Last Updated on April 28, 2016
The science of electronics Deals with the movement of electrons. Today we are living in modern world consists of so much electronic gadgets, no one can imagine a life without electronics.
We know every atom has electrons some materials like semiconductors has free electrons, these free electrons are can move under the influence of magnetic field or electric field or by some other physical quantity like “light, vibration, heat etc…” with respect to the characteristics of these material or semiconductor electronic devices are made.
Electronic devices or components conducts electric field by the movement of electrons, In electronics domain components are classified as two basic groups like Passive components and Active components.
Passive Components
Does nothing on power, phase, frequency and etc…. Passive components does not need any power to operate but when we apply power(alternating supply or direct current supply) it reduce the amplitude or reacts like barrier to the voltage and current, some time passive components stores electrical energy as a magnetic or field charge and discharges. It consumes power but does not increase power.
PASSIVE ACTION
Typical passive components would be resistor, capacitor and inductor.
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Active Components
Does Amplification and some more operations on power, gain, frequency and etc… Active components are made up of semiconductors in most cases. Active components requires some power(most of the time direct current ‘DC’) to operate (forward bias conduction) but it can increase power. Active components have ability to stop conduction in reverse bias.
ACTIVE ACTION
Typical Active components would be Diode, Transistor, Filed Effect Transistor(FET), Silicon controlled Rectifier (SCR), Diac, Triac etc…
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Now we can see the basic passive and active components that are very essential for every electronics gadgets.
Resistor
The passive device having resistance (Ω ohms in unit) is known as resistor, This component is used as a barrier to the current and voltage flow in a circuit. Resistor or resistance can be denoted in many graphical formats as follows
Resistor always has two terminals (but no polarity), sometimes three terminals if the resistor is variable. Normally passive resistor component value is measured with the help of resistance colour code. If the resistor component is SMD (surface mounting device) then we can calculate resistance with the help of numbers written on it. Resistor have another variation in power (watts in unit), depends on size of resistor the power varies.
Resistor Colour Code
By using this colour code chart we can find out value of resistors. Colour code of resistor may be in 4-band and 5-band some times 6-band (the number of colour band varies depends on manufacturer of resistor.
Capacitor
It’s a passive electronic component that stores electric charge in the form of a electrostatic field. Different kinds of capacitors (Farad in unit) are being used in electronic circuits but most electronic circuits are uses electrolytic and disc type capacitors.
Capacitor Symbols
Inductor
It’s a passive electronic component that stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. The inductors are commonly used for resonant or filter purpose in electronic circuits. Depends on the need and value (Henry in unit) different kind of inductors are used in circuits.
For special purpose ferrite core is being used for inductor. The value of Inductor (Henry in unit) is depends on inductor material SWG (Standard Wire Gauge), number of turns, space between turns, diameter of turns, and core type.
Semiconductors
Semiconductors = Semi + Conductor, A semiconductor Conducts electric signal and Stops under some Conditions. It depends on the type of material used to make that semiconductor. Most of Active electronic components are made with semiconductors. One of the most important reasons for size reduction of electronics is semiconductor. Invention of diode, transistor and integrated circuit using semiconductor makes electronic gadgets smaller in size, and improve speed of operation. N numbers of semiconductors present in modern electronics but it is necessary to know and understand few they are diodes, transistors, Integrated Circuit (IC) and special purpose semiconductors.
Diode
This two terminal (Anode ‘A’, Cathode ‘K’) component works in two bias conditions, by using this characteristics we can develop many applications.
Transistor
The electronic component having three layers (NPN or PNP) and two junctions (J1, J2) and transfers resistance between two circuit is known as transistor. This component used for amplification, switching, modulation, etc…
Special Purpose semiconductors
These special purpose semiconductors used for high power, high frequency and specified application. If we start discuss about these components we need whole day … 🙂
IC-Integrated Circuit
Integrated Circuit or CHIP that contains Large circuit compressed in a single millimeter sized substrate. DIP package ICs.
SMD IC.
Integrated Circuits are comes in different size and different package, it fully depends on application of that particular IC. As a electronic circuit designer we need to figure out pin and signal diagram of integrated circuit but this is not a easy job.
Then where is the Pin No: #1
In any package of IC there is an option to identify the pin numbers, if you are using DIP (dual inline package IC) then find dent, notch, ridge or dot and put that IC in position like the picture #3 shows, here the left top pin should be number 1. If you are using QIP (Quad inline package IC) then find spot or cut off corner with dot and keep the cut off corner in left side as the picture #6 and #7 shows. Then you can easily point out the numbers of pins.
Electronics is Interesting
Electronics engineers, makers, designers and hobbyist are using bread board to design and prototype the circuits.
It is being used worldwide, here you can assemble circuit which you want without any soldering or correction of pins, after completion you can get back your components without any damage.
Dot PCB
The term PCB stands for printed circuit board, here the picture shows dot or general purpose PCB. By using this board you can assemble and solder your circuit for fixed or permanent usage. The fine approach to the circuit assembling is checking operation of circuit and components in bread board and assembling in dot board.
Development Board
Now a day’s microcontroller development board and open source development boards are playing major role in electronics field.
Microcontroller development board image:
Open source platform Arduino Board (Atmel Microcontroller development):
Raspberry pi board (Linux Open source):
These open source development boards are makes electronic designing interesting and easy that ever before. These boards are very easy to handle and plenty programs, instructions, examples are available over internet.