Electronic circuit

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Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is a closed path formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current

Electric current

Electric current is the flow of electric charge. The electric charge may be either electrons or ions.The International System of Units unit of electric current intensity is the ampere....
can flow. The electronic circuits may be physically constructed using any number of methods. Breadboard

Breadboard

A breadboard is a reusable sometimes solderless device used to build a prototype of an electronic circuit and for experimenting with circuit designs....
s, perfboard

Perfboard

Perfboard is a base for prototyping circuit boards. It has holes pre-drilled at set intervals across a grid, usually a square grid of 2.5mm spacing....
s or stripboard

Stripboard

Stripboard is a widely-used type of electronics prototyping board characterized by a 0.1 inch regular grid of holes, with wide parallel strips of copper cladding running in one direction all the way across one side of the board....
s are common for testing new designs. Mass-produced circuits are typically built using a printed circuit board

Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using Conductor pathways, or signal traces, industrial etchinged from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate....
(PCB) that is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic component

Electronic component

An electronic component is a basic Electronics element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads....
s.

Electronic circuits can display highly complex behaviors, even though they are governed by the same laws of physics

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
as simpler circuits.

Electronic circuits can usually be categorized as analog, discrete, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and discrete) electronic circuits.

Analog circuits
Analog electronic circuits are those in which signals may vary continuously with time to correspond to the information being represented.

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Encyclopedia

An electronic circuit is a closed path formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current

Electric current

Breadboard

A breadboard is a reusable sometimes solderless device used to build a prototype of an electronic circuit and for experimenting with circuit designs....
s, perfboard

Perfboard

Perfboard is a base for prototyping circuit boards. It has holes pre-drilled at set intervals across a grid, usually a square grid of 2.5mm spacing....
s or stripboard

Stripboard

Printed circuit board

Electronic component

Physics

Analog circuits

Analog electronic circuits are those in which signals may vary continuously with time to correspond to the information being represented. Electronic equipment like voltage amplifiers, power amplifiers, tuning circuits, radios, and televisions are largely analog (with the exception of their control sections, which may be digital, especially in modern units).

The basic units of analog circuits are passive (resistors, capacitors, inductors, and recently memristors) and active (independent power sources and dependent power sources). Components such as transistor

Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
s may be represented by a model containing passive components and dependent sources. Another classification is to take impedance and independent sources and operational amplifier

Operational amplifier

An operational amplifier, which is often called an op-amp, is a direct current-Direct coupling high-gain electronic voltage electronic amplifier with differential inputs and, usually, a single output....
as basic electronic components; this allows us to model frequency dependent negative resistors

Negative resistance

Negative resistance is a property of some electric circuits where an increase in the current entering a port, results in a decreased voltage across the same port....
, gyrator

Gyrator

The gyrator or positive impedance inverter is an electric circuit which inverts an Electrical impedance. In other words, it can make a capacitor circuit behave inductor, a bandpass filter behave like a band-stop filter, and so on....
s, negative impedance converter

Negative impedance converter

The negative impedance converter is a configuration of an operational amplifier which acts as a negative load. This is achieved by introducing a phase shift of 180? between the voltage and the current for any signal generator....
s, and dependent sources as secondary electronic components. There are two main types of circuits: series

Series and parallel circuits

In electronics, components of an electronic circuit can be connected in series or in parallel. Components connected in series are connected along a single path, so the same electric current flows through all of the components....
. A string of Christmas lights is a good example of a series circuit: if one goes out, they all do. In a parallel circuit, each bulb is connected to the power source separately, so if one goes out the rest still remain shining.

Discrete circuits

In digital electronic circuits, electric signals take on discrete values, which are not dependent upon time, to represent logical and numeric values. These values represent the information that is being processed. The transistor

Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
is one of the primary components used in discrete circuits, and combinations of these can be used to create logic gate

Logic gate

A logic gate performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output. The logic normally performed is Boolean logic and is most commonly found in digital circuits....
s. These logic gates may then be used in combination to create a desired output from an input.

Larger circuits may contain several complex components, such as FPGAs or Microprocessors. These along with several other components may be interconnected to create a large circuit that operates on large amount of data.

Examples of electronic equipment which use digital circuits include digital wristwatches, calculators, PDAs, and microprocessors.

Mixed-signal circuits

Mixed-signal or hybrid circuits contain elements of both analog and digital circuits. Examples include comparator

Comparator

In electronics, a comparator is a device which compares two voltages or Electric currents and switches its output to indicate which is larger....
s, timers

Multivibrator

A multivibrator is an electronic circuit used to implement a variety of simple two-state systems such as oscillators, timers and flip-flop s. It is characterized by two amplifying devices cross-coupled by resistors and capacitors....
, PLLs, ADCs (analog-to-digital converter

Analog-to-digital converter

An analog-to-digital converter is a device which converts continuous signal to Discrete signal digital numbers. The reverse operation is performed by a digital-to-analog converter ....
s), and DACs (digital-to-analog converter

Digital-to-analog converter

In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device for converting a digital code to an analog signal .An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation....
s).

Three Basic Parts

Energy source - converts nonelectric energy into energy. Examples are batteries and generators.

Output device - uses electric energy to do work. Examples are motor, lamp, or display.

Connection - allows electric current to flow. Examples are wire and cable.

External links

- Electronic Circuits and Projects for the hobbyist.