Shrinking component sizes have complicated the task of ensuring temperatures stay below their allowable maximum. Kory Schroeder • Stackpole Electronics Inc. Electronic components of all types continue to shrink in size. In response, resistor manufacturers are devising resistors with higher power ratings but which come in commonly used sizes. Of course, when more power gets […]
Resistors
Advanced current sensing for next-gen electronics
Contactless current sensing provides the fast response that state-of-the-art power circuits depend on. Michael DiGangi • ACEINNA The next generation of electronic products will be more powerful and flexible than ever. The advanced circuitry to drive them needs intelligent power management to realize the desired performance. Application spaces like robotics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) rely […]
Current shunt resistors handle 5 W in space-efficient 2818 package
Power management applications for frequency converters, inverters, and hybrid power modules demand high power with environmental and electrical stability. While high power shunt resistors for current sensing are becoming more readily available, there is normally a tradeoff between high power and stable performance to achieve the higher power rating. Stackpole’s HCSM utilizes a metal element and […]
Miniature low-ohm shunt resistors handle 10 W
ROHM Semiconductor announced the development of the GMR320 series of shunt resistors featuring a rated power of 10W, the largest in the high-power, low-ohmic GMR lineup designed for high-power applications in the automotive, industrial equipment, and home appliance sectors. Recent years have seen an increasing demand in the automotive and industrial fields for higher power applications that consume less power. […]
High-power current sense resistors meet automotive quality standards
Bourns, Inc. announced the addition of nine new models to its existing AEC-Q200 compliant Model CSM2F High Power Current Sense Resistor Series. Bourns designed the new series as efficient, reliable, cost-effective, and accurate measurement solutions for the battery management systems (BMS), industrial control, and other high current applications. Current sense resistors are growing in popularity due to […]
Measuring a sense-resistor’s voltage drop, Part 2: Isolation
Measuring the voltage drop across a current-sense resistor can be a trivial issue or a challenging one depending on the rail voltage and other factors. The problem with low-side sensing is that it “ungrounds” the load, and the alternative is high-side sensing. This part looks at the use of isolation to deal with CMV […]
What are switched capacitor filters, amplifiers and integrators?
Switched capacitors (SCs) are highly-versatile circuit elements that can be used to provide various functions, ranging from micro-scale implementations embedded in integrated circuits (ICs) or designed into wearables and other small devices, to a variety of power conversion applications, up to grid-scale systems. This FAQ series will explore the versatility of switched-capacitors. Following this initial […]
Measuring a sense-resistor’s voltage drop, Part 1: Sensing issues
Measuring the voltage drop across a current-sense resistor can be a trivial issue or a challenging one depending on the rail voltage and other factors. In previous articles, we looked at an apparently simple issue of sizing the resistor used for this common technique for current sensing (EE World Content References 1 and 2). This […]
A tradeoff case study: Sizing the current-sense resistor, Part 2
The conceptually simple idea to determine current by measuring voltage across a known resistor shows the subtle nature of design tradeoffs. Part 1 of this article looked at one important aspect of the choice of resistor value in current-sensing applications, but it was only the electrical impact. However, the thermal impact related to resistor I2R […]
A tradeoff case study: Sizing the current-sense resistor, Part 1
The conceptually simple idea to determine current by measuring voltage across a known resistor shows the subtle nature of design tradeoffs. There’s probably no phrase that misrepresents the realities of engineering design other than “hey, that should be no big deal.” Even simple-looking design decisions are often not so simple. The reality is that a […]