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,…

LEDs for under-cabinet illumination upgrades

Long life? Power efficient? Color temperature flexibility? Drop-in replacement? Yes please, I’ll take one of these! I’ve long pontificated in various blog posts and teardowns about the transformative effects of LED-based lighting. LEDs improve…

How did antennas get so small?

Antennas are among the most “analog” of all components, functioning as bidirectional transducers between ambient RF energy and electrical current flow. For many years, most antennas were physically obvious and visual, ranging from modest…

Sensors extend current measurement to 100 A

The Melexis MLX91224 and MLX91225 isolated Hall current sensors measure up to 100 ARMS in automotive and energy applications. Offered in three compact SOIC packages, each device integrates a current conductor, sensing element, signal conditioning,…

PCIe card brings edge AI acceleration to developers

Powered by BrainChip’s AKD1500 edge AI coprocessor, the AKD1500 PCIe development card enables developers to run models built with existing AI frameworks. The card plugs into a standard PCIe slot in a desktop, workstation, industrial PC, or…

AI agent automates PPA-driven RTL generation

Cadence has added an agent for RTL generation to its ChipStack AI Super Agent platform for front-end silicon design and verification. The new agent extends ChipStack’s autonomous verification and debugging capabilities to PPA-driven spec-to-RTL…

Vision AI ASIC enables always-on vehicle security

Omnivision’s OAX7700 ultra-low-power ASIC is an always-on vision AI companion processor for vehicle security systems, supporting sensor resolutions up to 720p. An integrated neural processing unit (NPU) allows designers to develop custom algorithms…

Reference design cuts complexity in USB-C adapters

Eggtronic has announced a 140-W USB-C Power Delivery (PD) 3.1 AC/DC reference design for notebook adapters and other USB-C powered devices. The evaluation board combines Eggtronic’s EPIC dual-controller chipset with Renesas’ TP70H150G4LSG…

With PEN nearing end-of-life, capacitors built on it must change

For decades, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) held a small but critical place in high-performance capacitors. It was never the volume material that biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) is, since cost and production capacity kept it niche. But…

8 to 48 volt PWM relay/solenoid driver finds fault, pinches power

This versatile Design Idea survives and reports open- and short-circuits, not to mention multiplying efficiencies. Generally accepted tech folklore says that after you drive relays and solenoids into full actuation, only half as much coil voltage…

Space-rated analog ICs are increasingly standard catalog items

It wasn’t that long ago that space-rated components were special in every possible sense. They had to be ordered via a different process well in advance of fabrication, manufactured to order, undergo the additional tests to qualify them, and…