Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. Electronics is a subfield of electrical engineering, but it differs from it in that it focuses on using active devices such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits to control and amplify the flow of electric current and to convert it from one form to another, such as from alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) or from analog to digital. Electronics also encompasses the fields of microelectronics, nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, and quantum electronics, which deal with the fabrication and application of electronic devices at microscopic, nanoscopic, optical, and quantum scales.
An operational amplifier is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and, usually, a single-ended output. In this configuration, an op amp produces an output potential that is typically 100,000 times larger than the potential difference between its input terminals. The operational amplifier traces its origin and name to analog computers, where they were used to perform mathematical operations in linear, non-linear, and frequency-dependent circuits.
A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the Zener voltage, is reached.
A diode bridge is a bridge rectifier circuit of four diodes that is used in the process of converting alternating current (AC) from the input terminals to direct current on the output terminals. Its function is to convert the negative voltage portions of the AC waveform to positive voltage, after which a low-pass filter can be used to smooth the result into DC.
An opto-isolator is an electronic component that transfers electrical signals between two isolated circuits by using light. Opto-isolators prevent high voltages from affecting the system receiving the signal. Commercially available opto-isolators withstand input-to-output voltages up to 10 kV and voltage transients with speeds up to 25 kV/μs.
The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit used in a variety of timer, delay, pulse generation, and oscillator applications. It is one of the most popular timing ICs due to its flexibility and price. Derivatives provide two or four timing circuits in one package. The design was first marketed in 1972 by Signetics and used bipolar junction transistors. Since then, numerous companies have made the original timers and later similar low-power CMOS timers. In 2017, it was said that over a billion 555 timers are produced annually by some estimates, and that the design was "probably the most popular integrated circuit ever made".
In electronics, a sample and hold circuit is an analog device that samples the voltage of a continuously varying analog signal and holds its value at a constant level for a specified minimum period of time. Sample and hold circuits and related peak detectors are the elementary analog memory devices. They are typically used in analog-to-digital converters to eliminate variations in input signal that can corrupt the conversion process. They are also used in electronic music, for instance to impart a random quality to successively-played notes.
Paul Horowitz is an American physicist and electrical engineer, known primarily for his work in electronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
IC power-supply pins denote a voltage and current supply terminals in electric, electronics engineering, and in Integrated circuit design. Integrated circuits (ICs) have at least two pins that connect to the power rails of the circuit in which they are installed. These are known as the power-supply pins. However, the labeling of the pins varies by IC family and manufacturer. The double subscript notation usually corresponds to a first letter in a given IC family (transistors) notation of the terminals.
A crowbar circuit is an electrical circuit used for preventing an overvoltage or surge condition of a power supply unit from damaging the circuits attached to the power supply. It operates by putting a short circuit or low resistance path across the voltage output (Vo), like dropping a crowbar across the output terminals of the power supply. Crowbar circuits are frequently implemented using a thyristor, TRIAC, trisil or thyratron as the shorting device. Once triggered, they depend on the current-limiting circuitry of the power supply or, if that fails, the blowing of the line fuse or tripping the circuit breaker.
Introduction to Algorithms is a book on computer programming by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein. The book has been widely used as the textbook for algorithms courses at many universities and is commonly cited as a reference for algorithms in published papers, with over 10,000 citations documented on CiteSeerX, and over 67,000 citation on Google Scholar as of 2023. The book sold half a million copies during its first 20 years, and surpassed a million copies sold in 2022. Its fame has led to the common use of the abbreviation "CLRS", or, in the first edition, "CLR".
In integrated circuit design, dynamic logic is a design methodology in combinational logic circuits, particularly those implemented in metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology. It is distinguished from the so-called static logic by exploiting temporary storage of information in stray and gate capacitances. It was popular in the 1970s and has seen a recent resurgence in the design of high-speed digital electronics, particularly central processing units (CPUs). Dynamic logic circuits are usually faster than static counterparts and require less surface area, but are more difficult to design. Dynamic logic has a higher average rate of voltage transitions than static logic, but the capacitive loads being transitioned are smaller so the overall power consumption of dynamic logic may be higher or lower depending on various tradeoffs. When referring to a particular logic family, the dynamic adjective usually suffices to distinguish the design methodology, e.g. dynamic CMOS or dynamic SOI design.
Winfield Hill is the Director of the Electronics Engineering Laboratory at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University. A self-proclaimed "electronics circuit-design guru" and trained physicist and electronic engineer, he co-authored the popular text The Art of Electronics with Harvard Physicist Paul Horowitz.
A clamper is an electronic circuit that fixes either the positive or the negative peak excursions of a signal to a defined voltage by adding a variable positive or negative DC voltage to it. The clamper does not restrict the peak-to-peak excursion of the signal (clipping); it moves the whole signal up or down so as to place its peaks at the reference level.
In digital electronics, an address decoder is a binary decoder that has two or more inputs for address bits and one or more outputs for device selection signals. When the address for a particular device appears on the address inputs, the decoder asserts the selection output for that device. A dedicated, single-output address decoder may be incorporated into each device on an address bus, or a single address decoder may serve multiple devices.
Principles of Electronics is a 2002 book by Colin Simpson designed to accompany the Electronics Technician distance education program and contains a concise and practical overview of the basic principles, including theorems, circuit behavior and problem-solving procedures of Electronic circuits and devices. The textbook reinforces concepts with practical "real-world" applications as well as the mathematical solution, allowing readers to more easily relate the academic to the actual.
Baker clamp is a generic name for a class of electronic circuits that reduce the storage time of a switching bipolar junction transistor (BJT) by applying a nonlinear negative feedback through various kinds of diodes. The reason for slow turn-off times of saturated BJTs is the stored charge in the base. It must be removed before the transistor will turn off since the storage time is a limiting factor of using bipolar transistors and IGBTs in fast switching applications. The diode-based Baker clamps prevent the transistor from saturating and thereby accumulating a lot of stored charge.
The 1N400x series is a family of popular one-ampere general-purpose silicon rectifier diodes commonly used in AC adapters for common household appliances. Its blocking voltage varies from 50 volts (1N4001) to 1000 volts (1N4007). This JEDEC device number series is available in the DO-41 axial package. Diodes with similar ratings are available in SMA and MELF surface mount packages.
The ICL8038 waveform generator was an Integrated circuit by Intersil designed to generate sine, square and triangular waveforms, based on bipolar monolithic technology involving Schottky barrier diodes. ICL8038 was a voltage-controlled oscillator capable of producing frequencies between a millihertz and 100 kHz., some specimens capable of reaching 300 kHz. The device has been discontinued by Intersil in 2002.
A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; at any given time it represents a real number within a continuous range of values.
