Mixed Flowing Gas: Preparation, Placement and Process Control Salt spray measures resistance to chloride. It says almost nothing about what happens in an office, a data centre or an industrial cabinet, where the aggressive species are sulfur compounds and nitrogen oxides at concentrations far too low to see. Mixed flowing…

LIN Bus: Preparation, Placement and Process Control A LIN bus is a low speed single wire network used inside a vehicle, mostly to connect switches, sensors and small actuators to a body controller. The transceiver is the interface between the protocol controller and the wire, and it has to survive…

Series Resistor: Preparation, Placement and Process Control A light emitting diode needs its current limited, and the cheapest way to do that is a series resistor. Getting the value right is arithmetic, but choosing where to put the resistor and how to rate it takes a little more thought. Why…

RS-422: Preparation, Placement and Process Control RS-422 is a balanced interface that carries a single signal in one direction over a pair of conductors. It is the simplex counterpart of the bidirectional bus that most people know, and it is still used where a one way link has to travel…

Projector Mainboard: Design Rules and Process Limits A compact projector fits a display engine, a battery and a processor into a space the size of a book. Projector mainboard design is dominated by the light source, because the led driver and its power loop set the size, the heat and…

From SoC Datasheet to Board Design Decisions A processor datasheet runs to hundreds of pages, and most of the board is decided by a few tables inside it. Reading it in a defined order turns a datasheet into a set of design decisions rather than a reference to search. Read…

NVR Mainboard Design for Multi Channel Video Recording A network video recorder is a computer whose workload is almost entirely video, and its board is designed around that fact. NVR mainboard design means balancing decode channels, storage bandwidth and display outputs against a power budget that has to hold for…

V2x: Preparation, Placement and Process Control A module that lets a vehicle talk to other vehicles and to the road infrastructure is a radio product in a harsh environment. V2X module board design combines radio frequency layout with the electrical and thermal requirements of automotive electronics. What V2X Communication Does…

Gold Finger: Design Rules and Process Limits An edge connector uses the board itself as the plug. The contacts are copper fingers plated with a wear resistant metal, and they slide into a mating socket when the card is inserted. The finger geometry, the plating stack, and the bevel at…

Battery Charger IC Board Layout for Switch Mode Charging A switching charger is a small converter with a battery on its output, and its layout follows the same rules as any switching supply. Charger ic board layout decides the efficiency, the temperature and the electromagnetic behaviour of a part that…