The automotive power window has evolved from a basic on/off switch and motor to a sophisticated motion-control subsystem with dedicated ICs. As with most improvements, there are both expected and unanticipated ripple effects in product objectives, associated design, and actual production. As cars became increasingly “electrified” with more motors, switches, lighting, power seats, infotainment, advanced […]
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Power windows: now much more than just a motor and switch, Part 1
The automotive power window has evolved from a basic on/off switch and motor to a sophisticated motion-control subsystem with dedicated ICs. In just a few decades, we’ve come a very long way from those bygone days of manually operated car windows, outside mirrors, and door locks. Now they are all electrically powered, with no manual […]
Swapfest: The 2023 season opener
Cambridge, Mass. — On a cold, wet, windy day about two weeks after baseball season opened, the 2023 Swapfest: The Flea at MIT season opened. Ocurring on the third Sunday morning of the month through October, the swapfest isn’t so much for swapping, but more for buying and selling. While I didn’t buy anything on […]
EE World’s 2023 communications handbook is here
Our 2023 5G, Wired, & Wireless Handbook is now available in ebook form. Download your copy today. It started on a cold January day with an editorial call. A month later, the abstracts came in. After another month, the manuscripts came in. Then came the editing and some back-and-forth with the authors. Next, it was…
When to buffer and when to drive signals?
Buffers and drivers both provide impedance transformation between the input and output. The differences begin to appear when looking at the common types of buffers and drivers, for example, voltage and current buffers, clock buffers, line drivers, and gate drivers. Basic buffers and drivers have one input and one output, but there are others that […]
What’s the difference between needle flame and glow wire testing?
Needle flame and glow wire testing are two approaches to determining the flame-retardant performance of materials like various plastics and the electronic devices that incorporate those materials. Needle flame tests are defined in IEC 60695-2-2, while glow wire testing is defined in IEC 60335 and IEC 60695. UL94 is another material burning test and can […]
What is sensor activated?
Some of the earliest uses for sensors that emerged over a hundred years ago involved direct actuation for control. Think of the mercury thermostat. A thermally responsive coil moves with changes in temperature and tilts a mercury chamber until it closes a set of contacts to turn on a heater in the home or office […]
How does PAPR reduction improve power amplifier efficiency?
5G’s Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) brings with it a major design challenge, namely an inherent wide dynamic variation between a signal’s peak and the average power. The peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) leads to inefficient transmission performance. That’s because the OFDM waveform is created by the sum of multiple sinusoidal signals that can exhibit constructive…
What are RAST connectors?
RAST connectors include signal and power designs based on insulation displacement technology. The original specification included a maximum of 12 contacts, but RAST connectors are currently available with 20 or more contacts. They were developed for consumer white goods and have been adopted by various applications, including automotive systems. The RAST connector system was designed […]
Creating robust designs despite unavoidable imperfections
A good designer anticipates that circuit performance and components will be imperfect or drift and employs various tactics to avoid the consequences. When you spend a lot of time and energy designing, assessing, and debugging an analog signal chain from its sensor through front-end amplifiers and A/D converters, you have to face the reality that […]
