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Electronics

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The field of electronics is the study and use of systems that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. The design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems is part of the fields of electronic engineering, and the hardware design side of computer engineering. The study of new semiconductor devices and their technology is sometimes considered as a branch of physics.

The term "solid-state electronics" emerged after the first working transistor was invented by William Shockley, Walter Houser Brattain and John Bardeen at Bell Labs in 1947. The MOSFET (MOS transistor) was later invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959. The MOSFET was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses, revolutionizing the electronics industry, and playing a central role in the microelectronics revolution and Digital Revolution. The MOSFET has since become the basic element in most modern electronic equipment, and is the most widely used electronic device in the world.

Electronics industry[]

Main article: Electronics industry
Further information: Consumer electronics, List of best-selling electronic devices, and Semiconductor industry

The electronics industry consists of various sectors. The central driving force behind the entire electronics industry is the semiconductor industry sector,[1] which has annual sales of over $481 billion as of 2018.[2] The largest industry sector is e-commerce, which generated over $29 trillion in 2017.[3] The most widely manufactured electronic device is the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), with an estimated 13 sextillion MOSFETs having been manufactured between 1960 and 2018.[4]

History of electronic components[]

See also: History of electronic engineering, MOS revolution, Silicon Age, Solid-state electronics, and Timeline of electrical and electronic engineering
Atalla1963

Mohamed M. Atalla was a pioneer of modern electronics. He invented silicon surface passivation by thermal oxidation in 1957, the MOS transistor in 1959, MOS integrated circuit chip in 1960, Schottky diode in 1961, nano transistor in 1962, LED display in 1968, and LED circuit in 1969.

Vacuum tubes (Thermionic valves) were among the earliest electronic components.[5] They were almost solely responsible for the electronics revolution of the first half of the twentieth century.[6][7] They allowed for vastly more complicated systems and gave us radio, television, phonographs, radar, long-distance telephony and much more. They played a leading role in the field of microwave and high power transmission as well as television receivers until the middle of the 1980s.[8] Since that time, solid-state devices have all but completely taken over. Vacuum tubes are still used in some specialist applications such as high power RF amplifiers, cathode ray tubes, specialist audio equipment, guitar amplifiers and some microwave devices.

The first working point-contact transistor was invented by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947.[9] In April 1955, the IBM 608 was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is believed to be the first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market.[10][11] The 608 contained more than 3,000 germanium transistors. Thomas J. Watson Jr. ordered all future IBM products to use transistors in their design. From that time on transistors were almost exclusively used for computer logic and peripherals. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialised applications.[12]

The MOSFET (MOS transistor) was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959.[13][14][15][16] The MOSFET was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses.[12] Its advantages include high scalability,[17] affordability,[18] low power consumption, and high density.[19] It revolutionized the electronics industry,[20][21] becoming the most widely used electronic device in the world.[15][22] The MOSFET is the basic element in most modern electronic equipment,[23][24] and has been central to the electronics revolution,[25] the microelectronics revolution,[26] and the Digital Revolution.[16][27][28][29] The MOSFET has thus been credited as the birth of modern electronics,[30][31] and possibly the most important invention in electronics.[32]

Electronic devices today[]

Electronic devices and systems today perform a wide variety of tasks. The main uses of electronic circuits are the controlling, processing and distribution of information, and the conversion and distribution of electric power. Both of these uses involve the creation or detection of electromagnetic fields and electric currents. While electrical energy had been used for some time to transmit data over telegraphs and telephones, the development of electronics truly began in earnest with the advent of radio.

CAD/ CAM of electronic circuits[]

Today's electronics engineers enjoy the ability to design circuits using premanufactured building blocks such as power supplies, resistors, capacitors, semiconductors such as transistors, and integrated circuits. Electronic design automation software programs include schematic capture programs such as ORCAD , used to make circuit diagrams and printed circuit board layouts.

