Electronic Components and Circuits: Electromagnetic Waves

I. D.
Robertson 2009 14

Electronic components and circuits

The traditional components that students of electronics are first introduced to include transistors,
light-emitting diodes (LEDs), resistors, capacitors and inductors. A cursory look through a typical
component suppliers catalogue or web site will show that electronic product designers have a very
wide range of different components to choose from. One major supplier offers 10000 types of
transistor, 8000 LEDs, 27000 capacitors, 50000 resistors and 8000 inductors. In addition, there is a
vast range of sensors, actuators, diodes, connectors, fuses, relays, transformers, solar cells, display
modules and much more. This section cannot possibly describe all the different types of component,
but will focus instead on describing the key features of the most common components that are used.
The main techniques for constructing circuits using prototyping boards will also be introduced.
First, though, it is important to explain the fundamental concepts of electricity and electronic
circuits, including semiconductor devices.

1 Fundamentals of electrical circuits
At the circuit level, digital electronics (and therefore computing) is concerned with using transistors
to switch voltages and currents in order to perform calculations on binary numbers. The water
analogy is useful for drawing the distinction between voltage and current, which often get confused.
Figure 1 shows a simple electrical circuit and its water analogy: The voltage source, such as a
battery, is equivalent to a large tank full of water raised to some height, h. Voltage represents
potential energy, exactly like the potential energy of water, which is the work done to raise the
water to that height. Electric current, however, is equivalent to the flow of water: Voltage is present
whether the switch is open or closed, but current only flows when the when the switch is closed.
The switch is therefore analogous to the tap (faucet), except the switch conducts electricity when
its closed, whereas a tap lets water through when its open!
When the switch is closed, current flows from one battery terminal, through the bulb, to the
other terminal. Current is the flow of electrons and without a circuit with a return path there
would be an impossible build up of charge somewhere. This is why birds can happily sit on high
voltage overhead cables there is no return path for current to flow through. The light bulb is
analogous to the water wheel: the bulb allows electricity to flow through it and converts electrical
energy into light. The wheel allows water to flow through, causing mechanical rotation to drive a
machine. Finally, the diameter of the water pipe is equivalent to the electrical resistance of the light
bulb filament: a smaller diameter pipe restricts water flow and this is equivalent to a larger electrical
resistance, which reduces the amount of current flowing.

Figure 1 Water analogy

I. D. Robertson 2009 15

This analogy with the battery connected to the flashlight bulb describes the simplest of
electronic circuits those that use what is known as direct current (DC); one which has a steady
constant voltage and single direction of current flow associated with it. However, it was found
many years ago that power systems are much more efficient if an alternating current (AC) is used.
An alternating current normally has sinusoidal signals associated with it, because in power systems
the generator is a rotating machine and the frequency of the AC signal is the same as, or
proportional to, the rotational frequency of the generator. Hence, the frequency is expressed in
cycles per second, which has the SI unit of Hertz. Heinrich Hertz was the scientist that first
demonstrated the existence of radio waves by using a spark gap transmitter to send signals across
his lab to a receiver in 1888. Figure 2 shows how a sinusoidal signal is generated by the simplest
kind of rotating machine a coil of wire rotating in the field between two magnetic poles.

N
S
Angular
velocity
Vout d/dt cos t
sin t
(perpendicular component)

Figure 2 Rotating coil in magnetic field

With AC signals, not only is power transmission more efficient, but the whole world of
electromagnetic waves is opened up. As the frequency of the AC signal is increased, so its capacity
to transmit information is increased. Electromagnetic waves are often confined in special cables in
order to transmit large amounts of information from place to place. The optical fibre, for example,
uses light which has a frequency of order 100s of THz, and many 1000s of Gb/s of data have been
transmitted in research labs. Alternatively, by connecting AC signals to aerials of a suitable size, the
signal can be made to radiate and radio transmission without wires is possible. As well as being
useful for communication of information, radio waves have special properties that make them
useful for applications such as radar and sensing. Radio systems are described in detail in the
sections on Wireless Systems & Broadcasting.

2 Insulators, conductors and semiconductors
In the water analogy, the water pipe that freely permits water to flow is equivalent to an electrical
conductor: a material that allows electrons to flow freely. A transistor is equivalent to a water valve
a device that can be used to vary the flow with a separate control input. Transistors are at the heart
of all electronics and a brief review of semiconductors, without going into detail, is necessary. First,
it is necessary to know why conductors, insulators and semiconductors behave differently: Materials
all consist of atoms, which in turn have protons and neutrons in the nucleus and electrons orbiting
around it, as illustrated in Figure 3 (a). This is the Bohr model of an atom, named after Neils Bohr
one of the founding fathers of nuclear physics. It has been found to be very simplistic but serves as
a valuable framework for many cases.


(a) Single atom (b) Crystal lattice (c ) Compound
Figure 3 Basics of atoms and solids

The electrons are negatively charged, and the charge of an electron is one of the most
important physical constants, with a value of -1.602x10
-19
Coulombs. The protons are positively
charged, with the same amount of charge, and the neutrons have no charge. The various phenomena
that make up the subject of electrostatics are caused by an imbalance in the charge at the surface of
a material, due to an exchange of electrons created by adhesion or friction with another material. It
is mostly associated with non-conducting substances such as rubber, plastic and glass. Charges of
equal polarity will repel each other in the same way as in magnetostatics magnets repel each other
if their like poles are placed together. Negative and positive charges will attract to one another
through the electrostatic force. Fixing a party balloon to the ceiling is a classic example of this;
what happens when you rub the balloon on your shirt is that electrons are stripped off one set of
atoms by the mechanical action and transferred to the others. The balloon is made from insulating
material and so a substantial charge can build up its surface, giving sufficient electrostatic attraction
with the ceiling to overcome the gravitational force.

The mass of the proton is 2000 times as great as that of the electron. The number of protons
in the single atom gives the atomic number that determines which element it is. The periodic table
lists all the elements in order of atomic mass and groups them according to their properties.
Hydrogen is the lightest, with one proton and one electron. Oxygen has 8 neutrons, 8 protons and 8
electrons. At the other end of the table are heavy elements such as Plutonium which has 94 protons,
150 neutrons and 94 electrons. The neutrons are necessary to bind the nucleus together otherwise
the positively-charged protons would push each other apart. As a gross simplification, one can say
that interactions between the orbiting electrons of different atoms are the key to chemical
properties, involving relatively weak forces, whereas changing the nucleus proton/neutron binding
leads to radioactive properties involving very strong forces. Detailed information on all of the
elements can be found at http://www.chemicalelements.com/ [Bentor, Yinon].

