Electronics
Electro-electrics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with electronics and its effect. Electronics use active devices to regulate electrons by amplification or correction that differentiates the technology of classical electrical engineering. It only uses passive effects — like resistance capacitance or inductance — to control currents.
It is a very broad field. Electronics was initially used to define the process of movement of electrons in old vacuum tubes. With the invention of transistors, the branch of electronics took a sharp upward swing. The applications of electronics are vast. They are highly useful in daily life. That’s why so much money was poured into its research and development.
The research and development in electronics changed the world into a better place. Electronics greatly benefit human life by making things easier. Electronic devices now have become more and more complex as well as performing ever more complex tasks. Electronics are vital now.
Electronic devices power everything from washing machines to landing probes on Mars. One cannot imagine the 21st-century world without electronic chips. That’s why this field is absolutely important. Let’s take a look into the field and what opportunities it may offer to you!!
Electronic courses
Electronics courses are in high demand. There are various markets that hire engineers and scientists with electronics degrees. Electronics engineering courses are in high demand. Electronic devices are the most essential thing to run a modern society.
Electronics engineering is highly sought after. They will provide many career opportunities. Electronic systems need great engineers to run them. In most tech companies, electronics are highly needed for many tasks. Having strong physics basics is essential to be a good electronics engineer.
There are a lot of sub-branches in electronics that are highly sought after. For example VLSI, IoT, robotics, chip design, etc. The electronics branch in engineering is said to be an evergreen branch since it is always required by society.
Electronics has become a highly diversified field today. Many acclaimed institutes offer highly specialized engineering courses. Having a master’s degree in electronics will be very helpful to get higher-level jobs and salaries. Electronics-related courses are always in high demand in online courses offered by major EdTech companies.
The course can be EEE (Electronics and Electrical Engineering) and ECE (Electronics and Communication Engineering). In the ECE, along with electronics, communication technologies are also studied as they are closely connected. Communication, a field highly related to the electronics industry, is also growing rapidly.
The rapid development of the mobile phone industry has opened even new doors for electronics graduates. Mobile technology is so rapidly progressing and is mass-produced – so it creates a lot of jobs for electronics graduates.
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History and development
Electrons were discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. For the first time, Vacuum tubes were used for amplification in 1907. Diodes were invented in the early 1900s, the same time as vacuum tubes mainly as radio receivers. Improvement in radio technology led to the initial development in the field of electronics.
Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose was the first to use semiconductor crystals to detect radio waves. Vacuum tubes were extensively used in the first half of the 20th century. Transistors’ invention in 1947 revolutionized the field of electronics as well as the World. Still, vacuum tubes were highly useful in various applications until the 1980s.
The invention of the transistor jumpstarted the electronics revolution which completely transformed the World in ways earlier thought impossible. It now connects the entire World at your fingertips. Electronics is an absolutely essential part of modern technology.
However, the Bipolar Junction Transistors were difficult to mass produce. The invention of MOSFET in 1959, made mass production and miniaturization feasible. MOSFET revolutionized the electronics industry again. It is the most common type of transistor found in most devices.
Moore’s law is an interesting thing in electronics history. Electronic devices keep getting smaller and their cost is cheaper. Electronic devices were also mass-produced to reach customers all over the globe. The advent of mobile phones drove innovation in the electronics field at an absolutely remarkable speed.
What is Electronics?
Electronics can be called a branch of physics and technology that deals with the design and development of devices that function by the controlled flow of electrons. Initially, it developed from physics. After enough theory was developed, they started making practical devices.
In physics, it is the branch that deals with the emission, behavior, and effects of electrons on materials. The materials mainly used in the field of electronics are semiconductors. These classes of materials are more conducting than insulators, while less conducting than normal conductors.
The important property of semiconductors is that the flow of electrons in them can be controlled. This is using the process of doping. In this, small, quantities of impurities are added to the semiconductor to enhance or decrease conductivity. Electronic devices are devices that function due to the controlled flow of electrons/electric current leading to properties like information processing.
Electronics are mainly said to be dealing with designing and building circuits. With the controlled flow of electrons in semiconductors, circuits were constructed to make useful applications of these. Various types of circuits were built with various components to do a variety of tasks.
Now the circuits have become so complex for doing a variety of complex tasks. There are millions of circuits and components in a modern microprocessor found in your computer or phone. The circuits can now do a variety of tasks for a variety of purposes.
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Jobs in Electronics
There is a range of jobs available for a person holding an electronics degree. They include electronics engineers, electrical engineers, Design engineers, CAD technicians, Avionics engineers, instrumentation engineers, Control engineers, etc.
The persons holding electronics engineering can find jobs in a variety of other positions such as Management consultant, project manager, technical and sales engineer, etc. The people who do electronics can also use their expertise in different fields other than engineering.
