EDN Europe April 2006 Archive

FEATURES:

Photosensors brighten consumer and industrial products
Accurate detection of light levels finds limitless applications in automotive, consumer, and industrial equipment. A new generation of photosensors simplifies the designer's task and makes colour analysis available at minimal cost.
By David Marsh, Contributing Technical Editor

Scopes: more than meets the eye
Modern digital scopes now do much of the heavy lifting in measurement and analysis. But successful use of these advanced capabilities requires doing your homework.
By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor

Signal conditioning for high-impedance sensors
Maintaining accuracy in circuits that process signals from high-impedance sensors presents unique challenges. First, you need to identify when to use special design techniques. Then, you must choose devices that buffer and protect the sensors and circuits without destroying their accuracy.
By Glen Brisebois, Linear Technology Corp

Optimizing heterogeneous architectures
A systems approach to multicore-DSP architectures extracts the high performance that today's applications require.
By Bruce Lee, Texas Instruments

PULSE:

• Ultracapacitor family targets minimal series resistance and cost

• Platform captures, processes, displays broadband data

• A benchmark for microprocessor power

• $99 development kit supports 8051 microcontrollers

• Web-access code checker speeds JTAG test development

• AdvancedMC module boasts 2-GHz processor

• DAQ chips simplify sensor interfaces

• Embedded flash for FlexRay controllers

• Standard… but still configurable

• MEMS microphone has digital output

• Handset-technology advances dominate Barcelona confab

DESIGN IDEAS:

• Audio-test accessory isolates and matches loads

• One oscillator drives multiple solid-state relays

• Low-dropout linear regulators double as voltage-supervisor circuits

• External components provide true shutdown for boost converter

DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS

• EDN.comment: Nanometre chips challenge silicon's status quo, By Graham Prophet, Editor

• Reality Check: S-100: the first "industry-standard" bus

• Bonnie Baker: Choosing SAR versus high-speed delta-sigma ADCs