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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
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Editorial
Editorial          Alled herefro
                   Portolionse
                   K
                            i dis
                       Andreas    et aspitatibus aut fugitem fugitatidf vel
                                Mangler,
                       Director StrategicEt
                            iligendae.   Marketing  and Communication
                                            ipiti optat ut eium rerorit aqui-
                           bus et veribus, ese eiciis adionsequi conse-
                   runt, tempos moloritas autat di sitis non coreptis est

Between “America First”
                   pos ut voloribusNam endemqui omnimilit, ini

and “Made in China 2025”
                Liquae ped quas con eatur? Lore coressi dolore pa
                doluptaquam ilit dis am, ut qui ut que et fugit unt
                quis as ab int event litae dolupta ssimint veligendi
Dear Readers, omnisque necus autenemqui ommodias aut et ut
                quam que qui dolest officiis rem et in conet pla dolo-
While one part re
                of officaerorum
                    the world hasraalready sit lam,got sapiet   et autatem
                                                          its economy      backconsequi
                                                                                  up and running again,
                ipittoeum
the rest continue            quas aut
                        alternate     backomnim       doluptati
                                              and forth            aut pligend
                                                             between     lockdown  estias
                                                                                       and loosening re-
strictions. Thisrehasn’t
                    cumquiatgone vellist
                                     unnoticedrem in quasthe qua   m ut voluptatem
                                                              electronics     industry. We are experi-
XXX
encing
XXX             cuson
        allocation    saeces     magnisi temqui
                          an unprecedented           scalead ineumOffictotas
                                                                 both the Consumer excea and Industrial
                soloreped
segments, something       thatexevenexplab
                                         the ilianducia       nis di reprehent.
                                               major automotive          giants are not being spared.
The massive winding-down of production in the second quarter of 2020 caused
                Nihilignit
shockwaves through              qui comnisit
                         the supply      chain that  et are
                                                         rerostill
                                                                dolorepedis
                                                                    being felt acimus
                                                                                 today.
                plabore rnatur ra inctior ibeati rerum que nes cum
                laborei cillestorro
But even if COVID-19         had not been   te aeaqui
                                                   thing,autaspisint
                                                            the increasinges etpace
                                                                                 acestis
                                                                                      of digitalization is
                asi aditatem
still hugely driving   demandcum         int des aliquodionAnd
                                    for semiconductors.            cus,while
                                                                          nobisbusiness
                                                                                 eaquid is still largely
in the hands ofqui thedoldfuptae.
                        major American Et autem       quat.
                                                   companies,       China aims to close the gap as
quickly as possible with its “Made in China 2025” program. Even if it looks un-
                Dus,
likely to achieve      non porersp
                   its goal    of having errundandit
                                             70% of itsexces demandet dolores
                                                                         coveredequiber
                                                                                    by the production of
                iatusathe
its own businesses,      volecae      ratqui is
                             government        rem    fuga.
                                                   still      Beriti countless
                                                         pumping       dita et pedbillions
                                                                                     quo into the pro-
                beri restiis
gram. And although      Donald   quis  sitiatinosciatqu
                                    Trump          longeramenis
                                                             rules fromet fuga.  Itatiis-House, marking
                                                                            the White
                tiis aribusdam
an end to his ideology     of “Americaquis First,”
                                              evendunt  the as
                                                             USAsapitibus
                                                                    under Joeaboria
                                                                                 Bidennisremains critical
of the growing quam      veni doluptas
                 competition        presented exero     eum doluptatiam sundunt
                                                  by China.
                officte maxim eosto ipsundi tations equatur sim hit
And what aboutvolupta
                  Europe?   tiptat.
                                It “spent years blissfully asleep at the wheel,” as Rutronik
CMO Markus Krieg put it in his interview (page 14), with its share of global elec-
tronic demand Nihilignit
                 dropping to    quiaround
                                      comnisit  8 percent—which
                                                     et rero dolorepedis  basically
                                                                                 acimus
                                                                                      covers Apple’s or
Samsung’s needs plabore
                     alone.rnatur
                               Even rathoseinctior
                                                 lacking
                                                      ibeatiinrerum
                                                                imagination
                                                                         que nescan cumconceive of what
this means for laborei
                the relevance        of European
                            cillestorro     te eaquibusinesses
                                                          autaspisintwhen es etitacestis
                                                                                   comes to how manu-
facturers prioritize  supply. That
                asi aditatem       cum intsaid,
                                              desthe    Europeancus,
                                                    aliquodion       Unionnobisseems
                                                                                 eaquid to have heard the
alarm bells ringing,    and for itsEt
                qui doldfuptae.         part   is now
                                           autem          putting around 150 billion euros on the
                                                      quat.
table to secure local semiconductor production.
                Dus, non porersp errundandit exces et dolores equiber
Better late thaniatusa
                  never,volecae
                            and hopefully
                                      ratqui rem  in time
                                                      fuga.to    secure
                                                              Beriti   ditaEurope’s
                                                                             et ped quofuture as a center
of innovation. beri
                The restiis
                       numerous  quis sitiati
                                       businessessciatqu resident
                                                            amenisinetthe fuga.
                                                                              EUItatiis-
                                                                                    and in particular in
Germany needtiis reliable
                      aribusdam
                              local partners
                                      quis evenduntto remainas sapitibus
                                                                  competitive,
                                                                             aboriaandnisneed to be able
to produce the quam
                 productsvenithey     develop
                                 doluptas     exerowithout
                                                        eum having       to spend
                                                               doluptatiam           months waiting for
                                                                                sundunt
allocations of the   components
                officte    maxim eosto  they ipsundi
                                                need. Especially         in thissim
                                                           tations equatur        light,
                                                                                       hit there is benefit
to be found involupta
                  collaborations
                            tiptat. between these European businesses and European
distributors that are geared not just towards short-term gains but also the strategic
importance of the
                Ebishome
                       iscimus market.
                                    magnat quae ommoluptas sum landige
                n aliberu ptasimus perecusciat unt deliqui dissit fac-
As the third-largest   distributoretur
                est doluptiant         in Europe,
                                            molor sit,   Rutronik
                                                           corem etcontributes
                                                                        inveles es its
                                                                                     sin-expertise to sup-
port the programs
                venisofexpellam,
                           the German         government
                                        qui vendae       consed and   the EU,
                                                                   quam,          because as a German
                                                                            voluptat.it,
company, we care      deeply volupta
                culliquam        about the  sitfuture
                                                lat fugiaof our
                                                             cus home
                                                                  event. industries and of European
industry. Being active globally and ensuring the independence of local businesses
are not mutuallyNimusap
                   exclusive—quite
                               errore cum  the hitatatuItae.
                                                opposite. FairMagaliberu
                                                                    competitionptasi-for the best innova-
tions and the most
                musefficient
                       perecusciat technologies
                                         unt deliqui   is ultimately
                                                           andam sa beneficial
                                                                         cus, cor alici
                                                                                      to us all.
                vellant lignis eic te senditaest quam fugiaspis restias
Sincerely,      aut parum exerum harum adis voles dolorem volupta

Andreas Mangler
            XXX@markt-technik.de

 www.rutronik.com                                                             Committed to Excellence     3   3
1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
Contents
           Editorial                                                3               Automotive
                                                                                    Automotive MOSFETs:

