EDN articles from May 2006

EDN archives from May 2006

Mind of the engineer.(EDN.COMMENT)
May 11, 2006... I recently wrote about our commitment to serving the reader and, briefly, our belief in perpetual research to measure our performance and to understand our readers (Reference 1). In this issue, I share some recent research with you. Every two...

Overcoming impedance discontinuities in high-speed signal paths by using LVDS.(low voltage differential)
May 11, 2006... At data rates from 400 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps, data signal paths become transmission lines. At these speeds the signal path model must include the reactive parasitic components in the cable or backplane. It is not just the data rate itself--the fast...

Four-channel LVDS repeater with pre-emphasis.(Featured Products)
May 11, 2006... The DS90LV004 is a four channel 1.5 Gbps LVDS buffer/repeater. High-speed data paths and flow-through pinout minimize internal device jitter and simplify board layout, while configurable pre-emphasis overcomes ISI jitter effects from lossy...

Dual 1.5 Gbps 2:1/1:2 LVDS Mux/buffer with pre-emphasis.(low voltage differential)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... The DS15MB200 is a dual-port 2 to 1 multiplexer and 1 to 2 repeater/buffer. High-speed data paths and flow-through pinout minimize internal device jitter and simplify board layout, while pre-emphasis overcomes ISI jitter effects from lossy...

Multi-format video sync separator.(product information of LMH1981)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... The LMH1981 is a multi-format sync separator for high-definition broadcast and professional video systems. The device automatically detects the input video format and performs all the necessary sync separation to generate low-jitter horizontal...

Analog crosspoint switches for high-resolution video applications.(Featured Products)
May 11, 2006... The LMH[R] family of high speed amplifiers is joined by the LMH6582 and LMH6583 16 x 8 analog crosspoint switches. The devices are available in a gain of 1 (LMH6582) and gain of 2 (LMH6583) options and are completely non-blocking. Allowing an...

Fabless-ASIC company tries new model.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
May 11, 2006... Maybe the world isn't beating the bushes to find another fabless-ASIC company. But start-up Key ASIC believes that it has a model--an application-specific approach--that's just different enough to make a place for itself beside the relative...

Compact controller eases embedded-system motion.(product introduction of EZHR17EN )(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... Targeting medical devices, optical instruments, and embedded-system automation applications, AllMotion recently announced a dual-axis stepper-motor controller and driver, Measuring just 1.6 X 1.6 in., the EZHR17EN provides as much as 2A of...

Software reduces cellphone-test time by nearly an order of magnitude.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
May 11, 2006... According to Agilent Technologies, cellular-telecommunications-market analysts estimate that vendors this year will manufacture 800 million to 1 billion cell phones. Moreover, although many US customers never learn the exact price of their...

Dilbert.(Cartoon)
May 11, 2006... HOW'S THE CODING COMING ALONG? NO PROBLEM UNLESS... ... SOME MORON TRIES TO STANDARDIZE ON A NEW PROGRAMMING METHODOLOGY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PROJECT. WHAT IF IT'S ME INSTEAD OF SOME MORON GUY?

DFM tools help with "lithography-friendly" layouts.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
May 11, 2006... Mentor Graphics claims that its latest DFM (design-for-manufacturing) offering will help IC designers make "lithography-friendly" IC layouts. The company's new Calibre LFD (lithography-friendly design) is similar to a DRC/LVS...

Process yields custom boards in five days.(RabbitFlex process for creating and manufacturing customized boards.)
May 11, 2006... Hardware developers are constantly under fire due to the excessive leadtimes between the start of a new project and hardware availability. It often takes months to design, lay out, fabricate, and debug a custom embedded-processor board with a...

Chandu Visweswariah: IBM innovation brings statistics to digital-IC design.(VOICE)
May 11, 2006... Chandu Visweswariah, along with Kerim Kalafala, lead a team of R&D engineers at IBM Research and IBM Electronic Design Automation. Their small group recently won EDIVs Innovator of the Year award for developing the EinsTimer statistical-timing...

MEMS microphone has digital output.(GLOBAL DESIGNER)
May 11, 2006... Akustica's claim that its AKU2000 is the first CMOS MEMS (microelectromechanical-system), direct-digital-output, single-chip microphone. The company licensed the technology, which it believes is comprehensively patent-protected, from...

