IIC Journal of Innovation 10th Edition | Page 46

Keeping Ahead of the Curve with Custom ASICs  they required. It was inefficient and costly. As a result, they were in a “make do” situation and being challenged by their end customer on performance and price. On-chip calibration functionality (RC Time constant, IP2, Image Rejection and IQ Gain/Phase)  Embedded algorithms for DC offset correction The resulting solution which contained all the above functionality achieved the following results for the end customer: By going the custom ASIC route, the company was able to specify exactly the requirements they wanted, with key criteria including:     Smaller physical footprint Improved performance Lower power consumption Decreased cost Results 55% reduction in the physical size of the product Improved signal integrity and reliability The custom ASIC was developed in 12 months on a 0.18um RF CMOS process from TSMC and included:  57% reduction in power consumption 80% reduction in the bill of material costs Integrated transmitter and receiver blocks (L-band receiver to support multiple modulation schemes) Investment breakeven 175k units Figure 6: Before and after of product size comparison (resultant board is on the right) potential, there are many challenges. In this new era, where the cyber world is meeting the physical world, developing edge computing systems using the same tried and tested methods of the past with commercial off-the-shelf electronic components is no longer a viable approach. Considering the C ONCLUSION While the Industrial Internet of Things offers many opportunities to enhance the efficiency and control of our processes and systems, and increase our business IIC Journal of Innovation - 42 -