An electronic component is a basic electronic element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads. Components are intended to be connected together, usually by soldering to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode etc.) or in more or less complex groups as integrated circuits (operational amplifier, resistor array, logic gate etc.)
Components
Very often electronic components are mechanically stabilized, improved in insulation properties and protected from environmental influence by being enclosed in synthetic resin
Components may be passive or active:
- Passive components are those that do not have gain or directionality. [1] In network analysis they are called electrical elements.
- Active components are those that have gain or directionality, in contrast to passive components, which have neither. They include semiconductor devices and vacuum tubes (valves).
Terminals and connectors
Devices to make electrical connection
Cords
Cables with connectors or terminals at their ends
Switches
Components that may be made to either conduct (closed) or not (open)
- Switch - manually operated switch
- Keypad - small array of pushbutton switches
- Relay - Electrically operated switch. This is a mechanical component, unlike the Solid State Relay
- Reed switch - Magnetically activated switch
- Thermostat - Thermally activated switch
- Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
- Limit switch - Mechanically activated switch
- Mercury switch
- Centrifugal switch
Resistors
Components used to resist current.
- See the Transducer section below for resistors used to sense environmental conditions (Thermistor, Photo resistor, RTD...)
- See the Protection section below for resistors used for current or voltage limiting (MOV, Inrush Limiters...)
- Resistor - fixed value
- Resistor network - array of resistors in one package
- Trimmer - Small variable resistor
- Potentiometer, Rheostat - variable resistor
- Heater - heating element
- Resistance wire - wire of high-resistance material, similar to heating element
- Thermistor - temperature-varied resistor
- Varistor - voltage-varied resistor
Protection devices
Passive components that protect circuits from excessive currents or voltages
- While these components technically belong to the Wire, Resistor and Vacuum classes, they are grouped here based on their use.
- Active components that perform a protection function are in the Semiconductor class, below.
- Fuse - Over-current protection, one time use
- Resettable fuse (PolySwitch, self-resetting fuse)- Over-current protection, resettable
- Metal Oxide Varistor, Surge Absorber (MOV) - Over-voltage protection. These are passive components, unlike the TVS
- Inrush current limiter - protection against initial Inrush current
- Gas Discharge Tube - protection against high voltage surges
- Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
- Spark gap - two electrodes with a gap in between to create arcing
- Filament lamp
- GFCI or RCD
Capacitors
Components that store electrical charge in an electrical field. Capacitors are used for filtration in the electronic circuits. Capacitors in general pass changing (e.g. AC) and block unchanging (e.g. DC) voltage levels.
- Capacitor - fixed capacitance
- Capacitor network (array)
- Variable capacitor - change the capacitance
- Varicap diode - variable capacitor come diode
Magnetic (inductive) devices
Electrical components that use magnetism
- Inductor, coil, choke
- Variable inductor
- Saturable Inductor
- Transformer
- Magnetic amplifier (toroid)
- Ferrite impedances, beads
- Motor / Generator
- Solenoid
- Speaker / Microphone
Networks
Components that use more than one type of passive component
- RC network - forms an RC circuit, used in Snubbers
- LC Network - forms an LC circuit, used in tuneable transformers and RFI filters
Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators
Passive components that use piezoelectric effect
- Components that use the effect to generate or filter high frequencies
- Crystal - Is a ceramic crystal used to generate precise frequencies (See the Modules class below for complete oscillators)
- Ceramic resonator - Is a ceramic crystal used to generate semi-precise frequencies
- Ceramic filter - Is a ceramic crystal used to filter a band of frequencies such as in radio receivers
- Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters
- Components that use the effect as mechanical Transducers.
- Ultrasonic motor - Electric motor that uses the piezoelectric effect
- For piezo buzzers and microphones, see the Transducer class below
Power sources
Sources of electrical power
- Battery - acid- or alkali-based power supply
- Fuel cell - an electrochemical generator
- Power supply - usually a mains hook-up
- Photo voltaic device - generates electricity from light
- Thermo electric generator - generates electricity from temperature gradients
- Electrical generator - an electromechanical power source
Transducers, sensors, detectors
- Transducers generate physical effects when driven by an electrical signal, or vice-versa.
- Sensors (detectors) are transducers that react to environmental conditions by changing their electrical properties or generating an electrical signal.
- The Transducers listed here are single electronic components (as opposed to complete assemblies), and are passive (see Semiconductors and Tubes for active ones). Only the most common ones are listed here.
- Audio (see also Piezoelectric devices)
-
- Loudspeaker - Magnetic or piezoelectric device to generate full audio
- Buzzer - Magnetic or piezoelectric sounder to generate tones
- Position, motion
- Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) - Magnetic - detects linear position
- Rotary encoder, Shaft Encoder - Optical, magnetic, resistive or switches - detects absolute or relative angle or rotational speed
- Inclinometer - Capacitive - detects angle with respect to gravity
- Motion sensor, Vibration sensor
- Flow meter - detects flow in liquid or gas
- Force, torque
- Strain gauge - Piezoelectric or resistive - detects squeezing, stretching, twisting
- Accelerometer - Piezoelectric - detects acceleration, gravity
- Thermal
- Thermocouple, thermopile - Wires that generate a voltage proportional to delta temperature
- Thermistor - Resistor whose resistance changes with temperature, up PTC or down NTC
- Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) - Wire whose resistance changes with temperature
- Bolometer
- Thermal cutoff - Switch that is opened or closed when a set temperature is exceeded
- Magnetic field (see also Hall Effect in semiconductors)
- Magnetometer, Gauss meter
- Humidity
- Electromagnetic, light
- Photo resistor - Light dependent resistor (LDR)
Solid State components, Semiconductors
Electronic control components with no moving parts. Active components
Diodes
A device which conducts electricity in only one direction.
