Electronics I Glossary

Aidan Sharpe

Abstract—This glossary contains definitions of useful terms in electronics. Please note that all terms are numbered except for the 26 NATO phonetic alphabet terms, which should be included in the total number of words.

ALPHA

1) Active Region

The area of a transistor I-V curve where current no longer increases with an increased voltage. Power is dissipating, quiescence achieved

2) Anode A negatively polarized electrode, pin, or terminal.

3) Astable Multivibrator

A positive feedback device that utilizes hysteresis and transient response to generate a tuneable square wave from a DC input.

BRAVO

4) Bandpass Filter

A type of electronic filter that allows a selected range of frequencies to pass through.

5) Bandreject Filter

A type of electronic filter that only blocks a selected range of frequencies from passing through.

6) Bandwidth The size of a defined range of frequencies.

7) Base

The terminal of a bipolar junction transistor that controls the open and closed switch behavior.

8) Biasing

9) Bipolar

When + and - references are used at the rails. There is a common ground.

10) Bipolar Junction Transistor A type of semiconducing transistor.

11) Biquadratic (Biquad)

H(z) = \frac{b_{0}+b_{1}z^{−1}+b_{2}z^{−2}}{a_{0}+a_{1}z^{−1}+a_{2}z^{−2}}

12) Bode Plot

A logarithmic scale graph showing gain vs. frequency.

13) Boltzmann’s Constant (k or k_{B})

A constant (1.380649 × 10^{−23}J· K^{−1}) that relates thermal energy to temperature.

14) Brain Box

A colloquial term for an Engine Control Module (ECM).

15) Buffer A type of circuit isolator, i.e unity gain follower

16) Bulk Capacitor

A capacitor used to prevent the output of a power supply from dropping too low.

17) Bypass Capacitor

A Bypass Capacitor is a capacitance that shorts AC signals to ground, so that any AC noise that may be present on a DC signal is removed, producing a much cleaner and pure DC signal. Usually about 0.1μF

C HARLIE

18) C The speed of ligaht 3 × 10^{8}m/s

19) Capacitor

A passive transient linear device that stores energy in an electric field.

20) Cathode A positively polarize electrode, pin, or terminal

21) Center Tap Transformer

A tranformer that with a central comamon terminal: offering a positive and negative voltage on either side with equal magnitude.

22) Clamp Diodes A diode that is used to force a voltage on the anode.

23) Charge of an Electron (q)

1.602 × 10^{−19}C

24) Collector The positive terminal of a BJT.

25) Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) CMRR = 20 log_{10} (\frac{A_{d}}{A_{cm}} )

26) Common Path A shared (common) ground reference.

27) Controller Area Network (CAN Bus)

A standard device interconnect for multiplexed wiring. It is primarily used for wiring devices in vehicles.

28) Coulomb (C)

The base SI unit of charge.

29) Cut-off

The area of a transistor I-V curve where there is no current

DELTA

30) Darlington pair

A pair of BJTs arranged in such a way that the total current gain is β_{pair} = β_{1}· β_{2}.

31) DC Restorer

Also known as a clamper, not to be confused with a voltage clamp, a DC restorer is a type of electronic circuit that shifts an AC signal to be completely positive or negative and maintains that V_{max} or V_{min} is 0.

32) Denormalization

33) Dielectric

A material that increases the affect of an electric field: often used to increase capacitance. Typically denoted by a κ

34) Differential Amplifier

35) Diode

A semiconducing device that allows current to travel in only one direction.

36) Diode Thermal Voltage

The voltage across a diode’s PN junction caused by thermal motion of electrons. The thermal voltage is defined as V_{T} = \frac{kT}{q}; where k is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the temperature in Kelvin, and q is the absolute value of the charge of an electron.

37) Distributed Parameter

A component with properties along a length or area rather than localized at a point. Must be used to model a component when the component is not much smaller than one wavelength.

38) Drain

The terminal of a MOSFET where current flows out towards the common path.

E CHO

39) Early Voltage (V_{A})

40) Electromagnetic Interference EMI

Also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrostatic coupling, conduction, or radiation.

41) Electrolytic Capacitor

A type of polarized capacitor that uses an electrolyte and oxide layer to increase the dielectric constant.

42) Electronic Design Automation (EDA)

Specialized software used to design and simulate electronic devices

43) Emitter The common path terminal of a BJT.

44) Energy Assurance Plan (EAP)

F OXTROT

45) Semiconductor Fabrication Plant (Fab)

A high-tech factory where semiconductor devices are manufactured.

46) Farad The base SI unit for capacitance.

47) Filter

A circuit that only allows certain frequencies through.

48) Flyback Diode

Also known as a clamp diode, a flyback diode is a use case for the clamping property of diodes, where the flyback voltage from an inductor is supressed.

49) Forward Voltage

The voltage at which a semiconducing device begins to conduct.

50) Fudge Factor

An extra term added to an equation to correct a result.

51) Full Wave Rectifier

A device that restricts the output voltage to one pole and inverts the sign of the opposite pole.

G OLF

52) Gain

A logarithmic measure of amplification.

53) Gate-to-source Voltage (V_{GS})

The voltage between the gate and the source of a MOSFET, responsible for controlling the switch state.

54) General Interconnect

A two-way electrical connection between two circuit components.

