Electronic circuits as systems [title by dvs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/standard/physics/electronics/overview/revision/2
/

Your study of electronics will have concentrated on the devices in your life that use
electronics. Although there is a wide variety of devices which use electronics to do
different jobs, they have some things in common. This revision bite includes the
subject areas: input-process-output, analogue and digital outputs.

Work through them all or go to the ones that interest you. You may wish to print a
hard copy for your reference.

Input-process-output

No matter what the job of any electronic device, however simple or complicated it is,
it can be thought of as three linked parts - input, process, output.

You may have seen this as a block diagram.

The input part takes in energy of some form and produces an electrical signal. The
process part works on the electrical signal as necessary. The output part produces a
suitable energy output from the processed electrical signal. A radio receiver has the
following input-process-output parts:
Analogue and digital outputs

Analogue signals

An analogue output continually changes and can have any value in a given range.

The output of a loudspeaker is an analogue signal - the sound level can be any value.

Music and speech vary continuously in frequency and amplitude. In the same way,
analogue signals can vary in frequency, amplitude or both. You may have heard of
FM radio and AM radio – Frequency Modulated radio and Amplitude Modulated
radio. The diagram below shows a typical oscilloscope trace of an analogue signal.

Digital signals

A digital output can only have certain, discrete values.

The output displayed on an electronic thermometer is digital.

Digital signals are a series of pulses consisting of just two states, ON (1) or OFF (0).
There are no values in between. DAB radio is Digital Audio Broadcast radio – it is
transmitted as digital signals. The diagram below shows a typical oscilloscope trace
of a digital signal.

Oscilloscope trace of an analogue signal

Oscilloscope trace of a digital signal

Input devices

An input device responds to changes in the environment and produces a suitable

electrical signal for processing in an electronic circuit.

This revision bite covers in the subject areas: active and passive devices and voltage
dividers (credit level only).

Work through them both or go to the one that interests you. You may wish to print a
hard copy for your reference.

Active and passive devices

You may not have realised it, but input devices fall into two groups. Input devices
which generate a voltage in response to a change in the environment are called
active devices. These input devices do not need a separate power supply. Examples
are:

 the microphone - generates a voltage when sound reaches it; used in an

intercom
 the thermocouple - generates a voltage when its temperature rises; used to
control the temperature of a furnace
 the solar cell - generates a voltage when light reaches its surface; used as a
power supply for a satellite
Another group of input devices have resistances which change as some factor in the
environment changes. These devices are called passive devices and they need a
separate power supply when in use. In this group are:

 the thermistor - resistance changes as temperature changes; used to control

heating systems
 the LDR (light dependent resistor) - resistance decreases as the light
intensity increases; used to control street lights
 the switch - has a very high resistance when open and almost no resistance
when closed; used in alarm systems
 the capacitor - during charging, the voltage across a capacitor increases with
time; used when a time delay is needed
 .

Active/passiv
Input device Description Use
e
the voltage across it used when a time delay
capacitor passive
increases with time is needed
resistance decreases as light used to control street
LDR passive
intensity increases lights
generates a voltage when
microphone active used in an intercom
sound reaches it
generates a voltage when used as a power supply
solar cell active
light reaches it for a satellite
has a very high resistance
switch passive used in alarm systems
when open
resistance changes as temp used to control heating
thermistor passive
changes systems
thermocoupl generates a voltage when controls temperature of
active
e temperature rises a furnace

Voltage dividers (Credit Level only)

  A voltage divider does exactly as its name suggests - it divides a supply
voltage across two resistors which are connected in series.
 The two resistors may have fixed values or one may be a LDR, a thermistor or
other input device.
 The supply voltage is divided in the ratio of the resistances in the voltage
divider
 For the voltage divider shown:

 If one of the resistances in a voltage divider increases, then the voltage across
that resistor also increases. This may appear to be the wrong way round but it
is because of the way the resistors are connected together.
 The circuit of a voltage divider may be drawn with the two resistors vertical,
not horizontal. If there are two resistors in series across a voltage source, then
the circuit is a voltage divider.

Question

A voltage divider consisting of two 500 Ω resistors is connected across a 9 V

battery. Calculate the voltage across one of the resistors.

Answer
1.

Which input device generates a voltage when its temperature changes?

You said: Thermistor

Incorrect.

A thermocouple generates a voltage when it changes temperature. Thermistor's

resistance changes with T.

2.

Which input device generates a voltage when light reaches its surface?

You said: Solar cell

Correct.

A solar cell generates a voltage when light falls on it.

3.

Which input device's resistance changes as its temperature changes?

You said: Thermocouple

Incorrect.

