What's Cooking at ST (and at my house) -- May 20, 2022

• ST has long considered sustainability a key pillar of its mission and our announcement to be?carbon neutral by 2027 ?remains the semiconductor industry's most powerful sustainability statement. We've made a number of important steps toward that goal and this week announced another one: an?agreement to install one of the world's largest district cooling systems at ST's Ang Mo Kio, Singapore sites . The?system will have a cooling capacity of 36,000 refrigerant tons and will reduce carbon emissions by up to 120,000 tons annually.?
• We?announced two products this week:?a?low-noise, low-voltage regulator for battery-powered applications with?extremely low dropout voltage (190mV max. at full load) and maximum quiescent current of 25μA at light load. In standby mode, the?LD56020 ?consumes less than 0.1μA and?provides a clean power rail for low-voltage digital circuitry, with supply-voltage rejection (SVRIN) of 90dB (1kHz, 20mA) and output noise of just 8.8μVRMS (10Hz to 100kHz).?The other product--or more accurately, pair of products--are?programmable high-side switches that are well suited to drive?loads controlled by PLC modules and for use in factory-automation equipment such as I/O peripherals and CNC machines (IPS1025H , with a 2.5A current limit) and for?unidirectional motors in equipment such as vending machines (IPS1025H-32 , with a 5.7A current limit). The switches?offer?built-in protection for undervoltage, overvoltage, overload, and overtemperature, they enable the intelligent driving of capacitive, resistive, or inductive loads, which draw high startup current.
• A couple of new stories appear on the?ST blog this week. The first story?highlights?5 key success factors behind the STLINK in-circuit programmer and debugger , now available as?STLINK-V3SET . The upgraded tool is a Swiss Army knife for embedded developers and adds features and performance to the family of high-value, inexpensive development tools. A second story?describes a webinar that showed viewers how to turn a simple graphics file into a fully-functional 3D Human Machine Interface (HMI) . The solution is based on the STM32MP1-based hardware by ST Authorized Partners?DH electronics and?Candera’s award-winning Smart Importer for embedded GUI solutions. While the Webinar was yesterday, I'll bet if you reach out to?DH electronics or?Candera , they'd be happy to give you more information.?
• On the conference tour, Executive Vice President Edoardo Merli -- fresh off being quoted in a?terrific story in the NYTimes on "the?new materials that handle electricity more quickly and efficiently [than silicon] ?-- will be delivering a keynote ("Wide bandgap power semiconductors driving e-mobility range and efficiency") and sitting on a panel ("Innovations in wide bandgap technologies and manufacturing challenges") at the (in-person)?ISES Power Semiconductor Summit . In a similar vein, "Wide bandgap power devices"?will be the keynote presentation from ST's Salvatore Cascino at the (hybrid)?European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE) European PhD School .?At the (in person)?EPOSS Joint Workshop on Smart Systems Integration in Energy Applications , ST's Filippo Di Giovanni will also talk about wide-bandgap technologies in "SiC and GaN address energy-efficient applications for a "greener" world" and Antonio Imbruglia will offer a "Presentation of the ECS SRIA - Electronic Components and Systems Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda." As always, let me know if you'd like to see copies of papers or presentations.?
• Embedded World ?in Nuremberg is one of my favorite events and, after a two-year hiatus,?I'm planning to attend this year. We have numerous announcements?in the queue and will have dozens of demonstrations on show. If you need an exhibitor pass and want to schedule a meeting or a time to see the demos,?please let me know . More details to come over the following weeks.?

I love my wife. I really do. But I think if celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis would promise to cook me dinner every night...

We have a tradition at my house. Actually, we have several. But the relevant one for this story is the birthday dinner. Historically, the celebrant would get to pick the restaurant and we'd all go out to celebrate. COVID forced a change to that tradition so now, the celebrant chooses what we'll cook. This week, for my recently-engaged son's birthday, even though he and his fiancé haven't decided on timing, he decided we all needed to start on "the wedding diet." This Pasta Primavera with Roasted Veggies fit the bill. Rest assured not everything we cook at my house will meet "the wedding diet" test.?

And while I'd follow Giada anywhere, I didn't follow her recipe precisely: to make it even more "wedding diet" friendly, I swapped the semolina pasta for a chickpea flour alternative. (Warning: While the chickpea pasta was a reasonable substitute while it was warm, refrigeration of the leftovers did it no favors in taste or texture.) I also replaced the thin strips of zucchini and yellow squash with "spiralized" versions. Even as the spiralized zucchini and squash tasted great, though, the dish missed the textural notes cutting the veggies into strips and roasting them that way?would have provided. It was also a bit harder to serve and eat. Still, Giada scored a hit with this recipe.?

Enjoy!

Serves 6?Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
• 2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
• 2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
• 1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta) [I used chickpea penne]
• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
• On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
• Meanwhile, following the package instructions, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
• Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

And remember, if you use chickpea pasta, don't save the leftovers!