EDN articles from April 2003

EDN archives from April 2003

Swan dive? (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... "Indeed, the Bolshoi Ballet could have performed a pas de deux from Swan Lake there with little risk of bumping into anybody." --Hiawatha Bray, on the Instant Messaging Planet trade show in Boston's Park Plaza Hotel ballroom, in The Boston...

$39 kit programs PIC microcontrollers. (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY'S new PICkit 1 flash starter kit gives engineers and educational institutions an easy-to-use programmer, evaluation kit, and development package for 8- and 14-pin, flash-based PIC12F629, PIC12F675, PIC16F630, and PIC16F676...

Bright LEDs keep their cool. (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... A FAMILY OF surface-mount LEDs from the BivarOpto Division of Bivar provides high intensity and simplified cooling implementation. The Solaris SM series, targeting instrumentation, daylight-visible displays, and automotive applications, has...

DSPs further push clock rates. (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Texas Instruments' TMS320C6414, TMS320C6415, and TMS320C6416 DSPs are pushing supported clock rates for signal processing ever higher with 720-MHz versions. Improvements in Texas Instruments' 130-nm copper-process technology enable the...

Networked servoamp shows: multiaxis is more than "n x one loop". (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... THE TRANSITION from analog to digital servoamplifiers is nearly complete, and the benefits of networked control are now coming to the forefront. The Accelnet family of servoamps from Copley Controls uses a rugged, twisted-pair CAN...

Dilbert.(cartoon caption)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... HOW'S THE OL' JOB MARKET LATELY? IT'S PRETTY BAD, ISN'T IT? SO NO MATTER HOW HARD I MAKE YOU WORK IT'S STILL BETTER THAN BEING UNEMPLOYED. WHO'S YOUR LEADER? GO ON, SAY IT.

Leading edge.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
April 3, 2003... At least 4854 Internet have been either been acquired or have shut down in the three years since the end of the first quarter of 2000, according to Webmergers. Consumer spending on online content in the United States totaled $1.3 billion...

Devices offer lower cost and temperature. (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Six new devices in Motorola's MPC500 processor family address cost-sensitive applications and those with extreme temperature requirements. In response to customers that were hiring independent test firms to test and screen for processor devices...

Graphics power plants expand their integration grasp. (leading edge).
April 3, 2003... ATI TECHNOLOGIES WAS PERFECTLY CONTENT to allow its primary competitor to debug their shared foundry's latest process. With that potential setback safely behind it, though, the company is not willing to hand over its hard-won, eight-month-long...

Processors up performance and lower costs. (leading edge).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... ANALOG DEVICES IS EXPANDING the Blackfin processor family with three new devices that are now available for sampling and operate as fast as 600 MHz or sell for as low as $5.95 for a 300-MHz device. The dual-16-bit-MAC (multiply-accumulate)-unit...

Words of wisdom. (signal integrity).
April 3, 2003... TOWARD THE END OF A LONG DAY walking and talking all over the floor at DesignCon 2003, I was participating in a four-way panel discussion organized by Henri Merkelo of atSpeed Technologies. The subject was high-speed serial links. We got the...

Fuel-cell technology is full of holes. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... METHANOL FUEL cells hold promise as power sources for portable gadgets. However, their low power, bulk, and high cost, as well as the fact that they spit out water vapor as a byproduct, have held back these cells' acceptance. Neah Power Systems...

Toe dipping at a distance. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... MEASURING THE TEMPERATURE of a body of water may be a trivial task up close, but it becomes difficult from a remote platform, such as a satellite. An instrument pointed at the body picks up not only the water's thermal signature, but also...

Flying nose sniffs whiffs of danger. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... THE SNIFFERSTAR, a half-ounce sensor platform from Sandia National Laboratories and Lockheed-Martin can detect nerve gases and blister agents from its perch on a small drone aircraft. The forward motion of the drone forces air into the device...

Waveguide chip glimpses individual molecules. (Sightings: the outlook for new technology).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... IN AN EXAMPLE of the increasingly common cross-fertilization between the semiconductor industry and biology, scientists at Cornell University have created a microchip that allows them to optically isolate individual biological molecules. The...