Electronic systems[]

One way of looking at an electronic system is to divide it into the following parts:

  1. Inputs – Electronic or mechanical sensors (or transducers), which take signals (in the form of temperature, pressure, etc.) from the physical world and convert them into current/voltage signals.
  2. Signal processing circuits – These consist of electronic components connected together to manipulate, interpret and transform the signals.
  3. Outputs – Actuators or other devices (also transducers) that transform current/voltage signals back into useful physical form.

One example is a television set. Its input is a broadcast signal received by an antenna or fed in through a cable. Signal processing circuits inside the television extract the brightness, colour and sound information from this signal. The output devices are a cathode ray tube that converts electronic signals into a visible image on a screen and magnet driven audio speakers.

Electronic test equipment[]

  • Ammeter, e.g. Galvanometer (Measure current)
  • Ohmmeter, e.g. Wheatstone bridge (Measure resistance)
  • Voltmeter (Measures voltage)
  • Multimeter (Measures all of the above)
  • Oscilloscope (Measures all of the above as they change over time)
  • Logic analyzer (Tests digital circuits)
  • Spectrum analyzer (SA) (Measures spectral energy of signals)
  • Vector signal analyzer (VSA) (Like the SA but it can also perform many more useful digital demodulation functions)
  • Electrometer (Measures charge)
  • Frequency counter (Measures frequency)
  • Time-domain reflectometer for testing integrity of long cables

Electronic components[]

  • Electronic components
  • Electronic Devices and Circuits

Analog circuits[]

Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from arrays of a few types of circuits.

  • Analog computer
  • Analog multipliers
  • electronic amplifiers
  • electronic filters
  • electronic oscillators
  • Phase-locked loops
  • electronic mixers
  • Power conversion
  • (also see: electronic power supply)
  • impedance matchers
  • operational amplifiers
  • comparators

Digital circuits[]

Main article: Digital electronics

Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital Signal Processors are another example.

Building blocks:

Highly integrated devices:

  • Memory chip
  • microprocessors
  • microcontrollers
  • Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
  • Digital signal processor (DSP)
  • Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)

Mixed-signal circuits[]

Mixed-signal circuits, also known as hybrid circuits, are becoming increasingly common. Mixed circuits contain both analog and digital components. analog to digital converters and digital to analog converters are the primary examples. Other examples are transmission gates and buffers.

Heat dissipation[]

Heat generated by electronic circuitry must be dissipated to improve reliability. Techniques for heat dissipation can include heatsinks and fans for air cooling, and other forms of computer cooling such as liquid cooling for computers .

Noise[]

Associated with all electronic circuits is noise. Types of noise include

  • Shot noise in resistors.
  • Johnson-Nyquist noise (Thermal noise) in resistors.
  • White noise
  • 1/f noise (pink noise, or flicker noise)
  • Gaussian noise

Electronics theory[]

See also[]

External links[]

Tutorials and projects[]

Some other good sites[]