Figure 4 An illustration of electrostatics (Jean-nol Lafargue - www.hyperbate.com)

In solids, atoms are bound together in a lattice shown in Figure 3 (b). This perfect regular
arrangement of atoms is called a crystal. The shape of the crystal depends on the material. The
spacing between atoms is around 10
-10
m, which is often given the unit of one Angstrom, denoted 1
. Crystals can be grown by various methods, and the uniformity of the electron orbits makes
crystals grow into regular shapes as illustrated in Figure 5 . Of course not all materials are found in
this regular form many for example are more granular in practice. However, electronic devices
require very precise electrical properties and microelectronic materials such as silicon must be
grown with a near-perfect crystal form.

Mineral Smokey Quartz Synthetic ruby
(United States Department of Agriculture) (Eurico Zimbres, Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 5 Crystal examples

Figure 6 Insulator (left) and a metal conductor (right) with voltage applied

In an insulator, the electrons remain bound to the nucleus and no electron flow can occur. In
a conductor, normally a metal, after the atoms have become bound together, a considerable number
of spare electrons is left in the lattice to move about so, when a voltage is applied, they move
freely and the material is able to conduct an electric current. In a semiconductor, electrons are
bound to the nucleus or free, depending on various conditions: The conductivity is a function of the
purity of the material, the temperature, incident light levels and magnetic fields. Hence,
semiconductors form the basis of devices that can be used as switches mainly transistors. In a
compound semiconductor, atoms of different elements are bound together in a regular lattice.
Gallium Arsenide, for example, is a compound of Gallium and Arsenide and is a semiconductor
with superior properties to silicon that is found in many ultra high speed and optoelectronic devices.

3 Diodes
The electron orbits of Figure 3 (a) are found to be at regular intervals and there are discrete levels of
energy that electrons can have (called energy states). This effect was observed by scientists looking
at the spectrum of light when passed through certain gases; dark lines were found where the light

was absorbed very strongly. For example, Figure 7 shows the visible part of the absorption
spectrum for hydrogen; there are other hydrogen absorption lines in the infra red and UV ranges.
The position of the lines is characteristic of the material and this is the basis of mass spectrometry
where materials can be identified very methodically. The position of the lines is so predictable
(sometimes referred to as the cosmic barcode) that it can be used to measure the speed of movement
of distant galaxies since the lines shift because of the Doppler effect. The observation that stars are
moving away from each other has led to the Big Bang Theory. The reason for the lines is that an
electron can absorb the energy of a photon, but since the electrons have discrete allowable energy
levels, only photons of certain wavelengths can be absorbed by a given material.

Figure 7 The absorption spectrum of hydrogen in the visible region

Bohr calculated the energy levels based purely on the angular velocity, orbit radius and mass of the
electrons, producing values for hydrogen very close to those now predicted by more accurate
models. When larger atoms are bound together in solids, these states interact and the picture
becomes more complicated. The behaviour of the electrons is represented by band diagrams, which
are shown in Figure 8 for the insulator, metal and semiconductor cases. The valence band
represents states where the electron is bound to the nucleus; the conduction band represents states
where electrons are free to move through the lattice. The Fermi level shows the highest energy of
occupied states in the material at a temperature of absolute zero.
In an insulator, the gap between the valance band and conduction band is large and the
Fermi level is in between them. Electrons are unable to reach the conduction band under normal
conditions. In metals, when the valence band is full there are still spare electrons that are free to
move in the lattice; in the band diagram, this is depicted as an overlap of the valence band and the
conduction band and the Fermi level is within the conduction band. A pure semiconductor is
actually an insulator, with the Fermi level mid-way between the valence band and conduction band,
but the band gap is much smaller than for an insulator. This small band gap means that
semiconductors can conduct at high temperatures. More importantly, it means the semiconductors
electrical properties can be modified by doping the material.

EF
EV
EC

EV
EC
EF

EF
EV
EC

Figure 8 Band diagrams; (a) Insulator (b) Metal (c) Pure Semiconductor

Doping means deliberately introducing some other material which places additional energy levels
just below the conduction band (n-type semiconductor, doped with donors), or just above the
valence band (p-type semiconductor, doped with acceptors). A donor is an atom with a spare

electron; for example phosphorous can be used for silicon. An acceptor is one with an electron
vacancy, for example boron can be used in silicon. The electron vacancy is referred to as a hole
and can also lead to electrical conduction, albeit not as quickly as the spare electron case.

E
F

E
V

E
C

E
F

E
V

E
C

Figure 9 Band diagram of (a) n-type and (b) p-type semiconductor

With the n-type and p-type band diagrams, shown in Figure 9, the first type of semiconductor
device can be introduced the diode. A diode can be made by fabricating a layer of n-type material
on a layer of p-type material this is referred to as a P-N junction. In constructing the band diagram
of the device, we must first revisit the Fermi level. The Fermi level is the maximum energy level of
the electrons in the solid at equilibrium. It can be likened to the water table effect in the ground; that
is, if you dig holes deep enough around your garden, water will appear at the same level relative to
the surface, no matter how deep the hole. This is true in equilibrium if you disturbed the
equilibrium by pouring water into one of the holes with a hose pipe, of course the levels would be
perturbed. But, once the water is off, and after some time, the constant water level effect will re-
assert itself as shown in Figure 10.

(a ) (b) (c )

Figure 10 Water table analogy for the Fermi level: (a) Original state; (b) Equilibrium
disturbed; (c ) Equilibrium restored after some time

Consequently, the band diagram for the PN junction in equilibrium has the Fermi level
constant, and the other bands must bend to accommodate it, as shown in Figure 11 (a). Applying a
voltage across the diode is analogous to pouring water into one of the holes in the garden; the Fermi
level is raised accordingly on one side relative to the other. For forward bias, the barrier to current
flow is reduced, as shown in Figure 11 (b) and current can start to flow. For reverse bias, the barrier
becomes even larger as shown in Figure 11 (c). This one-directional current flow is the desired
function of a diode; in the water analogy it is like a one-way water valve. The one-way current flow
is illustrated in Figure 12, which is a graph of diode current vs. applied voltage. The forward turn-
on voltage is determined by the band energy gap of the semiconductor material; for silicon it is
0.65V.

(a) Zero bias
(c) Reverse bias (b) Forward bias
p n
EF
EC
EV
DEPLETION
REGION
p n
EF
EC
E V
p n
EF
EC
EV

Figure 11 PN Junction band diagram

Figure 12 PN junction (diode) IV curve

It can be shown that the current flowing through the diode is given by:-
1
26
=
mV
V
S D
D
e I I
(1)
Where I
s
is called the saturation current and V
D
is the forward diode voltage. The 26mV is an
approximation for a term that includes various parameters including the electron charge and the
diode temperature.
In reverse bias, a diode will not conduct significantly until the reverse voltage reaches a
sufficient value to cause avalanche breakdown. This effect is deliberately used to make Zener
diodes, which can clamp a voltage very precisely. Zener diodes are available in a range of voltages.

3.1 Light-emitting diodes
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a forward-biased diode made from a material with a carefully
chosen bandgap. LEDs generally need a compound semiconductor material and, when forward
biased, electrons and holes recombine at the PN junction, leading to the release of photons with a
wavelength dictated by the bandgap of the material. Early LEDs were red and only recently has the
blue LED been made available through development of gallium nitride (GaN) technology. LEDs
come in many forms, from the standard lens type to surface mount types and seven-segment
modules, as show in Figure 13.
As an example, green LEDs using gallium phosphide (GaP) give a wavelength peak at
565nm and have a forward voltage drop of 15 V. The relationship between photon frequency and
energy is:-
E=h (2)

Where E is the energy, is the photon frequency and h is Plancks constant (6.626 x 10
-34
Js).
For this GaP green LED, the 2.15 V forward voltage means a photon energy of 2.15 eV (electron
volts). 1eV = 1.6 x 10
-19
J, so (frequency) = 519 THz . Using c=f, with c3 x 10
8
m/s, this
gives a photon wavelength of 578 nm, which is in good agreement.

Figure 13 Single LEDs and a seven-segment number display

4 Bipolar junction transistors
Figure 14 shows the simplified construction and circuit symbol of an npn bipolar junction transistor
(BJT). The bipolar transistor consists of a pair of PN junctions placed back-to-back. In the npn
transistor, the base is doped p-type, the emitter is heavily doped n-type, and the collector is doped
n-type. In common-emitter configuration, as shown, the base-emitter junction is forward biased; the
base-collector junction is reverse-biased. The key to its operation is the thinness of the base: most of
the electrons trying to flow from the emitter to the base will actually sneak into the collector, where
they will be swept away to the collector terminal. Thus, the emitter-collector current is controlled
by the base-emitter bias. For analogue applications, such as an audio amplifier, the transistor is used
for its current gain, which is achieved because many more electrons go to the collector than to the
base. For digital applications, the transistor is used like an on-off switch.

Emitter
Collector
Base
n
+
p
n
-
Emitter
Base
Collector

Figure 14 NPN bipolar junction transistor

5 Field effect transistors
The field-effect transistor (FET) is simpler in structure than the BJT and is the key to virtually all
digital circuits. In the FET, the drain and source are electrical contacts to the ends of a section of
semiconductor material; the gate is placed between the source and drain to control the amount of
current that can flow. The gate does not make a proper electrical contact to the semiconductor
material, however: In the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor FET) the gate is isolated by an
insulating oxide layer. Returning to the water analogy, the FET is like a hosepipe running from the
source (a tap or faucet) to the drain; the gate is your hand, squeezing the hose in the middle to
control the water flow as shown in Figure 15. Up to point A on the uppermost water flow curve,
the hand is applying no pressure and the water flow increases steadily as the tap/faucet is opened

up. From A to B, the water flow starts to be limited by the diameter of the pipe and is unable to
increase much more, so the trace levels off. For trace C, the hand has squeezed the pipe almost
completely shut and very little water flows even when the tap/faucet is fully on. Region A for the
FET is referred to as the linear (or triode) region; B is the saturation region, and C is the cut-off
region.

Figure 15 Water pipe analogy applied to the FET

There are many types of FET and Figure 16 shows the cross-section of an enhancement-
mode n-channel MOSFET which is one of the simplest conceptually. The device consists of a p-
type doped semiconductor block, grounded at the bottom, with a pair of electrical contacts called
the source and the drain at the two ends. Because the semiconductor is doped p-type, with no gate
bias is applied there are no free electrons in the region between the source and drain and the
transistor is OFF (a). The switching process can be understood, simplistically, by thinking in terms
of the electrostatic force on the electrons and holes: When the gate voltage is sufficiently positive
(b), electrons (being negatively charged) are attracted to the gate area, and the holes are pushed
away. This leaves a thin layer of what is now effectively n-type semiconductor under the gate.
There are now free electrons in this thin layer - called the channel and a current can flow between
the source and drain. Therefore, applying the positive voltage to the gate turns the transistor ON.
Figure 16(c) shows a graph of drain-source current versus applied drain-source voltage, for the
ON and OFF cases. In the ON state, the current initially increases in direct proportion to the
applied drain-source voltage (the linear region). As the drain voltage increases, another effect
becomes important: the gate-drain voltage is less than the gate-source voltage, and the channel is
much thinner at the drain end. This restricts the electron flow and the current starts to level off in
the saturation region.