           • Know-how
                                                                                    A package deal that’s worth it                     36
                                                                                    Ambient lighting: Light: the new chrome            38
           Development trends with ceramic capacitors:                              Current measurement in the drive unit of
           Hi, we‘re the new guys!                                  5              electric vehicles: More compact inverters require
           NOR flash: Safety for automotive and                                     more precise shunts                                40
           industrial innovations                                  8               Haptic feedback systems for touchscreens:
           Circuits for miniature loudspeakers:                                     Using touch applications without visual contact    42
           Small speakers, big sound                              10

                                                                                    • Application
           Drive technology:
           Pre-charging capacitors using pulse-withstanding
           resistors                                              12
                                                                                    Current sensing solutions:
                                                                                    Concepts for measuring direct current              44

           • Inside               Rutronik                                          Si vs. SiC MOSFETs:
                                                                                    Exchange technology–but correctly!                 48
           An interview with Rutronik CMO Markus Krieg:                             A comparison of electromechanical and MOSFET
           “We’ve overcome the crisis well”                       14               relays: Analog technology in the digital age 50
           Logistics:                                                               CO2 sensors based on new measurement principle:
           More efficient procurement of C-parts                  18               Time to clear the air                        52
           FAE support:                                                             Reference designs, dev kits, and more:
           Field application engineers without the field         20                Off-the-shelf is fine,
                                                                                    but nothing beats customization                    54

           • System               technology
                                                                                    Text to speech: Look who’s talking!                56

           5G campus networks:
           Private cellular networks for the smart factory       22
           Alternatives for ToF applications:
           How VCSELs can be best put to use                     25
           Machine learning:
           Components for machine learning on the edge           28                • Service
                                                                                    Publishing details                                 58
           5G and TSN:
           For the industrial automation of the future           32                List of advertisers                                58

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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
Know-how

                 Development trends with ceramic capacitors

                 Hi, we’re the new guys!
                 There are many demands placed on ceramic capacitors: smaller
                 construction, large temperature ranges, higher efficiency,
                 stricter tolerances, optimized functions, and higher frequencies,
                 not to mention the desire for application-specific versions. The
                 manufacturers do a lot to satisfy all these requests.

                                                                           I
                                                                               n order to continue optimizing their ce-

                                                                                                                                                                                      Figure: Murata
                                                                               ramic capacitors, manufacturers develop
                   By Jürgen Geier, Technical Support,                         new materials and mixtures as well as
                                  and
                    Pascal Kundelius, Product Sales                        new approaches to the construction, engi-
                      ­Manager Ceramic Capacitors,                         neering, and interior structure (i.e. the forms
                            both at Rutronik                               of the electrode surfaces). They also deliber-
                                                                           ately make use of certain properties such as
                                                                           the widely negatively viewed effect of DC
                                                                           bias. This effect occurs in ferromagnetic ce-
                                                                           ramic materials such as barium titanate,
                                                                           which is currently the material most com-
                                                                           monly used for MLCCs (multilayer ceramic
                                                                           capacitors).

                                                                           Alongside the more widely known designs            Figure 2: Substitute circuit diagram for variable
                                                                           such as high-frequency, HiQ, RF, microwave,        capacitors.
                                                                           low-inductance, and low-loss capacitors, a
                                                                           range of specific and novel ceramic capaci-
                                                                           tors has recently started appearing on the         electrodes, so they could also be referred to
                                                                           market that are still broadly unknown—given        as VACs—voltage adjustable capacitors. These
                                                                           the current deluge of new developments, this       electrically trimmable capacitors are available
                                                                           is hardly a surprise. We introduce some of         with capacitance ratings of 33 pF to 200 pF
                                                                           the most important features here.                  for control voltages of up to 3 or 5 V DC, al-
                                                                                                                              lowing them to be adjusted to up to 50% of
                                                                                                                              their base capacitance. Compared to regular
                                                                                            Variable capacity
                                                                                                                              trimmer capacitors, this provides them with
                                                                                            thanks to DC bias
                                                                                                                              unimagined opportunities—especially given
                                                                                                                              that they can not only be set to fixed values,
                                                                           “Variable capacitors” do just as the name sug-     but also used to form control loops.
                                                                           gests—they offer variable capacitance. Using
                                                                           their DC bias reduces the effective capacities     They are available in construction sizes of
                                                                           when a DC current is applied to their control      0.6 mm × 0.6 mm and 1.3 mm × 0.9 mm for
                                                                                                                              working voltages of 10 V pp and 30 V pp. Ap-
                                                                                                                              plications for which these are especially ideal
Figure: Murata

                                                                                                                              include NFC antenna circuits (13.56 MHz
                                                                                                                              band), such as those used in smartphones and
                                                                                                                              check cards, because the variable capacitors
                                                                                                                              here enable frequency adjustments to be per-
                                                                                                                              formed by simply applying the appropriate
                                                                                                                              voltage in conjunction with the NFC ICs. They
                                                                                                                              also compensate for variance in the antenna’s
                                                                                                                              L value, making f0 adjustment easier, and also
                                                                                                                              facilitate debugging during certification test-
                 Figure 1: “Variable capacitors” offer adjustable capacitance by using DC bias.                               ing and simplify deviation adjustments during
                                                                                                                              installation in the housing.

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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
Know-how
Figure: Murata

                                                                                                                                range. This is enabled by their lead (lantha-
                                                                                                                                num) zirconate titanate (P(L)ZT) construction,
                                                                                                                                referred to as a “ceramic.”

                                                                                                                                Thanks to their extremely low ESL and ESR,
                                                                                                                                CeraLink capacitors support higher switching
                                                                                                                                frequencies and currents. This allows for the
                                                                                                                                use of cheaper, more robust semiconductors,
                                                                                                                                for example high-speed IGBTs instead of
                                                                                                                                MOSFETs. This method often enables the val-
                                                                                                                                ue of the capacitor, the space on the board,
                                                                                                                                the magnetic components and the heatsink
                                                                                                                                to be reduced, thus also reducing the total
                                                                                                                                cost.

                                                                                                                                As snubbers, CeraLink capacitors are a superb
                                                                                                                                solution to reduce the risk of semiconductors
                   Figure 3: The 3D structure enables miniaturization by a factor of 100.                                       being damaged by voltage spikes.

