A Clever Voltage-Fed Half-Bridge Converter Architecture (.PDF Download)
Design engineers often turn to push-pull, half-bridge, and full-bridge power-converter designs for higher power output. These architectures show up from 200 W to 500 W and beyond. When space or weight...
View ArticleIdeas for Design: Vol. 1 No. 1 (.PDF Download)
Game-show "contestant-selection" controllers aren't new. But the designs are complicated, especially as the number of inputs grows. This contestant controller is simple and expands easily. The idea is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Use Resonance with a High-Voltage Piezo Driver
By exploiting a PZT’s impedance, this series-resonant technique basically transforms a high-current piezo amplifier into a high-voltage piezoelectric driver. Download this article in PDF...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Use Resonance with a High-Voltage Piezo Driver (.PDF Download)
Jacques and Pierre Curie, French physics, discovered the piezoelectric effect in 1880. When some solid material is mechanically compressed or stressed, the material accumulates electrical charges on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Qualcomm Buys TDK's Stake in RF Business for $1.15 Billion
Qualcomm is spending $1.15 billion to buy out the radio frequency chip business it operated with TDK, looking to supply a broader range of components for 5G handsets and other devices. The San Diego,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WEBENCH Power Designer: From Floppy Disk to the Cloud
The venerable tool has been substantially overhauled, especially when it comes to the user interface. But what’s the story behind WEBENCH’s creation? Find out how it all started and what the enhanced...
View ArticleWEBENCH Power Designer: From Floppy Disk to the Cloud (.PDF Download)
It can take significant time and effort to properly design a power supply, calculate component values, and select active and passive components that fit. The process can become very time-consuming as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Simple Charge Pump Boosts Input Voltage by 50%
This charge-pump circuit, using just a few diodes and capacitors, ups the input voltage by a factor of 1.5 in contrast to the usual voltage-doubling output. Micropower product designs sometimes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Liquid-Metal Triboelectric Nanogenerator Harvests Body Motion
Researchers developed a friction-based transducer comprised of liquid metal and a polymer-layer sandwich that can harvest energy of low-frequency motion, such as from a body. There’s apparently little...
View ArticleIdeas for Design: Vol. 1, No. 2 (.PDF Download)
This round of Ideas for Design includes power-supply overvoltage protection, a load that achieves zero ohms, and a method for determining MOSFET junction temperature and switching losses.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Simplify your bill of materials with high-voltage amplifiers
A look at how a single op amp can handle three common functions: current sensing, temperature sensing and comparator operation.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Multiplexed Data Acquisition Ref Design for High Voltage Inputs
The design details the process for optimizing the precision high voltage front end drive circuit using the OPA192 and OPA140 to achieve excellent dynamic performance with the ADS8864.
View ArticleClik here to view.
A closer look at Shunt- and Hall-based current-sensing solutions
This document compares various isolated current-sensing methods based on several aspects such as performance, cost, and ease of implementation in OBCs and DC/DC converters. Application Example:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comparing isolated amplifiers and isolated modulators
This document compares isolated amplifiers and isolated-modulator-based solutions and explains some unique advantages of isolated-modulator-based solutions. Introduction to Isolated Amplifiers Figure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Enlightening Dimmer Switch Teardown
Older dimmer switches can’t power electronic bulbs, much less a dead short. Paul Rako tears one down to illuminate why that’s the case. My new house is a fixer-upper, and on the to-do list were two...
View ArticleBuck-Boost Converters Shrink Solution Size Up To 25%
Texas Instruments rolled out its latest line of buck-boost converters that deliver up to 2.5 A and enable up to 25% smaller power supply solutions in industrial and consumer Internet of Things devices....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jerry, Bob, and the Optoelectronic Pulse Amplifier
A behind-the-scenes look at how the first commercial optically coupled integrated circuit was created by LED inventor James “Bob” Biard and the inventor of the first digital handheld calculator, Jerry...
View ArticleJerry, Bob, and the Optoelectronic Pulse Amplifier (.PDF Download)
In February 2019, my friend and mentor Jerry Dale Merryman passed away. He was most well-known for inventing the first digital handheld calculator known as “Cal-Tech,” which now resides in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shape-Shifting Origami Surface Yields Dynamically Tunable RF Filter
Using dipoles printed with silver ink on a pre-scored folder substrate paper, a Georgia Tech team devised a scheme for RF filters of various types that can be tuned by adjusting the origami-based...
View ArticleIdeas for Design: Vol. 1, No. 3 (.PDF Download)
This round of Ideas for Design articles includes a direction-signal encoder, a spreadsheet for calculating 5% resistor values, an auto power conditioner without a power-hold relay, and a safe method...
View Article