Mosaic embedded designs » Embedded applications » Pulse width modulation, PWM control

Mosaic's embedded microcontrollers offer PWM control

What is PWM?

Pulse width modulation (PWM) allows you to control analog circuits and actuators with a processor's digital outputs. A pulse width modulated signal is a periodic digital output waveform with a controlled period, duty cycle, and polarity. These waveforms can be used to drive stepper motors, servo-motors, AC and DC relays, LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes), and many other actuators. By varying the duty cycle (the percentage of the time that the PWM output is in its active state), the average value of the PWM signal can be changed. It can be employed to vary the intensity of light put out by an LED, for example.

A PWM signal can be smoothed with a low-pass filter to create an analog output whose value is proportional to its duty cycle; this provides a way of creating a simple D-to-A (Digital-to-Analog) converter. PWM is used in a wide range of applications, from power control and conversion to communications and measurements.

The benefits of using digital PWM control over analog circuitry are:

  • no-loss transmission and increased noise immunity
  • high precision and 'no drift' control,
  • reduced power consumption,
  • significant system cost savings

The Mosaic Real Time Operating System (RTOS) includes pre-coded software driver functions that control the PWM system. You can easily configure the period, duty cycle, active state, alignment, resolution, and clock source of each PWM output.

Select your custom off-the-shelf system for PWM control

Embedded Controllers

instrument controller, single board computer

Operator Interfaces

instrument controller with graphical user interface

Expansion I/O Modules

expansion I/O modules for instrument control

We provide a suite of software development tools with all our products to simplify your programming. These comprehensive tools include:

All Mosaic controllers include pre-coded device drivers providing full high level access to their functions using either the C or Forth programming languages.

Pre-coded I/O drivers facilitate data acquisition, pulse width modulation, motor control, PID control, frequency measurement, data analysis, data logging, analog control, and communications.

Extensive documentation with precoded sample programs helps you finish your application quickly.


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