This article will demonstrate that the AC current density decreases exponentially into a conductor. It will also explain why we can assume that the total current has a uniform distribution from the surface down to one skin depth of the conductor.
This article introduces high-frequency conductor losses in transmission lines caused by a phenomenon known as the skin effect.
One of the biggest computing inventions of all time, courtesy of Xerox PARC.
Feel the real world and the virtual world at the same time
Learn about slot antennas, namely their history, characteristics, and electromagnetic (EM) behavior for low-voltage, small-form-factor electronic devices.
How to stabilize digital supply voltages - and why most of the online advice on this topic is suspect.
Learn how a series RLC circuit with arbitrary component values can be represented as a point on the Smith chart and how an impedance contour on the Smith chart can be used to describe the circuit's frequency response.
Secure Data Recovery found that average failed hard drive spun for 25,233 hours before failing. That’s 1,051 days, or two years and ten months. Failed drive data recovery biz Secure Data Recovery has produced a report giving its experience of hard disk drive life expectancy from…
I wrote a blog post on this topic nearly three years back on the Operator Watch Blog here . That post is very handy as every few months some...
A new technical paper titled “APOSTLE: Asynchronously Parallel Optimization for Sizing Analog Transistors Using DNN Learning” was published by researchers at UT Austin and Analog Devices. Abstract “Analog circuit sizing is a high-cost process in terms of the manual effort…
The latest wireless protocol ditches radiation and focuses on a new medium: your body.
Learn more about RF wave reflection parameters, namely mismatch loss and mismatch uncertainty.
Achieving better signal integrity in a PCB design can be a challenge. Learn how PCB trace impedance variation plays a role, and how advanced tools can help smooth the way.
Learn about voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), return loss, and mismatch loss, which helps characterize the wave reflections in a radio frequency (RF) design.
Aimed at improving sensing and imaging systems, Princeton University researchers have developed a reconfigurable antenna based on origami.
Learn how to derive the wave equations for a lossless transmission line and look at its infinite bandwidth and phase constant.
The following is a list of my articles on various topics. Besides technical articles, news pieces that might have useful technical information are also included. You can find my articles on FPGA...
Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronics is a visual feast for those who love electronics.
Learn about voltage waves and how they relate to an important basic concept of radio frequency (RF) circuit design: transmission lines.
Using new materials, UPenn researchers recently demonstrated how analog compute-in-memory circuits can provide a programmable solution for AI computing.
Here is a growing list of videos that I’ve created for YouTube channels other than my own.
How do we keep track of time? A deeper look into Quartz timers and the emerging field of MEMS
Changes are steady in the memory hierarchy, but how and where that memory is accessed is having a big impact.
Learn about calculating the activation energy of the aging process and some of the contradictory opinions about the Arrhenius equation's usefulness when predicting a crystal's aging process.
Our analysis of 14 popular consumer devices found most could stop working in 3 to 4 years because of irreplaceable batteries. Here’s how we get the tech industry to design products that last longer — and do less damage to the environment.
This e-book explores microstrip antenna design, highlighting the single-element rectangular microstrip antenna and antenna arrays constructed from single microstrip elements.
Antennas are used to transmit and receive electromagnetic energy. This article covers basic antenna theory.
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) vibratory gyroscopes can be a bit mysterious and math-intensive. Let's break the math down, and go over gyroscope basics and structures.
Learn about interrupts for some familiar peripherals: timers, serial communication, and ADCs.
This article explores the Butterworth low-pass filter, also known as the maximally flat filter, from the perspective of its pole-zero diagram.
Antennas allow information to be transferred to distant locations. In the second part of this Antenna Basics series, you will learn more about the physics of how antennas work.
This article explores an alternative, and in some cases advantageous, approach to MOSFET-based implementation of digital logic functions.
This article explains some theory behind piezoelectric sensors and presents an equivalent circuit that you can use when you’re designing sensor systems.
Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University have developed soft magnetic materials that promise to make electric motors up to four times lighter.
This article will discuss how to implement a shift register in Verilog. The register described can be synthesized and downloaded to an FPGA for test in actual hardware.
This article looks at gallium arsenide, comparing it to other semiconductor materials, and explores how different compounds are used in components.
This article presents an LTspice circuit that can be used to explore the behavior of a phase-locked loop.
What are TMR sensors and what applications are they best suited to? This article provides a snapshot of this sensor type and what TMR-based components are available for designers.
For the first time, a beam-steering antenna is integrated into the metal casing of a mobile phone
How does a ground plane reduce noise in a PCB? Learn more in this technical article.
The megapixel myth has treated camera manufacturers well over the years, those ever increasing, and often meaningless, numbers have sold millions of cameras. But consumers are getting wise to it. We've all seen dodgy images from high megapixel cameras and know that after a…
This article will help the reader understand the different types of power semiconductors: how they work, their key parameters, and trade-offs.
NAND and NOR gates are widely known to be universal logic gates, meaning that any other logic gate be made from NAND or NOR gates. This article discusses other universal logic gates.
Asynchronous Design: Is it time yet? Why exactly did Intel scrap its asynchronous chip, and what's changed since then?
This is a list of interface bit rates, is a measure of information transfer rates, or digital bandwidth capacity, at which digital interfaces in a computer or network can communicate over various kinds of buses and channels. The distinction can be arbitrary between a computer…
Silicon Labs' Infrastructure and Automotive business is now owned by Skyworks. This includes timing, power, isolation, broadcast, and automotive products.
This two-article series provides an overview of circuit symbols, along with some information on the components that they represent.