Commercially available IR distance rangers typically handle a 3- to 30-in. detection distance. Many times, it is necessary to determine smaller distances. The circuit in Figure 1 is useful for measuring small distances to reflective surfaces. Its ...
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 ...
An important figure of merit for all precision constant current sources is their active impedance. Which is to say, just how “constant” is their output held against changes in applied voltage? Frequent and expert Design Idea (DI) ...
The versatility of the venerable LMC555 CMOS analog timer is so well known it’s virtually a cliche, but sometimes it can still surprise us. The circuit in Figure 1 is an example. In it a single linear pot in a simple RC network sets the ...
Stephen Woodward’s “Ignoring the regulator’s reference” ( Ref. 1 ) Design Ideas (DI) (see Figure 1) is an excellent, working example of how to include a circuit in the feedback loop of an op amp to support the stabilization ...
The LM358 family of dual op amps is among those hoary industry work-horse devices that are inexpensive and still have their uses. These parts’ outputs can approach (and for the inputs even include) their negative supply rail voltage. ...
Ages ago, humankind crawled out of the primordial analog ooze and began to do digital. They soon noticed and quantified a fundamental need to interconnect their new quantized numerical novelties with the classic continuum of the ancestral ...
EDN Design Ideas (DI) published a design of mine in May of 2025 for a passive two-way current mirror topology ( Ref. 1 ) that, in analogy to optical two-way mirrors, can reflect or transmit. That design comprises just two BJTs and one diode. But ...
What’s new Texas Instruments is enhancing the next generation of digital lithography with the introduction of the DLP991UUV digital micromirror device (DMD), the company’s highest resolution direct imaging solution to date. With 8.9 ...
DAC control (via PWM or other source) of regulators is a popular design topic here in editor Aalyia Shaukat’s Design Ideas (DIs) corner. There’s even a special aspect of this subject that frequently provokes enthusiastic and ...