Mobile & IOT Forum Taiwan

As smartphone functionality increases, the importance of these devices in our day to day lives for communications, entertainment, e-wallet, etc. is nearly unlimited.  Mobile memory will need higher speed, greater density, lower power consumption, smaller packge sizes and rapid generational updates in order to support this growth, and all of this will introduce dramatic quality and reliability challenges.  JEDEC standards should play an active role to push DFR functions so that they become standard items to resolve during the pre-design phase, as well as setting the future direction for mobile memory growth.

High bandwidth but very low power DRAM interfacing is challenging for next generation SoCs. A physical layer for LPDDR4x interfacing IP implemented in 10nm FinFET process. Fully compliant to JEDEC LPDDR4x specification with several additional features to enhance the performance and flexibility for dynamically changing clock frequencies. To accomplish extended DoU (Days of Use) requirement in low power application processors, Dual PLL DFS(Dynamic Frequency Scaling) scheme utilized which eliminating PLL locking overhead for frequency switching. Background ZQ calibration will hide down time for IO calibrations to meet the demanding performance in performance demanding SoCs. Precise training functions including dynamic IE training helps overall high bandwidth operation of DRAM interfaces.

IoT provides connections between people, devices, machines and services. It has emerged from various research explorations to become one of the hottest applications these days. This presentation will describe the overview of a few popular applications, their business opportunities, technologies in development and challenges.

The evolution of smartphones to date can be defined as “digital convergence,” as smartphones have been providing more and more features for their users. Now, the industrial world is changing. Users want to enjoy enhanced “smart” functionality not only for their smartphones, but also for the many other versatile digital devices that make up their environment. So the next wave of digital innovation can be referred to as “Digital Divergence.” This means that smartphones will enable “digital optimization” by providing functionality that satisfies an extensive set of demands from the widest range of electronic devices in the Internet of Things. This keynote will explore how smartphones will now evolve to accommodate the rapidly growing number of divergent applications, highlighting the capacity of these “hub-like” universal control units to deliver optimized mobile DRAM solutions.

Storage devices are a vital component of an electronic system for a variety of applications, and with today's demand for faster boot-up and data transfer, choosing an optimized storage device has become a challenge for designers. For example, for mainstream smartphones, embedded technologies like eMMC has become the de facto storage device of choice due to its high-speed connectivity up to 400MB/s and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, for high-end smartphones, UFS has become a robust option due to its unique high-performance, low-power and scalability advantages. Today, the use of such mobile storage devices extends into new applications like automotive and IoT. This presentation will describe each mobile storage specification and illustrate their unique use-cases and features such as command queuing, inline encryption and high bandwidth for mobile applications and beyond.

Peter Lefkin, Managing Director of MIPI Alliance, will provide an overview of MIPI Alliance Specifications in IoT and Automotive. Peter will provide additional context, background and a forward look regarding the implementation of MIPI Specifications in mobile influenced industries of automotive and internet of things. MIPI Alliance specifications are developed for mobile devices as the primary target though MIPI Alliance members have leveraged and evolved their investments in mobile to other platforms including automotive and IoT. MIPI specifications are implemented in IoT devices for augmented and virtual reality, wearables, and other low power and sensor connected devices. Within automotive, automobiles have become a new platform for innovation and manufacturers are implementing MIPI specifications to develop applications for infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and safety. Interconnected components for these applications include high-performance cameras and imaging sensors, infotainment and dashboard displays, telematics hubs among others. Automotive and IoT platforms are heavily reliant on sensors and MIPI specifications will play a key role enabling sensor-based applications and connected devices.

Description

JEDEC developed Universal Flash Storage (UFS) to succeed eMMC and support the next generations of mobile and IoT devices. Now UFS is beginning to show up in shipping products and an end-user installable card form factor is being defined by JEDEC. Products that take advantage of UFS' new capabilities will achieve greater customer satisfaction and therefore a competitive advantage. It's important that both system designers and end users know that UFS is included to provide improved performance, efficiency and price/performance flexibility. The UFS logo is the best way to let users know that they are buying a superior product. This session explains how products can earn the UFS logo and achieve the competitive advantages they expect.

