March 2019

Commercial sub-nanosecond pulse generators allow the change of amplitudes and widths of generated pulses, and offer features such as generating single pulses on external triggering, modulating the repetition frequency, and more.

Usually, the amplitude of an output signal of a phase-shifting circuit changes as a function of the phase shift angle. Here, we describe a new type of equal amplitude 0-180° phase-shift circuit that’s a combination of two RC phase-shifting circuits, whose output’s amplitude is independent of frequency within the phase shift angle of 0-180°.

This series is dedicated to a project involving thirteen analogue input modules and seven analogue output modules for use with a 5V microcontroller via its ADC and DAC channels. In columns two to four, we discussed the 0-5V analogue input modules 1 to 5, which accept DC input voltages from 0V to +6.26V, +12V, +24V and require a different set of DC power supplies.

There’s no stopping the current needs for low-power analogue, digital and mixed-signal circuits, especially in portable devices. Furthermore, in nanometre devices, the constraints of low power with large voltage swings in low supply voltages call for the unorthodox design using multi-stage amplifiers.

High-performance and high-speed electronic systems are in great demand a wide variety of applications. At the heart of most of these applications typically lie analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs). Of these, wide-bandwidth ADCs with high sampling rates and moderate resolution are mostly needed in applications such as digital sampling oscilloscopes, radar, satellite and broadband communication systems.

The power converter market continues to evolve fast, moving from simple performance/cost designs to broader and more sustainable innovations. However, new challenges are proliferating, including the need to make smaller yet more efficient power converters that can serve smaller servo drives or be integrated into distributed energy storage units. This also means having higher working voltage to manage higher power without increasing weight and dimensions, like in solar string inverters and electric vehicle traction motors.

Executive Q&A with Tony Armstrong, Director of Marketing for Power by Linear Group at Analog Devices, who discusses safety in power designs.

I changed one of my devices to a newer and better part with lower current consumption. Nothing is working any more, and even the new burnt out. What’s the explanation for this?

Collaborative robots, or ‘cobots’, are an exciting development for many industries, promising to increase productivity and reduce costs by assisting human workers with manual or repetitive tasks. For those creating tomorrow’s cobots, these machines’ unique requirements mean they demand a significant design shift compared to traditional industrial robots, particularly when it comes to safety.

By Tom Gregory, Future Facilities Once seen as the ‘light source of the future’, LEDs are rapidly becoming the norm within a huge array of consumer and industrial electronics products. The design of LEDs however is a complex, multidisciplinary problem, …