Manufacturing Technology
MaxLinear | February 02, 2024
MaxLinear, Inc. a leading provider of high-speed interconnect ICs enabling data center, metro, and wireless transport networks, announced the availability of a comprehensive product design kit (PDK) to optimize performance and accelerate the time to market for high-speed Active Electrical Cables (AEC) using MaxLinear’s 5nm PAM4 DSP, Keystone. The PDK is a cost-cutting and time-saving tool for cable manufacturers who want to quickly integrate Keystone into their active electrical cables.
MaxLinear’s Keystone PAM4 DSP offers a significant power advantage in AEC applications, which is increasingly becoming a critical factor for hyperscale data centers. The use of 5nm CMOS technology enables designers and manufacturers to build high-speed cables that meet the need for low power, highly integrated, high performance interconnect solutions that will drive the next generation of hyperscale cloud networks.
Manufacturers taking advantage of MaxLinear’s PDK to optimize cable designs using Keystone PAM4 DSP will gain a distinct advantage over competitor solutions when trying to maximize reach and minimize power consumption. The PDK makes Keystone easy to integrate with strong applications support, multiple tools to optimize and monitor performance, and reference designs (SW and HW) to accelerate integration. Sophisticated software allows for quick design optimization for the lowest possible power consumption and maximizing cable reach. Cable designers can constantly monitor performance, route signals from any port to any port, and take advantage of hitless firmware upgrades.
“MaxLinear is focused on providing not only industry-leading interconnect technologies but also a comprehensive suite of tools to support our manufacturing and design partners,” said Drew Guckenberger, Vice President of High Speed Interconnect at MaxLinear. “Our development kit for our Keystone products provides them with a path to take products to market more quickly and more cost-effectively.”
Active electrical cables (AECs) are revolutionizing data center connections. Unlike passive cables, they actively boost signals, allowing for longer distances (up to 7 meters for 400G), higher bandwidth, and thinner, lighter cables. This makes them ideal for high-speed applications like top-of-rack connections (connecting switches to servers within the same rack); direct digital control (enabling flexible interconnectivity within racks and across rows); and breakout solutions (splitting high-speed connections into multiple lower-speed channels). The high-speed interconnect market – which includes active optical cables, active electrical cables, direct attach copper cables, and others – is expected to grow to $17.1B by 2028, up from $10.7B in 2021 according to a market forecast report from The Insight Partners.
The Keystone Family
The Keystone 5nm DSP family caters to 400G and 800G applications, featuring a groundbreaking 106.25Gbps host side electrical I/O, aligning with the line side interface rate. Available variants support single-mode optics (EML and SiPh), multimode optics and Active Electrical Cables (AECs), offering comprehensive solutions with companion TIAs.
Host side interfaces cover ethernet rates of 25G, 50G, and 100G per lane over C2M, MR, and LR host channels. The line side interfaces, tailored for 100G/λ DR, FR, and LR applications, also support these rates. These devices boast extensive DSP functionality, encompassing line-side transmitter DPD, TX FIR, receiver FFE, and DFE.
With exceptional performance and signal integrity, these DSPs occupy a compact footprint (12mm x 13mm), ideal for next-gen module form-factors like QSFP-DD800 and OSFP800. Additionally, they are available as Known Good Die (KGD) for denser applications, such as OSFP-XD.
About MaxLinear, Inc.
MaxLinear, Inc. is a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog, digital, and mixed-signal integrated circuits for access and connectivity, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications. MaxLinear is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.
MaxLinear, the MaxLinear logo, any other MaxLinear trademarks are all property of MaxLinear, Inc. or one of MaxLinear's subsidiaries in the U.S.A. and other countries. All rights reserved.
Read More
Robotics and Automation
Formic | January 23, 2024
Formic Technologies, a provider of Robotics-as-a-Service automation for US manufacturers, announced the release of a suite of software tools to accelerate and simplify the deployment of robotic automation systems for businesses with no internal expertise, while also empowering their existing workforce to thrive and grow with the new technology. The Formic software is based on data and experience gathered from hundreds of thousands of hours of real production time across the Formic robot fleet - from state-of the-art Fortune 500 production facilities to small 30 person local manufacturing plants. Formic’s software enables operations teams and delivers results for every business size.
The Formic Core operating system makes working with robotic automation solutions as easy as using your smartphone, Apple CarPlay, or Netflix. The intuitive multilanguage touchscreen UI allows all existing employees to operate Formic robots and program the equipment to meet production needs - all without any advanced training. At the same time, the software transforms the robot into a “smart system” capable of automatically adjusting to new obstacles in the vicinity of the robot, connecting to any new peripherals, and monitoring all sensor data, production rates, uptime, cycle times and more.
“As the labor shortage continues to impact US manufacturing to the tune of more than one million jobs going unfilled in 2023, business leaders need to figure out how to get more out of what they have,” said Formic CEO, Saman Farid. “Formic Core makes it simple for business leaders to adopt automation by leveraging the existing capabilities of their workforce to streamline production while improving safety, quality, and throughput - all without any required capital expense.”
