EDN back issues from July 2009:
High-level software for embedded-system design doing your job?
Jul 09, 2009 ... By Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief Domain experts are gaining more control of embedded-system design, but electronic- and code-design skills remain key to successful projects. Powerful high-level software tools give domain experts in such diverse fields as aerospace ...
FPGA verification in embedded video-processing systems.
Jul 09, 2009 ... By Harshal Chhaya and Tarak Patel, eInfochips FPGAs can be great at video processing, but verifying FPGA-based video systems requires careful attention to your approach. Participating in the consumer-electronics segment has many advantages. Despite that fact, design ...
Small-delay-defect testing.
Jul 09, 2009 ... By Roberto Mattiuzzo and Davide Appello, STMicroelectronics, Chris Allsup, SynopsyS SDD automatic-test-pattern generation breaks the nanometer-quality barrier. Semiconductor companies have come to rely on delay testing to attain high defect coverage of manufactured ...
EDA companies tout RF design, links to test.
Jul 09, 2009 ... By Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief From RF/microwave-circuit-design tools to electromagnetic simulation, EDA companies work with instrument vendors to get high-performance, high-quality products to market. EDA companies are introducing tools targeting RF/microwave design ...
Illumination ring provides focused intensities.
Jul 09, 2009 ... William Grill, Honeywell Aerospace, Olathe, KS Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville If you use a camera-based inspection or soldering fixture, you need to see images in a small area. Often, side lighting produces shadows on an image that result in contrasting ...
Digital variable resistor compensates voltage regulator.
Jul 09, 2009 ... Jason Andrews, Maxim Integrated Products Inc, Dallas, TX Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville A variable resistor that integrates a programmable, temperature-indexed look-up table can compensate for the temperature drift of a voltage regulator. In this case, the ...
Hot-swap switch provides easy thermal protection.
Jul 09, 2009 ... Donald Schelle, National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, CA Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville It is often difficult to design an effective thermal-management scheme that minimizes the risk of meltdown or fire. System orientation, placement, or both complicate ...
Add headphones to a Class D amplifier.
Jul 09, 2009 ... Hiroshi Fukushima, Technical Research Center, D&M Holdings Inc, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa, Japan Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville The MAX9704 from Maxim (www.maxim-ic.com ) is a small and efficient Class D audio power amplifier. Its fully balanced inputs and ...
Circuit eases power-sequence testing.
Jul 09, 2009 ... Goh Ban Hok, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Ltd, Singapore Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville Systems on chip (SOCs) normally require one power supply for the core and another for I/O. To properly apply power to the device, you often need one supply to apply ...
Design mingles with test across domains.(Editorial)
Jul 09, 2009; ... By Rick Nelson, editor-in-chief The lines between electrical-engineering disciplines are continually blurring, with traditional test products taking on design chores and vice versa. The lines between electronics engineers and experts in other domains may be blurring, as well ....
Holding on.(power transmission)
Jul 09, 2009 ... By Howard Johnson, PhD Switch the CMOS-driver model high in Figure 1 by closing S1 and opening S2 . Wait for the line to settle. Because there is no dc load--only capacitance--the steady-state current equals almost zero. It differs from zero only according to the tiny leakage ...
Early verification and validation using model-based design.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Brett Murphy and Amory Wakefield, The MathWorks With a model-centric approach, embedded-system designers can verify and validate their products as a parallel activity throughout the development process. When The MathWorks introduced Matlab technical-computing ...
Automation and the smiley face of death.(Editorial)
Jul 09, 2009; ... By Pallab Chatterjee, Contributing Technical Editor The pervasive trends of manpower reduction and the shift toward the use of foundry services have created a new set of challenges for designers attempting to bring a prototype design to reality. The manufacturing-transfer ...
MEMS-based motion sensors move lower in both size and price.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Margery Conner The 16-bit, three-axis LIS302DLH digital MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) accelerometer from STMicroelectronics is 0.75 mm high and has a 3x5-mm footprint. It has a power-saving shutdown mode and wakes automatically when it detects motion. The ...
Tool targets increased productivity in analog environment.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Rick Nelson Synopsys recently announced the addition of advanced analog-simulation and -layout capabilities in its Galaxy Custom Designer implementation tool. The new features in the 2009.06 release target analog-circuit designers and -layout engineers. The new capabilities ...
Advance hints at all-optical add-drop multiplexers.
Jul 09, 2009 ... Edited by Ron Wilson A recent breakthrough at the University of Karlsruhe (www.uni-karlsruhe.de ), in collaboration with IMEC (Interuniversity Microelectronics Center), Lehigh University (www.lehigh.edu ), and ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich (www.ethz.ch ), ...
