and subsequently debug code necessary for designs. A highly intuitive Project Wizard further facilitates the development process, by giving engineers access to numerous useful wearable-related project examples.
The WDK1.0 solution also has a 1.44-inch format, 128 x 128 pixel TFT display into which a capacitive touch screen is integrated. A 26‐pin expansion port complements all the other elements in the kit. Through this there is ample provision for further additions to the system design, such as supplementary microcontroller, signal processing or GPS functionality, the inclusion of more sensors or the specifying of different display. Hardware schematics and Cadence EDA design files are also made available. Read the WDK 1.0 blog and visit the website for more detailed information.
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