3D Transistor A transistor is the fundamental building block of all electronic devices.  . A transistor can be defined as a device, which is used to amplify signals and power. Integrated circuits are used in making of chips inside electronic gadgets such as smart phones, laptops and so on. Researchers in Purdue and Harvard Universities […]
Having known about the architecture of the PIC16F84A, lets dive into learning how to actually program the controller. As you all know(If you have read the post about getting started with PIC16F84A) the port B pins RB6 and RB7 along with the MCLR pin will be used to program the controller(To quote again, RB6 is
Smallest Electronic Circuit Technology has been evolving time to time, from complex wired circuits to Integrated circuits(IC). Nowadays almost all electronic gadgets like smart phones, computers, global positioning systems(GPS), tablets and so on use Integrated circuits as they are more compact and efficient. In this era of nanotechnology, scientists are scaling every possible technology to
Carbon Nanotube Coating Radar detection has always been the nightmare of military aircrafts. Once spotted in the radar zone, it is easy to destroy the aircraft in mid air by using anti-aircraft missiles. Defense personnel’s across the world are investing billions to develop better stealth equipped aircrafts that will easily escape from radar eyes.  The
As introduce in the article, introduction to embedded systems, Microcontrollers are the brain of an embedded system. So, In this article, I will be explaining PIC16F84A – an eight bit microcontroller from Microchip. You may now ask, “Why do we start with this particular microcontroller, aren’t there any other?” Well, it is obvious that an
Most of the electronic circuits used in Circuitstoday.com have different applications of the transformer. Therefore, it is important to know the working principle, construction and types of transformers used in different analog circuits. What is a transformer? A transformer can be defined as a static device which helps in the transformation of electric power in
da Vinci console Artificial satellites placed in orbits are used for a variety of purposes like communication, GPS, military applications, TV broadcasting, and so on. No matter how much time and money has been spent on building these hi-tech devices, satellites are basically just machines, and constant use can damage any machine. Every year NASA
 Global Positioning System (GPS) is accessible to almost everyone by the introduction of smart phones. We can know our position and can locate any place by using satellites. Currently, the device has some limitations, as if GPS is not available inside houses, poor signal reception in remote places, and so on.  GPS systems currently can
MP3302 MP3302 is a boost converter IC specifically designed for LED drive applications. The MP3302 can drive 27 LEDs (9 strings of 3 white LEDs in series) from a Lithium ion battery. The IC has internal power MOSFETs for driving the LEDs and has an efficiency of 88%. Switching frequency is 1.3MHz and the internal
World’s Smallest Stirling Engine In this era of nanotechnology, from a transistor to a heat engine, everything is getting small. While reducing to micro size, we may think that the efficiency and performance of the device maybe compromised. However, researchers are trying their best to maintain the same ratings of a conventional device with its
CAT3603. CAT3603 is a three channel charge pump LED driver IC from Catalyst Semiconductors that can be operated in either LDO mode or fractional mode. The IC can deliver 30mA per channel and can be operated from an input voltage range of 3 to 5.5V DC. CAT3063 has a quiescent current as low as 0.1uA
In this article, we teach you about 8051 addressing modes. If you’re familiar with 8051 already, you may know an addressing mode is a way to address an operand. If you are new, don’t worry – we’ve covered every aspect about 8051 addressing modes in detail. Let’s begin the journey. Lets begin this article with
Hi everyone, We are introducing a new author to CircuitsToday 🙂 Well, here meet Anish.K, a student in engineering from Anna University. He will cover topics on Embedded systems and Robotics mainly. You can read about Anish on his bio page. Anish will publish his articles every Tuesday. So stay tuned for your Tuesday column every week.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have always had the legacy of doing things that were so called “impossible†by the rest of the world. Recently they came with an idea of a new imaging system that can capture photons at a rate of one trillion frames per second. Yes, you heard it
Amplifier is a circuit that is used for amplifying a signal. The input signal to an amplifier will be a current or voltage and the output will be an amplified version of the input signal. An amplifier circuit which is purely based on a transistor or transistors is called a transistor amplifier. Transistors amplifiers are
Through previous articles I tried to explain you basic difference between a microprocessor and microntroller; and I also explained 8051 microcontroller – with its basic architecture, pin diagram, memory organization, clock system, reset circuit etc. I hope they have been very useful for your educational purposes. Now in this article, I am focusing on giving
A micro controller is an integrated circuit or a chip with a processor and other support devices like program memory, data memory, I/O ports, serial communication interface etc integrated together. Unlike a microprocessor (ex: Intel 8085), a microcontroller does not require any external interfacing of support devices. Intel 8051 is the most popular microcontroller ever
Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layouts are designed with help of PCB drawing software’s, commonly known as pcb layout design software. Here we are listing you a collection of free pcb design softwares which are simple, easy to use and available for ready download. PCB design tools fall into many categories based on their development platform, pricing
When you start learning about Microprocessors (in most cases you will begin with Intel 8085) and Microcontrollers (usually you will begin with Intel 8051 from the MCS 51 micro controller family), the first question that pops up is “hey… what’s the difference in between”? In this article, I am explaining the basic differences and similarities
I hope you all might have gone through the PIC (Peripheral Interface Controller) tutorial developed by our contributor. This post is aimed to organize the tutorial in order (which is created as individual articles), so that all our readers can access the tutorial easily and efficiently. We have arranged the PIC tutorial  in order from
12V battery level indicator circuit with  LED bar /dot display LM3914. The heart of this circuit is the LM3914 from national semiconductors. The LM3914 can sense voltage levels and can drive a display of 10 LEDs in dot mode or bar mode. The bar mode and dot mode can be externally set and more
Current amplifier and buffers. Buffer amplifier. Buffer amplifier is a circuit which transforms electrical impedance from one circuit to another. Â The main purpose of a buffer is to prevent the loading of a preceding circuit by the succeeding one. For example, a sensor may have the capability to produce a voltage or current corresponding to
Transimpedance amplifier / current to voltage converter. The transimpedance amplifier is a circuit that converts current to a proportional voltage. It is also termed as current to voltage converter or simple I to V converter. The transimpedance amplifier has ideally zero input resistance and low output resistance. The transconductance amplifier has a lot of applications
Differential amplifier In this post, differential amplifier using BJT and differential amplifier using op-amps are explained in detail. Please go through both of them to get a better understanding. Differential Amplifier using Transistor Differential Amplifier using Op-amp The circuit diagrams and detailed equations are provided along with the article. Please go through them. Differential Amplifier
Voltage comparator circuit. Voltage comparator is a circuit which compares two voltages and switches the output to either high or low state depending upon which voltage is higher. A voltage comparator based on opamp is shown here. Fig1 shows a voltage comparator in inverting mode and Fig shows a voltage comparator in non inverting mode.
