Embedded System Design-Career

YNM

Prologue
This presentation is aimed at enlightening the
engineering graduates about the existing career
opportunities in the field of Embedded system design .
This presentation focuses on details of various
hardware and software aspects involved in the design of
embedded products.
It also explain the required skills to achieve success in
this field.

contd..
It is my personal observation over these years that
many students are not aware of the lucrative
opportunities available in the field of Embedded
Systems .
Most of the graduates go after the popular IT
industry to seek a good career.
Probably there may be two reasons for this
i) Lack of awareness &
ii) Entry barrier.

contd..
During their education most of the students may come
across the name Embedded Systems. But they may
not be aware of what is an embedded system, how
do they work, what knowledge and skills should be
acquired to build a good career in the field of
embedded systems and which companies are working
in this field etc .
Where as in the case of computer science the
industry is readily known the lucrative IT industry.

contd..
The leading IT companies are Microsoft, Google,
Adobe (product based) in addition to many smaller
and medium ones.
There are service based IT firms like Wipro, Infosys,
Accenture, Cognizant etc.
Knowledge and skills required are mainly about
programming languages and technologies like Java,
Asp.net, C & C++, Python, PHP etc..

contd..
A very important point to be observed here is entry
barrier to the IT industry is very low.
Any fresher with a basic skills and knowledge can get a
job in the IT industry and that too with a decent entry
level salary.
But this is not the case with core domains like
Embedded and VLSI.Here you need lot of passion,
dedication in addition to strong foundations in basics

contd..
I think some of the students may be knowing that
embedded systems are everywhere.
Majority of the electronic gadgets that we use from
morning to night in our dally life are simple embedded
systems.
In addition ,the embedded systems are found in every
field starting from simple mobile communication to
most complex satellite communication.

contd..
So, any company which is involved in the production
of products like Robots, washing machines, microwave
ovens, Digital televisions, air conditioners ,mobile
phones, iPhones, iPads,Tabs etc. can provide you a job.
Then what are the skills required for this?
The answer is simple you must have some software
skills i.e programming and good understanding about
processors / microcontrollers and sensors etc.

contd..
In many home appliances such as washing
machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens,
vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators, microcontrollers
are used for motor control, analog sensor
measurements, front panel keypad control, and
LED/LCD displays.
i.e your MCU controls and manages all the
functions and feature of the appliance.

PIC Microcontroller Based Oven

contd..
Washing

machines require support for motor controls,

water level and temperature sensing, and user interface
components that can withstand harsh environments.
Standards-based, secure connectivity is also a must for
appliances that will connect to a home network.

contd..
Atmel offers a rich array of microcontrollers and touch screen
solutions that can power today's advanced washing equipment.
Similarly PIC18F452Microcontrollers are used automatic washing
machines.
In recent advanced Washing machines 32 BIT ARM Cortex M4
controllers are used.
Even Atmel AT89S51microcontroller can also be used in washing
machines.(IEEE Paper
Digital Image Processing, 2009 International Conference )

Block Diagram-Washing machine using a MCU

Washing machine block diagram using S0C

Air Conditioner block diagram using MCU

PIC16F877A microcontroller is used to control various
operations in Air-Conditioners.
A low-power microcontroller MSP430FR4133 from
TI is used in the remote controller of AC machines.
Even today lot of air conditioners use the Infineon 8-bit
microcontrollers XC836,XC878.
.

Air Conditioner block diagram using MCU

Digital cameras
Digital cameras convert images into electric signals
using a semiconductor device (CCD or CMOS) that
reacts to light.
The camera records electric signals as digital data in
storage media, such as flash memory.
A simple 8-bit CMOS microcontroller is used for this
application.

contd..
Siemens SAF-C517A-LM,8-bit
CMOS Microcontroller is used
as a universal camera controller
in Digital cameras.

Obstacle avoidance Robot

This robot is designed using 8051 microcontroller to
detect and avoid the obstacles on the robotic vehicles
path.
For this purpose, an ultrasonic sensor pair is used
which is interfaced to microcontroller.
If any obstacle is sensed by the ultrasonic sensor, then
a signal is given to the microcontroller which in turn
generates an appropriate output signal.

Block diagram of a Robot

Obstacle avoidance Robotic Vehicle

Automobiles-Microcontrollers
Different
types of microcontrollers are used in
automobiles.
For Ex: AVR,Atmel 8051, PIC microcontrollers, etc.
The applications are many, like car speed, outdoor rain
fall interactions, in car temperatures with performance
controls for air conditioning maintenance, the audio
visual multimedia systems and braking mechanisms etc..

contd..
In recent times Infineon Tri-core Microcontroller is
widely used . Tri-core is a 32 bit controller which is
responsible for keeping the exhaust emissions and fuel
consumption as low as possible.
Also used in the gear boxes to control the injection,
central control units for combustion engines ignition
Progressively, they are also being used in electrical
and hybrid vehicle drives.

