How India Can Become Self-Reliant and Globally Competitive in Electronics Manufacturing
With the assistance from the government of India in unleashing Rs 2.35 Lakh Crore policy push, the home-grown electronics manufacturing cluster is expected to witness a healthy 30 percent growth in the coming financial year, which is around Rs 7 Lakh Crore. Experts in the industry believe that this policy unleash will help India to become globally competitive and self-reliant. But, amid this positive vibe, there are loads of serious impediments that the industry is struggling to deal with such as intricate duty and taxation structures and regulatory uncertainty.
What is The Roadmap For a Flourishing PCB Ecosystem in India?
Earlier this year, India reached the fifth rank in electronics manufacturing. This is a remarkable achievement when compared to 11th rank ten decades ago. The underlined strengths are indicating that the situation is very optimistic about the potential of India to achieve the target of US dollar 5 trillion economies by 2026 and 300 billion dollars will be contributed by electronics manufacturing. The PCB industry is of immense importance for the ESDM sector globally, claims experts.
Sanjay Agarwal, President of ELCINA and managing director, Globe Capacitors said, “At present, almost 85 percent of PCB requirements are imported, which is not sustainable and makes us susceptible to fluctuating global crises. PCB manufacturing requires high-quality infrastructures and is characterized by a very high output ratio of 1:1 or 1:5. It has a complex supply chain and the equipment required for its manufacturing are very expensive. The government has been very supportive to the industry and is offering value addition and expansion in domestic manufacturing, especially in components and PCB.”
According to some media reports, the government has highlighted the imperativeness of crafting a huge PCB ecosystem in the country. In order to meet the same, the country requires adding innovative large-scale PCB plants addressing 5 million Sq. Meters of ML and 2 Million Sq. meters of Flex/Rigid-Flex units in the coming five years. Currently, the nation requires 7 large PCB factories equipped with 1 Mn. Sq. M plant capacity. Moreover, it requires an investment of Rs 7,000 Crores that will provide a yearly revenue of Rs 10,500 crore along with a direct 7000 jobs and 35,000 employment indirectly in the value chain. The experts stated that India needs to create a dedicated supply chain for the current PCB units in India as it will offer various advantages.
The industry experts highlighted how successful the Make in India initiative is and how India is able to develop the PCB ecosystem in manufacturing. Globally, the PCB market is 80 billion euros in 2021, which is about 24 percent from 2020. Two reasons for this are the pent-up demand as well as the high raw material prices and they added the sudden spike in the growth. This is now about to reach 95 million to 100 million dollars. Globally, HDI PCBs witnessed massive growth compared to other PCBs and are the fastest-growing market in this segment. According to an expert who wishes to be unnamed mentioned that there is no need to invest further in SS and DS PCB units in the country.
The country now has a decent demand of nearly 33.1 million Sq. Meters, which is likely to reach 41.1 million Sq. Meters in SS and DS PCB units. India has nearly 150+ PCB manufacturers who have the required capacity to meet at least 30 percent of the nation’s capacity (8-10 Million Sq. Meters). But, unfortunately, they are not able to meet this requirement and could sell only 2-3 Million Sq. Meter, while the rests are completely exported. In fact, they are not able to meet the price of imported PCBs from China at zero import duty. China has now turned to be the world’s largest importer of low-end PCBs and they have made this into commodity products. The point is India could do well in meeting this requirement if there is a huge effort to bring down the costs by having large capacities and a supply chain ecosystem in the country.
Justifying the statement above, A.M. Devendranath, CEO, Feedback Advisory, Research Partner ELCINA said, “The dominant global PCB players are from China and Taiwan covering 35-40 percent of the market. The global firms generate 2-5 billion dollars of revenue, which is much more than the total demand of the Indian market. China now has about 1250 PCB manufacturers from which they are close to 1500 units. The US had a 26 percent share in the total PCB market in 2000 and is now down to 4.5 percent, whereas, in the same year, Europe had a 16 percent market share and is now crippled to 3 percent. The Indian market’s estimated demand for PCB is 26,000 cores from 2021 to 2022 and has millions of dollars of PCB consumption. The PCBs of the PCBAs have 20 percent of the market and 80 percent of the market is the main PCBs that are consumed in India. Around 2.8 million dollars of main PCB consumption is in India.”
PCB Market in Size- India Vs Global
- Approximately 200+ PCB shops in India
- Approximate Domestic Production $350-$400 Billion
- 10-15% CAGR for The Indian Industry
- Global Market Size Approximately $80 Billion, India’s Share <0.5%
- China, South Korea, and Taiwan hold more than 70% Market Share
- Over 90% of India’s PCB Requirements Met Through Imports
- Over 50% of Total Domestic Production Exported
- 95% of PCBs Produced are S/S, D/S, 4L & 6L
India is a signatory of the ITA1 agreement under the aegis of WTO, which stipulates zero duty on various commodities including PCBAs. This has resulted in the free flow of import of PCBs and because of these scenarios, investments in PCB manufacturing remain very low. This has prompted the government to make significant efforts over the past few years to promote the PCB industry. Now, the M-SIPS, which provides 25 percent reimbursement on Capex incurred on investment barring land, has been subsequently replaced by the SPECS scheme, which is the same but excludes building for incentive purposes. The PLI scheme offers incentives for incremental turnover with a certain minimum investment and minimum incremental turnover. Backed by these schemes every state government has its respective electronic policies which provide incentives of various types such as capex, SGST paybacks, interest subventions, etc. Moreover, the government is actively persuading large buyers to increase localization content and trying to build a narrative for Make-in-India. This will lay the foundation for the growth of the PCB industry going forward along with huge opportunities.
