Latest IC Design Technical Articles

Display colors by precisely controlling the intensity of red, green, and blue LEDs.

Display colors by precisely controlling the intensity of red, green, and blue LEDs.

Tips and techniques for incorporating EFM8 microcontrollers into your custom hardware.

Tips and techniques for incorporating EFM8 microcontrollers into your custom hardware.

An FPGA is a crucial tool for many DSP and embedded systems engineers. However, the learning curve when getting started…

An FPGA is a crucial tool for many DSP and embedded systems engineers. However, the learning curve when getting started can be fairly steep. This project introduces the Quartus II and ModelSim software suites as well as a background on FPGA design flow for system on chip development. The development board used was a Terasic DE1-SoC, which has the Altera Cyclone V SoC chip. This IC contains an FPGA and an integrated ARM Cortex A9 as a hard processor system.

Impress your friends and family by learning how to implement a finite state machine in VHDL

Impress your friends and family by learning how to implement a finite state machine in VHDL

An AC-DC wall adaptor gets disassembled to see what components are used to build it, then the purpose of each component…

An AC-DC wall adaptor gets disassembled to see what components are used to build it, then the purpose of each component is analyzed.

This article covers information essential for understanding and designing the hardware needed for an I2C bus.

This article covers information essential for understanding and designing the hardware needed for an I2C bus.

This article covers the essential characteristics and prominent advantages of the Inter–Integrated Circuit (aka I2C)…

This article covers the essential characteristics and prominent advantages of the Inter–Integrated Circuit (aka I2C) serial-communications protocol.

Take a few minutes to characterize a light dependent resistor (LDR) and you can build a simple and reasonably accurate…

Take a few minutes to characterize a light dependent resistor (LDR) and you can build a simple and reasonably accurate light meter can be built using an LDR and an Arduino.

This article discusses style mistakes in PCB layout that can make assembly and debugging PCBs difficult. This is vital…

This article discusses style mistakes in PCB layout that can make assembly and debugging PCBs difficult. This is vital for designers!

The boost converter is a DC-DC converter used to created an output voltage that is higher than the input voltage. Boost…

The boost converter is a DC-DC converter used to created an output voltage that is higher than the input voltage. Boost converters are also used to drive LEDs placed in series in products like LED flashlights. The boost converter suffers from vulnerability to a short circuit load. Learn how to protect them from shorts!

In the last installment, we built the hardware to control an AC waveform with a TRIAC as the first step in a DIY solder…

In the last installment, we built the hardware to control an AC waveform with a TRIAC as the first step in a DIY solder reflow oven. This tutorial continues the project by showing you how to set up the low-level hardware to measure temperature, read the zero-cross detector, drive the TRIAC, and print to the serial terminal using a USART.

Connecting a PICAXE to the IoT through an ESP8266 module is easy once you know the process. Here are the details you need!

Connecting a PICAXE to the IoT through an ESP8266 module is easy once you know the process. Here are the details you need!

Having introduced the general negative feedback structure, we will now demonstrate that negative feedback has a…

Having introduced the general negative feedback structure, we will now demonstrate that negative feedback has a beneficial effect on two important characteristics of amplifier circuits.

Part two of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles! This time we'll…

Part two of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles! This time we'll be covering PCB design.

Part one of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Part one of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles!

Updating the firmware in an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module can be frustrating! Here's a procedure to reduce the pain.

Updating the firmware in an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module can be frustrating! Here's a procedure to reduce the pain.

The ESP8266 combination microcontroller/Wi-Fi modules can now be programmed using the Arduino IDE. Here's how!

The ESP8266 combination microcontroller/Wi-Fi modules can now be programmed using the Arduino IDE. Here's how!

An inexpensive PICAXE microcontroller makes it easy to read a temperature sensor, compare the temperature to a setpoint,…

An inexpensive PICAXE microcontroller makes it easy to read a temperature sensor, compare the temperature to a setpoint, and turn a heater or cooler circuit on or off.

This article provides practical guidance on using ferrite beads to improve your PCB’s power quality.

This article provides practical guidance on using ferrite beads to improve your PCB’s power quality.