A two-terminal current source using the basic circuit of Figure 1a can be enhanced by adding on an independent subcircuit that uses degeneration of a PNP transistor to achieve zero temperature coefficient (tempco or TC). This low-cost design is the ...
The challenge of improving analog/digital accuracy by preventing amplifier saturation in systems supplied with only a single logic-level power rail has been receiving a lot of activity and design creativity recently. Voltage inverters generating ...
To control their brightness, LEDs need a constant current; this can be done with a resistor placed in series with the LED string. Both the LED-string voltage and the supply voltage can vary, so a dedicated LED driver is a must to guarantee the ...
The accurate, high-side, current-sense circuit in Figure 1 does not use a dedicated, isolated supply voltage, as some schemes do. Only the selected transistors limit the common-mode range. The circuit measures the voltage across a small ...
When you design a transformer for any power converter, you face several compromises. You must trade off core size against the number of primary turns and flux density. Another trade-off is the number of turns and winding resistance versus the ...
Many designs exist for logic-based astable multivibrators, one of the simplest being an RC feedback loop around a single inverting Schmitt trigger inverter (Figure 1). The output charges the capacitor to the upper switching threshold, at which ...
Why not take advantage of the micro-controller included in many systems these days? This design uses microcontroller feedback to produce a 50-V, 1-W power supply (see Figure 1). It leverages an unused analog-to-digital converter (ADC) input and a ...
A previous Design Idea describes a simple way to automatically turn off a battery after a preset on period to save battery life ( Reference 1 ). This Design Idea presents a simpler way to perform the same function (Figure 1). Two gates of IC 1 , a ...
A random-bit-sequence generator is basic equipment for prototyping and testing any data-transmission system. You use such a generator when measuring BER (bit-error rate) and pattern-dependent effects in a transmission system. Such effects can ...