For athletes to perform at their highest level – to run a mile in less than five minutes or leap into the air and dunk a basketball – they need strong muscles. The heart supplies blood through the veins to the muscles to enable movements such as gripping an object with your hand or moving a finger when your brain instructs it to. But without muscles, these spectacular…
For years, passive infrared sensors and lasers have sensed remote objects or measured range in applications such as robotics, level sensing, people counting, automated doors and gates, and traffic monitoring. But with demand for higher precision and resiliency against environmental influences such as bad light, harsh weather conditions and extreme temperatures…
Electronic systems in industrial, automotive and personal computing applications are becoming increasingly dense and interconnected. To improve the form factor and functionality of these systems, diverse circuits are packed in close proximity. Under such constraints, reducing the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) becomes a critical system design…
Radiation-hardened low-dropout regulators (LDOs) are vital power components of many space-grade subsystems, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), data converters and analog circuitry. LDOs help ensure a stable, low-noise and low-ripple supply of power for components whose performance depends on a clean input.
But with so many LDOs available on the market, how do…
The 12-V lead-acid battery is a staple in automotive electronic systems such as automotive cockpits, clusters, head units and infotainment. Monitoring the battery voltage is necessary in order to maintain and support the power requirements of the modern vehicle. Although automotive batteries can withstand wide voltage transients that exceed their nominal voltage…
Advancements in ultrasound imaging technology, along with rising demand for minimally invasive diagnostics and therapeutics, have made it possible to implement ultrasound applications for medical use. For example, employing ultrasound for remote patient monitoring has become increasingly popular given its cost-effective, safe and fast diagnostic…
Faced with shrinking space constraints and increased robustness requirements, industrial and automotive power-supply designers must carefully choose the best power design topologies to meet their application needs. Isolated choices include modules as well as discrete and integrated solutions; each has its own trade-offs. Modules are encapsulated solutions with common input/output…
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…
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)…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Physics has caught up with silicon devices. The traditional workhorses of power supplies – metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) – can only boost power density if you sacrifice efficiency, form factor and heat dissipation.
Enter gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors…
Upal Patel co-authored this article.
A USB Type-C® port with USB Power Delivery (PD) is becoming the standard port for charging single- and multicell battery-powered devices. Applications such as wireless speakers, power banks and power tools have been transitioning from proprietary charging ports, legacy USB ports and barrel-jack ports to a standardized USB PD…
Minimizing noise is a common challenge for engineers designing a power supply for noise-sensitive systems for test and measurement and radio applications, such as clocks, data converters or amplifiers. Although the term “noise” can mean different things to different people, in this article I’ll define noise as low-frequency thermal noise generated by resistors and transistors…
You have many options when selecting an isolated gate driver for the power stage in motor-drive applications. Gate drivers can be simple or complex, with features such as an integrated Miller clamp, split outputs or an undervoltage (UVLO) lockout reference to the emitter of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).
There are two options for…
“All-in-one” sounds so nice, doesn’t it? Nothing encompasses the idea of all-in-one more than the Swiss Army knife, which was first introduced to the world back in 1891 and has become something of a legend given its versatility, small size and low cost. This one tool can help solve a variety of daily challenges and is small enough to fit in your pocket. What more could you ask for?
Now picture a factory…
Flow meters use lithium manganese dioxide (LiMnO2) and lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) batteries as energy sources. LiSOCl2 batteries are popular in flow meters because they provide better energy density and a more efficient cost-per-wattage ratio than LiMnO2 batteries. However, LiSOCI2 batteries have a poor impulse response, which can lead to a large drop in voltage during transient…
The importance and value of power density in modern power-delivery solutions cannot be overstated.
To better understand the fundamental technologies of high-power-density designs, in this article I’ll examine the four most important aspects of high-power-density solutions:
Real-time location systems (RTLS) enhance the lives of consumers and businesses by making everyday routines smarter through accurate, location tracking technology such as GPS and Bluetooth® Low Energy. RTLS trackers eliminate the stress of losing belongings such as luggage or pets using long-distance GPS tracking. RTLS trackers also enhance businesses with…
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