GPS

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based global navigation

satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to
worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near
the Earth.

GPS is made up of three parts: between 24 and 32 satellites orbiting the Earth,
four control and monitoring stations on Earth, and the GPS receivers owned by users.
GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that are used by GPS receivers to provide
three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus the time.

How it works

GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit
signal information to earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to
calculate the user's exact location. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time a
signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference
tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. Now, with distance measurements
from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user's position and display it on
the unit's electronic map.

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to

calculate a 2D position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more
satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user's 3D position (latitude, longitude
and altitude). Once the user's position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate
other information, such as speed, bearing, track, trip distance, distance to destination,
sunrise and sunset time and more.
GPS Receiver

Our ancestors had to go to pretty extreme measures to keep from getting lost. They
erected monumental landmarks, laboriously drafted detailed maps and learned to read the
stars in the night sky. Things are much, much easier today. For less than $100, you can
get a pocket-sized gadget that will tell you exactly where you are on Earth at any
moment. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky, you'll never be
lost again.

We'll find out how these handy guides pull off this amazing trick. As we'll see, the Global
Positioning System is vast, expensive and involves a lot of technical ingenuity, but the
fundamental concepts at work are quite simple and intuitive.

When people talk about "a GPS," they usually mean a GPS receiver. The Global
Positioning System (GPS) is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24
in operation and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military developed and
implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up
to everybody else. Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites circles
the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300 km), making two complete rotations every day.
The orbits are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there are at least four
satellites "visible" in the sky.

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Defense

Artist's concept of the GPS satellite constellation

A GPS receiver's job is to locate four or more of these satellites, figure out the distance to
each, and use this information to deduce its own location. This operation is based on a
simple mathematical principle called trilateration. Trilateration in three-dimensional
space can be a little tricky, so we'll start with an explanation of simple two-
dimensional trilateration.

2-D Trilateration

Imagine you are somewhere in the United States and you are TOTALLY lost -- for
whatever reason, you have absolutely no clue where you are. You find a friendly local
and ask, "Where am I?" He says, "You are 625 miles from Boise, Idaho." This is a nice,
hard fact, but it is not particularly useful by itself. You could be anywhere on a circle
around Boise that has a radius of 625 miles, like this:

You ask somebody else where you are, and she says, "You are 690 miles from
Minneapolis, Minnesota." Now you're getting somewhere. If you combine this
information with the Boise information, you have two circles that intersect. You now
know that you must be at one of these two intersection points, if you are 625 miles from
Boise and 690 miles from Minneapolis.
If a third person tells you that you are 615 miles from Tucson, Arizona, you can eliminate
one of the possibilities, because the third circle will only intersect with one of these
points. You now know exactly where you are -- Denver, Colorado.

This same concept works in three-dimensional space, as well, but you're dealing with
spheres instead of circles. In the next section, we'll look at this type of trilateration.
 How GPS Receivers Work

3-D Trilateration

Fundamentally, three-dimensional trilateration isn't much different from two-dimensional

trilateration, but it's a little trickier to visualize. Imagine the radii from the previous
examples going off in all directions. So instead of a series of circles, you get a series of
spheres. If you know you are 10 miles from satellite A in the sky, you could be anywhere
on the surface of a huge, imaginary sphere with a 10-mile radius. If you also know you
are 15 miles from satellite B, you can overlap the first sphere with another, larger sphere.
The spheres intersect in a perfect circle. If you know the distance to a third satellite, you
get a third sphere, which intersects with this circle at two points.

The Earth itself can act as a fourth sphere -- only one of the two possible points will
actually be on the surface of the planet, so you can eliminate the one in space. Receivers
generally look to four or more satellites, however, to improve accuracy and provide
precise altitude information.

In order to make this simple calculation, then, the GPS receiver has to know two things:

← The location of at least three satellites above you

← The distance between you and each of those satellites

The GPS receiver figures both of these things out by analyzing high-frequency, low-
power radio signals from the GPS satellites. Better units have multiple receivers, so they
can pick up signals from several satellites simultaneously.

Radio waves are electromagnetic energy, which means they travel at the speed of light
(about 186,000 miles per second, 300,000 km per second in a vacuum). The receiver can
figure out how far the signal has traveled by timing how long it took the signal to arrive.
In the next section, we'll see how the receiver and satellite work together to make this
measurement.

