Articles - 2

Many different switching regulator topologies exist. Some, such as the classic stepdown converter, also known as a buck converter, are very widespread. However, there are also a few lesser known switch-mode dc-to-dc converters, including the zeta ...

Injection locking [ 1 ] can not only improve oscillator frequency stability and phase noise, but act as a selective frequency divider as well [ 2 ], [ 3 ]. You can find sample setups of a simple two-transistor LC-based Peltz oscillator (Figure 1) ...

Most operational amplifiers (op amps) have input and output electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection diodes, as shown in Figure 1. These diodes are designed for protection from ESD damage during device testing and product assembly. Figure 1. Op ...

In operational amplifier stability, one rule of thumb is to allow 45 degrees of phase margin. Other design guidelines state that 60 degrees is best; still others say that 30 degrees is sufficient. These numbers are all attempts to ensure stable ...

Imagine that you have a voltage source in series with some source resistance feeding power to a variable load. The relationship between load voltage, load current, and cell current can be drawn as follows in Figure 1. Figure 1. The load voltage ...

Microcontrollers must often read the status of switches in control applications. A typical switch configuration uses pullup resistors on both of the switches to pull the signals high or low for the microcontroller to read. The controlling output in ...

Differential signaling is a common technique for obtaining high noise immunity for critical signals in high-speed digital pc-board systems. The pc board's traces, carrying differential signals, are often edge-coupled offset striplines, with the ...

In Part 1, we saw how to make an oscillator whose pitch, as opposed to frequency, can be made proportional to a control voltage. In this second part, we’ll look at some alternative ways of arranging things for other possible applications. To ...

Typical circuit An ongoing project (or gadget) called for a means of generating an audio output to represent a varying voltage level. Ho hum: that sounds like a voltage-controlled oscillator. But this signal was bipolar, spanning peaks ranging from ...

Initially imagined by Nikola Tesla in the early 1900s, the concept of a world wide web didn’t see creation until 60 years later. Take a trip alongside the history of the internet. Almost everyone around the world has access to and uses the ...