Spring-cleaning: calibration clarifies the picture, Part 1: before you can reliably assess the quality of images a display presents, you first need to fine-tune the display for utmost accuracy. microwave some popcorn and dim the lights; the tutorial is about to begin. (how it works).
April 3, 2003... WHILE PREPARING for last summer's video-compression hands-on project, I thought about which of the various displays at my home office might be appropriate for use in the subjective analyses I'd planned (references 1 and 2). My Princeton Graphic...

DSP directory. .(Directory)(Buyers Guide)(Cover Story)
April 3, 2003... FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information on products such as those discussed in this article, go to www.edn.com/info and enter the reader service number. When you contact any of the following manufacturers directly, please let them know...

It takes many heads to design a product: teams of designers, often with different skills and methods, tackle the complexity of today's electronic products, often without the appropriate infrastructure. (tech trends).
April 3, 2003... THE NUMBER OF COMPLEX DESIGNS that require more than one engineer for successful completion is growing every day. More than half of all designs--whether they result in pc boards, FPGAs, or ICs--need a number of engineers working together to...

Temperature-measurement scheme uses IR sensor and sigma-delta ADC. (design ideas).
April 3, 2003... MANY NONCONTACT temperature-measurement systems use infrared sensors, such as thermopiles, which can detect small amounts of heat radiation. Biomedical thermometers that measure the temperature of an ear or a temple use noncontact temperature...

Automotive link uses single wire. (design ideas).
April 3, 2003... IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, in which the goal is to produce cars with simpler, lighter wiring looms, any interface that uses just one wire instead of two offers a distinct advantage, The circuit in Figure 1 implements a bidirectional link using...

Supply 2A pulses for GSM transmission from 500mA USB of PCMCIA ports--Design Note 307. (Design Notes: Advertisement).(Advertisement)
April 3, 2003... Introduction GSM modems have become popular as a wireless data transfer solution; however, they frequently require large bursts of current that exceed the maximum input current available to the voltage regulator. Many can be powered from a...

Novel idea implements low-cost keyboard. (design ideas).
April 3, 2003... MANY APPLICATIONS that use a microcontroller also use a keyboard. If your application uses a relatively powerful microcontroller, you can use several free I/O pins or an unused input with an ADC to effect an easy keyboard connection. But, if...

Get more power with a boosted triode. (design ideas).
April 3, 2003... EVEN THOUGH 6L6 beam-power tubes have been around for 66 years, they are still quite popular for use in electric-guitar amplifiers, and its cousin, the 6CA7 (EL34) power pentode, is a favorite among audiophiles. The developers of these tubes...

Anticipating timer switches before you push the button. (design ideas).
April 3, 2003... IT HAPPENS TO ALMOST EVERYONE that an apparatus or system should have been turned off a moment ago. The device in question could be the car heater, the air conditioner, the lights... This Design Idea offers a solution to the challenge of...

Instrument amp's high CMR minimizes system errors. (Amps/Oscillators/Mixers).(Analog Devices' AD8221 instrumentation amplifier)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Operating over -40 to +85[degrees]C, the AD8221 instrumentation amplifier provides CMR (common-mode rejection) of 90 dB to 10 kHz (at a gain of 1), and the CMR improves as gain increases. Other specifications include an input offset of 100...

Op-amp engine joins analog-IP portfolio. (Amps/Oscillators/Mixers).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... The BOAS11-18 op-amp engine works with the Prado synthesis platform to synthesize fully customized, tape-out-ready operational amplifiers. It supports 0.18-micron CMOS processes and provides a choice of 10 single-ended topologies targeting low...

Instrument amp delivers high dc accuracy. (Amps/Oscillators/Mixers).(Linear Technology's LTd6800 instrumentation amplifier)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... The LTd6800 instrumentation amplifier provides rail-to-rail I/O, works from a single 3V supply, and comes in a tiny eight-pin MSOE Offset voltage is guaranteed less than 100 [micro]V, offset drift is a mere 0.25 [micro]V/[degrees]C, and input...

Tiny clock oscillators require little space. (Amps/Oscillators/Mixers).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Housed in low-profile ceramic packages, clock oscillators in the K30 series need just 5.0X3.2 mm of board space in miniature portable electronics. K30 devices cover 8 to 67 MHz, with stability to [+ or -] 25 ppm and operating voltages of 3.3...

Clock oscillators offer user-specified output frequency. (Amps/Oscillators/Mixers).(MF Electronics' Micro G-Series clock oscillators)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... Micro G-Series clock oscillators target high-density wireless and optical networking equipment, as well as portable electronics. The surface-mount devices produce a user-specified 0.5- to 135-MHz output frequency and are compatible with HCMOS...

