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The downside of overdesign, Part 2: A Dunn history
Editor’s Note: This is a two-part series. Part 1 can be found here. My father, John Edward Dunn, was a Foreman in the New York City Department of Bridges. His shop was in Brooklyn on Kent Avenue...
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How to reinvent analog design in the age of AI
Where does analog design stand in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) world? While neuromorphic designs have been around since the 1980s, can they reinvent themselves with building blocks...
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Dead Lead-acid Batteries: Desulfation-resurrection opportunities?
Back in November 2023, I told you about how my 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon: had failed (more accurately, not completed) its initial emissions testing the year before (October 2022) because it...
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How controllers tackle storage challenges in AI security cameras
Visual security systems have evolved enormously since the days of infrared motion detectors and laser tripwires. Today, high-definition cameras stream video into local vision-processing systems. These...
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A pitch-linear VCO, part 2: taking it further
Editor’s Note: This DI is a two-part series. Part 1 shows how to make an oscillator with a pitch that is proportional to a control voltage. Part 2 shows how to modify the circuit for use with higher...
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How to tackle DRAM’s power conundrum
While DRAM designers strive for incremental improvements in performance, power, bit density, and capacity with each successive node, AI-driven data centers are putting a lot of pressure on memory...
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100-MHz VFC with TBH current pump
Famous analog designer and author Jim Williams published an awesome design in 1986 for a 100-MHz voltage to frequency converter. He named this high-climber (picture it on the roof of the Empire State...
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Intel’s new CEO: What you need to know
Lip-Bu Tan, who has exposure to both chip design and chip manufacturing worlds due to his CEO stint at EDA powerhouse Cadence, is taking the reins of Intel after Pat Gelsinger was forced out by the...
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Peak power point
Imagine that you have a voltage source in series with some source resistance feeding power to a variable load. The relationship between load voltage, load current, and cell current can be drawn as...
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32-bit MCUs pack FPU and fast analog
Microchip’s PIC32A 32-bit MCUs feature an FPU coprocessor that performs both 32-bit and 64-bit operations for math-intensive tasks. Operating at 200 MHz, they also integrate high-speed analog...
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Gate driver photocoupler simplifies SiC MOSFET control
Housed in a small SO8L package, Toshiba’s TLP5814H gate driver photocoupler provides an active Miller clamp for driving SiC MOSFETs. Its built-in clamp circuit directs Miller current from the gate to...
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Buck regulator boosts transient response and stability
Kinetic’s KTB4800 2.4-MHz, 3-A buck regulator delivers fast transient response with precise switching frequency. Its OptiComp adaptive on-time PWM control scheme maintains a nearly constant switching...
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iToF sensor provides on-chip depth processing
An indirect time-of-flight sensor, the AF0130 from onsemi offers long-distance measurements and 3D imaging of fast-moving objects. It features a depth processing ASIC beneath its pixel area, which...
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MPU targets endpoint vision AI
The Renesas RZ/V2N quad-core MPU integrates an AI accelerator, achieving up to 15 TOPS of AI inference using pruning technology. Pruning reduces memory usage and increases computing efficiency by...
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The evolution of PCBs and the demands of modern electronics
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) have come a long way over the years. Electronics design engineers must stay aware of the latest developments to understand how they might soon incorporate them into their...
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Data center power meets rising energy demands amid AI boom
Texas Instruments’ APEC-related releases are power management chips centered around supporting the AI-driven power demands in data centers. The releases include the first 48-V integrated hot-swap eFuse...
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Disposable vapes: Unnecessary, excessive waste in cylindrical shapes
My recent teardown of a rechargeable vape device was…wow…popular. I suspected upfront that it might cultivate a modicum of incremental traffic from the vape-using (and vape-curious) general public,...
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Data center solutions take center stage at APEC 2025
This year during APEC, much of the focus on the show floor revolved around data center tech, with companies showcasing high-density power supply units (PSU), battery backup units (BBU), intermediate...
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Can a free running LMC555 VCO discharge its timing cap to zero?
Frequent design idea (DI) contributor Nick Cornford recently published a synergistic pair of DIs “A pitch-linear VCO, part 1: Getting it going” and “A pitch-linear VCO, part 2: taking it further.” Wow...
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NVIDIA switches scale AI with silicon photonics
NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X and Quantum-X silicon photonics-based network switches connect millions of GPUs, scaling AI compute. They achieve up to 1.6 Tbps per port and up to 400 Tbps aggregate bandwidth....
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