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An application technology podcast series with industry engineers that promises to keep you up to speed on some of the embedded semiconductor industry’s newest, fastest-growing and most exciting technologies, applications, and design techniques used by renowned industry engineers. Experience endless episodes packed with entertaining discussion topics that cover the latest ins and outs of embedded systems as well as how to thrive in trending markets while avoiding common design pitfalls and staying ahead of the industry's best practices.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Engineering decisions become visible through concrete conversations about power, connectivity, lighting, security, and the pressures surrounding product design.
The Current turns embedded electronics into a study of practical design choices, from conserving power in remote sensors to securing connected devices.
Battery life gets interesting when your sensor lives inside an 18-wheeler's tire.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Wide bandgap meets magnetics, package size, and silicon's staying power.
The episode turns wide bandgap power design into a grounded tour of the tradeoffs around silicon carbide and gallium nitride, beginning with the push to squeeze more efficiency out of battery arrays, solar inverters, battery-charged autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles,…
A compact engineering look at doorway counting and the sensor logic behind it.
The piece keeps its focus on a practical engineering question: whether STMicro's time-of-flight sensors can handle people counting at a doorway. Todd Baker gives the need clear stakes, tying it to masks, reduced capacity, and the awkwardness of manual checks.
A distributor's role expands when design help, inventory, and IP boundaries all matter.
The piece centers on a practical distributor problem: how to support customers building embedded designs when in-house engineering leans more toward software or mechanical work.
UVC LEDs are framed as a practical design tool for cleaner air, surfaces, and water.
The segment presents UVC lighting as a practical engineering tool, with Patrick Durand, Worldwide Technical Director for Future Lighting Solutions, laying out how solid-state LEDs are being used across classroom surfaces, HVAC air, water, and air deodorization by converting VOCs…
A measured look at how Bear Conductive moves from dev kits to custom IoT products.
This segment keeps its attention on a practical corner of IoT, tracing how Bear Conductive moves from dev kits toward more customized builds that match specific applications.
A practical look at camera-enabled embedded proof-of-concepts and first sensor bring-up.
The episode treats camera-enabled embedded work as a hands-on proof of concept, not a theory exercise. It follows the practical grind of finding a usable driver, dealing with raw Bayer data, and choosing whether the result belongs on a display or out over Ethernet.
A focused look at why temperature sensing is becoming a tougher embedded design problem.
The episode treats temperature sensing as a design problem that keeps getting harder, with attention to accuracy, precision, low power, and very small size.
A practical, engineer-focused look at Hall effect current sensing, with accuracy and thermal behavior as the main tradeoffs.
The piece treats current sensing as a practical engineering choice, moving from phones and vehicles into industrial robots and battery health.
Manufacturing change, from tools to events.
STEM careers, told through human turning points.
Mining engineering talk with field memory.
Future Electronics introduces their Northern Lights platform designed to simplify machine vision implementation for engineers.
This episode features an interview with Luzina Rahman at Embedded World 2022 in Nuremberg, discussing the excitement of returning to in-person events, the scale of the exhibition, and initial observations about technology trends.
This episode discusses the contributions of women in engineering and explores recent advances in UVC LED technology for germ elimination, questioning whether current innovations are sufficient.
Host Todd interviews David Meany from ECS International about advancements in quartz timing technology, covering improvements in jitter, miniaturization, and power efficiency for embedded systems.
Host Todd interviews Mark Hubbard, an ESD expert from LittleFuse, about protecting electronic designs from electrostatic discharge.
This episode explores the engineering considerations beyond RF technology in 5G network design, featuring Panasonic product managers discussing capacitor durability, relay efficiency, and EMI mitigation.
Can engineers build camera enabled embedded systems themselves?
UVC becomes a practical engineering choice.
Current measurement turns into a real design problem here.
Battery life is still the boss here.
Security reaches the control loop.
Temperature sensing is getting squeezed from all sides.
Electronics are moving into ordinary surfaces.
A distributor can do more than ship parts.
Wide bandgap starts as a real design call, not a victory lap for faster parts.
LED lighting is not finished.
Availability became the design problem.
People counting turns into a sensor design problem.
Wireless has gone from nice-to-have to assumed.
A truck-tracking problem gives the episode its hook.
Engineering starts with applied imagination.
This episode explores innovations in environmental sensors, featuring an interview with Dr.
Host Todd interviews Ed Baca from Future Electronics about choosing between system-on-modules, single-board computers, and custom chip-down designs for embedded systems production.
Host Todd interviews sensor expert Abhishek Ghaji on integrating machine vision into embedded systems, covering the shift from CCD to CMOS sensors, key selection criteria for image sensors, and the decision between using FPGAs or processors for real-time processing.
Host Todd interviews Marty Branham from STMicro about semiconductor supply chain challenges, discussing megatrends like 5G and electrification driving shortages, ST's $3.5 billion investment, and the need for early customer communication to mitigate issues.
This episode explores when engineers should transition from microcontrollers to microprocessors for advanced embedded applications like AI and machine vision.