Industrial/Instrumentation Applications Center

A SemiApps.com Applications Center

Sensor Signal Conditioning :: Which Way to Yield?

By Bruce Swanson, Mentor Graphics With full apologies to Shakespeare, “To yield, or not to yield” almost became the title for this blog article. Fortunately, he didn’t have to turn over in his grave because I believe the real question is “Which is the best way to Yield?” since everyone wants a good yield.  >>  

Sensor Signal Conditioning :: As IC Designs Get blah, blah, blah --

By Bruce Swanson, Mentor Graphics As integrated-circuit device geometries get smaller, the blah, blah, blah … How many times have you read a conference paper or article that started out this way? I know I’m guilty of writing some of them. The blahs usually explain how much harder it is to do this, that, or the other thing.  >>  

Zigbee :: RF in the Piazza – Novice's Guide for Bringing Applications to Market

By David Bourner, Micrel Corp. Until quite recently, I taught a senior undergraduate projects course in computer engineering. One of the paragons of the course involved students discovering and using engineering standards to help successfully tackle a two-semester long design project. After three years of study in the computer engineering program, my students had the basis to “pick...  >>  

Sensor Signal Conditioning :: IEEE-1394 Targets Industrial Applications

By Richard Mourn, Quantum Parametrics LLC The 1394 (FireWire) audio-video standard has long been popular in computer and consumer electronics applications. I’ve worked on IEEE-1394 since 1992, and almost all of that time was spent focused on consumer electronics products such as camcorders, PC hosts, HDD/DVD systems, digital television, and set top boxes. Now, 1394 is moving into...  >>  

Sensor Signal Conditioning :: Test is a Four Letter Word

By Bruce Swanson, Mentor Graphics Test. When you read or hear that word, what do you think of or how does it make you feel? Do you remember your school days where you maybe sweated through a test, exam, or quiz?  >>  

Motor and Motion Control :: FPGAs: The Solution to Implementing Flexible Industrial Ethernet

By Stefano Zammattio, Altera Corporation The range, availability and ease-of-implementation of Ethernet combined with the pressure to integrate factory systems into the corporate network, has driven the creation of many rapidly evolving Ethernet-based industrial communication protocols. Competing in this market is a significant challenge for equipment manufacturers and they need to find a...  >>  

Motor and Motion Control :: Sensorless Drives--or Senseless Drives?

By Dave Wilson, Cirrus Logic I have observed that humans are generally underdamped creatures. When excited with a step function change, we often overreact before settling in to a proper response. In the 90’s, the step function was “DSP”. You may recall the frenzy to drop DSPs into everything, if for no other reason than to put a colorful label on your product to boast it...  >>  

Lighting :: Lighting Sources: Which One Will Win?

By Dr. Michael Weirich, Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. A key question facing semiconductor suppliers is what lighting source will be dominant? Will it be CFL, LFL or will consumers continue with the incandescent lamp. In all of these options, there are differences in cost and considerations that need to be taken in terms of longer life and energy efficiency savings.  >>