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Experienced network designers know that the performance achievable of a data link depends on many factors, including the quality and consistency of the inherently analog medium between the two endpoints. Whether it’s air, copper, fiber, or even vacuum, that link sets a basic operating constraint on the speed and bit error rate (BER) of the link.

Any short- or longer-term perturbation in the link—including external and internal noise, distortion, phase shifts, media shifts, and other imperfections—will result in a lower effective data rate, need for more data encoding, error detection, correction, and re-transmissions.

A critical element in high-speed, low-BER data recovery is the advanced clock recovery and re-clocking for synchronization accomplished using phase-locked loops (analog or digital) and other arrangements. The unspoken assumption is that the fundamental measurement of “time” is the same at both ends of the link. This can be established by use of atomic and laser-optical clocks of outstanding precision and performance, if crystal or resonator-based won’t suffice.

But that endpoint equivalence is not necessarily the case. If we want to establish a long-term robotic or even human presence on our neighbor Mars, and set up a robust high-speed data link, we need to know the answer to a basic question: What time is it on Mars?

It turns out that it’s not a trivial question to answer. As Einstein showed in his classic 1905 paper on special relativity “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” and subsequent work on general relativity, clocks don’t tick at the same rate across the universe. They will run slightly faster or slower depending on the strength of gravity in their environment, as well as their relative velocity with respect to other clocks.

This time dilation is not a fanciful theory, as it has been measured and verified in many experiments. It even points to a correction factor that must be applied to satellites orbiting the Earth. Without those adjustments, GPS signal timing would be “off” and its accuracy seriously degraded. It’s a phenomenon that is often, and quite correctly, summarized simply as “moving clocks run slow.”

The general problem of time-dilation, objects in motion, and gravity’s effects have been known for many years, and it can be a problem for non-orbiting space vehicles as well. To manage the problem, Barycentric Coordinate Time—known as TCB, from the French name—is a coordinate time standard defined in 1991 by the International Astronomical Union.

TCB is intended to be used as the independent variable of time for all calculations related to orbits of planets, asteroids, comets, and interplanetary spacecraft in the solar system, and defines time as experienced by a clock at rest in a coordinate frame co-moving with the barycenter (center of mass) of the solar system.

What does this have to do with Mars and data links? As shown in Figure 1, the magnitude of the dilation-induced time “slippage” between Earth and Mars is one factor that affects maintaining a high-speed link between these two planets.

Figure 1 In addition to “hard” data from landed rover and orbiting science packages, Mars—also known as “the red planet”—presents a complicated time-dilation scenario. Source: NIST

Now, a team of physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has calculated a fairly precise answer for the first time. The problem is complicated as there are four primary “players” to consider: Mars, Earth, Sun, and even our Moon (and the two small moons of Mars also have an effect, though much smaller).

Why the complication? It’s been known since the 1800s that the three-body problem has no general closed-form solution, and the four-body problem is worse. That means there is no explicit formula that can resolve the positions of the bodies in the dilation analysis. Consequently, number-crunching numerical calculations must be used, and it’s even more challenging with four and more bodies.

The researchers’ work is based not only on theory but also measurements from the various “rovers” that have landed on Mars as well as Mars orbiters. The team chose a point on the Martian surface as a reference, somewhat like sea level at the equator on Earth, and used years of data collected from Mars missions to estimate gravity on the surface of the planet, which is five times weaker than Earth’s.

I won’t even try to explain the mathematics of the analysis; all I will say it’s the most “intense” set of equations I have even seen, even compared to solid-state physics.

They determined that on average, clocks on Mars will tick 477 microseconds faster than those on Earth per day (Figure 2). However, Mars’ eccentric orbit and the gravity from its celestial neighbors can increase or decrease this amount by as much as 226 microseconds a day over the course of the Martian year.

Figure 2 Plots of the clock-rate offsets between a clock on Mars compared to clocks on the Earth and the Moon for ∼40 years starting from modified Julian date (MJD) 52275 (January 1, 2003), using DE440 data. DE440 is a highly accurate planetary and lunar ephemeris (a table of positions) from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, representing precise orbital data for the Sun, Moon, planets, and Pluto. Source: NIST

The clock is not only “squeezed” with respect to Earth, but the amount of squeeze varies in a non-periodic way. In contrast, they note that the Earth and Moon orbits are relatively constant; time on the Moon is consistently 56 microseconds faster than time on Earth.

If you want the details, check out their open-access paper “A Comparative Study of Time on Mars with Lunar and Terrestrial Clocks” published in The Astronomical Journal of the American Astronomical Society. Don’t worry: a readable summary and overview is also posted at the NIST site, “What Time Is It on Mars? NIST Physicists Have the Answer.”

How engineers will deal with these results is another story, but timing is an important piece of the data link signal chain. Perhaps they will have to build an equivalent of the tide-predicting machine designed by William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin) shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 This analog all-mechanical computer design by William Thomson was designed to predict tides, which are determined by cyclic motion of the Earth, Moon, and many other factors. Source: Science Museum London via IEEE Spectrum

This analog mechanical computer on display at the Science Museum in London was designed for one purpose only: combining 10 cyclic oscillations linked to the periodic motions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon and other bodies to trace the tidal curve for a given location.

Have you ever had to synchronize a data link with a nominally accurate clock on each end, but with clocks that actually had significant differences as well as cyclic and unknown shifting of their frequencies?

Bill Schweber is a degreed senior EE who has written three textbooks, hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features. Prior to becoming an author and editor, he spent his entire hands-on career on the analog side by working on power supplies, sensors, signal conditioning, and wired and wireless communication links. His work experience includes many years at Analog Devices in applications and marketing.

Related Content

• JPL & NASA’s latest clock: almost perfect
• “Digital” Sundial: Ancient Clock Gets Clever Upgrade
• Precision metrology redefines analog calibration strategy

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Ambarella’s CV7 SoC leverages the CVflow computer vision architecture to bring 8K image processing and advanced AI inference to the edge. It supports simultaneous processing of multiple video streams at up to 8K at 60 Hz, making it well suited for a wide range of consumer and industrial AI perception applications, as well as multi-stream automotive systems—particularly those running CNNs and transformer-based networks.

Built on a 4-nm process, the CV7 delivers low power consumption, reducing thermal management requirements and extending battery life. Compared to its predecessor, it consumes 20% less power while integrating a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 CPU that doubles general-purpose processing performance. A 64-bit DRAM interface further improves memory bandwidth.

The highly integrated CV7 SoC includes a third-generation CVflow AI accelerator, delivering more than 2.5× the AI performance of the previous CV5 SoC. It also integrates an image signal processor and hardware-accelerated video encoding for H.264, H.265, and MJPEG formats.

CV7 SoC samples are now available, along with a CNN toolkit for porting neural networks developed using Caffe, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and ONNX frameworks.

CV7 product page 

Ambarella

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NXP has introduced the S32N7 super-integration processor series for centralized vehicle computing across propulsion, vehicle dynamics, body, gateway, and safety domains. The 5-nm series replaces distributed electronic control units with a single processing hub at the vehicle core, providing a foundation for software-defined vehicles.

By consolidating software and data, the S32N7 simplifies vehicle architectures and reduces system complexity, lowering total cost of ownership by up to 20% through fewer hardware modules and more efficient wiring, electronics, and software integration. The processors are designed to meet automotive safety, security, and real-time requirements.

With 32 compatible variants, the S32N7 series provides a scalable platform for AI-enabled vehicle functions. Its high-performance data backbone supports future AI upgrades without re-architecting the vehicle, enabling long-term software development and differentiation across vehicle platforms.

Bosch is the first company to deploy the S32N7 in its vehicle integration platform. Together, NXP and Bosch have co-developed reference designs, safety frameworks, hardware integration guidelines, and an expert enablement program for early adopters.

The S32N79, the superset of the series, is sampling now.

S32N7 series product page

NXP Semiconductors 

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According to Infineon, the AIROC ACW741x family of tri-radio SoCs features the first 20-MHz Wi-Fi 7 device designed for IoT applications. The device also integrates Bluetooth LE 6.0 with channel sounding, IEEE 802.15.4 Thread connectivity, and support for the Matter ecosystem—all in a compact QFN package.

Wi-Fi 7’s support for 20-MHz channel widths represents a meaningful expansion beyond conventional high-speed applications, especially for IoT devices. This enables lower power consumption, smaller form factors, and more reliable connectivity across a wider range of devices.

“With the recent extension of Wi-Fi Certified 7 capabilities to 20 MHz-only devices, Wi-Fi Alliance will deliver the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 for new device categories, enabling the next wave of IoT innovation across smart home, industrial, and healthcare settings,” said Kevin Robinson, CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. The introduction of 20-MHz Wi-Fi 7 IoT solutions, such as those being introduced by Infineon, will unlock widespread Wi-Fi 7 adoption across the IoT market.”

The ACW741x supports Wi-Fi 7 multi-link operation (MLO), which enhances link reliability through adaptive band switching to reduce congestion and interference. By maintaining concurrent connections across 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, and 6-GHz bands, Wi-Fi 7 multi-link for IoT provides a more consistent, always-connected experience for devices such as security cameras, video doorbells, alarm systems, medical equipment, and HVAC systems.

Integrated wireless sensing capabilities give smart IoT devices greater contextual awareness and allow them to share intelligence with other devices on the same network. Compared with other IoT Wi-Fi products, the ACW741x delivers up to 15× lower standby power consumption, extending battery life.

The ACW741x family is sampling now, along with hardware and software development kits.

ACW741x product page 

Infineon Technologies 

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The Keysight AI Software Integrity Builder enables rigorous validation and lifecycle maintenance of AI-enabled systems to ensure trustworthiness. As AI development grows in complexity, the software delivers transparent, adaptable, and data-driven assurance tailored for safety-critical applications, including automotive systems.

