The need to sense and measure current at one or more points is a circuit is very common. In situations ranging from microamps going into or out of a battery, to DC current from a solar panel, to feedback for a power supply controller, to tens or hundreds of amps of AC power to a […]
Industry Experts
What is leakage current?
Leakage current flows unexpectedly in almost all circuits, even when the power is off. Current leakage is not limited to electronics, computers, or small signal circuits, and can be found in industrial equipment and three-phase wiring installations, too. Some current will always find a path to ground whether it’s through ground-conducting insulation that’s supposed to […]
Passive cooling options and considerations (Part 1)
Keeping components and systems cool enough and within their safe temperature zone is a concern for many, though not all, designers and projects. Excessive heat as measured by temperature can cause erratic behavior, inaccuracy and drift due to temperature coefficient-induced shifts, shortened component lifetime, and even outright failure. Q: What are the cooling options? The […]
Reverse polarity protection: how can you provide it?
The reverse connection of a circuit to its DC power source, whether it’s a battery or power supply, can damage and even destroy the electronics. For this reason, many connectors are “keyed” to ensure correct connection. But there are many connections which are directly hard-wired using wires inserted into screw terminals, or ring or spade […]
Basics of power-supply self-protection
AC/DC and DC/DC power supplies usually are relatively rugged in regular operation. Nonetheless, some protection features are built into most of these units to ensure that they do not “self-destruct” or damage associated circuitry – primarily their loads – in the event of a failure or out-of-spec operational mode. (note: in strict terms, a power […]
Power Status: battery monitors matter
For battery powered systems it can be useful to know something about the state of the battery in order to predict remaining battery life. With specific charge/discharge information, you could also manage battery consuming resources to maximize battery life. There are integrated circuits to help with either approach. For simple charge or discharge information, a […]
Top power electronics threads on EDAboard.com – May
(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 threads.) Common mode noise mitigation in offline power supplies – In offline power supplies, common mode emissions […]
The formidable forgotten FETs
The world is full of MOSFETs — they are the cornerstone of most ICs. However, the humble JFET still exists, although it is a bit of a niche market now and not always easy to find. Vishay, who took over the Siliconix brand many years ago, seem to have dropped JFETs now, although Siliconix was one […]
Synchronous buck regulators and overcurrent protection (OCP)
by Haifeng Fan, Intersil, a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Synchronous buck regulators are widely used in industrial and infrastructure applications to step down 12V rails to point-of-load inputs as low as 0.6V for microcontrollers, FPGAs, memory and peripheral I/Os. Overcurrent protection (OCP) is essential to protect these switching regulators from damage by excessive current. Cycle-by-cycle current […]
What is a charge pump and why is it useful? (Part 1)
It’s a very common challenge in circuits to need to convert an available DC source to a lower or higher voltage. For the high-to-low conversion, one option to use a low dropout regulator (LDO), but how to easily transform a lower voltage into a higher one? For AC voltages, the answer is well-known: use a […]