Shielded inductors reduce emissions in tight layouts

Bourns’ SRP2008DP series of shielded power inductors provides the saturation current needed for dense DC/DC converter designs and miniature electronic devices. These low-profile devices, with dimensions of just 2.0×1.6×0.8 mm, enable use…

RISC-V SoC supports voice-enabled IoT devices

Espressif Systems is sampling its ESP32-S31 dual-core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, Thread, Zigbee, and Ethernet. Rich HMI and security features make it well-suited for IoT applications such as consumer and industrial appliances, voice-controlled…

Leveling up Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is all about transforming manufacturing processes with advances in smart capabilities, data connectivity, and automation. It encompasses devices from sensors that capture data to motors and motor control and power devices that have…

METCASE expands accessory options for enclosures

METCASE’s new enclosure accessories brochure features its expanded range of options including metal tilt/swivel bail arms, a wide range of molded enclosure feet, PCB mounting parts, 19″ front panels, rack shelves and rack hardware. (Source:…

Advancing AI performance with HBM4, SPHBM4 DRAM solutions

Over the past two decades, the raw compute capability of processors used in high‑performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems has increased at an extraordinary pace. Figure 1 illustrates this trend: XPU floating‑point…

Rethinking machine vision in industrial automation

Machine vision has always played a critical role in ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable operation in many industrial settings. However, as vision-enabled machines become more numerous and the type and volume of data they can collect expand,…

Humidifiers and such: How much “smart” is too much?

This engineer’s new humidifier is—he kids you not—Wi-Fi enabled, therefore “smart”. What upsides does such a product deliver? And at what tradeoffs? Within one of last month’s writeups, I mentioned that my wife and I had recently…

Top 10 DC/DC converters and modules

DC/DC converters for demanding applications, ranging from industrial, railway systems, and satellites to communications and information technology equipment (ITE), are required to meet stringent requirements. They call for enhanced performance…

Antilog PWM and 2-way current mirror make buffered triangle and square waves

It can be fun (and productive!) to transplant a previous Design Idea into a new context, and even more so when modifying and mixing multiple ideas.  Here we’ll combine and comingle the following:  5 decade antilogarithmic PWM current source A…

IMUs demystified: The hidden sense of machines

Motion is invisible until something makes it measurable. That is where inertial measurement units (IMUs) step in—the silent sensors that give machines their hidden sense of balance, orientation, and trajectory. From smartphones that know when…

Metasurface enables supersensitive, superfast thermal-based photodetector

I’ve always been interested in sensors and their related electronics. These devices are the interface between the real, physical world and the telemechanical systems that make use of their outputs. It’s also fascinating how many basic sensor…

A convenient desktop-accessible calculator of E-series component values

As explained in the E series Wikipedia page: “The E series is a system of preferred numbers (also called preferred values) derived for use in electronic components. It consists of the E3, E6, E12, E24, E48, E96, and E192 series, where…