                                                                             Thanks to their construction and thicknesses       CeraLink capacitors are based on chips
                           Silicon in the third dimension                    of just 50 to 400 µm, they are available not       (7.85 mm × 6.84 mm × 2.65 mm) from which
                                                                             just in soldered versions, but also as bonded      the manufacturer assembles a variety of con-
                   For “high-density silicon” or “3D silicon” ca-            versions and for embedded installation. This       nection options and combinations (Figure 6).
                   pacitors, manufacturers use the third dimen-              means that there are ideal designs available
                   sion to significantly enlarge the capacitor sur-          for automotive, medical, RFID, high-frequen-
                                                                                                                                           Rechargeable solid-state
                   face—and with it the capacitance—without                  cy, and broadband applications, categorized
                                                                                                                                                SMD battery
                   increasing the base surface area of the ca-               as standard, high-reliability, high-tempera-
                                                                                                                                           with MLCC construction
                   pacitor. This is how capacitance values are               ture, and high-frequency models.
                   achieved that would require around 80 layers
                   in MLCCs with a component thickness of                                                                       The world’s first rechargeable solid-state SMD
                                                                                  Capacitors with antiferromagnetic
                   100 µm.                                                                                                      battery might not be a capacitor, but the ba-
                                                                                              properties
                                                                                                                                sic principles of its engineering design, con-
                   The Murata SiCap, for example, offers a whole                                                                structed as an MLCC, are consistent with one.
                   100 nF with a size of 0402 and a thickness of             If ceramic capacitors are used as snubber or       “CeraCharge” batteries offer capacitance
                   just 100 μm—equivalent to ten Class 1 dielec-             DC link capacitors in a range of around 500 V      around one thousand times that of MLCCs of
                   tric C0Gs of size 0603 and 400 μm thickness.              to 900 V for working frequencies of several        comparable physical size. In other words, they
                   Thinner versions are also available from Mu-              hundred kHz up to 1 MHz, MLCCs made of             have a comparably high energy density with
                   rata on request. Capacitance values range                 X7R ceramics (i.e. those that use the ferro-       a minimal volume. Then there are the benefits
                   from several pF to a few µF, and voltages                 magnetic barium titanate as their base mate-       of ceramic multilayer components, namely ro-
                   range from 5 to 450 V.                                    rial) are frequently pushed to the limits of us-   bust safety and large-scale serial production.
                                                                             ability. Due to their pronounced negative DC       The use of a solid ceramic electrolyte elimi-
                   Their material and construction properties                bias behavior, the necessary effective capaci-     nates the risks of fire and explosion, and of
                   make these high-density silicon capacitors es-            tance values in particular are almost impos-       electrolyte leakage.
                   pecially well-suited to high-frequency appli-             sible to achieve.
                   cations from 10 up to 110 GHz. Their electrical                                                              CeraCharge supports a very large temperature
                   characteristics are similar to the known “ce-             Antiferromagnetic properties are provided by       range of –20°C to +80°C and is therefore suit-
                   ramic” type NP0 (= C0G). Unlike the C0G                   the “CeraLink” capacitors from TDK. This           able for outdoor use.
                   MLCCs, however, they can already be used as               means that they exhibit an increase in capac-
                   standard versions up to 150°C, and as high-               itance with the applied voltage, which enables     The properties open up new opportunities for
                   temperature versions up to as high as 250°C.              much higher currents within the operating          CeraCharge, in particular for IoT applications,
                                                                                                                                                                                         Figure: TDK
  Figure: Murata

                                                                                                                                Figure 5: The compact CeraLink capacitors from TDK
                                                                                                                                are suitable both for use as snubber capacitors and as
                   Figure 4: A SiCap from Murata offers the capacitance values of ten C0G capacitors with 100 nF.               DC link capacitors.

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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
real-time clock syncing, and energy harvest-
Figure: TDK

                                                                                                      ing. If higher currents and/or voltages are re-
                                                                                                      quired, these can be provided using parallel
                                                                                                      and/or serial circuits.

                                                                                                      The CeraCharge is currently available in the
                                                                                                      size defined by EIA 1812 (approx. 4.5 mm ×
                                                                                                      3.2 mm × 1.1 mm) and offers a rated capaci-
                                                                                                      tance of 100 µAh and a nominal voltage of
                                                                                                      1.5 V.
              Figure 6: CeraLink capacitors are available in many different designs.

                                                                                                                       Conclusion
Figure: TDK

                                                                                                      Even if there are many other optimized
                                                                                                      ceramic capacitors alongside the types listed
                                                                                                      here, among them MLCCs with internal
                                                                                                      copper electrodes, MLCCs with end termina-
                                                                                                      tion for conductive adhesives, or “X2Y” ver-
                                                                                                      sions, those illustrated here show that it is
                                                                                                      worthwhile to be a little more adventurous
                                                                                                      on occasion when there are particular re-
                                                                                                      quirements. This is useful for you to remain
                                                                                                      aware of your options when development is
                                                                                                      being performed at a hurried pace, and even
                                                                                                      to set new trends with product and device
              Figure 7: The construction of a CeraCharge battery is based on the design of an MLCC.   designs.                                  ■

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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
Know-how

NOR flash

Safety for automotive and
­industrial innovations
With the advancement of artificial intelligence, machines are being entrusted to
take on more and more tasks. Especially in automotive and industrial applications,
sensors monitor the environment, and algorithms draw conclusions based on the
compiled sensor data. These systems need to not only work correctly to ensure
safety, but also need to make the right decisions—every time, all the time. Modern
NOR flash memory can help achieve this.

                                    S
                                             teering, acceleration, braking and          lar controllability, or the ability of a driver or
                                             parking assistance systems, lane de-        other traffic participants to prevent damage
 By Adrian Elms, Senior Marketing            parture warning systems—there are           or an accident in a given scenario.
     Manager at Rutronik, and
         Stephan Wegstein,          more and more systems that help us to drive
Senior Manager Product Marketing    our cars. They offer greater performance,
                                                                                             NOR flash in safety-critical systems
     at Infineon Technologies       greater comfort, and greater safety. But in the
                                    latter case, they themselves need to satisfy
                                    strict functional safety standards. These are        In numerous advanced driver-assistance sys-
                                    defined in two standards.                            tems (ADAS), NOR flash memory plays a key
                                                                                         role as part of a safety-critical system, be-
                                    IEC 61508 declares four safety integrity levels      cause this non-volatile, programmable mem-
                                    (SILs) for industrial control systems (see table).   ory is robust, reliable and fast. The host pro-
                                    ISO 26262, on the other hand, applies to safe-       cessor can execute code directly from the
                                    ty-critical electrical/electronic (E/E) systems      flash memory without having to copy it to
                                    in automotive vehicles. It defines the safety        external DRAM first. This makes NOR flash
                                    levels ASIL A to ASIL D, where ASIL A repre-         memory ideal for code execution, not just in
                                    sents the lowest risk potential, and ASIL D          the car but also in industrial robots and other
                                    represents the highest. The level is determined      IoT machinery and devices. Another advantage
                                    on the basis of frequency, controllability and       is its large temperature range, allowing it to
                                    severity of the accident and/or damage.              be used in a wide variety of environments and
                                                                                         applications in the vehicle.
                                    ISO 26262 is based on IEC 61508, but specif-
                                    ically accommodates concerns specific to the         Common uses for NOR flash memory in auto-
                                    automotive industry. These include in particu-       motive and industrial applications include:

                                                                                                                                              Figure: Infineon

                                    The architecture of the Semper NOR flash memory combines an ARM Cortex-M0 with
                                    numerous safety functions.

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1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
• permanent storage of code, data and im-                   Integrity Level                            Random Failure Rate                                           Integrity Level                           Random Failure Rate
  ages for use during start-up,                             SIL 4                                           ≥10–9 to
1/2021 | E - Know-how Application Automotive - Rutronik
Know-how

                    Circuits for miniature loudspeakers

                    Small speakers,
                    big sound
                    “Rrrring, Rrrring”—when every telephone still had a cable, that was
                    exactly how a phone call would sound. “Ding-dong” was how the
                    doorbell would herald the arrival of house visitors. Today, users have
                    a choice of countless songs, sounds, and natural noises. Miniature
                    loudspeakers with wide frequency ranges make this possible.

