Model your IPs and your NoCs

When chip design and verification teams start a new project, they recognize the need for models that capture the design at a high level of abstraction. However, they tend to focus on acquiring or creating models of the IP blocks used to implement…

Metasurface plus photoelectric quantum effect yields sensitive THz detector

I’m always interested in how researchers, scientists, engineers, and manufacturing specialists leverage apparently unrelated advances to their own advantage for devising innovative techniques and advances. This phenomenon is not new, of course;…

Using an oscilloscope’s time, frequency, and statistical measurement domains

Multiple domains provide designers and test engineers with complementary views of acquired signals. Oscilloscopes originated as instruments that measure electrical signals in the time domain. The advent of the digital oscilloscope, where input…

Neural telemetry: New chip delivers 10x compression while preserving signal integrity

The search for novel ways to treat cognitive, sensory, and motor disorders, and their associated impairments—from restoring movement in people with paralysis, and enabling intuitive control of prosthetic limbs, to re-establishing speech and…

TP-Link MC220L: Media conversion keeps the network well

Got lightning? A bidirectional RJ45/SFP intermediary can, by “taking one for the team”, keep it from propagating through the remainder of your network. Back in November 2024, I detailed my initial attempts (with underwhelming results) to…

Surface resistance and resistivity testers for ESD applications

Surface resistance and resistivity testers are essential tools for evaluating materials used in electrostatic discharge (ESD) control. By quantifying how surfaces resist or conduct electrical charge, they enable engineers to verify compliance…

Surface mount and microwaves

Upside-down mounting can deliver inductance upsides for surface mount passives and other components. Please visualize the structure of a surface mount resistor as shown in the following Figure 1: Figure 1 Surface mount resistor constituents…

Bring-up and testing of systems with CXL Type 3 memory expanders

This series of articles is written for system bring-up engineers, post-silicon validation engineers, platform firmware developers, kernel and driver integrators, and test architects who are—or will soon be—working with Compute Express Link…

Memory card interfaces keep pace with the internal bus evolution race: Part 2

Learning from and adapting the lessons of the past is wise, as long as it’s not taken to overly constraining excess. So, too, is adopting others’ ideas (in a non-patent-infringing way, of course). As you already know if you read last week’s…

Carbon nanotube coating creates on-chip terahertz waveguides

There’s considerable interest in leveraging the bandwidth and other potential virtues of terahertz waves that occupy the spectrum between the conventional RF and optical worlds, generally considered to span 100 GHz (3 mm wavelength) to 10…

SoC FPGA advances wideband RF processing

Altera is now sampling its Agilex 9 Direct RF AGRW039 wideband SoC FPGA for aerospace, defense, and communication systems. According to Altera, the device delivers a 40% increase in compute capability per square millimeter. It also provides…

TO-247 SiC package boosts high-voltage isolation

Navitas has developed a TO-247 package offering more than 6000 V of isolation for its 1200-V, 2300-V, and 3300-V SiC MOSFETs. Designated the UHV-TO-247-4-ISO, the through-hole package supports direct-cooled thermal management through a reflow-compatible…