Have you ever wondered which type of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) materials would be worth investing in to improve signal integrity? Would your high-frequency signaling work better with a tighter, more uniform weave in the core sheet of the PCB? What’s a high-frequency signal, anyway? When should you invest in a rigid, moisture-proof PCB? Properties […]
Choosing PCB materials to optimize applications, Part I
There are many different materials and methods for creating PCB materials. The electronics used in numerous applications benefits from the large number of options for PCBs. Hobbyists often choose the least expensive PCB, however, it’s essential to choose appropriate PCB materials when prototyping is done, and high-volume product development and manufacturing become the focus. Applications […]
Real-time vs. a standard operating system & How to choose an RTOS
Most MCUs do not have operating systems. In the “olden days,” most embedded systems had MCUs that ran a program repeatedly and did not have much if any, human interference. However, the line between MCUs and processors is blurring. MCUs have General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) which are often attached to one or several sensors as […]
Challenges in designing electronics for satellites
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik 1, which was no more than a metal ball containing a radio, a battery, and a thermometer.[i] However, this experiment provoked a spark that led to decades of space missions. The earliest satellite designs were huge, heavy, and functionality was limited. Nevertheless, satellite designs started evolving with the passage […]
3D NAND Flash memory: Making HDDs obsolete in a data-centric world
A data-centric economy is evolving. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 debuted with 8 GB RAM and one terabyte (TB) of storage (purchasing a 512 GB SD card bumps it to 1 TB). The price tag is well over $1,000, so the rest of us will have to buy 1 TB of cloud storage from Google […]
Programming AVR microcontrollers and Arduinos using the Arduino ISP
All microcontrollers (MCUs) require some sort of mechanism to program them, even if they only get programmed once. Typically, program code is written on a host computer, then it is compiled or translated, and object (machine-readable) code is downloaded to the MCU (“the target”) from the PC (“the host”) using a cable (usually USB or […]
Low cost, low latency PCIe ideal for sharing resources
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is more than just a high-speed serial bus that’s widely used in computers. PCIe is also found in some embedded systems and is a cost-effective, high performance, reliable, low-latency, and low power bus that can rapidly transfer data directly between PCIe-connected devices. PCIe-connected devices are typically CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, PCIe-connected […]
Why clean PCBs matter, Part 2
The article Why Clean PCBs Matter, Part 1, covers the effects that a dirty Printed Circuit Board can have on electronics, especially those supporting high-frequency signals or sensitive analog components. Keeping a PCB clean begins in assembly when components are preferably soldered to the PCB in a clean environment. Of great importance is the type […]
Why clean PCBs matter, Part I
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are essential in modern electronics. Dust and other contaminants are more important to watch out for than ever. As components get smaller, the relative size of contaminants is larger, heat is more of an issue with densely packed circuits on modern ICs, and devices operating at high frequencies (~1 GHz and […]
An Open Source RTOS for IoT
An operating system (OS) is software that supports essential computer functions by managing software and hardware in a computer system. An embedded OS is typically tailored for a specific system and is usually as small as is necessary to do its job. You can find OSes in smartphones, routers, smart watches, game consoles, Alexa/Google Home, […]
