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most recent messages 5/23/2013 3:39:15 PM analoging Thanks for the comments. SiC has a lot riding on the future of electric cars- no pun intended. It is the material of choice for power control systems in next-gen electric cars. However, the cars... blogs message boards chat 3D Stacking Offers New Path to Optimum Integrated Analog Performance Steve Taranovich, Senior Technical Editor, EDN, 5/23/2013 Comment now 4 comments Designers, who need to build high performance real-time sensing systems, are greatly challenged since every building block in the system needs to be built with a technology that allows that building block to achieve its best performance. 3D stacking is emerging as an option to allow the integration of those heterogeneous blocks. Most recent post, eafpres, 5/23/2013 2:58:00 PM Hi Steve--very interesting stuff. I'm a follower of the technology for senosors,... Did You Say 'Programmable Analog'? Bill Schweber, Engineer, Author, Editor, 5/23/2013 Comment now 3 comments Whenever I see a new product announcement saying an analog or mixed-signal component is "programmable," my first thought is simple: "in what way?" Often, it's not called out clearly or until the end of the press release. Most recent post, eafpres, 5/23/2013 2:43:05 PM Hi Bill--another direction of integration of analog that seems to just keep on going... Build or Buy? The Design Rules Remain the Same Vincent Biancomano, Contributing Editor, 5/22/2013 Comment now 1 Comment The last time I visited the "build or buy" issue, a lot of small commercial engineering outfits were looking to the big companies for in-house support for their various products for the burgeoning wireless market. Most recent post, Vishal Prajapati, 5/23/2013 7:09:09 AM This has been the debate for almost every one from SME to PSUs. Probably PSUs don't... An Instrument on a Chip? A Look Back Dennis Feucht, Electronics Engineer, 5/22/2013 Comment now 8 comments The story of analog integration in test instruments is long, storied, and rife with names renowned in the annals of analog design who innovated upon each others' design to realize the foundation of today's circuits. So what is the state of integration of the analog circuitry in test instruments? Measurement on a chip started long ago and continues ... Most recent post, Brad Albing, 5/23/2013 10:13:25 AM I recall that blog. That was a nifty piece of test equipment, and a good example... SiC Power Inversion Chips for PV & EVs Brian Coppa, Director, Coppa Consulting, 5/21/2013 Comment now 2 comments Uncertainty hangs over the market for power devices made with the wide-bandgap semiconductor SiC (silicon carbide), due to uncertainty as to when EVs (electric vehicles) will adopt them for various applications under the hood, according to a recent study by analyst firm Yole Développement. Most recent post, analoging , 5/23/2013 3:39:15 PM Thanks for the comments. SiC has a lot riding on the future of electric cars- no... Field Programmable Analog & Gallium Arsenide Scott Elder, Senior Analog IC Design Consultant, 5/21/2013 Comment now 4 comments "Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) is the silicon of the future. Is and always will be." That was the humorous perspective circulating among analog technologists in the late 1980s. In a similar vein, I can't count the number of times I've had people ask me when will the world see a field programmable analog array (FPAA) -- the analog counterpart to the digital ... Most recent post, Brad Albing, 5/23/2013 10:31:01 AM Hmm... 3-D printing an IC at your desk - that's actually not a bad idea. Probably... Operations per Joule Brian Bailey, Independent Consultant, 5/20/2013 Comment now 12 comments It has been estimated that the human brain performs 3.6x1015 synaptic operations per second and, from blood flow and oxygen consumption, consumes 12W. That means it manages 3x1014 operations per Joule, yet it is made up of slow and noisy components. Most recent post, ChrisCaudle, 5/23/2013 3:20:37 PM so maybe we should say, "For all intents and purposes, analog has infinite resolution." No... Using ICs in the Land Beyond Their App-Notes Derek Koonce, Owner, DDK Interactive Consulting Services, 5/20/2013 Comment now 7 comments Designing circuits is the fun part of engineering. And, as has been often noted here on Planet Analog, finding solutions to problems is what keeps an engineer employed. As an engineer, it is necessary to work with the parts available to meet