- Standard Diode, Rectifier, Bridge Rectifier
- Schottky Diode, Hot Carrier Diode - super fast diode with low forward voltage drop
- Zener Diode - lets electricity flow "backwards" if it is suitably high in voltage
- Transient Voltage Suppression Diode (TVS), Unipolar or Bipolar - used to block high-voltage spikes
- Varactor, Tuning diode, Varicap, Variable Capacitance Diode - A diode come capacitor
- Light Emitting Diode (LED) - A diode which gives out light
- LASER Diode - A laser LED
- Photodiode - Only passes power when in light
- Diode for Alternating Current (DIAC, Trigger Diode, SIDAC)
- Current source Diode
- Peltier cooler
Transistors
- Bipolar transistors
- Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT, "transistor") - NPN or PNP
- Darlington transistor - NPN or PNP
- Photo Darlington
- Sziklai pair (Compound transistor, complementary Darlington)
- Field effect transistor (FET)
- Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL
- Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET (MOSFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL
- MEtal Semiconductor FET (MESFET)
- High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)
- Thyristors
- UniJunction Transistor (UJT)
- Programmable UniJunction Transistor (PUT)
- Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)
- Static Induction Transistor/Thyristor (SIT, SITh)
- TRIode for Alternating Current (TRIAC)
- Composite transistors
- Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)--
Integrated circuits
- Digital
- Analog
- Hall effect sensor - Senses a magnetic field
- Current sensor - Senses a current through it
Hybrid Circuits
- Optoelectronics
- Opto-Isolator, Opto-Coupler, Photo-Coupler - Photodiode, BJT, JFET, SCR, TRIAC, Zero-crossing TRIAC, Open collector IC, CMOS IC, Solid State Relay (SSR)
- Opto Switch, Opto Interrupter, Optical Switch, Optical Interrupter, Photo switch, Photo Interrupter
- LED Display - Seven-segment display, Sixteen-segment display, Dot matrix display
Display technologies
Current:
- Filament lamp (indicator lamp)
- Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) (preformed characters, 7 segment, starburst)
- Cathode ray tube (CRT) (dot matrix scan (eg computer monitor), radial scan (eg radar), arbitrary scan (eg oscilloscope)) (monochrome & colour)
- LCD (preformed characters, dot matrix) (passive, TFT) (monochrome, colour)
- Neon (individual, 7 segment display)
- LED (individual, 7 segment display, starburst display, dot matrix)
- Flap indicator (numeric, preprinted messages)
- Plasma display (dot matrix)
Obsolete:
- Filament lamp 7 segment display (aka 'minitron')
- Nixie Tube
- Dekatron (aka glow transfer tube)
- Magic eye tube indicator
- Penetron (a 2 colour see-through CRT)
Thermionic Valve, Vacuum Tube
Active devices that operate in vacuum
- Photodiode
- Cathode ray tube (CRT)
- Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD)
- Photomultiplier tube
- X-ray tube
Discharge devices
Obsolete:
- Mercury arc rectifier
- Voltage regulator tube
- Nixie tube
- Thyratron
- Ignitron
Assemblies, modules
Multiple electronic components assembled in a device that is in itself used as a component
- Oscillator
- Display devices
- Liquid crystal display (LCD)
- Filter
- Antennas
Prototyping aids
Mechanical accessories
Other
Obsolete:
- Carbon amplifier (see Carbon microphones used as amplifiers)
- Carbon arc (negative resistance device)
- Dynamo (historic rf generator)
Standard abbreviations
| It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into reference designator. (Discuss) |
| It has been suggested that circuit diagram#European and Australian codes be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
Component name abbreviations widely used in industry:
- AE: aerial, antenna
- B: battery
- BR: bridge rectifier
- C: capacitor
- CRT:cathode ray tube
- D or CR: diode
- DSP:digital signal processor
- F: fuse
- FET:field effect transistor
- GDT: gas discharge tube
- IC: integrated circuit
- J: wire link ("jumper")
- JFET: junction gate field-effect transistor
- L: inductor
- LCD:Liquid crystal display
- LDR: light dependent resistor
- LED: light emitting diode
- LS: speaker
- M: motor
- MCB: circuit breaker
- Mic: microphone
- MOSFET:Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
- Ne: neon lamp
- OP: Operational Amplifier
- PCB: printed circuit board
- PU: pickup
- Q: transistor
- R: resistor
- RLA: RY: relay
- SCR: silicon controlled rectifier
- SW: switch
- T: transformer
- TFT:thin film transistor(display)
- TH: thermistor
- TP: test point
- Tr: transistor
- U: integrated circuit
- V: valve (tube)
- VC: variable capacitor
- VFD: vacuum fluorescent display
- VLSI:very large scale integration
- VR: variable resistor
- X: crystal, ceramic resonator
- XMER: transformer
- XTAL: crystal
- Z or ZD: Zener diode
See also
| Electronics portal |
- Discrete device
- Circuit design
- Circuit diagram
- Electrical element
- Electronic components' Datasheets
- Memristor
References
- ^ Young EC, The Penguin Dictionary of Electronics, Penguin Books, 1988
Categories: Electronic circuits | Electrical components
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