The decision-making behavior of AI models, especially deep neural networks, is difficult to interpret, complicating the identification of dataset limitations and model failure modes. Regulatory frameworks, including ISO/PAS 8800 for automotive AI and the EU AI Act, require demonstrable explainability and validation without defining clear implementation methods.

AI Software Integrity Builder delivers a unified, lifecycle-based framework that provides regulatory evidence and supports continuous AI model improvement. Unlike fragmented toolchains, it integrates dataset analysis, model validation, real-world inference testing, and continuous monitoring. This enables validation of both learned behavior and operational performance for high-risk applications such as autonomous driving.

To learn more about the Keysight AI Software Integrity Builder (AX1000A) and request a quote, visit the product page linked below.

AX1000A product page

Keysight Technologies  

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Two transmissive sensors from Vishay—the single-channel VT171P and dual-channel VT172U—feature a dome height that is 42% greater than that of previous-generation industrial devices. Housed in a 5.5×4×5.7 mm surface-mount package, the sensors increase mechanical design flexibility and provide additional vertical headroom for large code wheels in turn-and-push configurations.

The VT171P integrates an infrared emitter and phototransistor detector for motion and speed sensing, while the VT172U adds a second phototransistor to also enable direction detection. Both sensors operate at a wavelength of 950 nm and deliver a typical output current of 1.5 mA, with typical rise and fall times of 14 µs and 21 µs, respectively. They feature a 3-mm gap width and 0.3-mm apertures.

With a moisture sensitivity level (MSL) of 1, the VT171P and VT172U offer unlimited floor life. The sensors are suited for latches, simple encoders, and switches in industrial, consumer, telecommunication, and healthcare applications.

Samples and production quantities are available now, with lead times of 10 weeks.

VT171P product page 

VT172U product page 

Vishay Intertechnology 

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This engineer could have just stuck with the Gateway 2000-branded, Altec Lansing-designed powered speaker set long plugged into his laptop’s headphone jack. But where’s the fun in that?

Having editorially teased my recent home office audio system upgrade several times now, beginning back in mid-August and repeatedly accompanied by promises to share full details “soon”, I figured I’d better get to writing “now” before I ended up with a reader riot on my hands. Let’s start with the “stack” to the right of my laptop, a photo of which I’ve shared before:

The unbalanced (i.e., single-ended) setup

At the bottom is a Schiit Modi Multibit 1 DAC, my teardown of which was published just last month:

Above it is Schiit’s first-generation Loki Mini four-band equalizer (versus the second-generation Loki Mini+ successor shown below, which looks identical from the outside save for altered verbiage on the back panel sticker). I decided to include it versus relying solely on software EQ since I intended to use the setup to listen to more than just computer-based audio sources.

Above it is a passive (unpowered) switch, the Schiit Sys, that enables me to select between two inputs prior to routing the audio to the Rekkr power amplifier set connected to the speakers:

And at the very top is a Schiit Vali 2++ (PDF) tube-based headphone amplifier, identical to the Vali 2+ precursor (introduced in 2000 and shown below) save for a supply constraint-compelled transition to a different tube family:

And the rack? It’s a stacked combo of two (to give me the necessary number of shelves) Topping Acrylic Racks, available both directly from the China-based manufacturer (mind the tariffs!) and from retailers such as Apos in the United States. A little pricey ($39 each), but it makes me smile every time I look at it, which is priceless…or at least that’s how I rationalized the purchase!

Audio sources and interconnects

As you’ve likely already noticed, this setup uses mainstream unbalanced (i.e., single-ended) RCA cabling. To detail the inter-device connections, let’s start with the device at the end of the chain, the Sys switch. I didn’t initially include it in the stack but then realized I didn’t want to have to turn on the Vali 2++ each time I wanted to listen to music over the speakers (whenever the headphone jack isn’t in use, the Vali 2++ passes input audio directly through to its back panel outputs), given that tubes have limited operating life and replacements are challenging at best to source. As such, while one Sys input set comes from the Vali 2++, the other is directly sourced from the analog “headphone jack” audio output built into my docking station, which is tethered to the laptop (an Intel-based 2020 13” Apple MacBook Pro) over a Thunderbolt 3 connection:

Headphone outputs have passably comparable power specs to the line-level outputs that would normally connect to the Sys switch inputs (and from there to an audio power amplifier’s inputs), with two key qualifiers:

• They’re intended to drive comparatively low-impedance headphones, not high-impedance audio inputs, and
• Given that they integrate a modest audio amplifier circuit, you need to be restrained in your use of the volume setting controlling that audio amplifier to avoid overdriving whatever non-headphone input set they’re connected to in this alternative case.

The only other downside is that since the Sys is at the end of the chain, audio sourced from the docking station’s headphone jack also bypasses the Loki Mini’s hardware EQ facilities, although since it’s always computer-originated in this particular situation, software-based tone controls such those built into Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource utility for Macs or the open-source Equalizer EPO for Windows systems can provide a passable substitute.

Speaking of EQ, and working backwards in the chain, the Vali 2++ audio inputs are connected to the Loki Mini equalizer outputs, and the Loki Mini inputs are connected to the Modi Multibit 1 DAC outputs. And what of the DAC’s inputs? There are three available possibilities, one of which (optical S/PDIF) is currently unused.

It’s a shame that Apple phased out integrated optical S/PDIF output facilities after 2016; otherwise, I’d use them to tether the DAC to the 2018 Intel-based Apple Mac mini to the right of this stack. Unsurprisingly to you, likely, the USB input is also connected to the laptop, again via the Thunderbolt 3 docking station intermediary (albeit digitally this time). And what about the DAC’s coaxial (RCA) digital input? I’ll save that for part two next time.

The balanced alternative

Now, let’s look to the left of the laptop:

You’ve actually already seen one of the three members of this particular stack a couple of times before, albeit in a dustier and generally more disorganized fashion:

It’s now tidied up with an even pricier ($219) multi-shelf (and aluminum-based this time) rack, the Topping SR2 (here again are manufacturer and retail-partner links):

As before, the headphone amplifier is still the Drop + THX AAA 789:

But I’ve subsequently swapped out Topping’s D10 Balanced DAC:

for a Drop + Grace Design Standard DAC Balanced to assemble a Drop-branded duo:

The Topping D10 Balanced DAC is back in storage for now; I plan to eventually pair it with a S.M.S.L. SO200 THX AAA-888 Balanced Headphone Amplifier (yes, it really is slanted in shape):

And yes, I realize how abundantly blessed I am to have access to all this audio tech toy excess!

As you’ve likely already ascertained from the images (and if not that, the “Balanced” portion of the second product’s name), this particular setup instead leverages balanced interconnect, both XLR- and TRS-implemented. As such, I couldn’t merge another Schiit Loki Mini or Mini+ equalizer into the mix. Instead, I went with the balanced, six-band Schiit Lokius bigger sibling:

The Lokius EQ sits between the DAC and the headphone amplifier. The DAC’s USB input can connect to one of several nearby computers. On the one hand, this is convenient because the DAC is self-powered by that same USB connection. On the other, I’ve noticed that it sometimes picks up audible albeit low-level interference from the USB outputs of my Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ laptop (that said, no such similar issues exist with my Apple M2 Pro Mac Studio).

And what of the DAC’s optical S/PDIF input? Again, you’ll need to wait until next time for the reveal. Finally, in this case, the headphone amplifier doesn’t have pass-through outputs for direct connection to a stereo power amplifier (or, in this case, monoblock pair), so I’m instead (again, sparingly) leveraging its unbalanced headphone output.

The rest of the story

So far, we’ve covered the two stacks’ details. But what does each’s remaining S/PDIF DAC input connect to? And to what do they connect on the output end, and how? Stay tuned for part 2 to come next for the answers to these questions, along with other coverage topics. And until then, please share your so-far thoughts with your fellow readers and me in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Magazine, where he still regularly contributes as a freelancer.

Related Content

• Class D: Audio amplifier ascendancy
• A holiday shopping guide for engineers: 2025 edition
• The Schiit Modi Multibit: A little wiggling ensures this DAC won’t quit
• Audio amplifiers: How much power (and at what tradeoffs) is really required?

The post Sonic excellence: Music (and other audio sources) in the office, part 1 appeared first on EDN.

In electronic product design, the smallest components often have the biggest impact on system reliability. Tactile switches—used in control panels, wearables, medical devices, instrumentation, and industrial automation—are a prime example. These compact electromechanical devices must deliver a precise tactile response, stable contact resistance, and long service life despite millions of actuations and a wide range of operating conditions.

For design engineers, one of the most critical choices influencing tactile switch reliability is contact plating. Among available materials, gold plating offers unmatched advantages in conductivity, corrosion resistance, and mechanical stability. While its cost is higher than silver plating—and tin when used for terminal finishes—gold’s performance characteristics make it indispensable for mission-critical applications in which failure is not an option.

Understanding the role of plating in switch performance

The function of a tactile switch relies on momentary metal-to-metal contact closure. Over-repeated actuation, environmental exposure and mechanical wear can increase contact resistance or even lead to intermittent operation. Plating serves as a barrier layer, protecting the base metal (often copper, brass, or stainless steel) from corrosion and wear while also influencing the switch’s electrical behavior.

Different plating materials exhibit markedly different behaviors:

• Tin (used only for terminal plating) offers low cost and good solderability but oxidizes quickly, raising contact resistance in low-current circuits.
• Silver provides excellent conductivity, but it tarnishes in the presence of sulfur or humidity, forming insulating silver sulfide films.
• Gold, though softer and more expensive, is chemically inert and does not oxidize or tarnish. It maintains stable, low contact resistance even under micro-ampere currents where other metals fail.

This property is crucial for tactile switches used in low-level signal applications, such as microcontroller input circuits, communication modules, or medical sensors, in which switching currents may be in the microamp to milliamp range. At such levels, even a thin oxide film can impede electron flow, creating unreliable or noisy signals.