                                     By Jochen Neller, Technical Support, and
                      Anne Santhakumar, Product Sales Manager Acoustic Components & Timing
                                            Devices, both at Rutronik

                                                                                                                            Figure: PUI Audio
                    A
                            udible communication in the form of          oscillate. These oscillations create the acous-
                            speech or music is becoming increas-         tic signals perceived by the human ear.
                            ingly important in human-machine in-
                    terfaces (HMI), and this is also true of indus-      The physics of this type of loudspeaker—in
                    trial applications. In this field, audible signals   particular sound pressure levels (SPL)—require
                    or announcements can supplement visual in-           a certain geometry. This often makes the loud-
                    dications, especially when information needs         speaker a limiting factor that prevents the
                    to be conveyed despite a lack of visual con-         device from being thinner.
                    tact with the device. There is a selection of
                    several loudspeaker types for a wide variety
                                                                                    Piezoelectric speakers
                    of applications.                                                                                            Traditional structure of a ceramic loudspeaker.

                    A conventional loudspeaker, also known as a          Piezoelectric speakers, on the other hand, are
                    dynamic or magnetic loudspeaker, basically           available in thin forms. They do not require a        any surface into a loudspeaker, be it a display,
                    consists of a permanent magnet mounted on            voice coil to generate sound—instead, they            a table, a mirror, or the plastic housing of an
                    a voice coil. These in turn are connected at         use the piezoelectric effect, whereby the tried       application. The PiezoListen generates a high
                    multiple points. This structure is surrounded        and true piezoelectric ceramic material is            sound level pressure even at low voltages of
                    by a loudspeaker frame, which supports a taut        usually bonded to a brass or nickel plate and         24 V p-p or less.
                    diaphragm made of paper, fabric, or plastic.         made to vibrate by supplying it with a volt-
                                                                         age. Unlike dynamic loudspeakers, which               Multilayer piezo loudspeakers are triggered
                    Electrical signals (DC) create a magnetic field      measure at least four millimeters in height,          and controlled in exactly the same way as a
                    in the coil, which causes the diaphragm to           these are a single millimeter tall at most.           dynamic loudspeaker with an IC amplifier.

                    Construction of a dynamic                            Another design is that of the multilayer piezo
                                                                                                                                                Amplifier circuits
                    loudspeaker.                                         loudspeaker. They are constructed not just
                                                                              from one ceramic element, but multiple
                                                                                 layers, with each layer filtering dif-        Amplifier circuits for loudspeakers need to
                                                                                  ferent frequency spectrums. This al-         consider three factors in particular: the short-
                                                                                  lows them to generate superior au-           term power, the impedance, and the frequen-
                                                                                 dio.                                          cy range.

                                                                              The PiezoListen from TDK is among the            The short-term power—the load that a loud-
                                                                          thinnest speakers in the world. Measuring            speaker can briefly withstand from an ampli-
Figure: PUI Audio

                                                                         just 0.49 mm in height, it can be glued easily        fier signal without being damaged—can range
                                                                         to smooth surfaces, which are then made to            from several 100 mW to several watts in min-
                                                                         oscillate. This is how it transforms practically      iature speakers.

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The impedance of magnetic speakers is usu-                 A push-pull amplifier consisting of transistors
ally 4, 8, or 16 Ω. It therefore has a significant         is a suitable amplifier stage for the audio am-
impact on music output and also plays a ma-                plifier. A small high-efficiency speaker only
jor role in the amplifier circuit—if a speaker             needs simple standard transistors and elec-

                                                                                                             Figure: TDK
with a higher impedance than is recommend-                 trolytic capacitors to achieve an acceptable
ed is connected to the amplifier, its output               volume level.
may be reduced (i.e. the sound becomes qui-
eter). On the other hand, if the impedance is              The BCP5616 and BCP5316 complementary
too low, the quality of the sound may be im-               transistors from Diodes are well-suited for
paired, or the amplifier may even shut down                medium-level output, while something like           TDK’s PiezoListen can use its multilayer technology
due to overload.                                           the EEEFK1V101XP from Panasonic is ideal as         to transform anything into a loudspeaker.
                                                           an electrolytic capacitor.
While magnetic speakers are an inductive                                                                       loudspeakers complete with housings provide
load, ceramic speakers are a capacitive one.                                                                   a convenient alternative.
                                                                          Integrated circuits
This means that they have a much higher im-
pedance, which diminishes with increasing                                                                      There is often little space available for the
frequency. The amplifier therefore needs to                Often, however, it is more effective to use in-     loudspeaker, in which case it is important to
supply much greater currents and cannot lim-               tegrated circuits to create simple amplifier        make optimum use of the available volume to
it the current while maintaining the same                  circuits. These audio amplifier ICs control and     achieve good audio quality with optimum
voltage if the loudspeaker is expected to re-              boost the audio signal, providing a louder,         sound pressure. This can be achieved with a
ceive signals with high-frequency content.                 cleaner, and higher-quality sound. They are         housing that is as rectangular or cubic as pos-
                                                           available in small packages and are found in        sible, matching the speaker diameter to the
The frequency range is divided into higher                 many applications such as televisions, com-         front and rear. A horn or funnel also serves to
power classes, so that the signal is sent to a             puters, or home audio systems as digital am-        amplify sound.
tweeter speaker, mid-range speaker, and bass               plifier or operational amplifier types with
speaker. For low power levels, a single wide-              mono or stereo audio. Most audio amplifier          General rules for the housing structure:
range speaker is used to eliminate the need                ICs are specifically designed for dynamic loud-
for audio crossovers.                                      speakers (e.g. NJU8759 from JRC), although          • The loudspeaker diaphragm must not hit the
                                                           models are also available for piezoelectric           front plate at its maximum excursion.
Dynamic speakers have a relatively low effi-               speakers with integrated charge pumps (e.g.
ciency level. Their voice coil can be seen as a            NJW1280 from JRC).                                  • Vibrations can be avoided using foam be-
permanent resistor connected in series with a                                                                    tween the speaker chassis and housing. This
high inductance. It produces ohmic losses                                                                        also prevents the sound from spreading
                                                                              Loudspeaker
with much of the active power being dissi-                                                                       from the back to the front.
                                                                                housing
pated in the form of heat. The amplifier must
therefore provide more power—which is a dis-                                                                   • A cavity of maximum size behind the speak-
advantage in the case of battery-powered ap-               Once the amplified audio signal is at the voice       er provides greater volume and superior
plications in particular.                                  coil or the piezo element, sound pressure             sound quality. It is often worth having a
                                                           waves are generated. When the diaphragm               well-designed construction to this end.
In ceramic speakers, their capacitive nature               moves forward, a slight positive pressure de-
means that the reactive power plays the                    velops on the front side of the diaphragm,
                                                                                                                                    Conclusion
greater role, generating little in the way of              while a negative pressure develops on the rear
heat. However, the amplifier circuit in the out-           side, and vice versa.
put stage requires a large amount of active                                                                    The choice of speaker type, the amplifier cir-
power, which dictates efficiency here. Instead             To avoid cancellations and thus to increase         cuit, and the housing can all affect the size
of conventional Class AB amplifiers, other to-             the sound level significantly, the front and        and audio quality of the speaker. But nowa-
pologies such as Class G or D amplifiers are               rear sides of the speaker should be acousti-        days, there are solutions available for practi-
recommended nowadays to achieve higher ef-                 cally insulated, for which the housing must be      cally all requirements and construction size
ficiency.                                                  designed accordingly. Ready-to-use miniature        limitations.                                ■

Advantages and disadvantages of various speaker designs.

