What is Electronics

What is electronics

The branch of physics and technology concerned with the design of circuits using transistors and microchips, and with the behavior and movement of electrons in a semiconductor, conductor, vacuum, or gas

Basic Electronics   

    

The goal of this chapter is to provide some basic information about electronic circuits. We make the assumption that you have no prior knowledge of electronics, electricity, or circuits, and start from the basics. This is an unconventional approach, so it may be interesting, or at least amusing, even if you do have some experience. So, the first question is ``What is an electronic circuit?'' A circuit is a structure that directs and controls electric currents, presumably to perform some useful function. The very name "circuit" implies that the structure is closed, something like a loop. That is all very well, but this answer immediately raises a new question: "What is an electric current?" Again, the name "current" indicates that it refers to some type of flow, and in this case we mean a flow of electric charge, which is usually just called charge because electric charge is really the only kind there is. Finally we come to the basic question:

Current   

Charge is mobile and can flow freely in certain materials, called conductors. Metals and a few other elements and compounds are conductors. Materials that charge cannot flow through are called insulators. Air, glass, most plastics, and rubber are insulators, for example. And then there are some materials called semiconductors, that, historically, seemed to be good conductors sometimes but much less so other times. Silicon and germanium are two such materials. Today, we know that the difference in electrical behavior of different samples of these materials is due to extremely small amounts of impurities of different kinds, which could not be measured earlier. This recognition, and the ability to precisely control the "impurities" has led to the massive semiconductor electronics industry and the near-magical devices it produces, including those on your Robot Board. We will discuss semiconductor devices later; now let us return to conductors and charges

What is Direct Current

Direct current electronics involves working with electrical systems where the flow of electrical current is constant through a conducting medium, generally a wire. Current and voltage in a direct-current circuit are conserved according to Kirchhoff's Current & Voltage Laws

Major Innovations

For years, electricity was used as part of parlor tricks, creating impressive showers of sparks. Benjamin Franklin is known as perhaps one of the earliest experimenters in electricity, whose invention of the lightning rod was one of the first practical applications. Throughout the 1800's the practical and theoretical concepts of electrical circuitry were developed

Electronic Engineering involves the design, manufacture and application of electronic components, in particular, semiconductor microchips. It also is central to industrial automation and encompasses areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence and satellite launching and position control. The knowledge required for a job in the field of electronics is very special and includes a good grounding in the fundamentals of electricity and electronics with their application to computer systems, communications systems, modern automobiles (including Formula One!), aerospace, and many other fields.