Smart home tech; a big opportunity for
semiconductor industry
What drives smart home or home-automation is smart semiconductor
chips, mainly low power microcontroller/processors, wired
or wireless networking interface with IPV6 support, and
a smart power IC to power both from mains as well as energy
harvesting. It can be termed as another big wave in electronics
technology. The semiconductor chip vendors are already offering
chips, reference designs and support for quick development.
CES 2012 was very much witnessing that.
This market is pro-actively attended by semiconductor companies
with wide product knowledge of analog, processor and sensor
and power semiconductor. Some of the companies with such
strength include NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics,
Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Maxim, Infineon,
Renesas, Toshiba, Analog Devices, Toshiba, and Rohm (This
in not complete and not by any order).
Very rcent announcements (in Jan 2012) targeting this market
include:
The SimpleLink family from TI is a Wi-Fi integrate processor
chip for Internet of Things. The SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000
is a self-contained 802.11 network processor enabling Internet
connectivity to any embedded application.
Treehouse Labs has designed a system using NXP JN5148 ultra
low-power wireless microcontroller and the JenNet-IP wireless
network protocol stack optimized for low-power, low-data
rate, and cost-sensitive applications. Based on the IEEE
802.15.4 specs, JenNet-IP offers self-healing network that
helps BiKN track, monitor and control up to 500 devices.
NXP JN5148 supports wireless network protocols, including
ZigBee, RF4CE, and other proprietary 802.15.4 protocols.
ST Micro's new GreenNet Wireless Sensor Networking platform
by using ST's embedded system chips, power devices and sensor
tech create the easy-to-use network node free of wires or
any need to change batteries. The node combines a rechargeable
battery , a solar cell and a 2.4GHz radio coupled with the
STM32L Cortex-M3 MCU and can operate autonomously powered
by ambient light energy.
ST says To facilitate adoption by do-it-yourselfers as
well as professionals, this approach reduces smart-home
installation to a simple process of placing nodes in suitable
locations, and aims to encourage greater consumer use as
well as adoption in offices and industrial buildings.
The smart home technology is now reality due to immediate
avaialability of smart home devices, and technologies. The
major driver is IPV6; supporting internet of things, With
IPV6 anything can be connected to anything as long as it
has wired and wireless link with power source to trnsmit
and receive the signal. This is what driving low energy
RF transceiver protocols such as Zigbee. Also the energy
harvesting DC/DC converter/controller chips can power the
equipment/device which may not electrically wired to house
power grid, such as something in the garden.
The semiconductor designers are trying to reduce the power
consumption of chips used in internet of things to lowest
possible so that they can be powered by long lasting batteries
and energy harvesting chips.
Strategy Analytics has said in its release it has observed
that Smart Home products and solutions were evident in every
hall of the 2012 International CES, as well as on the lips
of companies such as Cisco and IBM.
Its also announced in a news release that in a TV program
a smart home tech user (working professional) demonstrated
how a Vivint built smart phone application can be used to
control lighting and appliances, door locks, and keep an
eye on children. Its like your home is always with you virtually.
Google is also actively suporting its Android OS for smart
home feature.
Witout much hesitation, smart-home technology can be predicted
as major revenue generation for automation and industrial
electronics companies in next two years.
The challenges for designers includes support for multiple
standards and interoperability, multiple operating systems
support, security, cost, ease of use, reliability, green-tech,
and easy upgradability.
