Electronics news & updates

These high-performance, small-form-factor timing systems are designed for defense applications in GNSS-denied environments

National, 29th August 2025: Aerospace and defense applications rely on Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technology for mission-critical accuracy and reliability. However, integrating PNT into a design requires extensive domain knowledge in this area. To fast track the development process, Microchip Technology (Nasdaq: MCHP) today announces its portfolio of GNSS Disciplined Oscillator (GNSSDO) Modules that integrate the company’s renowned embedded atomic clock and oscillator technologies, including the Chip-Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC), Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) and Oven-Controlled Quartz Crystal Oscillators (OCXOs).

The GNSSDO modules process reference signals from GNSS or an alternative clock source and disciplines the on-board oscillator to the reference signal, enabling precise timing, stability and holdover performance based on end application requirements. These GNSSDOs are used in military and defense applications such as radar, satellite communications (SATCOM), mounted and dismounted radios, vehicle platforms and other critical PNT applications including GNSS-denied environments.

A GNSSDO module acts as a PNT subsystem within a larger system design or as a stand-alone system, providing precise timing that is critical to any high-performance system. The local oscillators used in the GNSSDO modules are engineered and manufactured by Microchip, ensuring customers have a product that they can trust. Other Microchip components on the module include 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) and SmartFusion® 2 FPGAs.

Microchip’s newly released GNSSDO modules include:

• The MD-013 ULTRA CLEAN is Microchip’s highest performance standard GNSSDO module that can support multiple GNSS constellations, including GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, and NavIC or an external reference input. This module is designed around a high-performance OCXO that enables outputs with ultra-low phase noise and short-term frequency stability characteristics. The respective specifications for phase noise performance are −119 dBc/Hz at a 1 Hz offset and noise floor of −165 dBc/Hz. Short-term frequency stability, measured by Allan Deviation (ADEV), is 3E-13 at 1s tau, 6E-13 at 10s tau and 9E-13 at 100s tau. This module can generate 1 PPS TTL, 10 MHz sine wave and 10 MHz square wave outputs that are disciplined to an embedded 72-channel single-band GNSS receiver, with the option to upgrade to a configurable L1/L2 or L1/L5 dual-band, multi-GNSS receiver.

• The MD-300 is Microchip’s GNSSDO module for harsh environments, available in a small 1.5 × 2.5 inch footprint. The MD-300 has an embedded MEMS OCXO or TCXO as the local oscillator, enabling low g-sensitivity, high shock and vibration tolerance and low thermal transient response. Due to its Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) performance, the MD-300 is well-suited for applications like drones and manpacks. The module can discipline to an embedded GNSS receiver or external reference and output high performance 10 MHz and 1 PPS signals.

• The LM-010 is a PPS disciplined module that provides precise timing for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) applications that demand radiation tolerance coupled with stability and holdover capability. As a standard platform module, the LM-010 provides both 1 PPS TTL and 10 MHz sinewave outputs that are disciplined to an external reference input. Internal to the module is Microchip’s digitally corrected OCXO or low-power CSAC SA.45.

“Microchip’s expertise in PNT systems is instrumental in helping our customers seamlessly integrate these GNSSDO modules into their designs,” said Randy Brudzinski, corporate vice president of Microchip’s frequency and time systems business unit. “Our products can be adjusted to meet the specific requirements of each application, whether it is through a custom solution or incremental changes to the standard product. We provide an end-to-end solution to streamline the development process.”

Microchip’s GNSSDO modules utilize a common serial communication protocol and Graphical User Interface (GUI) for command and control of the unit. A variety of parameters can be configured through the software including inputs, outputs, auto switching, holdover parameters, GNSS tracking and observables, as well as reporting messages coming off the serial interface.

Microchip offers a broad portfolio of high-reliability solutions designed for aerospace and defense including Radiation-Tolerant (RT) and Radiation-Hardened (RH) MCUs, FPGAs and Ethernet PHYs, power devices, RF products, timing solutions, as well as discrete components from bare die to system modules. Additionally, Microchip offers a wide range of components on the QPL to better serve its customers. To learn more about Microchip’s aerospace and defense solutions, visit the web page.

Munich, Germany – 27 August 2025 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today announced that its microcontrollers (MCUs) in the new PSOC™ Control C3 Performance Line family are compliant with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) requirements for firmware protection outlined in the Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) Suite 2.0. The MCUs also support PSA (Platform Security Architecture) Level 3 compliance. By complying with both standards, Infineon’s PSOC Control C3 Performance Line meets the security needs of a wide range of industrial applications and eases their transition to increased security in the PQC era. 

 “With the PSOC Control C3 family, we are setting a new standard for security in industrial microcontrollers, building on decades of proven experience in MCUs and secured electronic systems,” said Steve Tateosian, SVP and General Manager, IoT, Consumer and Industrial MCUs, Infineon Technologies. “Infineon is committed to meeting and evolving industry requirements for MCU embedded security that provides stringent protection against quantum-based attacks on critical systems.” 
 
Changes in security architecture for the PQC era include the replacement of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) based asymmetric cryptography as well as increasing the size of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) hash sizes. The algorithms and implementation guidelines provided by CSNA 2.0 help to facilitate a smoother transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography. 
 
About PSOC Control C3 family
The PSOC Control C3 family of MCUs provide real-time control for motor control and power conversion applications. New MCUs of the PSOC Control C3 Performance Line enable system performance at high switching frequencies and increase control loop bandwidth. That is achieved with proprietary autonomous hardware accelerators as well as high resolution and high performing analog peripheral support. The family supports systems designed with wide-bandgap switches while achieving best-in-class control loop frequencies, accuracy and efficiency for applications such as data centers, telecom, solar and electric vehicle (EV) charging systems. 
 
Specific security features include support for Leighton-Micali Hash-Based Signatures (LMS), which is an efficient post-quantum cryptography FW verification algorithm integrated with SHA-2 hardware acceleration for peak performance. To maximize ease of use, Infineon’s Edge Protect Tools and ModusToolbox™ will support everything a customer needs to provision LMS keys as well as options for hybrid post-quantum cryptography where customers may use both LMS and ECC to sign firmware updates which can be verified by Infineon chips.
 
Availability
Samples of the PSOC Control C3 Performance Line with Post-Quantum Cryptography compliance will be available in late 2025. The CNSA 2.0 compliant MCU family supports SHA-512 and LMS firmware verification for Secure Boot and firmware update verification. Dedicated parts for Power Conversion (PSC3P8/PSC3P7) and Motor Control (PSC3M8/PSC3M7) with multiple package options up to 100 pins will be in production in 2026. ModusToolbox Power Suite and Motor Suite provide a leading-edge design environment including control libraries and tools. 
 
To download our whitepaper, visit: www.infineon.com/psoccontrolc3performanceline.
 
For more information on Infineon’s PQC solutions, visit http://www.infineon.com/pqc. For more information on PSOC Control MCUs, visit www.infineon.com/psoccontrol.

Six college students will receive free products to gear up for greatness this school year

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minnesota, USA – DigiKey, the leading global electronic components and automation products distributor, announces its annual Back to School Giveaway, which offers university students a chance to win products and swag, including one grand prize of a Teledyne LeCroy Power Supply unit.

University students are encouraged to enter the DigiKey Back to School Giveaway to win prize packages that include swag and products.

Five entrants will be randomly selected to win a prize package that includes products such as an Aven Tools LED lamp, a Pokit Innovations all-in-one digital tool, a Weidmüller wire stripper, an Adafruit Ladyada’s electronics toolkit, DigiKey swag and more. Plus, one grand prize winner will also receive a Teledyne LeCroy Power Supply unit.

“Each year, the Back to School Giveaway is a celebration of curiosity, creativity and the bright future ahead,” said Brooks Vigen, senior director of global strategic marketing at DigiKey. “DigiKey is proud to support students as they turn bold ideas into real-world innovations, and we’re excited to see how this generation will shape the technologies of tomorrow.”

The sweepstakes is open to any student with a university or college email address, and entries may be made in students’ local language. To enter the Back to School Giveaway, visit DigiKey’s website here. Submissions are open from Aug. 26 – Oct. 24, 2025, and winners will be announced around Nov. 15, 2025.

To learn more about DigiKey’s free educational tools and academic resources for coursework and projects, visit the DigiKey website.

New Cadence Palladium Dynamic Power Analysis App enables designers of AI/ML chips and systems to create more energy-efficient designs and accelerate time to market

National, 22^nd August 2025: Cadence today announced a significant leap forward in the power analysis of pre-silicon designs through its close collaboration with NVIDIA. Leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Cadence^® Palladium^® Z3 Enterprise Emulation Platform, utilizing the new Cadence Dynamic Power Analysis (DPA) App, Cadence and NVIDIA have achieved what was previously considered impossible: hardware accelerated dynamic power analysis of billion-gate AI designs, spanning billions of cycles within a few hours with up to 97 percent accuracy. This milestone enables semiconductor and systems developers targeting AI, machine learning (ML) and GPU-accelerated applications to design more energy-efficient systems and accelerate their time to market.

