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This circuit takes two separate line-level stereo (L & R) signals and combines them into one stereo (L & R) output, thus avoiding the need to switch between two pairs of input signals. In the author’s application, it is used to feed the stereo audio from a TV receiver and a DVD player into an external amplifier. The need for the circuit arose because of a design peculiarity in the TV receiver. The TV has four A/V inputs and one A/V output. AV1-AV3 accept composite or S-video plus stereo audio inputs and these feed into the TV’s A/V output. AV4 accepts Component video (Y/Pb/Pr) plus stereo audio but unlike AV1-AV3, its audio (and video) signals are not fed to the TV A/V output. The Y/Pb/Pr input was chosen for use with the DVD player because of its superior video quality, while the audio was to be fed to an external amplifier for improved reproduction. Circuit diagram: Dual Input-Combining Stereo Line Amplifier Circuit Diagram However, manual switching was inconvenient, henc...

There are some applications, such as double-ended sensors and audio amplifiers that require a negative voltage for operation. With limited space on today’s system boards, creating a dedicated negative supply rail would add to the cost and space of the PCB. Hence, it makes sense to generate the required negative voltage from existing positive supply rails in the system. One such solution using a traditional synchronous step-down regulator is provided by Texas Instruments in an application note entitled “Creating an Inverting Power Supply Using a Synchronous Step-Down Regulator”1. It shows you how to generate a negative voltage from a positive input voltage to the synchronous buck regulator.