The resistance of a thermistor changes as the temperature changes. Thermocouple

produces electrical energy.

4.
Which input device's resistance decreases as the light intensity increases?

You said: LDR

Correct.

The resistance of an LDR increases as the light level decreases and vice versa.

5.

Which input device has a very high resistance when open and almost zero resistance
when closed?

You said: Switch

Correct.

The switch has an air gap when open and touching contacts when closed.

6.

Which input device has an increasing voltage across it during charging?

You said: Capacitor

Correct.

The capacitor's voltage rises as it charges up. Charge is stored on the capacitor's
plates.

7.

The resistance of a thermistor at a temperature of 80oC is 200?. What is the current

in it when it is connected to a 10 V supply?

You said: 0.05 A

Correct.

I = V/R = 10/200= 0.05 A.

8.
Which input device is used when a time delay is required in an electronic system?

You said: Capacitor

Correct.

The time taken by the capacitor to charge up causes a time delay.

Output devices

 Page
 1
 2

Back
Next

Your study of electronics will have concentrated on the devices in your life that use
electronics. Although there is a wide variety of devices which use electronics to do
different jobs, they have some things in common. This revision bite includes the
subject areas: energy transformations and applications, and the LED and 7-segment
display.

Work through them all or go to the ones that interest you. You may wish to print a
hard copy for your reference.

Energy transformations and applications

Output devices in electronic systems transfer energy from the electrical energy that
has been processed to another kind of energy, often light, sound or movement
(kinetic).

Output devices can be digital or analogue.

You will have studied a range of different output devices.

Question
 Print or copy out the following table and for each output device, say whether
it produces light, sound or movement energy. Also say whether each device is
a digital or an analogue output device.

Answer

How did you get on? Check your answers below. You may want to print this
table out as a permanent summary.

Energy
  Digital or analogue
produced
LED (Light emitting diode)light digital
7-segment display light digital
Loudspeaker sound analogue
Electric motor kinetic analogue
Relay kinetic digital
Solenoid kinetic digital

The LED and 7-segment display

 LED stands for light emitting diode.

 The symbol for an LED is

 A LED will only light if it is connected one way round in a circuit (remember
all diodes only allow a current in one direction).
 When in use in a circuit, a LED must have a resistor connected in series with it.
This is to limit the current through the LED or to reduce the voltage across it
to asafe level. This protects the LED from damage.
  A 7-segment display consists of seven light emitters (often LEDs) arranged as

shown.
 Different numbers can be produced by lighting appropriate segments of a 7-
segment display.

Question

A LED takes a current of 12.5 mA when the voltage across it is 2 V. Draw a

suitable circuit and calculate the value of the series resistor needed to operate
the LED from a 9 V battery.

Hide

Answer

The circuit needed is:

To calculate the value of the series resistor you need to use the following
steps:

 the voltage of the supply splits up across components in series, so the

voltage across the resistor is (9 - 2) = 7 V
 the current is the same through components in series, so the current in
the resistor is 12.5 mA (0.0125 A)
  using the relationship between voltage, current and resistance gives R =
V/I = 7/0.0125 = 560 Ω

Analogue processes

This revision bite deals with devices containing amplifiers.

You may wish to print a hard copy for your reference.

What is an amplifier?

An amplifier is an electronic processing circuit which increases the voltage and also
the power of an electrical signal.

When a microphone picks up sounds, the size of the voltage it produces is far too
small to power a loudspeaker, so an amplifier is used to boost the signal and this
increased signal is fed to a loudspeaker.

Amplifiers are found in devices such as radios, televisions, intercoms, baby alarms,
video recorders, mini and midi systems and all other systems where the input signal
is small.

The output signal from the amplifier has the same frequency as the input signal.

The output signal from the amplifier has a larger amplitude than the input signal.
Voltage gain

The relationship linking input voltage, output voltage and voltage gain of an
amplifier is:

Input and output voltages are both measured in volts.

Voltage gain is a ratio and so does not have a unit. If you do give a unit for voltage
gain in an answer to a calculation, you will lose half a mark.

Example question

Question

An amplifier has an input voltage of 10 mV and an output voltage of 0.5 V.

Calculate the voltage gain of the amplifier. Can you work out the answer?

Hide

Answer

input voltage = 10 mV = 0.01 V

output voltage = 0.5 V

Power and power gain (credit level only)

The rest of this revision bite is for Credit Level only.

For Credit Level, you need to know about power and the power gain of an
amplifier. Power can be calculated using the relationship:

where

 P is power measured in watts (W)

 V is voltage measured in volts (V)
 R is the resistance (o
 r impedance) of the amplifier measured in ohms (Ω).

