Op amps tend to make analog design easy. Maybe sometimes too easy? Don’t get me wrong. I like operational amplifiers. Some of my best friends are op amps. They embrace such a wide range of varied capabilities, including low noise, high power, ...
Simple math implemented in a (very) simple circuit. What’s not to like? A very cool (also warm!) property of the base-emitter junction of (most) small signal BJTs is the ΔV BE temperature-sensing effect. ΔV BE temperature ...
Analog topologies abound for converting current to voltage, voltage to current, voltage to frequency, and frequency to voltage, among other conversions. Figure 1 joins the flock while singing a somewhat different tune. This current, voltage, and ...
When audio power amplifiers oscillate, the result is often smoke, perhaps with a well-cooked PCB and a side order of fried tweeter. This two-part Design Idea (DI) shows some interesting ways of (mis-)using a common power amp to produce deliberate ...
It’s interesting, useful, and fun that basic electronic topologies often turn out to have utility in multiple and surprisingly different applications. Figure 1 shows an example of such a circuit. It’s a charge pump voltage inverter ...
AC loads are everywhere around us because at least home appliances are supplied with the mains power. Therefore, we always face the situations that we want to have full control (dimming) over an AC load such as a lamp, a motor, vacuum cleaner etc. ...
Capacitor type charge pumps are a well-known, simple, efficient, cost-effective (and therefore popular!) method for inverting and multiplying voltage supply rails. Perhaps less well known, however, is that they also work just as well for dividing ...
Many applications involve the digital synthesis of three-phase sinusoidal waveforms, such as ac-motor drives, active power filters, and grid-voltage synchronizers, that use a microcontroller or a DSP for digital control. You can perform this ...
Examine a traditional Hartley oscillator circuit, and you'll note its trademark: a tapped inductor that determines the frequency of oscillation and provides oscillation-sustaining feedback. Although you can easily calculate the total inductance ...
The original application for the circuit in Figure 1 was to check the number of revolutions of an engine with only one LED as an indicator. The measurement of the number of revolutions usually involves sensors with a frequency output proportional ...