Teach you to quickly create, design and test IoT products

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One of TNFG's latest solutions: UOMIC Power Management ICs designed for multiple applications

One of the most serious challenges facing Internet of Things (IoT) applications is that equipment needs to be semi-customized or even fully customized based on market demand. Product time to market and R&D costs are two other important considerations. TFNG's goal is to provide its customers with the easiest device design path by pre-installing different finished components in the system. The core mission of the IoT design team is to make life easier. “For example, imagine that you need to design a SoC that needs to be used in a location for a long time, then you need to upgrade the hardware to ensure that you can continue to use N years. And r homb.io allows you to quickly build the design and get results This is a better solution, and it's much easier and faster than the traditional method of designing from scratch,” Pelaez said.

“By using our revolutionary rhomb.io system, designers can meet their needs in a short period of time and eliminate the need to design hardware and software from scratch before the final design is passed, eliminating the potential drawbacks. ."

— Pedro Pelaez, Technical Director, TNFG

Rhomb.io offers a large selection of finished components, such as motherboards, processor cores, and a range of functional modules for designers to choose from for end products. Designers can easily upgrade existing products by swapping in new rhomb.io components or reusing rhomb.io components in new products before they are eliminated. The rhomb.io system is open, so assembly data, design guides, schematics, and software libraries are all free to use. “Like LEGO, you can easily choose the modules you need. Once you have completed the first product, you can copy it proportionally. This is the only system in the world that can achieve such modular operation,” Pelaez said.

Because TNFG requires IC evaluation for modular systems with thicknesses between only 5 and 10 mm, small package sizes and good technical support are critical, and TNFG eventually found the answer in a range of Maxim ICs.

The modular system of TNFG contains the following Maxim components:

MAX30101 Pulse Oximeter and Heart Rate Sensor

MAX44005 RGB color, temperature, and infrared proximity sensor

MAX8814 28V Linear Li-Ion Battery Charger for Intelligent Management

Voltage Regulator

Optical biological analog front end

The rich functionality provided by these ICs also shows the power of the rhomb.io module. For example, the engineering team directly helped customers develop a smart watch by using the MAX30101 . The team also plans to add sensors to its Rhomb.ioMixOne sensing module to enable rich sensing in a single board. The MAX44005 is also used in the aforementioned smart watches, including the GPS family of devices and a module from TNFG. The MAX30101 combines with an optical bio-analog front end to support high-performance, low-power, long-life fitness applications, including smart watches. In addition, TNFG uses these voltage regulator components in most of its projects to ensure high efficiency, reliability and durability of the design.

TNFG recently introduced UOMIC's Complete Power Management Circuit (PMIC), which drives a core processor, external memory, and small single-chip peripherals. By using Maxim's IC, and UOMIC includes buck converter, LDO, real-time clock, backup battery charger, manual reset and shutdown input, reset output, input and UART serial interface (for individual regulator output voltage and on/off control) Programming).

“We offer 150 modules, 50 hybrid controller modules, and 50 processors,” Pelaez emphasizes. “Our customers have a very wide range of solutions, so we need to provide a wealth of options to help them build their products.”

TNFG's small size requirements are not only realized in Maxim's products, but also greatly appreciated the technical support provided by the Maxim team. When TNFG was just getting started, the Maxim team gave great trust and provided full support throughout the product development process, Pelaez said.

“The best path to success is to continue to invest in R&D,” Pelaez stressed. “We are constantly developing and selling our systems, and it is expected to be a fruitful year next year.”