(a ) (b )

(c )

Figure 16 Enhancement-mode n-channel MOSFET operation (a) cross-section in the OFF
state; (b) cross-section in the ON state; (c) IV curves, showing use for logic circuits

If 5V is applied to the drain and 0V to the source then, in the ON state, electrons will flow
from the source to the drain. This is entirely consistent with the water analogy, but, unfortunately
Engineers normal deal with conventional current. Conventional current, defined in the early days of
electricity, is defined as the flow of positive charge, and is therefore in the opposite direction to
electron flow. Engineers have no problem with this conflict because most of the time they treat
semiconductor devices as black boxes and dont worry too much about the physics inside the
device in fact, conventional current becomes so deeply ingrained that electron flow is largely
forgotten about.
In most digital circuits, an n-channel and a p-channel MOSFET are used in tandem to create
a logic circuit with extremely low power consumption. This is possible because NMOS and PMOS
transistors are switched on with opposite signal polarities, and the combination is termed
Complimentary MOS (CMOS). The other standard FET technology is the JFET (junction FET) in
which the gate is isolated from the channel by using a combination of n-type and p-type material to
create a reverse-biased PN junction under the gate. JFETs are used in some specialist analogue and
high-speed switching circuit applications. Figure 17 shows some of the standard transistor
packages that are encountered.


Figure 17 An assortment of discrete transistors

6 More on electrons
Before moving from materials and device physics to look at practical components, some of the
gross simplifications that have been made should be mentioned. The electron orbitals are far more
complex than the elliptical orbits of planets around the Sun. It was mentioned earlier that the
electron orbits interact when the atoms are in a lattice. What is really happening is that the electrons
have a wave-like nature and are diffracted by the regular (periodic) structure of the lattice. Since the
lattice is 3-D but not necessarily square, this diffraction effect can be different in different planes of
the lattice. The diffraction effect causes resonances and a complex set of allowed and forbidden
states. Figure 18 shows an example of more realistic electron orbitals. A further complication is that
electrons momentum is no longer directly related to its energy (Newtonian mechanics do not apply
in the quantum world). The effective mass of the electron is often used in calculations in order to
take this into account. The multi-dimensional aspect of the band diagrams must be considered in
order to see why silicon is a poor semiconductor for light-emission applications the gap between
the energy levels is said to be indirect because the electron must simultaneously change energy and
momentum, which requires collisions with atoms to occur and this tends to generate more heat than
photons.

Figure 18 A more realistic view of one set of electron orbitals
For a proper series of illustrations see http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/orbitron/

7 Passive components

7.1 Resistors
Resistors are placed in circuits to restrict the flow of current. They are, for example, used to set bias
voltages and limit currents for semiconductor devices, which would otherwise be destroyed by
handling too much current. The relationship between the current flowing and the applied voltage is
known as Ohms law after Georg Simon Ohm, an 18
th
Century German physicist:-

V=IR (3)

In SI units, V has units of Volts (with symbol V), I has units of Amperes (with symbol A) and R has
units of Ohms (with symbol ).
A simple example is the application of driving an LED from a 0 / 5V binary signal: the
diode has an exponential voltage-current relationship when forward biased, so if 5V is applied
directly it will simply burn out. Assuming the diode needs to draw 10mA for the required

brightness and has 2.1V forward voltage drop across it, a series resistor must be used to drop the
supply by 2.9 V. That means

R= 2.9/ 10x10
-3
= 290

This is illustrated in Figure 19. It is very important to appreciate that; (a) the current flowing
through the diode and the resistor MUST be equal, because they are connected in SERIES, and (b)
that the voltage across the diode plus the voltage across the resistor add up to the total applied
voltage. Using the resistor for this purpose does have one big disadvantage; the resistor absorbs
power: The power dissipated in the resistor is given by:-

P=I
2
R = V
2
/R (4)

In this case, the power dissipated in the resistor is 10x10
-3
x 10x10
-3
x 290 Watts (W) =
0.029 W. To put this in perspective, a typical domestic electric heater consumes one to three
kilowatts (thousand Watts). However, on the other hand, if this circuit is running off a small battery
say in an MP3 player then this amount of power is significant. Also, it is impractical to use this
simple resistor technique in high power circuitry because the resistor would get too hot possibly
burning out instantly! Indeed, the domestic electric heater typically uses a resistive coil of wire or
metal track, and the heat comes directly from it.

Figure 19 Example resistor application; biasing an LED

Figure 20 Various kinds of resistor

Resistors are fabricated in many forms, the main ones being cylindrical ones with legs (technically
known as the axial-lead type), surface mount chip resistors, or ones realised on the surface of an
integrated circuit. No store or supplier could stock every possible value of resistor, so there is a set

of preferred values. The axial-lead resistors use a series of coloured bands to indicate the resistor
value and tolerance, but virtually all modern products use SMD resistors, where a number code is
printed on top. Where preferred values do not give the required value, resistors can be combined in
series or in parallel:-

In series, R = R
1
+ R
2
(5)

In parallel, 1/R=1/R
1
+ 1/R
2
(6)

The first formula can be derived from the condition already mentioned, that the current through two
components in series must be identical, and the voltage across the pair is the sum of the individual
voltages, as illustrated in Figure 21. This summing of voltages is formalised in Kirchhoffs Voltage
Law:-
v = 0 (7)
This can be interpreted as a conservation of energy rule, given the analogy between voltage and
potential energy. In terms of the water analogy, it means that if you raise water up to a height and
then drop it back to its original position, there is no net change in potential energy. If the voltages
are labelled consistently, it means that when you go round any loop in a circuit the total of all the
voltages is zero, as illustrated in Figure 21.

Figure 21 Two resistors in series and KVL

The second formula, for parallel resistors, can be derived from the fact that the voltage across two
components connected in parallel must be identical. The total current into the pair of components is
equal to the sum of the current in each component, as illustrated in Figure 22. This summing of
currents is formalised in Kirchhoffs Current Law (KCL):-
i = 0 (8)
This formula can be interpreted as a conservation of charge rule. In terms of the water analogy, it is
simply saying that at a junction, the total water flowing out must be equal to the total water going
in. To make the formula work, and give a sum of zero, a consistent notation must be used for the
direction of current usually, current flowing into a node is treated as positive.


