A bi-directional current source for a grounded load will always have some complication in its construction. The improved Howland Current Pump as shown in Figure 1 is the most frequent choice for this ...

The current-mode or peak-current-regulating switching converter is a familiar, almost dominant, power supply circuit consisting of few parts and is usually designed with “cookbook” procedures from PWM ...

Inside nearly every electronic device is a simple coil of wire doing a powerful job—it’s called an inductor. Though small and ...

Open-collector outputs are useful for transmitting buffered digital/pulse signals to the external world when high drive is needed. In harsh operating environments like automotive systems, however, ...

Single-phase and 3-phase AC squirrel cage induction motors need some type of control circuit to initiate a start or stop function. The two types of ladder control circuits commonly used are the 2-wire ...

Lighting a string of LEDs at a constant brightness requires driving it with a regulated current. A boost converter is commonly used to step up the voltage to a level high enough to bias the LEDs on ...

There are many cases where a power supply needs an internal current-limiter function, usually built using a current sensor, a control circuit, and a pass transistor. The current sensor itself can be a ...

[Peter] needed to drive a high power LED for his microscope. Rather than pick up a commercial LED driver, he built a simple constant current LED driver and fan control. We’ve featured [Peter’s] ...