design criteria. This sometimes necessitates using a part for a purpose for which it was not intended. Most recent post, Vishal Prajapati, 5/23/2013 7:29:42 AM The basic circuit is exactly a Joule Thief. I have worked on this device with same... Thermocouple Nodules, Cold Junctions & Integration Opportunities Dennis Feucht, Electronics Engineer, 5/17/2013 Comment now 13 comments When measurement instruments reach their specified performance limits, one comes to a gray zone separating reality from fantasy. Thanks to sensors, this zone is widening. Most recent post, Brad Albing, 5/23/2013 10:41:03 AM Yep - I knew that - but you're right - lots of folks get that one wrong. That'd... When Are You Done With Verification? Brian Bailey, Independent Consultant, 5/17/2013 Comment now 6 comments In the everyday world that we live in, there is a common saying that says, "Measure twice, cut once". Clearly this is trying to stress the importance of checking things before you take action and that if you are sloppy with the measurement, then it can lead to expensive mistakes. Most recent post, analoging , 5/21/2013 7:10:44 PM The point was focused on the increasing trend of outsourcing of fab production for... When the Going Gets Tough... Brian Bailey, Independent Consultant, 5/16/2013 Comment now 5 comments Moore's Law has been driving digital integration for a few decades, and it provides a circular reinforcement. Being able to create smaller devices means that more can be placed on a die. This provides added functionality, decreases costs per device, and makes demand for the end product larger. This spurs another round of integration and geometry reduction. Most recent post, Dirceu Rodrigues Jr, 5/21/2013 5:14:16 PM Reduce resistances in the signal path, in order to minimize the Johnson... Next 5 blogs+ All blogs All blogs most commented 13 Thermocouple Nodules, Cold Junctions & Integration Opportunities Dennis Feucht, Electronics Engineer, 5/17/2013 12 Operations per Joule Brian Bailey, Independent Consultant, 5/20/2013 8 An Instrument on a Chip? A Look Back Dennis Feucht, Electronics Engineer, 5/22/2013 7 Using ICs in the Land Beyond Their App-Notes Derek Koonce, Owner, DDK Interactive Consulting Services, 5/20/2013 6 When Are You Done With Verification? Brian Bailey, Independent Consultant, 5/17/2013 blog roll message boards chat 5/23/2013 3:39:15 PM Re: SiC Power Inversion Chips for PV & EVs: Thanks for the comments. SiC has a lot riding on the future of electric cars- no pun intended. It is the material of choice for power control systems in next-gen electric cars. However, the cars themselves are already too expensive for the... analoging on SiC Power Inversion Chips for PV & EVs 5/23/2013 3:20:37 PM Re: Analog precision: so maybe we should say, "For all intents and purposes, analog has infinite resolution." No way, that statement is not in any way accurate unless you are working on a system with extremely loose specs. Look at any high quality converter... ChrisCaudle on Operations per Joule 5/23/2013 2:58:00 PM Roadmap?: Hi Steve--very interesting stuff. I'm a follower of the technology for senosors, in part because I'm watching the evolution of the Internet of Things which as I've noted elsewhere depends at the lowest level on deployment of billions... eafpres on 3D Stacking Offers New Path to Optimum Integrated Analog Performance 5/23/2013 2:53:19 PM Re: Flip chip definition: FYI, flip chip assembly has been widely used in RFID tags to attach the tiny chip with the memory and control to respond when pinged. The main driver there is ultra-low cost--you flip chip attach the chip right to the "antenna" which... eafpres on 3D Stacking Offers New Path to Optimum Integrated Analog Performance 5/23/2013 2:43:05 PM Integrated processors with ADC etc: Hi Bill--another direction of integration of analog that seems to just keep on going is embedded processors with ADC for sensing and related applications. A great example is TI MSP430FR5724. This part has all kinds of digital features... eafpres on Did You Say 'Programmable Analog'? 5/23/2013 2:37:01 PM Re: Configrable analog arrays: I think that most highly integrated, functionally targeted analog ICs are born out of a vertical market need and sometimes even more specific than that such as in the medical market with an ultrasound system. Marketing engineers get feedback... SteveTaranovich on Did You Say 'Programmable Analog'? 