Modularmania.com has the honor of presenting one of the best Project Ara developers team: ARrAy Labs.

The team has extensive experience within wireless transmission, mechanical engineering, encryption and electrical design, includes members from Germany, Israel and the United States. The ARrAy Labs are developing highly advanced modules, the state of the art technology. The first module is ARrAy Wireless Communication and Mesh Networking module.

This module creates an encrypted peer to peer mesh network, using a wide variety of frequencies (wifi, mobile operator, Tv). This module use Skywire protocol to avoid the congestion and bandwidth limitations of previous mesh networks and a cutting edge antenna, to have high performance in a small space.

The second module is AramP battery. An ultra high performance battery using nanotechnology from Ampirius. The ARAmp Battery Module holds up to 10 times the charge of regular mobile device batteries and has a much longer lifetime.

The ARrAy Labs are developing two other modules. The ARAduino Module: a developer platform for custom and specialized sensors, led display and other projects. It use a versatile microcontroller featuring digital and analog I/O with both A/D and D/A conversion. Arm and Fpga Developer module for high speed integreted computing (ex dsp, routing/networking, data acquisition) It use a Xilinx ZYNQ 7000 dual core Arm chip with Fpga, A/D and digital I/O. For more technical information click here.



I have had the honor to interview Mike Doty of ARrAy Labs. Mike has over 25 years of experience in mechanical engineering and design, including manufacturing, design, analysis, testing, and systems integration. He has designed machinery, small mechanisms, space craft structures, printed circuit boards, wiring harnesses, and electronic packaging. Mike has a BS Degree in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology. He has worked in the automotive, petrochemical, nuclear, aerospace, medical instruments, and consumer products industries. He has consulted at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hughes Space and Communications, EG&G Rocky Flats, Schlage Lock, Ethicon, DuPont, Bechtel, United Engineers and Constructors, Motorola, Ford, FMC, and numerous small business clients.

Here the interview:

Question: What are the positive and negative aspects in the development of modules for Project Ara ?

Answer: The most positive aspect is the modular configuration of the phone. It is bringing the flexibility and customization of the desktop PC to the mobile device market. With a standardized, open architecture, components may be supplied by multiple sources, and the phone won’t be tied to a specific carrier since the user can change just the carrier module if it isn’t a SIM card or just insert a new SIM card if the carrier module supports this.

The only negative aspect at this point is the Endo is still closed at this point, meaning that the platform is more akin to a PC where the motherboard is only available from one manufacturer while the video cards, memory, CPU, hard drive, specialty cards, and peripherals can come from independent suppliers. This is still an improvement over current mobile devices, which are like buying a computer which can only connect to a network chosen by the manufacturer and can only download programs from a store operated by the manufacturer.

Q. Why have you chosen to develop these modules ?

A. The ARrAy Wireless Module will allow mobile devices to connect directly to each other for peer to peer communications and data sharing, and allow users to share internet connections from anywhere in the mesh network. This can bring communications, data, and internet access into areas which currently have poor or no access.

Q. Can you describe the steps in the process of developing a module ?

A. Define requirements

Define market

Define parts list

Design breadboard, a working electrical version of the module, and software

Build breadboard

Test and debug breadboard with software

Design prototype

Build prototype

Test and debug prototype

Design for manufacturing

Manufacture production test samples

Test and debug production samples

Manufacture final production design

Monitor quality and reliability

Iterate design to add features and improve quality and reliability

Q. How will you develop the process of manufacture and sales of your modules ?

A. Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is an integral part of the development process. This involves close cooperation with manufacturing from the earliest stages of the design through production and customer use of the product. Quality and reliability are a part of the entire product life cycle, entering into all aspects of defining requirements and markets as the “Voice of the Customer” through design, manufacturing, and distribution to ensure that the requirements of the customer are met.

Q. Have you received the Dev Boards ? What do you think about UniPro technology and Linaro Android ?

A. We are still awaiting the dev boards. The Unipro technology promises to be a game changer when the different component integrated circuits and Systems-on-a-Chip have native Unipro support. This will allow for much more flexible connection and interfacing of system components. It will be especially interesting to see the expansion of the Unipro standard into wireless devices for wearables and the internet of things.

Q. Do you want to add more information or interesting news ?

A. The ARrAy Wireless team is in discussion with major partners for manufacturing, mesh network software integration, and existing mobile mesh applications. There has been a lot of interest in our project for its humanitarian potential and allowing users complete ownership and control over their communications.

My thanks to Mike and his entire team for the interview. ARrAy Labs are doing a fantastic job. They are showing the huge amount of innovations that the Project Ara will bring in the world of smartphones. This is just the beginning, other companies are working on wonderful projects. Stay tuned for more news…