Spin-coating process produces TFT with liquid silicon.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
May 11, 2006... Seiko Epson Corp and JSR Corp have jointly developed a silicon film with liquid coating and ink-jet-patterning processes. The silicon film produces a low-temperature polysilicon TFT (thin-film transistor) with performance comparable to that of...

Consortium invests $800,000 for five years.(pulse: INNOVATIONS & INNOVATORS)
May 11, 2006... The JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association) has announced a new semiconductor-development project, TSC (Tsukuba Semiconductor Consortium). It combines the STARC (Semiconductor Technology Academic Research...

Charge your SAR-converter inputs.(BAKER'S BEST)
May 11, 2006... It is tempting to drive a SAR (successive-approximation register) ADC with just an amplifier. As an added benefit, you might try to configure the amplifier circuit in a gain or antialiasing-filter stage. These enhancements seem reasonable as...

NDAS undressed: dissecting a NAS substitute.(network-direct-attached-storage)(network-attached-storage)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... Ximeta's NDAS (network-direct-attached-storage) NetDisks sell for less than "pure" NAS (network-attached-storage) drives. To do so, they shift some of the processing burden to the PCs that connect to them. What's inside the enclosure, and how...

Hazardous-voltage primer: understanding the hazards associated with voltage and knowing the principles of safety and the importance of certification are the keys to safe design and product use. Even low voltage is hazardous and can damage products and harm users.(Electrical injuries)
May 11, 2006... It is common knowledge that wall-outlet voltages of 120V in the United States and 230V in Europe can cause severe shock or death, but did you know that many people consider 120 and 230V to be low-voltage? Believe it or not, according to most...

Designers cast a skeptical eye on mixed-signal SOCs: the functions are necessary, but integration challenges keep analog IP out of the mainstream for SOC design.(system on a chip, otherwise embedded systems)(Cover story)
May 11, 2006... The easiest lesson to draw from the consumer-electronics market is that integration is everything. Mobile beats portable. Palmtop beats mobile, and shirt pocket trumps palmtop. Even in desktop devices, such as game consoles, sleek packaging and...

Spread-spectrum clocking: measuring accuracy and depth: designers use data-rate smearing to spread EMI across multiple frequency bands. Learn how to quickly test and verify your implementation.
May 11, 2006... Many of today's high-speed serial designs use embedded clocks to avoid routing and timing issues involved with separate data and clock signals and to free up precious real estate on board designs. These embedded clocks are not separate clock...

Effective use of IC-amplifier macromodels requires understanding their limitations: someday, IC manufacturers may provide users with amplifier macromodels that are as detailed as those that device designers use, Until then, you must make do with less detailed models, whose effectiveness depends on your understanding of their limitations.
May 11, 2006... What should you expect from an amplifier macromodel? Almost every semiconductor manufacturer provides Spice models for its amplifiers, but no standards exist for these models. So, which specs do these devices model, and how accurate are those...

JFET cascode boosts current-source performance.(Junction Field Effect Transistors )
May 11, 2006... Many process-control sensors, such as thermistors and strain-gauge bridges, require accurate bias currents. By adding a single current-setting resistor, [R.sub.1], you can configure voltage-reference circuit [IC.sub.1] to produce a constant and...

Microcontroller delivers voltage-multiplied dc power.(design ideas: READERS SOLVE DESIGN PROBLEMS)
May 11, 2006... The combination of an external circuit and a low-voltage microcontroller occasionally requires a significantly higher power-supply voltage. You can use either an external boost converter to increase the logic supply or a buck converter to...

Low-dropout linear regulators deliver constant currents.(Linear voltage regulators)
May 11, 2006... * Linear voltage regulators offer a simple method of producing a constant current by connecting a fixed resistor between the regulator's output and ground nodes. The regulator's constant output voltage produces a constant current through the...

LVDT-based position sensor can operate from PLC's 24V power supply.(SENSORS & TRANSDUCERS)
May 11, 2006... * The LVDT (linear-variable-displacement-transducer)-based GHSE 750 series of 24V, spring-loaded position sensors operate from dc inputs at 15 to 24V and generate a precalibrated 0 to 10V-dc output. This output suits the device for most PLCs...

MEMS-based sensors provide two or three axes of sensitivity.(SENSORS & TRANSDUCERS)
May 11, 2006... * The xy-axis MMA6270Q, the xz-axis MMA6280Q, and the xyz-axis MMA7261Q MEMS-based (micro-electromechanical-system) sensors extend the vendor's current offering from 1.5 to 10g. These three low-gravity accelerometers target electronic systems...

