Back in olden days, parallel buses were used to link electronic building blocks. Today serial buses have largely replaced them. There are numerous components for many applications that have standard serial interfaces, and this trend makes serial technology a good choice for design engineers. Because there are fewer signal lines, serial bus electronics take up […]
FAQ
Basics of induction
Building on the work of others, particularly Humphry Davy, Hans Christian Ørsted and Alessandro Volta, English researcher Michael Faraday formulated his Law of Electromagnetic Induction. This most basic of all laws governing electromagnetism quantifies the interaction of a magnetic field and an electric circuit, producing electromotive force (EMF) or in the language of technicians and […]
Basics of interferometers
Interferometers figure prominently in the history of experimental physics. They were at the heart of the Michelson-Morley Experiment of 1887 that attempted unsuccessfully to detect the existence of an ether wind, a hypothetical medium for light transmission. (The null result was not because of any inadequacy in the instrumentation or deficiency in the design of […]
Inverse square law and radar: what is the difference?
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation — as well as a number of other relations in such diverse fields as electric, magnetic, light, sound and radiation propagation — conforms to the inverse square law. This law states that intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source. Newton’s law provides that any […]
Network analyzer vs. spectrum analyzer: What is the difference?
By Lisa Clark Before we differentiate a spectrum analyzer and a network analyzer, it is important to understand what these two instruments are, and what function they perform. Thus, we give a basic overview of the two devices and their basic mechanism: Spectrum Analyzer The spectrum analyzer is an electronic device that is used for […]
Joseph Henry and mutual inductance
Joseph Henry (1797-1878) discovered the phenomenon of mutual inductance independently and more or less simultaneously with Michael Faraday. Because Faraday published his results a little earlier, he received credit for the discovery. But due to the large volume and quality of his published research, Henry gained stature early in life. He was six years younger […]
Basics of quartz crystal oscillators
By David Herres Some materials acquire an electrical charge when they are compressed or otherwise dimensionally stressed. They are said to exhibit the piezoelectric effect. If the property is to be manifest on any but an atomic level, the material must be a crystal, with the atoms organized in a lattice. The piezoelectric effect was […]
Basics of oscillators
A previous article discussed resonant circuits. Now we’ll go on to look at that fundamental workhorse of the modern electronic world, the oscillator. Without it, radio and TV transmission and reception as we know them would not be possible. There are countless other applications, from the microwave oven with its high-frequency force field, to the […]
ICs and timers
Moore’s law, actually more an observation than an edict, states that the number of transistors that can sit on a single semiconductor chip may be expected to double every two years. (Another version sets the time frame as 18 months.) The assertion is flawed because it suggests that before long the device population on a single chip […]
Basics of CMOS
By David Herres Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is a highly successful strategy for combining complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFETs to create logic functions. A CMOS transistor pair is typically a building block for integrated circuits. Among its many applications are image sensors in digital cameras, data converters and transceivers. In a […]