Low-power FPGAs. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Deliver gate capacities of 47,000 to 320,000 gates in a variety of small-form-factor packages * Provide a standby current of just 250 [micro]A * Eclipse-II series, from $3.50 (250,000) QuickLogic Corp, 1-408-990-4000,...

128-Mbit pseudo SRAMS. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Offer a standby current of 250 [micro]A and a deep standby current of just 3 [micro]A * TC51WHM716AXBN operates from a single 2.6 to 3.3V supply for both core and I/O; the TC51WKM716AXBN supports 1.8V I/O * TC51WHM716AXBN,...

Audio decoder. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Enables MP3 playback on USB portable mass-storage devices, particularly low-end drives with an LED interface * Includes an on-chip dc/dc converter * STMP1342, $10 (10,000) SigmaTel Inc, 1-512-381-3700, www. sigmatel.com No. 358

9-Mbit synchronous dual-port SRAM. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Organized as 256kX36 bits * Operates from a 2.5V supply at speeds of 133 to 200 MHz * 70T3519, from $79.95 (10,000) Integrated Device Technology Inc, 1-408-727-6116, www.idt.com No. 359

288-Mbit Rambus DRAM. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Operates at 1066 MHz maximum * Sustains data transfers at 0.94 nsec per 2 bytes (7.5 nsec per 16 bytes) * EDR2518ABSE-AEP, $20 Elpida Memory Inc, 1-866-355-8296, www.elpida.com No. 360

Secure flash-memory device. (Integrated Circuits).(Advanced Micro Devices' Am29PDL640G)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Offers 1.8 and 3.0V I/O options, eight-word page-mode operation, and standby current as low as 1 [micro]A * Provides advanced sector-protection mechanisms, including a 64-bit password and a 256-byte OTP region for storing electronic...

ADSL CPE chip set. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Leverages G.Span extended rate and reach technology with speeds starting at 16 Mbps * Integrates an analog front end, a line driver, filters, and a 16-bit-wide parallel expansion bus * Argon III Plus with G.Span, $35 to $39,...

Car-radio tuner. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Alleviates adjacent-channel interference, AM signal fading, background interference, and erratic channel-locking in poor-reception areas * Employs an on-chip FM channel-selection filter that features continuously variable bandwidth ...

Audio subsystem chip. (Integrated Circuits).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * AC'97-compliant IC combines a streaming data touchscreen interface with an audio subsystem codec in a chip-scale QFN package * Operates from supply voltages of 1.8 to 3.6V and core voltages down to 1.42V * WM9712L, $6.64 (1000) ...

Ethernet bridging controllers. (Integrated Circuits).(TranSwitch's Envoy-8FE)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Connect telecom POS-PHY Level 2/SPI-3 interfaces to standards-based Ethernet interfaces in datacommunications * Envoy-8FE octal Fast Ethernet controller and Envoy-2GE dual Gigabit Ethernet controller come in 376-pin PBGAs *...

Programmable-color light-to-frequency converter. (Integrated Circuits).(Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions' TCS230)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Integrates RGB filters on a single die with a light-to-frequency converter * Responds to light over a dynamic range of 250,000:1 * TCS230, $2.67 (1000) Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions Inc, 1-972-673-0759, www.taosinc....

Wireless LCD monitors. (Computers & Peripherals).(ViewSonic's airpanel V110)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Provide 10-in. (V110) and 15-in. (V150) color touch-screen displays based on Windows CE and interoperable with Windows XP Professional * Come with 32 Mbytes of read-only flash memory, 64 Mbytes of SDRAM, and built-in IEEE 802.1 1b...

USB peripheral development firmware. (Computers & Peripherals).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Offers Nucleus RTOS support to simplify the design of USB peripherals * Works with MCCI's Catena firmware-development platform, as well as a variety of USB device controllers and virtually any CPU that Nucleus supports * USB...

DVD combination drive. (Computers & Peripherals).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Internal drive combines a 12XDVD player with a 32X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 40X CD-ROM drive * Comes with DVD 4.0 player software and Nero Express CD-Creation software * DVD Combo Drive, $129.99 MSRP Pacific Digital Corp,...

