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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

As the need for higher resolution and higher-speed signal chains increases for industrial equipment such as programmable logic controllers, weigh scales and automated test equipment, so does the need for high-precision amplifiers acting as analog-to-digital converter (ADC) drivers and voltage reference buffers in such signal chains.

In this article, I’ll discuss two common…

Explosive atmospheres or environments with the potential for the ignition of combustible sources pose an inherent challenge for the safe operation of critical machinery in industries such as oil refineries, sawmills and chemical plants. These environments produce flammable gases and dust that when combined with oxygen and an ignition source can cause an explosion.

To help…

It is necessary everywhere – to protect humans, provide noise immunity and handle ground potential differences between subsystems. You design for it in applications such as motor drives, solar inverters, DC charging (pile) stations, industrial robots, uninterruptible power supplies, traction inverters, onboard chargers and…

With the growing popularity of digital isolators in industrial and automotive applications, it can be overwhelming to select the best device for your system from the plethora of available options. Adding to this challenge, most digital isolators are designed with specific system requirements and applications in mind, leaving you to sort through endless specifications and features to ensure that the device you have selected…

Whether you’re designing an aerospace and defense system, test and measurement equipment or automotive lidar analog front end (AFE), hardware designers using modern high-speed data converters face tough challenges with high-frequency inputs, outputs, clock rates and digital interface. Issues might include connecting with…

Ethernet is all around us – from points of sale in stores, LED signage in stadiums and even some parts of the industrial automation process. Despite its ubiquity, however, there are areas where it has yet to achieve wide and consistent usage. In this article, I’ll focus on one area in particular, long-distance (>1 km) two-wire networking at 10 Mbps, in remote industrial, building…

We’ve all been there – a late requirement change has thrown your design in disarray, with little time to implement changes and few multiplexer options. There is a myriad of possible last-minute changes, but one that I often encounter when working with designers is how to monitor an increased number of nodes after the microcontroller has already been selected, as shown in Figure 1. One of the biggest challenges in this…

(Note: Bob Hanrahan co-wrote this article.)

Hardware engineers are often expected to deliver results while on tight project timelines. Circuit and system designers must use all of the tools at their disposal to create accurate, robust designs that work well the first time. Those demands, coupled with today’s dynamically changing work environments, mean that tools that you can use at home or remotely for circuit simulation…

Designing a system that uses high-speed signals for data transmission can be difficult, especially when there are so many available communication protocols. While many are ideal for high-speed signals, one in particular continues to grow in popularity – the USB. Often been associated with gaming, automotive head unit, and PC and notebook applications, the USB protocol has become a more general-purpose high-speed…

Not all amplifier designs are created equal, and it’s important to be familiar with common specifications and understand certain concepts when designing with high-speed amplifiers. In the context of this article, high-speed amplifiers refer to operational amplifiers (op amps) with a gain bandwidth product (GBW) greater than or equal to 50 MHz, but these concepts can…

From autonomous vehicles to aircraft to factory floors, electrification and automation advancements are rapidly transforming our world. Systems that were previously manual, mechanical or hybrid are moving toward full automation and electrification thanks to increases in performance and reliability, and lower total lifetime cost. In fact, we are in the middle of the fourth…

As the global population grows, so does the risk for carrying and transferring germs throughout our homes, hospitals, schools and places of work. Smart sanitation products such as automatic paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers, trash cans, and smart toilets and faucets can reduce the spread of germs in common areas.

It is possible to automate every…

Of the four vital signs, temperature is most consistent from person to person and across time. We’ve all been taught that a normal body temperature is 37°C / 98.6°F. While most people are aware that this is an average, the assumption is that it’s an average across the population. What surprises many is the fact this is also an average in time, as our body temperature is in a perpetual…

Akeem Whitehead co-authored this article.

Sensors are everywhere – in our factories, homes, workplaces, even embedded within the objects we hold in our hands. With the integration of various technologies, it is becoming essential to design small.

Ultrasonic systems are no different. Integrated ultrasonic systems-on-chips with an H-bridge driver and high-performance…

Martin Staebler co-authored this technical article.

The use of electric motors in electronic systems has become pervasive. Innovations in motor size, control and cost efficiency have enabled designers to add electric motors to systems, thus creating new features and extending the functionality of end products.

With the dramatic increase in the number of electric motors, concerns over power efficiency have driven system…

This article was updated on Oct. 14, 2020.

(Nick Carley, Antonio Fadhel and Will Jarrett contributed to this article.)

As a hardware engineer, you may be used to performing at least some of your work at home. But it can be challenging – if not impossible – to build, validate and test your designs without access to the lab.

To keep you moving forward, TI has a variety of online tools and resources for each…

Stepper motors come in many different varieties, but there are two main winding configurations for permanent magnet and hybrid stepper motors driven by two phases: unipolar and bipolar. The common wiring configuration for unipolar motors is six wires connected to the motor windings (A+, A-, B+ and B-) and a center tap on each phase connected…

By Ross Pimentel and Aniruddha Khadye

Is it 100BASE-T1, 1000BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 10BASE-T or 10BASE-Te? For those not well-versed in Ethernet physical layer (PHY) lingo, it can be overwhelming to evaluate the various types. What are all these numbers, symbols and acronyms? What is a Media Independent Interface (MII)? What is the difference between an automotive PHY…

Have you ever woken up on a cold morning, stumbled over to your smart thermostat, and turned up the temperature by a degree or two just to get the heat started? I am sure most people can relate to having engaged in a similar type of interaction with their smart thermostat. Today’s smart thermostats give their users temperature adjustment granularity down to the…

As the automotive industry continues to embrace 48-V systems in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), the need for signal isolation for in-vehicle networking becomes even more critical. The features and benefits of higher voltages are significantly reduced without reliable, effective protection for low-voltage circuits.

However, understanding that you need to isolate signals from…