STMicroelectronics will exhibit at TECHNO-FRONTIER 2018 in Japan. ST’s participation showcases a range of solutions that can contribute to Smart Industry, including sensing technology for proactive maintenance and fault detection, motor-control technology for accurate system driving, and power-management technology that supports a wide range of devices and standards and enables efficient use of electricity.

Prevention of breakdowns in manufacturing equipment and timely maintenance are essential to improving production efficiency and reducing maintenance costs; key benefits of the move to Smart Industry approaches. At the ST booth, engineers will demonstrate a technology for “Industry 4.0” that monitors and analyzes motor vibration and temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure using an ST 6-axis motion sensor and environmental sensors installed in the motor. While enabling estimation of the best timing for maintenance, the demo also allows operators to detect spontaneous faults and execute swift repairs. Another demo will highlight ultrasound inspection using a MEMS microphone and an STM32 microcontroller (MCU) to detect a gas leak in a high-pressure pipe. Here, the high-frequency sound produced from a gas leak is detected by a MEMS microphone.

ST will also show how it is prepared to serve the increase in the industrial use of drones, robots, and other devices with precision control over a broad range of motors. At the ST booth, engineers will demonstrate control of a brushless DC motor using a highly integrated motor driver that embeds an Arm® Cortex®-M0 based MCU. This tiny motor driver is well suited for small systems, such as micro drones. In addition, ST will present a new motor control SDK with high usability. This kit is compatible with the STM32Cube software development platform for products using STM32 MCUs, and visitors will see how it can be used to swiftly and flexibly develop motor-control functions.

In addition to motor control, advanced power management and efficient use of electrical power with charging system are important in Smart Industry. ST will exhibit a high-voltage converter evaluation board with 800V Power MOSFET and a zero-power mode that achieves extremely low power consumption and supports compliance with energy-saving standards, and a digital power-supply evaluation board combining the latest power MOSFET, diodes, and an STM32 microcontroller. A demonstration of a wireless-charging chipset that supports Qi/Airfuel to enable power supplies of up to 15W, as well as a USB Power Delivery/Type-C controller IC that enables rapid charging (maximum 100W) for notebook PCs, smartphones, and other devices will be showcased.

ST will also showcase the Smart Lock demo with Bluetooth® low energy and NFC technology, a Time-of-Flight sensor demo that can accurately and rapidly measure the distance to a target object, and  a high sensitivity UHF RAIN® RFID tag IC. Furthermore, in order to support prototype development for IoT devices, ST will distribute the STM32 Nucleo development board with ST’s 32-bit microcontroller and X-NUCLEO expansion boards equipped with motion and environmental sensors, RF IC, ToF sensor, a motor driver, and NFC tag.