             Ceramic piezo loudspeaker                                    Dynamic loudspeaker                              Multilayer piezo loudspeaker
 Advantage                  Disadvantage                   Advantage                  Disadvantage           Advantage                    Disadvantage
 High efficiency            High driver voltage            Tried and true, low-cost   Poor efficiency        No holes are required for    Costly technology
                                                           technology                                        audio output
 Reproducible production    Capacitive behavior            Consistent frequency       Deep construction      Suitable for IP67 case
 process                                                   behavior
 Thin construction          Poor handling of bass                                                            Ultra-thin construction
                            tones

www.rutronik.com                                                           Committed to Excellence           Powered by                                   1/2021     11
Know-how

Drive technology

Pre-charging capacitors using
pulse-withstanding resistors
Electric motors are usually controlled using converters. Electrolytic capacitors
are frequently used to stabilize and buffer the DC voltage in the DC link. There
are a number of issues to consider with switching these capacitors in and out
of the circuit.

                                                                W
                                                                            hen a capacitor is charged through          • the internal resistance of the voltage source
                                                                            a resistor, the increase in voltage           estimated at around 20 mΩ
     By Bert Weiss, Technical Support                                       follows a curve in the form of a
             at Rutronik, and
             Roger Renfordt,                                    natural exponential function (Figure 1, blue            • the transfer resistance of the connecting
      Key Account Manager at Krah                               line). The relevant charging current of the ca-           terminals, switching contacts, etc. of max.
                                                                pacitor (green) on the other hand takes the               5 mΩ
                                                                form of a decaying exponential function.
                                                                                                                        This means that a realistic total resistance
                                                                The maximum current flows right at the start            would be around 50 mΩ. With this, there is
                                                                of the charging process, at which point it is           still a peak current of over 2,000 A 
                                                                100 V/50 Ω = 2 A. After around 1.5 seconds              (100 V/0.05 Ω = 2,000 A).
                                                                the capacitor reaches a voltage of close to
                                                                100 V, while the current is close to 0 A.               While this very high current would only be
                                                                                                                        flowing for a very brief moment, you can still
                                                                Let’s say this capacitor is charged without us-         imagine what impact these current surges can
                                                                ing a resistor, so that when the voltage is             have on other components—certainly so, when
                                                                “hard switched,” there is only a very low spe-          you remember that DC voltages of 800 V are
                                                                cific resistance in the supply line—estimated           commonplace in DC link solutions for convert-
                                                                to be 10 mΩ—in which case there is theoret-             ers nowadays.
                                                                ically a current of up to 10,000 A at the first
                                                                moment of charging!
                                                                                                                          Switch-on processes in consideration of
                                                                                                                                     wire inductance
                                                                However, in reality, in addition to the ohmic
                                                                resistance of the connecting wire, there are
                                                                other elements providing resistance:                    If we consider not only the capacitance but
                                                                                                                        also any wire inductance, we observe behav-
                                                                • the ohmic resistance of the capacitor esti-           ior such as that seen in Figure 3.
                                                                  mated at around 25 mΩ
                 Figures: Krah

                                 Figure 1: The voltage and charging current of a capacitor follow opposing natural   Figure 2: Charging a capacitor at 5,000 µF to a voltage
                                 exponential functions.                                                              of 100 V through a resistor of 50 Ω.

12                               1/2021 Powered by                              Committed to Excellence                                                  www.rutronik.com
Figure 4: Charging a capacitor at 5,000 µF to a
                                                                                                            voltage of 100 V with a resistance of 7 mΩ and a
                                                                                                            wire inductance of 7 µH.

Figure 3: Behavior of a capacitor during charging, taking wire inductance into account.

Without going into detail, the graph shows
clearly that the voltage (blue curve) is no lon-           Pulse-withstanding pre-charge resistors
ger a natural exponential function, instead
oscillating towards a value of around 100 V.             A very simple and cost-effective approach is
Briefly, it will reach a value of up to 170 V,           provided here by pulse-withstanding charge
around 70% higher than the externally ap-                resistors, which can be connected in series
plied output voltage!                                    with the capacitor for a certain time. All that
                                                         is needed here is a pre-charge branch con-
The current (green curve) also peaks at around           nected in parallel to the main switch. This
2,100 A just after switch-on due to the addi-            branch needs to fulfill the following require-
tional inductance. In other words, the current           ments:
reaches very high values and overvoltages
with voltage surges of up to double the ex-              • Use of the current-limiting effect of the re-    Figure 5: BR, HPRF, and VHPR series pulse-
ternally applied voltage possibly occurring                sistor                                           withstanding pre-charge resistors from Krah.
even if all ohmic resistors, inductors, and ca-
pacitors to be charged in the charging circuit           • Two-step switch-on process:
are accounted for.                                         1. The pulse-withstanding resistor is used
                                                           to pre-charge the capacitor until it has al-     A wide range of pre-charge resistors is offered
This is why hard-switching a capacitor should              most entirely reached the externally applied     by Krah, the world market leader in power re-
always be avoided. Pre-charging a capacitor                voltage level                                    sistors. These include cement-coated wire re-
allows the aforementioned behavior to be al-               2. The capacitor is directly connected by        sistors from 3 to 18 W and high-load resistors
most entirely prevented.                                   bridging the pre-charge branch connected         with aluminum housing from 60 to 560 W.
                                                           in parallel with the main switch                 Krah also offers customized solutions for spe-
Similar behavior occurs when discharging a                                                                  cial requirements. For example, increased
capacitor, which is why it is also recommend-            • A mechanical or electrical lock-out mecha-       voltage requirements, special geometric
ed to provide a resistor for the discharging               nism that prevents switch-on without a           forms, and also enhanced cooling solutions
process.                                                   pre-charge                                       can be implemented.                         ■

                                                                                                                                                   Advertisement

     Unbenannt-1 1                                                                                                                             16.04.2021 09:38:02
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Inside Rutronik

An interview with Rutronik CMO Markus Krieg

“We’ve overcome
 the crisis well”
                                        The pandemic has raged for more than a year now, but
                                        hopes are rising of an end to it. Chief Marketing Officer
                                        Markus Krieg explains in an interview how Rutronik has
                                         performed through the ups and downs, and how the
                                                electronics markets will look in 2021.