200-Gbyte hard drive. (Computers & Peripherals).(EZQuest's Cobra+)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Transfers data at a sustained rate of 34 Mbytes/sec * External 7200-rpm drive incorporates two six-pin FireWire ports * Cobra+, $439 MSRP EZQuest Inc, 1-714-694-0031, www.ezq.com No. 371

4XDVD-R/2XDVD-RW drive. (Computers & Peripherals).(Pioneer Electronics (USA)'s DVR-A05)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Requires approximately 15 minutes to fully record a 4.7-Gbyte DVD-R disc * Provides 16X CD-R and 8X CD-RW speeds * DVR-A05, $299 MSRP Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc, 1-310-952-2000, www. pioneerelectronics.com No. 372

CD-RW/DVD-ROM ATAPI drive. (Computers & Peripherals).(Toshiba America Information Systems' SD-R1312)(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Provides 32X CD-R write-record, 10X CD-RW rewrite/record, 40X CD read, 12X DVD read speeds * Comes as a desktop-PC upgrade kit with software, cables, and mounting screws * SD-R1312, $130 Toshiba America Information Systems Inc,...

USB keyboard controller. (Computers & Peripherals).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Enables voice-over-IP functions by letting you implement a dedicated audio channel directly in keyboard designs * Compatible with PS/2 keyboard standards * UAC 3556B, less than $4 (OEM) Micronas Semiconductors Inc,...

7-in. TFT LCDs. (Computers & Peripherals).(Optrex America's T-51440 )(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Deliver 480X240 pixels in a wide 16:9 format for use in automotive TVs and GPS navigation systems * Provide a brightness of 400 nits, a contrast ratio of 150:1, and an operating-temperature range of -30 to +85[degrees]C * T-51440...

OpenDVD software player. (Computers & Peripherals).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Enables you to open, edit, and reburn OpenDVD-compliant DVDs using an OpenDVD authoring application * Includes an MPEG decoding engine and Microsoft DirectX support * Sonic CinePlayer V1.5, $49.95 Sonic Solutions, 1-415-893-8000,...

USB flash-memory drives. (Computers & Peripherals).(Brief Article)
April 3, 2003... * Store 32, 64, or 128 Mbytes in a small 2.9x0.94-in. plug-and-play form factor * Accommodate USB 1.1 and 2.0 interface specifications * Data Traveler KUSB/32, $42; KUSB/64, $56; and KUSB/128, $92 MSRP Kingston Technology Conapany,...

The worms of war. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... "I'm not an idiot, but everything I know about computers went out the window when the war started... So I opened an attachment that was labeled `Go USA,' and my computer locked up." --a relative of a soldier stationed in Iraq, on an e-mail...

Photodiodes seek desirable photons. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS, biomedical-instrumentation, spectroscopy, thermal-imaging, and other analysis systems require specialized sensors to capture wavelengths. Addressing that need, the G8370-10 indium-gallium-arsenide PIN photodiode from...

3-D board outlines eliminate the need for physical prototypes. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Zuken's CADstar 3D 4.2 )
April 17, 2003... PRODUCT MINIATURIZATION is driving the need for 3-D capabilities in EDA tools. Engineers can no longer design and later integrate a component. They need to first design a package to fit into a space, thus increasingly integrating EDA tools with...

Spec clarifications may expand candidate catalog. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).
April 17, 2003... TOSHIBA WAS TROUBLED when it saw the meager reliability specifications its partner M-Systems was quoting for non-EDAC-fortified NAND-flash memory (see "Flash memory anticipates architecture transformation," EDN, Feb 20, 2003, pg 18). After...

Dilbert. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(caption)
April 17, 2003... DOGBERT CONSULTS IT'S EASY TO CREATE A STRATEGY. WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING YOU DO, PRECEDED BY THE PHRASE, "INCREASE OUR MARKET SHARE BY..." WHAT IF WE CHANGE WHAT WE DO? CALL ME AND I'LL SELL YOU SOME MORE VALUABLE ADVICE. ...

Physical-simulation environment targets automotive design. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... Automotive designers have traditionally had to build hardware prototypes for all of the mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical components a car's subsystem needs for testing and verifying its functions. Now, a new design environment from...

Design flow targets multigigabit, serial interfaces. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... VERSION 15.0 OF Cadence's PCB Expert design environment builds on the differential-pair-design support it released last year. The design flow supports multigigabit, serial-interface design on pc boards. Applications in the networking and...

