Among all of the buzzwords to describe the increased electrification of our world, one term should stand out more: current sensing. Few of the innovations you hear about in solar power arrays, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations or robotics would be possible if current-sensing technology wasn’t reliable, accurate and easy to design with…

Size and power consumption are two of the key design aspects for circuits used in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These systems require components that are:

• Radiation tolerant, to ensure proper operation in orbit. The operation of LEO satellites in an environment without the protection of the earth’s atmosphere subjects electronics to radiation and possible damage. Radiation…

Ultrasonic lens cleaning: A solid-state technology you didn’t know you needed

If you’re old enough to have owned a portable CD player, you might remember how the music would skip if the CD got scratched or dirty. Or maybe you remember how VHS tapes had winding issues, tape deterioration and poor image quality. Flash memory made these complicated mechanical storage methods obsolete…

The previous installment in the real-time control series dove into the functional block of processing. In this installment, I will discuss the actuation stage (updating the system) of real-time control, and why this stage is important for reliable system output operation.

For example, in motor-drive applications, you might be monitoring and measuring speed, position, torque…

For nearly two decades, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) specification has been the interconnect standard for both consumer and industrial applications, enabling high-speed interface between processors, solid-state drives, and various technologies or end points. You can attribute its widespread adoption to several factors:

• The PCIe ecosystem is a nonproprietary specification, with open resources that…

Electronics intended for space missions face unique conditions and challenges – specialized integrated circuit (IC) packaging can help mitigate some of those challenges. We at TI have historically developed devices for commercial (non-space) use first; only after verification in a plastic package did the engineering team start on the ceramic…

Inductive and Hall-effect sensors provide precise and accurate measurements that are extremely important for low-latency human machine interfaces (HMI) in surgical equipment, such as highly accurate speed control in surgical drills. When compared to systems with mechanical-based triggers, designs using inductive and Hall-effect sensors can provide safety and performance benefits in HMI systems.

Real-time control is the ability of a closed-loop system to gather data, process that data, and update the system within a defined time window. As a continuation of the article, “What is ‘Real-Time Control’ and Why Do You Need It?,” I’ll take a closer look at the first functional block of real-time control systems – sensing (gathering…

Previously published on Electronic Design

In my previous Hall-effect sensor myths technical article, I focused on misconceptions about Hall-effect switches and latches, including common applications where designers could benefit from using Hall-effect sensors instead of other integrated circuits. The six myths in this article go a bit more in depth on the high-accuracy angle-measurement…

You’ve probably heard that it’s possible to shatter glass by screaming at a high-pitched tone, but have you heard of cleaning glass by screaming? With precisely controlled, high-frequency vibrations, ultrasonic cleaning technology can clean glass surfaces. On a rainy day this technology could automatically detect and clear raindrops from a car’s rear camera lens without requiring action from the driver…

Semiconductor packaging techniques have evolved in order to adapt to the smaller chip sizes made possible by technological advances, as well as increased power dissipation and growing demands for power density. Flip chip on leadframe (FCOL) packaging technologies have become increasingly popular given their technical benefits and efficient use of printed circuit board (PCB) area. In this article, I’ll give a short overview…

Previously published on Electronic Design

Hall-effect sensors are commonly used in automotive and industrial systems for applications including proximity detection, linear displacement measurement and rotary encoding. Currently, the high system performance requirements of modern applications have led to IC manufacturers increasing sensitivity accuracy, integrating…

A brushed DC motor’s simplicity of control, low cost and wide range of capability makes it a good fit for automotive loads that need integrated, high-powered and reliable motor drivers such as window lifts, sunroof controls, locks, latches and engine valves.

If you’re designing an automotive system, you’ll likely encounter both device- and system-level…

Co-authored by Matthias Thoma

Every day, consumers interact with systems that assess their surroundings and act accordingly. In a vehicle, when pressing the accelerator, the vehicle speeds up almost instantaneously – there is no noticeable delay between pressing the pedal to acceleration.

To apply this example to the topic of this article, if the vehicle were a system, the surroundings pressing the accelerator and…

Fault-detection mechanisms are a necessity in high-power industrial systems such as motor drives and solar inverters, as well as automotive systems including electric vehicle (EV) chargers, traction inverters, onboard chargers and DC/DC converters.

Fault detection involves current, voltage and temperature measurements to diagnose any AC power-line fluctuations, mechanical or electrical…

The first three installments of this technical article series focused on the benefits of designing with low-power amplifiers and how to maximize their efficiency. Unfortunately, low-power amplifiers also come with their share of trade-offs. In this fourth installment, I will consider one of the most common challenges with low-power amplifier designs – instability…

Whether it excites or bores you, continued learning is a necessary part of life. Semiconductors and electronics invite constant learning; I personally enjoy exposure to new material and ideas. The field of electronics contains an abundance of textbooks, research and experiences, and choosing among them can be difficult and time-consuming. My TI journey began with a resource created to guide this learning process: TI Precision…

Everyone agrees that seeing clearly on the road is essential while driving a car. This truth becomes even more critical when implementing technologies such as autonomous driving. The “eyes” of an autonomous vehicle are called light detection and ranging (lidar) technology, which provides precise images of what surrounds the vehicle. Lidar systems use a light source and…

Incorrect output behavior can occur when large negative input voltages in comparators violate the input common-mode voltage range. In cases where it’s not possible to avoid a negative input voltage, it’s important to protect the input pins of the comparator and prevent a phenomenon called phase reversal, also known as phase inversion, from occurring.

In this article…

To reliably capture high-frequency signals and fast transient pulses, wide-bandwidth data acquisition systems like oscilloscopes and active probes require high-performance analog front-end (AFE) signal chains that must be able to:

• Support 1 V_PP signals (at least) to ensure a high signal-to-noise ratio.
• Support DC to 500 MHz of high input-impedance (Hi-Z) to prevent loading of the…

 Andrew Wallace contributed to this article

In a previous article, “What is a smart AFE?,” I discussed smart analog front ends (AFEs) and how they represent the most recent advancement in closed-loop control. Many of the applications discussed in the previous article covered broader applications in the automotive and industrial markets. In this article, I’ll explore one industrial…

Thermopiles are useful noncontact sensors for measuring not only temperature but also detecting select gases. Since thermopiles may have relatively high series impedance, they present numerous challenges to circuit designers trying to obtain absolute precision across a wide temperature range while meeting required minimum resolutions. The low output voltage…

Recent trends to miniaturize industrial products have created new challenges for precision data-acquisition systems. Designers must balance solution size and power consumption of the overall system while enabling more precise signal measurements at higher bandwidths – while making trade-offs along the way.

In this article, I’ll discuss these challenges in…

The input common-mode voltage range (commonly abbreviated as V_CM or VICR) is a term that’s widely recognized in the analog world but misunderstood in the comparators world. For an amplifier, V_CM is defined as the average voltage applied to both inputs. But for a comparator, it has an entirely different meaning.

The normal operation of a comparator implies two inputs crossing…

The classic analog signal chain comprises inputs, processing and outputs. The inputs are received by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or comparators. A microcontroller (MCU) with control software handles the processing. Finally, the analog outputs are produced by digital-to-analog converters (DACs) or pulse-width modulation (PWM).

In this article, I’ll introduce a new type of…