Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1457913
88 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2022 and its flip-chip attached to the traces. is ref- erence design uses screen printing, and it also uses a laser ablation approach to get to the fine feature sizes needed for a flip-chip attach. It also includes an external battery connection and a printed Bluetooth 5 antenna. e reference design contains the core Nordic Semi compo- nents that enable the chip to broadcast over Bluetooth as well as an RGB LED. By starting with this reference design, you can just attach any additional sensors and any additional com- ponents that you bond to create your Bluetooth module in FHE design. e second reference design focuses on a different family of microcontrollers, namely the RSL10 series from ONSemiconductor. is design contains a system in package (SiP) instead of a bare die. is SiP also has a Blue- tooth 5 antenna integrated with the RSL10 microcontroller. Because of the package type, it also allows for printing with a wider variety of processes as it's not as fine pitched as the Nor- dic Semiconductor bare die flip-chip. It also contains a couple of unique features: onboard circuitry that allows it to be fully operational with an external solar cell, either outdoors or indoors, and the ability to pull data from its BME280 or BME456 onboard sensors. Both reference designs are starting points. ey will enable the first iterations of new FHE devices for our community mem- bers. And going forward we plan to add in more and more of these modules to our library database, to this ecosystem. So ultimately, what we'll end up with is an entire library of modules that allows us to truly plug-and-play. When we're coming to a new design, we just pick the modules and that's it, it'll significantly reduce the time it takes to bring a device to the manufacturing step. I'd like to finish with a few points. First, FHE requires new design and simulation approaches. It's inherently different from traditional electronics manufacturing, and new processes are required. Second, a broad engagement is needed from the manufacturing ecosystem. We're dealing with new processes and novel manufacturing. Only engagement from everyone in the eco- system—the chip makers, end users, materials manufacturing, and all those in between—will propel this effort forward. Finally, with all the work that's been ongoing with the materials databases and the PDKs, we're finally able to provide plug-and-play designs built to provide modules that not only enable a faster turn- around but also reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to manufacture and design for FHE. FLEX007 Sean Nachnani is a hardware systems engineer with NextFlex. This article originally appeared as a white paper published by Siemens Digital Industries Software. Figure 6: Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840.