Latest Analog Articles and Videos

This article reviews the basics of finding Thevenin and Norton equivalents and discusses how to apply Thevenin's theorem…

This article reviews the basics of finding Thevenin and Norton equivalents and discusses how to apply Thevenin's theorem to a practical circuit.

Part 3 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series.

Part 3 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series.

Part 2 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series.

Part 2 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series.

All of our previous circuits dealt with opamps using resistors in the feedback loop. What happens when we start swapping…

All of our previous circuits dealt with opamps using resistors in the feedback loop. What happens when we start swapping out resistors for other passive components?

Part 1 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series, which will design a sound synthesizer that can…

Part 1 in the “How to Make an EFM8-Based Sound Synthesizer” series, which will design a sound synthesizer that can play standard musical notes. We will accomplish this using a low-cost, small-form-factor EFM8 microcontroller in conjunction with a few external components and a speaker.

In this article I will discuss what switch bounce is and some ways to deal with it. First I will take you through the…

In this article I will discuss what switch bounce is and some ways to deal with it. First I will take you through the theory, and later I will show you some ways to handle it in both hardware and in software.

Part 5 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series.

Part 5 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series.

I hear about it all the time: planned obsolescence. People can't believe that their computer parts are already breaking…

I hear about it all the time: planned obsolescence. People can't believe that their computer parts are already breaking and their iPhone started to slow down just days before the next generation of the phone was released. Your TV seems to be programmed to have bugs whenever the manufacturing company wants to push a new product. Companies break their own products to get you to buy more of the same product: light bulbs, phones, batteries, cars, microwaves, computer screens, and even your car key transponder will all stop operating eventually. Either the marketing team or the designers wanted it that way, right?

Basic refresher on instrumentation amplifiers, followed by a several real world applications in which an engineer would…

Basic refresher on instrumentation amplifiers, followed by a several real world applications in which an engineer would find this circuit.

Handling heat in electronics. Which components create heat, which components suffer from heat. Basics of heatsinking.

Handling heat in electronics. Which components create heat, which components suffer from heat. Basics of heatsinking.

This article will go into a bit of the background of FSK and demonstrate writing a simulator in Python.

This article will go into a bit of the background of FSK and demonstrate writing a simulator in Python.

Part 4 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series

Part 4 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series

A look at some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry.

A look at some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry.

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

An introduction to the properties and purposes of a negative resistance device. Later articles will extend to negative…

An introduction to the properties and purposes of a negative resistance device. Later articles will extend to negative impedances and some applications.

You and your friends are planning the greatest party your hometown has ever seen. Just one problem: you don't have a…

You and your friends are planning the greatest party your hometown has ever seen. Just one problem: you don't have a karaoke system. What's a great party with no karaoke? We're about to fix that. All you need are a few potentiometers and an op-amp.

The use of dependent sources when using Nodal Analysis.

The use of dependent sources when using Nodal Analysis.

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and…

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and analyze signals from an optical detector, so it is time to explore the EFM8’s integrated analog-to-digital conversion functionality.

Part 3 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series. The project continues by building an ambient light…

Part 3 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series. The project continues by building an ambient light sensor circuit on a breadboard, digitizing the circuit’s output signals, and interpreting the digitized measurements.