Now open to the public, Wurth Electronics Midcom is proud to announce the “Off The Clock Design Challenge” the premiere design challenge built for those who like to tinker. Participants will be designing a wireless charging end product using the new 15W wireless charging kit developed with ROHM Semiconductor. Contenders chosen to design during the […]
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Current Circuit: MOSFET bridge rectifier with low forward drop
by “Crutschow“, forum member on Electro-Tech-Online.com The lowest input to output voltage drop you can get with a standard bridge rectifier is nearly a volt through the two conducting diodes for each half cycle, even with Schottky diodes in the bridge. That can generate a dissipation of about a watt per amp of output current in […]
What are amplifier classes and their power efficiencies?
Amplifiers which must produce significant output power face challenges of performance and efficiency. The industry has some long-established designations for classes of amplifiers as well as some relatively new classes. First a look at the older but still widely used classes commonly known as A, B, AB, C, and D. The Class A amplifier provides […]
Power of power integrity analysis in high-speed digital designs
by Anil Pandey, Principal R & D Engineer, Keysight Technologies, and EDAboard.com forum member The Emergence of Power Integrity Analysis As the speed of the data signal increases, many reasons including power supply noise lead to the degradation of the high-speed signals. In low power high-speed digital interfaces, it is crucial to characterize the whole system power […]
Ode to reliable USB connectors
Because our work depends so much on the technologies we utilize, one of our year-end reviews covers a post-mortem summary of all failures related to our equipment use. The summary includes system failures, which are thankfully rare, and also encompasses use-model failures such as our discovery that the RF data-link receivers we use on location […]
Top power electronics threads on EDAboard.com – December
(editor’s note: Intrigued by these power electronics problems? Have a question or another solution? Then click the “Read more” link and follow the conversation on EDAboard.com or log in to EDAboard and participate in the power electronics forum thread.) Designing adjustable voltage SMPS – I am planning to make an adjustable voltage SMPS. How do I […]
The 10 most popular posts on Power Electronic Tips for 2016
We went into our article archives to uncover the most widely read posts on powerelectronictips.com over the past 12 months. Here for your reading (or re-reading?) pleasure are the top 10 stories: Teardown: What’s inside a Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush? How and when MOSFETS blow up Gallery: Scenes from Texas Instruments’ power supply design seminar […]
Less famous attributes of Schottky diodes
Schottky diodes are useful in some power-converter topologies, especially for shunting the body diode in a half-bridge’s low-side MOSFET. In this position, the Schottky diode prevents the body diode from turning on, particularly when driving inductive loads common in power converters, because it’s forward voltage drop is smaller than that of the body diode’s PN […]
When should I use an LDO versus a switching regulator?
Both switchers and LDOs have their place in power distribution, as each has special attributes. With few exceptions, every electronic circuit needs at least one well-regulated, accurate, stable dc power rail at 12, 5, 3.3 V, or even at 1 V, and many systems need five, ten or more such rails. This power must come […]
What is the MOSFET body diode?
Unlike virtually every other active device, the power MOSFET is unusual in that its schematic symbol includes a parasitic device – the body diode. The body diode is intrinsic to the device’s structure. It remains despite a number of fundamental changes in power MOSFET structure and device designs including the two most common types today […]