Estimating is a good first step to ensure you are more likely to be roughly right than precisely wrong. I have recently become obsessed with (excuse me, I mean “concerned”) the pressure in my car tires. That’s partially due to my being aware of the negative effect of incorrect pressure on fuel efficiency, handling, and […]
Ultra-wideband antennas meet unique spectrum needs
Ultra-wideband RF applications need specialized antennas to support their unusual spectrum and bandwidth characteristics. Ultra-wideband is a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless technology that offers precise positioning and tracking as well as highly secure communications. It can provide accurate distance measurements in real-time without interfering with conventional narrowband and carrier wave transmissions in the same frequency bands.…
Keeping a simple product simple
It’s a natural temptation to add more functionality to a design, but often, offering less is better. Most designers are familiar with the concept and reality of “feature creep” in new-product implementation. Whether spurred on by the engineering team itself (“Hey, we can add that, and it won’t cost anything”) or marketing (“Let’s add these […]
FAQ on magnetos for power and ignition, Part 2
This simple, mechanically driven power source is nearly 200 years old and still has a well-defined, albeit limited, role in today’s systems. Most of the historical and present-day applications for magnetos are for spark-plug ignition systems. This part looks at that aspect in more detail. Q: What’s the structure and operation of a basic magneto-based […]
FAQ on magnetos for power and ignition, Part 1
This simple, mechanically driven power source is nearly 200 years old and still has a well-defined, albeit limited, role in today’s systems. What or who is a magneto? No, a “magneto” is not only the powerful mutant who has the ability to generate and control magnetic fields and first appeared in the debut issue of […]
Supervisory ICs tame power-up glitch headaches, Part 2
Power-on glitches and system malfunctions are a special challenge as rail voltages drop, but the right ICs can eliminate the problem. This glitch scenario outlined in the first part of this article becomes a major concern with the trend of low-power devices operating at lower voltages. Consider systems with three logic levels of 3.3 V, […]
Are emojis and icons the new hieroglyphics?
The use of graphic symbols may be the trend and save space, but we need to acknowledge their potential downsides as well. I was surfing the web looking for some specialty tools and landed on a site that had many of the ones I needed. All was well until I started to go further on […]
Supervisory ICs tame power-up glitch headaches, Part 1
Power-on glitches and system malfunctions are a special challenge as rail voltages drop, but the right ICs eliminate the problem. Experienced engineers know that one of the riskiest times for a system is when power is applied. Depending on time constants and how smoothly and quickly the power rail comes up to nominal, the different […]
A nuclear-powered cardiac pacemaker? Yes, but…. (Part 3)
Long-life pacemakers powered by plutonium-based thermal decay were implanted beginning in the 1970s, but better battery technology, safety concerns, and regulatory issues made them obsolete within a few decades. The long-term implications Q: Assuming the RTG version works well, what happens when the patient passes away? A: That’s when the RTG saga gets even more […]
A nuclear-powered cardiac pacemaker? Yes, but…. (Part 2)
Long-life pacemakers powered by plutonium-based thermal decay were implanted beginning in the 1970s, but better battery technology, safety concerns, and regulatory issues made them obsolete within a few decades. The technology Q: What did the nuclear pacemaker look like? How is it identified? A: The unit’s electronics are embedded in epoxy, with the plutonium power […]