A closer look at capacitor auto-discharge circuit
What function does a capacitor auto-discharger perform in a power supply circuit, and how does it work? What are its fundamental building blocks, and can engineers develop a capacitor auto-discharge module on their own? What are basic considerations…
My very first LED
My first encounter several decades ago with a pillar of modern technology yielded more than just one lesson.
NEREM 1967 was the IEEE Northeast Electronics and Engineering Meeting held at the Sheraton-Boston Hotel and the War Memorial Auditorium…
MRAM and ReRAM: The quest for automotive, aerospace niches
Where do MRAM and ReRAM technologies stand after years of promise to replace incumbent memories? Gary Hilson speaks to MRAM and ReRAM makers as well as an industry analyst to find the truth about their market standing. While these memory technologies…
Seven-octave linear-in-pitch VCO
Frequent contributor Nick Cornford recently shared design ideas incorporating cool circuits for linear-in-pitch voltage-controlled oscillators (LPVCOs):
Revealing the infrasonic underworld cheaply: Part 1 and Part 2
A pitch-linear VCO: Part…
Add-on features in electronic products: The good part
Add-on features are all the rage in electronic products. But are they actually handy or just embody bells and whistles? What’s their hardware and software cost? And more importantly, do they serve an actual value or merely add to the user-experience…
IC verification tool addresses design complexity, productivity gap
A new software combines connectivity, scalability and data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to push the boundaries of the IC verification process and make chip design teams more productive. Questa One aims to address the verification…
A simple circuit to let you characterize JFETs more accurately
In April 2012, EDN published a circuit by John Fattaruso that lets you quickly measure the drain-source saturation current and the pinch-off voltage of both an N-JFET and a P-JFET. The pinch-off voltage (Vp) is measured by inserting a very large…
Two design solutions for Bluetooth channel sounding
Bluetooth channel sounding—a new protocol stack designed to enable secure and precise distance measurement between two Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) devices—is propelling Bluetooth technology into a new era of location awareness. It offers true…
Cutting into a multi-solar panel parallel combiner
Earlier this year, within the concluding post of a multi-part series that explored a not-as-advertised portable power generator, its already-broken-on-delivery bundled solar panel:
and the second solar panel I’d also bought for the setup…
Antique NYC subway cars
We took a family trip with our grandsons to the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, NY. Retired subway cars were on display, some of them seemingly not that old while others dated way, way back. Visitors could freely roam in and out. I was…
Quantum cleanrooms: Extreme environments for building tomorrow’s computers
Quantum computers are among today’s most exciting emerging technologies, but their design, testing, and manufacturing require unparalleled care to avoid damaging their components. Semiconductors are sensitive, so they require production environments…
SiC JFETs enhance system reliability under stress
CoolSiC JFETs from Infineon provide low conduction losses and robust turn-off behavior for solid-state protection and power distribution. Their strong short-circuit capability, linear-mode thermal stability, and accurate overvoltage control…
