It is common practice to power a MOSFET with a comparator and with an unregulated voltage and to power the comparator driving it from a regulated one...
Comparator directly controls power-MOSFET gate
Improved PRTD circuit is product of EDN DI teamwork
Recently I published a simple platinum resistance temperature detector design idea that was largely inspired by a deviously clever earlier DI by Nick Cornford...
Circuit improves on temperature measurement
When current pulses with a stable IHIGH/ILOW ratio modulate a semiconductor junction, the ensuing voltage difference is a linear function of the absolute (Kelvin) temperature...
Quartz oscillator with shock excitation
The circuit seems utterly simple but demonstrates unusual behavior. It produces an almost square wave of odd-integer quartz harmonics, including its main frequency...
DC power wire also carries clock or data
A high-side current-sense amplifier offers a simple method of combining low-speed clocks or other signals with dc power in cables between subsystems...
Simulate input-offset current for current mirrors
Simulating the output-offset current of a current mirror is straightforward. You simply have to apply an input current, measure the output current, and calculate the difference. This output-offset current, however, is not equal to the input-offset current...
The power of practical positive feedback to perfect PRTDs
Frequent contributor Nick Cornford recently published a delightfully clever design idea using a platinum RTD calibrated to output a 1 mV/°C signal that’s perfect for direct readout via a standard DMM…
Electromechanical damping stabilizes analog-meter readings
Before shipping moving-coil meters, manufacturers may short-circuit the meters' terminals with a length of wire, which provides effective electromagnetic damping and results in better immunity to external mechanical vibration and shocks that can occur during transportation...
20MHz VFC with take-back-half charge pump
Way back in 1986, famed analog innovator Jim Williams, in “Designs for High Performance Voltage-to-Frequency Converters” published his “King Kong” 100 MHz VFC. I have never seen its equal...
Take-Back-Half precision diode charge pump
Nearly four decades ago famed designer Jim Williams cataloged five fundamental techniques for voltage to frequency conversion. One of those five is reproduced in Figure 1...
