Articles - 3

Voltage to current conversion circuits can take on several forms depending on the nature of the load connections. In those cases where the load is single ended, that is one end must be connected to ground, and where bipolar current flow is ...

Lace Lithography AS (Bergen, Norway) is developing a form of lithography that uses atoms fired at a surface to define features at resolutions beyond what is possible using extreme ultraviolet lithography. What Lace Litho calls BEUV can ...

Quantum computers are among today’s most exciting emerging technologies, but their design, testing, and manufacturing require unparalleled care to avoid damaging their components. Semiconductors are sensitive, so they require production ...

The ever innovative and prolific Mr. Woodward has offered “PWM-programmed LM317 constant current source” [ 1 ], an intriguing programmable constant current source which elicited a lively conversation in its comments section. A Zen ...

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 ...