Is plain old FR-4 PCB material suitable for use in RF designs? Many say no, fewer say yes – who’s right? What PCB material do I need to use for RF? article tries to answer this question. It says that FR-4 can be suitable for many RF designs. This is not to say that FR-4 →
Board-level designers often have concerns about the proper way to handle grounding for integrated circuits (ICs) which have separate analog and digital grounds. Should the two be completely separate and never touch? Should they connect at a single point with cuts in the ground plane to enforce this single point or “Mecca” ground? How can →
The microprocessor world seems to be going in ARM direction. And so seems to be microcontrollers. Cheap ARM based 32-bit micro-controllers are taking their place and trying to replace less powerful 8- and 16-bit micro-controllers. I wrote earlier that Arduino Goes ARM. It took quite bit of time for Arduino to take that step and →
In Internet there seems to be many plans for DIY logic analyzers: Open source logic analyzer OpenBench Logic Sniffer Openbench Logic Sniffer SUMP FPGA Based Logic Analyzer FLASH – PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer and In-Circuit Emulator Project A logic analyzer using the PC’s parallel port A logic analyzer using the PC’s parallel port MiniLA – →
Logic analyzer is a very useful tool for embedded system debugging. In many embedded-system magazines and on Web sites you’ll see advertisements for instrument “boxes” or pods that connect to a PC through a USB port. These devices capture digital and analogue signals that a host PC displays in a standard scope or logic-analyzer format. →
Mass Production of 450mm Wafers Bumped Back Again: 2018 article mentions that probably one of the most interesting presentations at HOPE9, “Indistinguishable From Magic: Manufacturing Modern Computer Chips,” covered modern semiconductor fabrication. It tells why these things are cool. View the video of the presentation from YouTube to see it yourself: Integrated circuit design is →
Community driven, Design Ideas have always resonated deeply with EDN magazine’s audience (including me), with their inspired, hands-on, practical, and useful circuit-design contributions. Readers’ Choice: Vote for your favorite Design Ideas article tells that to highlight those contributions magazine has collected the most-clicked-on Design Ideas published since January 2011. They want the readers to tell →
Power factor correction devices: Can they really reduce your electricity bill? article tells that so-called “Power Saver Devices” (known by different names) are nothing but Power Factor Correction (PFC) devices that would connect to the mains and improve power factor measured by your electricity meter. The so-called “Power Saving” device may be useful for industrial →
30 years of DSP: From a child’s toy to 4G and beyond article tells that this year, as TI celebrates its 30th year in the DSP market, that long-ago question has been answered many times over. Without DSP and the advances it has enabled in audio, graphics, and multimedia processing, there would be no digital →
Do you remember diode-transistor logic? Diode–transistor logic (DTL) was the direct ancestor of transistor–transistor logic. You could easily do OR and AND functions with diodes, and then use transistor for amplifying and implementing NOT function. Perform the XOR/XNOR function with a diode bridge and a transistor article shows you discrete DTL-like circuits that use an →