Adding a GNSS Module to Your SBC with Upverter Adding GPS functionality to an embedded system is easier than you think Embedded systems for edge computing, autonomous systems, and other highly mobile systems need embedded navigation capabilities, but adding a GPS module to your next embedded system can be difficult. You’ll need to consider precise layout for GPS receivers in order to prevent signal degradation. There’s also the issue of compatibility with other global navigation satellite Read Article Military-Grade Single Board Computer Design for UAVs A General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, a hunter-killer surveillance UAV Unmanned aerial vehicles also known as UAVs, and colloquially known as drones, are aircraft designed to be piloted without a human on board. Drones are finding realistic uses outside the military, including applications in surveillance, agriculture, search and rescue, scientific studies, shipping, and many other areas. As tactical demands increase, so do the processing, memory, and Read Article Building A Faraday Cage To Contain EMI, Part 2 Part 1 of this article addressed the various ways in which EMI impacts products, and covered how to build a Faraday cage to contain it . This part of the article will focus on getting power into a product without letting EMI out; building a Faraday cage for rack-mounted products, determining whether or not logic ground should be connected to a Faraday cage while also providing some additional ways to build one. How to Get Power into a Product Read Article Building a Faraday Cage To Contain EMI, Part 1 EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) is a phenomenon that can plague a design if it is not properly and carefully addressed. One of the most often used but not necessarily thoroughly understood ways to contain EMI is through the use of a Faraday cage. This two-part article will provide an overview of EMI, how it can interfere with other products, and how to address EMI through the successful design and implementation of Faraday cages. Included in Read Article DC Analysis of Linear and Nonlinear Circuits in Schematic Design These circuits can always use DC analysis If you’re working with a new design that involves some custom circuitry, it always helps to understand how the circuit behaves in DC. There is some merit to this, particularly if you are designing a custom power conditioning system, amplifier, equalizer, or other circuit. These circuits and many more require a range of analyses to evaluate their functionality, but the most fundamental of these is a DC Read Article Why is There a Transmission Line Critical Length? There is a little secret that most literature on PCB design will not tell you. Read & find out what you need to know about determining the transmission line critical length in your PCB interconnects. Read Article Three Common PCB Design Mistakes You Can Spot in Your Gerbers Spotting some common PCB design mistakes will help get your board into production faster I’ll admit that I was not an excellent student until I hit graduate school. At that point, I started putting more energy into my homework than most other areas of my life. Sure, my social life became non-existent, but I soon became an exemplary student and I never looked back. Just like you need to do your homework while in school, you should do your homework Read Article Pulsed Laser Diode Driver Circuit Layout for Lidar As part of the sensor suite for autonomous vehicles, lidar range maps play an important role in object identification in the surrounding environment, alongside car radar and other sensors or imaging systems. Building a functional driver circuit with small form factor and sleek packaging is critical for enabling lidar imaging/rangefinding around a self-driving vehicle. These same circuits can be adapted to other lidar applications, such as Read Article PDN Impedance Analysis and Modeling: From Schematic to Layout Do you know the factors that determine the impedance of your PDN? Here’s what you need to know about PDN impedance analysis and modeling. Read Article Agile Development and Testing: The Role of Simulations Simulations can help you avoid repeated prototyping and testing Design, build, test; whether you are a hardware designer or a software engineer, you’ll go through multiple iterations when developing complex systems. The build and test portions are the moment of truth—when you find out whether your hard work will pay off. An important part of design, build, and test iterations concerns narrowly defining test cases and functionality requirements Read Article Length Matching for High-speed Signals: Trombone, Accordion, and Sawtooth Tuning Once upon a time, length matching guidelines for high-speed signals required a designer with enough skill to remain productive when manually applying different trace-length turning schemes. With today's advanced interactive routing features in modern PCB design tools, designers no longer need to manually draw out length tuning structures in a PCB layout. The remaining choice for a designer is deciding which length-matching scheme to use: trombone Read Article Never Cross a Ground Plane Gap in High Speed PCB Design I often browse electronics and PCB forums, and I see the same question asked over and over: Why shouldn’t I route a trace over a split in my ground plane? This question gets asked by everyone from makers to professional designers who are just dipping their toes into high speed PCB design. For the professional signal integrity engineer, the answer should be obvious. Whether you’re a long-time PCB layout engineer or a casual designer, it helps to Read Article Tools for Transient Signal Analysis in Circuit Design You can perform transient signal analysis with any of these circuits with the right simulator. I still remember my first differential equations class. One of the first topics that was discussed was damped oscillator circuits and transient signal response, which arises in many different physical systems. A transient response in an interconnect and on power rails in your PCB is a source of bit errors, timing jitter, and other signal integrity Read Article Modular Layout and Design vs. Hardware Cloning Modular layout for Lapka’s Project Ara From enterprise software to signal processing, modular design is now the norm for many advanced product design and analysis tasks. Modular hardware design leverages several independent modules to create a unique, customizable system. In the hardware ecosystem, a modular design for an embedded board involves laying out modules with their own well-defined connections and functions. This typically starts with a Read Article Beyond the Drawing Board: A Lesson Learned in Flex Design Several recent blogs have been discussing “war stories” about flex and rigid-flex and the lessons learned when problem-solving and ultimately resolving the issue. We all have them. Flex is part art, part science, and even with the best of intentions and great attention to detail, there are occasionally “surprises” in performance. Most often they seem to defy logic until we stumble on the solution, and then of course everything is crystal clear in Read Article The Modular Single Board Computer Design Process Modular design is a design process that has been gaining momentum over the last decade, especially in the world of embedded computing. A good example is in single board computers, sensor boards for data streaming , and some evaluation boards. This design approach breaks down a generic system into several independent parts (modules) that can be linked together to increase the functionality of a device. They are independent in the sense that a Read Article A First Look at Altium Designer 20 November marks the launch of Altium Designer 20, and we thought you’d be like to hear from a couple of Altium veteran “insiders” about what you can expect to see in this latest release. Lawrence Romine, VP of Corporate Marketing and Ben Jordan, Technical Marketing Director, Corporate (both engineers) share what their favorite new features are and which ones they think will have the most impact on your day-to-day designs. Judy Warner: Lawrence Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page86 Current page87 Page88 Page89 Page90 Page91 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More