Cesium atomic clocks: The backbone of precise 5G timing

As 5G networks expand in scale, complexity, and societal importance, the underlying timing infrastructure that keeps them synchronized has become a strategic technology domain. While radio access innovations—massive multiple‑input multiple‑output…

Wire pushbuttons in series to simplify DPOT up/down circuit

A curious connection of control buttons makes a simpler-is-better digital potentiometer interface possible. Two recent submissions to the Design Ideas kitchen (see Related Content) have shown different basic step-per-push pushbutton interfaces…

When AI agents make decisions, trust becomes infrastructure

AI agents are beginning to change something more fundamental than how organizations use software. They are beginning to receive authority. A conventional AI system can provide information, summarize data, identify alternatives, or recommend…

Getting ready for 6G networks

As 5G-Advanced continues to roll out, bringing AI/ML integration, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), RedCap, and non-terrestrial network capabilities, support for 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 19 (R19) is emerging,…

Creating higher voltages, part 1: Voltage boosters

There are several ways to boost a relatively low AC or DC voltage by a factor of two or three, each with tradeoffs and constraints. Lower-voltage circuitry dominates much of design and associated discussions, with ICs and systems operating…

Rethinking RTL flows with AI-driven hybrid formal verification

Modern RTL verification flows generate more evidence than engineers can always review with equal priority. Simulation, assertions, coverage, and formal analysis each expose different classes of behavior, but a large design can produce hundreds…

TP-Link’s Tapo P115: Smart plug subtracts Apple, adds energy tracking

Take a baseline device, remove a subsequently added protocol and replace it with a function, and…you end up with a bigger-than-expected revision? As I alluded to in a blog post a week-and-a-half back, I’m nearing the finish line of my teardown…

Pixels, power, and physics: Unlocking the fundamentals of thermal imaging

Thermal imaging sits at the intersection of science and engineering, where invisible heat patterns are transformed into visible insights. By harnessing the physics of infrared radiation, converting it into electrical signals, and mapping those…

From 5G uplink testing to 6G research: AI DPoD in the lab

As 5G and 5G-Advanced push uplink efficiency and modulation performance, engineers are revisiting where power amplifier (PA) linearization should happen and how it should be validated. Hardware-in-the-loop testing of AI-based digital post-distortion…

5G to 6G: AI moves into the network

Traditionally, every generation of cellular technology has been mostly about moving data faster. However, 6G is shaping up to be a different kind of upgrade. The industry’s focus is shifting from how fast a network can move data to what new…

Neon lamps and Krypton 85

You don’t have to be Superman (or even just use phone booths as changing stations) to find this author’s recent research results disturbing. I was recently looking for some information about neon lamps when I came across a series of websites…

More cost-effective OIS brings better photo/video quality to mobile devices

Optical image stabilization (OIS) has become one of the most high-valued features in the smartphone business. Over the past decade, the content we consume shifted from primarily text-based to image-driven before video content—long and short,…