1-2 page “quicky” articles
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biMOS Modified Wilson Current Source
Back in the very early days of ICs … say the 1960s, one of the early major analog designers was Bob Widlar. This is not the place for his story … but I will say he was eccentric enough that he probably wouldn’t survive in today’s electronics industry. But he does have his own Wikipedia…
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Coax
Coax Definitions Capacitance In somewhat formal terms, the capacitance of a coax structure is found by assuming a total charge Q on the center conductor and integrating over the resulting electric field to find the voltage between the conductors. The capacitance is the ratio of the charge to the potential. Ouch. It becomes easier by…
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Basic Sensitivity
Goal: Determine the effect on a function X(y) due to a change in parameter y. This is known as the sensitivity of X to y. This is expressed: Consider a form of usage in Mathematica. Let X be “func”; let y be “m”. The expression equivalency is: To implement in Mathematica:…
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Small-Signal Analysis
Once concept I find ignored quite a bit – including myself among the guilty – are the assumptions for “small-signal” analysis. As taught in introductory classes, small-signal analysis occurs over an infinitesimal increment about some fixed operation point (which used to be known as the “Q” point – for “quiescent”. Is it still? I haven’t…
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Some Of Dave’s Rules Of Grounding
A controversial topic; a complex topic; a topic many would like to avoid – anyway, it’s just ground. This topic can take a few hours to discuss; it’s an art form constrained by science – there’s a lot of “feel” that goes into a successful grounding design. And it *is* a design process that most…