The Current
Experience episodes packed with entertaining discussion topics that cover the latest ins and outs of embedded semiconductor systems as well as how to thrive in trending markets while avoiding common design pitfalls and staying ahead of the industry's best practices.
Future Electronics
Show overview
The Current launched in 2021 and has put out 27 episodes in the time since. That works out to roughly 9 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence, with the show now in its 2nd season.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 17 min and 24 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Technology show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 4 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. Published by Future Electronics.
From the publisher
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.
Latest Episodes
View all 27 episodes
S2 Ep 15Microcontroller vs Microprocessor: Which is Better?
Embedded systems find themselves in many applications today, where low power and small size are requirements, along with the ability to perform complex tasks like vision or machine learning, are important. In this episode, Todd Speaks to Rick Dudley, Business Development Manager at Microchip about how engineers can make the choice to move from a microcontroller to a microprocessor for their applications. Also, learn how we can take advantage of their performance capabilities for these advanced tasks without sacrificing end product size or battery life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 14Future Electronics at Embedded World
The Embedded World conference presents the latest, future-oriented trends from each embedded discipline, where experts gather to discuss complex questions of system design. Future Electronics a hub for knowledge transfer and a key player in the dialogue among embedded systems developers, international specialists, and decision makers. In this episode, Todd speaks to Lazina Rahman, Future Electronics Technical Engineer and host of Techventures who is on location at the conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 13Full Engineering designs with Future Electronics
Many companies are finding their engineering staff overloaded with sustaining ongoing designs. In some cases, a company will have an exciting idea for an embedded hardware platform, but an engineering staff with an expertise geared towards software or mechanical design. What if you could leverage a partners to design, test and show off a application idea? Electronics distribution like Future Electronics' Montreal Design Center can offer a higher level of service to meet those needs. In this episode Todd speaks to Martin Bernier, Director of the System Design Center the about how companies can partner with Future for their full engineering designs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 12Wide Bandgap to Maximize Power
Maximizing the power efficiency of our designs has become critical as more systems get their energy from battery arrays, and as we look to high power electronics to supplant traditional combustion based systems. In this episode, Todd speaks with Doug Bailey Power Integrations Vice President of Marketing and Applications about wide bandgap technologies and trying to demystify when they should be used in system designs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Here's What You Missed
Watch the full video for a recap of all Season 2 episodes of The Current so far! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 11The "Vision" of Image Sensors and FGPAs
Adding embedded vision into designs requires many decisions to be made in the overall architecture. With the rise of CMOS imaging sensors engineers have to an FPGA or a Processor is right to handle the complex application layer to turn our designs into viable products. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks to Future's own Abhishek Gadgi, Image Sensor Specialist Engineer about machine learning and AI in our applications, what types of vision sensors we should be using and what should constitute the "brains" of our system to maximize it's capabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 10The Evolution of 5G Design
With the rollout of 5G Cellular technology, the capabilities of our wireless networks continues to expand. Designing these advanced communications networks requires enormous engineering capability including special requirements for our passives and electromechanical devices within the design to make it all function. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks with Brian Donavan and Jeff Katz from Panasonic about the key technologies on the periphery of 5G designs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 9The Power of Environmental Sensors
It is now an expectation for connected systems to be intelligent enough to understand the surrounding environment and make decisions on behalf of their users with minimal or no intervention. That has required a great deal of innovation in the environmental sensor space, along with increased accuracy and the ability in our embedded systems to fuse data from multiple sources to get our systems to react in real time. In this episode, Todd Baker discusses the topic with Dr. Richard Fix, Portfolio and Product Manager at Bosch Sensortec about their sensing solutions and how they can help accelerate the development of innovative IoT applications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 8Wireless Technology to Communicate the Future
Wireless technology is now a standard in designs as a basic serial port. Many of our systems today use Radio Frequency (RF) technology broadly to communicate about the environment around them, to upgrade their capabilities through seamless software updates, and to receive instructions on their next task. In this episode of The Current, our host Todd Baker speaks to Bob Card - ASE Marketing Manager at onsemi. The two discuss communication of data as an end application of wireless technologies and what new possibilities are currently in the market to provide wireless technology with an expanded new path to the future, and to success for designers across the globe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 7Designing an Embedded Solution for Production
