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Texas Instruments' Bill Klein Signal Chain

Basics Articles
By Chris
Created 08/04/2008 - 12:08

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Texas Instruments' Bill Klein Signal Chain Basics Articles

Texas Instruments' Bill Klein Signal Chain Basics Articles

Hello, I'm Bill Klein, Senior Applications Engineer with Texas Instruments, a high performance
analog. I am appearing here to introduce you series of articles I'll be writing for Planet Analog
[1]. The series' title is Signal Chain Basics. My involvement with Analog Signal Chain
Processing begin in 1970 with the analog specialist at Company called Burn Brown
Corporation, now Texas Instruments.The state-of-the-art then, as now, can be summarized in
these three P: Package, Price, Performance.
The signal chain is made up of analog and mix signal processing circuit elements that
interface real world signals to a digital system or processor. This collection of circuit elements
may receive a sensor output and provide a digital representation of that signal to a processor
or take a digital representation of a signal and condition it to drive a real world device. The
high performance operation amplifier of the earlier 1970's came as a blacky paxy cube with
dimensions of one inch or more on each side, at a price usually above 50$ and has modest
performance by today's standards. All of these measures have changed radically. The

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Texas Instruments' Bill Klein Signal Chain Basics Articles http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51731

package value has decreased from one cubic inch or more to less than to one thousandth of
a cubic inch. The 50$ price tag was in 1970 dollar which will be equal to over 250$ in today's
value. The performance specification have also improved greatly. With all of the changes in
the three P description we have seen the underline basics have not changed. The circuit
functions in descriptive mathematical models I learned and used in the earlier 1970's and all
of the years since, are just as valued today and will continue to be so in the future. The series
will start by developing to descriptive equation for an operation amplifier and continue using
this building block to develop more complex signal chain elements. The subject matter will
expand to include those devices necessary to support the primary signal chain.
I'm looking forward to writing these series and reading the comments from you, the reader.
Look for a new article on Planet Analog [1], the first and third Monday of each month. And
remember, the real world is analog!

Trademarks

Source URL: http://dev.emcelettronica.com/texas-instruments-bill-klein-signal-chain-basics-articles

Links:
[1] http://www.planetanalog.com/features/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202801320

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