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Wikipedia: electronic component

Various components

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Various components

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.)

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 the Electric industry they are called Electrical elements or electrical components
  • Active components are those that have gain or directionality, in contrast to passive components, which have neither. They include Semiconductors (Solid State Devices) and Thermionic Valves (Vacuum Tubes)

List of electronic components

Many electronic components are on the market today. Here is a list of some of them.

Wires and cables

Devices to conduct electrical current

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 switch - Thermally activated switch
  • Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
  • Limit Switch - Mechanically activated switch

Resistors

Components that dissipate electrical energy as heat.

  1. See the Transducer section below for resistors used to sense environmental conditions (Thermistor, Photoresistor, RTD...)
  2. See the Protection section below for resistors used for current or voltage limiting (MOV, Inrush Limiters...)

Protection devices

Passive components that protect circuits from excessive currents of voltages

  1. While these components technically belong to the Wire, Resistor and Vacuum classes, they are grouped here based on their use.
  2. Active components that perform a protection function are in the Semiconductor class, below.

Capacitors

Components that store electrical charge in an electrical field

  • Capacitor
  • Capacitor network (array)
  • Variable capacitor

Magnetic (inductive) devices

Electrical components that use magnetism

Networks

Components that use more than one type of passive component

Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators

Passive components that use piezoelectric effect

  • Components that use the effect to generate or filter high frequencies
    • Crystal - Is a quartz 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.

Power sources

Sources of electrical power

Transducers, sensors, detectors

  1. Transducers generate physical effects when driven by an electrical signal, or vice-versa.
  2. Sensors (detectors) are transducers that react to environmental conditions by changing their electrical properties or generating an electrical signal.
  3. 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)
    • microphone - Magnetic, electrostatic (capacitive) or piezoelectric device to convert audio to electrical signal
    • loudspeaker - Magnetic or piezoelectric device to generate full audio
    • Buzzer - Magnetic or piezoelectric sounder to generate tones
  • Position, motion
  • Force, torque
    • Strain gauge - Piezoelectric or resistive - detects squeezing, stretching, twisting
    • Accelerometer - Piezoelectric - detects acceleration, gravity
  • Thermal
  • Magnetic field (see also Hall Effect in semiconductors)
  • Humidity
  • Electromagnetic, light

Solid State components, Semiconductors

Active components

Diodes

Transistors

Integrated circuits

Hybrid Circuits

Thermionic Valve, Vacuum Tube

Active devices that operate in vacuum

Assemblies, modules

Multiple electronic components assembled in a device that is in itself used as a component

Prototyping aids

Mechanical accessories

Other

See also

References

  • Allied's list of classes of components
  • Newark's list of classes of components
  • PartNumber.com, a utility to assign part numbers to electronic components.
  • Digikey's list of all classes of components
  • Otxi's extensive list of various electronic components
  1. ^ Young EC, The Penguin Dictionary of Electronics, Penguin Books, 1988

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)