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Semiconductor Curve Tracer
A curve tracer is a specialised piece of electronic test equipment used to analyze the characteristics of discrete electronic components, such as diodes, transistors, thyristors, and vacuum tubes. The device contains voltage and current sources that can be used to stimulate the device under test (DUT). Operation The function is to apply a swept (automatically continuously varying with time) voltage to two terminals of the device under test and measure the amount of current that the device permits to flow at each voltage. This so-called I–V (current versus voltage) data is either directly displayed on an oscilloscope screen, or recorded to a data file for later processing and graphing with a computer. Configuration includes the maximum voltage applied, the polarity of the voltage applied (including the automatic application of both positive and negative polarities), and the resistance inserted in series with the device. The main terminal voltage can often be swept up to several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transistors
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminal (electronics), terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or Electric current, current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more in miniature form are found embedded in integrated circuits. Because transistors are the key active components in practically all modern electronics, many people consider them one of the 20th century's greatest inventions. Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld proposed the concept of a field-effect transisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Test Equipment
Electronic test equipment is used to create signals and capture responses from electronic devices under test (DUTs). In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced. Use of electronic test equipment is essential to any serious work on electronics systems. Practical electronics engineering and assembly requires the use of many different kinds of electronic test equipment ranging from the very simple and inexpensive (such as a test light consisting of just a light bulb and a test lead) to extremely complex and sophisticated such as automatic test equipment (ATE). ATE often includes many of these instruments in real and simulated forms. Generally, more advanced test gear is necessary when developing circuits and systems than is needed when doing production testing or when troubleshooting existing production units in the field. Types of test equipment Basic equipment The following items are used for basic measurement of voltages, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interlock (engineering)
An interlock is a feature that makes the state of two mechanisms or functions mutually dependent. It may consist of any electrical or mechanical devices, or systems. In most applications, an interlock is used to help prevent any damage to the machine or to the operator handling the machine. For example, elevators are equipped with an interlock that prevents the moving elevator from opening its doors and prevents the stationary elevator (with open doors) from moving. Interlocks may include sophisticated elements such as curtains of Infrared beam, infrared beams, photodetectors, simple Switch, switches, and lock and key, locks. It can also be a computer containing an interlocking computer program with digital electronics, digital or analogue electronics, analogue electronics. Trapped-key interlocking Trapped-key interlocking is a method of ensuring safety in industrial environments by forcing the operator through a predetermined sequence using a defined selection of keys, locks and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Shock
An electrical injury (electric injury) or electrical shock (electric shock) is damage sustained to the skin or internal organs on direct contact with an electric current. The injury depends on the Current density, density of the current, tissue resistance and duration of contact. Very small currents may be imperceptible or only produce a light tingling sensation. However, a shock caused by low and otherwise harmless current could startle an individual and cause injury due to jerking away or falling. A strong electric shock can often cause painful Spasm, muscle spasms severe enough to Joint dislocation, dislocate joints or even to Bone fracture, break bones. The loss of muscle control is the reason that a person may be unable to release themselves from the electrical source; if this happens at a height as on a Overhead power line, power line they can be thrown off. Larger currents can result in tissue damage and may trigger ventricular fibrillation or cardiac arrest. If death res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Source Measure Unit
