Introduction 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 ...
In 1986, famed analog innovator Jim Williams, in “Designs for High Performance Voltage-to-Frequency Converters” ( Reference 1 ) published his 100 MHz “King Kong” VFC. If anyone’s ever done a faster VFC, I haven’t ...
Some applications, such as ADC testing and calibration, require a DAC with extremely good resolution, monotonicity, accuracy, and resolution. In these categories of performance, the circuit in Figure 1 is hard to beat. Its typical specifications ...
A short while back, I published a design idea ( Ref. 1 ) that uses a single linear pot to control the gain of a high performance OP37 decompensated op-amp over an unusually wide ( 30 dB to +60 dB) range. Figure 1 shows the circuit. Figure 1. ...
One option for driving high-brightness LEDs uses the standard stepdown buck converter (Figure 1). The sense resistor, R S , generates a feedback voltage, V FB , that sets the desired LED current, I LED , according to the equation Figure 1. A ...
Battery stack voltage monitor development ( Reference 1 ) is aided by a floating, variable potential battery simulator. This capability permits monitor accuracy verification over a wide range of battery voltage. The floating battery simulator is ...
There are many applications where an ADC needs to process a small differential input signal in the presence of a large common-mode signal. Traditional instrumentation amplifiers (in-amps) are not commonly used in these applications, due to their ...
Editor’s note:Battery charging in a float or maintenance mode has been around for a while, especially for standby power, emergency lighting, telecom, uninterruptible power, and other critical power needs. The float method of charging is a ...
High speed and precision are not the only areas where special V-F circuits are needed. Figure 1 shows a circuit which runs from a single 1.5 V cell with only 125 µA current drain. The circuit uses an LT1017 dual micropower comparator in a ...
The gain temperature coefficient of conventional V-F circuits is affected by drift in the charge pumping capacitors. Although compensation schemes are employed to minimize the effect of this drift, another approach is required to get significantly ...