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How to Choose Microcontroller Peripherals for Digital Signal Processing Applications

This article continues a discussion of microcontroller features and characteristics that are particularly important when you’re thinking in terms of DSP capabilities.

April 08, 2019 by Robert Keim

How to Read a Microcontroller Datasheet: Introduction and First Steps

MCU datasheets sometimes present an overwhelming abundance of facts, figures, and specs. This practical, step-by-step guide will help you to identify and extract the information that you need.

April 01, 2019 by Robert Keim

What Is a Microcontroller? The Defining Characteristics and Architecture of a Common Component

In this article we’ll look at the defining characteristics of these extremely popular ICs, and then we’ll explore the internal architecture.

March 25, 2019 by Robert Keim

Learn RF Design: Choosing the Right RF Transceiver IC

Learn about integrated circuits that can help you to design customized RF communication systems.

August 10, 2018 by Robert Keim

How to Select the Cutoff Frequency of Your Low-Pass Filter

This article provides some tips on how to fine-tune the characteristics of a low-pass filter.

June 29, 2018 by Robert Keim

PCB Layout for a Photovoltaic Power Supply for Microcontroller Circuits

This article discusses the PCB layout for a power-supply circuit that generates a regulated 3.3 V rail from a small solar cell.

June 07, 2018 by Robert Keim

Schematic Design for a Solar-Powered Charge-Pump Power Supply Circuit

This article discusses a 3.3 V power-supply circuit that is built around an inductorless DC/DC converter and a solar cell.

June 06, 2018 by Robert Keim

Selecting and Implementing Photovoltaic Cells for Solar-Powered Devices

This article discusses details that will help you choose the right kind of solar cell and successfully incorporate it into your next project.

May 31, 2018 by Robert Keim

The Circuit Designer’s Guide to Photovoltaic Cells for Solar-Powered Devices

This article presents the equivalent circuit for a solar cell and discusses some implementation details.

May 30, 2018 by Robert Keim

The Gentleman Maker’s Auto-Apologizer: A Clever, Polite Device for the Everyday Brit

One of the biggest fears many British people face is forgetting to say sorry. This project is designed to automatically apologize when the user bumps into an object.

March 28, 2018 by Robin Mitchell

How to Reduce Power Consumption with Clock Gating

This article will discuss the basic concepts of clock gating and how it can be used to reduce the power consumption of synchronous digital systems.

March 08, 2018 by Steve Arar

Capacitive Control Panel PCB Design Considerations for TI’s MSP430FR2633 Microcontroller

This article provides a closer look at the PCB design considerations and programming of a custom capacitive touch interface device.

February 07, 2018 by Mark Hughes

Simplify Your Life with an Analog Window Detector

This article, part of AAC’s Analog Circuit Collection, presents a simple yet effective replacement for ADC-based window detection.

February 02, 2018 by Robert Keim

Building a Capacitive Touch Interface with the Texas Instruments MSP430FR2633

The MSP430FR2633 is a low-power microcontroller with multiple GPIOs and capacitive touch pins. This project creates a circuit that supports a custom capacitive touch panel with LED and haptic feedback.

January 12, 2018 by Mark Hughes

Choosing the Most Suitable MEMS Accelerometer for Your Application: Part 2

In part 2 of this article, we will focus on key specifications and features in the context of wearable devices, condition monitoring, and IoT applications.

December 22, 2017 by Chris Murphy, Analog Devices

The FitByte: How to Make an ATtiny85 Powered Activity Tracking Wearable

This is a protoype of a fitness wearable device designed to vibrate when it detects stagnation.

December 13, 2017 by Demsey Kirkwood

The Wi-Fi Eye, Part 4: Power System and Neopixel Lights

In part 4 of our Wi-Fi Eye project, we'll deal with our power supply

July 28, 2017 by Jeremy Lee

The Wi-Fi Eye, Part 3: Choosing the Right Servos for the Job

Part 3 of this project focuses on choosing and configuring the servos you will use to create your Wi-Fi Eye.

July 27, 2017 by Jeremy Lee

The Wi-Fi Eye, Part 1: Introduction, Features, and Materials

Building an animatronic, wearable, Wi-Fi robots, part 1: Programming the controller.

