Prosumer and professional cameras: High video quality, but a connectivity vulnerability
As I’ve recently mentioned a few times, I’m ramping up my understanding and skill set on a couple of Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Cameras (BMPCCs), both 6K in maximum captured resolution: a first-generation model based on the BMPCC 4K…
HBM memory chips: The unsung hero of the AI revolution
Memory chips like DRAMs, long subject to cyclical trends, are now eying a more stable and steady market: artificial intelligence (AI). Take the case of SK hynix, the world’s second-largest supplier of memory chips. According to its chief financial…
Power Tips #125: How an opto-emulator improves reliability and transient response for isolated DC/DC converters
In high-voltage power-supply designs, safety concerns require isolating the high-voltage input from the low-voltage output. Designers typically use magnetic isolation in a transformer for power transfer, while an optocoupler provides optical…
Conquer design challenges: Skills for power supplies
In the dynamic world of engineering design, the escalating requirements placed on power systems frequently give rise to intricate design challenges. The evolving landscape of DC power systems introduces complexities that can manifest stumbling…
The Intel-UMC fab partnership: What you need to know
Intel joins hands with Taiwanese fab United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) in a new twist in the continuously evolving and realigning semiconductor foundry business. What does Intel’s strategic collaboration with UMC mean, and what will these…
100-V MOSFET employs double-sided cooling
Alpha & Omega’s AONA66916 100-V N-channel MOSFET comes in a DFN 5×6-mm designed to afford top and bottom side cooling. In addition to improved thermal performance, the device offers low on-resistance of 3.4 mΩ at 10 VGS and a wide safe…
MCUs integrate configurable logic block
Microchip’s PIC16F13145 MCUs enable the creation of hardware-based, custom combinational logic functions directly within the MCU. The integration of a configurable logic block (CLB) module in the microcontroller allows designers to optimize…
Smart sensor monitors in-meter water pressure
The 129CP digital water pressure sensor from Sensata allows remote monitoring by utilities to identify distribution issues, leaks, and other non-revenue water events. Integrated into residential and commercial water meters, the 129CP improves…
Bluetooth LE SoC slashes power consumption
Renesas offers the DA14592 Bluetooth LE SoC, which the company says is its lowest power and smallest multicore Bluetooth LE device in its class. The device balances tradeoffs between on-chip memory and SoC die size to accommodate a broad range…
RFICs improve in-vehicle communications
Two linear power amplifiers (PAs) and two low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) from Guerrilla RF serve as signal boosters to enhance in-cabin cellular signals. Qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 2 standards, the GRF5507W and GRF5517 PAs and the GRF2106W and…
“Thin is in” as RF-module shrinkage also enhances thermal performance
Packaging innovation has always been critical to the cooling of components, especially for power-switching devices such as MOSFETs and IGBTs. The non-stop demand to make these devices smaller and lighter also applies to RF PA modules, even though…
Quelling a ground loop
As shown in Figure 1, this issue had been previously addressed during pre-internet times in EDN of January 18,1990 but a further detailed look at the idea is warranted thirty-four years later.
Figure 1 Archival design idea “Resistor isolates…