The power gain of an amplifier is given by the relationship:

Power input and power output are both measured in watts. Power gain is a ratio
and so does not have a unit.

Try these questions

The power output from an amplifier is 100 W. The input voltage to the amplifier is
50 mV and the input resistance (impedance) of the amplifier is 1 kΩ. Calculate:

Question

The power input to the amplifier.

Hide

Answer

In order to calculate the power of the amplifier you need to take the following
steps:
Question

The power gain of the amplifier.

Hide

Answer

Did you use the correct relationships?

Did you convert mV to V and kΩ to Ω?

And finally, did you remember that power gain has no unit?

Well done!

Digital processes

This revision bite looks at digital processes. It includes the subject areas: the
transistor, logic gates and clocks and counters.

Work through them all or go to the ones that interest you. You may wish to print a
hard copy for your reference.
The transistor

 A transistor can be used as a switch. This is the only use that you need to
know about for Standard Grade.
 When used as a switch, a transistor may conduct or not conduct. When it
conducts, a transistor is said to be ON, when not conducting, it is OFF.

 The symbol for one type of transistor is

This is the only symbol for a transistor that you must be able to draw and identify
for Standard Grade. (Although the names of the terminals are given, and you should
know them, the names are not part of the symbol for the transistor.)

By looking at a circuit diagram of a transistor switching circuit, you should be able

to say what the circuit is used for and, for Credit Level only, be able to explain how it
operates.

If you are not sure about the thermistor, the LDR or the capacitor, you may find it
helpful to work through the input devices revision bite before moving on.

Try this

Click through the slideshow to see the effect each of the input devices has in this
transistor switching circuit.
Transistor switching circuit

Logic gates

Although there are lots of types of digital logic gates, you only need to know about
three of them for Standard Grade - AND, OR, and NOT (or Inverter). Logic gates may
haveone or more inputs. For Standard Grade, you only need to know about gates
with a maximum of two inputs. You should be able to draw and recognise the
symbols for AND, OR and NOT gates.

The symbol for an AND gate is shaped like the letter 'D'. A NOT gate inverts the
input, so it only has one input.

In logic circuits, a high voltage is called logic 1 a low voltage is called logic 0.

A truth table for a logic gate or circuit shows the output for all possible
combinations of inputs. For a NOT gate, the output is the opposite of the input. An
AND gate only gives a high output when both inputs are high. An OR gate gives a
high output when at least one input is high.

Question
 Complete the following table inserting the correct symbols and truth tables.
"Reveal answer" to find out if you got it right.

Table about truth tables.

GateSymbolTruth table

AND    

OR    

NOT    

Answer

How did you get on?

Check your answers below. You may want to print this table out as a
permanent summary.
Table about truth tables.

Gate Symbol Truth table

A table representing a truth table

ABoutput

000
AND

010

100

111

Table about AND, NOT and OR gates

ABoutput

OR
000

011

101
 Gate Symbol Truth table

111

Table about logic gates

inpu
output
NOT t

0 1

1 0

You should be able to explain how to use logic gates together in real-life situations.

Question

Which gates are needed to switch the fan on at night when the temperature
becomes too high?

Answer

 Gate 1: NOT (gate 1 and the NOT gate only have 1 input)
  Gate 2: AND

For the fan to turn you need NOT high in light, AND high when temperature
rises.

Question

Which gate is needed to light the lamp when a person goes through either
turnstile a or b at a football ground?

Answer

To light the lamp you need a person entering turnstile a OR turnstile b

Clocks and counters

 An electronic circuit can produce a series of regularly-timed pulses, like a

clock.
 Calculators and computers contain circuits which can count digital pulses
 The output of a counter circuit is either ON or OFF. This type of output is a
binary output.
 The output of a binary counter can be converted to the number base that we
use - decimal (using the numbers 0 to 9).

You should know how a clock circuit made from a resistor, a capacitor and an
inverter works, and that the frequency of this clock can be changed by changing the
value of the capacitor and/or the resistor.
Digital processes - Test

1.How many terminals does a transistor have?

2.Which of these does a transistor act like in a digital electronic circuit?

A switch

A resistor
 An LED

3.Which terminal controls whether the transistor is switched ON or OFF?

Emitter

Base

Collector

Digital processes - Answers

You scored 3 out of 3

1.How many terminals does a transistor have?

You said: 3Correct.

They are the emitter, base and collector.

2.Which of these does a transistor act like in a digital electronic circuit?

You said: A switch Correct.

It switches the emitter - collector circuit ON (logic 1) and switches OFF (logic 0).

3.Which terminal controls whether the transistor is switched ON or OFF?

You said: Base Correct.

The base voltage must be greater than 0.7 V for the transistor to switch ON.