The science behind gold’s stability

Gold’s chemical stability stems from its electronic configuration: Its filled d-orbitals make it resistant to oxidation and most chemical reactions. Its noble nature prevents formation of insulating oxides or sulfides, meaning the surface remains metallic and conductive throughout the switch’s service life.

From a materials engineering standpoint, plating thickness and uniformity are key. Gold layers used in tactile switches typically range from 0.1 to 1.0 µm, depending on required durability and environmental conditions. Thicker plating layers provide greater wear resistance but increase cost. Engineers should verify that the plating process, often electrolytic or autocatalytic, ensures full coverage on complex contact geometries to avoid thin spots that could expose the base metal.

Many switch manufacturers, such as C&K Switches, use gold-over-nickel systems. The nickel layer acts as a diffusion barrier, preventing copper migration into the gold and preserving long-term contact integrity. Without this barrier, copper atoms could diffuse to the surface over time, leading to porosity and surface discoloration that undermine conductivity.

When to specify gold plating Selecting the right contact material for your tactile switch can make or break long-term reliability. Gold plating isn’t always necessary, but in the right applications, it’s indispensable. Low-level or signal circuits: When switching currents fall below 100 mA, even thin oxide films can prevent reliable conduction. Gold’s inert surface ensures clean, consistent contact resistance for microcontroller inputs, logic circuits, sensors, and communication interfaces. Mission-critical reliability: If system uptime or safety compliance is essential—such as in medical devices, aerospace, defense, or industrial safety systems—gold-plated switches prevent oxidation-related failures that could disrupt operations or endanger users. Harsh or uncontrolled environments: Designs exposed to moisture, sterilization cycles, or outdoor weathering benefit from gold’s corrosion resistance. Examples include surgical tools, outdoor telecom nodes, and HVAC or factory automation controls. Long lifecycle or high actuation counts: Gold plating resists fretting corrosion and wear, maintaining stable performance through hundreds of thousands to millions of actuations, critical in applications such as automotive HMI controls or consumer appliances with frequent use. Signal integrity and noise sensitivity: In instrumentation, medical sensing, and precision measurement, gold’s smooth, oxide-free surface minimizes contact noise and bounce, ensuring clean signal transitions and reducing the need for debouncing circuitry. Mixed-metal interfaces: Avoid combining gold with tin or silver on mating surfaces—galvanic reactions can accelerate corrosion. When other components use gold contacts, matching them with gold-plated tactile switches maintains uniform conductivity and compatibility. Choose gold-plated tactile switches when reliability, environmental resistance, or low-current signal integrity outweighs incremental cost. In these cases, gold is not a luxury; it’s engineering insurance.

Reliability in harsh and low-signal environments

Gold plating’s reliability benefits become evident under extreme environmental or electrical conditions.

Medical devices and sterilization environments

Surgical and diagnostic instruments often undergo repeated steam autoclaving or chemical sterilization cycles. Moisture and elevated temperatures accelerate corrosion in conventional materials. Gold’s nonreactive surface resists degradation, ensuring consistent actuation force and electrical performance across hundreds of sterilization cycles. This reliability directly impacts patient safety and device regulatory compliance.

Outdoor telecommunications and IoT

Field-mounted communication hardware—base stations, gateways, or outdoor routers—encounters moisture, pollution, and temperature fluctuations. In such applications, tin or silver plating can oxidize within months, leading to noisy signals or switch failure. Gold-plated tactile switches preserve contact integrity, maintaining low and stable resistance even after prolonged environmental exposure.

Industrial automation and control

Industrial environments expose components to dust, vibration, and cleaning solvents. Gold’s smooth, ductile surface resists micro-pitting and fretting corrosion, while its low coefficient of friction contributes to predictable mechanical wear. As a result, switches maintain consistent tactile feedback over millions of actuations, a vital factor in HMI panels in which operator confidence depends on feel and repeatability.

Aerospace, defense, and safety-critical systems

In avionics and safety systems, even transient failures are unacceptable. Gold’s resistance to oxidation and its stable performance across −40°C to 125°C enable designers to meet MIL-spec and IPC reliability standards. The material’s immunity to metal whisker formation, common in tin coatings, eliminates one of the most insidious causes of short-circuits in mission-critical electronics.

Automation and robotics equipment benefit from gold-plated tactile switches that deliver long electrical life and immunity to oxidation in high-cycle production environments. (Source: Shutterstock) Tackling common mechanical and electrical issues Contact bounce reduction

Mechanical contacts inherently produce bounce, a rapid, undesired make-or-break sequence that occurs as the metal contacts settle. Bounce introduces signal noise and may require software or hardware debouncing. Gold’s micro-smooth surface reduces surface asperities, shortening bounce duration and producing cleaner signal transitions. This improves response time and may simplify firmware filtering or eliminate RC snubber circuits.

Metal whisker mitigation

Tin and zinc surfaces can spontaneously grow metallic whiskers under stress, causing shorts or leakage currents. Gold plating’s crystalline structure is stable and does not support whisker growth, a key reliability advantage in fine-pitch or high-density electronics.

Thermal and mechanical stability

Gold has a low coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch with typical nickel underplates, minimizing stress during thermal cycling. It does not harden or crack under high temperatures, allowing switches to function consistently from cold-storage conditions (−55°C) to high-heat appliance environments (>125°C surface temperature).

Electrical characteristics: low-level signal switching

Many engineers underestimate how contact material impacts performance in low-current circuits. When switching below approximately 100 mA, oxide film resistance dominates contact behavior. Non-noble metals can form surface barriers that block electron tunneling, leading to contact resistance in the tens or hundreds of ohms. Gold’s stable surface keeps contact resistance in the 10- to 50-mΩ range throughout the product’s life.

Additionally, gold’s low and stable contact resistance minimizes contact noise, which can be especially important in digital logic and analog sensing circuits. For instance, in a patient monitoring device using microvolt-level signals, a transient resistance increase of just a few ohms can cause erroneous readings or false triggers. Gold plating ensures clean signal transmission even at the lowest currents.

Balancing cost and performance

It’s true that gold plating adds material and process costs. However, lifecycle analysis often reveals a compelling return on investment. In applications in which switch replacement or failure results in downtime, service calls, or warranty claims, the incremental cost of gold plating is negligible compared with the total system value.

Manufacturers help designers manage cost by offering hybrid switch portfolios. For example, C&K’s KMR, KSC, and KSR tactile switch families include both silver-plated and gold-plated versions. This allows designers to standardize on a footprint while selecting the appropriate contact material for each function: gold for logic-level or safety-critical inputs, silver for higher-current or less demanding tasks.

KSC2 Series tactile switches, available with gold-plated contacts, combine long electrical life and stable actuation in compact footprints for HVAC, security, and home automation applications. (Source: C&K Switches) Design considerations and best practices

When specifying gold-plated tactile switches, engineers should evaluate both electrical and environmental parameters to ensure the plating delivers full value:

• Current rating and load type: Gold excels in “dry circuit” switching below 100 mA. For higher currents (>200 mA), arcing can erode gold surfaces; mixed or dual plating (gold plus silver) may be more appropriate.
• Environmental sealing: Use sealed switch constructions (IP67 or higher) when exposure to fluids or contaminants is expected. This complements gold plating and extends operating life.
• Plating thickness: For harsh environments or long lifecycles (>1 million actuations), specify a thicker gold layer (≥0.5 µm). Thinner flash layers (0.1 µm) are adequate for indoor or low-stress use.
• Base metal compatibility: Always ensure the plating stack includes a nickel diffusion barrier to prevent copper migration.
• Mating surface design: Gold-to-gold contacts perform best. Avoid mixing gold with tin on the mating side, which can cause galvanic corrosion.
• Actuation force and feel: Gold’s lubricity affects tactile response slightly; designers should verify that chosen switches maintain the desired haptic feel across temperature and wear cycles.

By integrating these considerations early in the design process, engineers can prevent many reliability issues that otherwise surface late in validation or field deployment.

Lifecycle testing and qualification standards

High-reliability applications frequently require validation under standards such as:

• IEC 60512 (electromechanical component testing)
• MIL-DTL-83731F (for aerospace-grade switches)
• AEC-Q200 (automotive passive component qualification)

Gold-plated tactile switches often exceed these standards, maintaining consistent contact resistance after 105 to 106 mechanical actuations, temperature cycling, humidity exposure, and vibration. Some miniature switch series, such as the C&K KSC2 and KSC4 families, can endure as many as 5 million actuations, highlighting how material selection plays a critical role in overall system durability.

Practical benefits: From design efficiency to end-user experience

For engineers, specifying gold-plated tactile switches yields several tangible advantages:

• Reduced maintenance: Longer life and fewer field failures minimize warranty and service costs.
• Simplified circuit design: Low and stable contact resistance can eliminate the need for additional filtering or conditioning circuits.
• Enhanced system reliability: Predictable behavior across temperature, humidity, and lifecycle improves compliance with functional-safety standards such as ISO 26262 or IEC 60601.
• Improved user experience: Consistent tactile feel and reliable operation translate to higher perceived quality and brand reputation.

For the end user, these benefits manifest as confidence—buttons that always respond, equipment that lasts, and interfaces that feel precise even after years of use.

Designing for a connected, reliable future

As electronic systems become smarter, smaller, and more interconnected, tolerance for failure continues to shrink. A single faulty switch can disable a medical device, interrupt a network node, or halt an industrial process. Choosing gold-plated tactile switches is therefore not simply a materials decision; it’s a reliability strategy.

Gold’s unique combination of chemical inertness, electrical stability, and mechanical durability ensures consistent performance across millions of cycles and the harshest conditions. For design engineers striving to deliver long-lived, premium-quality products, gold plating provides both a technical safeguard and a competitive edge.

In the end, reliability begins at the contact surface—and when that surface is gold, the connection is built to last.