GPS Calculations

On the previous page, we saw that a GPS receiver calculates the distance to GPS
satellites by timing a signal's journey from satellite to receiver. As it turns out, this is a
fairly elaborate process.
At a particular time (let's say midnight), the satellite begins transmitting a long, digital
pattern called a pseudo-random code. The receiver begins running the same digital
pattern also exactly at midnight. When the satellite's signal reaches the receiver, its
transmission of the pattern will lag a bit behind the receiver's playing of the pattern.

Photo courtesy U.S. Army

A GPS satellite

The length of the delay is equal to the signal's travel time. The receiver multiplies this
time by the speed of light to determine how far the signal traveled. Assuming the signal
traveled in a straight line, this is the distance from receiver to satellite.
In order to make this measurement, the receiver and satellite both need clocks that can be
synchronized down to the nanosecond. To make a satellite positioning system using only
synchronized clocks, you would need to have atomic clocks not only on all the satellites,
but also in the receiver itself. But atomic clocks cost somewhere between $50,000 and
$100,000, which makes them a just a bit too expensive for everyday consumer use. The
Global Positioning System has a clever, effective solution to this problem. Every satellite
contains an expensive atomic clock, but the receiver itself uses an ordinary quartz clock,
which it constantly resets. In a nutshell, the receiver looks at incoming signals from four
or more satellites and gauges its own inaccuracy. In other words, there is only one value
for the "current time" that the receiver can use.
The correct time value will cause all of the signals that the receiver is receiving to align at
a single point in space. That time value is the time value held by the atomic clocks in all
of the satellites. So the receiver sets its clock to that time value, and it then has the same
time value that all the atomic clocks in all of the satellites have. The GPS receiver gets
atomic clock accuracy "for free."
When you measure the distance to four located satellites, you can draw four spheres that
all intersect at one point. Three spheres will intersect even if your numbers are way off,
but four spheres will not intersect at one point if you've measured incorrectly. Since the
receiver makes all its distance measurements using its own built-in clock, the distances
will all be proportionally incorrect.
The receiver can easily calculate the necessary adjustment that will cause the four spheres
to intersect at one point. Based on this, it resets its clock to be in sync with the satellite's
atomic clock. The receiver does this constantly whenever it's on, which means it is nearly
as accurate as the expensive atomic clocks in the satellites.
In order for the distance information to be of any use, the receiver also has to know where
the satellites actually are. This isn't particularly difficult because the satellites travel in
very high and predictable orbits. The GPS receiver simply stores an almanac that tells it
where every satellite should be at any given time. Things like the pull of the moon and
the sun do change the satellites' orbits very slightly, but the Department of Defense
constantly monitors their exact positions and transmits any adjustments to all GPS
receivers as part of the satellites' signals.
In the next section, we'll look at errors that may occur and see how the GPS receiver
corrects them.

Differential GPS

So far, we've learned how a GPS receiver calculates its position on earth based on the
information it receives from four located satellites. This system works pretty well, but
inaccuracies do pop up. For one thing, this method assumes the radio signals will make
their way through the atmosphere at a consistent speed (the speed of light). In fact, the
Earth's atmosphere slows the electromagnetic energy down somewhat, particularly as it
goes through the ionosphere and troposphere. The delay varies depending on where you
are on Earth, which means it's difficult to accurately factor this into the distance
calculations. Problems can also occur when radio signals bounce off large objects, such
as skyscrapers, giving a receiver the impression that a satellite is farther away than it
actually is. On top of all that, satellites sometimes just send out bad almanac data,
misreporting their own position.
Differential GPS (DGPS) helps correct these errors. The basic idea is to gauge GPS
inaccuracy at a stationary receiver station with a known location. Since the DGPS
hardware at the station already knows its own position, it can easily calculate its
receiver's inaccuracy. The station then broadcasts a radio signal to all DGPS-equipped
receivers in the area, providing signal correction information for that area. In general,
access to this correction information makes DGPS receivers much more accurate than
ordinary receivers.
The most essential function of a GPS receiver is to pick up the transmissions of at least
four satellites and combine the information in those transmissions with information in an
electronic almanac, all in order to figure out the receiver's position on Earth.
Once the receiver makes this calculation, it can tell you the latitude, longitude and
altitude (or some similar measurement) of its current position. To make the navigation
more user-friendly, most receivers plug this raw data into map files stored in memory.

Photo courtesy Garmin

The Street Pilot II, a GPS receiver with built-in maps
for drivers

You can use maps stored in the receiver's memory, connect the receiver to a computer
that can hold more detailed maps in its memory, or simply buy a detailed map of your
area and find your way using the receiver's latitude and longitude readouts. Some
receivers let you download detailed maps into memory or supply detailed maps with
plug-in map cartridges.

