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Protection circuits for operational amplifiers

In the specifications of operational amplifiers, there are maximum limits of allowed voltages on pins. Maximum currents are limited as well. So voltage and current they both limit allowed dissipated power Pmax=Umax*Imax. In well-designed circuits, Op Amps should have protection circuits from various overloads like a short circuit, high common phase voltage level in differential inputs, electrostatic charges, etc. Earlier operational amplifiers didn’t have built-in protection circuits, while modern ones have. Today popular operational amplifiers have internal protection circuits built-in, and this makes designers’ life much easier. But protection elements lowers some operational amplifiers like operation speed, dynamic range, and output signal swing level. Because of this, some operational amplifiers may not have internal protection circuits. In this case, you have to take care of it.

Switching step-up and step-down regulators

All regular voltage regulators (like 7805) have several disadvantages like output voltage is always lower than input, and some power is dissipated in the control element. Dissipated power is approximately equal to I(Vin-Vout). There is another way to generate a regulated voltage. The method is different from the previous one. A transistor operates as a saturated switch in a switching regulator, which periodically applies the full unregulated voltage across an inductor in short intervals. During each pulse, inductor current builds up, storing energy on its magnetic field: Inductor also smooths the output voltage. Feedback circuit with comparator compares the output voltage with reference and this way changes oscillators pulse width or frequency.

Dual polarity power supply source

Most op-amp circuits run from the symmetrical bipolar supply source, let’s say ±15V. The simplest way to generate symmetrical split supplies is to use a pair of 3 terminal voltage regulators. For instance, let’s take two voltage regulators: 7815 and 7915. If you need an adjustable variant of dual polarity regulated voltage source, you can use 317 and 337 adjustable regulators, where you can trim voltage with a voltage divider, which consists of two higher accuracy resistors:

Interrupt system of ARM LPC2000 microcontrollers

Microcontrollers aren’t imaginable without interrupts. The arm isn’t an exception. There were SWI exceptions mentioned in earlier articles, but there are two more sources of exceptions: IRQ(General Purpose Interrupt) and FIQ(Fast Interrupt). ARM Pin Connect Block All I/O pins of LPC2000 ARM can be multiplexed to several functions via pin select block. Pin selection bloc allows selections up to three more other functions except for GPIO. Pin Connect block gives flexibility to ARM MCU because each PIN can have different functionality. After reset, all pins are configured as GPIO. As the example above, you can see that the P.1 pin function can be assigned by PINSEL0 register 3 and 2-bit configurations. So if you write PINSEL0|=(1<<3)|(1<<2), then the pin will be assigned to the EINT0 function. Pretty simple. So before using External interrupt EINT0, first, you have to select the pin function for the P0.1 pin.

Power modes of LPC2000 ARM MCU

Power modes especially become more important where power saving is needed. All common microcontrollers have several power control modes.LPC21xx series microcontrollers have to reduced power modes: idle and power-down mode. Idle mode Execution of instructions is suspended until reset or another interrupt signal occurs. In idle mode, peripheral devices (for instance, timer) are running and may generate interrupts that cause the processor to resume execution. So idle mode eliminates power used by the processor itself, memory system, and internal buses.

Clocking ARM with Crystal oscillator and PLL

ARM microcontrollers can be clocked in several different ways. One way is to use an external clock with a duty cycle of 50-50 and a frequency range from 1MHz to 50MHz (LPC21xx series) connected to the XTAL1 pin. Another way is to connect the External crystal oscillator, but its range is lower (1MHz to 30MHz for the LPC21xx series). And last but not least is the on-chip PLL oscillator, then external clock source frequency should not exceed range from 10MHz to 25MHz. Let’s analyze more deeply each clocking mechanism. In the picture above there is fosc selection diagram shown.

Fractal antenna constructions

Among the usual antennas used in today’s data transfer, different types of antennas are used. First publications about electrodynamic characteristics of fractal structures were published in the 1980s, but the first practical approach appeared after 10 years. Dr. Nathan Cohen, professor of Boston University, designed, engineered, and patented many practical fractal antenna solutions and founded “Fractal Antenna Systems” in 1995. Van Koch fractal antenna As Nathan states, there were forbidden to use external antennas in the city in the center of Boston. Hence, he managed to hide the antenna within the design of an amateur radio station. He took aluminum foil and made an antenna as decoration according to Van Koch figure:

What are electrical switches principles and switching problems?

Switches are an important part of electronic systems. It is one of the most frequently used human interaction with electronic devices methods. But switches are the mechanical components that are a vital part of any equipment. Electrical switches Electrical switches are as old as electricity. The function is always the same – it makes or breaks current in a circuit. In early 19th switches were used for DC circuits, while later for AC and then they serves for switching wide spectra signals starting from audio and ending with digital. Well, switches have changed compared to those before 100 years, but the principle is the same old as the electric itself. When the switch connects the circuit path, it has a resistance of mOhm, and when the current path is broken, resistance is high MOhms and higher. This resistance and maximum voltage that can be applied to insulation is often a major important and vital feature that leads to switching stability.

Overview of noises in electronic systems

There are several sources of noise in electronic systems. Noises are unwanted signals polluting random or not signals that reduce overall signal quality. Thermal Johnson/Nyquist noise Two scientists, Johnson, discovered this noise who did the experiments and Nyquist, who developed the formula. Thermal noise is present at all frequencies (has a constant power density at all spectra) and is called white noise. This noise can only be reduced by reducing the temperature, resistance, and bandwidth. Let’s see the Noise voltage RMSformula:

Multiple controllers in one design

Actually, many embedded systems use multiple microcontrollers and microprocessors. This is not about multi-core processors but several distinct processors used in one design. Multiprocessor systems allow the distribution of computing power among different processors, and this way, overall speed may be increased, coding simplified, and modularity reached. Using multiprocessor embedded design has many benefits. One of them is modularity. Imagine a situation when a particular microcontroller-based subsystem needs to be installed only if a particular opinion is installed. Another, as we mentioned, is coding simplicity. Instead of writing and debugging one complex firmware, it may be broken into several distinct, easily manageable functions on different MCU’s.