Introduction to Electronics

Introduction

All fields of endeavor today make use of technology to make things easier, simpler, practical and enjoyable. Electronics technology is the fastest changing technology in terms of development, research and inventions. Electronics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of the effect of flow of charge carriers, i.e., free electrons in gas, liquid, solid and plasma. The Edison effect is a historical scientific observation that ushered the birth of electronics.

There are many fields of which electronics is the essential or a common factor such as communication, information technology, medicine, cybernetics, and computer technology. Electronics is limited only by the capability of man to think, comprehend, invent and discover. See picture below.

Integrated Circuit of a Computer

An integrated circuit (IC) consists of many circuit elements such as transistors and resistors fabricated on a single piece of silicon or other semiconductor material. The tiny microprocessor shown here is the heart of the personal computer (PC). Such devices may contain several million transistors and be able to execute over 100 million instructions per second. The rows of leglike metal pins are used to connect the microprocessor to a circuit board. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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