Energy harvesting is a hot topic at the moment. The desire to save energy, create it at no cost or power devices virtually forever without needing a conventional…
Switching regulator fundamentals – the SEPIC converter
By Chris Francis OK, so maybe it’s not the logical follow-on from the buck converter but nevertheless a useful converter and probably a bit more interesting than the…
Switching regulator fundamentals – the buck converter
By Chris Francis Switching regulators are everywhere – buck, boost, SEPIC, Cuk, flyback etc. They are for converting power from one voltage to another in a relatively efficient…
How not to design analog filters!
By Chris Francis I thought I would share some of the crimes against filters that I have seen people commit over the years. 2+2=4? So, you have designed…
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Analog Filters
By Chris Francis Filters are an important part of analog design. Even circuits that you don’t think of as filters are actually filters. For example, a simple amplifier…
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Transimpedance Amplifier Signal to Noise
The use of opamps as transimpedance amplifiers is well known and a good analysis of the noise behavior of them is in the old Burr Brown Application Bulletin…
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Cascode Amplifiers
I am not sure how “fashionable” discrete transistor design is nowadays, but anyone using discrete transistors, bipolar or otherwise, for high speed designs other than for switching probably…
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LTC6990/1/2/3/4/5 TimerBlox
By Chris Francis I have used various programmable clock generator chips, such as the PLL based devices from IDT for generating high frequency clocks in mixed signal systems, such as pixel clocks for analog to digital converters in video systems. In those applications precision frequencies can be important and speed can be more than 100MHz.…
SiGe:C transistors compared with HEMT for non 50 ohm systems
by Chris Francis When dealing with high speed, low noise, non 50 ohm systems such as transimpedance amplifiers, a GaAsFET or HEMT can be a viable choice. On…
PIC Microcontrollers for Safety Critical Applications
by Chris Francis Microchip recently announced some microcontrollers for “safety critical applications”. I was interested to see what the difference was and how they might compare with other…
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Linear Technology LT8614 “SilentSwitcher”
The Linear Technology LT8614 “SilentSwitcher” claims to reduce EMI/EMC emissions to well below the CISPR 25 Class 5 limit. It also seems a well specified step-down switching regulator…
Comparison of the Cypress PSoC 1, 3, 4 and 5LP
By Chris Francis The first generation Cypress PSoC “Programmable System-on-Chip” – PSoC 1 – was the first programmable analog system that was general purpose, flexible and with usable…
The post Comparison of the Cypress PSoC 1, 3, 4 and 5LP appeared first on Micro Controller Tips.
Microchip PIC Microcontroller Configurable Logic Cells (CLC)
By Chris Francis Some of the newer Microchip PIC microcontrollers feature “configurable logic cells” or CLC. What are they and how useful are they? They appear in a…
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Input Bias Current Cancellation in Bipolar Opamps
By Chris Francis Bipolar operational amplifiers have an essential input bias current requirement. This bias current has to come from somewhere and can be a nuisance in some…
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Using the AD9850 Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) IC
By Chris Francis There are a number of DDS chips around. Taking Analog Devices as an example, they range from simple, low speed, low cost devices such as…
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Improving Transimpedance Amplifiers with a Bootstrap
Analog bootstrap circuits are traditionally ones where an output is fed back to the input, usually to increase input impedance. This can be to minimize either the resistive…
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Choosing low power FPGAs – how does the Lattice iCE40 compare?
By Chris Francis Xilinx CoolRunner-II Most of my design is for battery operated equipment, requiring low power devices. While I have used a lot of CPLDs and FPGAs…
The post Choosing low power FPGAs – how does the Lattice iCE40 compare? appeared first on FPGA Tips.
Clock Startup in Low Power Microcontroller Design
By Chris Francis Using a low power microcontroller and making it “sleep” as much as possible is a common power reduction technique as they can be woken by…
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Measuring Opamp Open Loop Gain with SPICE
When designing opamps in analog IC design, it is frequently required to plot the open loop gain/phase. One way of doing that is to use a high feedback…
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