                                                  Despite the ongoing vaccinations, CO-                 The lack of opportunities for face-to-face en-
                                                  VID-19 will be a part of our lives for                gagement and the need to resort to video con-
                                                  a long time yet. How well is Rutronik                 ferencing instead have shown that there are
                                                  currently coming through the crisis?                  areas where digital communication is much
                                                  How are store inventories and orders                  more efficient. This is true not only of cus-
                                                  faring?                                               tomer visits—when it comes to digital trade
                                                  Comparing the situation to March of the pre-          events, we’ve found that leads are qualita-
                                                  vious year when the pandemic was beginning,           tively and quantitatively on the same level as
                                                  it’s fair to say that we’ve overcome the crisis       at a live fair. And, last but not least, other
                                                  well—both financially and as a workforce.             forms of communication are becoming in-
                                                  There were few infections and no cases with           creasingly important, such as social media,
                                                  severe symptoms. This shows how effective             which are a much bigger focus now. We are
                                                  the measures within the company have been—            adapting to this and are much more active in
                                                  for example, with our installation measures           this field than before. None of this, of course,
                                                  and home working. This is the most important          means that we’ll be neglecting personal visits,
                                                  thing.                                                physical trade events, or traditional forms of
                                                                                                        marketing. I think a hybrid form will begin to
                                                  But we’re also performing well in terms of            take shape from all of this.
                                                  sales. 2020 was a challenging year in terms
                                                  of sales and order receipts, because many in-         The other side is the digitalization of current-
                                                  dustries had dialed back their capacities due         day applications—we definitely see a shift in
                                                  to COVID-19. We noticed a recovery as early           this direction. Remote maintenance is playing
             Markus Krieg,                        as the third quarter—incoming orders grew so          an increasingly large role, because, of course,
            CMO of Rutronik
                                                  quickly in October and November that we re-           I can’t always send technicians to every cor-
                                                  ally struggled to meet demand. In fact, No-           ner of the globe at a moment’s notice. In

      “      We are taking our own                vember 2020 dropped an all-time record in             terms of products, we are seeing strong

                              „
                                                  terms of incoming orders into our laps—and            growth in communication ICs—they are basi-
     patent to all of the major OEMs,             we were pleased to note that this trend con-          cally a factor in every application and offer
     one that is of particular interest           tinued in January and February.                       enormous growth potential, which in turn
        for hybrid vehicles.                                                                            means a massive push towards digitalization.
                                                  The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated
                                                  the process of digitalization in many ar-             How can Rutronik help to overcome the
                                                  eas—including industry. How persistent                COVID-19 crisis in the current situation,
                                                  will this shift be, and what does this                outside of its core business?
                                                  mean for Rutronik’s business model?                   We are, naturally, studying the current situa-
                                                  It’s important to see this as two different           tion and examining how we can help. With
                                                  trends. Firstly, there’s the digitalization in per-   our excellent contacts with Asia and the lo-
                                                  sonal communication, and secondly, we have            gistics capabilities that this entails, we can
                                                  digitalization in the development of applica-         help to bring rapid tests and FFP2 masks to
                                                  tions.                                                Europe, for example, and in this way help the

14                  1/2021 Powered by                            Committed to Excellence                                              www.rutronik.com
government to achieve their targets of more         BMW to Audi. But if I do that, my supply chain
frequent testing. In Pforzheim, we are also us-     ends up sitting on its products—and without
ing our logistics capacities to support the         much warning. This means masses of cancel-
large-scale testing center—the goal here be-        lations and delays—at one point, Rutronik had
ing the “Tübingen Model,” which aims to re-         to manage and process up to 200,000 order
store public life to a relative state of normal-    item changes in a day. When the market re-
ity with a large number of rapid tests. We are      gained pace, they were surprised that the sup-
also assisting in the development of an app         ply chain had distributed the semiconductors
that is another element of this concept.            elsewhere and the capacities were no longer
                                                    available. I can’t bring myself to point fingers
Europe’s share of the demand for global             at the supply chain or component producers         H
                                                                                                       High-Current
                                                                                                         igh
                                                                                                           h-Cur
electronic components is dropping to                here because the automotive industry did a         C
                                                                                                       Contact
                                                                                                         onntact E
                                                                                                                 Elements
around 8 percent—which basically cov-               poor job of resource management in this case.
ers Apple’s or Samsung’s needs alone.               Right now, this has given rise to the problem
This will have consequences for the sup-            of our being unable to purchase components
ply chain, in which European businesses             as quickly as the customers are ordering them.
risk falling behind in the medium and               We’ve been able to manage so far, or at least
long term. How can Europe gain an ad-               our customers haven’t suffered a line stop just
vantage here, and how can distributors              yet. To this end, we communicate closely with
help?                                               OEMs and Tier One and Tier Two representa-
To put it bluntly, the European Union has           tives. We hope to be able to meet demand
spent years blissfully asleep at the wheel, and     normally again by the end of Q3 or early Q4.       versatile application possibilities
never noticed that they are becoming tech-          Until then, though, we have two quarters with        in compact control units and
nologically extremely dependent on Asia and         a lot of backlog management to handle. Our
                                                                                                         on-board charging modules
the USA. The remaining European semicon-            analyses have shown that the incoming orders
ductor manufacturers that essentially matter        to date are basically what wasn’t ordered last
have developed their own production capaci-         year—in other words, we started at a very low
ties in Asia or have turned to third-party pro-     backlog level, and the incoming orders are fill-
ducers. The consequence of this has been that,      ing our books to the level that we would have
even if we develop the IP and the associated        expected without COVID-19 in 2020.
                                                                                                           mating with contact tab,
technology in Europe, it doesn’t mean that we
can get the production capacity for the rele-       Are there other component groups where                  top or bottom entry
vant chips in Asia. The EU and the German           allocation is to be expected? And how
government have now finally woken up and            well is Rutronik prepared for this?
set up a scheme to boost Europe’s own semi-         In light of the circumstances described above,
conductor production—for which 150 billion          we basically have shortages in every area. Is-
euros are on the table. As the third-largest        sues with logistics and transport capacities
distributor in Europe, Rutronik is on hand with     exacerbate the matter. The markets have re-               for SMT soldering
its expertise—we are in talks with top-level        covered with a time delay—China resumed
representatives of the EU and the German            producing earlier and has exported a lot to                   or welding
government. But bringing production capaci-         Europe and America. This has shifted contain-
ties back to Europe is not the end of the sto-      er capacities to these regions, and these ca-
ry—we need to ensure that European distribu-        pacities are now lacking elsewhere. The few
tion channels make use of these production          available containers are currently being rent-
capacities, and that they can distribute the        ed for three times the normal price, mainly
production output to customers in Europe. We        from the US, meaning that we in Europe have
aim to ensure that Vishay, Infineon, and the        very little in the way of transport capacity.
smaller manufacturers that are still in Europe      This makes it difficult to quickly respond to
are compelled to focus on Europe with their         shortages.
distribution channels.
                                                    Specifically, this affects products such as dis-
Rutronik generates just under half of               plays and wireless modules. We try to keep
its sales from the automotive sector.               production running by ensuring daily commu-
And car manufacturers and their suppli-             nication between customers and suppliers.                     from 65 A
ers are also starting to feel the pinch of          With passive components, we occasionally ex-                  up to 80 A
component allocation. How is security of            perience shortages of electrolytic capacitors,
supply looking for Rutronik’s automo-               which is due to the massive development of
tive customers?                                     the 5G network, which requires a very large
It’s worth looking at the wider picture here.       number of capacitors. The shortages are also
In April/May 2020, the OEMs started massive-        being exacerbated by the rapid development
ly dialing back their production, from VW to        of electromobility, which is expanding faster
                                                                                                             www.lumberg.com
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Inside Rutronik

