Mike Beckman 2026-11-05
Mike Beckman is an electrical engineer identified in a 2013 Texas Instruments reference design as a systems engineer who, at that time, managed its converter product line. With Luis Chioye, he coauthored Precision Thermocouple Measurement with the ADS1118 by Mike Beckman and Luis Chioye, combining an analog-to-digital converter, thermocouple input and on-chip temperature sensor.[ref]
Their design treats cold-junction compensation as both an electrical calculation and a thermal-layout problem. It places the converter near the connector and uses copper regions to improve cold-junction thermal coupling, while separating nearby heat sources. Its tests distinguish changing the reference-junction temperature from changing the measuring-junction temperature.[ref]
A simple original linear model illustrates the reason. If a thermocouple has stipulated sensitivity and measures , then implies . A reference junction at therefore gives . Reading that junction as instead gives , despite perfect measurement of . The model uses constant sensitivity only for illustration; actual cold-junction compensation uses the appropriate thermoelectric conversion.
Pete Semig 2026-11-05
Pete Semig is an analog-electronics engineer and technical author associated with Texas Instruments. A2013 company reference design identifies his applications work on difference and instrumentation amplifiers. The same document credits Peter Semig on its title page and uses Pete Semig in its author biography.[ref]
His current-measurement work connects a small electrical signal to an instrument's usable range. A shunt resistor produces an electric potential difference proportional to current, and an amplifier makes that difference easier to measure. The2013 reference describes a single-supply low-side current sensing design for a stated10microampere-to10milliampere range.[ref]
For an original simplified example, choose a1ohm shunt and current . The shunt drop is , and a voltage gain of50 gives a1volt output. The shunt also dissipates
Thus the measurement element changes the circuit it measures, through both its voltage drop and its dissipation. An input-equivalent amplifier offset of100microvolts would correspond to0.1milliampere in this example. These selected values do not reproduce the reference design.
Semig's Integrator Circuit by Pete Semig similarly states the operating limits behind an integrating amplifier: capacitor feedback gives an ideal integral, while offsets, finite bandwidth and the DC feedback path limit practical behavior.[ref] His technical contribution is to connect circuit equations with component choices and the conditions under which a measurement remains interpretable.