Low Power DRAM has evolved from a lower-voltage, lower-performance version of PC-DRAM designed for mobile packages to become one of the highest bandwidth-per-pin types of DRAM available.  Along with this trend, the mobile system limitations now include active battery life and thermal limits in addition to standby battery life. This change in system limitations affects the choice of future LPDRAM architectures, beginning with the evolution of the LPDDR4 standard.  Power efficiency across a range of bandwidths will become a more important attribute than raw peak bandwith.  This presentation will investigate some proposed and alternative architectures and power saving techniques.

As miniaturization in mobile devices continues, component integration to form system-in-package (SIP) and functional module (FM) products can help reducing the system-level design complexity and making assembly easier. While there are ample design tools and standards available for components, the design and fabrication of SIP and FM are mostly custom-made by their respective manufacturers. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is hence crucial for these parts to maintain high yield in HVM assembly for both mobile and IoT devices. The trends in SIP and FM design and fabrication are reviewed here. Emphasis is then placed on the process control needs in SMT assembly of these parts to achieve better yields, where soldering material selection and high temperature lead-free reflow parameters are critical to successful high-yield HVM production.

Demand for faster mobile storage is dramatically increasing everywhere we look. Examples include 4K/8K high resolution video, 3D games, VR (Virtual Reality) and so on. To satisfy the insatiable market demand for removable cards, a standard for UFS cards was published by JEDEC in March 2016. Samsung will give the technical, performance, power consumption, financial, development, and validation advantages of the UFS Card. Adopting the UFS Card could make your IT products the market winner.

SMI will give an introduction to explain how SMI applied the lessons learned from eMMC controllers and added new UFS innovations to UFS controllers for UFS card and its ecosystem.

People are consuming more digital media than ever before, with future demands ever-increasing. Pictures are getting bigger and have higher resolution, videos are now 4K and 360 degree, and apps and games need to load rapidly, with minimal wait time. To keep pace with these rising requirements, the industry needs very fast, high-capacity external storage devices. During the presentation, Tuxera will present FAT+, a logical extension to the existing FAT file system. FAT+ is a UFSA recommended file system for UFS cards. The presentation will cover the following topics: what is FAT+? What are the practical use cases for FAT+? How FAT+ accelerate UFS card adoption in emerging markets.

Although the UFS card is desired for IT products such as tablets, notebooks, drones, cameras, etc. due to its storage density, speed, performance and low power, but there is still limited AP (Application processor) to support the UFS interface. The UFS Bridge Controller that comes with the USB3.0 interface will help overcome this limitation. IT products which do not have a UFS interface can improve the sequential and random read/write performance via existing USB3.0 interface to access the UFS removable card. The UFS bridge controller could be adopted as the external card reader or embedded as a removable card socket controller to reveal the benefits of the UFS card. Products that come with UFS features could be a distinct differentiator to help increase your product's attractiveness.

UFS specification is a breakthrough for Managed NAND, overcoming 3~4 years of stagnation. UFS 2.1 performance enters the Desktop-PC class while keeping limited power budget with mobile-oriented form-factors. UFS 3.0 doubles the interface speed, forcing flash memory, controller and firmware into radical changes. Latest flash memory technologies require the best calculation-demanding ECC engines (StrongECC™, LDPC) and Flash Translation Layer (FTL) management. The UFS performance highlights the importance of having total domain over the controller development, the recipe that leads to a high efficiency controller architecture. High speed interface brings signal Integrity concerns requiring a layout that considers the limitations of die placement and substrate routing. To overcome this issue, packaging-oriented pad position and a capacitor-free design contribute to low-cost and high quality product.

In this presentation, Amphenol will introduce the JEDEC UFS Card Socket form factor as well as the UFS Card form factor, and how the UFS card is beneficial for industry. In addition, the UFS card could benefit your socket design which could be used as reference socket for many IT products like VR, AR, Drones, etc. The socket for the UFS Card is available now and its characteristics would be shared for IT vendors.