The solid-state relay may be the first choice, but the venerable electromagnetic relay offers attributes the SSR cannot provide and so may be the best solution. Everything is solid-state these days, right? Even that one holdover, the vacuum-tube magnetron at the heart of the home microwave oven, is seeing some early signs of competition from […]
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How to gauge LED flicker
A few years ago, back when ordinary LED bulbs still sold for north of $10 a piece, there was a great brouhaha about LED light flicker. Light flicker can certainly be dangerous. Sufficiently intense flicker at between 3 and 70 Hz can cause epileptic seizure in a small percentage of the population. And flicker that […]
Long-life batteries harness the passivation effect
A little known chemical reaction helps extend battery life. Sol Jacobs, Tadiran Batteries As remote wireless devices become increasingly essential to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), there is a growing need to understand the principles behind extended battery life. Many IIoT nodes require a battery-driven energy source. These off-grid low-power applications fall into two […]
On the drawing boards: Next-gen IoT power control electronics may sit on a PCB smaller than a U.S. quarter
Here’s the rub when it comes to modernizing the outlets, switches and circuit breakers that characterize ac electrical systems: Any innovations must interoperate with an installed base of equipment that may have been in place for decades. Manufacturers say issues surrounding compatibility with installed equipment have slowed the rate of introduction for technologies such as […]
Battery Management Systems: Effective ways to measure state-of-charge and state-of-health
By Andrey Solovev, Chief Technology Officer, Integra Sources One of the purposes of battery management systems is to monitor the state-of-charge and state-of-health of rechargeable batteries. This article will tell you about these two metrics and the methods used to measure them. Rechargeable batteries are used in many solutions, but industries use battery management systems […]
How an integrated PMIC can optimize your data concentrator design
By Shashank Sharma, Texas Instruments For years, countries have been reforming their advanced metering infrastructure with smart meters, which measure not only electrical energy consumption and transfer that data to utility companies, but also enable two-way communication between the consumer and utility companies. This data includes consumption behavior, system monitoring, tamper detection, and customer billing. […]
GaN in orbit and beyond
Outer space is harsh, but it’s relatively kind to gallium-nitride (GaN) power transistors compared with their Si (Si) counterparts. Si devices require special processing for protection against the total ionizing dose (TID) impact of exposure to radiation in space. GaN has material properties and construction advantages that make it less subject to damage caused by […]
Is Double Pulse Testing inadequate for GaN devices?
Enhancement mode (e-mode) GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) generally behave like n-channel power MOSFETs. Common curve tracers, parametric analyzers, and automatic discrete device parametric testers used for an n-channel power MOSFET can be applicable for the characterization of e-mode GaN transistors, but the implementation details differ for GaN. Typical e-mode GaN HEMTs have very […]
Power system delivery for 5G networks
Special features such as fold-back protection and good dynamic response come in handy for the dc-dc conversion stages powering 5G RANs. Andy Brown, Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. With its high speeds, low latency, reliability and potential for rapid scalability, 5G is set to change the way we use and share data and to move concepts […]
How trimming affects thick-film resistor performance
Ordinary thick-film resistors can display varying qualities depending on how the manufacturer elected to trim the device. It pays to know what to look out for. Kory Schroeder, Stackpole Electronics Inc. Surface-mount thick-film chip resistors are the predominant type of resistor in electronic circuits today. This technology is inexpensive; thick-film resistors are produced by screen-printing […]