Automobiles-Microcontrollers

Smart Phones -Microcontrollers

ARM based processors are the most widely used in
modern Smart phones
For example your Samsung Galaxy SII is based
around ARM Cortex A9 Microcontroller.
The Samsung Galaxy S-IV is built around ARM
Cortex-A15 cores and ARM Cortex-A7 cores.

Internet Of Things(IOT)
Let us now consider another very important
concept which is very popular among the
researchers and designers in recent times i.e
Internet of Things or simply IOT.
Internet of Things is basically a concept to
connect all the things (devices, gadgets, home
appliances, vehicles, phones, computers, etc.)
with the internet .

contd..
This enables to communicate with each other
and provide the necessary information to
perform precise operations.
The most exciting part of this technology is its
endless applications.
Now you find applications of IOT almost in
every walk of life.

contd..
The applications of IOT in real time include
GPS navigation system for cars, smart city,
intelligent building management, mobile
payment, automatic meter reading, truck fleet
locating, natural resources, smart grids,
environmental protection and Space shuttle
tracking etc.

contd..
It can connect not only devices and gadgets but people,
animals and objects to internet and assign a unique IP
address to make it distinguishable and able to
communicate.
For example, a person with heart monitor implant or
with wearable circuits, or a farm animal with biochip
transponder, plants, an automobile with built-in sensors,
street lights, and environment, all could be a part of IoT
network.

Role of Microcontrollers
Microcontrollers play an important role in IoT products,
handling key functions for sensor interface and
processing, wired or wireless connectivity, driving
displays for user interface, security, control, and more.
The very important thing is choosing the right
microcontrollers. It depends on the application, power
consumption (particularly for battery operated devices),
performance (for handling complex sensor fusion and
other algorithms) and space constraints.

contd..
As costs of controllers, processors, sensors and
transmitters decreases, anything that can remotely
communicate with other systems is a candidate to become
smart.
This may include sensors, meters, thermostats, switches,
medical monitors, motors, household appliances,
vehicles, tools, even items of clothing and kitchen
utensils. So whatever you name, it may soon become part
of this fast-growing IoT.

Recent Trends
ARM, the chip design firm whose processor designs are
in almost all of the worlds smart phones, is beefing up its
portfolio for the internet of things.
The UK-based company has launched a new core, the
Cortex-M7, a microcontroller that adds more performance
and more abilities when it comes to translating sensor data
into digital information.

contd..
NXP LPC microcontrollers offer breakthrough power efficiency
for sensor interface and sensor processing designs with following
features:
Static current down to 3 A and active current as low as 55
A/MHz Up to 100 MHz single-and dual-core MCUs with floating
point unit for complex sensor processing and scalable power
performance.
Multiple IC, SPI, and UART interfaces with low-power
architecture optimized for sensor interface and a range of wireless
connectivity standards

contd..
TIs ultra-low power MSP430 MCUs have been designed
to serve in wireless-enabled applications with a variety of
system architectures.
As the IoT demands more connectivity in everyday
products, MSP430 microcontrollers (MCUs) are
targeted to enable IoT applications through an ultra-low
power architecture.
According to a recent survey the MSP430 MCUs offer
the best power efficiency.

Skills Required

From all these slides it is very clear that both

hardware and soft ware skills are important in
the design of these embedded products.
Hardware knowledge of processors /controllers
like 8051,AVR,PIC,MSP430 , ARM etc..
Knowledge of various communication
standards like I2C,SPI,CAN,BlueTooth,USB
etc..

Skills Required
Knowledge about sensors ,their interfacing is also
needed for the design of the embedded products.
Above all the most important requirement is the
passion for this core domain field.
Coming to software skills you should have some ideas
about programming especially embedded C and
advanced languages like Java, Python in addition to
RTOS.

contd..
Because the recent microcontrollers like Raspberry,
Arduino, ARM Cortex etc.. are supporting some
languages like python which are very easy to learn.
Another advantage is that these are low-cost
development boards.
In recent times most of the applications are built
around such type of controllers.

Conclusions
So, to shine in the field of embedded system design,
you need the passion for design with interest in learning
new languages and creative mind to implement your
ideas.
As the number of companies is exponentially
increasing day by day with the embedded products,
there will not be any hurdles in getting employment in
these fields as long as you show interest.

Conclusions

I think there is nothing to add except saying best

wishes to all those aspirants who wish to excel in this
field.

Acknowledgement

Thanks are due to many websites from where

the info is gathered.
Especially I acknowledge the motivation from
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products and
http://www.circuitstoday.com .