Photo tachometer sensor accommodates ambient light
Photo tachometer sensor accommodates ambient light
Apr 24, 2025 Circuits

Tachometry, the measurement of the speed of spin of rotating objects, is a common application. Some of those objects, however, have quirky aspects that make them extra interesting, even scary...

Reduce EMI by sweeping power supply
Reduce EMI by sweeping a power supply's frequency
Apr 23, 2025 Circuits

Switching power supplies can be notorious noise generators. You should prevent this noise, which is conducted, radiated, or both, from returning to the input source...

Infineon CoolGaN power transistors enable SounDigital
Infineon CoolGaN power transistors enable SounDigital to reach higher fidelity in smaller amplifier systems
Apr 23, 2025 News

Manufacturers of cutting-edge audio equipment constantly seek to enhance sound quality while also meeting the growing demand for compact, lightweight, more integrated, and energy-efficient designs...

Water-leak detector uses 9V batteries
Water-leak detector uses 9V batteries
Apr 21, 2025 Circuits

A previously published Design Idea describes a practical gadget that has the potential to save a lot with little investment. However, the circuit uses 120 V line voltage and, as such, it is not that convenient for many applications...

White-LED driver provides 64-step logarithmic dimming
White-LED driver provides 64-step logarithmic dimming
Apr 18, 2025 Circuits

The circuit is designed for portable-power applications that require white LEDs with adjustable, logarithmic dimming levels. The circuit drives as many as four white LEDs from a 3.3 V source and adjusts the total LED current from 1 to 106 mA in 64 steps of 1 dB each...

Need an extra ADC Add one
Need an extra ADC? Add one for a few cents
Apr 17, 2025 Circuits

When designing devices with microcontrollers, I like to use some of the analog-to-digital converter inputs to measure onboard voltages along with all the required sensors inputs. This means I often run out of ADC inputs...

novel approach creating high-efficiency simple buck-boost
A novel approach to creating a high-efficiency, simple buck-boost converter
Apr 16, 2025 Circuits

A stable voltage from an input supply that is higher and lower than the output is often required. A common solution is to use a boost converter followed by an LDO...

Flip ON flop OFF without flip
Flip ON flop OFF without a flip/flop
Apr 15, 2025 Circuits

There’s been a lot of interesting conversation and DI teamwork lately devising circuits for ON/OFF power control using inexpensive momentary-contact switches...

Dual comparators match precision industrial instrumentation
Dual comparators match precision industrial, instrumentation application needs
Apr 14, 2025 Circuits

Dual precision comparators are needed in many designs, such as for industrial and instrumentation applications, to generate accurate pulse-width modulated waveforms with very high (>99%) and very low (<1%) duty-cycle percentages...

Injection locking acts as frequency divider
Injection locking acts as a frequency divider and improves oscillator performance
Apr 10, 2025 Articles

Injection locking can not only improve oscillator frequency stability and phase noise, but act as a selective frequency divider as well...