5 V
+ 50mA
5
0
0

5V
1
2
5

+
-
- 40mA
-
1
0
m
A

Figure 22 Two resistors in parallel, illustrating KCL

7.2 Variable resistors and potentiometers
A variable resistor can be used to realise variable voltages and current levels for many purposes.
Physical movement of a screw or knob causes a sliding contact to move along the length of a
resistive track or wire. A potentiometer is a special case with three terminals, as illustrated in Figure
23. A common application of the potential divider is to make a variable output voltage from a fixed
input one. The expression for the output voltage of the potential divider is:-
2 1
1
R R
R
V V
in out
+
= (9)
This simple expression forms the basis of many valuable circuit ideas, but it must be remembered
that it assumes no significant current is drawn at the output. If the potential divider is loaded, the
load resistance is in parallel with R
1
. Also, the potential divider may dissipate significant power if
current is drawn from its output; in this case a larger wire-wound potentiometer should be used, or
more likely, a proper transistor-based control circuit. Because the sliding contacts cause a long term
reliability problem, and can introduce noise, digital potentiometer ICs are now available.

Figure 23 Potential divider and potentiometer


Figure 24 An assortment of variable resistors / potentiometers. X-Y potentiometers in a games
controller analogue stick.

7.3 Capacitors
Capacitors are tiny storage containers for electric charge. This is achieved by using a pair of metal
electrodes, of significant area, separated by an insulator (dielectric). It can be shown that the
capacitance is given by:-
d
A
C
r o

= (10)
Where
o
is the permittivity of free space (8.854x10
-12
F/m),
r
is the relative permittivity of the
dielectric, A is the area, and d is the separation between the plates. The capacitance is a measure of
how much charge, Q, can be stored for a given voltage:

C=Q V (11)

Q has units Coulombs; one Coulomb is the amount of charge transported by a current of 1 Amp in 1
second (6.24 billion billion electrons!). To make a large capacitance requires a very thin electrode
spacing and/or large area. Since it takes a finite time to fill up or empty this storage container from
an external circuit, capacitors have a valuable frequency-dependant behaviour. A capacitor will
resist any attempt to suddenly change the voltage across the terminals. A very common application
of capacitors is therefore for smoothing DC power supply voltages.
The current flowing into a capacitor is given by:-

dt
dV
C I = (12)
dV/dt is the rate of change of V. This formula is simply representing the fact that if you make a
positive step change to the voltage across the capacitor terminals, current must flow to charge it up.
A large capacitance is a large reservoir of charge and needs proportionally more current to charge
up. If the capacitor is charged through a resistance, the time to charge up is precisely fixed by the
resistor and capacitor values and this feature is used in many timing circuits and filters.

Figure 25 A variety of capacitors

7.4 Inductors
An inductor is a coil of wire, wound so that when a current flows through it a substantial magnetic
field is created. This means that energy can be stored temporarily in the magnetic field, and the
inductor will resist any sudden change in the current flowing through it. Figure 26 illustrates a
variety of common types of inductor. The voltage across an inductor is given by:-
dt
dI
L V = (13)
This differentiation function represents Faradays law of induction; In his original experiments, a
magnetic bar was moved in and out of a coil of wire and it was observed that the induced voltage
(electromagnetic force, e.m.f.) depended on how rapidly the bar was moved. Inductors are widely
used for making frequency-selective circuits (such as filters) and for separating AC and DC signals
for example, toroidal inductors are widely used where leads leave or enter a piece of equipment,
in order to reduce electrical interference that could couple into, or be radiated from, the lead.

Figure 26 A variety of inductors
7.5 Complex impedance
Ohms law can readily be used for circuits that include capacitors and inductors if we restrict
ourselves to sinusoidal signals. For the inductor,
dt
dI
L V = (14)
So if the current is I sin t, then
V= L I cos t (15)
V and I are plotted together in Figure 27; observe that there the current is always lagging behind the
voltage by exactly 90 degrees. This phase relationship can be confirmed by driving a series
inductor-resistor combination with a sine-wave signal and measuring the voltage across the resistor
and inductor simultaneously on an oscilloscope. The voltage across the resistor will be proportional
to, and in phase with, the current in the inductor. The oscilloscope and other key types of test
equipment are described in Appendix 1.

Figure 27 Voltage and current for an inductor

For the capacitor,
dt
dV
C I = (16)
So if the voltage is V sin t, then,
I = C V cos t. (17)
V and I for the capacitor are plotted together in Figure 28; observe that in the capacitor the current is
always LEADING the voltage by exactly 90 degrees. The question of leading and lagging can be
remembered with the mnemonic CIVIL: For the capacitor, I leads V (CIV); for the inductor, I lags
behind V (VIL).

Figure 28 Voltage and current for a capacitor

Returning to Ohms law, with sinusoidal AC signals these 90 degree phase differences between the
current and voltage are dealt with by using complex numbers. Rotating phasors are a standard
means of representing sinusoids in mathematics and engineering. Figure 29 shows the inductor and
capacitor cases, respectively. From this, it can be seen that we can use Ohms law for inductor and
capacitor circuits if we deal with complex impedance
In the general case, V = I Z (18)
For an inductor, Z
L
=jL (19)
For a capacitor, Z
C
=1/jC (20)
Note that electronic engineers, unlike mathematicians and others, use j and not i for the
imaginary part of complex numbers because of the obvious confusion with current. Students should
not worry too much about currents, voltages and impedances being imaginary: They are very
genuine quantities and the complex notation is just an excellent method of dealing with the phase
differences. Equipped with just Eqns. (18-20), most simple AC circuits can be analysed easily using
some modest manipulation of complex numbers.

Figure 29 Phasor diagram (a) Inductor case; (b) Capacitor case


7.6 Transformers
A transformer is essentially a pair of inductors, sharing a magnetic field so that they are coupled
together. Because the coupling requires a time-varying field, AC signals are used. In most
applications this means directly using the mains (or line) frequency of 50 or 60 Hz, but often an
electronic switching circuit is used to create a much higher frequency, so that the transformer can be
smaller. Figure 30 shows a typical transformer and the circuit symbol: The input coil is called the
primary, and the output coil the secondary: If they have a different number of turns then the voltage
can be stepped up or down, as follows:-
Vout= n2/n1 Vin (21)
This is how a power supply works, and the design of a power supply will be discussed later. In
some more complex power supply applications, the transformer can have a single primary coil and
magnetic core, but several secondary coil outputs, in order to get different output voltages for
different parts of a circuit. Sometimes there are two separate primary windings, to allow operation
in different countries by switching them in series (220/230V) or parallel (110V). In order to
maximise the coupling between the coils, and minimise unwanted loss of power, a magnetic core is
used to create a magnetic circuit. The core needs to be made of soft iron or ferrite ferrite is a
magnetic, non-conducting, ceramic material. To stop large currents (eddy currents) being induced in
the iron core itself, leading to power loss as heat, an iron core is usually made up of many sheets
laminated together, or some kind of compound.