Implantable sensor device promises continuous cancer monitoring.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Suzanne Deffree Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claim that they can implant a sensor device during a cancer-tissue biopsy and that the sensor can remain in patients for continuous monitoring of the disease's impact on their health. The device ...
Arbitrary-waveform generator combines protocol- and physical-layer testing.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Dan Strassberg The need is intensifying to investigate and identify performance impairments resulting from imperfections in the physical layers of serial buses such as Flexray, an advanced data-transmission technology for communication among the many intelligent subsystems in ...
Ramtron expands serial-FRAM line with 32-kbit device.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Rick Nelson Ramtron International Corp, a supplier of nonvolatile FRAM (ferroelectric random-access memory), has announced the FM24CL32, a serial-nonvolatile RAM that offers high-speed read/write performance, low-voltage operation, and long-term data retention. The FM24CL32 ...
Software upgrade brings logic-analyzer-style insights to audio testing.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Dan Strassberg Audio Precision has announced several new features for its APx series of audio analyzers. These features relate to the display, analysis, and control of metadata in HDMI (high-definition-multimedia interface); IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) ...
SIwave 4.0 addresses signal and power integrity.
Jul 09, 2009; ... by Rick Nelson Part of the Ansys Ansoft (www.ansoft.com ) family of products, SIwave (signal-integrity-wave) Version 4.0 includes new features for signal-integrity, power-integrity, and electromagnetic-compatibility testing. Enhancements include an improved desktop graphical ...
Developer's guide details USB 3.0, Superspeed.(USB Complete: The Developer's Guide)(Brief article)(Book review)
Jul 09, 2009; ... by Dan Strassberg USB Complete: The Developer's Guide by Jan Axelson, author of many books on embedded-system development, is now in its fourth edition. With little question, hardware and software developers have recognized the earlier editions as the most authoritative, ...
Distributors' education services blossom.
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Rob Spiegel Distributor-supplied services extending technical and product education are increasingly in demand as engineering teams at brand owners continue to shrink and the formidable stress on design teams continues to grow. Web-based training is a growing service trend ...
Energy Star 5.0 is in effect.
Jul 09, 2009; ... by Suzanne Deffree The EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov ) Energy Star 5.0 Specification for Computers went into effect on July 1, 2009. The specification applies to desktop, notebook, and thin-client systems. The EPA finalized the specification, which went ...
PC-TV-tuner market faces static.(television)(Report)(Brief article)
Jul 09, 2009 ... by Suzanne Deffree In-Stat (www.instat.com ) expects unit shipments for PC-TV tuners this year to decline by nearly 11% from 2008's level due to shrinking demand and the worldwide economic recession. The research company reports that the market also faces fundamental challenges, ...
A breath of fresh air.
Jul 09, 2009 ... By David Williams, Whirlpool It was a quiet day when my manager came to me with an urgent request. Our most recent quality numbers showed a significant regression, causing the failure rates of our control boards to more than triple in three months! As this fact became better ...
Using an analog filter to inject noise.
Jul 23, 2009 ... By Bonnie Baker Sometimes things just don't make sense! For instance, your RC filter or amplifier's lowpass filter at the input of a delta-sigma ADC can produce a noisier digital output. Didn't you design the filter to reduce noise so that you'd get more instead of fewer ...
Programmable chips: piecing together an analog solution.
Jul 23, 2009 ... By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor As configurable and programmable analog chips grow more popular, they are raising serious questions about the traditional way to do board-level design. Configurable analog ICs have been available in various forms for years, seemingly ...
Optimizing reliability and power efficiency in embedded wireless systems.
Jul 23, 2009 ... By Jonathan Sujarit, Cypress Semiconductor You can apply dynamic-data-rate and dynamic-output-power techniques to ensure that wireless messages get through with minimal power consumption. The use of wireless technology in embedded-system applications, such as ...
Quasiresonant flyback converter easily charges energy-storage capacitors.
Jul 23, 2009 ... Todor Arsenov, Toronto, ON, Canada Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville Designers often use chargers with flyback topologies to quickly charge energy-storage capacitors (references 1 and 2 ). In a flyback topology, the energy transfer takes place only when the ...
First-event detector has automatic-reset function.
Jul 23, 2009 ... Vasil Borodai, Zaporozhje, Ukraine Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville The circuit in Figure 1 lets you indicate which game player presses a button first. Each button has a corresponding LED that indicates the pressing of the button. All other LEDs remain locked ...
