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Circuit Design for Reliability Part 3
Continuing the Circuit Design [1] & reliability discussion, we will focus on the importance of component selection and board layout in this Blog. There are three major factors designers need to keep in mind while selecting the components: input bias current, input offset voltage and noise figures. [2] Let’s say the circuit is for audio applications and the op-amp is TL072 selected for low noise and wide bandwidth, running on supply voltages of +/-12V. The TL072 has a maximum quoted Vos of 10mV. With a gain of 1000, this will be amplified by a closed loop gain to give a dc ...
Reverse Engineering – PC Boards
Ironically, many companies come to us not to reverse engineer a competitors product, but to reverse engineer their own designs, because they have poor or no documentation on their product, because their contract manufacturers refuses to release it, or because they have lost a key employee or very old legacy product without documentation. If you have lost the design data of your legacy product, we can reverse engineer it from pictures, print-outs of the pc boards or scan copy of schematic or gerbers plots. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel again. Reasons for reverse engineering a product: Manufacturer of a product ...
Circuit Design for Reliability Part 2
Reliability of the circuit depends on many factors, starting from topology of the circuit, selection of the appropriate components and final board layout. Each phase has several theories and principles to be considered during the development phase and they will be discussed here. Topology of the circuit is the most critical step in circuit design. In my 25 years of experience, I came across so many engineers who rely on text book circuit, circuit on the internet and reference design kit from manufacturers. There is nothing wrong with copying the circuit from these sources if you are not violating the intellectual ...
Circuit Design for Reliability Part 1
by Sam Sangani As gate oxide thickness and dimensions of scale shrink in integrated circuit design, reliability problems occur and need to be considered early in the design process. Some of the more problematic issues include negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) and hot carrier injection (HCI). NBTI is a critical factor in PMOS devices and leads to current degradation, yield loss, and functional failure of integrated circuits. HCI has primarily affected NMOS devices, but today it is also a concern for PMOS devices. HCI is caused by hot carriers in the gate oxide that lead to oxide damages, which manifest themselves ...