Figure 30 Transformers
7.7 Switches
Switches consist of at least one pair of metal contacts that are connected together or isolated
according to physical movement. The simplest kind of switch has just two terminals and a single
moving contact arm referred to as a single-pole, single-throw (SPST) switch. Even this basic type
can have many options;
Push button, toggle, rocker, rotary, microswitch, or Reed switch type; these are
different kinds of actuation mechanism. The Reed switch is activated at a short
distance by a magnet.
Biased or non biased; a biased switch has a spring inside so it returns back to a
certain position
Latching or non-latching; a latching switch is pushed or turned once to change
state, and pushed again to change back. A non-latching type only operates whilst it
is being actuated (e.g. pushed).
Push-to-break or push-to-make; in the former, pushing the button or lever breaks
the electrical connection; in the latter it makes a connection when pressed.
In addition to these options, switches can have many combinations of input and output
terminals. The common node is called a pole, the multiple outputs are called the throws. So
a single pole, double throw switch has one input terminal that can be connected to either
one of two outputs. Strictly speaking, of course, they are just metal contacts and
mechanical switches are not directional.

Figure 31 An assortment of switch types

Figure 32 Some standard switch configurations
7.8 Sensors
There has been an explosion in sensor technologies in recent years as the ability of an electronic
device to sense its environment makes for extremely powerful systems. The basic parameters that
can be sensed include:-
Temperature; with thermocouples, thermistors, and simple bimetallic strips
Heat; can de detected with passive infrared (PIR) detectors; widely used in
domestic burglar alarms
Light; a variety of photodetectors can be used including photodiodes,
phototransistors, charge-coupled devices (CCDs), photomultipliers and photocells.
Sound; sensors range from simple microphones to sonar and seismological sensors.
Humidity; often this is determined using a capacitor structure, which will be
affected by humidity. It would find use in, for example, a clothes dryer.
Distance; simple optical proximity detectors find widespread use; for detecting if a
door or cover is closed, for example. Longer range measurements can be made with
ultrasound (sonar) or with radio techniques (radar).
Movement & orientation; Miniature gyroscopes and accelerometers are now
available (see MEMS technology, in Section 3)
Pressure and strain; piezoelectric devices can easily measure these parameters.
Strain gauges can use a flexible foil and rely on the change in electrode resistance
as it stretches.
Magnetic field; Basic induction and semiconductor Hall effect sensors can be used.
In conjunction with a suitable magnetic component, Hall effect sensors can be used
to measure proximity and speed of rotation.
Chemicals and gases; the smoke detector is the most familiar example, but many
other chemical and gas sensors are available.
Radiation; non-ionising (radio waves) and ionising
Biosensors; this is an emerging field where all kinds of proteins, viruses, bacteria
and molecules can be detected. Ultra-sensitive equipment can probe deep into
DNA.


Some of these sensors are entire systems in their own right (e.g. radar), but many of these sensors
can be easily interfaced with a microcontroller to create an embedded system that is can measure
parameters of its environment. The outputs from sensors are usually analogue signals of some kind,
so careful interfacing with digital hardware is required. This will be discussed in detail later.

Figure 33 An assortment of sensors
7.9 Actuators
A solenoid is an extreme form of an inductor it has many, many, turns, so that the magnetic field
inside the coil is sufficiently strong when a current flows to actually move an object. This is
therefore a linear actuator, used in a huge variety of applications from automotive fuel injectors and
washing machine water valves through to miniature actuators for optical and magnetic storage
drives. A moving-coil loudspeaker uses the same principle, and could be classed as an actuator, but
can also be classed as a transducer a device that converts the information signal from one form to
another; in this case electrical to acoustic. The wax motor is another form of linear actuator it
uses thermal expansion of a reservoir of wax to create movement.

Figure 34 A Big Pair........of Solenoids

For linear actuation, it is very common to employ motors, with suitable gearing and
mechanical components to provide the required movement. Apart from high power applications, the
permanent magnet DC motor is employed virtually everywhere for this purpose. Figure 35 shows a
photograph of the key parts of such as motor and Figure 36 shows the commutator action which
allows continuous rotation with a DC applied voltage. Commutation is easy to understand for the
two pole case. However, the two pole motor can get stuck, with the poles exactly lined up with the
magnetic field, and the supply is shorted momentarily as the brushes pass over the gap between the
commutator segments. Typical small cheap motors have three poles to avoid these problems. More
sophisticated DC motors might have a stator coil to create the magnetic field instead of magnets.
The drawback of the commutator is the mechanical contacts cause friction and limit the lifetime.

For future reference, there are two main alternatives; AC motors, where sinusoidal currents create
an alternating field, and brushless DC motors where electronic switching is used for commutation.
A stepper motor is one which uses a pulse train electrical drive arrangement to turn the shaft in
discrete steps.

Commutator Armature windings
Magnets Brushes
Commutator Armature windings
Magnets Brushes

Stator Rotor Endcap

Figure 35 Construction of a PMDC motor

VV

Figure 36 Commutator action in a three-pole motor

7.10 Resonators
Resonators are frequency-selective components that can be used in many applications, including
setting clock frequencies and tuning radios to certain stations. Mechanical clocks, dating back
hundreds of years, use a pendulum to set the time. In the pendulum, simple harmonic motion
occurs, with a precisely-fixed frequency depending on its length and the acceleration due to gravity,
g. Energy continually transfers from potential energy to kinetic energy, and back again, as
illustrated in Figure 37.

