November 11. 2015, ARM Techcon, Santa Clara,CA—Cole Li from DSP Concepts presented information on advanced microphone processing on ARM processors. The growing number of devices that include microphones requires better understanding of mike characteristics and how to process their signals. Mikes are not only in phones and tablets, but are moving into automotive and IoT…
December 16, 2014, IEDM, San Francisco—Ken Chang from Xilinx described their efforts in designing and characterizing analog sub-functions in advanced node CMOS technologies. The high device parametric variability of active and passive devices requires specialized design techniques for stable, high-performance circuits. The increasing speeds for data transmission is affecting storage, and computer architectures. Scaling process…
December 15, 2014, IEDM, San Francisco—Philip Feng from Case Western Reserve University presented results of experiments with NEMS devices as the frequency setting mechanism for RF oscillators. As many devices need an accurate clock, the NEMS devices offer high resolution and good sensitivity to tuning effects. The march of miniaturization is pushing the limits for…
October 11, 2014, Audio Engineering Society Convention, Los Angeles—Steve Bush from Meyer Sound talked about the tools and techniques to choose the right speaker for an installation. The three basic requirements are to get the right speaker, put the speaker(s) in the right place, and point the speakers in the right direction. The first…
October 9, 2014, Audio Engineering Society Convention, Los Angeles—Floyd Toole talked about changes in venues and sound systems, and the emerging science to characterize the loudspeakers to be best suited for those areas. Most speakers are measured in anechoic chambers with a single mike, which differs very dramatically from real installations and our ability to…
September 16, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—Min Gyu Kim from Broadcom described their work in designing a high-dynamic range with low noise and distortion headphone driver. Among the other design constraints, they also had to make the part run on very low power to address the needs of portable device users for…