About the author

Michaela Schnelle is a senior associate product manager at Littelfuse, based in Bremen, Germany, covering the C&K tactile switches portfolio. She joined Littelfuse 16 years ago and works with customers and distributors worldwide to support design activities and new product introductions. She focuses on product positioning, training, and collaboration to help customers bring reliable designs to market.

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Wi-Fi 7 enters 2026 with a crucial announcement made at the CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Wi-Fi Alliance is introducing the 20-MHz device category for Wi-Fi 7, aimed at addressing the needs of the broader Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Add Wi-Fi 7’s multi-link IoT capability to this, and you have a more consistent, always‑connected experience for applications such as security cameras, video doorbells, alarm systems, medical devices, and HVAC systems.

The 802.11be standard, widely known as Wi-Fi 7, was drafted in 2024, and the formal standard followed in 2025. From Wi-Fi 1 to Wi-Fi 5, the focus was on increasing the connection’s data rate. But then the industry realized that a mere increase in speed wasn’t beneficial.

“The challenge shifted to managing traffic on the network as more devices were coming onto the network,” said Sivaram Trikutam, senior VP of wireless products at Infineon Technologies. “So, the focus in Wi-Fi 6 shifted toward increasing the efficiency of the network.”

The industry then took Wi-Fi 7 to the next level in terms of efficiency over the past two years, especially with the emergence of high-performance applications. The challenge shifted to how multiple devices on the network could share spectrum efficiently so they could all achieve a useful data rate.

The quest to support multiple devices, at the heart of Wi-Fi 7 design, eventually led to the Wi-Fi Alliance’s announcement that even a 20 MHz IoT device can now be certified as a Wi-Fi 7 device. The Wi-Fi 7 certification program, expanded to include 20-MHz IoT devices, could have a profound impact on this wireless technology’s future.

Figure 1 Wi-Fi 7 in access points and routers is expected to overtake Wi-Fi 6/6E in 2028. Source: Infineon

20-MHz IoT in Wi-Fi 7’s fold

Unlike notebooks and smartphones, 20-MHz devices don’t require a high data rate. IoT applications like door locks, thermostats, security cameras, and robotic vacuum cleaners need to be connected, but they don’t require gigabit data rates; they typically need 15 Mbps. What they demand is high-quality, reliable connectivity, as these devices sit at difficult locations from a wireless perspective.

At CES 2026, Infineon unveiled what it calls the industry’s first 20-MHz Wi-Fi 7 device for IoT applications. ACW741x, part of Infineon’s AIROC family of multi-protocol wireless chips, integrates a tri-radio encompassing Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth LE 6.0 with channel sounding, and IEEE 802.15.4 Thread with Matter ecosystem support in a single device.

Figure 2 ACW741x integrates radios for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth LE 6.0, and IEEE 802.15.4 Thread in a single chip. Source: Infineon

The ACW741x tri-radio chip also integrates wireless sensing capabilities, adding contextual awareness to IoT devices and facilitating home automation and personalization applications. Here, Wi-Fi Channel State Information (CSI) based on the 802.11bf standard enables enhanced Wi-Fi sensing with intelligence sharing between same-network devices. Next, channel sounding delivers accurate, secure, and low-power ranging with centimeter-level accuracy.

ACW741x is optimized for a 20-MHz design to support battery-operated applications such as security cameras, door locks, and thermostats that require ultra-low Wi-Fi-connected standby power. It bolsters link reliability with adaptive band switching to mitigate congestion and interference.

Adaptive band switching without disconnecting from the network opens the door to Wi-Fi 7 multi-link for IoT devices while maintaining concurrent links across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz frequency bands. ACW741x supports Wi-Fi 7 multi-link for IoT, enhancing robustness in congested environments.

Multi-link for IoT devices

Wi-Fi operates in three bands—2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz—and when a device connects to an access point, it must choose a band. Once connected, it cannot change it, even if that band gets congested. That will change in Wi-Fi 7, which connects virtually to all three bands with a single RF chain at no extra system cost.

Wi-Fi 7 operates in the best frequency band, enhancing robustness in congestion in home networks and interference across neighboring networks. “Multi-link for IoT allows establishing connections at all bands, and a device can dynamically select which band to use at a given point via active band switching without disconnecting from the networking,” said Trikutam. “And you can move from one band to another by disconnecting and reconnecting within 7 to 10 seconds.”

That’s crucial because the number of connected devices in a home is growing rapidly, from 10 to 15 devices after pandemic to more than 50 devices in 2025 in a U.S. and European home. Add this to the introduction of 20-MHz IoT devices in Wi-Fi 7’s fold, and you have a rosy picture for this wireless technology’s future.

Figure 3 Multi-link for IoT enables wireless connections across all three frequency bands. Source: Infineon

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, shipments of access points supporting the standard rose from 26.3 million in 2024 to a projected 66.5 million in 2025. And ABI Research projects that the transition to Wi-Fi 7 will accelerate further in 2026, with a forecast annual shipment number of Wi-Fi 7 access points at 117.9 million.

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• Europe Focuses on 6GHz Regulation, While Wi-Fi 7 Looms Beyond

The post CES 2026: Multi-link, 20-MHz IoT boost Wi-Fi 7 prospects appeared first on EDN.

Awareness of LiDAR and advanced laser technologies has grown significantly in recent years. This is in no small part due to their use in autonomous vehicles such as those from Waymo, Nuro, and Cruise, plus those from traditional brands such as Volvo, Mercedes, and Toyota. It’s also making its way into consumer applications; for example, the iPhone Pro (12 and up) includes a LiDAR scanner for time-of-flight (ToF) distance calculations.

The potential of LiDAR technologies extends beyond cars, including applications such as range-finding in golf and hunting sights. However, the nature of the technology used to power all these systems means that solutions currently on the market tend to be bulkier and more power-intensive than is ideal. Even within automotive, the cost, power consumption, and size of LiDAR modules continue to limit adoption.

Tesla, for example, has chosen to leave out LiDAR completely and rely primarily on vision cameras. Waymo does use LiDAR, but has reduced the number of sensors in its sixth-generation vehicles: from five to four.

Overcoming the known power and size limitations in LiDAR design is critical to enabling scalable, cost-effective adoption across markets. Doing so also creates the potential to develop new application sectors, such as bicycle traffic or blind-spot alerts.

In this article, we’ll examine the core technical challenges facing laser drivers that have tended to restrict wider use. We’ll also explore a new class of laser driver that is both smaller and significantly more power efficient, helping to address these issues.

Powering ToF laser drivers

The main power demand within a LiDAR module comes from the combination of the laser diode and its associated driver that together generate pulsed emissions in the visible or near-infrared spectrum. Depending on the application, the LiDAR may need to measure distances up to several hundred meters, which can require optical power of 100-200 W. Since the efficiency of the laser diodes is typically 20-30%, the peak driving power delivered to the laser must be around 1 kW.

On the other hand, the pulse duration must be short to ensure accuracy and adequate resolution, particularly for objects at close distances. In addition, since the peak optical power is high, limiting the pulse duration is critical to ensure the total energy conforms to health guidelines for eye safety. Fulfilling all these requirements typically calls for pulses of 5 ns or less.

Operating the laser thus requires the driver to switch a high current at extremely high speed. Standing in the designer’s way, the inductance associated with circuit connections, board parasitics, and bondwires of IC packages is enough to prevent the current from changing instantaneously.

These small parasitic inductances are intrinsic to the circuit and cannot be eliminated. However, by introducing a parallel capacitance, it is possible to create a resonant circuit that takes advantage of this inductance to achieve a short pulse duration. If the overall parasitic inductance is about 1 nH and the pulse duration is to be a few nanoseconds, the capacitance can be only a few nano Farads or less. With such a low value of capacitance, the applied voltage must be on the order of 100 V to achieve the desired peak power in the laser. This must be provided by boosting the available supply voltage.

Discrete laser driver

Figure 1 shows the circuit diagram for a resonant laser-diode driver, including the resonant capacitor (Csupply) and effective circuit inductance (Lbond). A boost regulator provides the high voltage needed to operate the resonant circuit.

Figure 1 Resonant gate driver and boost regulator, including the resonant capacitor (Csupply) and effective circuit inductance (Lbond). (Source: Silanna Semiconductor)

The circuit requires a boost voltage regulator, depicted as Boost voltage regulator (VR) in the diagram, to provide the high voltage needed at Csupply to deliver the required energy. The circuit as shown contains a discrete gate driver for the main switching transistor (FET), which must be controlled separately to generate the desired switching signals.

In addition, isolation resistance is needed between Cfilter and Csupply, shown in the diagram, to ensure the resonant circuit can operate properly. This is relatively inefficient, as no more than 50% of the energy is transferred from the filter side to Csupply.

Handheld equipment limitations

In smaller equipment types, such as handheld ranging devices and action cameras, the high voltage must be derived from a small battery of low nominal voltage—typically a 3-V CR2 or a 3.7-V (nominal voltage, up to 4.2 V) lithium battery—which is usually the main power source.

Figure 2 shows a comparable schematic for a laser-diode driver powered from a 3.7-V rechargeable lithium battery. Achieving the required voltage using a discrete boost VR and laser-diode driver is complex, and designers need to be very careful about efficiency.

Multiple step-up converters are often used, but efficiency drops rapidly. If two stages are used, each with an efficiency of 90%, the combined efficiency across the two stages is only 81%.

Figure 2 A laser driver operated from a rechargeable lithium battery, two stages are used for a combined efficiency of 80%. (Source: Silanna Semiconductor)

In addition, there are stringent constraints on enclosure size, and the devices are often sealed to prevent dust or water ingress. On the other hand, sealing also prevents cooling airflow, thereby making thermal management more difficult. In addition, high overall efficiency is essential to maximize battery life while ensuring the high optical power needed for long range and high accuracy.

Circuit layout and size

The high speeds and slew rates involved in making the LiDAR transmitter work call for proper consideration of circuit layout and component selection. A gallium nitride (GaN) transistor is typically preferred for its ability to support fast switching at high voltage compared to an ordinary silicon MOSFET. Careful attention to ground connections is also required to prevent voltage overshoots and ground bounce from disrupting proper transistor switching and potentially damaging the transistor.

Also, a compact module design is difficult to achieve due to efficiency limitations and thermal management challenges. The inefficiencies in the discrete circuit implementation mean operating at high power produces high losses and increased self-heating that can cause the operating temperature to rise. However, while short pulses can reduce the average thermal load, current slew rates must be extremely high. If this cannot be maintained consistently, extra losses, more heat, and degraded performance can result.

A heatsink is the preferred thermal management solution, although a large heatsink can be needed, leading to a larger overall module size and increased bill of materials cost. In addition, ensuring eye safety calls for a fast shutdown in the event of a circuit fault.

Bringing the boost stage, isolation, GaN FET driver, and control logic into a single compact IC (see Figure 3) achieves greater functional integration and offers a route to higher efficiency, smaller form factors, and enhanced safety through nanosecond-level fault response.

Figure 3 An integrated driver designed for resonant capacitor charging combines short pulse width with high power and efficiency. This circuit was implemented with Silanna SL2001 dual-output driver. (Source: Silanna Semiconductor)

While leveraging resonant-capacitor charging to achieve short, tightly controlled pulse duration, this integration avoids the energy losses incurred in the capacitor-to-capacitor transfer circuitry. The fault sensing and reporting can be brought on-chip, alongside these timing and control features.

This approach is seen in LiDAR driver ICs like the Silanna FirePower family, which integrate all the functions needed for charging and firing edge-emitting laser (EEL) or vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) resonant-mode laser diodes at sub-3-ns pulse width. Figure 4 shows how an experimental setup produced a 400-W pulse of 2.94 ns, operating with a capacitor voltage boosted to 120 V with a resonant capacitor value of 2.48 nF.

Figure 4 Test pulse produced using integrated driver and circuit configuration as in Figure 3. (Source: Silanna Semiconductor)

The driver maintains control of the resonant capacitor energy and eliminates any effects of input voltage fluctuations, while on-chip logic sets the output power and performs fault monitoring to ensure eye safety. The combined effects of advanced integration and accurate logic-based control can save 90% of charging power losses compared to a discrete implementation and realize an overall charging efficiency of 85%. The control logic and fault monitoring are configured through an I2C connection.

Of the two devices in this family, the SL2001 works with a supply voltage from 3 V to 24 V and provides a dual GaN/MOS drive that enables peak laser power greater than 1000 W with a pulse-repetition frequency up to several MHz. The second device, the SL2002, is a single-channel driver targeted for lower power applications and is optimized for low input voltage (3 V-6 V) operation. Working off a low supply voltage, this driver’s 80-V laser diode voltage and 1 MHz repetition rate are suited to handheld applications such as rangefinders and 3D mapping devices. Figure 5 shows how the SL2002 can simplify the driving circuit for a battery-operated ranging device powered from a 3.7 V lithium battery.

Figure 5 Simplified circuit diagram for low-voltage battery-operated ranging. (Source: Silanna Semiconductor)

Shrinking LiDAR modules

LiDAR has been a key component in the success of automated driving, working in conjunction with other sensors, including radar, cameras, and ultrasonic detectors, to complete the vehicle’s perception system. However, LiDAR modules must become smaller and more energy-efficient to earn their place in future vehicle generations and fulfil opportunities beyond the automotive sphere.

Focusing innovation on the laser-driving circuitry unlocks the path to next-generation LiDAR that is smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient than before. New, single-chip drivers that deliver high optical output power with tightly controlled, nanosecond pulse width enable LiDAR to address tomorrow’s cars as well as handheld devices such as rangefinders.

Ahsan Zaman is Director of Marketing at Silanna Semiconductor, Inc. for the FirePowerTM Laser Drivers line of products. He joined the company in 2018 through the acquisition of Appulse Power, a Toronto, Canada-based Startup company for AC-DC power supplies, where he was a co-founder and VP of Engineering. Prior to that, Ahsan received his B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2009, 2012, and 2015, respectively. He has more than a decade of experience in power converter architectures, mixed-signal IC design, low-volume and high-efficiency power management solutions for portable electronic devices, and advanced control methods for high-frequency switch-mode power supplies. Ahsan has previously collaborated with industry-leading semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm, TI, NXP, EXAR etc., and co-authored more than 20 IEEE conference and journal publications, and holds several patents in this field

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The post LiDAR’s power and size problem appeared first on EDN.

While Wi-Fi 7 adoption is accelerating among enterprises, Wi-Fi 8 routers and mesh systems could arrive as early as summer 2026. It’s important to note that the IEEE 802.11bn standard, widely known as Wi-Fi 8, is expected to be ratified in 2028. So, the gap between Wi-Fi 7’s launch and the potential availability of Wi-Fi 8 products in mid-2026 could shorten the typical cycle between Wi-Fi generations.

At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada, wireless chip vendors like Broadcom and MediaTek are unveiling their Wi-Fi silicon offerings. ASUS is also conducting real-world throughput tests of its Wi-Fi 8 concept routers at CES 2026.

Figure 1 Wi-Fi 8 aims to deliver a system-wide upgrade across speed, capacity, reach, and reliability. Source: Broadcom

Wi-Fi 8—aimed at boosting reliability and reducing latency in dense, interference-prone environments—marks a shift in Wi-Fi evolution. While Wi-Fi 8 maintains the same theoretical maximum data rate as Wi-Fi 7, it aims to improve effective throughput, reduce packet loss, and decrease latency for time-sensitive applications.

Another notable feature of Wi-Fi 8 designs is the incorporation of AI ingredients. Below is a short profile of an AI accelerator chip that claims to facilitate real-time agentic applications for residential consumers.

AI accelerator for Wi-Fi 8

Wi-Fi 8 proponents are quick to point out that it connects the wireless world with the AI future through highly reliable connectivity and low-latency responsiveness. Real-time, latency-sensitive applications are increasingly seeking to employ agentic AI, and for that, Wi-Fi 8 aims to prioritize consistent performance under challenging conditions.

Broadcom’s new accelerated processing unit (APU), unveiled at CES 2026, combines compute and networking ingredients with AI acceleration in a single silicon device. BCM4918—a system-on-chip (SoC) device blending compute acceleration, advanced networking, and security—aims to deliver high throughput, low latency, and intelligent optimization needed for the emerging AI-driven connected ecosystem.

The new AI accelerator for Wi-Fi 8 integrates a neural engine for on-device AI/ML inference and acceleration. It also incorporates networking engines to offload both wired and wireless data paths, enabling complete CPU bypass of all networking traffic. For built-in security, cryptographic protocol acceleration ensures end-to-end data protection without performance compromise.

“Our new BCM4918 APU, along with our full portfolio of Wi-Fi 8 chipsets, form the foundation of an AI-ready platform that not only enables immersive, intelligent user experiences but also does so with efficiency, security, and sustainability at its core,” said Mark Gonikberg, senior VP and GM of Broadcom’s Wireless and Broadband Communications Division.

Figure 2 When paired with BCM6714 and BCM6719 dual-band radios, BCM4918 APU allows designers to develop a unified compute-and-connectivity architecture. Source: Broadcom

AI compute plus connectivity

The BCM4918 APU is paired with two new dual-band Wi-Fi 8 radio devices: BCM6714 and BCM6719. While combining 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz operation into a single piece of silicon, these Wi-Fi 8 radios also feature on-chip 2.4-GHz power amplifiers, reducing external components and improving RF efficiency.

These dual-band radios, when paired with the BCM4918 APU, allow design engineers to quickly develop a unified compute-and-connectivity architecture that enables edge-AI processing, real-time optimization, and adaptive intelligence. The APU and dual-band radios for Wi-Fi 8 are now available to early access customers and partners.

Broadcom’s Gonikberg says that Wi-Fi 8 represents a turning point where broadband, connectivity, compute, and intelligence truly converge. The fact that it’s arriving ahead of schedule is a testament to its convergence merits, and that it’s more than a speed upgrade and could transform connection stability and responsiveness.

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The post CES 2026: Wi-Fi 8 silicon on the horizon with an AI touch appeared first on EDN.

Ages ago, humankind crawled out of the primordial analog ooze and began to do digital. They soon noticed and quantified a fundamental need to interconnect their new quantized numerical novelties with the classic continuum of the ancestral engineer’s world. Thus arose the ADC.

Of course, there were (and are) an abundance of ADC schemes and schematics. One of the earliest and simplest of these was the single-slope type.

Single slope ADCs come in two savory flavors. In one, a linear analog voltage ramp is generated and compared to the input signal. The time required for the ramp to rise from zero (or near) to equality with the input is proportional to the input’s amplitude and taken as its digital conversion. 

We recently saw an example contributed by Dr. Jordan Dimitrov to our own friendly Design Idea (DI) corner in “Voltage-to-period converter offers high linearity and fast operation.”

In a different cultivar of the single sloper, a capacitor is charged to the input voltage, then linearly ramped down to zero. The time required to do that is proportional to Vin and counts (pun!) as the conversion result. An (extremely!) simple and cheap example of this type was published here about two and a half years ago in “A “free” ADC.”

Wow the engineering world with your unique design: Design Ideas Submission Guide

While simple and cheap are undeniably good things, too much of a good thing is sometimes not such a good thing. The circuit in Figure 1 adds a few refinements (and a bit more cost) to that basic design in pursuit of an order of magnitude (or two) better accuracy and perhaps a bit more speed.

Figure 1 Simple speedy single-slope (SSSS) ADC biphasic conversion cycle.