Courses in ElectronicsThere are various electronics courses related to the various sub-fields. Common examples include Linear circuits, Power Electronics, Computer architecture, Semiconductor devices, Embedding sensors and motors, Digital systems, Analog electronics, etc.
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Packaging methods
Electronics are sensitive devices that need to be carefully packaged. There shouldn’t be any damage to the electronics such as mechanical damage, thermal damage, electrostatic and electromagnetic interference.
There are different levels of electronic packaging. Packaging of electronics that may endure extreme conditions, such as military equipment or electronics used in space probes/spacecraft.
There are also other factors that need to be taken into account when packaging electronics cost and production optimization, suppliers’ availability, regulatory and environmental standards to be followed, the service life of the device, and quality.
Computer-aided design (CAD)
Computer-Aided Design is used to design different products by engineers. If it is used to design electronic devices, it is known as ECAD. The design of electronics can be extremely complex.
The design can go up to the atomic level. So the factors to be taken into account during design are very important. It is also useful in running simulations of electronic devices before getting manufactured. The availability of Computer-aided design drove the rapid development in the field of electronics.
Electronic devices and components
Electronic devices consist of various small components that are connected in a circuit. The common components are microcontrollers, batteries, relays, switches, circuit breakers, etc. The electronic components can be broadly classified into active and passive components.
Active components control the flow of electric current in the circuit, whereas passive components do not control the flow of electric current. Transistors and rectifiers are examples of active components. Passive components include resistor, inductor, and capacitor.
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Electronics theory
The theory of electronics starts from a few basic components. Some of the important concepts in learning electronics are current, resistance, capacitance, conductors, semiconductors, diode and transistor operations, noise, quality factor, signals, amplification, etc.
The materials can be classified into conductors, semiconductors, and insulators. Conductors facilitate the flow of electric current, whereas insulators obstruct it. Semiconductors allow the current to pass in very minute quantities, but its conductivity can be varied by using doping techniques.
Most of the electronic components used today utilize semiconductors. The most widely used transistor is the MOSFET.
Noise
Noise in electronics is an unwanted disturbance in the signal. Various effects can be responsible for the noise. While noise is mostly disadvantageous, it can be useful for a few applications.
Noise can be generated inside the electronic device by the device itself or from external sources. At non-zero temperatures, there is always thermal noise. Due to random statistical fluctuations of the electric current, there is shot noise. When current divides into two or more paths inside a circuit, there is partition noise.
Flicker noise is due to the higher frequencies in the spectrum. Burst noise is due to sudden upping o downing of voltages or current.
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Electronic systems design
Electronics systems design is a sub-field of electronics that deals with the designing of complex electronic devices. This field also takes into account all the issues that could come in designing and during the service life of the electronic device.
They study system architecture and protection requirements, analysis regarding reliability, management of thermal issues, following standards, environmental standards, etc.
Electronics lab
Every electronics course involves practicals. Practical knowledge of the working of electronic devices is extremely important when you are going to make a career in electronics.
The devices in an electronic lab will depend on the course. For a basic electronics lab, the basic components of electronics are required. If the subject is advanced, then much-sophisticated equipment may be needed.
To experiment in electronics labs a person will need certain skills. They are an understanding of the working of basic electronic components, ability to create and analyze circuits, safety guidelines to be followed, operating currents and voltages for the electronic components, ability to do programming if it is required, etc.
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Heat dissipation and thermal management
Every electronic component requires some kind of thermal management as they produce heat while operating. Various techniques are used for heat dissipation and thermal management in electronic devices.
Fans can be used to cool components as in a computer CPU, thermoelectric materials can be used, and heat pipes and forced air systems can be used. A cold plate can be used to transfer heat from the electronics to the cooling fluid.
Convective cooling is also used for components wherein cool air is allowed inside and warm air is sent out since it is lighter.
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Types of circuits
There are five main types of electric circuits. They are closed circuits, open circuits, short circuits, series circuits, and parallel circuits.
Present-day branches of electronics
The branches of electronics now are digital, analog, microelectronics, circuit design, power electronics, IC design, optoelectronics, nano, bioelectronics, etc.
Analog circuits
In analog circuits, the current or voltage is a continuously variable signal. Here the signal takes a range of values in contrast to digital signals which only take two states high and low. Analog signals always consist of noise produced by various factors.
If the signal is transmitted and retransmitted across long distances, there will be more and more noise and hence signals will be degraded. The information is processed and decoded in different ways in analog systems compared to digital systems.
Digital circuits
A digital circuit is made of different types of logic gates. In a logic circuit, there can be only two values of signal, 0 and 1. This can be seen when the voltage across a junction is high or low.
Examples of digital circuits are encoders, decoders, multiplexers, demultiplexers, half and full adders, etc. Digital circuits are used in a variety of applications such as mobile phones, calculators, computers, etc.
Digital circuits don’t suffer from the noise caused by various factors that can be seen in an analog circuit. Digital circuits allow the transmission and storage of large amounts of data in the form of bits and bytes.
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