Need help with one of our products? If you don’t find what you need to know below, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@qontrol.co.uk and we’ll do our best to make things right for you.
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Firmware Bug Tracker
This page lists all bugs, as well as potential work-arounds, which have been found to date, for each Q8 firmware version. To upgrade to the latest firmware, contact us at support@qontrol.co.uk. If you find a bug, please report it, either by email, or in the comments below.
Which driver is right for you?
Choosing a driver for your photonic device can be a difficult task. Though we hope that our drivers are the best fit, there are several parameters to keep in mind.
- How much current does each input of my device require?
- How much voltage is required to achieve this current?
- What is the resistance of my on-chip heaters?
- What precision do I need?
- Does my device care about the direction of current flow?
- How many inputs does my device have that need to be driven?
Avoiding common-ground electrical cross-talk
Complex photonic devices require many electrical connections. A quick way to save a lot of connections is to use a common ground wire for several electro-optic devices (e.g. heaters, or photodiodes). For N devices, this saves N – 1 connections, which can translate to significant reductions in wire-bonding or multi-point probe size, and ultimately to savings in time and money.
Continue reading Avoiding common-ground electrical cross-talk
How to use a push-type output
The push-type, class-B, or open-emitter, amplifier output stage offers two main benefits: it can output 0 V when powered from a single supply, and it can drive very large currents. This stage features in our Q8 driver, which uses MOSFET output elements. The basic structure of a push-type output stage is shown. Continue reading How to use a push-type output