Electronics & Semiconductors

Manufacturing advances bring material back in vogue

One of the world's most important artificial materials is back in vogue because scientists are harnessing its properties for new and diverse future applications such as space navigation and farming.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Printable circuits that can work on fabric, plastic and even fruit

Remember iron-on decals? All you had to do was print something out on special paper with a home printer, then transfer it onto a T-shirt using an iron. Now, scientists have developed a very similar scheme, but instead of ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Disposable electronics on a simple sheet of paper

Discarded electronic devices, such as cell phones, are a fast-growing source of waste. One way to mitigate the problem could be to use components that are made with renewable resources and that are easy to dispose of responsibly. ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Self-validation of complex electronic systems using gray box models

When you mix together black and white, you get gray—and with it, a new method that should allow complex electronic systems to monitor themselves. Using so-called gray box models, on which researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute ...

Other

Making STEM accessible for people with intellectual disabilities

TronicBoards, created by researchers from the Faculty of Information Technology (IT), are a range of customized color-coded printed circuit boards with large controls and recognizable symbols adapted to facilitate easy circuit ...

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Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is a closed path or paths formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current can flow.

Physically, an electronic circuit can be as small as a pin point or cover many miles. They are constructed by connecting electronic components together with conductors, which allow electricity to flow between the components. Integrated circuits are small circuits constructed from a piece of semiconductor housed in a protective package. While larger circuits may be built by assembling electronic components onto a printed circuit board (PCB), which is used to mechanically support and electrically connect the components. Integrated circuits are typically used as components in larger circuits built onto PCBs. When components are connected using wire as the conductor, the circuit may be extended to cover or connect a large area.

Breadboards, perfboards or stripboards are common for testing new designs. They allow the designer to make quick changes to the circuit during development.

Electronic circuits can display highly complex behaviors, even though they are governed by the same laws of physics as simpler circuits.

An electronic circuit can usually be categorized as an analog circuit, a digital circuit, or a mixed-signal circuit (a combination of analog circuits and digital circuits).

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA