A new control loop architecture is designed to generate very low noise voltages. This can be utilized by both linear and switching regulators...
Regulation loop without a resistive divider
Design an RTD interface with a spreadsheet
RTDs are the preferred sensor choices for designs requiring precision. Although RTDs are approximately linear over the limited temperature range of 0 to 100 °C, these sensors exhibit a slight but progressively more nonlinear temperature-versus-resistance characteristic as the measurement range widens...
A class of programmable rheostats
For many variable resistor (rheostat) applications, one of the device’s terminals is connected to a voltage source VS. Such a source might be a reference DC voltage, an op amp output carrying an AC plus DC signal, or even ground...
A precision digital rheostat
Rheostats are simple and ubiquitous circuit elements, usually comprising a potentiometer connected as an adjustable two terminal resistor...
Classic neon lamp can resolve your AC power indicator mandate
You’ve got an apparently simple design requirement on your latest AC-line powered project: provide a distinctly illuminated indicator to show that the unit is plugged into the line and that power is “on,”...
Intel: The disintegration of a semiconductor giant?
What’s going on at Intel, the largest beneficiary of the U.S. push to onshore chip manufacturing?...
Tracking preregulator boosts efficiency of PWM power DAC
This design idea revisits another: “PWM power DAC incorporates an LM317”. Like the earlier circuit, this one implements a power DAC by integrating an LM317 positive regulator into a mostly passive PWM topology...
It's a Gaussian world
A previous article suggests that most digital output waveforms follow a nearly Gaussian profile. Let’s test that theory...
Hold that peak with a PIC
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 between analog and digital modes on the fly...
1-A, 20-V, PWM-controlled current source
This design idea takes an unusual path to a power-handling DAC by merging an upside-down LM337 regulator with a simple (just one generic chip) PWM circuit to make a 20-V, 1-A current source...
