Understanding Gerber Layers for PCBs and Stencils
Gerber layers don’t have to be a mystery. Knowing the names and purposes of each Gerber layer used in PCB manufacturing can improve your designs and ease communication with the board house.
circuits-electronics
Introduction to the Class B Power Amplifier
How does a Class B power amplifier work? What makes it more efficient than a Class A power amplifier? Learn the answers in this article.
Demystifying the Skin Effect: Insights into AC Current Distribution
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.
Lossy Transmission Lines: Introduction to the Skin Effect
This article introduces high-frequency conductor losses in transmission lines caused by a phenomenon known as the skin effect.
Speed matters: How Ethernet went from 3Mbps to 100Gbps… and beyond
One of the biggest computing inventions of all time, courtesy of Xerox PARC.
Haptic System Creates Finger-Touch Sensations Hardware-Free
Feel the real world and the virtual world at the same time
A Brief Introduction to Slot Antennas
Learn about slot antennas, namely their history, characteristics, and electromagnetic (EM) behavior for low-voltage, small-form-factor electronic devices.
The basics of decoupling capacitors
How to stabilize digital supply voltages - and why most of the online advice on this topic is suspect.
https://octopart.com/blog/archives/2023/03/what-are-the-different-types-of-fets
Learn by Example—Using an Impedance Smith Chart
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.
Most failed disk drives fail just before they hit 3 years’ use, says data r
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…
How many Cell Sites and Base Stations Worldwide?
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...
Asynchronously Parallel Optimization Method For Sizing Analog Transistors U
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…
Share Files With a Fist Bump: Wi-R Confines Signal to a User’s Body
The latest wireless protocol ditches radiation and focuses on a new medium: your body.
Mismatch Loss and Mismatch Uncertainty in RF Systems
Learn more about RF wave reflection parameters, namely mismatch loss and mismatch uncertainty.
Improve Signal Integrity by Reducing PCB Trace Impedance Variation
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.
RF Design Basics: VSWR, Return Loss, and Mismatch Loss
Learn about voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), return loss, and mismatch loss, which helps characterize the wave reflections in a radio frequency (RF) design.
Researchers Tap Origami as Basis for Reconfigurable Antenna Design
Aimed at improving sensing and imaging systems, Princeton University researchers have developed a reconfigurable antenna based on origami.
Investigating Lossless Transmission Line Phase Constant and Infinite Bandwi
Learn how to derive the wave equations for a lossless transmission line and look at its infinite bandwidth and phase constant.
My Articles on AAC (Page I)
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...
The Inner Beauty of Basic Electronics
Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronics is a visual feast for those who love electronics.
RF Design Basics—Introduction to Transmission Lines
Learn about voltage waves and how they relate to an important basic concept of radio frequency (RF) circuit design: transmission lines.
Researchers Develop Transistor-free Compute-in-Memory Architecture
Using new materials, UPenn researchers recently demonstrated how analog compute-in-memory circuits can provide a programmable solution for AI computing.
Videos — Engineering Media
Here is a growing list of videos that I’ve created for YouTube channels other than my own.
What Time is It? A Timing Market Primer and Overview
How do we keep track of time? A deeper look into Quartz timers and the emerging field of MEMS
How Memory Design Optimizes System Performance
Changes are steady in the memory hierarchy, but how and where that memory is accessed is having a big impact.
https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/
Using the Arrhenius Equation to Predict Electronic Component Aging
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.
Perspective | Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret.
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.
Microstrip Antenna Design
This e-book explores microstrip antenna design, highlighting the single-element rectangular microstrip antenna and antenna arrays constructed from single microstrip elements.
An Introduction to Antenna Basics - Technical Articles
Antennas are used to transmit and receive electromagnetic energy. This article covers basic antenna theory.
An Introduction to MEMS Vibratory Gyroscopes
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.
Fixing a Tiny Corner of the Supply Chain « bunnie's blog
Interrupts for Peripherals: Timers, Serial Communication, and ADCs - Technical Articles
Learn about interrupts for some familiar peripherals: timers, serial communication, and ADCs.
Understanding Butterworth Filter Poles and Zeros - Technical Articles
This article explores the Butterworth low-pass filter, also known as the maximally flat filter, from the perspective of its pole-zero diagram.
Antenna Basics: Radiation Patterns, Permittivity, Directivity, and Gain - Technical Articles
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.
Introduction to Pass-Transistor Logic - Technical Articles
This article explores an alternative, and in some cases advantageous, approach to MOSFET-based implementation of digital logic functions.
Understanding and Modeling Piezoelectric Sensors - Technical Articles
This article explains some theory behind piezoelectric sensors and presents an equivalent circuit that you can use when you’re designing sensor systems.
Soft Magnets Promise To Make Electric Motors 3 Times Lighter
Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University have developed soft magnetic materials that promise to make electric motors up to four times lighter.
Understanding Verilog Shift Registers - Technical Articles
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.
Gallium Arsenide: Another Player in Semiconductor Technology - News
This article looks at gallium arsenide, comparing it to other semiconductor materials, and explores how different compounds are used in components.
How to Simulate a Phase-Locked Loop - Technical Articles
This article presents an LTspice circuit that can be used to explore the behavior of a phase-locked loop.
Magnetoresistance in Magnetic Field Sensors: Applications for TMR Sensors - News
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.
A Beam-Steering Antenna for 5G Mobile Phones
For the first time, a beam-steering antenna is integrated into the metal casing of a mobile phone
How a Ground Plane Reduces PCB Noise - Technical Articles
How does a ground plane reduce noise in a PCB? Learn more in this technical article.
Camera sensor size: Why does it matter and exactly how big are they?
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…
FET vs. BJT vs. IGBT: What’s the Right Choice for Your Power Stage Design? - Technical Articles
This article will help the reader understand the different types of power semiconductors: how they work, their key parameters, and trade-offs.
Universal Logic Gates - Technical Articles
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?
Asynchronous Design: Is it time yet? Why exactly did Intel scrap its asynchronous chip, and what's changed since then?
List of interface bit rates
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…