Electronics

Zebra ID Printers Feature New UHF RFID

2009-04-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Zebra Technologies Corporation este acum oferind ultra-inalta frecventa de codificare pentru RFID, dispozitivele de acces. Acest lucru permite mijlocul de volum mare a utilizatorilor finali de a efectua pe site-UHF carte crearea, pentru prima dată. În trecut, acest tip de loc de muncă trebuie să fie făcut de ID-ul de imprimare profesionale companii, ca parte a unei personalizat pentru. Acum, tehnologia este disponibil atât pe P330i (R3i) şi P430i (R4i) color imprimante ca o opţiune. Costul pentru ambele modele este încă de la jumătatea gama, chiar si cu cele mai moderne UHF Ethernet şi modul de conectare inclus.

Această nouă carte de programare a procesului de publicitate este la fel de rapid, uşor, şi de încredere. Ambele unic şi dublu-o parte Cardurile pot fi printate şi codificate la o rată de peste 100 de unităţi pe oră. În modul de UHF este proiectat să funcţioneze în mod concertat cu zebra Gen2 RFID carte. Cu toate acestea, este, de asemenea, compatibile cu carte de stocul disponibil de la alte companii de ID-ul de imprimantă. Acest lucru nu este surprinzător, deoarece o parte terţă este, de fapt, producător de aceste carduri RFID. Cu toate acestea, zebra are un brevet în aşteptarea pentru unele caracteristici ale incrustare antenă. Acestea se concentrează pe aspecte de design de performanţă şi securitate maximizarea.

Nu sunt destul de multe de frecvenţă joasă şi înaltă frecvenţă RFID opţiuni existente deja pe piaţă. Ce face ultra-inalta frecventa diferite? Etichetele folosite au o medie de citit serie de 10-12 de metri. Acest lucru este mult mai departe, fie LF sau UF general ajunge. O astfel de capacitate deschide o gamă largă de aplicaţii care standard proximitate carduri nu sunt echipate pentru a manipula. Zebra selectat ThingMagic Mercury4e de citire / scriere, pentru că modul său de design dual antenă şi compatibilitatea cu o gamă largă de protocoale de etichetă.

Tehnologie Aplicaţii

Zebra a emis un comunicat de presă, în septembrie, 2008 cu privire la un client existente care recent actualizat la noua tehnologie. Vail Resorts de companie este acum folosind P330i (R3i) UHF imprimantă pentru Colorado, California, Nevada şi locaţii. Aceste statiuni de schi vor fi acum în măsură să ofere autentificate ridica trece uşor pentru toţi clienţii lor. Aceste dispozitive pot fi citite prin intermediul puternic izolate de îmbrăcăminte purtată pentru populare sporturi de iarna. Clientii nu vor fi necesare pentru a orbecăi în jurul beţivan care încearcă să o ridice treci cu rece-numbed mâinile mai. În schimb, Vail este "uşor de scanare" a avut loc scanner-parte de sistem va face toată treaba. De codificat trece meşteri sunt foarte rezistente si fiecare dintre ei are o serie unic ID #. Cloning, forjare şi de alte riscuri de securitate sunt foarte mici.

Beneficiile UHF activat dispozitive avansate de control al accesului pentru aplicatii sunt uşor aparent. Volum mare de trafic poate fi autentificat la o rată de peste 60 de etichetele RFID pe secundă. O astfel de identitate poate fi citit direct pasiv, fără a fi prezentate la un cititor de card. O persoană cu un nivel scăzut de acces carte ar putea să încerce să intre într-o zonă de alunecarea în spatele autorizat un individ în timp ce uşa este în continuare deschis. Cu toate acestea, nici o carte care nu conţine corespunzătoare permissions va declanşa de interogator ca trece prin. De cititor de card pot apoi trimite o notificare automată la staţia centrală de monitorizare. Desigur, utilizarea de supraveghere video sau de personalul de securitate este în continuare singura cale de a prinde pe cineva în acest fel, dacă acestea nu sunt nici o carte care desfăşoară, la toate.

Multimeter

2007-01-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

A multimeter or a multitester is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit. The most basic instruments include an ammeter, voltmeter, and ohmmeter. Analog multimeters are sometimes referred to as "volt-ohm-meters", abbreviated VOM. Digital multimeters are usually referred to as "digital-multi-meters", abbreviated DMM.

