EDN's 2009 Innovation Award Finalists: Spring is in the air

Instead of picking the first crocus or daffodil buds, you can pick the winners in our 20th annual program honoring engineering excellence.

By Staff -- EDN, February 18, 2010

It’s a bit early to start looking for the first crocus or daffodil buds, but lurking just beneath the still-wintry surface is an abundance of new growth, waiting patiently for its moment in the sun. We encourage you to honor the hope and innovator within by voting as part of EDN’s 20th annual Innovation Awards program for a fresh crop of engineers, technologies, and companies that truly embody engineering excellence.

Last year was a strong one for innovation, as evidenced by the huge response to EDN’s late-fall call for nominations. Over the past several weeks, our editors faced the difficult task of narrowing down an impressive field of contenders and finding the freshest, most inventive, and undeniably outstanding nominations that were worthy of being named finalists for EDN’s 2009 Innovation Awards.

Check out the list of finalists across many categories on these pages, including Innovator of the Year and Best Contributed Article. We even added a few new categories this time around to accommodate the high number of quality nominations.

Review complete write-ups of the finalists and cast your online ballot at www.edn.com/innovation. Your votes determine the Innovation Award winners, who will be honored along with all of the finalists at a reception held Monday, April 26, in San Jose, CA. If you’d like to join the festivities, you can also find event and ticket information at this link.

Innovator of the Year

Intrinsity Cortex-A8 FastCore design team MontaVista Software fast-boot-dashboard-application design team Numonyx Alverstone phase-change-memory design team Synopsys DesignWare SuperSpeed USB 3.0 IP engineering team Xilinx Spartan-6/Virtex-6 FPGA design team

Best Contributed Article

Low-power wireless performance starts with CMOS elegance, Randy Torrance, Chipworks, Jan 5, 2009. Choosing a touch technology for handheld-system applications, Andrew Hsu, PhD, Synaptics, Jan 8, 2009. Solving the LED-driver challenge for light-bulb replacement, Silvestro Fimiani, Power Integrations, April 9, 2009. Managing high-voltage lithium-ion batteries in HEVs, Michael Kultgen, Linear Technology Corp, April 9, 2009. Take advantage of open-source hardware, Gerald Coley, Texas Instruments, Aug 20, 2009.

Accelerometers

ADXL345 three-axis digital accelerometer, Analog Devices
Digital MEMS accelerometer, Hewlett-Packard
MMA7660FC three-axis digital accelerometer, Freescale Semiconductor
RS9000 high-end MEMS accelerometer, Colibrys

Analog: Converters

78M6612 power- and energy-measurement/monitoring SOC, Teridian Semiconductor
AD9789 14-bit TxDAC, Analog Devices
ADC16DV160 16-bit, 160M-sample/sec ADC, National Semiconductor
ADS5400 12-bit, 1G-sample/sec ADC, Texas Instruments

Analog: Front-End ICs

ADAS1128 current-to-digital converter, Analog Devices
AS3910 RFID-reader IC, austriamicrosystems
MAX2078 eight-channel ultrasound front end with CW doppler mixers, Maxim Integrated Products
MC33812 small-engine analog IC, Freescale Semiconductor

Analog: Signal Path

FSA800 USB accessory switch, Fairchild Semiconductor
LT3092 200-mA, two-terminal current source, Linear Technology
LTC6655 bandgap voltage reference, Linear Technology
MCP651/2/55 operational amplifiers, Microchip Technology

Components

CM1693 EMI filter for multimedia wireless handsets, California Micro Devices
Flared-pin-fin heat sinks, Cool Innovations
IR1168 SmartRectifier, International Rectifier
IS18WWC1W OLED rocker switch, NKK Switches
WCM308 shaped-foil SMD/power inductors, West Coast Magnetics

DC and Low-Frequency Test

Fluke 233 remote-display multimeter, Fluke
Fluke 773 milliamp process clamp meter, Fluke
U2723A USB source measure unit, Agilent Technologies
U8903A audio analyzer, Agilent Technologies

Design, debug, and production test, yield analysis

JTAG Live software modules, JTAG Technologies
Medalist i3070 series 5 in-circuit tester, Agilent Technologies
ScanWorks platform for embedded instrumentation, Asset InterTech
Tessent YieldInsight yield-analysis tool, Mentor Graphics
VeriStand 2009 open, configuration-based software environment, National Instruments

Design Frameworks

1080p video-design framework, Altera
ISE Design Suite 11, Xilinx
Lynx Design System, Synopsys

EDA: Back-End Tools

Encounter Digital Implementation System, Cadence Design Systems
In-design DFM with Encounter Digital Implementation System, Cadence Design Systems
Quartus II Version 9.1 FPGA-design tool, Altera
Totem SE power/noise-analysis extensions, Apache Design Solutions

EDA: Front-End Analysis and Synthesis Tools

ActiveDesign formal design system, Jasper Design Automation
IC Validator in-design physical-verification solution, Synopsys
PowerPro MG memory-power optimizer, Calypto Design Systems
RealTime Designer RTL synthesis tool, Oasys Design Systems
RootCause analyzer formal diagnosis tool, OneSpin Solutions

EDA: Front-End Simulation and Database Tools

BOM Manager Version 4 bill-of-materials-management tool, SiliconExpert Technologies
MVSIM voltage-aware cosimulator, Synopsys
Virtuoso Accelerated Parallel Simulator, Cadence Design Systems
ZeBu-Server emulation system, EVE