In a previous interaction with CircuitDigest RS Simha, MD & CFO, AT&S India told CircuitDigest exclusively that currently, the industry is facing a challenge of balancing supply and demand environments. We see the growing impact of a slow supply chain and expect challenges by missing components for the industry. The majority of the industry is now shifting towards ‘no impact’ & ‘minimal impact’ in various components categories and no disruption in the supply chain is the urgent need of the hour. He also opined that they are expecting the demand to remain strong for PCBs. Currently, the PCBs that are made in India are designed for use majorly in high-end automotive, and industrial applications along with medical. The industry, however, tends to experience demand-supply imbalances in copper-based materials such as copper-clad laminates, prepregs, and copper foils in addition to huge material escalation costs coupled with high supplier lead times.
Experts also added that the industry now requires huge investment to meet the demand-supply gap. Apart from that various startups are required in the space of the PCB ecosystem to support the various requirements of the industry. Varun Manwani, Director at Sahasra Group of Industries said, “The current PCB manufacturers must look for association with foreign firms for deep assistance in technology to craft potentials for sectors that are importing PCBs. If the momentum in manufacturing augments, it could start off the manufacturing and design of several multi-layer PCBs, and also the commencement of making semiconductor chips (ATMP) could be a reality soon. During the initial stage of PCBA operations, value addition could be around 3-6 percent and in the coming few years (mostly 3 years), it could increase to 15-20 percent or more than that".
Build Simple 12.6V CC/CV Lithium Battery Charger using Viper VP22A Low Power Primary Switcher IC
Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPS) are one of the most generally used AC-DC Converters on the market as they accept 110V/230V AC as input and convert it to a desirable DC voltage level, making them useful for a wide range of applications. These are omnipresent, from smartphone chargers to lab bench power supplies to medical tools. We've already developed a few SMPS circuits, such as this 5V 2A SMPS circuit, a 12V 1A TNY268 SMPS circuit, and a 12V 1A Viper-based CV Circuit. However, we did not discuss a Constant Current (CC) with a Constant Voltage (CV) power supply in any of those projects. CC and CV configuration is needed to build Lithium Battery Chargers, in this article we will design and build a 12.6V Li-ion battery charger to charge our 12V battery pack which we built in our previous tutorial. Constant current circuits are extremely helpful as they can be used to safeguard your circuit from overcurrent, as well as charge lithium batteries according to manufacturer requirements. It can also be used as a constant current LED driver to keep your LEDs from burning out. So, in this project, we will be adding in constant current capabilities to our Viper22A-based power supply and will document the entire construction process.
Viper22A Based SMPS Circuit Design Specification
Before we start our SMPS design, we need to shortlist the specifications because different types of SMPS work in different environments and they have input and output specifications. We also need to consider if the SMPS is inside an adapter or if it's in an open environment.
Input Specification
The SMPS circuit we are building will have an AC input voltage rating of 220V-240V as it's the standard Indian specification. This is also the rated input voltage for EU.
Output Specification
The output voltage of the power supply will be 12.6V with 1.3A Constant Current. The output power will be 16.8 watts. As discussed earlier, the SMPS will work in both Constant Current and Constant voltage mode, which means the current will be limited to 1.3A considering how big of a load is attached.
Output Ripple
As the purpose of designing a constant current supply is to use it as a LED Driver or a battery charger, the output ripple specification will not matter that much. But if you are using this power supply to power highly sensitive electronics, then you need to consider that a good power supply will have a maximum output ripple voltage of 30mV pk-pk. The output ripple voltage depends upon two major factors which are the Transformer construction and the output filter, so we need to consider the two factors in our design. We are going to order the transformer from a professional manufacturer and for the capacitor, we are going to use a low ESR value capacitor.
Input & Output Protection
There are various types of protection circuits available that can be employed for the safe and reliable operation of the SMPS, but the protection system can be divided into two categories: input protection and output protection. The input protection circuit protects the SMPS from the transient and high input voltage. The output protection circuit protects the load device from getting damaged. Input surge protection will be used with a maximum operating input voltage of 275VAC. Also, to deal with EMI issues, a common mode filter will be used for blanking out the generated EMI. On the Output side, we will include short circuit protection and over-voltage protection circuit.
Selection of the SMPS Driver IC
To build a proper working SMPS we will be needing a PMIC or power management IC, and as we have discussed earlier, we will be using the Viper22A SMPS controller IC. The circuit will have the following features.
