Functional safety compliance is often a time-consuming and expensive process. That, in turn, underscores the role of documentation in efficiently implementing the functional safety guidelines. So, designers need full documentation to support the development of functional safety-enabled embedded systems. It includes safety manuals that document all the information for integrating functional safety-enabled MCUs into the […]
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The move to synchronous power supplies in smart factories
The need for high efficiency is pushing industrial power supplies toward synchronous topologies that minimize the use of external heat sinking and cooling. Anthony “Thong” Huynh, Maxim Integrated Buildings, factories, and industrial equipment are getting more space-efficient, driving a move toward miniaturizing the underlying components that enable intelligence and automation. This trend challenges the power […]
The ABCs of functional verification techniques
By Aijaz Fatima of Mentor, a Siemens business Functional verification is the process of demonstrating the functional correctness of a design with respect to the design specifications. Functional verification does not confirm the correctness of the design specification and assumes that the design specification is correct. It is one of the most challenging steps of […]
Embedded basics Part 2: ISO 26262 functional safety for MCUs
Functional safety, a critical requirement in automotive applications, addresses catastrophic failures from data corruption by attaining Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs) as per ISO 26262 standard. Contrary to the common perception that only large and powerful system-on-chips (SoCs) incorporate functional safety built around the ISO 26262 standard, MCUs for the next-generation car architectures are increasingly […]
Measuring and abating jitter
Electronic noise results in spurious signals (spurs) or distortion in amplitude, frequency or both. Jitter refers to unwanted variation in frequency, particularly in digital pulses and typically in the clock signal. Timing disruptions negatively impact system performance, particularly in ADCs, where sampling occurs, and in DACs. We’ll discuss causes of jitter, its detection and measurement […]
What every engineer should know about IEEE 802.3bt PoE
Power over Ethernet (PoE), a networking feature defined by the IEEE 802.3af and 802.3at standards, enables Ethernet cables to supply power and data simultaneously to network devices over an existing data connection. Approved on September 27, 2018 by the IEEE-SA Standards Board, the IEEE 802.3bt standard lets significantly more power to be passed over the…
Understanding noise in electronic instrumentation
In measuring or displaying weak signals, noise places the ultimate limit on detectability. It usually appears as a fluctuating horizontal line known as the noise floor in a spectrum analyzer of oscilloscope in FFT or RF mode. In the time domain, it appears as a thickening of the trace and in severe instances, causes a […]
Electric locomotives and catenary power systems – Part 4: maintenance and corona
The high-speed all-electric railroad locomotive uses a catenary-wire system and pantograph power-transfer arrangement, which appears to violate good engineering practice and should not work. Still, it does, transferring hundreds of amps via a contact point moving at over 100 miles/hour. Part 3 looked at the pantograph and catenary power system in more detail. This part […]
Electric locomotives and catenary power systems – Part 3: power delivery
The high-speed all-electric railroad locomotive uses a catenary-wire system and pantograph power-transfer arrangement, which appears to violate good engineering practice and should not work. Still, it does, transferring hundreds of amps via a contact point moving at over 100 miles/hour. Part 2 of this article looked at power issues and numbers related to the […]
Embedded basics Part 1: IEC 61508 functional safety for MCUs
Functional safety is becoming one of the most important features in embedded systems, especially in the automotive and industrial markets, where safety and reliability are critical design attributes. It encompasses the development of a Safety Integrity Level (SIL) according to IEC 61508 functional safety standard for the general industry and an Automotive Safety Integrity Level […]