Leading edge.(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... * According to Nielsen-Netratings, the top traditional advertisers increased their share of online advertising by 30% by the end of 2002. * Internet filters in US schools and libraries that are set at the least restrictive level incorrectly...

Verification platform adapts to your needs. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... THE INCISIVE VERIFICATION PLATFORM from Cadence includes three simulation-environment family members. The core product, a single-kernel, multilanguage simulator, accepts designs in Verilog, VHDL, SystemC, and Cadence's SPW and AMS languages....

Device integrates accelerated security. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... INTEGRATED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY'S RC32365 is the first device in the Interprise Access Processor family to include a security engine comprising on-chip, hardware-accelerated IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) and hardware random-number-generator...

Quadrature demodulator takes gigahertz if to baseband. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... The AD8348 broadband quadrature demodulator from Analog Devices lets you perform IF-to-baseband conversions over 50 MHz to 1 GHz for digital-radio architectures. The 28-lead IC includes a demodulator, a dual mixer core, and a local-oscillator...

Debugger supports assertion-based system-on-chip verification. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... NOVAS SOFTWARE has extended its Verdi behavior-based debugging system to support assertion-based verification methods. Assertions, language constructs that help you formally verify a design, express intended behavior and provide observable...

Processor reduces I/O-hardware core area. (Leading edge: what's hot in the design community).
April 17, 2003... UBICOM's IP3023 PROCESSOR is the first in the Mercury family and implements an eight-way MASI (multithreaded architecture for software) for home-router, multiprotocol-access-point, and device-networking applications. These types of applications...

Use a watchdog timer even with perfect code. (Baker's best).
April 17, 2003... A WATCHDOG TIMER MAY ONE DAY save your life or, better yet, your career. Although this statement is a little melodramatic, the proper use of this tool separates the hackers from the programmers in microcontroller and microprocessor land. The...

Cyber-sleaze. (edn.comment).
April 17, 2003... INVESTORS MUST HAVE JUMPED FOR JOY upon seeing Ebay's fourth-quarter earnings report. Revenues were 89% higher than in the same quarter a year earlier. That's a whole lot of Beanie Babies. But if you ask me, Ebay's financial success stands on...

Spring-cleaning: calibration clarifies the picture, part 2; before you can reliably assess the quality of images a display presents, you first need to fine-tune the display for utmost accuracy. Last time, we focused on setting black-and-white levels. This time, we turn to color. (how it works).
April 17, 2003... IMAGING SCIENCE long ago figured out that the human visual system notices luminance errors more readily than it does chrominance inaccuracies. This fact is at the heart of the bandwidth-limited color portion of the NTSC (National Television...

A good fit power FETs find their place; using packaging parameters, app notes, and reference designs, low-voltage FETs power today's high-current designs. (Cover Story).
April 17, 2003... AT A GLANCE * MOSFET vendors still play the on-resistance card, but the best devices are now barely more resistive than a piece of pc-board track. * Look elsewhere for remaining losses; switching phenomena, spikes, and device...

Delta sigma PLLs raise the standard for performance: application brief 125.
April 17, 2003... Introduction The high performance, low power, and low cost requirements of today's mobile telephone handsets sometimes put designers between a rock and a hard place. System issues such as integration level, type of architecture, and...

Compact PCI forges new directions; as the ubiquitous PCI bus nears obsolescence in high-bandwidth applications, compact PCI vendors face legacy-compatibility and new-technology issues for their next-generation products. (design feature).
April 17, 2003... COMPACTPCI VENDORS are just now beginning to extend their technology for future products after being stopped in their tracks by the recent economic downturn in the telecommunications industry. Board manufacturers are pushing the technology...

New step-down charge pumps; tiny, efficient and very low noise. (Power solutions: Advertisement).(Advertisement)
April 17, 2003... Inductorless charge pump DC/DC converters are popular in space-constrained applications which require load currents from 10mA to 500mA. Such converters are available in small packages, operate with very low quiescent current and require minimal...

80V linear regulator is micropower. (Power solutions: Advertisement).
April 17, 2003... Industrial, automotive and telecom These applications pose tough design challenges due to harsh operating environments and large voltage transients on already high (12V to 48V) rails. Some switching power supplies are robust enough to...