- 16.38W output, 12.6V CV and 1.3A CC.
- Standard (220-260) V input voltage rating
- Input surge protection. Maximum input voltage 275VAC.
- Output short circuit, overvoltage and overcurrent protection.
- Constant voltage operations.
From the above requirement, we have a lot of ICS to choose from but as we have mentioned earlier we will be using the viper22A IC as it is cheap and readily available in the market, and from the datasheet of the Viper22A, we can see that the power capabilities are within our requirement for the DIP Package, so we will be using that IC.
| Main Type | SO-8 | DIP-8 |
|---|---|---|
| European(195-265 Vac) | 12W | 20W |
| US / Wide Range(85-265 Vac) | 7W | 12W |
In the above image, the typical power capabilities of the Viper22A IC are shown. As you can see, the DIP-8 version IC with an input voltage of 195-265V can deliver 20W of power. The pinout of the Viper22A IC is given below.
Components Required to build a 12v lithium battery charger
The components required to build the Viper22A-based SMPS circuit are listed below. Most of the components that are used to build this project can be found in your local hobby store or any online store. The Complete BOM of the Viper22A-based battery charger circuit is shown below.
- VIper22A Driver IC - 1
- EE25 SMPS Transformer - 1
- 0.15nF, 250V AC Capacitor - 1
- 100uF, 16V Capacitor - 2
- 10K Resistor-1
- 1K Resistor - 1
- 680R Resistor - 1
- 4.7K Resistor - 1
- 10 Ohms Resistor -2
- 180K Resistor - 1
- 2.2K resistor - 1
- 22uF,400V Capacitor - 1
- 27K Resistor - 1
- 3.3uH,1A inductor -1
- 4.7uF,16V Capacitor - 1
- 9.1K Resistor - 1
- DB107G Bridge Rectifier - 1
- FR107 Fast Recovery Diode - 1
- LM358 Op-amp - 1
- EL817 Optocoupler - 1
- SR360 Schottky Diode - 1
- T500mA Slow Blow Fuse - 1
- TL431 - 1
- UF4007 - 1
- LED Red - 1
- LED Green - 1
- 1R,2W Resistor - 3
- 1000uF,16V Capacitor - 1
- 0.1uF,16V Capacitor - 4
Circuit Diagram of the Viper-Based CC/CV Battery Charger
We started designing our circuit by using the power supply design software from Viper. You can download VIPer Design Software Version 2.24. You need to be specific with this version because the latest version of this software from ST does not support the viper22A IC, by selecting the input and output specification, the complete power supply circuit can be generated. The complete circuit for the Viper22A-based CC/CV Battery Charger is shown below.
- Input Surge and Fault Protection
- Input Filter
- AC-DC Conversion
- Driver Circuit or Main Switcher IC
- Clamp Circuit
- EMI Filter
- Secondary Rectifier
- Filter Section
- Feedback section
- Constant Current Section
Input Surge and SMPS Fault Protection
The input surge and fault protection section consist of three parts: First is the Slow Blow Fuse, next is the 10 OHM NTC and finally, we have a 7mm MOV(Metal Oxide Varistor) of 250V, as the max input voltage rating of the VIper22A IC is 265V. During a high voltage surge, the MOV will become dead short, and the fuse will blow up protecting the IC from the high input voltage. The fuse used in an SMPS circuit will have to be a slow-blow type fuse because there will be a huge current flow when the circuit is powered on because of the capacitor. NTC is there to limit the inrush current that is flowing in the first two or three bootup cycles.
Input Filter
For the Input filter, we are using a 0.15nF,250V AC Capacitor. The capacitor is an X-type Capacitor and we have used this type of capacitor in our Transformer less power supply design.
AC-DC Conversion
The main component of the AC-to-DC converter is a Full Bridge Rectifier and for this reason, we are using the DB107 1A Rectifier IC. To filter the noisy DC signal to a smooth DC signal, we are using a 22uF,400V Low ESR Capacitor.
Driver Circuit or Main Switching IC
The Viper22A is the main switching component of our power supply and the device needs power from the auxiliary winding of the transformer to start the switching process. Once the switching voltage is there and it's greater than 9V the switch across the main transformer starts with a built-in MOSFET.
Clamp circuit or Transient Clamp Circuit
The transformer itself is a big inductor. And as with any inductor, it creates a high voltage spike during the turn-off period of the transformer, which could damage the Viper22IC. So to prevent this, we need to use a transient voltage suppressor circuit. The D5, R2, and C7 are what make this circuit.
Secondary Rectifier
The High-Frequency output of the Transformer is rectified and filtered by an SR360 Diode D1. The maximum output current of the diode is 3A so it can easily handle the maximum output current of our power supply which is 1.3A.
Filter Section
In the schematic, C3, L3, and C13 make our LC PI filter. The LC filter is what provides better ripple rejection across the output of the supply.
