Cypress PSoC chip drives specialized camera from Aries Industries used in Chilean miner rescue

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. announced that its PSoC programmable system-on-chip played an important part in the riveting rescue of the 33 trapped miners in the San José copper and gold mine near Copiapó, Chile.

Fresno, California-based Central California Video Engineering & Manufacturing (CCV), a subsidiary of Aries Industries, built the specialized camera that was dropped into the initial bore hole to deliver the first pictures that confirmed the miners were alive. A single PSoC chip replaced an entire two-inch wide circuit board, enabling the ultra-thin camera that was lowered 2,300 feet below ground to the miners. The PSoC device inside the camera provides bandpass filtering and demodulation of the control signal protocol.

The camera used in the rescue was the WC1750 Slimline Dual-View Waterwell Inspection Color Camera. It has a maximum outside diameter of only 1.75 inches, perfect for inspecting small boreholes. The camera has adjustable focus, electronic shutter (iris), adjustable lighting and rotation control, front view, side view selection and can withstand a depth of 5,000 feet. The camera uses LED lighting technology that has a 10,000-hour operating life.

“We were obviously thrilled to play an important role in this dramatic rescue,” said AriesCCV Vice President of Research and Development, Mike McGrew. “Our engineers work hard to develop cameras that perform at the highest level in grueling conditions. Their hard work, including using PSoC to shrink the design, paid enormous benefits in this case. We’re very proud of this accomplishment.”

“It’s exciting to see that PSoC enabled the small form factor of this amazing camera, and of course to see the results of those efforts,” said Norm Taffe, executive vice president of Cypress’s Consumer and Computation Division.

“The ability to integrate multiple components in a single chip is only one of many benefits of the PSoC approach. PSoC also speeds time-to-market, and lets engineers make critical changes at any time in the product life cycle. That’s why PSoC is in literally thousands of systems from white goods and cell phones, to industrial controls and medical devices.”