Sensors such as strain gauges, pressure gauges and some magnetic sensors are often bridge devices. They can be full or half bridge although the bridges are usually made of multiple devices connected together, with MEMS sensors being an exception. So, in the case of a strain gauge, a half bridge would be made with one […]
Industry Experts
Signal line and supply filtering
There are many reasons for needing to filter power supply or signal line. Power supply lines from a switching regulator may be too noisy for sensitive analog circuitry. Signal or power supply lines may pick up interference either from the rest of the system circuitry or from external devices. With signal lines the problem of […]
Troubleshooting analog circuits
While you may need to troubleshoot a circuit that used to work and now doesn’t, the emphasis here is how to troubleshoot a design when you have your first PCB made. While you may be fortunate and everything works perfectly first time, there is often a need for some troubleshooting with a new design. The […]
Using and interfacing to thermocouples
I recently had cause to look again at thermocouples after not having used them for many years. While they may seem a little old fashioned when you can measure temperature with a simple IC or a complex IC with an I²C or SPI interface such as the Analog Devices ADT7410, thermocouples still have their uses. […]
Specialized semiconductor materials
Early semiconductor devices were based on germanium, although there were others around such as selenium used in rectifiers. Germanium doesn’t need to be as pure as silicon for making devices but has higher leakage and is not so good at high temperatures so silicon has taken over and is the mainstay of current electronics. However, […]
Variable gain amplifiers
It is not uncommon to need an adjustable gain in an analog signal processing chain. If the adjustment is manual then it is pretty straightforward — you can use a potentiometer. When you need the adjustment under digital control then it becomes more complicated. If you need a digitally adjustable instrumentation amplifier then there are […]
NXP Introduces Industry’s First Secure Total USB Type-C Solution
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) unveiled the industry’s most complete USB Type-C solution, including authentication and power delivery capabilities to further deliver secure connections for a smarter world. The authentication capabilities can be used to validate a device and determine whether specific functionality of that device should be enabled. This will maximize battery life and […]
NXP Releases Plug’n Play NFC Solution for Linux and Android Developers
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) introduced the PN7120 to accelerate NFC adoption in the Internet-of-Things (IoT). The highly integrated PN7120 helps create innovative NFC solutions and enables fast exploration of new applications and use cases for IoT and the Smart Home including a variety of appliances and consumer electronics such as home network gateways and routers, […]
Calculating and comparing amplifier noise
I was recently presented with the problem of comparing the noise of two alternative designs that were presented to me. Normally that wouldn’t take much sorting out – a few minutes with a SPICE simulator and you would have the answer. That depends on having reliable SPICE models. The first thing I do when embarking […]
Plug-and-Play Evaluation Tools to Accelerate Applications in RF Energy
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Nasdaq: NXPI), unveiled new plug-and play evaluation tools designed to enable fast and easy testing of new RF energy applications. Applications range from solid-state cooking, RF sparkplugs, RF plasma lighting to RF heating/drying, medical therapy and more. The evaluation tools will be demonstrated alongside NXP’s new RF energy power amplifier in copper […]
