If you disassemble an electrolytic capacitor and a supercapacitor, you might have trouble distinguishing differences between the two unless you had a practiced eye. Physically, the two can resemble each other though their electrical performance differs drastically. First a few basics. Ordinary capacitors, of course, are characterized by metal plates separated by a dielectric. In […]

Engineers know they’ll get a poke if they touch household ac wires. But RF current typically is not felt as electric shock because the frequency is too high to depolarize nerve membranes. However, RF current can cause both internal organ damage and surface radiation burns, so care must be taken to avoid high exposure. It’s […]

Back in the early days of desktop personal computers, parallel interfaces were the norm rather than the exception. The parallel moniker refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data simultaneously, as opposed to serial communication where bits pass one-at-a-time typically over a single connection. The rationale for parallel […]