A source measure unit (SMU) is a type of electronic test equipment which can source voltage and current and measure them as it does so. Overview The source measure unit (SMU), or source-measurement unit, is an electronic instrument that is capable of both sourcing and measuring at the same time. It can precisely force voltage or current and simultaneously measure precise voltage and/or current. SMUs are used for test applications requiring high accuracy, high resolution and measurement flexibility. Such applications include I-V characterizing and testing semiconductors and other non-linear devices and materials, where sourcing voltage and current source span across both positive and negative values. To accomplish this, SMUs have four-quadrant outputs. For characterization purposes SMUs are bench instruments similar to a Semiconductor curve tracer, curve tracer. They are also commonly used in automatic test equipment and usually are equipped with an interface such as IEEE-488, GPIB ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solid State (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor electronics that have no moving parts replace devices with moving parts, such as the solid-state relay, in which transistor switches are used in place of a moving-arm electromechanical relay, or the solid-state drive (SSD), a type of semiconductor memory used in computers to replace hard disk drives, which store data on a rotating disk. History The term ''solid-state'' became popular at the beginning of the semiconductor era in the 1960s to distinguish this new technology. A semiconductor device works by controlling an electric current consisting of electrons or electron hole, holes moving within a solid crystalline piece of semiconductor, semiconducting material such as silicon, while the thermionic vacuum tubes it replaced worked by controll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent company, it is now a subsidiary of Fortive, a Corporate spin-off, spinoff from Danaher Corporation. History 1946–1954 The company traces its roots to the electronics revolution that immediately followed World War II. It was founded in December 1945 as Tekrad. The name was similar to that of a California company, Techrad, so in 1946, the four partners, Howard Vollum, Melvin Jack Murdock, Jack Murdock and Miles Tippery, who had both served in the United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard, and accountant Glenn McDowell, formed Tektronix, Inc. Each contributed an initial $2,600 for equal shares. Howard Vollum had graduated in 1936 from Reed College with a degree in physics and a keen interest in oscilloscopes, then worked as a radio tech ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photovoltaic System
A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. Many utility-scale PV systems use tracking systems that follow the sun's daily path across the sky to generate more electricity than fixed-mounted systems. Photovoltaic systems convert light directly into electricity and are not to be confused with other solar technologies, such as concentrated solar power or solar thermal, used for heating and cooling. A solar array only encompasses the solar panels, the visible part of the PV system, and does not include all the other hardware, often summarized as the balance of system (BOS). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bridge Circuit
A bridge circuit is a topology of electrical circuitry in which two circuit branches (usually in parallel with each other) are "bridged" by a third branch connected between the first two branches at some intermediate point along them. The bridge was originally developed for laboratory measurement purposes and one of the intermediate bridging points is often adjustable when so used. Bridge circuits now find many applications, both linear and non-linear, including in instrumentation, filtering and power conversion. The best-known bridge circuit, the Wheatstone bridge, was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie and popularized by Charles Wheatstone, and is used for measuring resistance. It is constructed from four resistors, two of known values ''R''1 and ''R''3 (see diagram), one whose resistance is to be determined ''R''x, and one which is variable and calibrated ''R''2. Two opposite vertices are connected to a source of electric current, such as a battery, and a galvanometer i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four-terminal Sensing
In electrical engineering, four-terminal sensing (4T sensing), 4-wire sensing, or 4-point probes method is an electrical impedance measuring technique that uses separate pairs of current-carrying and voltage-sensing electrodes to make more accurate measurements than the simpler and more usual two-terminal (2T) sensing. Four-terminal sensing is used in some ohmmeters and impedance analyzers, and in wiring for strain gauges and resistance thermometers. Four-point probes are also used to measure sheet resistance of thin films (particularly semiconductor thin films). Separation of current and voltage electrodes eliminates the lead and contact resistance from the measurement. This is an advantage for precise measurement of low resistance values. For example, an LCR bridge instruction manual recommends the four-terminal technique for accurate measurement of resistance below 100 ohms.Manual for the Racal-Dana Databridge 9343M: "If the resistance value is low, less than 100 ohms, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Amplifier
A differential amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that amplifies the difference between two input voltages but suppresses any voltage common to the two inputs. It is an analog circuit with two inputs V_\text^- and V_\text^+ and one output V_\text, in which the output is ideally Proportionality (mathematics), proportional to the difference between the two voltages: : V_\text = A(V_\text^+ - V_\text^-), where A is the Gain (electronics), gain of the amplifier. Single amplifiers are usually implemented by either adding the appropriate feedback resistors to a standard Operational amplifier, op-amp, or with a dedicated integrated circuit containing internal feedback resistors. It is also a common sub-component of larger integrated circuits handling analog signals. Mathematics of the amplifier : V_\text = A_\text(V_\text^+ - V_\text^-), where V_\text^+ and V_\text^- are the input voltages, and A_\text is the differential gain. In practice, however, the gain is not quite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