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  1. ↑ "Annual Semiconductor Sales Increase 21.6 Percent, Top $400 Billion for First Time". Semiconductor Industry Association. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  2. ↑ "Semiconductors – the Next Wave" (PDF). Deloitte. April 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "Global e-Commerce sales surged to $29 trillion". United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History". Computer History Museum. April 2, 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  5. ↑ Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of vacuum tubes: Early devices and the rise of radio communications". IEEE Ind. Electron. M. 6 (1): 41–43. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2182822. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  6. ↑ Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of vacuum tubes: the conquest of analog communications". IEEE Ind. Electron. M. 6 (2): 52–54. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2193274. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  7. ↑ Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of Vacuum Tubes: Merging with Digital Computing". IEEE Ind. Electron. M. 6 (3): 52–55. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2207830. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  8. ↑ Sōgo Okamura (1994). History of Electron Tubes. IOS Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-90-5199-145-1. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  9. ↑ "1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor". Computer History Museum. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  10. ↑ Bashe, Charles J.; et al. (1986). IBM's Early Computers. MIT. p. 386. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  11. ↑ Pugh, Emerson W.; Johnson, Lyle R.; Palmer, John H. (1991). IBM's 360 and early 370 systems. MIT Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-262-16123-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Moskowitz, Sanford L. (2016). Advanced Materials Innovation: Managing Global Technology in the 21st century. John Wiley & Sons. p. 168. ISBN 9780470508923.
  13. ↑ "1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated". The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum.
  14. ↑ Lojek, Bo (2007). History of Semiconductor Engineering. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 321–3. ISBN 9783540342588.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Who Invented the Transistor?". Computer History Museum. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Triumph of the MOS Transistor". YouTube. Computer History Museum. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  17. ↑ Motoyoshi, M. (2009). "Through-Silicon Via (TSV)" (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE. 97 (1): 43–48. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2008.2007462. ISSN 0018-9219.
  18. ↑ "Tortoise of Transistors Wins the Race - CHM Revolution". Computer History Museum. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  19. ↑ "Transistors Keep Moore's Law Alive". EETimes. 12 December 2018. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  20. ↑ Chan, Yi-Jen (1992). Studies of InAIAs/InGaAs and GaInP/GaAs heterostructure FET's for high speed applications. University of Michigan. p. 1. The Si MOSFET has revolutionized the electronics industry and as a result impacts our daily lives in almost every conceivable way.
  21. ↑ Grant, Duncan Andrew; Gowar, John (1989). Power MOSFETS: theory and applications. Wiley. p. 1. ISBN 9780471828679. The metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is the most commonly used active device in the very large-scale integration of digital integrated circuits (VLSI). During the 1970s these components revolutionized electronic signal processing, control systems and computers.
  22. ↑ Golio, Mike; Golio, Janet (2018). RF and Microwave Passive and Active Technologies. CRC Press. pp. 18–2. ISBN 9781420006728.
  23. ↑ Daniels, Lee A. (28 May 1992). "Dr. Dawon Kahng, 61, Inventor In Field of Solid-State Electronics". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  24. ↑ Colinge, Jean-Pierre; Greer, James C. (2016). Nanowire Transistors: Physics of Devices and Materials in One Dimension. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781107052406.
  25. ↑ Williams, J. B. (2017). The Electronics Revolution: Inventing the Future. Springer. p. 75. ISBN 9783319490885. Though these devices were not of great interest at the time, it was to be these Metal Oxide Semiconductor MOS devices that were going to have enormous impact in the future
  26. ↑ Zimbovskaya, Natalya A. (2013). Transport Properties of Molecular Junctions. Springer. p. 231. ISBN 9781461480112.
  27. ↑ Raymer, Michael G. (2009). The Silicon Web: Physics for the Internet Age. CRC Press. p. 365. ISBN 9781439803127.
  28. ↑ Wong, Kit Po (2009). Electrical Engineering - Volume II. EOLSS Publications. p. 7. ISBN 9781905839780.
  29. ↑ "Transistors - an overview". ScienceDirect. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  30. ↑ Kubozono, Yoshihiro; He, Xuexia; Hamao, Shino; Uesugi, Eri; Shimo, Yuma; Mikami, Takahiro; Goto, Hidenori; Kambe, Takashi (2015). "Application of Organic Semiconductors toward Transistors". Nanodevices for Photonics and Electronics: Advances and Applications. CRC Press. p. 355. ISBN 9789814613750.
  31. ↑ Cerofolini, Gianfranco (2009). Nanoscale Devices: Fabrication, Functionalization, and Accessibility from the Macroscopic World. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 9. ISBN 9783540927327.
  32. ↑ Thompson, S. E.; Chau, R. S.; Ghani, T.; Mistry, K.; Tyagi, S.; Bohr, M. T. (2005). "In search of "Forever," continued transistor scaling one new material at a time". IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing. 18 (1): 26–36. doi:10.1109/TSM.2004.841816. ISSN 0894-6507. In the field of electronics, the planar Si metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is perhaps the most important invention.
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