| Dear Sir/Madam
Welcome
to the first newsletter in 2008. I wish you a happy and prosperous
New Year and also pleasure with this newsletter and its analogue
content. Enjoy!
Wolfgang
Patelay
Technical Editor, EPN
High
Side Current Sense Amplifier (Linear Technology)
Linear
Technology announces the LT6105, a precision current sense amplifier
with an input common mode range that extends from -0.3V below
V-, up to 44V above V-. The common mode range is independent
of the positive supply voltage, making it suitable for a wide
range of applications.
Click
here
Variable
Gain Amplifiers (Texas Instruments)
Texas
Instruments has introduced a family of integrated wideband variable
gain amplifiers. The VCA820, VCA821, VCA822 and VCA824 offer
good bandwidth, noise and slew rate with a flexible analogue
input voltage. The VCA821 and VCA824 offer a large bandwidth
of 420 MHz for a gain of 10 V/V which is over 300 percent larger
than comparable devices. They also provide a fast slew rate
of 2500 V/us, which is 40 percent faster than what is available
today. The VCA820 and VCA822, meanwhile, offer a competitive
150 MHz bandwidth and slew rate of 1700 V/us.
Click
here
Class
D Amplifier (Maxim)
Maxim
has introduced the MAX9768 highly efficient, 10W, mono, single-supply,
Class D speaker amplifier with versatile, analogue/digital volume
control. Class D architecture enables this device to operate
over a wide, 4.5V to 14V supply-voltage range. This wide voltage
range allows direct battery operation in portable applications
thus eliminating the need for a DC-DC converter between the
battery and speaker amplifier.
Click
here
Low-Power
Precision Comparator (National Semiconductor)
National
Semiconductor has introduced a new low-power precision comparator
with integrated 2.048V reference that provides adjustable hysteresis
for high accuracy signal detection in power supply and battery
monitors, sensor interface and threshold detectors. The LMP7300
is the new addition to the company's PowerWise energy-efficient
product family.
Click
here
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Extending
Run-Times in Mini HDD Battery-Powered Devices
A
"perfect storm" is on the short-term horizon for battery-powered
hand-held devices utilising a miniature hard-disk drive as their
primary storage medium. Three different market drivers are converging
to allow a significant breakthrough in battery run-time for
these types of hand-held portable devices. Examples of these
products include PMPs (portable media players), MP3 players,
digital still cameras, digital video recorders, smart phones
and GPS systems. More information about this topic gives the
article by Tony Armstrong from Linear Technology.
Click
here
Bridging
the Knowledge Gap for Intelligent Lighting
To
fully realise the potential of the burgeoning high-brightness-LED
market, new tools and techniques must be used, including semiconductor
technology. With many of today's lighting engineers needing
to come quickly up to speed on basic microcontroller usage,
it is necessary to find avenues to effectively create even basic
fixed-colour designs. This article by Gavin Hesse showcases
Cypress’ EZ-Color programmable solution using PSoC Express.
Click
here
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Gain-of-two
sample-and-hold amplifier uses no external resistors
When
you need to simultaneously sample a signal and amplify the signal
level, you can cascade a common gain-of-one sample-and-hold
amplifier and an amplifier with a voltage gain of one. With
some exceptions, such an amplifier has two external resistors.
This Design Idea by Marián Štofka, Slovak University of Technology,
Bratislava, Slovakia, shows an example of a sample- and-hold
amplifier with a voltage gain of two and no external resistors.
Click
here
Transimpedance
synchronous amplification nulls out background illumination
Light
sensors find use in a host of important applications. In this
Design Idea by Stefano Salvatori and Gennaro Conte, University
Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, the reference signal from the light chopper
as a square wave of frequency, fCHOP, modulates the gain of
an op-amp-based inverting amplifier. The amplifier input is
a voltage proportional to the photocurrent signal produced by
a photodiode, which is irradiated by a modulated light beam
at the same chopper frequency. In this case, because the gain
and input are at the same frequency content, a dc component,
which a lowpass filter can easily detect, is present at the
amplifier’s output.
Click
here
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Market Research |
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Image
Sensors 2007: CMOS Is Everywhere in Worldwide Market
The
image sensor market showed solid growth, in 2006, that was fuelled
primarily by the camera phone market. Fuelled by camera phones,
CMOS sensors dominated CCDs in units shipped in 2006. CMOS also
made inroads into digital still cameras and camcorders in 2006,
two markets that traditionally have been dominated by CCDs.
This report by In-Stat provides a complete review of the 2006
market for image sensors, as well as annual forecast numbers
through 2011.
Click
here
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Book of the Month |
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Analog
Electronics, by D. Crecraft and S. Gergely
This
book is a valuable source of info for a wide range of HNC/D
modules and provides an alternative to the core book. The content
has been carefully designed to meet the requirements of first
and second year students of electronic engineering, communications
engineering and telecommunications, following full honours degree
programs or two-year courses including HNC/HND. A
companion website includes interactive spreadsheets to download.
Click
here
Copyright 2008, Reed
Business Information.
EPN and EDN Europe are members of the Reed Electronics Group
Reed Business France - 2 rue Maurice Hartmann, 92133 Issy-les-Moulineaux,
France
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