Designing a system from the ground up can be an enormous challenge. Embedded engineers are leveraging new platforms to quickly build proof of concept for a low cost. In today's episode, Todd Baker speaks to our very own Ed Baca. The two discuss these designs and if they are the right solutions for production. Also, they talk about when to buy an off-the-shelf System on Module (SoM) versus a full chip-down design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Update from Todd
With the world opening up again, Todd has been busy traveling so this week is a little exit from the norm, but he will return next week with new topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 6The Big Challenge for Supply Chain
The economic environment has become more challenging, and sustainability is being emphasized. Customers can expect to see shortages of products on shelves and price increases of those products. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks to Marty Branam, Vice President of STMicro's Geographic Sales about the allocation challenges, how they affect electrical engineers and what are key suppliers in the industry doing to help mitigate frustrations and keep production lines moving? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 5A Deep Dive Into Current Sensing with the Faraday Board
Engineers are faced with many options to solve the challenges associated with designing an accurate current-measurement circuit for applications, and inductive current sensing has become the least obtrusive method of measuring power consumption. In this episode, Todd speaks to Paul Schmokel and Bruno Boury of Melexis about Future Electronics' current monitoring demo platform the Faraday Board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 4Lighting the way to Continued Innovation
LEDs have stormed the lighting market over the last 15 years and changed the very way we see. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks to Erik Swenson, Vice President of Nichia America. The two discuss the next phase of LED technology - Whether a mere continued push for the lowest cost is "good enough" or if there are new innovations and advances in technology that could open up entirely new applications for this technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 3The Importance of Quartz Timing Technology
Timing circuitry is the heartbeat of our embedded systems as electrical engineers. So many of our designs rely on it, yet it can often be overlooked as and not a major area for improvement or innovation. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks to David Meaney , ECS' VP of Technical Marketing about some extra considerations on timing device selection that offers improvements for our products in this all too often overlooked area of electronics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 2UVC- Technology that Cleans
Ultraviolet C or UVC has become synonymous with the cleansing practices- to eliminate germ and harmful viruses that surround us. But just how is this technology used and how safe it is? In this episode Todd Baker speaks to Patrick Durand, Worldwide Technical Director of Future Lighting Solutions about the best practices for UVC and how the technology is helping change the environment around us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S2 Ep 1Women in Engineering – Inspiring Creative Growth in Our Field
Over the last few years the number of women in the technology or engineering profession has risen. Yet, even with that increase there is still a significant gender gap in the overall number of professionals in Engineering. In this episode, Todd Baker speaks to three of the best and brightest women in engineering at Future Electronics, on how they navigate this profession and how they are helping to build towards a brighter future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S1 Ep 10Season Finale- Market Conditions, A Year In Review
The global economy and the semiconductor industry in particular is seeing significant challenges with product availability, long lead times, and electronic products struggling to get to market. With all of the complexities of our industry this has become one that’s weighing heavily on embedded design engineers, in this episode of The Current, Todd Baker speaks with Karim Yasmine- Corporate VP a Future Electronics about how the industry is changing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S1 Ep 9Protecting our Designs against Common ESD issues
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is not always the most compelling topic for engineers who are designing an embedded system, but it is ALWAYS critical. ESD protection ensures the reliability of our designs as engineers, in even unexpected conditions, and with a little foresight, it can be easy to prepare for. In this episode of The Current, Todd Baker speaks to Mark Hubbard-Field, Application Engineer at Littelfuse, about the details of ESD protection and what engineers should consider when trying to protect their products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S1 Ep 8Easy Solutions for Cloud Connectivity for Embedded Systems
In this episode of The Current, Todd Baker speaks to Mark Calhoun, Future Electronics Connectivity Specialist, about tools that are available to embedded engineers to make cloud connectivity simpler than it can often be. Together, they walk through some of the system designs Future Connectivity Solutions has created to make embedded cloud design more efficient with faster time to market for customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices