Spanish antenna firm Ignion and Japanese electronics company Murata are working together to offer IoT makers a better experience by using the right electronics components in IoT designs.

Murata has contributed to the evolution of electronics in the past 20 years and now it joins the latest antenna revolution by being a product partner of Ignion’s Antenna Intelligence Cloud.

The online service offers designers cloud computing and artificial intelligence by letting IoT developers integrate a virtual antenna correctly and quickly into products. To ensure optimal results, Ignion’s Antenna Intelligence Cloud uses high Q and tight tolerance components by Murata, which enable a more reliable and predictable antenna integration process and better RF performance for any IoT device, while reducing development cost and time to market.

Based on years of experience and thousands of designs executed, the Antenna Intelligence Cloud core uses machine learning, and the resulting simulated performance is very close to what can be achieved with a real-world end-device.

“This Murata partnership allows us to provide an accurate and predictable virtual antenna design that IoT makers can easily replicate and implement in their hardware designs, eliminating delays in the design phase,” said Jaap Groot, CEO at Ignion.

Takayuki Kaneko from Murata’s product marketing unit added: “We are excited to see our technology contribute to the antenna revolution that Ignion is driving. This partnership proves that we can provide the IoT industry with the tools needed to enhance the development and manufacture of the necessary devices, enabling them to create much closer approximations to early-stage simulations.”

With the fast and radical changes in how RF systems are designed, the Antenna Intelligence Cloud is positioned to become a platform that fuels innovation and versatility of any IoT end product. It uses simulation with machine learning and removes the need to initiate the development on physical hardware. Especially as every design is unique, and since there are continuous new needs due to 5G, Wifi 6E, LoRaWan or UWB, and often devices contain multiple radios, there is an existing need for accurate and reliable design support for the IoT ecosystem.

Founded in Barcelona, Spain, as an independent antenna product business in 2015, Ignion says its virtual antenna technology is already embedded in more than 30 million IoT devices worldwide. Ignion combines an R&D and engineering team with design capabilities and scale, to bring to market antenna products that meet the wireless connectivity needs of design engineers. Ignion has corporate offices in Spain, USA and China as well as several partnerships with module makers and transceiver OEMs.

• Murata has created what it says is the industry’s highest power density 48Vin divide-by-four charge pump capacitor divider module with all passive components integrated in a low profile PSiP package.

Capable of delivering up to 72W of power with peak efficiency of around 97%, the interleaved, switching capacitor architecture is based on Murata’s lossless charge pump technology, providing low input and output ripple performance. It is presented in a compact footprint with 2mm height, making it suitable for low profile applications and placement on the underside of system boards.

MYC0409 devices can be connected in parallel to provide high power and efficiency suitable for a variety of 48V to 12V step-down conversion applications such as data centres, networking routers, base stations and optical equipment.

“5G and IoT data-driven applications are pushing the limits for data centre and networking power requirements,” said Shuji Mikami, general manager of Murata’s low power products department. “Next-generation systems are already migrating to 48V bus systems due to interconnect and printed circuit board copper losses. Previously, we released PE25204 as part of our FlexiCPportfolio, discrete charge pump IC, which is akin to a virtually lossless DC transformer. Now, we are unveiling the MYC0409 UltraCP charge pump capable of ultra-high efficiency conversion from 48Vin bus in a low profile, compact PSiP package.”