by Eric Persson, Infineon Technologies To understand why gallium-nitride components shrink the size of power supplies, examine how they dissipate energy at high frequencies. Silicon power FETs have…
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Basics of FPGAs – the solution to countless design challenges
The field-programmable gate array (FPGA) has come a long way from its roots as a flexible logic-circuit replacement based on programmable-memory technology in the 1980s. They are now used as the primary or sole processor for small and large systems in applications spanning basic appliances to high-end aerospace. It’s estimated by various market researches that […]
Compensating for temperature in high-frequency rectifier diodes
by Koji Ikeda, Sanken Electric Co. and K.C. Nishio, Allegro Micro Systems Over-temperature can be a problem in high-performance switching supplies. New power rectifier diodes build in safeguards…
A close look at the Level VI power supply spec
by Jeff Schnabel, CUI Inc. DOE power supply efficiency specifications target a broader array of power supplies to save energy and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Market enthusiasm for new…
Basics of designing with permanent magnets
by Stan Trout, Owner/Metallurgist, Spontaneous Materials It can be tricky to correctly specify magnetic materials for power circuits and actuators. An understanding of definitions and common properties serves…
Ten good internet sites for test engineers
You can often find the answer to a specific question or research an extensive area of interest on the Internet. Here are ten Internet resources that electronic professionals…
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How to choose an operational amplifier: what you need to know
Choosing an opamp for a particular task can sometimes be simple but at other times, you will have a lot of conflicting requirements which makes choosing more of a challenge. Also, the number of opamps available now is huge so it can take a while to work your way through the options from different manufacturers. […]
Understanding sampling rate
A large number of electronic components and systems are digital. Radio, TV and sound reproduction, to mention a few examples, have in recent years all gone digital, with…
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Researchers 3D-print supercaps with aerogels
Super-compact ultracapacitors could come out of work now progressing at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab where researchers are extruding graphene aerogel on a special 3D printer. The 3D-printing…
10 Tips for predicting component temperatures
Component temperature prediction is important from a number of points of view. Historically component temperature has been correlated with reliability, with early studies relating field failure rates to component temperature. More recently physics-based reliability prediction has related failure rates of electronic assemblies to the magnitude of temperature change over an operational cycle (power-on, power-off, power-on…), […]