Figure 37 Pendulum

A simple electrical resonator can be formed by connecting an inductor and capacitor in parallel (or
series). As shown in Figure 38, the energy in this case continually transfers from the capacitors
electric field to the inductors magnetic field, and back again. The natural resonant frequency of this

resonator is the frequency at which the magnitude of the current in the inductor is equal to that in
the capacitor (the voltages are the same because they are in parallel), which gives:-
fr =
1
2LC
fr =
1
2LC
(22)

Figure 38 A parallel LC resonator for a simple radio receiver

In practice, the simple LC resonator has limited performance because of losses in the components
especially resistance in the wire that makes up the inductor. For high stability resonators, it is
preferable to use resonators using crystals (usually quartz) that exhibit the piezoelectric effect. In
the piezoelectric effect, electrodes are placed on the crystal and an applied AC voltage causes the
crystal to vibrate. With suitable design, a very sharp resonance is achieved and, because it is a
mechanical vibration, it is not dominated by the resistance of the conductors. Around 1Bn of these
quartz resonators are sold every year. The quartz watch is little more than a time-counting circuit
based on the very precise frequency reference of a tiny quartz resonator (typically at 32,768 Hz).

Figure 39 Quartz and ceramic resonators

8 Circuit and block diagrams
One simple electronic circuit that is useful as a starting point is in the ubiquitous DC power mains
adapter used for charging mobile phones and powering all sorts of device (scanners, PC speakers,
answering machines, baby monitors, etc, etc). The power supply has 3 core functions:-
1. Stepping down the mains (or line) voltage, using a transformer
2. Converting the 50/60 Hz AC voltage to DC, with one or more diodes
3. Smoothing the DC voltage

These functions are illustrated conceptually in Figure 40. The main supply voltage (220-240 V, 50
Hz AC in Europe, 120 V, 60 Hz AC in the USA) is deliberately large because high voltage AC
signals are an efficient means of transmitting power. Conversion from AC to DC is performed using

the uni-directional property of diodes. A single diode can be used; this only conducts in one
direction, so only the positive half-cycles of the AC signal pass through, as illustrated in Figure 41;
this is known as half-wave rectification. If more diodes are used, it is possible to rectify both the
positive and negative cycles known as full wave rectification. In either case, the output is always a
positive voltage, but has large ripples. The simplest form of smoothing is to use a large capacitor,
which stores charge so that current is supplied to the load when the rectified signal is below the
required DC output. To actually build the power supply would require a very detailed representation
of how the different components are connected together; this is the purpose of the circuit diagram,
illustrated in Figure 41. Figure 42 shows a set of standard component and device symbols that are
used for circuit diagrams.

Figure 40 Conceptual functions of a 9V DC power supply / mains adapter

Figure 41 Circuit diagram of the power supply, and illustration of half-wave rectification and
smoothing


Figure 42 Commonly-used symbols for circuit diagrams (ISO BS900000)

Engineers find it useful to break a product or system down into building blocks and Figure 43
shows a block diagram representing the different functions within the power supply. It does not
contain any detail about the individual components, and does not even show what types of signal
are present at each point, but it is a very convenient means of representing the design. Each block
has an input and an output. Some more advanced functions might require multiple inputs and/or
outputs. In some places the signal is AC, in some DC, but this is not explicitly shown in the block
diagram. In fact, more complex products might have analogue and digital signals, serial and parallel
digital interconnections, and even radio or optical signals. Generally speaking, the form of the
signal is not explicitly labelled, but an engineer is able to determine what type of signal is present at
any one point in the block diagram by studying the functions of the blocks connected to it. Figure
44 shows some of the standard block diagram symbols that are used.

transformer rectifier smoothing
Mains
Supply
9 V dc
output

Figure 43 A block diagram representation of the power supply

Figure 44 Some Common Block Diagram Symbols


8.1 Input and output resistance
When interconnecting circuit blocks together, the loading effect of one block on the one before it
must be considered. For example, it should be reasonably obvious that the power supply circuit
described before cannot be used to jump start a car. The power supply has output resistance, and
the whole circuit can be represented as the DC voltage source in series with this output resistance,
as illustrated in Figure 45. This is known as the Thvenin equivalent. When a load is connected at
the output, there is a voltage drop across R
th
, which is equal to the current drawn by the load times
R
th
. When the load draws significant current, the voltage drop is large and the voltage actually
supplied to the load is significantly lower than that of the voltage source itself. Whatever the load is
it might be a motor, an amplifier or an LED - at DC the amount of current it tries to draw from the
voltage supply is determined by its input resistance. Even a small motor from a toy has a very low
resistance, such as 1 or 2 Ohms, and digital circuits like microcontrollers, which are described in
detail in following sections cannot drive this kind of low resistance, high current, load. Therefore,
a common building block is a buffer amplifier: as illustrated in Figure 46, this may not need to
amplify the signal, but it does isolate the source and load. With the buffer amplifier between the
microcontroller and the motor, the high input resistance means that the buffer draws a very small
current from the microcontroller output. The low output resistance means the motor can draw a
significant current from the buffer and the voltage wont drop too much. In passing though, note
that motors can be difficult to drive because the windings have significant inductance and the
electrical behaviour is strongly affected by the dynamics of the motor.

Figure 45 Power supply Thvenin equivalent circuit

High Input
Resistance
Low Output
Resistance
Unity Gain

Figure 46 An ideal buffer

9 Examples of common circuits
Generally speaking, even very complex circuits like a mobile phone radio receiver, say are built
up from a conglomeration of quite standard circuits, used as building blocks. The full range of
different circuits is vast, and it is recommended that anyone serious about designing circuits should
buy a book like The Art of Electronics, by Horowitz and Hill, also published by Cambridge
University Press. In the following few sections a few of the most basic circuits have been picked
out to enable basic interfacing of sensors and actuators to microcontrollers to be implemented.


9.1 Common-emitter BJT amplifier
The most basic form of an amplifier for small AC signals such as music is illustrated in Figure
47. To amplify AC signals, the transistor is biased with a steady DC current using a bias resistor on
the base of the BJT and a load resistor on the collector. The DC bias is typically set so that, with no
AC signal present, the transistor collector current and collector voltage sit around the centre of the
I-V characteristics. This permits the AC signal to be amplified and swing up and down around this
quiescent operating point. Since there is a voltage drop across the load resistor that is equal to I
c
R
c
,
when the transistor current increases, the voltage at the collector drops. Firstly then, note that the
signal is inverted; secondly, note that this leads to the diagonal load line shown on the I-V curves.
The slope of the load line is dictated by the value of the load resistor. The load line intersects the
x axis when the transistor current drops to zero, and if the transistor was a perfect switch it would
intersect the y axis when the transistor was fully on, with zero resistance and zero voltage drop
across it. However, in practice the transistors built-in junction voltages prevent the signal ever
reaching that region on the load line.