Here’s how it works:

1. (CONVERT = 1) switch U1 charges C1 to Vin
2. (CONVERT = 0) C1 is linearly discharged by 100 µA current sourced by Z1Q1

Note: Z1, C1, and R2 should be precision types.

Conversion occurs in two phases, selected by one GPIO bit configured for output (CONVERT/ACQUIRE).

During the ACQUIRE (1) interval SPDT switch U1 connects integrator capacitor C1 to the input source, charging it to Vin. The acquisition time constant of the charging is:

C1(R sZ1+ U1 Ron, + Q2’s input impedance) = ~10 µs

To complete the charge to ½-lsb-precision at 12-bit resolution, this needs an ACQUIRE interval of:

10µs*loge(2(12+1)) = 90µs

The controlling microcontroller can then return CONVERT to zero, which switches the input side of C1 to ground, driving the base of the comparator transistor negative for a voltage step of –Vin, plus a “smidgen” (~12 mV).

This last is contributed by C2 to compensate for the zero offset that would otherwise accrue from Q2’s finite voltage gain and storage time.

Q1’s emergence from saturation drives INTEGRATE positive. Here it remains until the discharge of C1 is complete and Q1 turns back ON. This interval is:

Vin*C1 / 100µA = 200µs/v = 1-ms maximum

If the connected counter/peripheral runs at 20 MHz, then the max-count accumulation and conversion resolution will be 4000, or 11.97 bits.

This 1-ms, or ~12-bit, conversion cycle is sketched in Figure 2.  Note that good integral nonlinearity (INL) and differential nonlinearity (DNL) are inherent.

Figure 2 The SSSS ADC waveshapes. The ACQUIRE duration (12 bits) is 90 µs. The INTEGRATE duration is 1ms max (Vin C1 / Iq1 = 200 µs/V). Amplitude is 5 Vpp.

 Of course, not all signal sources will gracefully tolerate the loading imposed by this conversion sequence, and not all applications will find the tolerance of available LM4041 references and R1C1 adequately precise.

Figure 3 shows fixes for both of these limitations. A typical RRIO CMOS amplifier for A1 eliminates the input loading problem, and the R5 trim provides a convenient means for improving conversion calibration.

Figure 3 A1 input buffer unloads Vin, and R5 calibration trim improves accuracy.

Stephen Woodward’s relationship with EDN’s DI column goes back quite a long way. Over 100 submissions have been accepted since his first contribution back in 1974.

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The post Simple speedy single-slope ADC appeared first on EDN.

Amazon wisely doesn’t want naïve consumers poking around inside its high-voltage AC-switching devices. This engineer was also thwarted in his exploratory efforts…initially, at least.

Early last month, within a post detailing my forced-by-phaseout transition from Belkin’s Wemo smart plugs to TP-Link’s Kasa and Tapo devices, I mentioned that I’d originally considered a different successor:

Amazon was the first name that came to mind, but although its branded Smart Plug is highly rated, it’s only controllable via Alexa. I was looking for an ecosystem that, like Wemo, could be broadly managed, not only by the hardware supplier’s own app and cloud services but also by other smart home standards…

A curiosity-satisfying return-on-(minimal) investment

Even though I ended up going elsewhere, I still had a model #HD34BX Amazon Smart Plug sitting on my shelf. I’d bought it back in late November 2020 on sale for $4.99, 80% off the usual $24.99 price (and in response to, I’m guessing, per the purchase date, a Black Friday promotion). Regular readers already know what comes next: it’s teardown time!

Let’s start with some outer box shots, as usual (as with subsequent images), accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes:

Note that, per my prior writeup’s “specific hardware requirement that needed to be addressed,” it supports (or at least claims to) up to 15A of current:

• Input: 100-120V, 60 Hz, 15A Max
• Output:
  • 120V, 60 Hz, 15A, resistive load
  • 120V, 60 Hz, 10A, inductive load
  • 120V, 60 Hz, 1/2 HP, motor load
  • 120V, 60 Hz, TV-5, incandescent
• Operating Temperature: 0-35°C
• IP Rating: IP30

thereby being capable of power-controlling not only low-wattage lamps but also coffee makers, curling irons, and the like:

See that translucent strip of tape at the upper right?

Wave buh-bye to it; it’s time to look inside:

Nifty cardboard-based device-retention mechanism left over at the bottom:

The bottom left literature snippet is the usual warranty, regulatory and other gobbledygook:

The one at right is a wisp of a quick-start guide:

But neither of them, trust me I already realize, is the fundamental motivation for why you’re here today. Instead, it’s our dissection subject (why was I having flashbacks to the recently viewed and greatly enjoyed 2025 version of Frankenstein as I wrote those prior words?):

Underneath the hole at far left is an activity-and-status LED. And rotating the smart plug 90°:

there’s the companion switch, which not only allows for manual power control of whatever’s plugged into it but also initiates a factory reset when pressed and held for an extended period.

Around back are specs-and-such, including the always-insightful FCC ID (2ALBG-2017), along with the line (“hot”) and neutral source blades and ground pin (Type B NEMA 5-15 in this case):

In contrast to its left-side sibling, the right side is comparatively bland (i.e., to clarify, there’s nothing under the penny):

as are the bottom:

and the top, for that matter, unless you’re into faintly embossed Amazon logos:

Tenuous adhesive

My first (few…seeming few dozen…) attempts to get inside via the visible seam around the backside edges, trying out various implements of destruction in the process, were for naught:

Though the efforts weren’t completely wasted, as they motivated me to finally break out the Dremel set that had been sitting around unused and collecting dust since…yikes…mid-2005, my Amazon order history just informed me:

and which delivered ugly but effective results (albeit leaving the smart plug headed for nowhere but the landfill afterwards):

First step: unscrew and disconnect the wire going from the front panel socket’s load (“hot”) slot to the PCB (where it’s soldered):

Like I said before…ugly but effective:

At the top (in this photo, to the left when originally assembled) are the light pipe that routes the LED (yet to be seen but presumably on the PCB) output to the front panel, along with the mechanical assembly for the left-side switch:

You’ve already seen one top view of the insides, three photos ago. Here’s another, this time standalone and rotated:

And here are four of the five other perspectives; the back view will come later. Front:

Left side, showing the PCB-mounted portion of the switch assembly:

Right behind the switch is the outward-pointing LED whose location I’d just prognosticated:

Right side:

And bottom:

Electron routing and switching

Onward. The ground pin from the back panel routes directly to the front panel socket’s ground slot, not interacting with any intermediary circuitry en route:

You’ve probably already noticed that the “PCB” is actually a three-PCB assembly: smaller ones at top and bottom, both 90°-connected to the main one at the back. To detach the latter from the back chassis panel requires removal of another screw:

Houston, we have liftoff:

This is interesting, at least to me. The neutral wire is attached to its corresponding back-panel blade with a screw, albeit also to the PCB at other end with solder:

but the line (“hot”) wire is soldered at both ends:

This seemingly inconsistent approach likely makes complete sense to those of you more versed in power electronics than me; please share your thoughts in the comments. For now…snip:

Assuming, per my earlier comments, that you’ve already noticed the three-PCB assembly, you might have also noticed some white tape on both sides of the mini-PCB located at the bottom. Wondering what’s underneath it? Me too:

The answer: not much of anything!

What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

(At least) one more mystery to go. We’ve already seen plenty of predictable AC switching and AC-to-DC conversion circuitry, but where’s all the digital and RF stuff that controls the AC switching, along with wirelessly communicating with the outside world? For the answer, I’ll direct your attention to the mini-PCB at the top, which you may recall initially glimpsing earlier:

What you’re looking at on the other side is the WCBN4520R, a Wi-Fi-plus-Bluetooth Low Energy module discussed in-depth in an informative Home Assistant forum thread I found.

Forum participants had identified the PCB containing the module as the WN4520L from LITE-ON Technology, with Realtek’s RTL8821CSH single-chip wireless controller and Rockchip Electronics’ RKNanoD dual Arm Cortex-M3 microcontroller supposedly inside the module. But a different teardown I found right before finalizing this piece instead shows MediaTek’s MT7697N:

A highly integrated single chip offering an application processor, low power 1T1R 802.11 b/g/n Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth subsystem and power management unit. The application processor subsystem contains an ARM Cortex‑M4 with floating point unit. It also supports a range of interfaces including UART, I2C, SPI, I2S, PWM, IrDA, and auxiliary ADC. Plus, it includes embedded SRAM/ROM.

as the main IC inside the module, accompanied by a Macronix 25L3233F (PDF) 32 Mbit serial flash memory. I’m going with the latter chip inventory take. Regardless, to the left of the module is a visible silhouette of the PCB-embedded antenna, and there’s also a SMA connector on the board for tethering to an optional external antenna, not used in this particular design.

And there you have it! As always, sound off with your thoughts in the comments, please!

—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Magazine, where he still regularly contributes as a freelancer.

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The post Amazon’s Smart Plug: Getting inside requires more than just a tug appeared first on EDN.

Researchers in Japan have developed ultrathin ferroelectric capacitors that maintain strong polarization at a stack thickness of just 30 nm, including top and bottom electrodes. Using scandium-doped aluminum nitride films sandwiched between platinum electrodes, the team achieved high remanent polarization, demonstrating the potential for high-density, energy-efficient memory in compact electronic devices.

The work, led by Professor Hiroshi Funakubo of Science Tokyo in collaboration with Canon ANELVA, marks a departure from previous approaches that only thinned the ferroelectric layer. By optimizing the full capacitor stack—5-nm platinum bottom electrode, 20-nm (Al0.9Sc0.1)N ferroelectric layer, and 5-nm platinum top electrode—the researchers maintained robust ferroelectric performance while drastically reducing device size.

Key to the success was a post-heat treatment of the bottom platinum electrode at 840°C, which improved its crystal orientation and enhanced polarization switching in the ultrathin films. This process ensures that the scaled-down capacitors remain compatible with semiconductor integration, enabling on-chip embedding alongside logic circuits.

