EDN Test equipment for a production line should be user-friendly (read “idiot-proof”) and should offer minimal test time. In many cases, the test fixture must give an operator only one answer: pass or fail. Usually, two indicators ...
EDN The simplest technique for measuring current in an actuator or a motor is to monitor the ground current with a resistive element between the load and the ground. Because the device and its associated electronics share a ground potential, you ...
Electronic Design In this Idea for Design, using a comparator-based switch-mode driver circuit of a solenoid improves efficiency by tailoring the drive to the pull-in versus hold-mode current requirements. Several years ago, Paul Rako, in ...
EDN Phase shifters find use in a variety of circuits, but variation in amplifier and capacitance tolerances usually makes it difficult to control the exact phase shift that precise control circuitry requires. The circuit in Figure 1 can control the ...
EDN A true-differential, power-source-free, high-input-impedance amplifier with bipolar output would present distinct advantages in remote devices. Such an amplifier, with its bipolar output, would be a better choice than a unipolar, 4- to 20-mA ...
Electronic Design Opto-electronic systems frequently require temperature stabilization for components such as laser diodes, photodiodes, prisms, and lenses. The established method for providing stabilization is to attach a resistive temperature ...
EDN Some battery-powered devices require large amounts of current in a short period of time but spend most of the time in sleep (power-down) mode. The momentary large-load current demands large batteries to meet the time requirement, even though ...
EDN Most oscillator circuits include a nonlinear amplitude control that sustains oscillations at a desired amplitude with minimum output distortion. One approach uses the output sinusoid's amplitude to control a circuit element's ...
Electronic Design The converter described below, based on a silicon bipolar-junction transistor (BJT), can operate at as low as 250 mV, which is probably a record for a converter not based on a JFET or germanium transistor. How is this possible? ...
EDN Under certain conditions, ESD events can damage digital circuits by causing latch-up. For example, when ESD triggers them, parasitic transistors normally formed as parts of a CMOS device can behave as an SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier). Once ...