Feedback Section
The Total feedback section consists of TL431(U2), LM358N(IC1), PC817(OK2), and two LEDs LED1, LED2. The TL431 senses the output voltage and puts out a constant voltage of 2.5V. Now, this 2.5V is compared with the output voltage by op-amp (IC1B), and the feedback from the voltage is lowered with a voltage divider (R7 and R5). Now when the voltage at the non-inverting input of the supply is greater than the inverting input, the output of the op-amp goes high and the LED1 lights up indicating that it's in Constant Voltage or CV mode. Now the optocoupler turns on and it provides some voltage on the feedback pin of the VIPER22A IC and the viper adjusts its switching speed accordingly.
Now for the constant current portion, the operation is almost the same as the constant voltage. The resistors R8, R9 along with R13 form a voltage divider. And this voltage is compared with the voltage drop across the 0.33Ohms resistor, which we have made by paralleling three 1 Ohms resistors. Now if the Voltage at pin3 of the op-amp is higher than pin 2 the output of the op-amp goes high, the LED2 turns on and now controls the optocoupler and the charger module is working in the CC mode.
PCB Design for 12V Battery Charger using Viper22A
The PCB for CC-CV Charger is a simple single-sided board. I have used Eagle to design my PCB but you can use any Design software of your choice. The 2D image of my board design is shown below.
The Top and bottom side of the PCB is shown above. As you can see on the bottom side I have used polygons to ensure sufficient current can flow through it, the thick polygons also act as a heat sink to dissipate heat. The complete design files with the schematic PDF can be found in the link given below.
- Download Gerber files of Viper22A Based CC/CV Flyback Converter PCB
For convenience and testing, we have made a handmade version of the PCB and the top and bottom side after soldering is shown above.
Transformer Construction for the Viper22A-based SMPS Circuit
As we have mentioned earlier, you need the viper design software to set the Input and output parameters, once you have set that you need to click on the Transformer button.
Once you click on the transformer button, you will get something like the image shown below.
The Core is E20/10/5 with an air gap of 0.68mm. The primary inductance is 0.72mH. The primary turns ratio is 113 Turns with 31 AWG wire. The Auxiliary Wire is 22 Turns with 44 AWG wire. The output windings are made with 19 Turns with 21 AWG wire. With all the information from the Transformer Design tool, we ordered our transformer from a professional construction house and after a week we received our consignment, and the transformers look something like the image shown below.
Testing the Viper22A Based SMPS Circuit
To test the circuit, we have our test setup which is shown below. To measure the output voltage, we are using a multimeter and to measure the current we are using a clamp meter.
Now as you can see the circuit is powered on and, on the output, we are getting 12.7 volts which make this circuit perfect for 3S battery pack charging.
Now as you can see in the image, we have attached the load to the output of the power supply. The load is two 10 ohms resistors in parallel which makes it 5 ohms load and as you can see there is a 900mA current flow through the resistor. The value of the current is lower because at the time of building the circuit, we did not have a 9.1K resistor with us and we need to put some resistors in series to get that 9.1K value and that is the reason why we are not getting full 1.3A at the output.
Problems while Building the Circuit with Solutions
There are many problems that we have encountered while building the circuit. The biggest of them all is duplicate ICs that we have got our hands on. In the original IC, pin no 5,6,7, and 8 are shorted, but in the duplicate IC pin no 7 and 8 are shorted, and pin no 5 and 6 had no connection with pin 7 and 8.
Next, you need to observe the auxiliary voltage of the transformer. If the auxiliary voltage of the transformer is not greater than 9V the IC will not start its operation.
The next problem was with the constant current design. The Viper IC is not designed for constant current operation, and we had to add an additional circuit to enable constant current mode for Viper IC. On the other hand, if we had used a Power Integrations IC, it would have a current limiting functionality built in, but the viper IC doesn’t have that functionality.
The Biggest Challenge to Deploy AI and IoT Solutions in India is its Large Geography
AI and IoT is not a buzzword anymore, feels many industry experts. This is because it is commencing a new market same as what cellular devices have done for seamless communication. These days, people are dependent on real-time information and not on historical records. Technology helps the availability of accurate information anytime and anywhere. But, some industry experts also opine that India is very slow in adopting innovative technologies when compared to Australia, US, Europe, and other Asian countries like China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Varun Manwani - Our Aim is to Become The Top Ten Players in PCB Manufacturing Within the Next Three Years in India
The procedure of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing is extremely imperative for anyone associated with the electronics industry. In general, PCBs can be defined as a laminated sandwich structure that consists of both conductive and nonconductive materials that enable engineers to place components on a rigid structure and make the necessary connections between them. Now, with the heavy escalation of growth and demand for electronic items in India, the demand for a sophisticated range of PCBs are also on the rise.