A multimeter can be a handheld device useful for basic fault finding and field service work or a bench instrument which can measure to seven or eight and a half digits of accuracy. Such an instrument will commonly be found in a calibration lab and can be used to characterise resistance and voltage standards or adjust and verify the performance of multi-function calibrators.

Current, voltage, and resistance measurements are considered standard features for multimeter. AVO multimeters, a manufacturer of early multimeters, derived their name from amperes, volts, and ohms, the units used for the measurement of current, voltage, and resistance.

Newer equipment can measure many other quantities. Some common additional measured quantities and the units in which they are measured:
Capacitance in farads.
Frequency in hertz.
Duty cycle as a percentage.
Temperature in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.
Conductance in siemens.
Inductance in henrys.

A multimeter may be implemented with an analog meter deflected by an electromagnet, as a classic galvanometer; or with a digital display such as an LCD or vacuum fluorescent display.
Analog multimeters are not hard to find in the used market, but are not very accurate because of errors introduced in zeroing and reading the analog meter face.
Analog meters may be implemented with vacuum tubes to precondition and amplify the input signal. Such meters are known as vacuum tube volt meters (VTVM) or vacuum tube multimeters (VTMM).

The resolution of a multimeter is often specified in "digits" of resolution. The term "digits" dates back to the 1970's when multimeter vendors were very proud of how many digits their products could display (this was important, because readout displays were costly). The vendors started to specify the maximum resolution of the multimeter based on the digital display. For example, the term 5½ digits refers to the number of digits displayed on the readout of a multimeter. A 5½ digit multimeter would have five full digits that display values from 0 to 9 and one half digit that could only display 0 or 1. This digital multimeter could show positive or negative values from 0 to 199,999. For a modern DMM, such as a PC-based multimeter, the term "digits" actually maps to the noise performance of the device.
Modern multimeters are exclusively digital, and identified by the term DMM or digital multimeter. In such an instrument, the signal under test is converted to a digital voltage and an amplifier with an electronically controlled gain preconditions the signal. Since the digital display directly indicates a quantity as a number, there is no risk of parallax causing an error when viewing a reading.

Similarly, better circuitry and electronics have improved meter accuracy. Older analog meters might have basic accuracies of five to ten percent. Modern portable DMMs may have accuracies as good as ±0.025%, and bench-top instruments have accuracies in the single-digit parts per million figures.

The inclusion of solid state electronics, from a control circuit to small embedded computers, has provided a wealth of convenience features in modern digital meters. Commonly available measurement enhancements include:

Autoranging, which selects the correct range for the quantity under test so that the most significant digits are shown. For example, a four-digit multimeter would display 1.234 instead of 0.012.

Sample and hold, which will latch the most recent reading for examination after the instrument is removed from the circuit under test.
Current-limited tests for voltage drop across semiconductor junctions. While not a replacement for a transistor tester, this facilitates testing diodes and a variety of transistor types.

A graphic representation of the quantity under test, as a bar graph. This makes go/no-go testing easy, and also allows spotting of fast-moving trends.
A continuity tester that beeps when a circuit conducts.
A low-bandwidth oscilloscope.
A telephone test set.

Automotive circuit testers, including tests for automotive timing and dwell signals.
Simple data acquisition features to record maximum and minimum readings over a given period, or to take a number of samples at fixed intervals.
Digital meters often feature circuitry or software to accurately measure the AC voltage at any frequency. These meters integrate the input signal using the root mean square method, and will correctly read the true voltage of an input signal even if it isn't a perfect sine wave.

Modern meters may be interfaced with a personal computer by IrDA links, RS-232 connections, USB, or an instrument bus such as IEEE-488. The interface allows the computer to record measurements as they are made or for the instrument to upload a series of results to the computer.

As modern appliances and systems become more complicated, the multimeter is becoming less common in the technician's toolkit. More complicated and specialized equipment replaces it. Where a service man might have used an ohmmeter to measure resistance while testing an antenna, a modern technician may use a hand-held analyzer to test several parameters in order to determine the integrity of a network cable.