Figure 47 Basic common emitter amplifier, and the load line on the IV curves

The basic common-emitter amplifier does, however, have several key limitations: The DC
operating point is very sensitive to variations from one transistor to another and to temperature:
Also, the output signal suffers from considerable distortion when the lower part of the output
waveform approaches the knee voltage of the transistor. The common-emitter amplifier can be
improved a great deal by including an emitter resistor as shown in Figure 48 and biasing the base
with a potential divider. The base is now at a fixed voltage, and the collector current will naturally
stabilise at a point where the voltage across R
E
gives the required voltage drop across the forward
biased base-emitter junction. R
E
does also reduce the gain of the amplifier, so a capacitor is usually
added in parallel, so that the improvement in DC behaviour is achieved without a reduction in AC
gain.

R1
R2
RL
RE
Vin
Vout
C
E
R1
R2
RL
RE
Vin
Vout
R1
R2
RL
RE
Vin
Vout
C
E
C
E

Figure 48 Common emitter amplifier with operating point stabilisation

9.2 Emitter follower
The emitter follower (or common collector) amplifier is shown in Figure 49. It can be shown that
this has a voltage gain close to unity and is non-inverting. It also has a high input resistance and low
output resistance. The emitter follower is, therefore, a simple means to realise the buffer amplifier
discussed earlier.

Figure 49 The emitter follower (or common collector) circuit

9.3 Low-pass & high-pass filters
It is often necessary to remove noise or other unwanted high frequency components from a signal.
This requires a low-pass filter low frequencies are allowed to pass straight through whilst high
frequencies are attenuated. Remembering the frequency-dependant nature of the capacitor, and the
potential divider effect, it is found that a series resistor-capacitor combination, illustrated in Figure
50, provides this circuit function.

Figure 50 (a) Simple resistor-capacitor low-pass filter and (b) its frequency response

Using the potential divider expression and Z
C
=1/jC, we can easily find that:
(23)
(note that this assumes that assumes zero source impedance and infinite load impedance)

The magnitude response of this circuit is illustrated in Figure 50 (b), showing the low-pass
characteristic. To achieve a more rapid roll-off, a cascade of multiple R-C sections can be used. The
design of these higher order filters is not trivial, however. Another feature of this RC circuit is that
the capacitor can be used to store up the input signal over a period of time this can be used as a
mathematical integration function in some applications.

The RC high-pass circuit is shown in Figure 51. By placing the capacitor in series, there is a
DC break in the circuit, and one common application of such a circuit is to remove transistor DC
bias voltage from a signal. In this network, the voltage at the output can be used as a mathematical
differentiation of the input signal.

Figure 51 (a) Resistor-capacitor high-pass network and (b) its frequency response

Inductors can also be used to make filters as illustrated in Figure 52. The series inductor low-pass
circuit is frequently employed on mains/line supply leads and other interconnecting cables to filter
out unwanted high frequency interference.

(a)

(b )

Figure 52 (a) RL low-pass and (b) RL high-pass filter circuit

9.4 Op-amp circuits
An operational amplifier (Op-amp for short) is a very common standard component in electronics.
It is a high gain DC-coupled amplifier with a differential input. The op-amp has such high gain that
it is almost useless unless suitable external circuitry is used to provide feedback from the output to
the input. Figure 53 shows a selection of the most popular op-amp circuits. A detailed explanation
and analysis for each one can be found in many electronics books, such as the aforementioned
Horowitz and Hill.

+
-
R
1
R
2
1
2 1
R
R R
A
v
+
=
Non-Inverting Amplifier

+
-
R
1
R
2
1
2
R
R
A
v
=
Inverting Amplifier

+
-
Voltage Follower

+
-
Integrator

+
-
Differentiator

+
-
Difference Amplifier
V
1
V
2

+
-
V
n
.
.
V
3
\
V
2
V
1
Summing Amplifier

Figure 53 A selection of standard op-amp circuit configurations

10 Circuit construction and prototyping
The circuit or block diagrams do not say anything about the layout of the circuit its physical form
and exactly how all the pins and legs of the components are connected together. Connecting loose
components up simply with wires is not a very satisfactory option and some kind of board is
necessary to hold the components in place and prevent short circuits. For prototyping purposes,
either a breadboard of some kind of stripboard (such as Veroboard) can be used. Figure 54 shows
an example of breadboard: The legs of components are pushed through the holes into metal spring
contacts inside. The metal contacts are connected together in strips so that components can be
connected together. There is a gap along the centre of the breadboard that allows standard
integrated circuits to be placed in the circuit. At the top and bottom of the breadboard, the metal
strips run all the way along for use as power supply rails. As an example, the physical breadboard
realisation of the common-emitter amplifier from Figure 48 is shown in Figs 55.

Figure 54 Breadboard for prototyping circuits and the typical internal connection layout

Figure 55 The BJT amplifier in breadboard form.


In the case of stripboard, the printed circuit tracks are selfevident and the circuit is created by
cutting tracks with a hand tool (a track cutter) to isolate parts of the circuit. Stripboard is excellent
for hobby electronics because reliable, lasting, circuits can be constructed using just a soldering iron
and the track cutter. Figure 56 illustrates the same amplifier circuit, realised on stripboard. This is
just one of many possible ways to realise the same circuit; because stripboard is so adaptable, many
other ways can be found to construct the same circuit. Stripboard circuit layout can be
accomplished by downloading and printing a paper template off the internet, or with some CAD
programmes.

Figure 56 The BJT amplifier realised with stripboard.

10.1 Printed circuit boards
With just a few exceptions, all electronic products use a printed circuit board (PCB) also referred
to as printed wiring board (PWB) in order to connect together the various components to form a
circuit. For a PCB, the interconnecting tracks between components are drawn on a computer in
order to create a photomask; a photographic process is then used to transfer the circuit pattern to the
circuit board. This process is known as photolithography and is the cornerstone of modern
microelectronic technology. The next section describes this process in more detail and how it is
applied to both silicon chips and to PCBs.

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