Software Development Tool Trends for Embedded Hardware
It is said that a person who only has a hammer everything looks like a nail. Having the right tool for the right job is crucial for effectiveness and efficiency in any skilled profession. Embedded system development is no different. That said, until fairly recently, tools aimed at embedded development have lacked the refinement and modern feature sets found in the development tools aimed at desktop, web, and mobile developers. In addition, programming microcontrollers and FPGAs have historically required rather expensive hardware programmers/debuggers and proprietary software licenses. The recent push towards more open source ecosystems (e.g., RISC-V microprocessor, Arduino IDE, etc.) has had an arguably net positive effect on the robustness and user-friendliness of many embedded development tools. Here is a look at software developments that have and are continuing to make significant changes to the workflow of embedded system developers:
1. Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
There is an allure for many developers to code in simple text editors, especially Vim or Nano on Linux. They are lightweight and found on nearly every Linux distro by default. However, modern code editors and IDEs offer much more functionality that makes them very attractive to embedded developers. In addition, many embedded hardware manufacturers offer custom IDEs specific to their various microcontroller families. Manufacturer-centric IDEs provide numerous advantages such as access to support libraries for external components, templates for multiple microcontrollers, and examples to help developers get started with new hardware.
2. Version Control Tools
Software development is nothing if not continuous. Additionally, it is rare for a single developer to develop modern embedded systems. Or at the very least, an embedded developer must work with mobile or web developers as embedded systems tend to be a part of a larger software ecosystem. Version control tools such as Git provide the ability to manage the iterations of source code through the development cycle. GitHub and GitLab are two popular cloud-based repositories of source code and other design files. Versioning, release management, and bug reporting are just a few of the benefits of using version control tools. However, there are a few drawbacks. Chiefly they have become a part of cybersecurity attack chains because developers sometimes accidentally leave usernames, passwords, or encryption keys in the commits they push to publicly available repositories. Bad actors then scour these repositories looking for that information and incorporate it into their malware attacks.
3. Debugger
Historically, debugging microcontrollers meant expensive hardware. In-Circuit Emulators (ICE) are devices that plug into the microcontroller socket of a more extensive system. They allow for real-time execution of the firmware while also providing debugging functionality such as register and memory access, conditional breakpoints, and trace buffers. More common and less expensive are In-Circuit Debuggers (ICD). Typically, a device sits between the developer workstation and the target microcontroller and allows for debugging over the In-Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP) protocol. Certain modern microcontroller development boards even have the debugging ICSP hardware built-in and are accessed via a USB cable connected directly between the target development board and developer workstation. Control over the debugging functionality is typically found in the development board’s preferred IDE.
4. Linter
When we write articles or reports, we run the final draft through a spell and grammar check tool. A linter is a similar concept but for source code. A linter looks at source code statically (i.e., before compilation and not while the machine code is running on the target device) and can detect issues that arise from stylistic errors, configuration errors, project structure errors, and library dependency errors. These errors can affect anything from readability to preventing successful compilation.
5. GitHub Copilot
For decades, auto-completion has been a feature of many code editors. Auto-complete helps developers be more efficient by offering real-time intelligent recommendations for keywords and variable names as a developer types out their source code. GitHub’s Copilot is an AI-based code completion tool (a plug-in for Visual Studio Code) that takes the idea of auto-complete to a whole new level. Copilot will examine the name of a function written by a developer and recommend the entirety of the source code needed to execute that function. For example, say you write the following:
float calculateVolume
Copilot will finish the function declaration as follows:
float calculateVolume(float radius) {
return (4.0/3.0) * PI * radius * radius * radius;
}
Copilot is essentially an AI colleague who can help develop code by providing at least a starting point for function definitions. However, like any automation tool, it does not replace the need for a human to review and, if necessary, correct code generated by Copilot.
6. HTTP and API Examination Tools
It is increasingly rare for embedded devices (i.e., IoT devices) to not communicate over a network, if not the Internet itself. Unfortunately, there is a good chance the web app developers are creating software in parallel( to the embedded development efforts. Tools such as Postman allow embedded developers to inspect and test HTTP request methods (e.g., PUT, POST, GET) and API requests independently and before committing them into the firmware. Thus troubleshooting is independent of the embedded hardware, ensuring any issues with an API are solely because of the API itself and not the firmware or embedded hardware.
7. Packet Inspection Tools
While development-oriented HTTP and API examination tools are excellent for high-level debugging, sometimes it is necessary to inspect at the packet level, or one may need to examine different protocols such as Zigbee. In those cases, it is necessary to use a packet inspection tool such as Wireshark. Wireshark can record and inspect numerous packet-based communications protocols.
8. Software-based Logic Analyzers
It is increasingly common for developers to use software-based tools to debug their devices in place of desks full of cumbersome hardware-based oscilloscopes and logic analyzers. Typically software-based tools connect to a personal computer via a USB cable, and the interface is provided as a desktop application. A popular entry/mid-level logic analyzer is the Saleae Logic Analyzer. These software-based tools are very compelling for field technicians. They make inspection and troubleshooting of deployed devices more efficient by bringing what has traditionally been lab-based level analysis out into the field. A vital advantage of a software-based analyzer is that in addition to the default protocols supported (e.g., I2C, SPI, serial), it is possible to write your own protocol analyzers for custom communications protocols.