Ammeter

2007-01-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

An ammeter is a measuring instrument used to measure the flow of electric current in a circuit. Electric currents are measured in amperes, hence the name. The word "ammeter" is commonly misspelled or mispronounced as "ampmeter" by some.

The earliest design is the D'Arsonval galvanometer or moving coil ammeter. It uses magnetic deflection, where current passing through a coil causes the coil to move in a magnetic field. The voltage drop across the coil is kept to a minimum to minimize resistance in any circuit into which the meter is inserted.

Moving iron ammeters use a piece or pieces of iron which move when acted upon by the electromagnetic force of a fixed coil of (usually heavy gauge) wire. This type of meter responds to both direct and alternating currents (as opposed to the moving coil ammeter, which works on direct current only).

To measure larger currents, a resistor called a shunt is placed in parallel with the meter. Most of the current flows through the shunt, and only a small fraction flows through the meter. With this solution, arbitrarily large currents can be measured with a single meter. Traditionally, the meter used with a shunt reaches full-scale deflection when a voltage of 50mV is placed across its coil, so shunts are typically designed to produce a voltage drop of 50mV when carrying their full rated current.

More modern ammeter designs are non-mechanical, or digital, and use an analog to digital converter to measure the voltage across the shunt resistor. The ADC is read by a microcomputer that performs the calculations to display the current through the resistor.
One problem with the use of an ammeter is the need for the meter to be inserted into the circuit and become part of it. Mistakenly placing the ammeter in parallel with a circuit will blow the fuse, possibly damaging the meter and causing injury. In AC circuits, an inductive coupling adapter converts the magnetic field around a conductor into a small AC current that can be easily read by a meter. See clamp meter. In a similar way, accurate DC non-contact ammeters have been constructed using Hall effect magnetic field sensors.

Potentiometer

2007-01-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

A voltmeter may also be realized using a potentiometer, which is a length of uniform resistance material (wire or carbon film, for instance) and a "wiper" that can short-circuit any portion of the material, thereby changing effective resistance between the wiper and an end terminal of the potentiometer. The unknown voltage source may be connected to a current detector, which is in turn connected to the potentiometer's wiper, while the known voltage source is connected to an end terminal of the potentiometer. Then the wiper position is adjusted to change the potentiometer's effective resistance until a balance is obtained and no current is detected. At this time, record the potentiometer's wiper position. For example, if our potentiometer were a length of very long wire and our wiper were some sort of metal wand in contact with that wire, record the length of wire between the wiper and the end of the wiper that is in our circuit. Now replace the unknown voltage supply with the known voltage supply and repeat the procedure. The unknown voltage is then given by the product of the known voltage and the recorded used length of wire corresponding to the unknown voltage, divided by the recorded length of wire corresponding to the reference voltage.

Voltmeter

2007-01-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring the potential difference between two points in an electric circuit.

The voltage can be measured by allowing it to pass a current through a resistance; therefore, a voltmeter can be seen as a very high resistance ammeter. One of the design objectives of the instrument is to disturb the circuit as little as possible and hence the instrument should draw a minimum of electric current to operate. This is achieved by using a sensitive ammeter or microammeter in series with a high resistance.

The moving coil galvanometer is one example of this type of voltmeter. It employs a small coil of fine wire suspended in a strong magnetic field. When an electrical current is applied, the galvanometer's indicator rotates and compresses a small spring. The angular rotation is proportional to the current that is flowing through the coil. For use as a voltmeter, a series resistance is added so that the angular rotation becomes proportional to the applied voltage.

Voltage

2007-01-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

Voltage is the difference of electrical potential between two points of an electronic circuit, expressed in volts. It is a measure of the capacity (not the technical meaning) of an electric field to cause an electric current in an electrical conductor. Depending on the difference of electrical potential it is called extra low voltage, low voltage, high voltage or extra high voltage.

Between two points in an electric field, such as exists in an electrical circuit, the difference in their electrical potentials is known as the electrical potential difference. This difference is proportional to the electrostatic force that tends to push electrons or other charge-carriers from one point to the other. Potential difference, electrical potential, and electromotive force are measured in volts, leading to the commonly used term voltage. Voltage is usually represented in equations by the symbols V, U, or E. (E is often preferred in academic writing, because it avoids the confusion between V and the SI symbol for the volt, which is also V.)

