“Two halves make a whole” is a very old and often true maxim. For example, it’s almost always true when said about AC phase angle power control. You rarely want significant alternating half-cycle asymmetry due to the (usually ...
Check out this link for On Semiconductor’s datasheet for a line of “Zero-Cross Optocoupled Triac Drivers.” The ability to zero-cross when turning on AC line voltage to some loads may be advantageous. The following sketch in Figure ...
It’s just a fact, I’m curiously fond of topologies that combine PWM switching and filtering circuitry with power handling devices like adjustable voltage regulator chips. This scheme makes power-capable DACs with double-digit wattage ...
The recent Design Idea “Getting an audio signal with a THD 0.0002% made easy” [ 1 ] discloses a low THD sine generator which led me to dust off a design that I had published in AudioXpress magazine [ 2 ] (see Figure 1). Figure 1. A ...
A two-terminal current source using the basic circuit of Figure 1a can be enhanced by adding on an independent subcircuit that uses degeneration of a PNP transistor to achieve zero temperature coefficient (tempco or TC). This low-cost design is the ...
The challenge of improving analog/digital accuracy by preventing amplifier saturation in systems supplied with only a single logic-level power rail has been receiving a lot of activity and design creativity recently. Voltage inverters generating ...
To control their brightness, LEDs need a constant current; this can be done with a resistor placed in series with the LED string. Both the LED-string voltage and the supply voltage can vary, so a dedicated LED driver is a must to guarantee the ...
The accurate, high-side, current-sense circuit in Figure 1 does not use a dedicated, isolated supply voltage, as some schemes do. Only the selected transistors limit the common-mode range. The circuit measures the voltage across a small ...
When you design a transformer for any power converter, you face several compromises. You must trade off core size against the number of primary turns and flux density. Another trade-off is the number of turns and winding resistance versus the ...
Many designs exist for logic-based astable multivibrators, one of the simplest being an RC feedback loop around a single inverting Schmitt trigger inverter (Figure 1). The output charges the capacitor to the upper switching threshold, at which ...