9. Secure Shell (SSH) Terminal Client
For more robust embedded systems running an operating system and offering shell access for remote management, it will likely be necessary to SSH into a device to perform specific maintenance tasks. Or it may be necessary to remotely login into a server that multiple IoT devices communicate with and make changes to backend services. Regardless, the ability to remotely access systems is crucial, and SSH terminal clients such as Termius make that possible. Other useful features in modern clients include creating, storing, and running bash code snippets with a single click of the mouse. They also provide the ability to access multiple terminals at a time. Lastly, some clients also offer secure file transfer (SFTP) functionality to transfer files to/from remote devices from/to your local machine.
About the Author
Michael Parks, P.E. is the owner of Green Shoe Garage, a custom electronics design studio and technology consultancy located in Southern Maryland. He produces the S.T.E.A.M. Power podcast to help raise public awareness of technical and scientific matters. Michael is also a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Maryland and holds a Master’s degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Source: Mouser
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India is Now Looking for 30% Passenger Cars To Be Completely Electric; Claims Experts
A recent survey report of Markets and Markets has stated that amid the rising struggle to boost the growth of Electric Vehicles all over the world, the market of such is anticipated to increase from 8,151 thousand units in 2022 to 39,208 thousand units by the end of 2030 at a CAGR of 21.7 percent. There are several factors that have helped automotive manufacturers to produce EVs at a large scale and that includes no carbon emission cars via tax discounts and subsidies and also no pollution commuting and assistance from the government for long range. Now, the imperative point to be noted is that the government’s escalating investments and support throughout the world to perk-up hydrogen fueling stations and EV charging stations along with consumer incentives will open the door to opportunities for OEMs to swell their business presence and income stream. In the Asia Pacific region, the market is expected to witness undeviating growth because of a large demand for low-budget electric cars, while the European and the North American markets are growing swiftly because of huge government initiatives and incentives and also the increasing volume of the top-notch passenger vehicle segment. However, inadequate EV charging and hydrogen fuel stations, performance challenges, and higher costs involved in initial investments could degrade the growth of this sector internationally.
The Growing EV Sales
Backed by the huge government support and initiatives along with OEM’s exceptional manufacturing capabilities helped the sector to witness 3 million electric car sales in 2020, which is an increase of 40 percent in 2019. But, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the global automobile industry was down by 16 percent sales. After a swift growth, there are now around 10 million electric cars on the road which represents ~1 percent of the international car stock The Net Zero Emissions by 2050 speculates having 300 million electric vehicles on the road which accounts for 60 percent of new car sales.
According to an exclusive report of the Economic Times, around 18 countries have set goals to completely wipe out sales of traditional combustion engine vehicles by the end of 2030. As per the report, India is now looking for 30 percent of passenger cars to be completely electric, while China is looking for electric vehicle sales to be 25 percent growth and the US is looking for the same at 50 percent growth. Another survey report, dubbed ‘Oil and Gas Sector Strategies for Electric Vehicles (EV)’ stated that electric mobility is one of the most innovative ways through which gas and oil farms are developing and expanding their business to adapt to the energy transformation, which is already in progress. Firms such as Mitsui, Shell, TotalEnergies, etc are expanding their EV charging stations, unleashing top-notch batteries, and various other EV value chain capabilities via mergers and acquisitions.
Source - International Energy Agency
During the pandemic-infected year in 2020, the stock of international electric vehicles reached 10 million with BEVs witnessing two-thirds of the global’s electric vehicle fleet. Since then several road transports went to be electrified at a large scale with 25 percent of the world’s electric vehicles being mostly two-wheelers, but this was mostly limited to India, China, and ASEAN countries. In fact, in several bigger cities, electric micro-mobility is also gaining traction. For example, sales of e-cycles in the US increased two-fold thereby outstripping sales of all other bicycles. According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) over 82,000 new electric buses were on the road all over the world in 2020, which is a growth of 10 percent in 2019. China is equipped with 98 percent of the entire electric bus stock, while in America, India, and Europe electric buses are being deployed at a rapid pace.
Where do the Global Passenger Vehicle EV Firms Stand Currently?
In Q2 2022, the sales of international passenger electric vehicles increased by 61 percent year-on-year, which is a total of 2.18 million units. Counting the entire volume of EV sales, battery-backed electric vehicles grabbed 72 percent of the market share, while the rest is earned by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The latest survey report of Counterpoint Research claims that amid the growing anti-China sentiments, the country is still leading the worldwide EV sale, which is then followed by the US and Europe. The report also added that sales of China’s EV escalated by almost 92 percent year-on-year in Q2 2022, which is around 1.24 million units as compared to 0.64 million units in Q2 2021. According to market research experts, as the international semiconductor production crisis is coming to an end, automobile manufacturers are being able to meet the augmenting demand for EVs all over the world.
The experts also added that the sales of EVs would have been much more if China had not been smeared with new COVID outbreaks during March due to which strict lockdowns were enforced in several key regions of the country. Due to this scenario, the production of EVs was reduced drastically during April 2021, which further recorded the biggest slump in the market share of passenger vehicles in China since March 2020. Although Q2 2022 was speculated to perk-up production; but escalating geopolitical tensions, fiscal damages, supply chain disruptions, and energy crises might restrict the growth of China’s automobile market, mostly the EVs market in the coming years.
