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Frequency Mixer
In electronics, a mixer, or frequency mixer, is an electrical circuit that creates new frequencies from two signals applied to it. In its most common application, two signals are applied to a mixer, and it produces new signals at the sum and difference of the original frequencies. Other frequency components may also be produced in a practical frequency mixer. Mixers are widely used to shift signals from one frequency range to another, a process known as heterodyning, for convenience in transmission or further signal processing. For example, a key component of a superheterodyne receiver is a mixer used to move received signals to a common intermediate frequency. Frequency mixers are also used to modulation, modulate a carrier signal in Transmitter, radio transmitters. Types The essential characteristic of a mixer is that it produces a component in its output which is the product of the two input signals. Both active and passive circuits can realize mixers. Passive mixers use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intermediate Frequency
In communications and electronic engineering, an intermediate frequency (IF) is a frequency to which a carrier wave is shifted as an intermediate step in Transmission (telecommunications), transmission or reception. The intermediate frequency is created by mixing the carrier signal with a local oscillator signal in a process called heterodyning, resulting in a signal at the difference or beat frequency. Intermediate frequencies are used in Superheterodyne receiver, superheterodyne radio receivers, in which an incoming signal is shifted to an IF for Amplifier, amplification before final Detector (radio), detection is done. Conversion to an intermediate frequency is useful for several reasons. When several stages of filters are used, they can all be set to a fixed frequency, which makes them easier to build and to tune. Lower frequency transistors generally have higher gains so fewer stages are required. It's easier to make sharply selective filters at lower fixed frequencies. Ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gain (electronics)
In electronics, gain is a measure of the ability of a two-port circuit (often an amplifier) to increase the power or amplitude of a signal from the input to the output port by adding energy converted from some power supply to the signal. It is usually defined as the mean ratio of the signal amplitude or power at the output port to the amplitude or power at the input port. It is often expressed using the logarithmic decibel (dB) units ("dB gain"). A gain greater than one (greater than zero dB), that is, amplification, is the defining property of an active device or circuit, while a passive circuit will have a gain of less than one. The term ''gain'' alone is ambiguous, and can refer to the ratio of output to input voltage (''voltage gain''), current (''current gain'') or electric power (''power gain''). In the field of audio and general purpose amplifiers, especially operational amplifiers, the term usually refers to voltage gain, but in radio frequency amplifiers it usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taylor Series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor series are equal near this point. Taylor series are named after Brook Taylor, who introduced them in 1715. A Taylor series is also called a Maclaurin series when 0 is the point where the derivatives are considered, after Colin Maclaurin, who made extensive use of this special case of Taylor series in the 18th century. The partial sum formed by the first terms of a Taylor series is a polynomial of degree that is called the th Taylor polynomial of the function. Taylor polynomials are approximations of a function, which become generally more accurate as increases. Taylor's theorem gives quantitative estimates on the error introduced by the use of such approximations. If the Taylor series of a function is convergent, its sum is the limit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absolute Temperature
Thermodynamic temperature, also known as absolute temperature, is a physical quantity which measures temperature starting from absolute zero, the point at which particles have minimal thermal motion. Thermodynamic temperature is typically expressed using the Kelvin scale, where the unit of measurement is the ''kelvin'' (unit symbol: K). The Kelvin scale uses the same degree interval as the Celsius scale but is offset so that 0 K corresponds to absolute zero. For comparison, a temperature of 295 K corresponds to 21.85 °C and 71.33 °F. Another absolute scale of temperature is the Rankine scale, which is based on the Fahrenheit degree interval. Historically, thermodynamic temperature was defined by Lord Kelvin in terms of a macroscopic relation between Work (thermodynamics), thermodynamic work and Heat, heat transfer as defined in thermodynamics, but the kelvin was redefined by international agreement in 2019 in terms of phenomena that are now understood as man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boltzmann Constant
