Articles - 6

When someone notices that two 8-bit DACs can be bought for less than one 16-bit DAC, a classic question is often asked: Why can’t you simply take two 8-bit DACs, assign one to the MSByte, the other to the LSByte, sum their outputs in a 28:1 ...

The circuit in this Design Idea was originally designed to detect damaged conveyor belts in the mining industry. Thin coils are embedded in the conveyor belt. If the belt suffers damage, it stretches at the affected location, causing one or more ...

Type-N and 7/16 DIN connectors As stated in Part 1, the Type-N connector was introduced in 1942. Still commonly used today, this connector, which employs threaded coupling, is known for its durability. Standard Type-N connectors perform to 11 GHz, ...

Figure 1 shows a typical using of LM350 ( LM317 ) adjustable regulator when you need to adjust its output voltage. Figure 1. This voltage is approximately given here as: The potentiometer R2 is often the most unreliable part of the circuit. As ...

The design of a standard inverting integrator is simple when bipolar supplies are available, but it's cumbersome with a unipolar supply. To allow adequate headroom for the output, the circuit must be biased away from ground, often at half the ...

Although often taken for granted, coaxial connectors are a key aspect of any RF/microwave application. While they may receive less attention than other components, connectors nonetheless must provide adequate performance to avoid any system ...

Trying to shield ambient light from your photo circuit is not a trivial task. You would think that you could just cover your circuit with your hands, but that is not a solution: Pulse oximeters depend on the translucency of flesh. Covering the ...

A spectrally pure sine wave oscillator is required for data converter; filter and audio testing. Figure 1 provides a stable frequency output with extremely low distortion. This quartz stabilized 4 kHz oscillator has less than 9 ppm (0.0009%) ...

Many applications, such as medical therapies, magnetic stirrers, and induction heating, call for a rotating magnetic field, which you can generate by attaching multiple permanent magnets to a dc motor. This technique involves problems, including ...

It’s the mid 1990’s and I am a design engineer for a company that designs and manufactures custom measurement systems and high power electronics. Our customers range from experimental fusion reactor operators to electric utilities. One ...