A standard GPS receiver will not only place you on a map at any particular location, but
will also trace your path across a map as you move. If you leave your receiver on, it can
stay in constant communication with GPS satellites to see how your location is changing.
With this information and its built-in clock, the receiver can give you several pieces of
valuable information:
How far you've traveled (odometer)
How long you've been traveling
Your current speed (speedometer)
Your average speed
A "bread crumb" trail showing you exactly where you have traveled on the map
The estimated time of arrival at your destination if you maintain your current speed
For lots more information on GPS receivers and related topics, check out the links on the
next page.
Darlington Pair

The Darlington transistor (often called a Darlington pair) is a compound structure

consisting of two bipolar transistors (either integrated or separated devices) connected in
such a way that the current amplified by the first transistor is amplified further by the
second one. This configuration gives a much higher current gain (written β, hfe, or hFE)
than each transistor taken separately and, in the case of integrated devices, can take less
space than two individual transistors because they can use a shared collector. Integrated
Darlington pairs come packaged in transistor-like packages.

The Darlington configuration was invented by Bell Laboratories engineer Sidney

Darlington in 1953. He patented the idea of having two or three transistors on a single
chip, sharing a collector. A similar configuration but with transistors of opposite type
(NPN and PNP) is the Sziklai pair, sometimes called the "complementary Darlington."

Behavior

A Darlington pair behaves like a single transistor with a high current gain (approximately
the product of the gains of the two transistors). In fact, integrated devices have three leads
(B, C and E), broadly equivalent to those of a standard transistor. A general relation
between the compound current gain and the individual gains is given by: If β1 and β2 are
high enough (hundreds), this relation can be approximated with: A typical modern device
has a current gain of 1000 or more, so that only a small base current is needed to make
the pair switch on. However, this high current gain comes with several drawbacks.

One drawback is an approximate doubling of base-emitter voltage. Since there are two
junctions between the base and emitter of the Darlington transistor, the equivalent base-
emitter voltage is the sum of both base-emitter voltages:

For silicon-based technology, where each VBEi is about 0.65 V when the device is
operating in the active or saturated region, the necessary base-emitter voltage of the pair
is 1.3 V.

Another drawback of the Darlington pair is its increased saturation voltage. The output
transistor is not allowed to saturate (i.e. its base-collector junction must remain reverse-
biased) because its collector-emitter voltage is now equal to the sum of its own base-
emitter voltage and the collector-emitter voltage of the first transistor, both positive
quantities in normal operation. (In symbols, VCE2 = VBE2 + VCE1, so VC2 > VB2
always.) Thus the saturation voltage of a Darlington transistor is one VBE (about 0.65 V in
silicon) higher than a single transistor saturation voltage, which is typically 0.1 - 0.2 V in
silicon. For equal collector currents, this drawback translates to an increase in the
dissipated power for the Darlington transistor over a single transistor.

Another problem is a reduction in switching speed, because the first transistor cannot
actively inhibit the base current of the second one, making the device slow to switch off.
To alleviate this, the second transistor often has a resistor of a few hundred ohms
connected between its base and emitter terminals [1]. This resistor provides a low
impedance discharge path for the charge accumulated on the base-emitter junction,
allowing a faster transistor turn-off.

The Darlington pair has more phase shift at high frequencies than a single transistor and
hence can more easily become unstable with negative feedback (i.e., systems that use this
configuration can have poor phase margin due to the extra transistor delay).

Darlington pairs are available as integrated packages or can be made from two discrete
transistors; Q1 (the left-hand transistor in the diagram) can be a low power type, but
normally Q2 (on the right) will need to be high power. The maximum collector current
IC(max) of the pair is that of Q2. A typical integrated power device is the 2N6282, which
includes a switch-off resistor and has a current gain of 2400 at IC=10A.

A Darlington pair can be sensitive enough to respond to the current passed by skin
contact even at safe voltages. Thus it can form the input stage of a touch-sensitive switch.

What is current gain?

Transistors have a characteristic called current gain. This is referred to as its hFE. The
amount of current that can pass through the load when connected to a transistor that is
turned on equals the input current x the gain of the transistor (hFE) The current gain
varies for different transistor and can be looked up in the data sheet for the device.
Typically it may be 100. This would mean that the current available to drive the load
would be 100 times larger than the input to the transistor.

Why use a Darlington Pair?