The massive complexity and computational requirements of today’s most advanced semiconductors and systems present a challenge for designers, who have until now been unable to accurately predict their power consumption under realistic conditions. Conventional power analysis tools cannot scale beyond a few hundred thousand cycles without requiring impractical timelines. In close collaboration with NVIDIA, Cadence has overcome these challenges through hardware-assisted power acceleration and parallel processing innovations, enabling previously unattainable precision across billions of cycles in early-stage designs.

“Cadence and NVIDIA are building on our long history of introducing transformative technologies developed through deep collaboration,” said Dhiraj Goswami, corporate vice president and general manager at Cadence. “This project redefined boundaries, processing billions of cycles in as few as two to three hours. This empowers customers to confidently meet aggressive performance and power targets and accelerate their time to silicon.”

"As the era of agentic AI and next-generation AI infrastructure rapidly evolves, engineers need sophisticated tools to design more energy-efficient solutions," said Narendra Konda, vice president, Hardware Engineering at NVIDIA. “By combining NVIDIA’s accelerated computing expertise with Cadence’s EDA leadership, we’re advancing hardware-accelerated power profiling to enable more precise efficiency in accelerated computing platforms.”

The Palladium Z3 Platform uses the DPA App to accurately estimate power consumption under real-world workloads, allowing functionality, power usage and performance to be verified before tapeout, when the design can still be optimized. Especially useful in AI, ML and GPU-accelerated applications, early power modeling increases energy efficiency while avoiding delays from over- or under-designed semiconductors. Palladium DPA is integrated into the Cadence analysis and implementation solution to allow designers to address power estimation, reduction and signoff throughout the entire design process, resulting in the most efficient silicon and system designs possible.

Bengaluru, August 22, 2025 — Sparr Electronics Ltd, a trusted name in embedded systems, networking, and communication products for over 30 years, proudly announces its advanced range of Interface Converters, designed and manufactured in India for global industries.

A pioneer in providing end-to-end product development and services — from design to deployment, Sparr Electronics has empowered industries worldwide with reliable, high-performance communication solutions. The company’s Interface Converters are engineered to simplify connectivity between devices operating on different standards, ensuring seamless, secure, and efficient data transfer across diverse applications.

Exclusive Product Range

• RS232 to RS485 / RS422 Converters – Enable long-distance, noise-immune serial communication
• USB to Serial Converters – Hassle-free connectivity between modern USB ports and legacy serial devices
• Ethernet Converters – Seamless integration with modern IP-based systems

Key Advantages:

• Rugged, industrial-grade design with opto-isolation for protection
• Wide temperature range for dependable field performance
• Compact, plug-and-play architecture for easy integration

Applications span industrial automation, power and energy systems, telecom networks, embedded system integration, and secure long-distance data communication.

Speaking on the company’s journey, Mr. Mohandas U, Managing Director, Sparr Electronics Ltd, said “At Sparr Electronics, we take immense pride in being a true Make in India company with a global outlook. For over three decades, we have been delivering complete product development and services — from design to deployment — ensuring our solutions meet the evolving needs of industries worldwide. Our Interface Converters are a testament to this commitment, built with reliability, innovation, and customer trust at their core.”

With ISO 9001:2015 certified processes, a strong in-house R&D and manufacturing setup, and satisfied customers of 4000+ across industries, Sparr Electronics continues to reinforce its position as a global partner of choice for embedded and industrial connectivity solutions.

New Hyde Park, NY…  Keystone Electronics has just released its latest full line product catalog!  This new K75 Catalog commemorates Keystone’s 75^th Anniversary as a market leader in the Manufacturing and Designing Electronic Components and Hardware industry. 

This 152-page Product Design Guide has hundreds of new products and more than 5,000 quality products with illustrations, detailed drawings, photographs and specifications in both Imperial (inch) and Metric dimensions.  Certainly, an excellent desktop resource for today’s Electronic Engineering Community.  View and compare all Keystone product options for your specific design needs.  

Product line categories include:

• Battery Clips, Contacts and Holders
• Fuse Clips and Holders
• Terminals and Test Points
• Spacers and Standoffs
• Panel Hardware
• Pins, Plugs, Jacks and Sockets
• Multi-purpose Hardware

K75 Catalog compliments the company’s online Dynamic Catalog K75 which offers downloadable engineering PDF and STEP files and PCB Symbols and Footprints. The website also offers easy access to check inventory from our global distribution network.  Request a copy today.