Embedded-System Technologies

AYRE wireless platform, Sound Design Technologies
Prism 3.0 real-time compression IP, Samplify Systems
StackableUSB carrier/hub board bridges, Micro/sys
XPort Pro Linux server, Lantronix

FPGAs

LatticeECP3, Lattice Semiconductor
Spartan-6 LXT, Xilinx
Stratix IV GT, Altera
Virtex-6 HXT, Xilinx

Microcontrollers

LPC1100 Cortex-M0 microcontrollers, NXP
MAXQ1850 secure microcontroller, Maxim Integrated Products
PIC24F16KA nanoWatt XLP PIC microcontrollers, Microchip Technology
PSoC3 and PSoC5 microcontrollers, Cypress Semiconductor

Microprocessors

Cortex-A8 FastCore processor, Intrinsity
MPC564xL high-reliability processor, Freescale Semiconductor
SH-MobileR2R superscalar processor, Renesas
TMS320C6743 fixed/floating-point processor, Texas Instruments

Multimedia SOCs

Armada 1000 HD media processor SOC, Marvell Semiconductor
BCM7125 STB SOC, Broadcom
CX2070x speakers on chip, Conexant Systems
Snapdragon QSD8650A chip set, Qualcomm
VHD1900 video processor, IDT

Multiprocessing

NFP-32xx Network Flow Processor, Netronome
TilePro64 64-core processor, Tilera
Wolverine DSP platform, Sound Design Technologies

Networking

Comcerto 1000 series embedded packet processors, Mindspeed Technologies
GGL541 intelligent multi-PHY switch, Gigle Networks
LLP84672 link-layer processor, LSI
MB88395 1394 automotive controller IC, Fujitsu Microelectronics America
nRF24AP2 single-chip, eight-channel ANT transceiver, Nordic Semiconductor

Network, timing, and BER test

BERTScope 12500A for 100-Gbps Ethernet, SyntheSys Research
IxNetwork with ViperCore technology, Ixia
J-BERT N4903B jitter-tolerance tester, Agilent Technologies
TimeAnalyzer IEEE 1588 (PTP) measurement and analysis system, Symmetricom

Oscilloscopes, digitizers, and data acquisition

MSO70000 series mixed-signal oscilloscopes, Tektronix
NI X series data-acquisition devices for PCI Express and PXI Express, National Instruments
U1084A high-speed digitizer, Agilent Technologies
WaveMaster 830Zi 30-GHz oscilloscope, LeCroy

PCs and Peripherals

MB86C30A USB 3.0-to-SATA bridge IC, Fujitsu Microelectronics America
PEX 8696 PCI Express switch, PLX Technology
RE4-GP hard-disk drive, Western Digital
VMM1300 multimonitor display, IDT
X25-M mainstream SSD on 34-nm flash memory, Intel

Power: Converters

FAN9612 interleaved dual BCM PFC controller, Fairchild Semiconductor
Gen2 SupIRBuck integrated voltage regulators, International Rectifier
LTC3108 ultralow-voltage step-up dc/dc converter, Linear Technology
PV3002 digital power-conversion IC, Powervation

Power: Lighting

FSEZ1016A PSR PWM controller, Fairchild Semiconductor
iW3610 dimmable-LED driver, iWatt
LM3445 TRIAC dimmable-LED driver, National Semiconductor
LX6503A CCFL-backlight-inverter controller, Microsemi

Power: Special

DA9052 ultraflexible power-management IC, Dialog Semiconductor
LTM2881 isolated RS-485/RS-422 µModule transceiver, Linear Technology
Webench Visualizer, National Semiconductor
WM8312 customizable power-management IC, Wolfson Microelectronics

Power Supplies/Systems

Eaton 9395 UPS, Eaton
iLGA POL package, Murata Power Solutions
Liebert MPX, Emerson Network Power
SolarMagic power optimizer, National Semiconductor

RFICs

ADRF660x and ADRF670x highly integrated RF mixers and modulators, Analog Devices
FM2491_FC flip-chip-based RF front-end IC, Epic Communications
MB86L01A RF transceiver, Fujitsu Microelectronics
Si2170 TV tuner, Silicon Labs

RF/microwave test

MD8430A LTE signaling tester and Rapid Test Designer software, Anritsu
PXA signal-analyzer implements with Noise Floor Extension, Agilent Technologies
Pyramid-MW 81-GHz millimeter-wave probe card, Cascade Microtech
VectorStar microwave vector network analyzer, Anritsu

Sensors

AS5011 Hall-effect magnetic-encoder IC, austriamicrosystems
E909.06A multipurpose sensor IC, Elmos Semiconductor
MT9M033 CMOS image sensor, Aptina Imaging
QuickSense Si11xx sensors, Silicon Labs

Silicon Intellectual Property

DesignWare SuperSpeed USB 3.0 IP, Synopsys
LiquidCell library, RapidBridge

Software/Embedded Tools

ez430-Chronos development kit, Texas Instruments
LynxSecure 3.0 separation kernel and hypervisor, LynuxWorks
mbed microcontroller, ARM Holdings
MVL6 (MontaVista Linux 6), MontaVista Software
PSoC Creator embedded-design tool, Cypress Semiconductor