Electronics - History, Electronic Components, Integrated Circuits, Sensors, Amplifiers, Power-supply Circuits, Microwave Electronics - capacitors Resistors and inductors, Oscillators
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Electronics is a field of engineering and applied physics that grew out of the study and application of electricity. Electricity concerns the generation and transmission of power and uses metal conductors. Electronics manipulates the flow of electrons in a variety of ways and accomplishes this by using gases, materials like silicon and germanium that are semiconductors, and other devices like solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), masers, lasers, and microwave tubes. Electronics applications include radio, radar, television, communications systems and satellites, navigation aids and systems, control systems, space exploration vehicles, microdevices like watches, many appliances, and computers.
Resistance to the flow of current can be controlled by the conductivity of the material, dimensions over which current flows, and the applied voltage. In electronic circuits, metal films, mixtures containing carbon, and resistance wire are used to make resistors. Capacitors have the ability to retain charge and voltage and to act as conductors, especially when currents change in flow. Inductors regulate rapid changes in signals and current intensity.
Oscillators are amplifiers that receive an incoming signal and their own output as feedback (that is, also as input). They produce radio and audio signals for precision signaling, such as warning systems, telephone electronics between individual telephones and central telephone stations, computers, alarm clocks, high-frequency communications equipment, and the high-frequency transmissions of broadcasting stations.
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The history of electronics is a story of the twentieth century and three key components—the vacuum tube, the transistor, and the integrated circuit. In 1883, Thomas Alva Edison discovered that electrons will flow from one metal conductor to another through a vacuum. This discovery of conduction became known as the Edison effect. In 1904, John Fleming applied the Edison effect in inventing a…
Integrated circuits are sets of electronic components that are interconnected. Active components supply energy and include vacuum tubes and transistors. Passive components absorb energy and include resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Vacuum tubes or electron tubes are glass or ceramic enclosures that contain metal electrodes for producing, controlling, or collecting beams of electrons. A diode h…
An integrated circuit consists of tens of thousands of transistors and other circuit elements that are fabricated in a substrate of inert material. That material can be ceramic or glass for a film-integrated circuit or silicon or gallium-arsenide for a semiconductor integrated circuit (SIC). These circuits are small pieces or chips that may be 0.08–0.15 sq in long (2–4 sq mm long). D…
Sensors are specialized electronic devices that detect changes in quantities such as temperature, electrical power levels, chemical concentrations, physical position, fluid flow, or mechanical properties like velocity or acceleration. When a sensor responds to change, it usually requires a transducer to convert the quantity the sensor has measured into electrical signals that are translated into p…
Amplifiers are electronic devices that boost current, voltage, or power. Audio amplifiers are used in radios, televisions, cassette recorders, sound systems, and citizens band radios. They receive sound as electrical signals, amplify these, and convert them to sound in speakers. Video amplifiers increase the strength of the visual information seen on the television screen by regulating the brightn…
Microwaves are the frequencies of choice for many forms of communications especially telephone and television signals that are transmitted long distances through overland methods, broadcast stations, and satellites. Microwave electronics are also used for radar. Microwaves are within the frequency of 3 GHz to about 300 GHz; because of their high frequency spectrum, microwaves can carry large numbe…
Optical electronics involve combined applications of optical (light) signals and electronic signals. Optoelectronics have a number of uses, but the three general classifications of these uses are to detect light, to convert solar energy to electric energy, and to convert electric energy to light. Like radio waves and microwaves, light is also a form of electromagnetic radiation except that its wav…
Digital electronics are the electronics that transformed our lives beginning in the 1970s. The personal computer is one of the best examples of this transformation because it has simplified tasks that were difficult or impossible for individuals to accomplish. Digital devices use simple "true-false" or "on-off" statements to represent information and to make decisions. …
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