The world has gotten much fancier with capacitive and resistance touch input on displays, buttons that don’t give tactile feedback, or buttons that do but bounce the input signal on occasion. Buttons are everywhere. They’re on microwaves, refrigerators, garage door openers, smartphones, and inhabit the soul of the electric start/stop for modern automobiles. For designers, […]
802.11ax: Are we there yet?
Many who develop with microcontrollers have access to compatible Wi-Fi modules. Do you need to be concerned about updating to the latest version 802.11ax when it comes out? The answer depends on whether your MCU will reside in an area where the Wi-Fi access point is typically congested. If so, 802.11ax can help. In short, […]
IoT via Cellular: Out with 2G and 3G, in with LPWA
Wireless connections are convenient and cheap to set up, but Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other commercially available technologies do not always have the range needed. Wireless cellular is an option, but cellular connections are expensive. A lot of devices use 2G and 3G cellular technologies because they cost less, especially when only little chunks of data […]
Can you operate circuits at sub-threshold voltages?
Yes, you can operate circuits below the 0.9 volts where some transistors can run. The result is mind-blowingly low power consumption, as in a full-featured Real Time Clock (RTC) with a supply current below 14 nA (that’s nanoamps). First, some background on how transistors work Transistors operate much like an electronic switch. Apply voltage above […]
When tin whiskers spontaneously erupt
First reported in the 1940s, Metal Whiskers (MW) are spider-web-thin conductive filaments that sprout (most often) from tin, zinc, and cadmium metal surfaces. A “tin whisker” can be manually formed with poor soldering techniques, but metal whiskers actually grow on their own, too. They are a phenomenon that many engineers are not aware of. Silver, […]
What is the COM Express standard?
The COM Express open standard, initially released in 2005, covers Computer on Modules (CO) and Single Board Computers (SBCs) under the auspices of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturer’s Group (PICMG), a consortium of equipment and system vendors, component suppliers, and end users for the embedded computer market. Open standards are not open source, but they […]
Programming automation using NFC tags
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a wireless communication technology that acts over short distances for two-way communication. The use of NFC tags is growing in several markets, including the medical, consumer, retail, industrial, automotive, and smart grid markets. NFC is a type of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. When two NFC enabled devices are very close […]
What are MRAMs?
MRAM, Magneto-Resistive Random Access Memory, is a type of non-volatile memory (NVM) capable of holding saved data even if the power is down or the power is accidentally cut off. MRAM — also called Magnetic RAM — is not new. It has been in the market for more than two decades, but there have been several […]
Considerations in PCB layout guidelines
A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout, in its most basic form, is a means to transfer a circuit from a breadboard to a more stable and permanent physical form. Whereas entire books and college coursework have been dedicated to PCB layout, what follows is a short overview of what to consider when making a PCB. […]
Why so many bypass capacitors?
A capacitor behaves like an open circuit at DC voltages. (Recall that DC is voltage that operates at a frequency of 0 Hz, which is a flat-line voltage of varying heights or levels). If there’s an AC (varying) component or noise in the signals traveling in the circuit, then as the frequencies of the varying […]
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