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USB Type-C cables and plugs – what are my options?
This post is co-authored by Nate Enos.The new USB Type-C standard is often called the “one cable to rule them all”; however, it is not quite that simple. There are multiple USB Type-C-to-Type-C cables...
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RS-485 basics: how to calculate unit loads and the maximum number of nodes on...
As my colleague Bart Stiller mentioned in the first installment of this series, RS-485 is a multipoint differential bus, shown in Figure 1. This means that all of the nodes on the bus share one common...
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Complete clock-tree solutions that make a hardware designer’s life easier
Are you solving your system clocking needs using discrete crystals and oscillators? It does seem like an obvious approach for most hardware designers, who do not have the time to scour the internet for...
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Inductive sensing: Are narrow-band LC sensors immune to DC magnetic fields?
Customers often ask me, “What are the effects of placing magnets near the sensor of an inductance-to-digital converter (LDC) such as the LDC1612?” Immunity to DC magnetic fields is particularly...
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Why you should ‘switch’ to CBT bus switches
Switches are one of the most common electrical circuit components today. An ideal switch should have zero resistance when on and infinite resistance when off. The signal must pass through the switch...
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SPICE it up – how to extract the input capacitance of an op amp (part 3)
In operational amplifier (op amp) applications, the feedback resistance of the amplifier interacts with its input capacitance to create a zero in the noise-gain response of the amplifier. This zero in...
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Inductive sensing: setting the sensor current-drive without a fancy impedance...
TI’s multichannel inductance-to-digital converters (LDCs) feature an adjustable sensor current-drive to set the optimal sensor amplitude. The optimal current-drive level is sensor-dependent and based...
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Using level shifters in automotive applications
Automotive electronics and infotainment systems comprise a plethora of electronic components such as microcontrollers, sensors and other peripherals that operate at different voltages. Dropping...
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How Class-D amplifiers are closing the gap on hi-res Class-AB amplifiers
It’s not all that uncommon to see substandard wheels and tires diminish the performance of a race car’s highly optimized, high-performance engine. The engine has to work even harder to compensate and...
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How to select a power-efficient narrowband receiver for active antenna-array...
** This is the 10th post in an Analog Wire RF-sampling blog series. **In my previous blog post, I discussed the advantages of radio-frequency (RF) sampling architectures for wide-bandwidth systems, but...
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Three things to consider when upgrading to 4K Ultra HD 12G-SDI interfaces
Ultra high-definition (UHD) displays are here! With big streaming companies like YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video already offering 4K content, it is inevitable that more and more content will...
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Disentangle RF amplifier specs: intermodulation distortion and intercept points
When selecting an amplifier, designers need to understand what distortion components the amplifier will exhibit when stimulated by a signal with two or more closely spaced frequency components. For...
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Fiber in industrial applications
Ethernet has propagated from the traditional office environment into a wide range of areas, including harsh industrial environments like factory and building automation. Today, copper cabling is the...
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Three steps to select a protection diode to protect high-speed interfaces...
USB and High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) have had an overhaul in the last three years that increased the data rate and throughput of these protocols. Data rates have grown to 6Gbps for HDMI...
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The secret of using noise to improve your ADC’s performance
Have you ever found an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for your application and later realized that you needed higher effective resolution? If you have noise in your system or can add noise to your...
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What you need to know about transimpedance amplifiers – part 1
Transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) act as front-end amplifiers for optical sensors such as photodiodes, converting the sensor’s output current to a voltage. TIAs are conceptually simple: a feedback...
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How to remove the ground-shift phenomenon from your capacitive-sensing...
There are many system requirements regarding sensitivity, responsiveness and power when using resonator-based capacitive sensing to achieve proximity detection. In end equipment such as automotive...
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Inductive sensing: Switch applications made simple
Switching and latching applications that involve detecting the presence of a moving object can be complicated to design and plagued by reliability problems. Examples include implementing tamper...
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The five benefits of multiple-personality clocking devices
In today’s world, most highly integrated systems serve more than one function and are designed to interface with other systems and peripheral devices. In addition, the same piece of hardware is often...
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How to complete your RF sampling solution
Radio receiver architectures, such as wireless communications and military systems have evolved drastically over the last decade, largely driven by innovation in high speed analog-to-digital converters...
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