Manufacturers of optocouplers characterize their devices for CTR, and an optocoupler’s data sheet will list its CTR ranges. Unfortunately, the CTR range may be too wide for some applications...

Few methods for analog to digital conversion are more “mature” than the classic combination of a voltage-to-frequency converter with a counter. VFC digitization is naturally integrating, so good noise rejection is inherent, as is programmable resolution...

Most differential field bus technologies, like CAN and RS-485, specify a parameter called common-mode voltage. Common-mode voltage refers to the range of bus input voltages, with respect to the transceiver’s ground...

This circuit of only a few components is powered by two AA batteries and features a mode that extends its power savings...

Manual amplifier nulling circuits are simple topologies, typically consisting of just a trimmer pot and a couple of fixed resistors intended to allow offset adjustment by a (usually small) symmetrical fraction of bipolar supply voltages...

It’s interesting, useful, and fun that basic electronic topologies often turn out to have utility in multiple and surprisingly different applications...

This Design Idea mates a precision current source IC with precision difference amp chips to create a programmable current source or sink...

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 voltage...

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...

Many applications require special differential amplifiers that achieve both high performance and low power dissipation...