Category Archives: "hardware"

FROM GATES TO FPGA’S – PART 1: BASIC LOGIC

It’s time to do a series on logic including things such as programmable logic, state machines, and the lesser known demons such as switching hazards. It is best to start at the beginning — but even experts will enjoy this refresher and might even learn a trick or two. I’ll start with logic symbols, alternate symbols, small Boolean truth tables and some oddball things that we can do with basic logic. The narrative version is found in the video, with a full reference laid out in the rest of this post.

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Tech Note on Op-Amps Driving Capacitance

A great tech not on OP Amps driving capacitance. http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/31-2/appleng.html

Q. How does capacitive loading affect op amp performance?

A. To put it simply, it can turn your amplifier into an oscillator. Here’s how:

Op amps have an inherent output resistance, Ro, which, in conjunction with a capacitive load, forms an additional pole in the amplifier’s transfer function. As the Bode plot shows, at each pole the amplitude slope becomes more negative by 20 dB/ decade. Notice how each pole adds as much as -90° of phase shift. We can view instability from either of two perspectives. Looking at amplitude response on the log plot,circuit instability occurs when the sum of open-loop gain and feedback attenuation is greater than unity. Similarly, looking at phase response, an op amp will tend to oscillate at a frequency where loop phase shift exceeds -180°, if this frequency is below the closed-loop bandwidth. The closed-loop bandwidth of a voltage-feedback op amp circuit is equal to the op amp’s bandwidth product (GBP, or unity-gain frequency), divided by the circuit’s closed loop gain (ACL).

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