Mastering breakdown voltage in semiconductors under thermal and material tress

Breakdown voltage stands as a pivotal parameter in the realm of power module design and application - a make-or-break factor that can define success. This intricate topic is rich with nuances, and I’m offering you a clear, comprehensive guide to mastering its complexities and designing power modules that perform flawlessly.

1 What is a breakdown voltage anyway?

The breakdown voltage (sometimes described as withstand voltage) is the maximum reverse voltage of a semiconductor device - like a diode, triac or IGBT power transistor - can withstand across its terminals before it fails, allowing a sudden, uncontrolled surge of current. Simply said: a short circuit. Breakdown voltage of a semiconductor is fundamentally tied to the material’s intrinsic properties, like its bandgap and dielectric strength and is highly related to temperature:

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Mastering Real-Time measurements with Raspberry PI

In my previous post, I shared an exciting idea for a PID controller design, that was powered by randomly generated test data within a specific range. The testing phase is now wrapping up, and I’m satisfied with the results! It’s time to connect this code to a real-world data source - like the pH probe I mentioned earlier. However, there is one critical requirement for the probe and its measurement circuits to function correctly: a complete galvanic isolation from the rest of the system. This is due to the low voltages and incredibly high input impedance involved. On the analog side, I used a voltage-to-frequency (V/F) converter to drive an optocoupler: the changing pH value corresponds to a varying pulse frequency.
 
For the sake of measurement accuracy (and, by extension, effective regulation), I wanted to collect as many samples as possible using a hardware interrupt, where each sample’s value reflects the pulse duration.

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PID Input signal processing

Recently I have been working on a PID controller class that I could use for my QT projects. While coding I realized that I was dealing with a rather interesting issue related to signal theory that I think is worth discussing.

A typical PID controller is controlled by a time interval dt, after which the actual input value is checked against the setpoint and the previous cycle's input value and the system response is calculated. From my experience I know that this is where the first problem related to the inertia of the actual value measurement system arise.

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Developing process of embedded system

Quite often I am surprised with euphoria, whenever a new generation of microcontrollers appears on the market. At a given moment, it becomes the object of desire to all kind of influencers, and none of them wants to miss the opportunity to boast having it in their workshop or to publish a content related to its capabilities.

In the world of a serious embedded developers, a knowledge of the market trending is just one of the factors, not necessarily the very important one.

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I've used malloc() on this
I've used malloc() on this

malloc() - a curse or a blessing?

A quite common opinion amongst the embedded developers is that using malloc() function should be avoided in code. They tend to point, that a very limited RAM memory resources don't go together with memory allocation features. Is this opinion correct? Let me address this topic below.

One of my recent designs was a fertilizer mixer controller that is used to be mixing fertilizers and acid with water to achieve the requested electroconductivity and pH of a water that is being fed to the plants into field. I've made a quick research what options should such a device offer and one of them was a recipe selection based on timetables, and for a developer it's clear to realize, the RTC clock should be involved.

Read more: malloc() - a curse or a blessing?