This application report addresses three key criteria for selecting an ESD device for protecting high-speed signals. As the industry continues to trend towards smaller chipset features sizes to address higher speed data rates, tolerance of transient voltages has continued to shrink as well. Picking the right ESD device the first time is critical to preventing costly board re-spins during EMC testing. By using the three techniques discussed in this paper, device selection can be greatly simplified and streamlined.

In a camera, the lens ensures that light coming from a given point in a scene reaches a given pixel. When an ideal lens is in perfect focus, light coming from a given point in the image will reach a given pixel only. This is an important optical component which enables cameras, including 3D time-of-flight (ToF) cameras, to work. 3D ToF cameras have certain distinct characteristics which have special requirements to be met with while selecting or designing the lenses. This document explains how to decide the specifications for 3D ToF cameras. It also describes how to choose or design lens holders.

This Application Note is a reference guide for the Mounting Hardware of DLP Advanced Light Control (ALC) digital micromirror devices (DMD).

This guide briefly describes the DMD mounting hardware, including figures and tables for each DLP DMD. The figures show mounting concepts with their associated DMD mounting hardware parts. The tables list the individual mounting hardware parts, weblinks to the supplier’s ordering page (if applicable), and weblink to the dedicated “System Mounting Concepts” Application Report. This Quick Reference Guide comprehensively addresses the DMD Specifications and System Mounting Concepts and includes important application design considerations.

This application note discusses the main challenges related to wireless motion detector design and how they are addressed by the SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz CC1310 and SimpleLink Dual-band CC1350 wireless MCUs. First, the application note gives a short overview of a wireless motion detector. Then the application report discusses the wireless technology requirements which must be met to support motion detector use cases and explains why Sub-1 GHz technology is an excellent fit.

This application note explains how to build the system based on the SimpleLink CC1310 Sub-1 GHz wireless MCU or the SimpleLink CC1350 dual-band wireless MCU, with focus on low power, networking, and cloud connectivity, as well as Sub-1 GHz and Bluetooth low energy use cases. The document concludes by describing a potential use case, including its state machine and power consumption analysis.

The most common thermocouple in use today is the Type K. A Type-K thermocouple is inexpensive, accurate, and works reliably in harsh environments. Type-K thermocouples can measure temperatures ranging from –200°C to +1250°C and have a Seebeck coefficient of S = 41 μV/K at room temperature.

Power hungry electronic components such as CPUs, GPUs, or FPGAs, as well as voltage regulators heat up during operation. Some applications require ambient air temperature measurements while others need to measure the temperature of a nearby component on the PCB. Measuring ambient air temperature with a surface mount technology (SMT) device is challenging due to the thermal influence of other components within the system. In other systems, in which the temperature of a component needs to be measured, ambient air temperature can influence and degrade the measurement accuracy. The system designer needs to make certain design decisions regarding both package type and PCB layout when integrating a temperature sensor.

This application note provides recommendations to system designers and explains methods for improving the accuracy of the temperature point being measured. The Recommendations are provided both for air temperature measurements and for component temperature measurement. The report details layout techniques, device orientation, and best practices for mounting.

From the adoption of driver-assistance cameras to the advancement of fuel efficiency, the intelligence of cars is constantly improving. With these new performance enhancements and their growing power demand, the automotive power management system is responsible for powering and protecting the downstream electronic components during nominal and transient conditions. This application report discusses the unique challenges to designing automotive power supplies.

The Thunderbolt Alternate Mode allows the two sides of a USB Type-C PD connection to discover, negotiate, and enter the Intel Thunderbolt 3 mode allowing transfer of high-speed data. The mode is negotiated using USB Power Delivery messaging, as listed in the USB PD specification. This application report explains the standard implementation of the Thunderbolt Alternate Mode and how it can be used with the Texas Instruments TPS6598x family of USB Type-C and USB PD controllers and associated software tools.