-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueAll About That Route
Most designers favor manual routing, but today's interactive autorouters may be changing designers' minds by allowing users more direct control. In this issue, our expert contributors discuss a variety of manual and autorouting strategies.
Creating the Ideal Data Package
Why is it so difficult to create the ideal data package? Many of these simple errors can be alleviated by paying attention to detail—and knowing what issues to look out for. So, this month, our experts weigh in on the best practices for creating the ideal design data package for your design.
Designing Through the Noise
Our experts discuss the constantly evolving world of RF design, including the many tradeoffs, material considerations, and design tips and techniques that designers and design engineers need to know to succeed in this high-frequency realm.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Quiet Power: Evaluating Evaluation Boards
September 28, 2016 | Istvan Novak, OracleEstimated reading time: 2 minutes

Evaluation boards are very helpful. Manufacturers of complex circuits such as DC-DC converters provide boards with those circuits ready to try out, saving us time and effort to design the printed circuit board around them. Evaluation boards are supposed to help us to understand the capabilities of the device. But with the many potential user applications, what should a particular user expect and look for in an evaluation board? We need to know how to properly evaluate an evaluation board.
My February 2013 Quiet Power column featured an LTM4604 evaluation board. In that column the purpose was to discuss different measurement techniques; the subject was not the regulator itself. In this column we look at an LM20143 evaluation board to explain what may matter during the evaluation.
The LM20143 is an adjustable-frequency synchronous buck regulator with current-mode control loop [2]. The input voltage can be anywhere in the 2.95 to 5.5V range, the maximum continuous output current is 3A. The switching frequency is adjustable in the 500 kHz to 1500 kHz range. The default output voltage setting of the evaluation board is 1.2V. The integrated circuit includes the output switching devices. Figure 1 shows the top view of the evaluation board with no cable attached. To make the board work, all we have to do is connect a voltage source to the input terminals and pull the enable pin (labeled ‘EN’ on the board) to logic high.
The first rule in every test and measurement (also true in simulations, by the way) is “Know what to expect.” We measure something because we may want to validate a design or we measure something because we are not sure exactly how the circuit behaves. This latter case, however, is no excuse to ignore the rule: we still should have some idea what we expect as a result. If we don’t, it becomes a full-fledged exploration and we need to be extremely careful to make sure that accidental mistakes or measurement errors don’t mask the correct signature that we are after. In an evaluation board of a DC-DC converter, we can test many different aspects of operation. There are items that require only DC voltage and current meters. This way, for instance, we can check the line and load regulations and efficiency at different input and output voltages and load currents. To test for dynamic parameters, we can use an oscilloscope and transient current source. In the frequency domain, with a frequency response analyzer or vector network analyzer we can test the gain-phase curve or output impedance. These measurements can be done with small-signal excitation or large-signal excitation.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the September 2016 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Study on Resonance Mitigation in Metallic Shielding for Integrated Circuits
07/08/2025 | Article by Maria Cuesta Martin, Victor Martinez, Vidal Gonzalez Aguado, Würth ElektronikInherent cavity resonant modes often lead to significant degradation of shielding effectiveness, responsible for unwanted electromagnetic coupling. Cavity resonant modes of the metal shielding enclosure can produce two adverse problems: the mutual coupling among different RF modules and shielding effectiveness reduction of the metal enclosure. The cabinets serve to shield certain components from electromagnetic interference (EMI). However, these cavities present some resonance peaks at 5 GHz, making it impossible to use them at higher frequencies.
The Global Electronics Association Releases IPC-8911: First-Ever Conductive Yarn Standard for E-Textile Application
07/02/2025 | Global Electronics AssociationThe Global Electronics Association announces the release of IPC-8911, Requirements for Conductive Yarns for E-Textiles Applications. This first-of-its-kind global standard establishes a clear framework for classifying, designating, and qualifying conductive yarns—helping to address longstanding challenges in supply chain communication, product testing, and material selection within the growing e-textiles industry.
Magnalytix and Foresite to Host Technical Webinar on SIR Testing and Functional Reliability
06/26/2025 | MAGNALYTIXMagnalytix, in collaboration with Foresite Inc., is pleased to announce an upcoming one-hour Webinar Workshop titled “Comparing SIR IPC B-52 to Umpire 41 Functional & SIR Test Method.” This session will be held on July 24, 2025, and is open to professionals in electronics manufacturing, reliability engineering, and process development seeking insights into new testing standards for climatic reliability.
Defense Speak Interpreted: Is DARPA Still Around After CHIPS?
06/24/2025 | Dennis Fritz -- Column: Defense Speak InterpretedWhen I first published my Defense Speaks Interpreted column in January 2019 on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ERI), the agency advocated for an expanded Defense emphasis on closing the growing technology gap in microelectronics. The emphasis was on “resurgence.”
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
06/13/2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007Today is Friday the 13th, and in much of Western folklore, this is a day when bad luck is lurking. But while Friday the 13th may top Western superstition charts, the global calendar is sprinkled with its own unlucky legends. In Spain and Greece, the bad juju lands on Tuesday the 13th—a day linked to Mars, the god of war, and naturally, chaos. In Italy, it’s Friday the 17th that is feared, thanks to the Roman numeral XVII, which can be rearranged to spell VIXI—Latin for “I have lived” (a poetic way of saying you’re dead).