Electrical potential difference can be thought of as the ability to move electrical charge through a resistance. At a time in physics when the word force was used loosely, the potential difference was named the electromotive force or EMF—a term which is still used in certain contexts.

Voltage is a property of an electric field, not individual electrons. An electron moving across a voltage difference experiences a net change in energy, often measured in electron-volts. This effect is analogous to a mass falling through a given height difference in a gravitational field.

When using the term 'potential difference' or voltage, one must be clear about the two points between which the voltage is specified or measured. There are two ways in which the term is used. This can lead to some confusion.

Signal Sampling

2007-01-06T05:44:00.002-08:00

With the increasing use of computers the usage and need of digital signal processing has increased. In order to use an analog signal on a computer it must be digitized with an analog to digital converter (ADC). Sampling is usually carried out in two stages, discretization and quantization. In the discretization stage, the space of signals is partitioned into equivalence classes and discretization is carried out by replacing the signal with representative signal of the corresponding equivalence class. In the quantization stage the representative signal values are approximated by values from a finite set.

To ensure that a sampled analog signal can be exactly reconstructed the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem must be satisfied. In short, the sampling frequency must be greater than twice the bandwidth of the signal (provided it is filtered perfectly - in practice the sampling frequency is always more than twice the required bandwidth). The most common bandwidth scenarios are: DC - BWx ("baseband"); and Fc +/-BWx, a frequency band centered on a carrier frequency ("direct demodulation").

A digital to analog converter (DAC) is used to convert the digital signal back to analog. The use of a digital computer is a key ingredient into digital control systems.

Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

2007-01-06T05:44:00.001-08:00

Digital signal processing (DSP) is the study of signals in a digital representation and the processing methods of these signals. DSP and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing. DSP has at least four major subfields: audio signal processing, control engineering, digital image processing and speech processing.

Since the goal of DSP is usually to measure or filter continuous real-world analog signals, the first step is usually to convert the signal from an analog to a digital form, by using an analog to digital converter. Often, the required output signal is another analog output signal, which requires a digital to analog converter.

The algorithms required for DSP are sometimes performed using specialized computers, which make use of specialized microprocessors called digital signal processors (also abbreviated DSP). These process signals in real time and are generally purpose-designed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). When flexibility and rapid development are more important than unit costs at high volume, DSP algorithms may also be implemented using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

Logic Voltage Levels

2007-01-06T05:43:00.002-08:00

The two states of a wire are usually represented by some measurement of electric current: Voltage is the most common, but current is used in some logic families. A threshold is designed for each logic family. When below that threshold, the wire is "low," when above "high." Digital circuits establish a "no man's area" or "exclusion zone" that is wider than the tolerances of the components. The circuits avoid that area, in order to avoid indeterminate results.

It is usual to allow some tolerance in the voltage levels used; for example, 0 to 2 volts might represent logic 0, and 3 to 5 volts logic 1. A voltage of 2 to 3 volts would be invalid and would occur only in a fault condition or during a logic level transition, as most circuits are not purely resistive, and therefore cannot instantly change voltage levels. However, few logic circuits can detect such a fault, and most will just choose to interpret the signal randomly as either a 0 or a 1.
The levels represent the binary integers or logic levels of 0 and 1. In active-high logic, "low" represents binary 0 and "high" represents binary 1. Active-low logic uses the reverse representation.

Waveform in Digital Circuits

2007-01-06T05:43:00.001-08:00

In computer architecture and other digital systems, a waveform that switches between two voltage levels representing the two states of a Boolean value (0 and 1) is referred to as a digital signal, even though it is an analog voltage waveform, since it is interpreted in terms of only two levels.

The clock signal is a special digital signal that is used to synchronize digital circuits. The image shown can be considered the waveform of a clock signal. Logic changes are triggered either by the rising edge or the falling edge.

digital Signal

2007-01-06T05:42:00.001-08:00

The term digital signal is used to refer to more than one concept. It can refer to discrete-time signals that are digitized, or to the waveform signals in a digital system.
Digital signals are digital representations of discrete-time signals, which are often derived from analog signals.

