Isolation from the AC line is essential for user safety in many situations and can be implemented using a special isolation transformer as well as other means. “Isolation” is one of those terms which gets tossed around and is often cited as an almost universal, all-purpose cure for various ongoing or possible circuit and system […]
FAQ
Power system design considerations for wireless IoT nodes and wearables – Virtual Roundtable (part 2)
The second part of EEWorld’s two-part “virtual roundtable” discussion on power system design considerations for wireless IoT nodes and wearables focuses on the use of switching regulators and the associated technical challenges. Our panelists are: Florian Feckl (FF), Systems Engineer and Product Definer for Low Power Buck Converter, Texas Instruments, and Kyle Van Renterghem, (KVR) […]
Power system design considerations for wireless IoT nodes and wearables – Virtual Roundtable (part 1)
The first part of EEWorld’s two-part “virtual roundtable” discussion on power system design considerations for wireless IoT nodes and wearables focuses on the use of low dropout regulators (LDOs). Our panelists are Kyle Van Renterghem, (KVR) Marketing & Applications Manager, Low Input Voltage LDOs, Texas Instruments, and Julian Hagedorn (JH), Systems Engineer, Texas Instruments. JS: […]
Liquid cooling for high-performance thermal management
Liquid cooling comes in two forms, cold-plate based systems, and immersion cooling systems. Cold plate liquid cooling is found in various high-performance applications, including energy storage, transportation, electric vehicles, photonics, LEDs, military and industrial power supply cooling, even in some over-clocked desktop computers. The use of immersion cooling is more limited, and it can be […]
Forced air cooling keeps cool with fans and blowers
Natural convection cooling is often inadequate to meet the thermal management needs of electronic systems. In those cases, fans and blowers can move more air and keep the system within a safe operating temperature range. As well as being available in both ac and dc configurations, fans are generally categorized by the way the air […]
Convection cooling components
Convection cooling is used in various devices, from mobile phone handsets to various consumer, communications, and industrial systems where the thermal loading is not too demanding. Devices such as heatsinks, heat spreaders, and heat pipes are used to implement convection cooling. Convection cooling systems are often classified as either passive or active. Active cooling systems […]
Basic principles of thermal management
Thermal management is a critical element in all types of electronic equipment. There are three general aspects to thermal management; heat transfer, temperature measurements, and managing the coefficients of thermal expansion of the various materials and components used in an electronic assembly. At the most basic level, thermal management involves applying the science of heat […]
Understanding stop/start automobile-engine design, Part 6: Responses and work-arounds
Stop/start operation is both complicated and controversial. Despite the sophisticated algorithms it employs, no algorithm is perfect under all conditions. In addition, there are some “human factors” issues with respect to driver expectations and even nearby pedestrians, which stop/start brings. Q: What are some “issues” with stop/start? A: First, there’s the issue of added vehicle […]
Understanding stop/start automobile-engine design, Part 5: Additional considerations
Thus far, we have looked at mostly non-electronic and mechanical implications of stop/start, such as requirements on the battery technology, the crankshaft, and the starter motor itself. There is also an impact on the vehicle’s power electronics and battery management system (BMS). Q: How does stop/start begin to affect the “electronics”? A: It begins with […]
Understanding stop/start automobile-engine design, Part 4: Mechanical wear issues
It seems “obvious” that starting and stopping a car’s engine repeatedly adds to stresses on the mechanical components and therefore shortens the life of the power train. But does it? The answer is “yes and no.” This part explores some of the underlying issues. Q: How many stop/start cycles are we looking at? A: Numbers […]