The breakthrough lays the groundwork for compact ferroelectric memories, such as FeRAM and ferroelectric tunnel junctions, for future IoT and mobile electronics. By further exploring alternative electrode materials and processing techniques, the team aims to create even more durable, energy-efficient, and miniaturized on-chip memory devices.

Full details on the research are available here.

Institute of Science Tokyo 

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Inturai Ventures, in partnership with cybersecurity firm PQStation, has unveiled quantum-safe encryption for connected devices across the defense, aged care, and home security sectors. Under the agreement, Inturai holds exclusive rights to deploy PQStation’s technology in these markets. The collaboration focused on securing MQTT traffic using post-quantum cryptography (PQC) on the ESP32 platform. Billions of devices worldwide run on the ESP32, a dual-core microcontroller SoC with integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Example ESP-32 device that can now run Post Quantum Secure. (CNW Group/Inturai Ventures Corp.)

The encryption was tested in two configurations: one using only post-quantum cryptography and another combining PQC with conventional security. Both approaches maintained strong performance, with low latency and minimal power impact, demonstrating that even small, low-power devices can operate securely against future quantum threats.

Governments across the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union are requiring post-quantum security upgrades to begin by 2026. In some jurisdictions, including Australia and the EU, critical sectors such as defense and healthcare must complete the transition as early as 2028.

This joint development with PQStation is central to Inturai’s mission to protect critical data in real-time sensor networks and positions the company to deploy quantum-safe protocols across critical sectors worldwide. Inturai expects significant benefits across its healthcare, drone, and military pipeline from this breakthrough, as the global ESP32 module market is projected to reach $4.6 billion by 2032 (Dataintelo).

Inturai Ventures  

PQStation

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Other World Computing (OWC) offers a fully certified 2-meter Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) cable for both Macs and PCs. Engineered with signal amplification, precision shielding, and end-to-end signal integrity, the cable delivers a long-length solution for workflows that require maximum speed, display performance, and power delivery—along with the full capabilities of Thunderbolt 5.

This extended-length cable joins the company’s lineup of 0.3-meter, 0.8-meter, and 1-meter Thunderbolt 5 cables. It is Thunderbolt-certified and validated by multiple independent testing labs to meet the complete Thunderbolt 5 specification, including:

• Up to 80-Gbps bidirectional data throughput
• Up to 120-Gbps video bandwidth for multi-display, high-performance workflows
• Up to 240-W power delivery
• Supports up to three 8K displays
• Fully compatible with Thunderbolt 5, 4, and 3, as well as USB4 and USB-C devices—universal for virtually any USB-C host or power/charging connection

The 2-meter Thunderbolt 5 cable costs $79.99 and is now available for pre-order, with delivery expected in early January 2026.

Other World Computing 

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Pico Technology has released a major upgrade to its PicoScope software, improving waveform capture, analysis, and measurement. Version 7.2 adds built-in features like waveform overlays and advanced serial filtering, enabling faster, clearer, and more efficient control of PicoScope PC-based instruments.

Waveform Overlays is a visualization tool that displays multiple waveform captures stacked in a single view. This feature makes it easier to spot intermittent glitches, jitter, and anomalies often missed in single-shot captures.

New serial decoding filters make it easy to pinpoint specific packets, data types, or date ranges without combing through long serial captures. These advanced filters work seamlessly across all 40 serial protocols supported by PicoScope 7.

To learn more about what’s new in PicoScope 7.2, click here. It is available as a free update for all existing and new PicoScope users on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

Pico Technology

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Based on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing IQ-X platform, Advantech’s three edge AI compute boards deliver up to 45 TOPS of AI acceleration for industrial applications. The AOM-6731 AI module, AIMB-293 mini-ITX motherboard, and SOM-6820 COM Express Type 6 module offer powerful processing alongside robust 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

Leveraging Oryon CPUs with up to 12 cores running as fast as 3.4 GHz, Dragonwing IQ-X enables rapid data handling and seamless multitasking while consuming up to three times less power than competing solutions. Single- and multithreaded compute performance is further enhanced by on-device Hexagon NPUs, bolstering AI capabilities. Integrated Adreno VPUs and GPUs support multimedia-intensive applications.

Onboard LPDDR5x memory achieves a 1.3× speed boost—from 6,400 MT/s to 8,533 MT/s—while reducing power consumption by 20% versus standard LPDDR5. UFS 3.1 Gear 4 storage increases data transfer speeds from 1,000 Mbps (PCIe Gen3 NVMe) to 16,000 Mbps. UFS 4.0 is also available for optimal performance in harsh industrial environments. 

Samples of the AOM-6731 AI module and SOM-6820 COM Express module are now available, while the AIMB-293 motherboard will be offered for engineering evaluations starting March 2026.

Advantech

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Older table-top AC-DC radios used a classic line-up of tubes. Think 12SA7, 12SK7,12SQ7, 35Z5GT, and 50L6GT. As I grew into my teens, I got interested in how these radios worked and soon discovered that their vacuum tubes could get very hot, especially the last two, the half-wave rectifier (35Z5GT) and the beam power tetrode audio output stage (50L6GT).

One day, I carelessly allowed a window curtain to brush against a hot 50L6GT, and the fabric of that curtain actually melted. Mom was not thrilled.

With that history still fresh in mind, I later came across another vacuum tube called the 117L7/M7GT whose data sheet looked much like this:

Figure 1 A datasheet for the 117L7/M7GT with the two hottest tube functions from previously studied radios in a single unit. 

This thing was scary!

The two hottest tube functions from the radios I’d been studying were combined into one device. Both functions were placed within a single glass envelope vacuum tube.

Take a look at these guys:

Figure 2 Two 117L7/M7GT tubes combining the heat of the beam power tube and the rectifier tube within a single glass envelope.

Imagine the combined heat of the beam power tube and the rectifier tube within a single glass envelope. If the one tube that damaged Mom’s window curtain was thermally dangerous, I cringe to think how hot these tubes could get and what damage they might be capable of causing.

I still shudder at the thought.

John Dunn is an electronics consultant and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).

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• Is There Still a Vacuum Tube in Your Future?

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A year back, this engineer titled his 2024 retrospective “interconnected themes galore”. That said, both new and expanded connections can sometimes lead to chaotic results, yes?

As any of you who’ve already seen my precursor “2026 Look Ahead” piece may remember, we’ve intentionally flipped the ordering of my two end-of-year writeups once again this year. This time, I’ll be looking back over 2025: for historical perspective, here are my prior retrospectives for 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 (we skipped 2020).

As I’ve done in past years, I thought I’d start by scoring the key topics I wrote about a year ago in forecasting the year to come:

• The 2024 United States election (outcome, that is)
• Ongoing unpredictable geopolitical tensions, and
• AI: Will transformation counteract diminishing ROI?

Maybe I’m just biased, but in retrospect, I think I nailed ‘em all as being particularly impactful. In the sections that follow, I’m going to elaborate on several of the above themes, as well as discuss other topics that didn’t make my year-ago forecast but ended up being particularly notable (IMHO, of course).

Tariffs, constrained shipments, and government investments

A significant portion of the initial “2024 United States election outcome” section in my year-back look-ahead piece was devoted to the likely potential for rapidly-announced significant tariffs by the new U.S. administration against various other countries, both import- and export-based in nature, and both “blanket” and product-specific, as well as for predictable reactive tariffs and shipment constraints by those other countries in response.

And indeed this all came to pass, most notably with the “Liberation Day” Executive Order-packaged suite of import duties issued on April 2, 2025, many of which were subsequently amended (multiple times in a number of cases) in the subsequent months in response to other countries’ tit-for-tat reactions, trade agreements, and other détente cooling-off measures, and the like.

My point in bringing this all up, echoing what I wrote a year back (as well as both the month and the year before that), is not to be political. As I’ve written several times before:

I have not (and will not) reveal personal opinions on any of this.

and I will again “stay the course” this time. Whether or not tariffs are wise or, for that matter, were even legally issued as-is are decisions for the Supreme Court (near term) and the voters (eventually) to decide. So then why do I mention it at all? Another requote:

Americans are accused of inappropriately acting as if their country and its citizens are the “center of the world”. That said, the United States’ policies, economy, events, and trends inarguably do notably affect those of its allies, foes and other countries and entities, as well as the world at large, which is why I’m including this particular entry in my list.

This time, I’m going to focus on a couple of different angles on the topic. Maybe your company sells its products and/or services only within the country in which it’s headquartered. Or maybe, on the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s a multinational corporation with divisions scattered around the world. Or any point in between these spectrum extremes.

Regardless (and regardless too of whether or not it’s a U.S.-headquartered company), both the tariff and shipment-restriction policies of the U.S. and other countries will undoubtedly and notably affect your business strategies.

Unfortunately, though, while such tariff and restriction policies can be issued, amended, and rescinded “on a dime”, your company’s strategies inherently can’t be even close to as nimble, no matter how you aspire to both proactively and reactively structure your organization and its associated supply chains.

As I write these words I’m reminded, for example, of a segment I saw in a PBS NewsHour episode last weekend that discussed (among other things) Christmas goods suppliers’ financial results impacts of tariffs, along with the just-in-case speculative stockpiling they began doing a year ago in preparation (conceptually echoing my own “Chi-Fi” pre-tariff purchases at the beginning of 2025):

The other angle on the issue that I’d like to highlight involves the increasingly prevalent direct government involvement in companies’ financial fortunes.

Back in August, for example, just two weeks after initially demanding that Intel’s new CEO resign due to the perception of improper conflicts involving Chinese companies, the Trump administration announced that it was instead converting prior approved CHIPS Act funding for Intel into stock purchases, effectively transforming the U.S. into a ~10% Intel shareholder.

More recently, NVIDIA was once again approved to ship its prior-generation H200 AI accelerators into China…in exchange for the U.S. getting a 25% share of the resultant sales revenue, and following up on broader 15%-revenue-share agreements made by both AMD and NVIDIA back in August in exchange for securing China-export licenses.

