Picotest 5/10

Sep 15, 20141 min read

PDN Basics For Power Designers: What is PDN? (Part one of the video series.)

In modern electronic systems, the performance of FPGAs, CPUs, and other high-speed logic devices depends on the power distribution...

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Match impedances when making measurements

Picotest

Aug 15, 20142 min read

Match impedances when making measurements

Recently, I used a shielded coaxial cable to measure power supply ripple and the results were even noisier than using an oscilloscope...

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Picotest

Jul 1, 20142 min read

Three Stability Assessment Methods Every Engineer Should Know About

Many engineers are familiar with the Bode plot as an effective stability assessment method. However, some authors suggest and even teach...

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Picotest

Jun 19, 20141 min read

Improve Performance And Reduce Cost

Engineers are under constant pressure to improve the performance of their products while reducing product cost. The key to doing so is a...

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Picotest

Jun 4, 20141 min read

SPICE models need correlation to measurements

Many SPICE models are available online that were created by IC and semiconductor manufacturers. Unfortunately, availability doesn’t...

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Software Enables Accurate Stability Test, Improves Non-Invasive Phase Margin Measurement Accuracy

Picotest

Apr 23, 20141 min read

Software Enables Accurate Stability Test, Improves Non-Invasive Phase Margin Measurement Accuracy

The mathematics behind the non-invasive measurement was incorporated into the OMICRON Lab Bode 100 VNA software, sold by Picotest.com,...

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PCB characteristics affect PDN performance

Picotest

Mar 31, 20141 min read

PCB characteristics affect PDN performance

Since no impedance path is perfectly flat, we need to make some design adjustments. This article aims to help you make compromises that...

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Picotest

Mar 19, 20141 min read

Measure PDN on a budget

There are many good analyzers available for measuring PDN High performance VNAs are available from all of the major test equipment...

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Understanding Voltage Response Of An LC Circuit

Picotest

Mar 18, 20142 min read

Understanding Voltage Response Of An LC Circuit

For an undamped LC circuit excited by an AC voltage source through simple phaser equations, we come to see that the circuit becomes short...

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Picotest

Feb 5, 20141 min read

Inside the 21st Century Power Test Lab

In this 5-minute video, Steve Sandler of AEi Systems (www.aeng.com) and Picotest (www.picotest.com) takes you on a tour of an advanced...

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Measure small impedances with Rogowski current probes

Picotest

Feb 5, 20141 min read

Measure small impedances with Rogowski current probes

You’re probably familiar with clamp on current probes, but chances are you don’t know much about the Rogowski current probe. A Rogowski...

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Five Things Every Engineer Should Know About Bode Plots

Picotest

Jan 22, 20142 min read

Five Things Every Engineer Should Know About Bode Plots

In 1938 Hendrik Wade Bode, who worked at Bell Labs, published his asymptotic assessment of phase margin and gain margin, bearing his name...

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Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: Making Time Domain Measurements (Part 8 – The final

Picotest

Jan 11, 20141 min read

Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: Making Time Domain Measurements (Part 8 – The final

He presents examples of various waveform anomalies and discusses techniques and tips for observing them as well as pitfalls to avoid....

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Non-Invasively Assess Your Multiple-Loop LDO’s Stability

Picotest

Jan 6, 20141 min read

Non-Invasively Assess Your Multiple-Loop LDO’s Stability

Some low-dropout regulators (LDOs) use multiple feedback loops to improve output voltage transient response. In many of these cases, some...

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Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: Measuring Ripple (Part 7 of the ongoing series)

Picotest

Dec 10, 20131 min read

Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: Measuring Ripple (Part 7 of the ongoing series)

And by taking measurements across all three test domains, designers can trace power supply ripple-related problems back to root causes...

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Picotest

Dec 4, 20131 min read

Six tips for better TDR measurements

The setup in Figure 2 illustrates the impact of poor quality connectors. In this image, the TDR is deskewed with no cables attached to...

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PDN Basics – Paralleling Tantalum and Ceramic Capacitors Can Be Risky

Picotest

Nov 26, 20131 min read

PDN Basics – Paralleling Tantalum and Ceramic Capacitors Can Be Risky

Because of their high ESL compared to ceramic, tantalum capacitors are not the optimum choice for high frequency decoupling. Paralleling...

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Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: The Switch (Part 6 of the ongoing series.)

Picotest

Nov 14, 20131 min read

Troubleshooting Distributed Power Systems: The Switch (Part 6 of the ongoing series.)

With those measurement requirements as background, Sandler examines how switching frequency and duty cycle affect power supply stability...

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Picotest

Nov 7, 20132 min read

Combination VNA/FRAs Offer More Capability And Lower Cost

A frequency response analyzer (‘FRA’) is often used to measure gain and phase plots of control loops (Bode plots), filter responses and...

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PDN Issues Occur in the Simplest of Circuits

Picotest

Nov 7, 20131 min read

PDN Issues Occur in the Simplest of Circuits

A single tiny logic gate The first case we’ll look at is a Fairchild NC7SZ04 ultra-high-speed inverter gate. This logic gate is a single...

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