Mixed-signal electronic systems combine analog circuitry with high-speed digital logic, potentially allowing power rail disturbances to couple into sensitive analog measurements. Common anomalies span analog-to-digital (ADC) output spurs, sensor reading drift, and timing circuit jitter. To resolve these issues, engineers must determine whether the disturbance originates in the signal path or from noise coupled through […]
FAQ
Supercapacitors explained
Supercapacitors are a special type of electrochemical energy storage device noted for their ability to deliver sudden bursts of energy. Batteries typically provide the bulk energy required for sustained operation, whereas dielectric capacitors offer the rapid discharge rates necessary for filtering and pulse power. In such a scenario, supercapacitors address the gap between these two […]
Nomographs: once ubiquitous, now mostly gone…but holdouts remain
This classic graphical tool is now rarely used, but there is one application where it still reigns. Back in the “BC” era (before calculators/computers), calculations associated with basic engineering situations were hard to do, especially if they involved multiple steps, variables, or non-linear factors. Basic calculations involved commonly needed functions such as the volume of […]
What are attention mechanisms, and how do they work in speech and audio processing?
Attention mechanisms are very useful innovations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for processing sequential data, especially in speech and audio applications. This FAQ talks about how attention mechanisms work at their core, how they are used in automatic speech recognition systems, and how transformer architectures can handle advanced audio processing. What are the […]
How can you create a negative impedance and what’s it good for?
Negative impedance can be created using active circuits like negative impedance converters (NICs), and it’s useful for canceling out unwanted inductance in circuits, improving power system compensation, and enabling wider bandwidths in applications like audio systems, communication, and metamaterials. NICS can improve the bandwidth and efficiency of electrically small antennas, including those that comprise metasurfaces, […]
Power-supply supervisors keep circuits in check: part 2
Is my power supply OK, and what if it isn’t? Is my microprocessor still working? In part 1, we examined the operation of power supply supervisory ICs that can detect when the supply voltage is too low, and what might happen if so. We will continue that analysis and then consider ways to keep an […]
Power-supply supervisors keep circuits in check: part 1
Is my power supply OK? What about my microprocessor? What if something goes wrong? Simulations show what happens if DC voltage drops. Microprocessors can behave in unwanted ways when their power supplies don’t deliver the expected voltage. Errors can occur, circuits can unexpectedly reset or even go rogue. To prevent such problems, many devices use […]
Understanding ADC specs and architectures: part 5
ENOB describes an analog-to-digital converter’s performance with respect to total noise and distortion. In the earlier parts of this series on analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), we looked at the basics (part 1); gain error, offset error, and differential nonlinearity (part 2); integral nonlinearity (part 3); and then we looked at some ADC topologies and introduced AC […]
Understanding ADC specs and architectures: part 4
The AC performance of an analog-to-digital converter depends on its architecture. In part 3 of this series, we discussed the integral nonlinearity (INL) error of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), noting that gain, offset, and INL error all contribute to the total unadjusted error. This metric provides an overall view of an ADC’s DC performance. Q: What about the AC […]
Understanding ADC specs and architectures: part 3
Integral nonlinearity tracks the cumulative effects of an ADC’s differential nonlinearity. In part 2 of this series, we discussed several sources of error in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), including gain, offset, missing-code error, and differential nonlinearity (DNL). We concluded with an illustration of a waveform with varying levels of DNL superimposed on the staircase representing […]
