An interview with James Hitchcock, a general manager of Keithley Instruments a Tektronix Company, shed light upon the recent acquisition of Elektro-Automatik (EA), a supplier of high-power electronic test solutions.  EA’s principal application space lies in energy storage, mobility, hydrogen, and renewable energy applications where their bidirectional programmable DC power supplies can double up as both the power supply and electronic load with their unique regenerative feature and bidirectionality. Many tests involve the necessity to dump large amounts of power in the form of heat throu ..read more

Uncontrolled vibration can cause semiconductor damage and decreased performance. Many sources of vibration challenge semiconductor manufacturers, including people’s footsteps, running machines, wind blowing in the building and passing vehicles. These sources can pose a significant challenge for design and manufacturing engineers. Working in environments with poorly controlled vibrations can mean these professionals waste time and raw materials while designing and manufacturing new components or improving existing ones. What sources of vibration control should engineers consider? Facilities f ..read more

Keysight announced additional testing capabilities for its Inspector security platform to assess the robustness of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Keysight Inspector, part of the recent Riscure Security Solutions acquisition, enables device and chip vendors to identify and fix hardware vulnerabilities during the design cycle. The development of PQC encryption algorithms capable of withstanding quantum computer attack is crucial for protecting sensitive electronic information. However, new technologies assumed to be resilient against post-quantum threats may be vulnerable to existing hardwar ..read more

HMI’s HL8518 is a single-channel high-side power switch for automotive low-watt lamps, high-side relays and valves, and other general loads. The device integrates a power FET and charge pump, providing a typical on-resistance of 80 mΩ. The HL8518 operates from 3.5 V to 40 V and provides 3-V/5-V compatible logic inputs. Current limiting is programmable via an external resistor. AEC-Q100 Grade 1 qualified, the switch operates over a temperature range of -40°C to +125°C and has a low standby current of <0.5 µA. Protection functions of the HL8518 include overvoltage, short-circuit, undervolta ..read more

Powered by an Arm Cortex-M33 core, Microchip’s PIC32CK 32-bit MCUs leverage both a hardware security module (HSM) and Arm’s TrustZone security architecture. This level of embedded security enables designers to meet upcoming cybersecurity compliance requirements set to take effect in 2024 for most IoT-connected devices. The HSM subsystem of these mid-range MCUs integrates a dedicated CPU, memory, secure DMA controllers, cryptographic accelerators, and firewalled communications with the host. It provides symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic operations, true random number generation, key mana ..read more

Operating from a supply voltage down to 2.3 V, the PI5USB212 signal conditioner IC from Diodes automatically detects a USB 2.0 high-speed connection. The part, which is intended for use in PCs, docking stations, cable extenders, and monitors, preserves signal integrity when driving long PCB traces or cables extending up to 5 meters. The PI5USB212 symmetrically boosts the USB D+ and D- channels to maintain common-mode stability. It also applies pre-emphasis to compensate for intersymbol interference (ISI). The IC’s wide supply range of 2.3 V to 5.5 V simplifies system design and extends the o ..read more

The MA24103A inline power sensor from Anritsu performs peak power measurements from 25 MHz to 1 GHz with a power range of 2 mW to 150 W. A dual-path architecture enables the sensor to carry out true-RMS measurements over the entire frequency and power range. This bidirectional plug-and-play device joins the company’s existing MA24105A peak power sensor, which has a frequency range of 350 MHz to 4 GHz. Critical markets that require peak and average power measurements well below the 1-GHz range, such as public safety, avionics, and railroads, demand reliable communication between control cente ..read more

The industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio frequency bands find common use in electronics systems, by virtue of their comparatively lightly regulated nature versus (for example) spectrum swaths used by cellular, satellite, and terrestrial radio and television networks. As Wikipedia explains: The ISM radio bands are portions of the radio spectrum reserved internationally for industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) purposes, excluding applications in telecommunications. Examples of applications for the use of radio frequency (RF) energy in these bands include RF heating, microwave ov ..read more

I2C is a popular bidirectional serial communications bus having a clock and a data line. Both line’s drivers consist of an open drain ground-referenced N-channel MOSFET with a pullup resistor connected to a supply ranging from 1.8 V to 5 V. The pullup resistor must be small enough to meet certain timing requirements in the presence of significant bus capacitance, but large enough that the surprisingly weak active driver (specified to drop less than 0.4 V at 3 mA for standard mode and less than 0.6 V at 6 mA for fast mode speeds) current is not exceeded and that the logic low levels are met. M ..read more

A previous design idea (DI), “Gated 555 astable hits the ground running” fixed the problem of the excessively long first pulse generated by 555 astables when gated by the RESET pin from oscillation-off to oscillation-on. See Figure 1 and Figure 2. Figure 1 The problem – first oscillation cycle has a too-long first pulse generated by 555 astables when gated by the RESET pin from oscillation-off to oscillation-on. Wow the engineering world with your unique design: Design Ideas Submission Guide  Figure 2 The fix via C2 charge injection when Vreset = V+ to equalize pulse length.  Howe ..read more