TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS

CIRCUIT CELLAR

Since June 2007, Robert Lacoste, founder and director of ALCIOM, is also Contributing Editor of Circuit Cellar US magazine, through a bimonthly column : The Darker Side. This column is devoted to subjects more or less considered as back magic. The last published articles :

  • April 2022, Circuit Cellar (#381) : The Darker Side – The 100th! 15 Years, Fearless and Fun
  • February 2022, Circuit Cellar (#379) : The Darker Side – RF Location Techniques
  • December 2021, Circuit Cellar (#377) : The Darker Side – Playing with I-V Curves
  • October 2021, Circuit Cellar (#375) : The Darker Side – Blocking and Interference Rejection
  • August 2021, Circuit Cellar (#373) : The Darker Side – Three-Phase Electric Power
  • June 2021, Circuit Cellar (#371) : The Darker Side – Understanding Proper PCB Design (Part 3)
  • April 2021, Circuit Cellar (#369) : The Darker Side – Understanding Proper PCB Design (Part 2)
  • February 2021, Circuit Cellar (#367) : The Darker Side – Understanding Proper PCB Design (Part 1)
  • December 2020, Circuit Cellar (#365) : The Darker Side – Voltage-Level Translation Techniques
  • October 2020, Circuit Cellar (#363) : The Darker Side – An Introduction to Stub Filters
  • August 2020, Circuit Cellar (#361) : The Darker Side – Making Heads or Tails of RMS Measurements
  • June 2020, Circuit Cellar (#359) : The Darker Side – A Look at Homemade TCXOs
  • April 2020, Circuit Cellar (#357) : The Darker Side – DSS in a Nutshell
  • February 2020, Circuit Cellar (#355) : The Darker Side – Group Delay Basics
  • December 2019, Circuit Cellar (#353) : The Darker Side – Near-Field Magnetic Probes
  • October 2019, Circuit Cellar (#351) : The Darker Side – An Intro to Antenna Arrays
  • August 2019, Circuit Cellar (#349) : The Darker Side – The Fundamentals of Fuseology
  • June 2019, Circuit Cellar (#347) : The Darker Side – dB for Dummies
  • April 2019, Circuit Cellar (#345) : The Darker Side – The Art of Current Probing
  • February 2019, Circuit Cellar (#343) : The Darker Side – The Art of Voltage Probing
  • December 2018, Circuit Cellar (#341) : The Darker Side – Do you speak JTAG ?
  • October 2018, Circuit Cellar (#339) : The Darker Side – Hybrid Couplers 101
  • August 2018, Circuit Cellar (#335) : The Darker Side -Pitfalls of Filtering Pulsed Signals
  • June 2018, Circuit Cellar (#335) : The Darker Side -PCB Ground Planes
  • April 2018, Circuit Cellar (#333) : The Darker Side – Component Tolerance
  • February 2018, Circuit Cellar (#331) : The Darker Side – Shannon and Noise
  • December 2017, Circuit Cellar (#329) : The Darker Side – Information Theory in a Nutshell
  • October 2017, Circuit Cellar (#327) : The Darker Side – Antenna Performance Measurement Made Easy
  • August 2017, Circuit Cellar (#325) : The Darker Side – Fully Differential Amplifiers
  • June 2017, Circuit Cellar (#323) : The Darker Side – Vintage Programming Languages
  • April 2017, Circuit Cellar (#321) : The Darker Side – C0G, X7R, Y5V All Ceramic Capacitors Aren’t Equal
  • February 2017, Circuit Cellar (#319) : The Darker Side – Impedance Matching Fundamentals
  • December 2016, Circuit Cellar (#317) : The Darker Side – Decoupling Capacitors and RLC Networks
  • October 2016, Circuit Cellar (#315) : The Darker Side – Long-Range RF for the IoT (Part 2)
  • August 2016, Circuit Cellar (#313) : The Darker Side – Long-Range RF for the IoT (Part 1)
  • June 2016, Circuit Cellar (#311) : The Darker Side – Random Numbers
  • June 2016, Circuit Cellar (#311) : The Darker Side – Engineering, Consulting, & Nonstop Innovation
  • April 2016, Circuit Cellar (#309) : The Darker Side – Digital Line Terminations
  • February 2016, Circuit Cellar (#307) : The Darker Side – Analog Filter Essentials
  • December 2015, Circuit Cellar (#305) : The Darker Side – Op-Amps and Capacitive Loads
  • October 2015, Circuit Cellar (#303) : The Darker Side – How to select an Operational Amplifier
  • August 2015, Circuit Cellar (#301) : The Darker Side – Vintage Electronics Calculator
  • June 2015, Circuit Cellar (#299) : The Darker Side – Correlation Techniques
  • April 2015, Circuit Cellar (#297) : The Darker Side – Let’s play with Electrostatic Discharge
  • February 2015, Circuit Cellar (#295) : The Darker Side – Let’s Count Errors
  • December 2014, Circuit Cellar (#293) : The Darker Side – Do you speak I/Q?
  • October 2014, Circuit Cellar (#291) : The Darker Side – RF Connectors
  • August 2014, Circuit Cellar (#289) : The Darker Side – Shielding Experiments