Source: IEA
The Shenzhen-based global automobile firm BYD defeated Tesla and became the world’s top-selling EV firm. In Q2 2022, the company shipped around 3,54,000 EV cars which is an escalation of 266 percent YoY. Back in March 2022, BYD stopped the production and sales of traditional vehicles officially and instead focussed on developing PHEVs and BEVs vehicles. The company’s 60 percent of sales appeared from its top models BYD Qin, BYD Song, and BYD Han. Now, the company is aiming to appear in the European market whose operations are now already commenced in Norway, and is looking to begin production sooner in the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden. Global automobile experts speculated that Tesla would lead the EV passenger vehicle market, but their expectations fell short because the Elon Musk led firm in Q2 2022 witnessed a growth of 27 percent YoY, which is a shipment of 2,54,000 units. In spite of its augmented business in the US, the market in China was massively affected by COVID-19 lockdowns and during the same quarter, only 98,000 cars of the company were being sold. Ever since the pandemic appeared in 2020, the cumulative sales in China during April and May decreased by 49 percent YoY, but during June, sales increased by 115 percent YoY. Amid very low sales and production, Tesla still remained a tycoon in the BEV segment.
The Partnership between Wuling, SAIC, and GM turned out to be a huge success as the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV became the top-selling EV car in China. Ever since its launch in Q2 2020, the car remains the unchallenged market leader. During Q2 2022, the market share of Wuling Hongguang increased by 16 percent YoY which helped it to grab the third spot in the international EV market.
Headquartered in Munich, Germany BMW’s electric car sales increased by 18 percent YoY during Q2 2022 and has a strong presence in the PHEV segment. Interestingly, during the same quarter, the company’s PHEV sales witnessed a growth of 2 percent, while its BEV sales saw a growth of 18 percent. BMW is now looking forward to shipping 2 million BEV units by the end of 2025, which will be a tremendous achievement in the EV industry, claims researchers at Counterpoint Research. For instance, X3 and i-series models are leading the company's BEV segment, while 5-Series, 3-Series and X5 models are spearheading the PHEV segment. Another German global automobile firm Volkswagen witnessed the biggest slump in sales of its passenger EV cars, which is 9 percent YoY. The shipments reduced considerably in the US and Europe by 74 percent and 44 percent. The semiconductor supply constraints and limited production of automobile components coupled with increasing inflation due to Russia’s tussle with Ukraine reduced the sales of passenger EVs both in the US and Europe. It has also been reported that Volkswagen failed to produce new proprietary software for its vehicles, which is also thrashing the firm’s shipment targets.
Neil Shah, Senior Research Vice President at Counterpoint Research Said, “loads of incentives play a pivotal role in the adoption of EV cars and for instance, China’s sturdy incentive schemes for both consumers and automobile manufacturers have aided the country to turn into an international EV leader. Until 2023, the subsidies for consumers are extended, which was earlier decided to terminate back in 2021. Most importantly, for manufacturers, there is a dual credit policy that proved to be a huge success and the government is aiming to weed-out consumer subsidies as soon as the industry reaches massive growth. The European countries offer very less subsidies due to which the adoption and sales are very slow. Overall, Europe’s EV market is just 16 percent YoY, while the same for China is 90 percent in Q2 2022. As the sales increase in the European countries, the consumer subsidies have ended with a complete change in focus on charging facilities, and also incentives for the people on building charging stations.”
Of late, the US unveiled a new EV policy that comprises alluring incentives for consumers are the car manufacturers. Around $12000 will be available for both consumers and manufacturers upon buying a new EV, which is speculated for the swift growth of EVs in the US. Countries such as India, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, and Malaysia have also commenced providing incentives and various added benefits for manufacturers and EV purchasers in either tax exemptions or discounts on actual prices.
Highlighting the entire market scenario, Peter Richardson, Senior Research Analyst said, “By 2023, the automobile industry is likely to get back on track with full trust. Towards the end of 2022, the sales of international passenger EV cars will not reach more than 10 million units because of the coronavirus pandemic, production halt due to power catastrophe, reduced manufacturing of components, and escalating consumer price inflation.”
India’s End Equipment Market is Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 19% from 2021 to 2026
According to some government data, India still outsources 100 percent of its semiconductors and 94 percent of its electronics including components. The initiatives of Digital India are looking forward to meet all the parameters to make India an electronics and semiconductor manufacturing hub. The positive news is that the nation is trying hard to unleash a sturdy and well-built chip design ecosystem, which can be further expanded to research and development for intellectual property and product development.
How the IIoT Enables the Smart Factory
Global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) should reach $1 trillion in 20221, nearly doubling the 2021 market size. Surprisingly, though, it is not technology or even web-based services leading to the adoption of connected technology. Instead, HFS Research found that industrial manufacturing exhibited the highest adoption rate (85 percent) among surveyed businesses.
