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Many cultures view time as linear or as something that moves along a straight line. The flow of time moves from past to present to future. Other cultures, however, have a different perspective about time. Those see time moving in cycles. History repeats itself and all human events occur in cycles. Linear devices in electronics have nothing to do with how we perceive time, but they do matter for how your circuits perform and how they should...

In June 1831, Sir James Clark Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula in Northern Canada. While the term “discovery” seems to indicate that the North Magnetic Pole is static, the North and South Magnetic Poles, in fact, move continuously. The Earth’s magnetic field changes over time and as those changes occur, the positions of the poles also shift. Given the rate of movement at 55 km per year, we may have another...

I recently took a deep dive into the various types of topologies surrounding switching power supplies. This article examined the benefits and downfalls of some of the most common topologies and aimed to assist you in the process of choosing how to power your design. The SEPIC topology is a very common switching mode power supply that can operate as both a Buck and a Boost converter. In other words, the SEPIC can act as a step-down (Buck...

Back when I lived in Portland, I used to commute downtown, typically taking the train to and from work. I was thankful to live in a city with a meticulously timed train system. There must be a valid reason to route train lines as differential pairs because I could always count on the trains being on time. Routing differential pairs on a PCB also requires specific rules and meticulous timing that can only be achieved using the best PCB design...

Personal computing devices have significantly changed how bills are paid. And it’s getting better as utilities, banks, and medical enterprises get onboard with unified, intuitive user interfaces. Not long ago, moving from writing and mailing checks to using online banking for paying bills was excruciating. All the environments and web pages were slightly different. Even the simple process of paying a bill was inconsistent and there was no...

Your PCB layers are the key to success in your design, but the placement of layers and assignments of layer type can make the difference between success and failure. It's not just about determining where to route things; how you arrange layers in the stack will determine whether noise issues compromise your design. Layer arrangements can make the difference between proper functionality or failure, as well as whether a design can pass EMC testing...

 I sometimes see questions from young designers about how to design a ground plane into a PCB. A ground plane, or even grounded copper pour, is probably the simplest structure you will ever design in a PCB. What matters is what you can do around the ground plane in terms of placement, routing, and fabrication. Another aspect that often comes up is whether it is appropriate to create two different ground regions in the same PCB and thus create an...

Even as a six-year-old, my son is great at organizing his toys and personal belongings. At that age, I used to chuck all my possessions into a huge storage box. My son, on the other hand, has a knack for orderliness that borders on obsessive. Although his meticulous attention to detail can be mildly frustrating at times, it means that I can always trust him to keep his play area organized. In PCB design, you need to exhibit the same level of...

Ten years ago, who would have thought one of the world’s largest medical equipment manufacturers, General Electric, would look to exit the industry and sell-off its medical equipment business? It is also a fact of life that changes like these tend to drive companies to look for profit opportunities in other industries. In the 21st century, with a rapidly aging global population, you have the likes of aerospace giants, such as Lockheed-Martin...