than expected. This increases the demand for       The catch lies elsewhere, namely in legal and      ment. So a comparison isn’t quite that simple.
electrolytic capacitors, coils, and inductors—     ethical matters—questions of “do I really want     Higher margins are important for us because
but even with electromechanical components,        to hand decisions of how to react in a dan-        we have a high cost of ownership due to our
there are still occasional shortages, for ex-      gerous situation to a machine?” and “What’s        passive and commodity portfolio. There are
ample plug connectors for electric or hybrid       the position of insurers on this?”                 three key strategic points. Firstly, we must
vehicles, although not to the extent seen in                                                          show manufacturers that they benefit from
2018. Delivery times have also increased for       How is the market performing in America            our business model, because we provide them
ceramic capacitors and automotive-certified        and Asia, and what are the differences to          with access to an additional customer group
products, although there’s no talk of compo-       Europe?                                            by delivering commodities to them. Secondly,
nent allocation just yet.                          Our Asian business is performing wonderfully.      we prepare our product marketing, sales, and
                                                   Asia in general, and in particular China, over-    FAEs even more effectively with training mea-
                                                   came the crisis much sooner, which has had         sures. And thirdly, we establish a very broad,

     “
                                                   a positive impact on our overall net income.       balanced customer basis. Especially in the
          When it comes to digital trade           The first three months of this year were very      mid-range segment, there are entirely differ-

                                 „
 events, we’ve found that leads are qua-           encouraging—not just in China, but in South-       ent opportunities to generate margins com-
                                                   East Asia, too. The situation in the US is rath-   pared to the Tier One and Automotive seg-
litatively and quantitatively on the same          er more challenging, and we’ve had to cut jobs     ments.
        level as at a live fair.                   in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so
                                                   we’re rather thin on the ground staff-wise         Finally, let us take that ever-dreaded
                                                   there. We also don’t yet have the resources on     look into the crystal ball. How will 2021
                                                   the ground that we wanted available at the         develop for Rutronik and for the elec-
What is your take on the situation of              US headquarters. This makes it difficult to de-    tronics industry as a whole?
German OEMs and suppliers given the                velop the business in a way that allows us to      I believe that two things will be important for
upheaval caused by electromobility?                achieve reasonable profitability. Mexico has       the rest of the year. The first is availability—
How is Rutronik supporting its custom-             also been severely hit by the coronavirus, and     for responding quickly to changes, for man-
ers with this?                                     this is why our customers’ factories were          aging existing backlogs, and thus to generate
For us as a component distributor, electrifica-    closed for weeks, if not months.                   as much business as possible. The other is the
tion is, of course, a positive thing, because we                                                      matter of the impact of COVID-19—right now,
participate in it. The share of components in      How is Rutronik Analytics performing?              many hope that the vaccines will enable us to
the vehicle will increase in electrically pow-     We’re very happy with it. The analyses that        make great strides towards normality in Q4.
ered vehicles than is already the case today,      we have performed using the tool to date have      I’m a little more skeptical about that, not least
especially in terms of semiconductors for          been very successful. We have set up a dedi-       because of the mutations and the different
high-performance drives and power electron-        cated team to offer the services offered by        effectiveness levels of the vaccines. We have
ics. We engage with our customers closely in       Rutronik Analytics now to customers as well.       a close eye on developments so that we can
this regard and introduce them to innovations      We are also continuously evolving on a tech-       be prepared for all eventualities. If things are
to enable them to keep pace with non-Euro-         nological level and are trying to become less      looking up, we will, of course, be pleased and
pean competitors.                                  dependent on a single service provider, to de-     will help where we can. But even if things take
                                                   velop in-house software development re-            a turn for the worse, we have learned from
Another area relates to batteries. We are tak-     sources, and to further improve our analysis       the past and are prepared to take the neces-
ing our own patent to all of the major OEMs,       IP.                                                sary steps as a company.
one that is of particular interest for hybrid
vehicles. It allows the same distance to be                                                           We managed to get through the crisis in 2020
covered with fewer batteries than was previ-                                                          without cutting working hours. This proves

                                                   “                                       „
ously possible, which in turn helps save costs.         Our analyses have shown that the              that the measures we took were the right
We expect the first cars using our patent to                                                          ones—including from a financial perspective.
be on the road in two years. But we’re not fo-     incoming orders to date are the result of          We have created a foundation that enables us
cusing solely on e-mobility—we also have             what wasn’t ordered last year.                   to respond appropriately to all situations. We
faith in fuel cells, and we have customers                                                            must never forget that to profit from strong
we’re supporting in this field as well.                                                               growth in business, you need the financial re-
                                                                                                      sources to adjust to it. We have prepared our
And what about autonomous vehicles?                Distributors’ margins have been falling            business accordingly.                       ■
As far as autonomous driving is concerned, we      for years. How has COVID-19 affected
can see with Google or Tesla that it is already    this? Are there new developments in the
broadly possible today. The 5G network pro-        market or within Rutronik?
vides the requisite communication infrastruc-      To begin with, falling margins are a psycho-
ture, not only for autonomous driving but also     logical problem. If I’m worried about losing a
for car-to-car communication. This is a mas-       contract in adverse times, I can’t go into ne-
sive opportunity for us, not only in relation to   gotiations with the self-confidence I need.
communication semiconductors, but also in          This is why we had a drop in margins in 2020—
power suppliers for transmission towers—the        although 2019 was itself a year that suffered
demand here is enormous.                           partially from allocation in the passive seg-

16                    1/2021 Powered by                          Committed to Excellence                                             www.rutronik.com
IN CHARGE OF TOMORROW
In the market for electric vehicles (EVs), which are expected to grow even further in the future, JAE
has been working on the development of connectors for EV charging since 2010, the early adoption
of vehicles.
We have already commercialized products (KW Series) that conform to CHAdeMO and CCS Type-2
standards. Currently we are developing new products that conform to CHAdeMO with the aim of
further strengthening our line-up.

Connect with JAE - and profit from innovative, reliable and responsible electric
mobility solutions. Don't wait for the future, but shape it!
Inside Rutronik

                                    Logistics

                                    More efficient procurement
                                    of C-parts
                                    Customers ordered over 71 billion commodities from Rutronik in 2020. For the
                                    majority of these components, it is important to view the huge volumes in the context
                                    of their prices, which are often just a few cents or even fractions of a cent—these
                                    are referred to as C-parts. To generate savings potential here, it is therefore more
                                    beneficial to examine the order processes than the price of the goods themselves.

