A programmable, four quadrant ac/dc grid simulator power source that doubles as a four-quadrant power amplifier won its creator, ITECH Electronic in Taiwan, a 2021 Leap Award. The Leap Award competition addresses products across 12 categories. More than 100 entrants were received for the annual event which celebrates the most innovative and forward-thinking products serving […]
New Articles
New 4U-tall horizontal-mount chassis platform supports 3U and 6U OpenVPX boards
A new 4U 19-in rackmount chassis with a horizontal loading configuration has a side-to-side airflow approach and supports 3U, 6U, or a mix of 3U and 6U OpenVPX boards. The 4U-tall chassis platform supports up to 6x SOSA-aligned or OpenVPX 6U boards along with 6x boards in the 3U form factor. Alternatively, the form factor […]
Generating sine waves from triangle waves
Analog Dialogue is a free technical magazine from chip makers Analog Devices Inc. Published monthly since 1967 and now done online, Analog Dialogue covers circuits, systems, and software for signal processing that relate to ADI chips. A feature in Analog Dialogue recently caught our eye because it covered some interesting territory relating to the generation […]
Phase noise analyzer/VCO tester checks frequency, sensitivity, RF power, current draw versus tuning voltage
Rohde & Schwarz designed the new R&S FSPN phase noise analyzer and VCO tester for production and design engineers who characterize sources such as synthesizers, VCOs, OCXOs, and DROs. Providing high sensitivity and measurement speed, the R&S FSPN is a candidate for demanding phase noise and VCO analysis in development and production. The R&S FSPN […]
Music synthesis and arbitrary waveform generators
A pure musical note from a tuning fork is a basic sine wave. The same note played on a trumpet will look like a saw-tooth wave when displayed on an oscilloscope. The same note from a flute will be a triangular wave. But the same note from a clarinet may appear to be closer to […]
Tester handles all-in-one LMR, PMR and LTE radio testing
The CX300 ComXpert is a comprehensive communications test and alignment solution in an easy-to-use, ruggedized form factor. The CX300 is the first LTE-ready radio test set equipped to test both radio and broadband network infrastructure, helping today’s radio technicians ensure complete communications coverage. As the global public safety radio market rapidly transitions from analog to […]
Here’s a rundown on free layout/PCB software
There are dozens of free PCB-layout and schematic packages available on the Web. Often they are stripped-down versions of more complex packages available for licensing. Often, the process of upgrading from freeware to more sophisticated versions is pretty easy. If your circuit needs are generally confined to relatively straightforward two-layer boards, here are a few […]
Catch that glitch: Finding race conditions
Among the problems circuit designers have to contend with in their fast and complex electronic environment are race conditions. The term used to be exclusively applied to electronic logic problems but has now been adopted by software engineers working on multithreaded programs. Briefly, software race conditions arise in multithreaded software when multiple threads attempt to […]
Don’t touch that! Things they don’t teach you in circuits lab
The domain of most electronics engineers these days is confined to voltage levels ranging from microvolts on up to a few hundred volts. But when electronic equipment fails or there’s a problem with facility wiring, these same engineers may, in a pinch, be called upon to do basic troubleshooting of power levels far beyond their […]
FPGA-based instruments: Inside the Moku benchtop test gear
The roots of the venerable Moku:Lab, Moku:Go and Moku:Pro test gear from Liquid Instruments can be traced back to a sophisticated interferometer set to orbit the earth. As part of his PhD work, Liquid Instruments CEO Daniel Shaddock documented the design of the control system for the LIGO mirror, which had to be stabilized at […]