Current-sensing IC has a wide operating range.(SENSORS & TRANSDUCERS)
May 11, 2006... * Featuring an 8 to 450V-dc operating range, the HV7800 high-side, current-sensing IC targets 12, 24, and 48V-dc power systems and 85 to 265V offline ac systems. Operating by sensing the voltage across an external resistor, the device then...

Thin digital accelerometer features smart functions.(microelectromechanical system)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... * Embedding high performance and smart functions, the 1-mm-high, three-axis LIS3LV02DL digital accelerometer suits advanced motion-based applications in thin-profile, clamshell mobile phones. MEMS (microelectromechanical-system)-based...

Ambient-light sensor conserves battery power.(SENSORS & TRANSDUCERS)
May 11, 2006... * Targeting mobile, consumer, commercial, and industrial devices, the APDS-9003 analog-output ambient-light photo sensor conserves battery power in portable devices by detecting the amount of ambient light and signaling the device when to turn...

Hybrid embedded board features a four-DSP processing cluster.(Digital Signal Processing)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... The first of a new line of hybrid embedded boards, the GT3U (GT-3U-cPCI) features an Altera Stratix II GX FPGA, a four-DSP-TS201S TtgerSharc processor cluster, and 1 G-byte of DDR2 SDRAM. These processing clusters provide 14.4 GFLOPS of...

Upgraded design provides faster PowerPC.(EMBEDDED SYSTEMS)
May 11, 2006... * Improved connectivity and performance for the PowerNode3 + come from two PCI-mezzanine-card sites, a 1-Mbyte internal L2 cache, VME 2eSST with 320-Mbps peak-bandwidth capability, and optional serial RapidIO PMC switch fabric. The device also...

I/O module monitors and controls SSRs.(solid-state relays)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... * Expanding on the 2600 series of smart I/O modules, the 2652 monitors and controls eight SSRs (solid-state relays) using a Category 5 patch cable connecting to a 2601 communication module. Designers can populate each SSR socket with an ac-in...

Universal tool supports Freescale RS08 devices.(EMBEDDED SYSTEMS)
May 11, 2006... * Targeting Freescale microcontrollers, the inDart-One universal tool supports RS08 devices for programming and debugging. This family features a stripped-down S08 core and a pin-count reduction aiming at cost-effective embedded-system...

Rugged switcher/router card supports multiple management interfaces.(interfaces configure a set of protocols)(Brief article)
May 11, 2006... * The rugged 3U CompactPCI SCP/DCP-681 Compact SwitchBlade Gigabit Ethernet switcher/router card supports CLI, Telnet, Web, and SNMP management interfaces. These interfaces configure a set of protocols including PBIT (Power-up Built-In Test),...

Wireless protocol lags initial expectations.(reality check: YESTERDAY'S HYPE MEETS TODAY'S REALITY)
May 11, 2006... * When the IEEE ratified the IEEE 802.11 a specification in 1999, many technology providers and observers felt it had a bright future. The 802.11 a spec touted raw data rates as high as 54 Mbps, employed the relatively spectrum-uncluttered,...

Letter from the editor.(embedded-power market is a large and staid market)(Editorial)
May 11, 2006... Embedded power supplies are trying to break from the "necessary evil stigma" that haunts the industry. While power supplies have always enabled system-level features, power-supply features may soon become system differentiators. This is...

Power advances: meeting latest demands.(ac-dc power-supply report)
May 11, 2006... The embedded ac-dc power-supply market is usually one of the more staid markets in the power electronics industry. However, a number of application, technical, business and regulatory trends are currently converging to bring both opportunities...

Safety considerations: low power boost converters.(CASE STUDY)
May 11, 2006... THE CHALLENGE In most battery powered applications the system voltages need to be generated with voltage regulation circuits, since battery voltage levels can vary over a wide range. Usually efficient voltage regulation is done by...

New semiconductor designs: the push for efficiency.
May 11, 2006... Manufacturers of external ac-dc power supplies, such as power adapters, have focused on making their products compliant with the ENERGY STAR[R] energy efficiency specifications. Now, makers of internal power supplies are being called upon to do...

