Photovoltaic (PV) modules are popular and affordable sources of renewable energy. Most photovoltaic modules last about 20 years, but thermal stress and moisture ingress, among other causes, can degrade a module’s output power over time...
Precise photovoltaic I-V characterization
Remembering John B. Goodenough, inventor of the lithium-ion battery
Dr. Goodenough received a Nobel Prize at the age of 97 for his contributions to making the Lithium-ion battery a reality...
Emissions killers trap common-mode currents
An unshielded twisted-pair cable that is transformer-coupled to a digital system can easily act as a radiating antenna, not because of the differential analog signal the cable carries, but because of common-mode currents induced by unwanted stray coupling from the digital portions of the system...
Capacitor-powered electronics is at the core of green design
The concept of using supercapacitors, and replacing the batteries in portable micropower applications is gaining momentum. In fact, it has become one of the more noticeable technical trends of recent time...
Program resistance in a bridge circuit
Sensors such as strain gages, RTDs, and thermistors produce a resistance that’s proportional to force or temperature. If you measure a sensor’s resistance, you can calculate the physical parameter. Circuits such as resistance bridges can help you measure the unknown resistance...
Oscilloscopes evolve from humble displays to powerful tools
From the early CRT-based tools to the latest multifunctional powerhouses, the venerable oscilloscope has long been a mainstay of electronic design. Able to graphically display a range of electronic circuit performance information as a two-dimensional plot over time, oscilloscopes produce waveforms too fast and transient to be perceived by the human eye alone...
80 MHz VFC with prescaler and preaccumulator
In 1986, famed analog innovator Jim Williams, in “Designs for High Performance Voltage-to-Frequency Converters” published his 100 MHz “King Kong” VFC. If anyone’s ever done a faster VFC, I haven’t seen it...
Understanding Arm Cortex-M0+ and its capabilities
Cortex-M0+ is not the newest small, low-power processor and, in fact, some newer offerings may surpass it. However, its broad deployment and mature environment continue to make the processor a compelling offering for low-power applications...
Preaccumulator handles VFC outputs that are too fast for a naked CTP to swallow
Analog-to-digital conversion based on the classic combination of a voltage-to-frequency converter with a counter has been around for (many) decades, mainly because it has some durable time-proven advantages...
Getting an audio signal with a THD < 0.0002% made easy
If you need a very pure sine wave in the audio range, the circuit can help...
