Test may provide salvation for a technology on the cusp By Dan Strassberg, Senior Technical Editor
Bluetooth may not be overreaching, but it is forcing developers to combine digital logic, software, and 2.4-GHz RF in low-cost, high-volume products that must interoperate. To determine whether such products meet their objectives, you must test, test, test.
Design Features
Video quality: A hands-on view By Brian Dipert, Technical Editor
Deinterlacers all may look the same on paper, but engineering intuition suggests that they probably do not produce identical results with real-life video material. EDN takes a look at the contenders and the pretenders.
Isolated power conversion: making the case for secondary-side
control Bob Mammano, Texas Instruments Inc
Two designs with the PWM control on the secondary side highlight the benefits of secondary-side control and point the way toward more optimum architectures for future converter designs.
Interfacing switches and relays to the real world in real
time Phill Leyva, Maxim Integrated Products
Designing the external interface to an industrial or automotive application can be challenging for an uninitiated systems engineer. The bouncing of switch and relay contacts can produce arcs that threaten system reliability. ESD can also threaten reliability and uptime. Fortunately, there are ways to ease the task of designing an interface between the inputs of a microcontroller and a hostile industrial or automotive environment.
A crash course in color conversion By Brian Dipert, Technical Editor
Perceived television-image quality depends on source-material characteristics, on how that material gets transported to the reception system, and on the capabilities of the circuits in that reception system.
Tech Trends
HEADROOM: Luxury or competitive edge? Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor
Resource headroom allows you to extend your product platform, such as with software upgrades and plug-in modules. Providing the right amount of headroom in a design requires thoughtful engineering.