An analog signal is a datum that changes over time—say, the temperature at a given location; the depth of a certain point in a pond; or the amplitude of the voltage at some node in a circuit—that can be represented as a mathematical function, with time as the free variable (abscissa) and the signal itself as the dependent variable (ordinate). A discrete-time signal is a sampled version of an analog signal: the value of the datum is noted at fixed intervals (for example, every microsecond) rather than continuously.

If individual time values of the discrete-time signal, instead of being measured precisely (which would require an infinite number of digits), are approximated to a certain precision—which, therefore, only requires a specific number of digits—then the resultant data stream is termed a digital signal. The process of approximating the precise value within a fixed number of digits, or bits, is called quantization.

In conceptual summary, a digital signal is a quantized discrete-time signal; a discete-time signal is a sampled analog signal.

In the Digital Revolution, the usage of digital signals has increased significantly. Many modern media devices, especially the ones that connect with computers use digital signals to represent signals that were traditionally represented as continuous-time signals; cell phones, music and video players, personal video recorders, and digital cameras are examples.

In most applications, digital signals are represented as binary numbers, so their precision of quantization is measured in bits. Suppose, for example, that we wish to measure a signal to two significant decimal digits. Since seven bits, or binary digits, can record 128 discrete values (viz., from 0 to 127), those seven bits are more than sufficient to express a range of one hundred values.

Construction of Digital Circuits

2007-01-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

A digital circuit is often constructed from small electronic circuits called logic gates. Each logic gate represents a function of boolean logic. A logic gate is an arrangement of electrically controlled switches. The output is an electrical flow or voltage, that can, in turn, control more logic gates. Logic gates often use the fewest number of transistors in order to reduce their size, power consumption and cost, and increase their reliability. Manufactured as integrated circuits, they are the least expensive implementation when made in large volumes. They are usually designed by engineers using electronic design automation software (See below for more information).

Another form of digital circuit is constructed from lookup tables, (many sold as "programmable logic devices", though other kinds of PLDs exist). Lookup tables can perform all the same functions as machines based on logic gates, but lookup tables can be easily reprogrammed without changing the wiring. This means that a designer can often repair errors without changing the arrangement of wires. Therefore, in small volume products, programmable logic devices are often the preferred solution. They are usually designed by engineers using electronic design automation software (See below for more information).

When the volumes are medium to large, and the logic can be slow, or involves complex algorithms or sequences, often a small microcontroller is programmed to make an embedded system. These are usually programmed by software engineers.

When only one digital circuit is needed, and its design is totally customized, as for a factory production line controller, the conventional solution is a programmable logic controller, or PLC. These are usually programmed by electricians, using ladder logic.

Disadvantages of Digital Circuits

2007-01-06T05:39:00.000-08:00

Digital circuits use more energy than analog circuits to accomplish the same calculations and signal processing tasks, thus producing more heat as well. In portable or battery-powered systems this can be a major limiting factor, but in a situation where power is plentiful, a digital system is often preferred because of all the advantages listed above, especially that of (re-)programmability and ease of upgrading without requiring hardware changes.
A particular example is the cellular telephone, which being a battery-powered portable device, uses a low-power analog front-end to acquire and tune in the radio signal from the base station. The base station, being in a fixed location with access to the power grid, can afford to use power-hungry software-defined (digital) radio techniques that digitize the signal essentially at the antenna (after wideband filtering and downconversion to intermediate frequency) and performs all channelization and demodulation via software-driven calculations. Such base stations can be reprogrammed, potentially via remote control, to process the signals used in future cellular standards as those standards become available.

Digital circuits are sometimes more expensive, especially in small quantities.
The world in which we live is analog, and signals from this world such as light, temperature, sound, electrical conductivity, electric and magnetic fields, and phenomena such as the flow of time, are for most practical purposes continuous and thus analog quantities rather than discrete digital ones. For a digital system to do useful things in the real world, translation from the continuous realm to the discrete digital realm must occur, resulting in quantization errors. This problem can usually be mitigated by designing the system to store enough digital data to represent the signal to the desired degree of fidelity. The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem provides an important guideline as to how much digital data is needed to accurately portray a given analog signal.

