Circuits & Schematics - 6

This Design Idea mates a precision current source IC with precision difference amp chips to create a programmable current source or sink. The resistor-programmable current source/sink in Figure 1 illustrates the basic topology, taking advantage of ...

In many applications, there are requirements of low power, high performance differential amplifiers to convert small differential signals to a readable ground referenced output signal. Input voltages at two inputs usually share a large common-mode ...

It is advantageous to know if there is a valid signal on a differential signal bus. This Design Idea detects differential data transmission and reports a loss of signal (LOS) to a microcontroller or other monitoring device. The circuit of Figure 1 ...

Many applications require special differential amplifiers that achieve both high performance and low power dissipation. A simple solution is to use a dual non-inverting precision amplifier with a resistive gain network, but the DC common-mode level ...

When the Sun is shining and illumination is needed inside a dimly lit interior space, a popular, proven, and highly efficient solution is to utilize the energy of available sunlight in the simplest and most sustainable fashion conceivable: Opening ...

Battery-operated instrument benefited from auto-power shutdown A handheld, battery-operated “fiber finder” measures the light escaping from an optical fiber when clamped in a V-shaped block under slight pressure. A pair of photodiodes ...

Figure 1 shows two large-signal- measurement methods. The first uses a two-resistor voltage divider and an output buffer, and the second comprises an attenuating inverter and a high-value input resistor. Both of these approaches introduce ...

All thermal anemometers work by inferring air speed from measurements of thermal impedance (Z) between a heated sensor and the surrounding air: (1) where P is the power dissipated by the sensor and T is the temperature difference between the sensor ...

In Part 1 ( Ref. 1 ) of this article, we briefly looked at the Wien bridge oscillator before homing in on the bi-quad filter as our best candidate for an oscillator capable of giving 0.0001%/ 120 dB distortion, and showed its full circuit. Treating ...

Over the years, the Design Ideas (DI) column has featured many interesting oscillators, but none that I can recall was specifically designed to produce a really clean sine wave. Putting that omission together with the need to rebuild my old ...