MEP EP#260: A Couple Months Ago...

MEP EP#260: A Couple Months Ago...
Parker

Homebrew going big

Uncle runs a brewpub down in Alvin, Tx
Going to help him repair and rebuild the brewery for post COVID
Building more electrical boxes

Chip shortages hit even as auto chip sales climb

Ford and Fiat Chrysler are temporarily closing factories due to limited supplies of electronic components that are used in displays and transmissions
Apple wants to make a self-driving electric car by 2024
VLSI Research report

4th quarter auto chip sales improved by 30% over the third quarter, reaching $6.2 billion
Which is 11% above fourth quarter in 2019
Overall auto IC sales for 2020 were down about 6.4% from 2019

Tesla may be the best example of what happened in 2020, reaching sales of 499,000 new cars in all of 2020, an increase of 36%

Stephen

Searching for components kind of sucks sometimes. New idea for making this easier

Connectors
LDOs and other ICs
Simple search removal that doesn't require that the engineer perform their own logic to reach the “perfect part”
No More lists or excel sheets - Savable searches

Watch out for datasheet marketing wank…

TL052 precision voltage reference circuit
MCP1501T-30E/CHY
Opamp calls out max 80mA per channel and 160mA per chip...with low offset the best of all worlds!
Circuit works well in multiple designs but new one craps the bed
Got to pay attention to those charts - this is actually slightly worse than a normal opamp…..
Solution is to transistor buffer