Power conversion solutions: simplified for PoE-powered devices.(CASE STUDY)
May 11, 2006... THE CHALLENGE Power-over-Ethernet (POE) capable hubs, routers and switches are now widely available. Consequently, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are designing their new wireless access points, Voice-over-Internet-Protocol...

Power analyzer: trends driving the power factor correction market.
May 11, 2006... REGULATIONS DRIVE HIGHER DEMAND FOR PFC The use of power factor correction (PFC) in power supplies got a boost in 2001, when the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 61000-3-2 went into effect in Europe. This...

Digital switchers: new flexibility and fast product optimization for power design.(selection of switching power supplies for innovative electronic applications)
May 11, 2006... THE CHALLENGE Traditionally, the selection of switching power supplies for innovative electronic applications requiring rapid development schedules involved pouring over data sheets and comparing product specifications to identify the...

Hidden schematic.
May 25, 2006... by Bruce Archambeault, PhD I've invited my good friend, Bruce Archambeault, PhD, creator of the IBM EMC-rule-checking program "EMSAT," to share his thoughts about ground. Your schematic is lying. It shows only the intended flow of...

Reference designs matter, as this TV design illustrates.
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright, Editor in Chief You might wonder why we would choose a TV design as a milestone in our 50th-anniversary review of key events that had lasting impact. Well, the TV clearly had a lasting impact, and, at the time, using...

Self-contained TV receiver uses 24 transistors.
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright, Editor in Chief Twenty-four transistors and one high-voltage rectifier tube perform all of the functions required to develop a high-definition picture and accompanying sound in a completely self-contained portable...

Digital power lures system architects, power-supply vendors.
May 25, 2006... by Margery Conner, Technical Editor Digital power promises to lower overall system-power costs by improving maintenance costs and reliability, lowering power-component costs, and simplifying BOMs. To achieve these goals, designers must add...

Displays invade embedded-system space.
May 25, 2006... by Warren Webb, Technical Editor Full-color graphics displays in high-volume consumer products, such as mobile phones and music players, have captured the attention of the public and set new standards for embedded-device design. As...

Data-acquisition system captures 16-bit voltage measurements using the USB.
May 25, 2006... Terry Millward, Maxim Integrated Products Inc, Blonay, Switzerland Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville The USB has become the interface of choice for connecting to PCs. Available on all relatively modern PCs, the USB offers a...

JFET-based dc/dc converter operates from 300-mV supply.
May 25, 2006... Jim Williams, Linear Technology Corp, Milpitas, CA Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville You use a JFET's self-biasing characteristics to build a dc/dc converter that operates from power sources such as solar cells, thermopiles,...

Configurable logic gates' Schmitt inputs make versatile monostables.
May 25, 2006... Glenn Chenier, Allen, TX Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville You can assemble a pulse-generation circuit from a simple Schmitt-input AND gate plus a resistor-capacitor timing network. However, if you need a logic function...

Stealth-mode LED controls itself.
May 25, 2006... Howard Myers, Greensboro, NC Edited by Brad Thompson and Fran Granville Since the LED's invention more than 30 years ago, its emission efficiency has steadily increased, and, although it may surprise you, the increased conversion...

The PC is the workstation.
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright, Editor in Chief Is the specialty-engineering workstation dead? Just this morning, I read that Silicon Graphics ( www.sgi.com ) filed for Chapter 11 protection (Reference 1 ). The account blamed the company's troubles...

Scaling: a balanced view, part two.(Power supplies (Computers))
May 25, 2006... by Joshua Israelsohn, Contributing Technical Editor In the last installment of Analog Domain, I began a summary of Klaas Bult's analysis on the effect of technology scaling on power dissipation (references 1 and 2 ). This column...

Dynamic packet classification enables multimedia traffic on WLANs.
May 25, 2006... By Edward Lor, SiNett Corp Rethink your QOS implementation to ensure that your design can handle wired and wireless clients. Network-switch designs have evolved to support multimedia traffic through QOS (quality-of-service) techniques....

Power dissipation in high-end integrated communication processors.
May 25, 2006... By Ravi Chandran, Freescale Semiconductor Arm yourself with tough questions for chip vendors to more accurately compare power among processors. Traditionally, chip vendors' hardware specifications have provided typical and maximum...

Maintain thermal stability for power-MOS devices.
May 25, 2006... By Stephen Meek, On Semiconductor Power MOSFETs can experience destructive thermal effects at relatively low drain voltages and currents that are well within traditional, safe boundaries. However, designers can use basic Spice-model...

