That thing is a 20 kW noise generator!
It’s the mid 1990’s and I am a design engineer for a company that designs and manufactures custom measurement systems and high-power electronics. Our products range from DSP modules for fiber optic current sensors used on high voltage transmission…
Memory lane: Where SOT-MRAM technology stands in 2024
Spin-orbit transfer magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM) is becoming more visible in next-generation memory offerings for its faster write speeds and much longer endurance. Two recent announcements from prominent semiconductor industry players…
Using an inductor to improve an existing design
Here is the circuit in Figure 1 from a previous DI:
Figure 1 Simple local low-noise voltage converter that can be used when a simple negative supply of low voltage is required.
Wow the engineering world with your unique design: Design Ideas…
Making the case for a new MEMS fab model
A new Japanese fab service MEMS Infinity, offering 150-mm and 200-mm wafers, aims to facilitate concept design and evaluation all the way through prototyping and mass production. It has joined hands with MEMS development services provider AMFitzgerald…
LED backlight driver offers dual LCD bias
Kinetic Technologies’ KTZ8868 integrates in a single chip an 8-LED backlight driver and 250-mA LCD bias power for up to 12-in. display panels. High switching frequency allows the use of a smaller inductor and capacitor, while an input operating…
GaN FETs serve as drop-in SiC replacements
Transphorm announced two SuperGaN FETS in 4-lead TO-247 packages, offering an original design option or alternative to 4-lead silicon or SiC devices. The TP65H035G4YS and TP65H050G4YS are both 650-V FETs with an on-resistance of 35 mΩ and…
TDK releases ultrasonic sensor demo kit
An evaluation kit from TDK showcases its USSM1.0 PLUS-FS ultrasonic sensor module for designs requiring obstacle detection and distance measurement. The sensor operates in harsh industrial environments and can be used in autonomous mobile robots…
Power-stingy 64-bit MPU targets IoT edge
The RZ/G3S 64-bit general-purpose microprocessor from Renesas boasts standby power consumption of 10 µW for use in IoT edge and gateway devices. It also provides fast Linux bootup and a PCIe Gen2 interface that enables connectivity with 5G…
Multichannel digital isolators withstand 8 kV
Novosense has expanded its NSI824x series of digital isolators with quad-channel devices that provide an isolation rating of 8 kV and a creepage distance of 15 mm. The new NSI824xWx ICs perform signal isolation and level shifting in applications…
Thermoelectric cooler efficiency and heatsink thermal impedance
Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) are common and (look) simple, but simple (and usefully accurate) design models and equations for them are less common. This design model has served well in a variety of applications, and its input needs only numbers…
Lenovo’s Smart Clock 2: A “charged” device that met a premature demise
Back in April 2022, EDN published my teardown of Lenovo’s first-generation Google Assistant-cognizant diminutive smart speaker, the Smart Clock Essential:
As I mentioned at the time, the second-generation Smart Clock Essential had already…
Bistable switch made on comparators
The bistable load switch is made on two comparators. The load is switched on and off sequentially by applying a voltage of two different levels to the input of the device.
Earlier in [1], a new class of bistable elements was proposed—two-threshold…
