Triac
You can of a triac as two back-to-back SCRs with the cathode of one SCR connected to the anode of the other. The gates are connected together. Because we have a two SCRs configuration you can control the switching of both half cycles. More ...
Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Etching
photolithography is the process of transferring patterns to photoresist covering the surface of a semiconductor wafer. To produce circuit features, these resist patterns must be transferred into the underlying layers of the device. Pattern transfer is accomplished by an etching process that selectively removes unmasked portions of a layer. More ...
How to Read a Capacitor's Values
Due to the limited space available for printing, physically small capacitors are especially difficult to read. Therefore capacitors use a wide variety of codes to describe their characteristics. More ...
Integrated Circuit Manufacturing CMOS Technology
The MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) is the dominant device used in modern integrated circuits because it can be scaled to smaller dimensions than other types of devices. More ...
EMI, RFI, EMC, EMS, What's the Difference?
EMI, RFI, EMC, and EMS all refer to different aspects of radio frequency interference which may cause elecronic devices to malfunction. Correcting these problems can be an art and a science. More ...
Lead-Acid Battery Chemistry
As a lead-acid battery is repeatedly recharged, sulfation will build-up on the plates and the battery will begin to loose its capacity to restore to a full charge and eventually must be replaced. More ...
Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)
A Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) is a 4-layer diode that is controlled by a gate signal. It ca be turned on by a pulse on the gate. More ...
Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Packaging
Before ICs can be put to their intended use they must be packaged. The package is responsible for interconnecting, powering, cooling, and protecting the IC. More ...
Direct Current
The nucleus of an atom is relatively heavy, so electricity primarily involves the flow of electrons. The nucleus of an atom generally doesn't move much. More ...
Superposition Theorem
The resistive networks that satisfy Ohm's law allow a number of simplifying approaches to be taken in their analysis. Circuit analysis by superposition replaces all voltage sources but one with short circuits, then using the summation rules of series-parallel combinations of resistors determine the voltage across and current in each branch due to the remaining voltage source, and then repeating this process for all voltage sources and superposing the results. More ...
Integrated Circuit Manufacturing BiCMOS Technology
BiCMOS is a technology that combines both CMOS and bipolar device structures in a single IC. The reason to combine these two different technologies is to create an IC chip that has the advantages of both CMOS and bipolar devices. More ...
Basic Laws and Analytical Methods for Circuit Analysis
Circuit analysis is like the psychoanalysis of the electrical engineering world because itâ?Ts all about studying the behavior of circuits. With any circuit, you have an input signal, such as a battery source or an audio signal. What you want to figure out is the circuitâ?Ts output â?" how the circuit responds to a given input. More ...
Common Emitter Configuration Transistor Biasing
To design a common emitter amplifier circuit, use a voltage divider with resistors selected to set the base voltage at the center of the transistor's linear region. Then, through a DC blocking capacitor, apply a waveform to the transistor's base. More ...
Inductors in DC Circuits
When voltage first applied current through an inductive circuit is low because a magnetic field starts building in the coil, and this magnetic field creates a back electromotive force (EMF) that oppose the current in the inductor. More ...
