Know-how and electronic components for the Internet of Things
Electronic components are the basic building blocks of the Internet of Things. Power supply, connectivity, sensors, data processing and security – the electronics industry offers solutions for all those key challenges. But creating a product or application for the Internet of Things takes quite a bit more. Thomas Staudinger, Vice President Vertical Segments EMEA of EBV, explains how EBV can support developers in this, and what technological trends he sees in electronic components for the Internet of Things.
What does the Internet of Things mean to EBV?
Thomas Staudinger: First of all it is an exciting growth opportunity – billions of devices will get connected in the next years and all of them require semiconductors content. Our customers provide products for the IoT and look for a distribution partner that is able to support their requirements. EBV is extremely well positioned due to the product portfolio, the technical expertise and the segment know-how.
What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges on the way to a functioning Internet of Things?
T.S.: At present we see that the market is struggling with the lack of standardisation of the wireless protocols: M-Bus, Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth LE … just to name a few. It is challenging to provide complete solutions and interoperability when you have to cater for so many different options.
Wireless means also that most of the solutions will not be connected to the grid and operate on batteries i.e. lower power. Ideally the products don’t even need batteries – energy harvesting is of consideration here.
I think we also should not underestimate the need of the end customer for security. People will ask how secure is my data and the industry needs to have answers.
What can EBV do as a distributor to help overcome these challenges?
T.S.: The system solution expertise is nowadays embedded in reference designs that help the industry in understanding the connection of the different elements. EBV is taking the effort in bridging the different technologies to offer working platforms that are supported by experienced third parties from a software perspective. Basically the two key challenges are connectivity and security. Our customers look for guidance on the standards, advice on the best offering for their products and technical support for the implementation. EBV’s vertical segment organisation provides the expertise and the system solutions; the customers get their local support via our sales and application engineers in the field. For example EBV has dedicated technical resources of RF and Wireless that help to design the wireless solution.
Which products does EBV offer for the future Internet of Things?
T.S.: EBV offers the full spectrum of semiconductor components – both for the remote nodes and for the data concentrators: from the RF transceivers for the different wireless standards to the different type of sensors to the power management ICs. Our broad range of microcontrollers and processors provides the right performance points for each end product. In the security area EBV has the key players in the industry on the line card and can provide authentication devices for the various requirements.
Which technological trends can you observe amongst your suppliers, the electronics manufacturers?
T.S.: Reducing the demand for power is clearly a key trend. Besides innovative concepts such as energy harvesting there is still a lot of work done to develop lowest power devices that consume less energy both in active and stand-by mode.
Offering RF transceivers that can run different standards – similar to the combo chips in mobile phones – will help to address the lack of standardisation. We need to keep in mind that companies will have to connect their product to the Internet might have little RF experience.
Do you still perceive there to be a need for development of electronic components to enable a functioning Internet of Things to be constructed?
T.S.: The key building blocks seem to be available. Depending on the project requirements we will see on one hand the trend to integration for high volume application e.g. CMOS sensor and microcontroller; on the other hand a more modular approach will succeed when flexibility is needed. With the EBVchips concept EBV can even offer own dedicated products for the IoT and help to close the gaps in the product offering.
What is EBV doing to help application developers beyond the question of hardware?
T.S.: Software is a very broad term. For example, our Field Application Engineers support the customer engineers hands on by training them on the software tools and supporting the hardware / software integration. In a number of areas higher level software is required. EBV is engaging with partners and third parties to offer the customer a complete solution.
When you consider your business model and your procedures – can you imagine that these will change due to the Internet of Things?
T.S.: Absolutely. To give you a few examples how things are changing already. Not only that we are investing heavily into the expertise in technologies such as Wireless and Security by having dedicated resources. We also need to be able to translate the know-how into the requirements of the different market segments like Automotive, Consumer, Healthcare and Renewable Energies. This requires very close cooperation between the technology and the market driven teams.
Customers tend to look for complete solutions, meaning they are not only looking for a certain component but a bundle with software. This drives different commercial and technical approaches.
It is just the start – the Internet of Things will bring tremendous change!