Applied Embedded Electronics

Embedded controller electronics are at the heart of virtually all modern electronic devices today with a market of more than $86 billion per year and growing. To serve the needs of designers creating products for this huge market, this practical book covers topics crucial for modern electronics design.

Author Jerry Twomey examines the methods necessary to help you create a trouble-free integrated system for your product, with an emphasis on hardware design. You’ll explore topics from the perspective of real-world applications, including discussions about non-ideal components, noise, and methods for avoiding problematic scenarios.

Topics include:

• Ideal versus actual connections, components, digital, signals
• Architecting an embedded system
• Digital interface selection by application, speed, distance
• Multivoltage power supplies
• High frequency power integrity
• Battery and charging systems
• EMI reduction and ESD protection
• Driving and sensing peripherals
• Digital feedback control
• Optimization of power consumption and cost
• Specialty systems: medical, industrial, aerospace
• PCB design including manufacturability, yield, and low noise
• This book guides you through all of the techniques listed, which are required for a reliable integrated system. Through extensive illustrations and minimal equations, anyone with an interest in electronics will quickly grasp the ideas discussed.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Essential Concepts

Chapter 2. Architecting the System

Chapter 3. Robust Digital Communication

Chapter 4. Power Systems

Chapter 5. Battery Power

Chapter 6. Electromagnetic Interference and Electrostatic Discharge

Chapter 7. Data Converters: ADCs and DACs

Chapter 8. Driving Peripheral Devices

Chapter 9. Sensing Peripheral Devices

Chapter 10. Digital Feedback Control

Chapter 11 . Schematic to PCB

Chapter 12. Software and Coding

Chapter 13. Special Systems and Applications

Chapter 14. Creating Great Products

Why I Wrote This Book

Whereas most academic textbooks cover the ideal theory of electronics, the approach here is centered on design methods that work in the challenging environment of real-world devices.

The topics were motivated by my experiences troubleshooting unreliable and problematic devices for many clients. The book sprang from my revisions of deficient electronics and my coaching sessions with designers on important issues that must be addressed to develop reliable products. Many such incidents motivated me to publish a series of trade magazine articles dealing with related topics, and the need for this book became evident.

Who This Book Is For

This book is a reference for engineers, scientists, and other designers who want to create an electronic system. The term applied embedded electronics covers a wide swath of devices that includes embedded controllers, cell phones, medical instruments, computers and tablets, all consumer electronics, industrial robots, automation systems, and countless others. All electronic devices that use digital control methods also fall under this broad heading.

The topics covered here are common to all of these devices. The emphasis here is on hardware design—the actual circuits and systems—with a brief look at coding and software issues.

The reader is presumed to have a background in engineering or science and a grasp of fundamental electronics.

About the Author

Jerry Twomey has designed many consumer, medical, aerospace, and commercial products, including high-speed data communication, satellite chipsets, medical instrumentation, cell phones, RF devices, and more. He has experience designing ICs, PCBs, and systems and has developed the design techniques necessary for reliable electronics.