Because satellites on space missions are inaccessible once launched, acquiring accurate telemetry data to monitor the state of health of the satellite sub-systems can help set a baseline to indicate a working system, while fluctuations can indicate...
Bluetooth® Low Energy is on a path to become ubiquitous. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group estimates that by 2024, all new phones, tablets and laptops will support Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy. They also expect 35% of devices to ship with single-mode Bluetooth Low Energy by 2024, which represents 300% growth in annual shipments.
The reason for this is the versatility of Bluetooth Low Energy. Bluetooth…
This article appeared in Planet Analog and has been published here with permission.
Galvanic isolation is common in industrial and automotive systems as a means of protecting against high voltages or to counteract ground potential differences. Designers traditionally used optocouplers for isolation, but in the last few years, digital isolators that use capacitive and magnetic…
Jürgen Belz, senior consultant, functional safety and cybersecurity at PROMETO co-authored this technical article.
With functional safety and security concerns in automotive electronics gaining attention, including in standards bodies, it’s important for automotive designers to enable functionally safe and secure automotive electric powertrains. Functional safety, cybersecurity and high-voltage safety play an important…
A wireless BMS allows vehicle designers can remove heavy, expensive, maintenance-prone cabling and improve the reliability and efficiency of hybrid and electric or hybrid vehicles (HEV/EV). TI’s solution for wireless BMS empowers you to reduce the complexity of your designs, improve reliability and reduce vehicle weight to extend driving range.
To speed automakers’ development time for wireless BMS, we requested…
Have you ever designed a circuit that didn’t quite turn out the way you expected? I know I have! In this article I’ll help you resolve three common challenges associated with Hall-effect sensors in industrial and automotive applications – rotary encoding, robust signaling and in-plane magnetic sensing.
Challenge No. 1 – you can’t get a good…
Power metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) data sheets provide useful information such as key specifications, ratings and characteristics to help you confirm that the device will operate as intended. You may have questions about how a parameter varies, however, so in this article I’ll explain not just what’s in the data sheet but more importantly…
Gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) provide drastically improved switching losses and higher power density over silicon-carbide and silicon-based FETs, respectively. These traits can be particularly helpful in high-switching-frequency applications such as digital power converters, where they can help reduce the size of the magnetics.
Designers in the power…
Integrated multi-half-bridge drivers are becoming more popular as designers push the envelope on what’s possible within their ever-shrinking printed circuit board (PCB) designs. PCBs are getting smaller while power levels and feature requirements are growing. This leaves some engineers wondering whether it’s better to stick with their traditional discrete half-bridge design or move…
Noise is an unwelcomed electrical phenomenon that commonly originates in the power supply. If not reduced, noise can adversely impact the performance of applications in sensitive medical, test and measurement, and aerospace and defense systems.
Today’s high-precision analog signal-chain systems require DC/DC switching regulators to generate regulated power-supply rails for powering analog-to-digital converters (ADCs)…
Think of a passenger car as a collection of electronic control units (ECUs) that are distributed across the length and breadth of the car and talk to each other using different networks. When adding more advanced automotive electronics for vehicle-to-everything (V2X), automated driving and vehicle electrification, the number of ECUs increases and the amount of data exchanged grows.
Moreover, the increased number of ECUs…
Battery-powered audio system designers seek to achieve two goals: extending playback time and reducing cost. Older, conventional Class-D amplifiers, while reliable, have been part of this challenge because they consume too much power for portable systems.
Digital-input Class-D amplifiers have delivered audio in television sets for a decade. The problem with amplifiers designed for TVs is that they are not designed to…
Cell balancing is important in battery management systems for electric vehicles (EVs) because it helps extend vehicle driving ranges and ensure safe EV battery operation. Cell balancing is also required in order to correct imbalances in the battery itself. All batteries, including those found in EVs, experience unbalancing over time caused by mismatches during manufacturing processes…
This post was co-authored by Alex Lyubarsky and Paul Rancuret.
The next evolution of projected image displays is a display that provides a realistic viewing experience, as often depicted in futuristic Hollywood movies. The display industry has succeeded...
Have you ever thought that an integrated digital signal processor (DSP) in an audio amplifier was only used for digital filters, equalization or audio mixing? The reality is that DSPs integrated in modern audio amplifiers bring much more to the party, including increasing both amplifier and audio system efficiency.
Battery-powered speakers continue to be one of the most convenient…
Designers have several topologies to choose from when designing 51-W isolated DC/DC power over Ethernet (PoE) systems. In a perfect world, each topology would cost nothing, have 100% efficiency and be smaller than a grain of sand. But since that isn’t possible, system designers are forced to choose the topology that closest meets their needs. In this article, I’ll discuss three…
When designing a system, the main goal is to meet high performance requirements at a low overall cost. It’s a delicate balance that influences the architecture of the whole system. Many systems, such as field transmitters, thermometers and electricity meters (also called e-meters) include at least one sensor, which may require an analog front end (AFE) as well. However, simply…
As more vehicles become electrified, the need to achieve the highest levels of functional safety with high-accuracy battery monitoring is paramount. Yet in order to improve battery-monitoring accuracy, the vehicle’s battery management system must work efficiently in real time to monitor the performance of the individual battery cells within.
In typical hybrid…
Intent on accelerating electric vehicle (EV) adoption by addressing top consumer concerns such as driving range, charge time and affordability, automakers worldwide are demanding increased battery capacity and faster charging capability, with little to no increase in size, weight or component cost.
The EV onboard charger (OBC), which allows consumers to recharge the battery directly from an AC main at home or at public…
Stepper motors are an integral part of systems that need precise positioning, excellent speed control and repeatability of movement. You’ll find stepper motors in 3D printers, textile machines, medical tools, robotics, printers, stage lighting and ATMs.
A stepper motor has two electrical current windings controlled with an H-bridge, and moves in discrete…
Recently, there has been a big push in the automotive lighting industry to improve both vehicle headlight functionality and driver visibility, which has led to the development of adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlights. ADB is an automotive exterior lighting system that automatically controls the high beam, to allow the driver to focus on the road ahead without manually controlling…
From cart-based ultrasound scanners to portable smart probes that send images directly to a smartphone, the world of ultrasound imaging continues to diversify. Despite architectural differences in their design, every ultrasound system needs a DC power supply that can efficiently meet the power demands of the system and avoid interference with the ultrasound frequency range…
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