All of the process information captured by Formic Core feeds into the powerful Formic Colony 2.0 performance dashboard. This command center software monitors total system performance across a wide range of deployments and uses AI to analyze the data coming from all robots, enabling predictive analysis of anomalies and preventative operations to minimize downtime and even prevent it. This data is accessible to facility owners and operators in real-time through the Formic App available for download on the Apple App and Google Play stores. Formic's technicians can use this data and the remote system access provided by the new software to resolve issues from a distance, enabling a swift return to production should any stoppages occur. While the Formic Colony toolkit is primarily leveraged by the Formic operations team to service customer deployments, it is also available for larger businesses to use internally with more advanced teams responsible for automation systems in multiple locations.
The Formic FAST software suite enables the Solutions Engineering team to provide robotic system specification, quoting, and augmented reality (AR) demonstrations faster than ever before, reducing design and deployment times from months to weeks. This accelerated service delivers a best-in-class customer experience by expediting the path to greater productivity on the production floor.
“Advanced automation has historically been elusive for all but the largest manufacturers,” said Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital. “Formic is changing that. By leveraging advanced AI and proprietary algorithms, Formic has automated the labor-intensive and expensive process of automating a work cell, and makes automating as easy as hiring workers for all logistics and manufacturing companies - large and small alike.”
With the addition of these new software products, Formic now boasts a full complement of $0 CapEx robotic automation solutions, powerful workforce enabling software, a complete system monitoring platform, and solution identification, augmented reality, and simulation software to deliver US manufacturing businesses scale and growth. Formic is building a robotic workforce that can be used in every American manufacturing facility, with the aim to bring prosperity and abundance by making everyday items easy to produce and deliver.
About Formic
Founded in 2020, Formic makes robotics and automation accessible for all US manufacturing businesses. The Chicago-based “Robotics-as-a-Service” company delivers robotic automation for a low hourly rate, including 24/7 monitoring, 100% maintenance coverage, and guaranteed performance without the need for large, risky capital investments. Driving continuous improvement in safety, quality, and throughput is now possible for every business. With 7x growth in production hours YoY, Formic is currently entertaining Series B funding.
Read More
Manufacturing Technology
Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS) | January 11, 2024
Wireless commercial vehicle charging took a big step forward with an agreement between Detroit Manufacturing Systems and InductEV. In the landmark agreement, DMS, a large-scale, U.S.-based assembly provider, will bring its operations, manufacturing, quality by design, and supply chain expertise to InductEV allowing the latter to more quickly scale to meet customer demand.
InductEV is reinventing how electric commercial fleet vehicles charge their batteries by charging on route, using clean renewable electricity. With its wireless induction solution now deployed worldwide and with 18 patents granted and 23 in process, the King of Prussia, PA-based company is the global leader in high-power, high-speed wireless EV charging and AI-software powered energy management.
Under the terms of this agreement, DMS will
Manufacture InductEV's hardware, including in-ground and under-vehicle inductive pads. Manage InductEV's supply chain and procurement. Utilize engineering expertise to facilitate high quality, design for manufacturing and assembly. Co-develop design optimizations to prepare for a 100-fold increase in production volume.
"We couldn't be more pleased to have a manufacturing partner, known for its high standards and operating rigor, combine forces with our proprietary engineering," said Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO, InductEV. "Our complementary areas of expertise will enable us to meet the growing demand from commercial fleet owners and operators, as well as Intermodal facilities and Ports, for our advanced, AI-managed wireless charging solution."
Among its product offerings, Detroit Manufacturing Systems currently handles manufacturing for the Ford EV F-150 Lightning signaling its expertise in advanced electric vehicle components and systems production. InductEV's patented technology is currently being used in locations throughout North America and Europe, including in Washington State, Indianapolis, Martha's Vineyard, and in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo's hometown. (Volvo Ventures is an InductEV investor.) The company is poised to announce the largest commitment by a U.S. port facility to its wireless charging technology.
"We recognize and applaud InductEV's efforts to wirelessly electrify commercial fleets, the biggest contributor in transportation to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide," added Bruce Smith, Chairman and CEO, Detroit Manufacturing Systems. "We look forward to bringing our manufacturing, quality and supply chain expertise to this partnership and creating a successful venture that will help reduce this sector's carbon footprint at a considerable cost savings for all involved."
InductEV's proprietary, on-route wireless charging solution shifts EV charging to daytime use of renewables. It reduces the need for large EV batteries, lowering vehicle costs, and eliminates the need for recycling by extending battery life by a factor of 4-8X. Wireless charging also enables the broad deployment of autonomous vehicles.
About InductEV
InductEV is revolutionizing how electric commercial fleet vehicles charge their batteries. With its proprietary on-route wireless solution now deployed throughout North America and Europe and with 18 U.S. patents and 23 pending, the King of Prussia, PA-based company is the global leader in high-power, high-speed wireless EV charging and AI-software powered energy management. The company just opened one of world's first R&D centers for wireless vehicle charging.
About Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS)
Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS) is a contract manufacturing and assembly company that is committed to and is constantly striving for manufacturing excellence and perfect quality. This is achieved through meticulous mistake proofing and a culture of continuous improvement. DMS' GIFTED & RICH fundamental beliefs, management principles, and core values guide the staff in proactively and transparently engaging with customers and suppliers. DMS is also committed to protecting the local and global environment and minimizing the environmental impacts concerning their activities, products and services.
Read More