Technical Features
January 2018
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Figure 1: Gate driver circuit diagram with a Bourns transformer
While gate driver-based converters deliver improved efficiency, speed and signal integrity, their high frequency switching features can produce elevated levels of conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI), posing challenges to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and overall system reliability. To solve this
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Date:
03/29/2026
Germany’s roughly 30,000 wind turbines currently produce a good 50,000 megawatts of electricity for households and companies. The expansion of wind energy both onshore and offshore is helping determine the pace and success of the shift in energy policy introduced at the beginning of the decade – a move away fr
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Date:
01/19/2018
When designing to meet the requirements of EN 60335, engineers have to adopt a different mind-set. Compared with the familiar IT and medical standards, not only are some design limits different but also the potential users and end products are much more varied. Unusually in safety evaluation, multiple faults ha
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Date:
01/14/2018
TDK-Lambda Certified Medical Power Supplies
Although essential performance is covered in IEC 60601-1 2nd edition, the 3rd edition defines it in greater detail as “the performance necessary to achieve freedom from unacceptable risk”. It is up to the manufacturer to determine if a loss of performance or functionality will result in an acceptable
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Date:
01/14/2018
Dissipating the heat generated by certain components is a key part of electronics design. Consequently engineers need to be sure that they put an effective thermal management system in place in order to ensure that operational reliability is maintained. There are a variety of different technologies that can be
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Date:
01/14/2018
CMF Series Dual Mode Chokes
Circuit designers must deal with many types of noise: internal, external, RF, line frequency and more. Noise can be a limiting factor in system performance and so must be addressed and minimized. The question is “at what cost and effort?” Is it better to sacrifice performance or cost? In either ca
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Date:
01/12/2018
Figure 1. This graph pair represents Capacitance vs. Time and ESR vs. Time for the SCMT22C505MRBA0 at rated voltage (5V) for 4,000 hours at 85°C.
Supercapacitors are increasing in popularity amongst board-level components. In turn, there is now greater demand for supercapacitor reliability testing data, as sub-ppm component failure rates are critical for minimizing and eliminating PCB rework.
The following case study addresses basic supercapacitor reliabili
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Date:
01/10/2018
Figure 1. Wrist-Worn Health and Fitness Monitor
With the proliferation of wearable health monitors among fitness enthusiasts, it may be worth posing the following question: Is the data being produced by these devices always accurate and reliable? In the same way that automobiles encounter real-world driving conditions vastly different from the laboratory environ
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Date:
01/10/2018
Figure 1. Simplified Charge Pump Block Diagram of a Voltage Inverter
A fundamental axiom for switching power supplies is that they must not generate a lot of noise. Accordingly, quiet, well-regulated power supplies are important for optimum performance in many circuit applications. In order to attain this level of performance it is critical to be able to mitigate any noise generated as
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Date:
01/09/2018
It is no surprise that electronic equipment can get hot. This is because electrical currents running through semiconductors and other components create thermal losses. Especially in IT equipment the losses in the form of heat dissipation can be quite significant. As much as 40 percent of the power used by data centers is for temperature control – mainly in the form of cooling the equipment to extend ha
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Date:
01/09/2018
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