July 25, 2017 by Jeremy Lee

The Importance of Reliability Verification in AI/ML Processors

With the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a wide variety of applications, reliability verification of AI/ML processors is critical since failures can have major consequences for the validity and legitimacy of AI/ML technology.

13 hours ago by Neel Natekar, Mentor

How to Create a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network in Python

This article takes you step by step through a Python program that will allow us to train a neural network and perform advanced classification.

one day ago by Robert Keim

Introduction to Microcontroller Timers: Periodic Timers

This article, the first in a series on “timer/counter” functions in microcontrollers, discusses periodic timers.

January 14, 2020 by Stephen Colley

How an Internal Faraday Shield and Small Ci-O Improve Optocoupler Galvanic Isolation

This article discusses how the use of three key design methods utilized in optocouplers improves galvanic isolation performance and presents an accompanying high voltage surge test as proof. 

January 14, 2020 by Lim Shiun Pi, Broadcom Inc

Analog Design Trade-Offs in Applying Linearization Techniques Using Example CMOS Circuits

This article will look at the trade-offs we face when trying to improve the linearity of a circuit.

January 13, 2020 by Steve Arar

Neural Network Architecture for a Python Implementation

This article discusses the Perceptron configuration that we will use for our experiments with neural-network training and classification, and we’ll also look at the related topic of bias nodes.

January 09, 2020 by Robert Keim

Implementing LoRa-based Solutions for Smart Metering

This article explores the use of LoRa devices for long-range, low power smart metering of utilities, which allows for remote daily operations and the collection of data.

January 07, 2020 by Rémi Demerlé, Semtech

Understanding Training Formulas and Backpropagation for Multilayer Perceptrons

This article presents the equations that we use when performing weight-update computations, and we’ll also discuss the concept of backpropagation.

December 27, 2019 by Robert Keim

How to Train a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network

We can greatly enhance the performance of a Perceptron by adding a layer of hidden nodes, but those hidden nodes also make training a bit more complicated.

December 26, 2019 by Robert Keim

The Sigmoid Activation Function: Activation in Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks

In this article, we’ll see why we need a new activation function for a neural network that is trained via gradient descent.

December 25, 2019 by Robert Keim

Advanced Machine Learning with the Multilayer Perceptron

This article explains why high-performance neural networks need an extra “hidden” layer of computational nodes.

December 24, 2019 by Robert Keim

Assessing the ADC SNR and SFDR for Communications Systems

In this article, we will see how we can determine the SFDR for an ADC used in a radio receiver. Also, we’ll examine the ADC SNR requirement for this application.

December 22, 2019 by Steve Arar

Understanding Learning Rate in Neural Networks

This article discusses learning rate, which plays an important role in neural-network training.

December 19, 2019 by Robert Keim

How Software Automation in PCBA Manufacturing Helps Quicken Innovation

Manufacturing still takes a large portion of time in the electrical engineering cycle. This article discusses how software-driven automation and the IIoT can help hasten the manufacturing process.

December 17, 2019 by Shashank Samala, Tempo Automation

How to Calibrate an Microcontroller Internal Oscillator: A DIY Trimming Procedure Algorithm

This article presents an algorithm intended for humans to calibrate the internal oscillator of an MCU, with the help of an oscilloscope and a spreadsheet. An example experiment with numbers is also shown.

December 13, 2019 by Eduardo Corpeño

How to Calibrate MCU Internal Oscillators

This article describes the internal RC oscillator calibration mechanism available in low-end microcontroller units. A basic calibration procedure and considerations on automated calibration are presented.

December 12, 2019 by Eduardo Corpeño

Introduction to the Synchronous Demodulation

This article will discuss the basic idea behind the synchronous demodulation technique.

December 11, 2019 by Steve Arar

The Good and the Bad of MCU Internal Oscillators

This article describes the benefits and requirements of the internal RC oscillator often available inside many low-cost Microcontroller units, including the calibration procedure to obtain the best possible accuracy.

December 11, 2019 by Eduardo Corpeño

Predicting Battery Degradation with a Trinket M0 and Python Software Algorithms

Learn how to build a setup that will help you predict a battery's performance as it ages using a Trinket M0 and software algorithms.

December 09, 2019 by Aaron Hanson

An Introduction to Training Theory for Neural Networks

In this article, we’ll explore Perceptron training from a more theoretical perspective, focusing on the “error bowl.”

December 05, 2019 by Robert Keim