55) Giga-

The metric prefix meaning one billion (10^{9}) times the base unit.

H OTEL

56) Half Wave Rectifier A device that restricts the output voltage to one pole.

57) High side switch

A type of switch where the switching device is between the supply and the rest of the circuit.

58) Hysteresis

Non-symmetric switching behavior of a circuit; the point of switching on is different from the point of switching off.

I NDIA

59) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)

A type of transistor designed for high current applications.

60) Interconnect

A circuit component responsible for electrical connections between components.

61) Interconnect Shielding

A component of an interconnect used to minimize EMI noise in the signal.

J ULIET

K ILO

62) Kelvin Leads

A clip, often a crocodile clip, that connects a force-and-sense pair to measure very low resistances using four-terminal sensing.

63) Kilo-

The metric prefix meaning one thousand (10^{3}) times the base unit.

L IMA

64) Length of Channel (L)

The lenth of a MOSFET channel; the dimension spanning the source and drain.

65) Low pass filter A type of AC filter that eliminates high frequencies.

66) Low side switch

A type of switch where the switching device is placed between the main circuit and the common path.

67) Lumped Parameter

A simplification technique that lumps device properties into a point-like object.

M IKE

68) Mega-

The metric prefix meaning one million (10^{6}) times the base unit.

69) Memristor

A charge dependent resistor with the behaviour V (t) = M(q(t))I(t).

70) Metal Oxide Veristor

71) Micro-

The metric prefix meaning one millionth (10^{−6}) of the base unit.

72) Milli-

The metric prefix meaning one thousandth (10^{−3}) of the base unit.

73) MOSFET

Metal Oxide Semiconducting Field Effect Transistor. Voltage (V_{GS}) controls the current (I_{D}).

NOVEMBER

74) Nano-

The metric prefix meaning one billionth (10^{−9}) of the base unit.

75) Negative Feedback

A way to control the output behaviour of an operational amplifier by feeding the output into the inverting terminal. Passive devices may optionally be present between the output and inverting terminal to change the output behaviour further.

76) Normalized response O SCAR

77) Ohm (Ω)

The base SI unit of resistance.

78) Omega (ω)

Symbol indicating angular frequency

79) Operational Amplifier (Op-Amp)

An active device that enables isolation, comparison, and amplification.

80) Over Voltage (V_{O})

When V_{GS} − V_{t} > 0.

81) Oxide Capacitance (C_{OX})

The capacitance of the oxide layer of a MOSFET.

82) Oxide Thickness (t_{OX})

The thickness of the oxide layer of a MOSFET.

P APA

83) Pico-

The metric prefix meaning one trillionth (10^{−12}) of the base unit.

84) Positive Feedback

In the context of an operational amplifier, it implies some kind of connection from the output terminal to the non-inverting input.

85) Power Supply

A nonlinear circuit that can reliably supply a specific voltage or specific current.

86) Power Supply Distribution

Q UEBEC

87) Quiescent

When a device is dissapating power without a signal input.

R OMEO

88) Rectification Forcing polarity on a signal.

89) Resistor

A purely resistive linear device with no transient properties.

90) Rheostat A type of variable resistor used to control power.

SIERRA

91) Sallen-Key LPF Circuit A 2-pole circuit with a non-inverting amplifier.

92) Saturation (for BJTs)

The regime of operation for BJTs where increasing V_{BE} increases I_{C}.

93) Saturation (for MOSFETs)

The regime of operation for MOSFETs where V_{GS} is positive and increasing V_{D}S does not affect I_{D}

94) Shielding

A piece of metal, wrapped around a wire or electronic device used to minimize EMI noise and radiation.

95) Summing Amplifier

A type of amplifier that adds voltages: can be inverting or non-inverting

96) Schottky Diode

A low forward voltage, high switching speed, high reverse leakage current diode.

T ANGO

97) Temperature (T)

The total kinetic energy of a system. It often affects the behaviour of devices, notably resistors, diodes, and transistors.

98) Thermal Model Electronics

A way to model the thermal behavior of electronic devices using circuit schematic symbols.

99) Threshold Voltage (V_{t}) The minimum V_{GS} required to turn a MOSFET on.

100) Transformer

An inducting device that can step up or step down AC voltage while having little power loss.

101) Transistor

A three terminal, active, semiconducing device that acts as an electronic switch.

102) Triaxial Cable

A cable with three concentric conductors used to minimize EMI.

103) Triode

A voltage controlled current source tube device with three terminals: the cathode, the anode, and the gate.

104) Triode Region

The operating regime of a MOSFET where increasing V_{DS} increases I_{D}. It is also the name of a power-hungry tube device with amplifying properties.

105) Twisted pair

Two wires wrapped around one another to minimize loop area, thereby decreasing EMI.

UNIFORM

106) Unipolar

Simply a single supply voltage and ground reference. As opposed to Bipolar with + and - supply voltages.

VICTOR

107) V-I Response

A visual comparison of the voltage and current response of an electronic device.

108) Virtual Ground

A voltage that is very close to ground caused by amplifier feedback.

W HISKEY

109) Width of Channel (W) The width of a MOSFET channel.

X-RAY

YANKEE

Z ULU

110) Zener Diode

A special type of diode with a set reverse breakdown voltage.

111) Zener Regulator

A type of power regulator that clamps voltage using a Zener Diode.