  • June 2014, Circuit Cellar (#287) : The Darker Side – Voltage Step-Up Techniques
  • April 2014, Circuit Cellar (#285) : The Darker Side – Pulse-Shaping Basics
  • February 2014, Circuit Cellar (#283) : The Darker Side – Dielectric Absorption
  • December 2013, Circuit Cellar (#281) : The Darker Side – Amplifier Classes from A to H
  • October 2013, Circuit Cellar (#279) : The Darker Side – Bipolar Transistor Biasing
  • August 2013, Circuit Cellar (# 277) : The Darker Side – Simulate and Design a Switched-Capacitor Filter
  • June 2013, Circuit Cellar (# 275) : The Darker Side – UML State Machines
  • April 2013, Circuit Cellar (# 273) : The Darker Side – Analyzing a case of the Jitters
  • February 2013, Circuit Cellar (#271) : The Darker Side – Introduction to standing waves
  • Janvier 2013, Circuit Cellar, 25ème anniversaire – 25 mistakes you will make at least once
  • Décembre 2012, Circuit Cellar (# 269) : THe Darker Side – Locked In
  • October 2012, Circuit Cellar (# 267) : The Darker Side – Introduction to IIR Filters
  • August 2012, Circuit Cellar (#265) : The Darker Side – System-Level RF Design
  • Juin 2012, Circuit Cella (# 263) : The Darker Side – Radio Frequency Mixers
  • April 2012, Circuit Cellar (#261) : The Darker Side – Sigma-Delta Modulators 101
  • February 2012, Circuit Cellar (#259) : The Darker Side – Playing with High-Speed ADCs
  • December 2011, Circuit Cellar (#257) : The Darker Side – CE Marking : A process to Ensure Product Conformity
  • October 2011, Circuit Cellar (#255) : The Darker Side – Line-Coding Techniques
  • August 2011, Circuit Cellar (#253) : The Darker Side – RF and High-Speed PCBs
  • June 2011, Circuit Cellar (#251) : The Darker Side – Stay Cool !
  • April 2011, Circuit Cellar (#249) : The Darker Side – Noise Figures 101
  • February 2011, Circuit Cellar (#247) : The Darker Side – Don’t Fade Away
  • December 2010, Circuit Cellar (#245) : The Darker Side – Parasitic components, or when capacitors behave like inductors
  • October 2010, Circuit Cellar (#243) : The Darker Side – A tour of the Lab (Part 2)
  • August 2010, Circuit Cellar (#241) : The Darker Side – A tour of the Lab (Part 1)
  • June 2010, Circuit Cellar (#239) : The Darker Side – DC/DC Converters Basics
  • April 2010, Circuit Cellar (#237) : The Darker Side – Picoammeter Design
  • February 2010, Circuit Cellar (#235) : The Darker Side – Living with errors : an introduction to forward error correction
  • December 2009, Circuit Cellar (#233) : The Darker Side – Digital modulations demystified
  • October 2009, Circuit Cellar (#231) : The Darker Side – Multirate processing and CIC filters
  • August 2009, Circuit Cellar (#229) : The Darker Side – Power Analysis Primer
  • June 2009, Circuit Cellar (#227) : The Darker Side – High-speed signal transmission
  • April 2009, Circuit Cellar (#225) : The Darker Side – Time domain reflectometruy
  • February 2009, Circuit Cellar (#223) : The Darker Side – Microstrip techniques
  • December 2008, Circuit Cellar (#221) : The Darker Side – PID control without math
  • October 2008, Circuit Cellar (#219) : The Darker Side – Cable shielding experiments
  • August 2008, Circuit Cellar (#217) : The Darker Side – Direct Digital Synthesis 101
  • April 2008, Circuit Cellar (#213) : The Darker Side – Low power techniques
  • February 2008, Circuit Cellar (#211) : The Darker Side – Antenna basics
  • December 2007, Circuit Cellar (#209) : The Darker Side – Are you locked ? A PLL primer
  • October 2007, Circuit Cellar (#207) : The Darker Side – No fear with FIR, put a FI filter to work
  • August 2007, Circuit Cellar (#205) : The Darker Side – Let’s play with EMI
  • July 2004, Circuit Cellar (#168) : Easy Reflow, built an SMT reflow oven controller
  • January 2004, Circuit Cellar (#162) : Smart Tracker 2, The innovative wire tracker
  • September 2003, Circuit Cellar (#158) : The XY-Plotter, Drive High-Resolution LCDs for less
  • December 2002, Circuit Cellar (#149) : Vector’Soc, A 1GHz vectorial network analyzer
  • October 2002, Cypress Application Note AN2090 : Vector’Soc, a 1GHz Vectorial Network Analyzer
  • February 2002, Circuit Cellar (#139) : A tracking lab power supply
  • July 2001, Circuit Cellar Ink (#132) : Feature article – Scan-3D, An award-winning 3-D telemeter project
  • April 2001 & May 2001, Circuit Cellar Ink (#129/130) : Feature article – DDS-GEN, A high-performance DDS generator
  • January 2000, Circuit Cellar Ink (#114) : Feature article – Neural’Stamp, a low-cost neural network processor
  • September 98, Circuit Cellar Ink (#98) : Feature article – PIC’Spectrum, a low cost audio spectrum analyzer