Up to 34V input and micropower operation step-down DC-DC converter. (Power solutions: Advertisement).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... The LT1934 is a micropower step-down DC/DC converter with an internal 400mA power switch, packaged in a low profile (1mm) ThinSOT[TM]. With its wide input range of 3.2V to 34V, the LT1934 can regulate a wide variety of power sources, from...

Very low drop out (VLDO[TM]) 150mA micropower linear regulator in ThinSOT package has very low output noise. (Power solutions: advertisement).(Brief Article)(Advertisement)
April 17, 2003... Linear Technology's new LTC1844 is a very low dropout (VLDO) micropower linear regulator which can deliver up to 150mA of continuous output current from a ThinSOT package. The LTC1844 is the first VLDO that can operate from input voltage as low...

Making it under contract: use contract manufacturers wisely to avoid making your problems into theirs--or vice versa. (tech trends).(Industry Overview)
April 17, 2003... AT A GLANCE * Working with a contract manufacturer takes careful planning and teamwork before you OK manufacturing. * Good product documentation and many kinds of communication between manufacturers and designers are keys to success in...

Understanding common-mode signals: the interactions between shields, grounds, and common cable configurations are central to understanding common-mode signals' creation and their suppression. (design feature).
April 17, 2003... A COMMON-MODE SIGNAL is one that appears in phase and with equal amplitudes on both lines of a two-wire cable with respect to the local common or ground in phase and with equal amplitudes. A common-mode voltage is one-half the vector sum of the...

Managing phase rotation in PLL synthesizers: the right approach can help you compensate for the subtle imperfections in PLL phase detectors that degrade system performance. (design feature).
April 17, 2003... MANY RF SYSTEMS, especially those related to the telecom market, need reference signals with accurate and stable frequencies. Single-chip PLLs (phase-lock loops), such as those that several IC suppliers provide, have a standard architecture...

Reset supervisor waits for stable supply. (design ideas).
April 17, 2003... THE POWER-UP CYCLE of the supply voltage in embedded-system applications is sometimes not a clean event. This fact holds especially true in battery-operated systems, because the insertion of a battery often causes significant ringing or...

Small circuit forms programmable 4- to 20-mA transmitter. (design ideas).
April 17, 2003... ONE OF THE KEY challenges in the design of 4- to 20-mA current transmitters is the voltage-to-current conversion stage. Conventional transmitters use multiple op amps and transistors to perform the conversion function. These approaches have...

High-side current sensor monitors negative rail. (design ideas).(Brief Article)
April 17, 2003... ALL DEDICATED current-sense amplifiers provide high-side sensing on a positive supply, but you can adapt such circuits for monitoring a negative supply (Figure 1). The positive-supply pin, V+, connects to the system's positive supply, and the...

Transconductance amp gives oscillator reciprocal response. (design ideas).
April 17, 2003... THE CIRCUIT IN Figure 1 is a variation on the familiar integrator/comparator triangle-wave oscillator, which you typically implement with two op amps. An integrator and a comparator connect in a positive-feedback loop; the comparator drives the...

100MHz op amp features low noise rail-to-rail performance while consuming only 2.5mA--design note 308. (Design notes: Advertisement).(Advertisement)
April 17, 2003... The new LT[R]6202 op amp combines 100MHz gain-bandwidth, 1.9nV/[square root of (Hz)] voltage noise and rail-to-rail inputs and outputs, while consuming only 2.5mA. It also features a low 0.75pA/[square root of (Hz)] current noise, and it...

Tipping point: will MPEG-4 give "telco TV" a push? (Commverge[TM]: the data stream for convergence product teams).(Industry Overview)
April 17, 2003... FOR YEARS, the owners of the world's phone networks have dreamed of the revenues they could reap by have using their copper local loops to deliver an alluring trio of services: telephone, broadband Internet access, and television. The last...

Bus in motion. (Opinion: connecting mobile devices).
April 17, 2003... NEARLY ALL PCs and associated peripherals on the market have USB ports. This high adoption rate has driven additional adoption of USB in mobile devices like digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, and, to some extent, cellular handsets, as these...

Air bus. (Opinion: connecting mobile devices).(Editorial)
April 17, 2003... WHILE USB ON-THE-GO (USB OTG) may be perceived as a competitor to Bluetooth wireless technology, the two short-range connection schemes address completely different problems. Bluetooth wireless technology fills a much wider range of...