5/23/2013 12:23:51 PM Flip chip definition: A flip chip is a chip packaging technique in which the active area of the chip is "flipped over" facing downward. Instead of facing up and bonded to the package leads with wires from the outside edges of the chip, any surface area of the flip... SteveTaranovich on 3D Stacking Offers New Path to Optimum Integrated Analog Performance 5/23/2013 12:09:35 PM Re: Duty-cycle: Brad, is not about the instantaneous current, but the reduction of average current. I explain: In the past the idea was to reduce power consumption running the processor in slower possible clock in order to... Dirceu Rodrigues Jr on (Dis)Integrating Power Consumption, Counterintuitively 5/23/2013 10:41:03 AM Re: TCs are key: Yep - I knew that - but you're right - lots of folks get that one wrong. That'd be a good question to give on a job interview. Brad Albing on Thermocouple Nodules, Cold Junctions & Integration Opportunities 5/23/2013 10:38:10 AM Re: Thermodynamics: DK - that's related to Heisenberg, isn't it? Or maybe it's the observer effect. You can't measure something without changing what you thought you just measured. Brad Albing on Thermocouple Nodules, Cold Junctions & Integration Opportunities 5/23/2013 10:31:01 AM 3-D printing...: Hmm... 3-D printing an IC at your desk - that's actually not a bad idea. Probably not practical today, but maybe soon - and then you actually could make exactly the analog IC you need, even if you only need small quantities. Brad Albing on Field Programmable Analog & Gallium Arsenide 5/23/2013 10:27:28 AM Flip chip?: I've seen the term "flip chip" before, tho' have not had a good understanding of it. Can you explain what exactly is a flip chip? Brad Albing on 3D Stacking Offers New Path to Optimum Integrated Analog Performance Next 5 messages+ All messages All messages blog roll message boards chat 4/11/2013 4:14:10 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: So I found these awesome Current Sensors but I don't know how effective they are. Help! here's the link <a href="http://www.magnelab.com/products/Current-Voltage-Sensors/three-phase-ropect%C2%AE-ac-current-sensor-rogowski-coil-rcs-1800">rogowski... SGreenovich Newbie 1/16/2013 2:20:07 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Good closing comment Steve. Thanks Steve and Bruce for joining the chat. Brad Albing Blogger 1/16/2013 2:16:59 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Gotta run guys---I really would love to do this again! I'm off to a conference call to pick the brain of another expert for an upcoming article---Once we think we know everything and cannot learn anything new----we are lost! SteveTaranovich Blogger 1/16/2013 2:13:49 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Farhood Moraveji, technical director at TI commented to me, "Kludge boxes were a necessity in that test equipment did not exist that could measure the performance of the IC. These boxes often used some clever measurement tricks, which would... SteveTaranovich Blogger 1/16/2013 2:09:46 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Erroll Dietz said this about early IC designers, "Using design rules that they made up as they went along, these designers worked from transistor-kit parts, used copper-clad breadboards with sockets as design tools, and employed discrete resistors... SteveTaranovich Blogger 1/16/2013 2:07:26 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Right---"Figuring things out" shows good engineering thinking---I like that approach from that blog SteveTaranovich Blogger 1/16/2013 2:03:41 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: You might be interested in this blog, back a few months... http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/thesignal/archive/2012/09/24/interview-questions-memorable-times-on-both-sides.aspx Bruce Trump Newbie 1/16/2013 2:03:11 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Experience and practice under the tutelage of a good mentor is critical SteveTaranovich Blogger 1/16/2013 2:02:33 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: It's difficult to teach an engineer to have an intuitive understanding. Brad Albing Blogger 1/16/2013 2:01:34 PM Join us for a chat: Imparting knowledge sometimes lost in the past to our fellow engineers: Synthesis ability comes from real experience and practice that they don't get at undergrad level. The genesis, I believe, is an intuitive understanding of how circuits work. Bruce Trump Newbie Next 5 chats+		Hello. We were unable to find the address you requested. 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