By David Herres A vacuum-tube operational amplifier (op amp) was conceived in the early years of the Second World War and achieved great success as a means of…
The post Basics of op amps appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres A vacuum-tube operational amplifier (op amp) was conceived in the early years of the Second World War and achieved great success as a means of…
The post Basics of op amps appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres The most successful IC, if sales volume is an indication, has been the 555 timer. With production averaging over a billion a year, this simple…
The post Basics of the 555 timer chip appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Thomas Edison, in the waning years of the 19th century, attempted to make a case for his preferred dc electrical system. But George Westinghouse and…
The post Basics of rectification appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres The heart of the most common type of laser is the optical cavity. It is typically cylindrical and contains the gain medium. The gain medium is…
The post Basics of lasers, part two appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Electrons travel freely through the comparatively vast spaces between atoms or they are confined to orbits around an atom’s nucleus. The orbits do not lie…
The post Basics of lasers, part one appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres When you modulate a signal, you are varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with another signal, the modulating…
The post Basics of analog modulation appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Wind, the motion of air with respect to the earth’s surface, is a potent source of energy that may be harvested. Our ancient ancestors built…
The post A brief history of wind power appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres A previous article discussed resonant circuits. Now we’ll go on to look at that fundamental workhorse of the modern electronic world, the oscillator. Without it,…
The post Basics of oscillators appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Hand-held oscilloscopes are available in a wide range of prices. For a robust instrument such as the Tektronix THS3024, expect to pay about one-third the…
The post Basics of hand-held oscilloscopes appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres A resonant circuit is formed when a capacitor and inductor (coil) are in parallel or in series. The two circuit elements will block or pass a…
The post Basics of resonant circuits appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Solar cells, the building blocks of solar arrays, are simple two-wire diodes packaged and configured to produce electrical current when exposed to electromagnetic radiation of…
The post Basics of solar cells appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Moore’s law, actually more an observation than an edict, states that the number of transistors that can sit on a single semiconductor chip may be expected to…
The post ICs and timers appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Unlike residential wiring, the electrical harness in an industrial or large commercial setting usually carries three-phase power. To many homeowners and beginning technologists, three-phase circuits are…
The post Basics of three-phase electrical power appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is a highly successful strategy for combining complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFETs to create logic functions. A…
The post Basics of CMOS appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres The FET, discussed in a previous article, was widely used for a few short years, from its introduction in 1947 until it was abruptly eclipsed…
The post Basics of MOSFETs appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.
By David Herres |
By David Herres The field-effect transistor (FET) resembles the bipolar transistor in some of its behavioral characteristics, but its inner workings are markedly different. Rather than base, emitter and collector, FETs…
The post Basics of FETs appeared first on Test & Measurement Tips.