The Boltzmann constant ( or ) is the proportionality factor that relates the average relative thermal energy of particles in a ideal gas, gas with the thermodynamic temperature of the gas. It occurs in the definitions of the kelvin (K) and the molar gas constant, in Planck's law of black-body radiation and Boltzmann's entropy formula, and is used in calculating Johnson–Nyquist noise, thermal noise in resistors. The Boltzmann constant has Dimensional analysis, dimensions of energy divided by temperature, the same as entropy and heat capacity. It is named after the Austrian scientist Ludwig Boltzmann. As part of the 2019 revision of the SI, the Boltzmann constant is one of the seven "Physical constant, defining constants" that have been defined so as to have exact finite decimal values in SI units. They are used in various combinations to define the seven SI base units. The Boltzmann constant is defined to be exactly joules per kelvin, with the effect of defining the SI unit ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elementary Charge
The elementary charge, usually denoted by , is a fundamental physical constant, defined as the electric charge carried by a single proton (+1 ''e'') or, equivalently, the magnitude of the negative electric charge carried by a single electron, which has charge −1 . In SI units, the coulomb is defined such that the value of the elementary charge is exactly or 160.2176634 zeptocoulombs (zC). Since the 2019 revision of the SI, the seven SI base units are defined in terms of seven fundamental physical constants, of which the elementary charge is one. In the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS), the corresponding quantity is . Robert A. Millikan and Harvey Fletcher's oil drop experiment first directly measured the magnitude of the elementary charge in 1909, differing from the modern accepted value by just 0.6%. Under assumptions of the then-disputed atomic theory, the elementary charge had also been indirectly inferred to ~3% accuracy from blackb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shockley Diode Equation
The Shockley diode equation, or the diode law, named after transistor co-inventor William Shockley of Bell Labs, models the exponential current–voltage (I–V) relationship of semiconductor diodes in moderate constant current forward bias or reverse bias: : I_\text = I_\text \left( e^\frac - 1 \right), where : I_\text is the diode current, : I_\text is the reverse-bias saturation current (or scale current), : V_\text is the voltage across the diode, : V_\text is the thermal voltage, and : n is the ''ideality factor'', also known as the ''quality factor'', ''emission coefficient'', or the ''material constant''. The equation is called the Shockley ideal diode equation when the ideality factor n equals 1, thus n is sometimes omitted. The ideality factor typically varies from 1 to 2 (though can in some cases be higher), depending on the fabrication process and semiconductor material. The ideality factor was added to account for imperfect junctions observed in real transistor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optical Heterodyne Detection
Optical heterodyne detection is a method of extracting information encoded as modulation of the phase, frequency or both of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength band of visible or infrared light. The light signal is compared with standard or reference light from a "local oscillator" (LO) that would have a fixed offset in frequency and phase from the signal if the latter carried null information. "Heterodyne" signifies more than one frequency, in contrast to the single frequency employed in homodyne detection. The comparison of the two light signals is typically accomplished by combining them in a photodiode detector, which has a response that is linear in energy, and hence quadratic in amplitude of electromagnetic field. Typically, the two light frequencies are similar enough that their difference or beat frequency produced by the detector is in the radio or microwave band that can be conveniently processed by electronic means. This technique became widely applicable t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonlinear Optics
Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in Nonlinearity, nonlinear media, that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (when the electric field of the light is >108 V/m and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds. History The first nonlinear optical effect to be predicted was two-photon absorption, by Maria Goeppert Mayer for her PhD in 1931, but it remained an unexplored theoretical curiosity until 1961 and the almost simultaneous observation of two-photon absorption at Bell Labs and the discovery of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken ''et al.'' at University of Michigan, both shortly after th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturation (magnetic)
Seen in some magnetism, magnetic materials, saturation is the state reached when an increase in applied external magnetic field ''H'' cannot increase the magnetization of the material further, so the total magnetic flux density ''B'' more or less levels off. (Though, magnetization continues to increase very slowly with the field due to paramagnetism.) Saturation is a characteristic of ferromagnetism, ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, cobalt and their alloys. Different ferromagnetic materials have different saturation levels. Description Saturation is most clearly seen in the ''magnetization curve'' (also called ''BH'' curve or hysteresis curve) of a substance, as a bending to the right of the curve (see graph at right). As the ''H'' field increases, the ''B'' field approaches a maximum value asymptote, asymptotically, the saturation level for the substance. Technically, above saturation, the ''B'' field continues increasing, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
