From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Electronics engineering,
[1] also referred to as
electronic engineering,
[2][3] is an
engineering discipline which uses the scientific knowledge of the behavior and effects of
electrons to develop components, devices, systems, or equipment (as in
electron tubes,
transistors,
integrated circuits, and
printed circuit boards) that uses electricity as part of its driving force. Both terms denote a broad engineering field that encompasses many subfields including those that deal with
power,
instrumentation engineering,
telecommunications,
semiconductor circuit design, and many others.
[4]
The term also covers a large part of
electrical engineering degree courses as studied at most European universities. In the U.S., however, electrical engineering encompasses all electrical disciplines including electronics. The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is one of the most important and influential organizations for electronics engineers.
[edit] Terminology
The name
electrical engineering is still used to cover electronic engineering amongst some of the older (notably American and Australian) universities and graduates there are called
electrical engineers.
[5] Some people believe the term 'electrical engineer' should be reserved for those having specialized in power and heavy current or high voltage engineering, while others believe that power is just one subset of electrical engineering (and indeed the term 'power engineering' is used in that industry) as well as 'electrical distribution engineering'. Again, in recent years there has been a growth of new separate-entry degree courses such as '
information engineering' and '
communication systems engineering', often followed by academic departments of similar name.
[6][7]
Most European universities now refer to
electrical engineering as power engineers and make a distinction between Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Beginning in the 1980s, the term
computer engineer was often used to refer to electronic or information engineers. However, Computer Engineering is now considered a subset of Electronics Engineering and the term is now becoming archaic.
[8]
[edit] History of electronic engineering
Electronic engineering as a profession sprang from technological improvements in the
telegraph industry in the late 19th century and the
radio and the
telephone industries in the early 20th century. People were attracted to radio by the technical fascination it inspired, first in receiving and then in transmitting. Many who went into broadcasting in the 1920s were only 'amateurs' in the period before
World War I.
[9]
The modern discipline of electronic engineering was to a large extent born out of telephone, radio, and
television equipment development and the large amount of electronic systems development during
World War II of
radar,
sonar, communication systems, and advanced munitions and weapon systems. In the interwar years, the subject was known as
radio engineering and it was only in the late 1950s that the term
electronic engineering started to emerge.
[10]
The electronic laboratories (
Bell Labs in the United States for instance) created and subsidized by large corporations in the industries of radio, television, and telephone equipment began churning out a series of electronic advances. In 1948, came the transistor and in 1960, the IC to revolutionize the electronic industry.
[11][12] In the UK, the subject of electronic engineering became distinct from
electrical engineering as a
university degree subject around 1960. Before this time, students of electronics and related subjects like radio and telecommunications had to enroll in the
electrical engineering department of the university as no university had departments of electronics. Electrical engineering was the nearest subject with which electronic engineering could be aligned, although the similarities in subjects covered (except mathematics and electromagnetism) lasted only for the first year of the three-year course.
[edit] Early electronics
In 1893,
Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated in detail the principles of radio communication.
[13] In 1896,
Guglielmo Marconi went on to develop a practical and widely used radio system.
[14][15] In 1904,
John Ambrose Fleming, the first professor of electrical Engineering at University College London, invented the first
radio tube, the
diode. One year later, in 1906,
Robert von Lieben and
Lee De Forest independently developed the amplifier tube, called the
triode.
Electronics is often considered to have begun when
Lee De Forest invented the
vacuum tube in 1907. Within 10 years, his device was used in radio
transmitters and
receivers as well as systems for long distance
telephone calls. In 1912,
Edwin H. Armstrong invented the
regenerative feedback amplifier and
oscillator; he also invented the
superheterodyne radio receiver and could be considered the father of modern radio.
[16] Vacuum tubes remained the preferred amplifying device for 40 years, until researchers working for
William Shockley at
Bell Labs invented the
transistor in 1947. In the following years, transistors made small portable
radios, or
transistor radios, possible as well as allowing more powerful
mainframe computers to be built. Transistors were smaller and required lower
voltages than vacuum tubes to work.
Before the invention of the
integrated circuit in 1959, electronic circuits were constructed from discrete components that could be manipulated by hand. These non-integrated circuits consumed much space and
power, were prone to failure and were limited in speed although they are still common in simple applications. By contrast,
integrated circuits packed a large number — often millions — of tiny electrical components, mainly
transistors, into a small chip around the size of a
coin.
[17]
[edit] Tubes or valves
[edit] The vacuum tube detector
The invention of the triode amplifier, generator, and detector made audio communication by radio practical. (
Reginald Fessenden's 1906 transmissions used an electro-mechanical
alternator.) The first known radio news program was broadcast 31 August 1920 by station 8MK, the unlicensed predecessor of WWJ (AM) in Detroit, Michigan. Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment commenced in 1922 from the
Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford, England.
