What the special section on chiplets design has to offer

Why chiplets and why now? A special section at EDN provides a detailed treatment of this revolutionary silicon technology that’s transforming the semiconductor industry at a time when AI is forcing every serious silicon team to modularize,…

A battery charger that loudly hums: Dump it or just make it dumb?

An archaic DieHard device has seemingly died hard; is hacking it to resurrect a portion of its original function a worthwhile endeavor? A decade-plus ago, shortly after moving (part-time, at the time) to Colorado, I came across a smoking (no…

From gap to signal: Non-contact capacitive displacement sensors

Capacitive displacement sensors turn tiny gaps into actionable signals. By measuring changes in capacitance as target moves, these devices deliver precise, non-contact readings of position and motion. Their touch-free nature makes them ideal…

Balun transformers: Linking balanced to unbalanced

Balun transformers remain indispensable in RF and high-frequency design, serving as the quiet interface between balanced transmission lines and unbalanced circuits. By enabling impedance matching, minimizing signal distortion, and suppressing…

Designing the voice AI stack: Integrating spatial hearing AI with edge-based intent gating

We’re past the point where voice can be treated as just another feature. For more than a decade, the smart home has operated under a flawed assumption: that voice is optional. It’s not. As homes grow more complex and connected, voice is…

200-V MOSFETs cut conduction losses

Two devices have joined iDEAL Semiconductor’s SuperQ 200-V MOSFET portfolio, offering very low RDS(on) in standard power packages. These two SuperQ devices are designed for demanding motor-drive applications that require high efficiency, robustness,…

Sfera Labs debuts industrial Raspberry Pi edge systems

Sfera Labs has introduced an industrial Raspberry Pi-based edge server and PLC for industrial IoT and edge applications. The Strato Pi Plus server and Iono Pi v3 controller come in DIN-rail enclosures with an embedded Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 single-board…

Low-cost MCUs enable smarter embedded devices

Leveraging ST’s 40-nm process and an Arm Cortex-M33 core, STM32C5 MCUs deliver increased speed for cost-sensitive embedded devices. The microcontrollers run faster than many entry-level chips, improving the capabilities of compact smart devices…

TinyEngine NPU powers AI in TI MCUs

TI’s MSPM0G5187 and AM13E23019 MCUs integrate the TinyEngine NPU, enabling efficient edge AI in systems ranging from simple to complex. These latest additions to TI’s portfolio of AI-enabled hardware, software, and tools allow engineers…

Edge AI SoC integrates tri-radio

The i.MX 93W applications processor from NXP combines a dedicated AI NPU with secure tri-radio wireless connectivity in a single package. By eliminating the need for up to 60 discrete components, the SoC reduces board area, design complexity,…

A long-ago blow leads to water overflow: Who could know?

Mechanical analogies to electronics symbols are common in other engineering disciplines. We might refer to this one, then, as akin to a battery with an internal short circuit? I’ll warn you upfront that this particular blog post has nothing…

GaN fundamentals: 2DEG, crustal structure, and figure of merit

Gallium nitride (GaN) power devices are redefining the limits of switching converters by combining wide bandgap physics with lateral HEMT structures optimized for fast, low-loss operation. This article describes GaN as the natural successor…