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The Incredible Shrinking Resistor: The Advantages and Drawbacks of Ever-Smaller Components

The advantages and disadvantages of ever-shrinking components.

April 19, 2019 by Matthew Cook

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

What Is Mutual Inductance? A Guide for Circuit Designers

Learn about mutual inductance and how it can influence an engineer’s approach to circuit and system design.

July 06, 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

Modeling ADCs Using Intermodulation Polynomial and Effective Number of Bits

In this article, we discuss another methodology of how to model ADCs in system simulations, this time by using the effective number of bits and also adjusting our ADC by introducing a 5th order polynomial to the ideal quantizer input.

21 hours ago by Wes Brodsky

Modeling ADCs Using Effective Number of Bits (ENOB)

Learn about the concept of ENOB (effective number of bits) and how it can be used in modeling data converters in system simulations.

2 days ago by Wes Brodsky

How Should Data Converters Be Modeled for System Simulations?

This article launches a series exploring the question of how to model data converters for system simulations.

3 days ago by Wes Brodsky

Requirements for Good Communications Link Performance: IQ Modulation and Demodulation

In this article, we'll discuss the requirements for an analog IQ modulator and demodulator, and then the requirements for DACs and ADCs used at baseband (for an analog IQ approach) and for DACs and ADCs used at RF (for a digital IQ approach).

4 days ago by Wes Brodsky

Developing Robust Motion Detectors Does Not Have to Be a Moving Target

This article discusses some concepts for ensuring motion detector designs will be robust to external disturbances by presenting an infrared detector assembly that can significantly reduce the parts count and improve product performance and reliability. 

About 6 days ago by Ryan Sheahen, Littelfuse

Digital or Analog? How Should I and Q Combining and Separation Be Done?

How should I and Q combining be done? Through analog or digital means? This article will discuss the basics of the analog and digital IQ approaches.

February 22, 2021 by Wes Brodsky

PCB Layout Techniques for Reducing Harmonic Distortion of a Differential ADC Driver

Summary

February 19, 2021 by Steve Arar

Simplifying EV Power Design by Overcoming the Gate Driver Power Challenge

Power conversion systems in EVs follow the half-bridge configuration. This article explores the IGBT half-bridge design of a high-voltage side (output stage) of the gate driver.

February 16, 2021 by Charlie Ice, Silicon Labs

All About Seeing Your Projects: Optical and Digital Magnification

Smaller electronics call for more powerful inspection equipment. If you're building a collection of at-home lab equipment, these visual tools may help you see where you're going on minuscule boards.

February 14, 2021 by Mark Hughes

How to Use Decoupling Capacitor Placement to Reduce Harmonic Distortion

Learn how to reduce second harmonic distortion by following some guidelines for placing decoupling capacitors in your PCB layout.

February 12, 2021 by Steve Arar

Nine Factors to Consider for Board-Level Machine Vision Camera Integration

Leveraging board-level cameras offer a variety of benefits. To help identify the right mix of features and design elements, here are some factors to consider when selecting and designing in an embedded machine vision camera.

February 11, 2021 by Brian Cha, FLIR

When Things Go Wrong: Battery Management System Failure Mitigation

What is thermal runaway in Li-ion battery systems? And how do battery management systems help mitigate failure for improved safety? Learn more in this technical article.

February 09, 2021 by Enrico Sanino

Introduction to Battery Management Systems

Learn the high-level basics of what role battery management systems (BMSs) play in power design and what components are necessary for their basic functions.

February 08, 2021 by Enrico Sanino

Test and Measurement (T&M) Equipment You’ll Need for a Home Laboratory

For some of us, at-home work may be an extended reality beyond 2020. You’ll need the proper tools to accomplish your goals.

February 07, 2021 by Mark Hughes

Understanding and Mitigating Motor Driver Board Parasitics through Simulation

This article explores using PSpice for TI to simulate potential causes for parasitic effects in a motor-drive design and offers design tips to mitigate the negative effects common with high-power motor-drive systems.

February 04, 2021 by Matt Hein, Texas Instruments

Intro to Fiber-Optic Communication Systems

Learn some basic, foundational info about fiber optic communication systems in this primer.

February 03, 2021 by Kamanda Dennis

Minimizing Stepper Motor Noise and Vibration in Precision Motion Control Applications

Stepper motors work well in a wide range of applications but can struggle with torque ripple and current distortion issues. Learn about QuietStep, a proprietary algorithm from Allegro MicroSystems, as a possible solution. 

February 02, 2021 by Dan Jacques, Allegro MicroSystems

6 Causes of MOS Transistor Leakage Current

Leakage current can contribute to power dissipation, especially at lower threshold voltages. Learn about six types of leakage current that can be found in MOS transistors.

February 01, 2021 by Nirbindu Das

Understanding the Leakage Current Components in Short Channel MOS Transistors

This article covers the basics of MOS transistors with a view towards better understanding the leakage current that can occur in such transistors.

January 29, 2021 by Nirbindu Das

Introduction to Photosensitive Integrated Circuits

This article continues our introductory discussion of light-sensitive components that produce higher output-current amplitude than photodiodes.

January 27, 2021 by Robert Keim