There are well-known benefits to industrial manufacturing, adopted over time as standalone functional improvements, such as production rate optimization and increasing the data collected to improve operations insights. But as manufacturing takes a more holistic view to integrating the information technology (IT) infrastructure with operations technology (OT) to create the smart factory, manufacturers can realize the full benefit of this "industrial IoT" (IIoT) propelling their industries forward.
There are several ways the IIoT enables the intelligent factory (with some remaining challenges). However, before exploring those, it is worth reviewing the characteristics that differentiate a smart factory from a traditional one.
Smart Factory Characteristics
The simplest difference in the smart factory is the confluence of digital information and physical assets that extend manufacturing capabilities. These Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) incorporate additional sensors and automate controls into manufacturing processes, leading to three principal characteristics: asset connectivity, performance/trend visibility, and operator autonomy.
Integrated digital and physical tools connect operators with the equipment. This connection provides them a real-time, virtualized picture of the equipment status in a monitor. By enriching the insights into how the process is running during operation, the operators can monitor the processes closer while spending less active time watching the machines run, increasing autonomy.
Another smart factory characteristic is data collection and requisite analysis that engineers need to decode process operation. In addition, there must be on-site or cloud-based servers to process and house the higher volume of data, a feature legacy infrastructure did not need.
Benefits of the Smart Factory
The IIoT is driving this 85 percent adoption rate in industrial manufacturing due to its many advantages. The first layer is the historical gains manufacturers realize from using AI and machine learning as part of their process:
- Improved inventory control – recording insights into production flow enables the dual benefits of lower inventory—a high-priority key performance indicator (KPI) historically—and higher resilience/component availability (a known drawback of just-in-time (JIT) production). Analytics can optimize the balance while de-risking supply. This improvement reduces order management and material handling costs.
- Lower production cost through higher Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) – using collected data and AI, the smart factory adjusts production flow to maximize uptime, identify patterns, and predict demand variations. This approach also optimizes assets for improved production and energy efficiencies.
- Improved quality and lower scrap – collecting substantial data during production allow operators insight into equipment lifecycles. This view enables them to uncover trends in tool wear and predict the next (likely) point-of-failure. In addition, predictive maintenance reduces both repair cost and downtime to execute it, a significant advantage when considering run rates and targeting process waste reduction through lean initiatives.
With these three apparent improvements, the IIoT further enables the smart factory by promoting decentralization. Through the recent global supply chain disruptions, businesses pivoted to a more vertically integrated model to reduce supplier qualification time and gain control over quality and component delivery. As more companies implement IIoT tools down the supply chain, connecting suppliers' assets to a shared network can benefit an intelligent factory without vertical integration.
Furthermore, adding this capability increases the ability of the supplier to work with other companies by affording new partners insights into process capabilities themselves without time-consuming quality audits or process reviews. Increasing IIoT throughout manufacturing also facilitates creating industry standards to assure companies that a new partner has adopted the new capabilities properly.
IIoT also helps companies create new business streams, such as improved customization offerings and product—or manufacturing-as-a-service. Increased data collection and analytics will deliver quality through continuous improvement across the manufacturing process, no matter the application.
Finally, integrating IT with OT streamlines product development or process improvement/troubleshooting initiatives by leveraging virtual simulations to speed up iterative changes before cutting a physical part.
Smart Factory Challenges
Despite the numerous advantages of the IIoT-enabled smart factory, businesses have some challenges they must overcome.
The first is the initial cost of adding the data collection and digital processing tools. However, as mentioned, these improvements can lead to cost reductions in other aspects of the manufacturing and supply chain, so the business case should consider the total impact of the investment, including modularizing data collection/processing tools and reduced inventory and downtime.
Another challenge is integrating new technology with legacy infrastructure. While building a new integrated architecture is typically a simpler process, it may not be practical. Retrofitting a factory with IIoT tools should consider non-negotiables like connectivity, network resiliency, and cybersecurity, all of which become more critical with higher reliance on a connected factory.
Finally, it is important to add or contract the skill sets to implement the technology appropriately, including projecting network usage increases and data processing capacity.
Conclusion
While businesses must always overcome challenges when implementing a disruptive shift to an industry, industrial manufacturing is sprinting into Industry 4.0 by near-universal adoption of the IIoT. As a result, manufacturers can realize optimized inventory, lower operating costs, and higher quality through improved connectivity, visibility, and autonomy. In addition, the IIoT provides the opportunity to move toward a standardized, decentralized, connected supply chain. Along with faster product and process development improvements, that end state has created an exciting inflection point for industrial manufacturing.
About Author
Adam Kimmel has nearly 20 years as a practicing engineer, R&D manager, and engineering content writer. He creates white papers, website copy, case studies, and blog posts in vertical markets including automotive, industrial/manufacturing, technology, and electronics. Adam has degrees in chemical and mechanical engineering and is the founder and principal at ASK Consulting Solutions, LLC, an engineering and technology content writing firm.
Original Source: Mouser Electronics
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