Don't pay for level translators in systems using multiple power-supply voltages.
May 25, 2006... By Gaurang Kavaiya, Microchip Technology Because lower-power-supply-voltage versions of ICs become available at different times, many of today's systems must use several voltages. Even so, you can often avoid the expense of level...

A simple software lowpass filter suits embedded-system applications.
May 25, 2006... By Barry L Dorr, Dorr Engineering Building a digital equivalent of an analog lowpass RC filter requires just a couple of lines of fixed-point C code. Hardware-design engineers have long recognized the usefulness of RC lowpass filters...

USB 2.0 becomes interface to modular data-acquisition systems.(National Instruments Corp.)(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Dan Strassberg Although USB has become popular as an interface for small, stand-alone, multichannel data-acquisition units, National Instruments' announcement of the CompactDaq system adds another dimension--plug-in modularity--to...

PMC board unites four ADC channels, FPGA.(PCI-mezzanine-card)(BittWare Inc.)(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Warren Webb BittWare recently announced a high-performance analog-to-digital-I/O card in the PMC (PCI-mezzanine-card) form factor. The high-speed TRPM+ (Tetra-PMC+) analog-input board provides data capture for four 14-bit ADC...

New HyperTransport version opens multicore doors.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
May 25, 2006... by Ron Wilson HyperTransport, the physical-layer interchip-communications standard whose claim to fame has been its use on Advanced Micro Devices ( www.amd.com ) CPU chips, has rolled out its most recent revision, HyperTransport 3.0. The...

Real-time-DSO bandwidth reaches 18 GHz--fast enough for 10-Gbps data streams.(LeCroy Corp.)
May 25, 2006... by Dan Strassberg With its introduction of an 18-GHz unit, LeCroy has taken possession of the real-time-DSO-bandwidth crown, an honor that, in just the last year, has rotated among LeCroy and its two leading competitors: Agilent (...

USB power manager integrates battery charger.(Linear Technology Corp.)(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright Designing the power portion of portable USB-based devices gets easier with the Linear Technology LTC4089 and LTC4089-5. The products integrate battery chargers--the 4089 with a fixed 5V output and the 4089-5 with a...

Serial bus enhances venerable I2C-bus speed.(Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V)
May 25, 2006... by Margery Conner Since Philips in the early 1980s developed the I2 C as a two-wire, low- to medium-speed communication bus, it has become the de facto standard for onboard communication and, when you bolster it with drivers, for...

Japanese power-supply vendors see engineers as competitive advantages.
May 25, 2006... by Margery Conner Are you feeling a twinge of fear about all those well-educated Chinese engineers who may right now be working on a design that competes with your company's product? Warnings in the business and trade media are currently...

Frequency-agile WiMax transceiver matches client to band.(AsicAhead )(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright Flexibility in frequency band is a big obstacle in WiMax deployment and is also the reason that the wireless-broadband technology can work in any region worldwide. Such flexibility, however, can result in the need for...

Germanium boosts thermophotovoltaic efficiency.
May 25, 2006... by Maury Wright Whereas photovoltaic cells directly convert light to electricity, thermophotovoltaic cells rely on light to drive a heat absorber and then convert the heat to electrical energy. The Belgian-based IMEC (Interuniversity...

Scientists complete carbon-nanotube circuit.
May 25, 2006... by Matthew Miller IBM Research has announced what it claims is the first complete IC built on a single carbon-nanotube molecule. The feat represents a significant advance, according to the company, because it will allow researchers to...

Laser-wielding scientists corral wild erbium atoms.(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Matthew Miller Researchers at the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) have used lasers to trap and cool atoms of erbium, a rare earth metal whose unusual magnetic, electronic, and optical properties may be useful in...

Enslaved viruses build tiny batteries.(Brief article)
May 25, 2006... by Matthew Miller Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have altered the genes of a common virus to self-assemble into the anode of a yet-to-be-built lithium-ion battery. Genetic manipulation causes the microbes to make...

Image sensor proves three can be less than one.
May 25, 2006... by Matthew Miller Add Foveon ( www.foveon.com ) to the list of companies proving that elegant design does not guarantee commercial success. The company in 2000 unveiled its X3 image-sensor technology with fanfare and in 2002 delivered...