Techonline Most Popular Technical Papers

Make It Fail: Part 1

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:51:00 EDT

"Debugging" is a the most valuable engineering skills, not taught in any formal setting, and often learned the hard way, by trial, error, experience, and long days and nights. The excerpted chapter is from a book which is an informative and logical introduction to the skill and art of begging electronic circuits and systems.

Quit Thinking and Look: Part 1

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 12:10:00 EDT

Make It Fail: Part 2

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 13:28:00 EDT

Make It Fail: Part 3

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 16:41:00 EDT

How to Use USB without Knowing USB

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:00:00 EDT

USB is now a mature technology yet many people are not using it since they perceive it as "too complicated." To date, all USB books and most USB technical articles have presented USB as a "technical wonder" and the reader is flooded with details such as packet types and descriptor parsing. Not surprisingly, many people who could take advantage of USB are holding back. This paper treats USB as a tool that can be used to solve real world problems in embedded systems design.

Quit Thinking and Look: Part 2

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 12:21:00 EDT

High-Volume nano FPGAs

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:47:00 EST

The perfect storm of consumer demand converging with design constraints is on the horizon. More demand for electronic devices means more demand for semiconductors.

Stepper Motor Reference Design

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:58:00 EST

This reference design demonstrates a stepper motor system using the compact C8051F300 microcontroller, used in conjunction with a RS232 port operating at 57600 bps to demonstrate the feasibility of using serial control.

Multiturn vs. Single-turn

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST

This application note serves as a general selection guideline to determine the most cost-effective trimmer for a particular application—Multiturn or single-turn?

Touchscreen Consumer Electronics

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:43:00 EDT

This white paper discusses the evolution of portable consumer electronics from the Electronic Organizer to Apple's iPhone.

First Steps with Embedded Systems

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 12:06:00 EDT

This book is provides an intermediate-level overview of programming microcontrollers using the C programming language. It is useful both as an introduction to microcontroller programming for intermediate-level post-secondary programs and as a guide for developers coping with the growth and change of the microcontroller industry.

Quit Thinking and Look: Part 3

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 12:27:00 EDT

Motivation for RF Integration

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:54:00 EST

While CMOS technology has made great strides in its ability to fabricate radio frequency (RF) circuitry, many RF chip designers have yet to take advantage of this capability.

Power-Management Techniques for OMAP35x Applications Processors

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:35:00 EDT

In this white paper, we'll review the concepts behind various power-saving techniques, quantify the kinds of power savings that you can achieve with each, and discuss external power-management devices and power ICs that help multimedia processors reap the full benefits of these techniques.

Frequency Modulation (FM) Tutorial

Thu, 29 May 2008 11:59:00 EDT

This paper presents a basic tutorial on FM with descriptions of multiplex (MPX) signaling and noise improvement techniques, such as stereo-mono blending and soft mute. It also introduces Silicon Laboratories' Si4700/01 FM Tuners.

The basics of phase change memory (PCM) technology

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:12:00 EDT

Phase Change Memory (PCM) is a term used to describe a class of non-volatile memory devices that employ a reversible phase change in materials to store information. Matter can exist in various phases such as solid, liquid, gas, condensate and plasma. PCM exploits differences in the electrical resistivity of a material in different phases. This paper describes the basic technology and capabilities of PCM.

dB or not dB? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Decibels But Were Afraid to Ask

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 11:17:00 EST

True or false: 30 dBm + 30 dBm = 60 dBm? Why does 1% work out to be -40 dB one time but then 0.1 dB or 0.05 dB the next time? These questions sometimes leave even experienced engineers scratching their heads. What is a decibel and how should we use it in our calculations?

Dual ADC Driver with Tightly Matched Gain and Phase Raises Quadrature Demodulation Performance

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 14:50:00 EST

In applications involving multiple ADCs, a compact, tightly matched dual differential amplifier such as the LTC6420-20 can further simplify the design by reducing the uncertainty of channel-to-channel variations.

10 Tips for Creating an Exceptional Electronics White Paper

Fri, 23 May 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Well written, thoughtful electronics white papers are not uncommon. However, a few exceptional papers are more successful at finding and retaining a large and highly-qualified electronics engineering audience than the majority of good papers. This white paper offers 10 essential tips based upon my experiences with TechOnline's Technical Paper Library to authors and electronics marketing professionals for transforming your good paper into an exceptional one.

DO-254 Compliance: Reducing Project Cost by Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 17:26:00 EDT

Many folks stumble on very similar issues when they begin their journey towards creating and executing DO-254 compliant design projects. The good news is that each of these issues has solutions. Understanding these common pitfalls, and proactively addressing them before they cost a project time, resource and certification risk, is essential. Some of these common pitfalls, along with advice for addressing them, are described in this paper.

Variability Aware Modeling and Characterization in Standard Cell in 45 nm CMOS with Stress Enhancement Technique

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 15:23:00 EST

Gate density is ultimately increased to 2100 kGates/mm2 by pushing the critical design rules without increasing the circuit margin in 45 nm technology. Layout dependencies for stress enhanced MOSFET including contact positioning, 2nd neighboring poly effect, and bent diffusion are accurately modeled for the first time.

Gain a Competitive Advantage Through Design for Environmental Compliance

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:22:00 EDT

In recent years, companies, particularly those in the automotive and electronics markets, have been faced with an onslaught of new regulatory pressures.

Fixed-Point Arithmetic: An Introduction

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:08:00 EDT

This paper presents definitions and develops basic rules and guidelines for the manipulation of unsigned fixed-point binary numbers.

Confronting Chip Assembly Challenges: Avoid Late-Stage Bottlenecks in Physical Design

Thu, 2 Aug 2007 15:52:00 EDT

In this paper, we review chip assembly challenges and discuss the requirements of an implementation system that comprehensively addresses all the issues.

Voltage Reference Selection Basics

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 16:13:00 EDT

Voltage references are a key building block in data conversion systems, and understanding their specifications and how they contribute to error is necessary for selecting the right reference. This paper explains common reference specifications, ranks their importance, and shows how designers can use them in simple calculations to narrow their search.