Keystone Electronics offers a comprehensive line of electronic components and hardware and provides full complement of stamping, machining and assembly services with an in-house application engineering team to aid customers needing product modifications or special design services. 

Keystone is ISO 9001:2015 certified and RoHS compliant with headquarters in the US and offices in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.  For complete details and specifications contact Keystone Electronics Corp., 54 South Denton Ave., New Hyde Park NY 11040; website:  www.keyelco.com email:  kec@keyelco.com.

STMicroelectronics has announced a key leadership transition with the appointment of Anand Kumar as Managing Director for India, effective immediately. He succeeds Vivek Sharma, who has retired after an illustrious 34-year career with the company.

Kumar brings extensive expertise in leadership, innovation, and product development, backed by a proven track record of driving growth and large-scale transformation in the technology sector. Based at the company’s Greater Noida headquarters, he will steer STMicroelectronics’ India operations, advancing strategic goals and driving future milestones.

Decade-long partnership overcame complex payload design challenges to empower next-generation environmental research from space

News highlights

• A deeply-coupled partnership between TI and SAC-ISRO helped enable the mission payloads for the NISAR satellite, which is currently orbiting Earth.
• TI’s space-grade power management, mixed signal and analog technologies optimize system performance and allow the satellite to operate in the harsh environment of space over the mission’s lifetime.
• NISAR is the first satellite to use dual-band synthetic aperture radar technology to monitor the Earth’s ecosystems, natural hazards and climate patterns. 

National, August 21, 2025: Texas Instruments (TI) semiconductors are enabling the radar imaging and scientific exploration payloads for the NASA-Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) synthetic aperture radar (NISAR) satellite, which was recently launched into orbit. The launch of the satellite culminates a decade-long partnership between TI and the ISRO to optimize the performance of the electronic systems responsible for this Earth-observation mission. NISAR is equipped with TI’s radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant products that enable designers to maximize power density, precision and performance in their satellite systems.

Engineering a first-of-its-kind satellite for Earth observation

The ISRO describes NISAR as the first Earth-observation mission to use dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, enabling the system to capture precise, high-resolution images during the day, night and all weather conditions. TI’s technology is enabling the satellite’s next-generation capabilities through efficient power management, high-speed data transfer, and precise signal sampling and timing.

The NISAR satellite will image the entire planet every 12 days, offering scientists greater understanding of changes to Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea-level rise and groundwater levels. The agencies also expect the data to improve real-time monitoring of natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

“From selecting the right products to ensuring consistent support across development cycles, TI’s technical expertise helped us navigate complex payload requirements,” said Shri Nilesh Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO. “A deeply coupled partnership, specifically focused on high-impact mixed signal and analog semiconductors, enabled ISRO to meet the system-level requirements for a satellite in low Earth orbit. Together, we achieved the space-grade performance standards needed for this important mission.”

Addressing complex design challenges with TI’s space-grade portfolio

Throughout the project life cycle, TI’s system expertise and space-grade semiconductors, which are designed to withstand the harshest space environments, helped enable the advanced S-band SAR capabilities of the NISAR mission. The company provided:

• Radiation-hardened power management die for SAC-ISRO developed point-of-load hybrid power module, helping optimize size, weight and power for the mission payloads.
• Analog-to-digital converters with ultra-high sampling rates and high resolution, allowing the satellite payload to generate fine-grained, high resolution radar imagery.
• High-performance interface technology, which enables high-speed data transfer between different satellite subsystems to ensure reliable communication.
• A clocking solution that enables the precise time alignment and synchronous, coherent sampling required for high-precision SAR systems.

“As the NISAR satellite is now in orbit, I reflect on the decade-long partnership that brought us here and how our teams are already looking to what’s next, developing new technologies that will enable future missions,” said Elizabeth Jansen, TI India’s sales and applications director. “Building on more than 60 years of expertise, TI’s radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant semiconductors are ready to meet the evolving demands of the space market. Our broad and reliable space-grade portfolio is ever-expanding and pushing the limits of what’s possible in the next frontier.”

For more information, read the company blog, “Out of this World: How Semiconductor Technology Enables Environmental Research from Space.”

To learn more about NISAR, see the NASA Jet Propulsion Labs and ISRO websites.