Volume 41, Number 3, 2007 A forum for the exchange of circuits, systems, and software for real-world signal processing In This Issue Editors’ Notes . 2 If All Else Fails, Read This Article—Avoid Common Problems When Designing Amplifier Circuits. 3 Product Introductions and Authors . 7 40 Years of Analog Dialogue, Featuring the Authors . 8 8-Channel, 12-Bit, 10-MSPS to 50-MSPS Front End: The AD9271—A Revolutionary Solution for Portable Ultrasound. 10 Toward More-Compact Digital Microphones . 13 www.analog.com/analogdialogue Editors’ Notes Some possible areas for research include underground and IN THIS ISSUE underwater radio antennas, RFID-radar, black hole antennas, and Modern op amps and in-amps provide great NIST WWVB radio broadcasts. More information can be found benefits to the designer, and a great many at the Location Challenge (http://www.wearablesmartsensors. clever, useful, and tempting circuit applications com/location_challenge.html). have been published. But all too often, in one’s Do any of your readers have an idea that no one has yet thought of? haste to assemble a circuit, some very basic issues are overlooked, leading to the circuit not Bob Paddock [
[email protected]] functioning as expected—or perhaps at all. The Dan Chimes In article on page 3, destined to be a classic, will A productive place to start may be with locating tunnels used discuss a few of the most common application problems and suggest by escaping convicts, terrorists, and smugglers of dope, other practical solutions. contraband, and people. As a medium for R&D, there are many Medical ultrasound systems, among the more complex signal processing more of them to be found, and if we can solve that problem, it devices in use today, are used for real-time detection of health problems may be a big step toward locating the (less frequently) lost miners.