We have all had difficulty testing diodes in-circuit. Most DMM’s have a diode Vf function that measures forward drop, but what is the normal voltage drop? Analog VOM’s attempt to measure resistance of ...

To measure a zener diode’s breakdown voltage, you need a dc voltage source whose voltage exceeds that of the zener voltage. In Figure 1, resistor R SER provides voltage drop between V IN and V ZEN. In ...

In the first part of this series, we took a look at a “toy” negative-differential-resistance circuit made from two ordinary transistors. Although this circuit allows experimentation with ...

Snubbers play an important role in switch-mode power supplies. To understand use of the snubber, we have to look at the performance of a switch-mode power supply. Fig. 1. RCD and R2CD snubbers for ON ...

Guest columnist Dale Cigoy, lead applications engineer at Keithley Instruments, outlines how an understanding of the challenges for testing capacitors can be invaluable to engineers. Capacitors are ...