Advantages of Digital Circuits

2007-01-06T05:38:00.002-08:00

The usual advantages of digital circuits when compared to analog circuits are:
Digital systems interface well with computers and are easy to control with software. It is often possible to add new features to a digital system without changing hardware, and to do this remotely, just by uploading new software. Design errors or bugs can be worked-around with a software upgrade, after the product is in customer hands. Information storage can be much easier in digital systems than in analog ones. In particular, the great noise-immunity of digital systems makes it possible to store data and retrieve it later without degradation. In an analog system, aging and wear and tear will degrade the information in storage, but in a digital system, as long as the wear and tear is below a certain level, the information can be recovered perfectly.

Digital Electronics

2007-01-06T05:38:00.001-08:00

Digital electronics are those electronics systems that use a digital signal instead of an analog signal. Digital electronics are the most common representation of Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital circuits for computers, mobile phones, and numerous other consumer products.

The most common "fundamental unit" of digital electronics is the logic gate. By combining numerous logic gates (from tens to hundreds of thousands) more complex systems can be created. The complex system of digital electronics is collectively referred to as a digital circuit.
To most electronic engineers, the terms "digital circuit", "digital system" and "logic" are interchangeable in the context of digital circuits.

Construction Methods

2007-01-06T05:37:00.002-08:00

Many different methods of connecting components have been used over the years. For instance, in the beginning point to point wiring using tag boards attached to chassis were used to connect various electrical innards. Cordwood construction and wire wraps were other methods used. Most modern day electronics now use printed circuit boards or highly integrated circuits. Health and environmental concerns associated with electronics assembly have gained increased attention in recent years, especially for products destined to the European Union, with its Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which went into force in July 2006.

Electronic Test Equipment

2007-01-06T05:37:00.001-08:00

Electronic test equipment is used to create stimulus signals and capture responses from electronic Devices Under Test (DUTs). In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced and repaired.

Practical electronics engineering and assembly requires the use of many different kinds of electronic test equipment ranging from the very simple and inexpensive (such as a test light consisting of just a light bulb and a test lead) to extremely complex and sophisticated such as Automatic Test Equipment.

Digital Circuits

2007-01-06T05:36:00.002-08:00

Digital circuits are electric circuits based on a number of discrete voltage levels. Digital circuits are the most common physical representation of Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital computers. To most engineers, the terms "digital circuit", "digital system" and "logic" are interchangeable in the context of digital circuits. In most cases the number of different states of a node is two, represented by two voltage levels labeled "Low" and "High". Often "Low" will be near zero volts and "High" will be at a higher level depending on the supply voltage in use.
Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital Signal Processors are another example.

Analog Circuits

2007-01-06T05:36:00.001-08:00

Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from combinations of a few types of basic circuits. Analog circuits use a continuous range of voltage as opposed to discrete levels as in digital circuits. The number of different analog circuits so far devised is huge, especially because a 'circuit' can be defined as anything from a single component, to systems containing thousands of components.

Analog circuits are sometimes called linear circuits although many non-linear effects are used in analog circuits such as mixers, modulators, etc. Good examples of analog circuits include vacuum tube and transistor amplifiers, operational amplifiers and oscillators.

Some analog circuitry these days may use digital or even microprocessor techniques to improve upon the basic performance of the circuit. This type of circuit is usually called 'mixed signal'.
Sometimes it may be difficult to differentiate between analog and digital circuits as they have elements of both linear and non-linear operation. An example is the comparator which takes in a continuous range of voltage but puts out only one of two levels as in a digital circuit. Similarly, an overdriven transistor amplifier can take on the characteristics of a controlled switch having essentially two levels of output.

Electronic Components

2007-01-06T05:35:00.001-08:00

An electronic component is any indivisible electronic building block packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads. Components are intended to be connected together, usually by soldering to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode etc.) or in more or less complex groups as integrated circuits (operational amplifier, resistor array, logic gate etc). Active components are sometimes called devices rather than components.

Electronics

2007-01-04T20:26:00.001-08:00

The field of electronics comprises the study and use of systems that operate by controlling the flow of electrons (or other charge carriers) in devices such as thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) and semiconductors. The design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems is an integral technique in the field of electronics engineering and is equally important in hardware design for computer engineering. All applications of electronics involve the transmission of either information or power. Most deal only with information.

The study of new semiconductor devices and surrounding technology is sometimes considered a branch of physics. This article focuses on engineering aspects of electronics. Other important topics include electronic waste and occupational health impacts of semiconductor manufacturing.