And President Trump has already publicly stated that such equity and revenue-sharing arrangements, potentially broadening to also include other U.S. companies, will increasingly be the norm versus the exception in the future. Again, wise or not? I’ll keep my own opinions to myself and rely on time to answer that one. For now, I’ll just say…different.

Robotaxis

Waymo is on a roll. The Google-sibling Alphabet subsidiary now blankets not only San Francisco, California (where its usage by customers is increasingly the norm versus a novelty exception) but large chunks of the broader Silicon Valley region, now including freeways and airports.

It’s also currently offering full service in Los Angeles, Phoenix (AZ), and Austin (TX) as I write these words in late December 2025, with active testing underway in roughly a dozen more U.S. municipalities, plus Japan and the UK, and with already-announced near-term service plans in around a dozen more. As Wikipedia notes:

As of November 2025, Waymo has 2,500 robotaxis in service. As of December 2025, Waymo is offering 450,000 paid rides per week. By the end of 2026, Waymo aims towards increasing this to 1 million taxi rides a week and are laying the groundwork to expand to over 20 cities, including London and Tokyo, up from the current six.

And this is key: these are fully autonomous vehicles, with no human operators inside (albeit still with remote human monitors who can, as needed, take over manual control):

Problem-free? Not exactly. Just in the few weeks prior to my writing these words, several animals have been hit, a Waymo car has wandered into an active police-presence scene, and they more generally haven’t seemingly figured out yet how to appropriately respond to school buses signaling they’re in the process of actively picking up and/or dropping off passengers.

So not perfect: those are the absolute statistics. But what about relative metrics?

Again and again, in data published both by Waymo (therefore understandably suspect) and independent observers and agencies, autonomous vehicles are seen as notably safer, both for occupants and the environment around them, than those piloted by humans…and the disparity is only growing in self-driving vehicles’ favor over time. And in China, for example, the robotaxi programs are, if anything, even more aggressive from both testing and active deployment standpoints.

To that last point, I’ll conclude this section with another note on this topic. In fairness, I feel compelled to give Tesla rare but justified kudos for finally kicking off the rollout of its own robotaxi service mid-year in Austin, after multiple yearly iterations of promises followed by delays.

Just a few days ago, as I write this, in fact, the company began testing without human monitors in the front seats (not that they were effective anyway, in at least one instance).

Agentic AI

In the subhead for my late-May Microsoft Build 2025 conference coverage, I sarcastically noted:

What is “agentic AI”? This engineer says: “I dunno, either.”

Snark aside, I truthfully already had at least some idea of what the “agentic web”, noted in the body text of that same writeup as an example of the trendy lingo that our industry is prone to exuberantly (albeit only impermanently) spew, meant. And I’ve certainly learned much more about it in the intervening months. Here’s what Wikipedia says about AI agents in its topic intro:

In the context of generative artificial intelligence, AI agents (also referred to as compound AI systems or agentic AI) are a class of intelligent agents distinguished by their ability to operate autonomously in complex environments. Agentic AI tools prioritize decision-making over content creation and do not require human prompts or continuous oversight.

And what about the aforementioned broader category of intelligent agents, of which AI agents are a subset? Glad you asked:

In artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent is an entity that perceives its environment, takes actions autonomously to achieve goals, and may improve its performance through machine learning or by acquiring knowledge. AI textbooks define artificial intelligence as the “study and design of intelligent agents,” emphasizing that goal-directed behavior is central to intelligence. A specialized subset of intelligent agents, agentic AI (also known as an AI agent or simply agent), expands this concept by proactively pursuing goals, making decisions, and taking actions over extended periods.

A recent post on Google’s Cloud Blog included, I thought, I concise summary of the aspiration:

“Agentic workflows” represent the next logical step in AI, where models don’t just respond to a single prompt but execute complex, multi-step tasks. An AI agent might be asked to “plan a trip to Paris,” requiring it to perform dozens of interconnected operations: browsing for flights, checking hotel availability, comparing reviews, and mapping locations. Each of these steps is an inference operation, creating a cascade of requests that must be orchestrated across different systems.

Key to the “interconnected operations” that are “orchestrated across different systems” is MCP, the open-source Model Context Protocol, which I highlighted in my late-May coverage. Originally created by two developers at Anthropic and subsequently announced by the company in late 2024, it’s now regularly referred to as “USB-C for AI” and has been broadly embraced and adopted by numerous organizations and their technologies and products.

Long-term trend aside, my decision to include agentic AI in my year-end list was notably influenced by the fact that agents (specifically) and AI chatbots (more generally) are already being widely implemented by developers as well as, notably, adopted by the masses. OpenAI recently added an AI holiday shopping research feature to its ChatGPT chatbot, for example, hot on the heels of competitor Google’s own encouragement to “Let AI do the hard parts of your holiday shopping”. And what of Amazon’s own Rufus AI service? Here’s TechCrunch’s beginning-of-December take on Amazon’s just-announced results:

On Black Friday, Amazon sessions that resulted in a sale were up 100% in the U.S. when the AI chatbot Rufus was used. They only increased by 20% when Rufus wasn’t used. 

Trust a hallucination- and bias-prone deep learning model to pick out presents for myself and others? Not me. But I’m guessing that both to some degree now, and increasingly in the future, I’ll be in the minority.

Humanoid Robots

By now, I’m sure that many of you have already auditioned at least one (and if you’re like me, countless examples) of the entertaining and awe-inspiring videos published by Boston Dynamics over the years (and by the way, if you’ve ever wondered why the company was subsequently acquired by Hyundai, this excellent recent IEEE Spectrum coverage of the company’s increasingly robotics-dominated vehicle manufacturing plant in Georgia is a highly recommended read). While early showcased examples such as Spot were, as its name reflects, reminiscent of dogs and other animals (assuming they had structural relevance to anything at all, that is…hold that thought), the company’s newer Atlas, along with examples from a growing list of other companies, is distinctly humanoid-reminiscent. Quoting from Wikipedia:

A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments and working alongside humans, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other purposes. In general, humanoid robots have a torso, a head, two arms, and two legs, though some humanoid robots may replicate only part of the body. Androids are humanoid robots built to more closely resemble the human physique. (The term Gynoid is sometimes used for those that resemble women.)

As Wikipedia notes, part of the motivation for this trend is the fact that the modern world has been constructed with the human body in mind, and it’s therefore more straightforward from a robotics-inclusion standpoint to create automotons that mimic their human creators (and forebears?) than to adapt the environment to more optimally suit other robot form factors. Plus, I’m sure that at least some developers are rationalizing that robots that resemble humans are more likely to be accepted alongside humans, both in the workplace and in the home.

Still, I wonder how much sub-optimization of the overall robotic implementation potential is occurring in pursuit of this seeming single-minded human mimicking aspiration. I wonder, too, how much influence early robot examples in entertainment, such as Rosie (or Rosey) from The Jetsons or Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, have had in shaping the early thinking of children destined to be engineers when they grew up. And from a practical financial standpoint, given the large number of humanoid robot examples coming from China alone, I can’t help but wonder just how many “androids” (the robot, not the operating system) the world really needs, and how massive the looming corporate weeding-out may be as a result.

Unforeseen acquisitions

This last one might not have been seismically impactful from a broad industry standpoint…or then again, it may end up being so, both for Qualcomm and its competitors. Regardless, I’m including it because it personally rocked me back on my heels when I heard the news. In early October, Qualcomm announced its intention to acquire Arduino. For those of you not already familiar with Arduino, here’s Wikipedia’s intro:

Arduino is an Italian open-source hardware and software company…that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed under a CC BY-SA license, while the software is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) or the GNU General Public License (GPL), permitting the manufacture of Arduino boards and software distribution by anyone.

First fruits of the merger are the UNO Q, a “next-generation single board computer featuring a “dual brain” architecture—a Linux Debian-capable microprocessor and a real-time microcontroller—to bridge high-performance computing with real-time control” and “powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 processor running a full Linux environment”, and the Arduino App Lab, an “integrated development environment built to unify the Arduino development journey across Real-time OS, Linux, Python and AI flows.”

So, what’s the background to my surprise? This excerpt from IEEE Spectrum’s as-usual thorough coverage sums it up nicely: “Even so, the acquisition seems odd at first glance. Qualcomm sells expensive, high-performance SoC designs meant for flagship smartphones and PCs. Arduino sells microcontroller boards that often cost less than a large cheese pizza.”

Not to mention that Qualcomm’s historical customer base is comparatively small in number, large in per-customer volume, and rapid in each customer’s generational-uptake silicon churn, the exact opposite of Arduino’s typical customer profile (or that of Raspberry Pi, for that matter, who’s undoubtedly also “curious” about the acquisition and its outcome).

Auld Lang Syne (again)

I’m writing this in late December 2025. You’ll presumably be reading it sometime in January 2026, given that I’m targeting New Year’s Day publication for it. I’ll split the difference and, as I did last year, wrap up by first wishing you all a Happy New Year!

As usual, I originally planned to cover a number of additional topics in this piece. But (also) as usual, I ended up with more things that I wanted to write about than I had a reasonable wordcount budget to do so. Having just passed through 2,700 words, I’m going to restrain myself and wrap up, saving the additional topics (as well as updates on the ones I’ve explored here) for dedicated blog posts to come in the coming year(s). Let me know your thoughts on my top-topic selections, as well as what your list would have looked like, in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Magazine, where he still regularly contributes as a freelancer.

Related Content

• 2024: A year’s worth of interconnected themes galore
• 2023: Is it just me, or was this year especially crazy?
• A tech look back at 2022: We can’t go back (and why would we want to?)
• A 2021 technology retrospective: Strange days indeed
• 10 consumer technology breakthroughs from 2019
• 2026 Look Ahead

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