Technology and design skills at Augustus Design include:

   Instrumentation Design

   Signal Processing

  • Low noise / high frequency amplification circuits
  • High speed / high precision data acquisition (ADCs / DACs)
  • Embedded microprocessor control
  • RF circuit design
  • DC/stepper motor drives
  • Temperature compensation
  • Shielding, power and ground design, interference (EMI) reduction
  • Cabling / interconnection design, electromechanical design

 

  
  • Time domain and spectral analysis
  • Modulation, synchronous detection, spread spectrum processing
  • Control / feedback analysis and design
  • Analog and digital filter design, digital signal processing (DSP)
  • S-parameter design, Smith chart analysis and design
  • Reflection range-finding, signal propagation analysis

 

Sensor Technologies
  • Magnetic - magnetoresistive (GMR), Hall effect, fluxgate, inductive coil
  • Audio and ultrasonic - piezoelectric, magnetic coil
  • Thermal (contact and infrared) - thermocouple, thermopile, thermistor, RTD
  • Opto (visible and infrared) -- LED emitters, PIN diode/phototransistor detectors, CCD detector arrays

Digital Control and Precision Measurements

Many of the projects at Augustus Design exploit the capabilities of microcontrollers to enhance performance of the analog circuitry. This technique can significantly reduce product cost by replacing the need for higher performance, higher priced components. Design flexibility (in mature products as well as during development) and performance features not available from off the shelf components can also be achieved. Designs intended for high volume production can benefit greatly from this approach, and for high volume designs mixed signals ASICs (both analog and digital circuitry) can be incorporated as well.

Typical examples of circuit enhancement include offset and drift compensation, automatic gain control, dynamic range enhancement, sensor/circuit calibration, and low cost synthesized analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog-converter stages. Selectable/adaptive filtering, RMS/power calculation, and various other math and signal processing functions can be designed into the processor firmware, allowing removal of these functions from the typically less accurate external circuitry. 

Augustus Design focuses on Microchip Technology's PIC series of 8-bit processors, well suited for the analog and I/O intensive designs developed. Augustus Design is a member of the Microchip Consultants Network.