                                                                           L
                                                                                  et’s say a business needs 40,000 chip      price adjustments through annual price ne-
                                                                                  resistors each month. To keep store in-    gotiations.
                                      By Roman Wolf, Project Manager              ventory low, an order of 10,000 resis-
                                        Supply Chain Solutions, and
                                     Patrick Krätz, Head of Supply Chain   tors is sent each week. This means that four
                                                                                                                                      Potential for optimization
                                        Solutions, both at Rutronik        times a month a worker has to unpack the
                                                                           goods, check the delivery note, enter the de-
                                                                           livery note into the inventory control system,    To reduce process costs, delivery volumes and
                                                                           and then shelve the goods. So as we see, com-     packaging units are effective tools for opti-
                                                                           ponents that are themselves worth just a few      mization. Many commodities are available in
                                                                           euros cause process costs that are at least       packages of 5,000 to 50,000 units, usually on
                                                                           equally as high—if not higher—than the prod-      a reel. The rule to consider is this: the bigger
                                                                           uct’s actual worth. The potential to cut costs    the selected unit, the lower the process costs.
                                                                           is therefore much higher in this area than with   If the company in the above example were to
Figure: nordroden/stock.adobe.com

                                    18               1/2021 Powered by                   Committed to Excellence                                           www.rutronik.com
order 40,000 chip resistors once a month in-

                                                   Figure: Rutronik
stead of 10,000 units four times a month, the
required expense and effort would be reduced
to just a quarter. While this increases store
inventory, the low value of the C-parts means
that this is not usually a relevant factor.

With optimizations such as these, Rutronik
has been able to drastically reduce the num-
ber of delivery note items for numerous cus-
tomers whose annual order volumes number
in the billions of units (see image), or has
managed to keep these items consistent while
volumes rise. And each item removed from the
delivery note represents process costs saved.

 Security of supply with low storage costs
                                                                      Optimized procurement allows for drastic cuts in the number of delivery note items—and with these,
                                                                      a reduction in the effort and expense required for the receipt of incoming goods.
If the main concern is a low stock value, a
consignment store is a good way to keep this                          tomers as possible to benefit from electronic           common, whether due to adverse weather
value low. The goods are stored near to the                           data interchange and, with it, the ability to           conditions in regions with large numbers of
company’s production facilities, ready to be                          automate procurement processes. This results            production sites, the impact of the COVID-19
collected as needed. They are only billed when                        in an improvement in data quality, basically            pandemic, or demand surges resulting in al-
collected. This is how a consignment store of-                        as a by-product.                                        location, as was the case in 2018.
fers not only low storage costs but also opti-
mized management of goods flows, as well as                           This is true both of conventional procurement           Logistics is much more than just ordering the
security of supply.                                                   processes with order submissions and order              right goods at the right time to be delivered
                                                                      confirmations as it is of dynamic delivery sys-         to the right place. It is also an essential ele-
To make procurement processes generally as                            tems involving rolling, long-term forecasts.            ment of optimizing cost structure and of the
efficient as possible, Rutronik had taken steps                       The latter in particular also contributes sig-          performance of the company. For C-parts, ef-
years ago to digitalize the entire process, from                      nificantly to security of supply, because the           ficient delivery processes play an especially
order to forecast to shipping notification to                         more familiar the distributor is with the long-         important role in keeping logistics and pro-
invoicing. In addition to standardized file for-                      term needs of its customers, the better they            cessing costs as low as possible, even as vol-
mats such as EDIFACT, VDA, or SAP IDOC,                               can take account of these needs in the event            umes rise. This is why a customized, smart
Rutronik can also handle other formats, such                          of sudden market changes in the manufac-                delivery strategy makes more sense here than
as Excel or text files, enabling as many cus-                         turer backlog—a situation that is extremely             a just-in-time delivery system.              ■

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Inside Rutronik

FAE support

Field application engineers
without the field
Sitting at a table with developers feels like a thing of the past. Design-in
support is another thing that the coronavirus pandemic has largely relocated
into the digital realm. What can still be achieved with it? And what form will
it take in the post-corona era? Carsten Steiner, Director FAE/BDM Global at
Rutronik, provides the answers.

Mr. Steiner, what can be achieved with            That’s not quite true. Sure, you might be able
digital FAE support?                              to find a lot of information, but it can easily
Carsten Steiner: I’ll start with what it can’t    take hours to find what an FAE could answer
achieve—it doesn’t let us test components         in a few minutes. Not only that, but you need
under real conditions with our customers.         to be able to understand the context of the
And the intuitive hands-on experience is also     information, which takes knowledge and ex-
lacking, especially with many electrome-          perience. Each of our customers is an absolute
chanical components. Displays are something       expert in their field, no doubt about that! But
                                                                                                       Carsten Steiner, Director FAE/BDM Global at
that you need to have seen in person before       their core expertise is not in the continuous
                                                                                                       Rutronik

                                                                                                       “
you choose to buy them—even the glossiest         and intensive observation of the component

                                                                                                                               „
brochures, websites, and data sheets won’t        market. This is a time-consuming task that our              Ultimately, the goal is always
suffice here. This is why we have a compre-       FAEs perform by actively engaging with the
                                                                                                          to develop a competitive final
hensive warehouse with demo products that         component manufacturers and with the col-
our customers can borrow and test in their        laboration of our product and line managers.                    product.
application.
                                                  This is in part time-consuming because the
And the personal aspect of face-to-face           diversity of product models and the complex-
meetings is also missing. Digital meet-           ity of the components has massively increased     for years, even though these components have
ings are simply not a full-blooded sub-           in recent years, while life cycles continue to    since ceased to be technologically relevant or
stitute for them.                                 be ever shorter. It’s not enough to be familiar   have ceased to represent a major cost factor.
But everything else works just as well online—    with the latest components—the manufactur-        Others end up left unnoticed, with the same
some of it even better, in fact. We keep dis-     ers’ road maps are also important. Being un-      components being used again and again, even
covering that we are often able to answer our     aware of these may result in a component          though there is considerable optimization po-
customers’ questions more quickly in Web          being incorporated into a design, even though     tential for the solution as a whole. With an
meetings than we can during on-site appoint-      it has already been discontinued when serial      outside perspective and backed by a compre-
ments. In this regard, our FAEs prepare for ev-   production starts. Our FAEs always have an        hensive product portfolio, our FAEs can take
ery meeting even more intensively than they       eye on this, and on delivery times. To avoid      a holistic perspective of the solution and con-
ever have. In the future, we aim to make use      unpleasant surprises, they also recommend         sider the total cost of ownership.
of other communication methods and tools          alternative components as a second source—
such as messaging services, ticketing systems,    and not just with focus components, either.       And there’s another very important aspect:
and virtual/augmented reality solutions. This     C-parts are just as prone to causing produc-      time to market. The points that I mentioned
is how we aim to engage with our customers        tion stoppages, as recent months have shown       all help to ensure a rapid market launch. We
on an even more individual level—a beginner       time and time again. It is also important to be   also support our customers with in-house-
and a digital native simply has different ex-     able to assess the opportunities and limits of    developed development kits, demo boards, and
pectations and preferences to a veteran with      components, which takes experience, and also      complete solutions, for example with an MCU
decades of experience.                            knowledge of the latest technologies. These       platform for AI-based edge applications.
                                                  often enable entirely different solutions for
If everything is done online anyway,              certain requirements.                             You mentioned short development cy-
can’t a developer or purchaser simply                                                               cles. Which product segments are see-
use Google, search through an online              You can’t just google all of this. And what’s     ing the most dynamic performance?
shop, or ask in forums? I mean, you can           more, we often notice how component deci-         I would say that everything in the Wireless
find everything online these days.                sions have focused on the same components         segment is among them. The new wireless

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