Signal-powered linear optocoupler provides isolated control signal.
Jul 23, 2009 ... Mitja Rihtarsic, Skofja Loka, Slovenia Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville The circuit in Figure 1 provides an isolated control voltage, such as 0 to 10V. In the low part of the range, 0V to approximately 2V, the controlled device is off. Therefore, the upper ...
Dark-activated switch needs only three components.(Suns International)(Teccor Electronics)(Littelfuse Inc.)(Brief article)
Jul 23, 2009 ... Abel Raynus, Armitron International, Malden, MA Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville Assume that you have a device that receives its power from the main 120 or 220V-ac line and you need to add a switch between the ac line and the device so that the device works ...
Three killer apps and some not-so-killer.
Jul 23, 2009 ... By Paul Rako, Technical Editor As I visited the IEEE International Microwave Symposium last month in Boston, I saw a bright future for semiconductors and electronics. For years, pundits have been bleating about the next killer application for semiconductors. Well, I see three of ...
Simple battery technology packs in more features with complex chemistries.
Jul 23, 2009 ... Margery Conner, Technical Editor Lithium-ion cells are the workhorses of portable energy storage. Battery manufacturers may change the formulation of the coatings for the cathode and the anode and the characteristics of their separators, but the basic components are the same ...
Making ASIC power estimates before the design.
Jul 23, 2009 ... By Bob Eisenstadt, Alchip Technologies A structured approach can give you meaningful power estimates when there's still time to influence process and architecture decisions. ASIC design teams face a growing problem. ASIC power-consumption estimates that take place ...
DAC shapes sound for small speakers.
Jul 23, 2009; ... by Graham Prophet Wolfson Microelectronics' new single-chip, monophonic WM9081 DAC and speaker amplifier deliver optimum sound-pressure levels and maximum intelligibility from low-cost speakers, such as those in portable navigation devices, mobile handsets, digital radios, and ...
Touch sensors allow for variations in parasitic capacitance.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Margery Conner Capacitive-touch sensors can detect a finger touch by measuring capacitive changes on the touchpad. Currently, the most popular form of capacitive-touch sensors relies on a microprocessor and requires programming before use. SMSC's new CAP10xx capacitive-sensor ...
Network analyzer for active-device test adds 13.5-, 43.5-, and 50-GHz models.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Dan Strassberg Agilent Technologies has added 13.5-, 43.5-, and 50-GHz models of its PNA-X network analyzer. The 43.5- and 50-GHz models support high-frequency applications, such as radar and satellite communications, whereas the 13.5-GHz model handles low-frequency devices ...
Isolated USB connections operate in medical and industrial equipment.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Paul Rako Analog Devices has introduced a single-IC USB (Universal Serial Bus) isolator, which simplifies isolated USB-port implementation in system-critical medical and industrial equipment. USB ports provide a standardized, straightforward way to connect and disconnect ...
LDPC technology comes to disk-read channels.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Ron Wilson LSI recently launched a new era in disk-read-channel technology with the RC9500, a mixed-signal read-channel-IP (intellectual-property)-core cluster. LSI intends the block for integration with a drive vendor's IP to create a single-chip drive-electronics ...
Thermal-management software reduces engineering time, speeds product development.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Rick Nelson Ansys Inc has announced the latest release of Ansys Icepak software, which applies fluid-dynamics technology to electronics thermal management. The 12.0 release introduces new features for PCB (printed-circuit-board) and package thermal analysis, new and enhanced ...
Ultra-low-power microcontroller brings accuracy to smart meters.
Jul 23, 2009 ... by Margery Conner Targeting the smart-meter market, Texas Instruments has added the MSP430F471xx to its 430 family of ultra-low-power microcontrollers. The device has accuracy better than 0.1% and a dynamic range of 2400 to 1, necessary for the wide range of high and low ...
NXP's Rene Penning de Vries: Moving beyond Moore.(NXP Semiconductors)(Interview)
Jul 23, 2009 ... Interview conducted and edited by Suzanne Deffree Rene Penning de Vries, senior vice president and chief technology officer of NXP Semiconductors (www.nxp.com ), spoke to EDN about how design and R&D are changing as we evolve past the traditional definitions of Moore's Law and ...
*Dog* PLL chases its own tail.
Jul 23, 2009 ... Glen Chenier, Teeter Totter tree stuff Long ago, I was developing experimental LAN-interface hardware to transmit data on a synchronous-RF carrier from a master unit to remote devices that simultaneously returned data on a synchronous-RF carrier two octaves lower. I amplified ...