High-resolution mixed-signal devices present an interesting challenge as you try to find the right voltage-reference design. Although no universal approach exists for these voltage-reference designs, the circuit in Figure 1 presents an interesting ...
Particulate matter (PM2.5) monitoring is a key public-health metric. Vehicle- and drone-mounted sensors can expand coverage, but many existing systems are too costly for broad deployment. This Design Idea (DI) presents a prototype PM2.5 sensing and ...
A predominant failure mechanism for production pc boards is shorted traces. Finding hidden shorts is often time-consuming and frustrating. Typical techniques of cutting traces, lifting pads, and “blowing” shorts are, at best, ...
You sometimes need to measure the differential temperature between two points in a system to a greater accuracy than that required in measuring the absolute temperature at either of the individual points. Differential-temperature measurement is ...
Current sources are useful in many areas of electronics, such as voltage and current division, current transmitters, excitation of thermistors, RTDs, bridges, potentiometers, and circuit biasing. Current sources are either fixed- or ...
Increasing ADC resolution Many electronic designs contain an ADC, or more than one, to read various signals and voltages. Often, these ADCs are included as part of the microcontroller (MCU) being used. This means, once you pick your MCU, you have ...
Introduction In many applications, it is not possible to measure distance to the target by establishing a physical contact. Typical examples include measuring presence of objects on a conveyor belt in logistic centers, or ensuring safety distances ...
Lightning is one of nature’s most intense and unpredictable forces, but thankfully, we have got technology to help us stay ahead of the storm. Lightning detectors are designed to pick up the electromagnetic signals generated by lightning ...
PWM is a simple, cool, cheap, cheerful, and (therefore) popular DAC technology. Excellent differential nonlinearity (DNL) and monotonicity are virtually guaranteed by PWM. Also guaranteed are a stable zero and a full-scale accuracy that’s ...
High speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are by definition devices that sample an analog signal and, as such, must have sample clock inputs. Some system designers that utilize ADCs have observed a slower than expected startup from the time ...