Introduction To Electronics

Electronics is the study of electrons characteristics and their reactions in magnetic fields, forces and through electric materials. It is coined from two words namely, electrical and mechanical, meaning application of electrons' motion (achieved by mechanical force) in real engineering. Electrons are manipulated by some materials called electronic components and they are the building blocks of modern electronic devices. These components can resist, manipulate, store and amplify electricity.

History of electronics.

Electronic devices are the most used. They're use for performing simple and complex tasks, without them our modern age won't have existed. There wouldn't be Internet, electric cars, medical equipments, telecommunication, gaming devices, home appliances, etc. Hardly do we think of how electronics began and those who sacrificed their life and time for us to use these incredible devices. Electronics began with the invention of vaccum diodes by J.A Fleming in 1897. 

The vacuum diode produces much heat, and also consumes much space and power. It was use for rectification and logic switching in the early devices. This drawback led to the invention of small and less power consuming material known known as semiconductor diodes which has replace the vaccum type. Semiconductor diodes are made from germanium or silicon, they are cheap to buy and produce than the former.  

Transistors were invented for amplification and switching of signals and used in radio communication, during the world war II it greatly replaced the vacuum tetrode then. The year 1958-1957 marks the development of integrated circuits which changes the nature of electronic devices into a small size, less weight, high speed and low power consuming which propagates the development of cellphone technology and smart electronic gadgets.

Great pioneers of electronics.

Below are the lists of great inventors that have revolutionised the world of modern electronics. 

 

1. Allesandro volta (1745-1827). was the first to invent a simple battery known as the voltaic cell in 1799. 
2.  Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): He is the father of wireless power transfer and telecommunication. He was a serbain American who invented many useful inventions that changed the 20  and 21st centuries. Tesla was a genius who is termed as the inventor of the 21st century.  He invented the 3 phase AC motor, hydroelectric power generation, wireless power transfer, remote control and many very useful devices of our present century. The unit of magnetic field density was named after him. L
3. Lee De forest (1873-1961): He invented the vacuum triode(now replace with transistors) in 1906 and used for signal amplification and switching in radio communication. 
4. Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890-1945): He was an American who invented the electronic oscillator and radio in 1817. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1932): He was an American business man popularly known as the inventor of the electric bulb and camera. 
5. Charles coulomb (1737-1806): he was a great scientist of the 18th century. He experimented with mechanical resistance of electricity and proposed Coulomb's law of electro-statics charges in 1799. 
6. Goerge Simon ohm (1789-1854):Goerge ohm was a German physicist. He discovered that some conductors conducts electricity more than others, so he proposed ohm's law in year 1827 which is the relation between current and resistance, voltage. The unit of resistance was named after him. 
7. Micheal Faraday (1791-1867): Faraday was a British scientist and a great pioneer experimenter in electricity and magnetism. After discovery by Oersted he demonstrated electromagnetic induction in 1831. 
8. Andre Marie Ampere (1755-1836): He was a French mathematician and physicist. He studied the effect of electric current passing through a metalic conductor and invented the solenoid. The SI unit of current was named after him. G
9. Gustav Robert Kirchoff (1824-1887): He was a German physicist, he proposed Kirchoff's laws which is use for the calculation of voltage, resistance and current in circuits. 
10.  Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891): Weber was a German physicist, he invented an electromagnetic telegraph in 1833. The unit of magnetic flux was named after him.            

Types of electronics.

There are basically two types of electronic devices, they're classified according to their mode of signal processing and sizes. 

They are analog and digital electronics

 • Analogs electronics. 

These are the first set of electronic devices, analogs devices uses circuits that process data in form of wave signals received from inputs and output it out as analog signals.  Analog signals can be transmitted wirelessly or by metalic conductors. They are made from analog components like capacitors, inductors and resistors. Examples of analog devices are inverters, and induction cookers, radios and television sets.

 • Digital electronics.

They drive most of the consumer's electronics market share. Digital technology have revolutionised the world of computers and smart machines, it makes it possible to have portable, fast and low power consuming devices. Digital electronics use solid state semiconductors rather than vaccums tubes. They store or process data in form of 0(OFF) and 1(ON).  Digital electronics uses digital circuits which converts input analog signals to digital signals(this type of circuit is called analog to digital converter.) Smartphones, digital cameras, printers, CCTV, ATM machine and computers are examples of digital electronics. E

Electronics are also classified according to size and appllications. 

•Micro electronics.

it is a sub-field of electronic which deals with the production of small devices by the use of integrated circuits and surface mounted components to reduce size, increase portability and increase it power efficiency. Micro electronics is applied in devices like earpod and smartphones.

 •Nano electronics. 

it is the use of nano-technology to reduces electronic components sizes from bigger to extremely small size. In the picture above the micro chip consists of billions of transistors, capacitors and diodes combined together to form complex circuits for ALUs, CPUs and microprocessors. For example an ATM card and SIM are produced through nanotechnology. 

•Opto electronics. 

It is the study and development of electronic devices that detects control and produce light which are commonly use for communication and optical technology. Optoelectronics is a subclass of electronics engineering that deals with the devices that uses optical charges for communication and electricity production.  Examples of optodevices are  solar cells,  lightning devices and medical test equipments.