Articles - 18

Developed as a three-terminal shunt regulator, the popular and multiple-sourced TL431 IC offers designers many intriguing possibilities beyond its intended application. Internally, the TL431 comprises a precision voltage reference, an operational ...

ADCs with differential inputs are becoming increasingly popular. This popularity isn't surprising, because differential inputs in the ADC offer several advantages: good common-mode noise rejection, a doubling of the available dynamic range ...

More than a half-century old, the ubiquitous and mind-bogglingly useful 555 analog timer has become a perennial object for both kudus and criticism. Most of the former and some of the latter is justified, but sometimes a supposed shortcoming will ...

Many applications call for wide-range-tunable LC oscillators that can deliver a nearly constant-frequency, nearly harmonic-free output even when the circuit's output load changes. From a design viewpoint, eliminating either inductive or ...

This Design Idea shows how to keep telecom equipment operational during a short brownout. You must first understand a few details regarding the power supply for telecom equipment. The common voltage of the power source that feeds telecom equipment ...

Introduction Flyback power converters are currently some of the most common converter topologies around. This is due to the simplicity of their design and the competitive size/cost/efficiency ratio their can deliver, especially in the mid-level ...

EMI is a plague upon power electronic design architectures, and it can be mitigated in numerous ways. Adding an EMI filter may seem like the most obvious choice, but there may be a better first step. Modern electronic power system architectures are ...

A free-running generator built on the standard configuration of the 555 timer can't provide a duty cycle of exactly 50%. That's a well-known fact. Fortunately, there are several ways to get around this problem. The best is to place an extra ...

Introduction The high dv/dt and di/dt switching transients during MOSFET commutation are the chief sources of both conducted and radiated EMI from switching DC/DC regulators. While the optimization of PCB layout for gallium-nitride (GaN) switching ...

Machine vision systems use very short flashes of intense light to produce high speed images used in a wide variety of data processing applications. For instance, fast moving conveyor belts are run through machine vision systems for quick label and ...