ELEKTOR

Since June 2014, Robert Lacoste is also a contributor to Elektor, through the bi-monthly column “Hors Circuits”, published in the french, german and netherland editions. Last articles :

  • Janvier / Février 2020 : Filtres analogiques : quelques bases
  • Novembre / Décembre 2019 : Amplificateurs différentiels
  • Septembre / Octobre 2019 : Amplificateurs opérationnels et charges capacitives
  • Juillet / Août 2019 : Comment choisir un amplificateur opérationnel ?
  • Mai / Juin 2019 : Introduction aux codes correcteurs d’erreurs
  • Mars / Avril 2019 : Parlez-vous I/Q?
  • Janvier / Février 2019 : B.A.-BA des mélangeurs de fréquences radio
  • Novembre / Décembre 2018 : Techniques de filtrage de canal
  • Septembre / Octobre 2018 : Modulations numériques, codage des données
  • Juillet / Aout 2018 : Modulations numériques, le BA-B.A.
  • Mai / Juin 2018 : Protocoles sans fils, un panorama + Q&A Bluetooth
  • Mai / Juin 2018 : Elévation de tension
  • Mars / Avril 2018 : le B.A-BA des convertisseurs DC/DC
  • Janvier / Février 2018 : comment consommer moins avec du calcul et de la méthode?
  • Novembre / Décembre 2017 : X7R, Y5V, NP0, quesaco ?
  • Septembre 2017 : “Composants parasites”
  • Juillet 2017 : “Des condensateurs qui se rechargent tout seuls!”
  • Mars 2017 : “LoRaWAN architecture, protocole, sécurité et opérateurs”
  • Janvier / Février 2017 : “LORA échange débit contre portée”
  • Décembre 2016 : “Bruit et sensibilité des récepteurs”
  • Octobre 2016 : “L’ABC des CA/N : sigma-delta, quésaco ?”
  • Juillet / août 2016 : “L’ABC des CA/N : DNL, INL, SNR, SINAD, ENOB, SFDR et consorts”
  • Mai 2016 : “Le filtrage numérique sans stress: les filtres IIR”
  • Mars 2016 : “Le filtrage numérique sans stress: les filtres CIC”
  • Janvier / Fevrier 2016 : “Le filtrage numérique sans stress: les filtres FIR”
  • Novembre 2015 : “Ampli de classe A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H : quesako?”
  • Septembre 2015 : “Comprendre l’amplificateur à transis
  • Juillet 2015: “Synthèse numérique directe”
  • Mai 2015: “Hors-circuit : magie de la PLL”
  • Mars 2015 : “Le quartz”
  • Février 2015 : “Le marquage CE pour les béotiens”
  • Novembre 2014 : “Circuits imprimés, comment éviter les bourdes en HF et avec les fréquences élevées en général”
  • Septembre 2014 : “Jouons avec la réflectrométrie temporelle”
  • Juillet-Aout 2014 : “Petite introduction aux microrubans”
  • Juin 2014 : “Adaptation d’impédance, qu’est ce que c’est ?”

MICROWAVES & RF

Article edited in Microwaves & RF