In some application the amount of input current available to switch on a transistor is very
low. This may mean that a single transistor may not be able to pass sufficient current
required by the load. As stated earlier this equals the input current x the gain of the
transistor (hFE). If it is not be possible to increase the input current then we need to
increase the gain of the transistor. This can be achieved by using a Darlington Pair. A
Darlington Pair acts as one transistor but with a current gain that equals:
Total current gain (hFE total) = current gain of transistor 1 (hFE t1) x current gain of
transistor 2 (hFE t2)
So for example if you had two transistors with a current gain (hFE) = 100:
(hFE total) = 100 x 100
(hFE total) = 10,000
You can see that this gives a vastly increased current gain when compared to a single
transistor.
Therefore this will allow a very low input current to switch a much bigger load current.

Base Activation Voltage

Normally to turn on a transistor the base input voltage of the transistor will need to be
greater that 0.7V. As two transistors are used in a Darlington Pair this value is doubled.
Therefore the base voltage will need to be greater than 0.7V x 2 = 1.4V. It is also worth
noting that the voltage drop across collector and emitter pins of the Darlington Pair when
the turn on will be around 0.9V Therefore if the supply voltage is 5V (as above) the
voltage across the load will be will be around 4.1V (5V – 0.9V).

One transistor circuit configuration that can be used to very good effect in many instances
is the Darlington Pair. The Darlington Pair offers a number of advantages. It is primarily
used because it offers a particularly high current gain and this also reflects into a high
input impedance for the overall Darlington circuit when compared to a single transistor.

However the Darlington Pair does have some drawbacks and as a result it is not suitable
for all high gain applications. Nevertheless, where applicable, the Darlington Pair is able
to provide many advantages over a single transistor circuit configuration.

The Darlington Pair may sometimes also be referred to as a super-alpha pair, but this
name is used less these days. The circuit configuration was invented at Bell Laboratories
by Sidney Darlington in 1953 at the time when a significant amount of work was being
undertaken into transistor development. The idea covered the idea of having two or three
transistors on a single chip where the emitter of one transistor was connected to the base
of the next, and all the transistors in the Darlington configuration shared the same
collector.

Darlington pair transistor circuits can be bought as individual electronic components, i.e.
two transistors, or it is also possible to obtain them as a single electronic component with
the two transistors integrated onto one chip. Many Darlington arrays are also available
where several Darlington transistor pairs are contained within the same package.
Typically these are contained within an IC package as these are often used to drive
displays, etc. This makes Darlington transistor pairs very easy to use and incorporate into
a new electronic design.

Darlington pair circuit configuration

The Darlington pair circuit configuration is quite distinctive. It normally consists of two
transistors, although in theory it can contain more. The emitter of the input transistor is
connected directly to the base of the second. Both collectors are connected together. In
this way the base current from the first transistor enters the base of the second.
Basic Darlington Pair transistor configuration

This results in a very high level of current gain. The overall current gain of the
Darlington pair is the product of the two individual transistors:

Current gaintotal     =     HFE1   x   HFE2

This means that if two transistors with modest current gains of 50 were used, then the
overall current gain would be 50 x 50 = 2500.

Apart from having a very high current gain, the Darlington pair also exhibits a higher
voltage between the input base and the output emitter. As there are two base emitter
junctions the turn on voltage for the overall Darlington Pair is twice that of a single
transistor. For silicon transistor, this means that for current to flow in the output collector
emitter circuit, the input base must be about 1.2 to 1.4 volts above the output emitter. For
a germanium Darlington pair, the voltage would be about 0.5 volts.

Darlington pair transistor circuits are not normally used for high frequency applications.
The Darlington pair is inherently relatively slow because the base current for the output
transistor cannot shut off instantly. As a result Darlington pairs are generally used in low
frequency applications including in power supplies or areas where a very high input
impedance is needed.

Darlington transistor circuit symbol

Often the Darlington transistor pair is shown as two separate transistors, especially of the
circuit is made from two discrete transistors. However Darlington transistors are available
as a single device. To indicate this it is often helpful to show the Darlington pair in a
single envelope. In cases such as these the Darlington transistor is shown as on the right.

Circuit symbol for a Darlington pair chip

Darlington pair circuit calculations and design example

When designing a circuit using a Darlington pair, exactly the same rules are used as for
designing a circuit using a standard transistor. The Darlington pair can be treated as a
form of transistor with the differences of the very much higher current gain, and the
higher base emitter voltage.

To illustrate how this can be done, the example of an emitter follower circuit is given
below.

Circuit using a Darlington pair

Summary

The Darlington transistor pair is a very useful circuit in many applications. It provides a
high level of current gain which can be used in many power applications. Although the
Darlington pair has some limitations, it is nevertheless used in many areas, especially
where high frequency response in not needed. In particular Darlington transistors are
used for applications including audio outputs, power supply outputs, display drivers and
the like.