Articles

Capturing transient analog signals with a microcontroller normally involves adding a full-fat peak-hold circuit as an external peripheral. This novel approach minimizes that extra hardware by using a µP’s ability to switch its pins ...

A previous article suggests that most digital output waveforms follow a nearly Gaussian profile ( Reference 1 ). Let’s test that theory. Figure 1 depicts the rising edge from a Texas Instruments DL100-44T LVDS ...

Which step in Figure 1 best approximates the digital signals you work with every day? The piecewise-linear step starts with a jerk, mindlessly follows a perfectly uniform ramp, and smacks hard into its upper limit. Real signals don’t do that. ...

Introduction High precision op amps enable system designers to create circuits that condition signals (amplify, filter, and buffer) while maintaining the precision of the original signal. When information is contained in very small variations of ...

Whether its buck, boost, or buck/boost, internal or external switch, milliamps or tens of amps, a literal cornucopia of programmable output switching regulator/converter chips are commercially available. While the required external Ls and Cs (of ...

I would sometimes have to interview someone to fill an engineering position in my company. Which company that was, changed from time to time, but I needed a way to see just how competent someone was at circuit analysis, somebody with whom I would ...

Digital potentiometers (“Dpots”) are a diverse and useful category of digital/analog components with up to a 10-bit resolution, element resistance from 1k to 1M, and voltage capability up to and beyond 15v. However, most are limited to ...

This design idea is centered on the humble on/off/on toggle switch, which is great for selecting something/nothing/something else, but can be frustrating when three active options are needed. One possibility is to use the contacts to connect extra, ...

Filtering occurs frequently in the analog world. Unfortunately, in the digital world, engineers apply it mainly to the DSPs (digital-signal processors) and not to the small 8-bit microcontrollers that designers commonly use. This situation occurs ...

We often say that logic devices are the glue to every electronics design, but they are often the last parts that you might think about when choosing components for a system. There are certainly many tried-and-true standard logic devices to choose ...