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 ...
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 ...
Electronic systems must often isolate their inputs or outputs from the main reference common (ground). Various conditions can make necessary such galvanic isolation: the type of input sensor or driven actuator, safety considerations for medical ...
“Gold-plated” without the gold plating Alright, I admit that the title is a bit over the top. So, what do I mean by it? I mean that: The application of PWM control to a regulator does not significantly degrade the inherent DC accuracy ...
A simple current source It has long been known that the simple combination of a depletion-mode MOSFET (and before these were available, a JFET) and a resistor made a simple, serviceable current source such as that seen on the right side of Figure ...
A classic nonlinear analog function is the squaring circuit. It’s useful in power sensing, frequency multiplication, RMS computation, and many other odd jobs around the lab bench. Figure 1. The squaring amplifier that is fast, ...
“Facts are stubborn things” (John Adams, et al). I added two 50-ohm outputs to the schematic of my published voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC) circuit [ 1 ] (Figure 1). Then, I designed a PCB, purchased the (mostly) surface-mount ...