While some early radios used some type of amplification through electric current or battery, through the mid 1920s the most common type of receiver was the crystal set. In the 1920s, amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized both radio receivers and transmitters.
[edit] Television
In 1928
Philo Farnsworth made the first public demonstration of a purely
electronic television. During the 1930s several countries began broadcasting, and after World War II it spread to millions of receivers, eventually worldwide. Ever since then, electronics have been fully present in television devices.
Modern televisions and video displays have evolved from bulky electron tube technology to use more compact devices, such as
plasma and
LCD displays. The trend is for even lower power devices such as the
organic light-emitting diode displays, and it is most likely to replace the LCD and plasma technologies.
[18]
[edit] Radar and radio location
During
World War II many efforts were expended in the electronic location of enemy targets and aircraft. These included radio beam guidance of bombers, electronic counter measures, early radar systems etc. During this time very little if any effort was expended on consumer electronics developments.
[19]
[edit] Computers
A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.
Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). These were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs).[1] Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into small pocket devices, and can be powered by a small battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers". However, the embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.
The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a netbook to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.
[edit] Microprocessors
In 1969,
Ted Hoff conceived the commercial
microprocessor at
Intel and thus ignited the development of the personal computer. Hoff's invention was part of an order by a Japanese company for a desktop programmable electronic calculator, which Hoff wanted to build as cheaply as possible. The first realization of the microprocessor was the
Intel 4004, a 4-bit processor, in 1969, but only in 1973 did the
Intel 8080, an 8-bit processor, make the building of the first personal computer, the
MITS Altair 8800, possible. The first PC was announced to the general public on the cover of the January 1975 issue of
Popular Electronics.
Many electronics engineers today specialize in the development of programs for microprocessor based electronic systems, known as
embedded systems. Due to the detailed knowledge of the hardware that is required for doing this, it is normally done by electronics engineers and not
software engineers. Software engineers typically know and use microprocessors only at a conceptual level. Electronics engineers who exclusively carry out the role of programming embedded systems or microprocessors are referred to as "
embedded systems engineers", or "
firmware engineers".
[edit] Electronics
In the field of electronic engineering, engineers design and test
circuits that use the
electromagnetic properties of
electrical components such as
resistors,
capacitors,
inductors,
diodes and
transistors to achieve a particular functionality. The
tuner circuit, which allows the user of a
radio to
filter out all but a single station, is just one example of such a circuit.
In designing an integrated circuit, electronics engineers first construct circuit
schematics that specify the electrical components and describe the interconnections between them. When completed,
VLSI engineers convert the schematics into actual layouts, which map the layers of various
conductor and
semiconductor materials needed to construct the circuit. The conversion from schematics to layouts can be done by
software (see
electronic design automation) but very often requires human fine-tuning to decrease space and power consumption. Once the layout is complete, it can be sent to a
fabrication plant for manufacturing.
Integrated circuits and other electrical components can then be assembled on
printed circuit boards to form more complicated circuits. Today, printed circuit boards are found in most electronic devices including
televisions,
computers and
audio players.
[20]
[edit] Typical electronic engineering undergraduate syllabus
Apart from electromagnetics and network theory, other items in the syllabus are particular to
electronics engineering course.
Electrical engineering courses have other specialisms such as
machines,
power generation and
distribution. Note that the following list does not include the extensive engineering mathematics curriculum that is a prerequisite to a degree.
[21][22]
[edit] Electromagnetics
Elements of
vector calculus:
divergence and
curl;
Gauss' and
Stokes' theorems,
Maxwell's equations: differential and integral forms.
Wave equation,
Poynting vector.
Plane waves: propagation through various media;
reflection and
refraction;
phase and
group velocity;
skin depth.
Transmission lines:
characteristic impedance; impedance transformation;
Smith chart;
impedance matching; pulse excitation.
Waveguides: modes in rectangular waveguides;
boundary conditions;
cut-off frequencies;
dispersion relations. Antennas:
Dipole antennas;
antenna arrays; radiation pattern; reciprocity theorem,
antenna gain.
[23][24]
[edit] Network analysis
Network graphs: matrices associated with graphs; incidence, fundamental cut set and fundamental circuit matrices. Solution methods: nodal and mesh analysis. Network theorems: superposition, Thevenin and Norton's maximum power transfer, Wye-Delta transformation.
[25] Steady state sinusoidal analysis using phasors. Linear constant coefficient differential equations; time domain analysis of simple RLC circuits, Solution of network equations using
Laplace transform: frequency domain analysis of RLC circuits. 2-port network parameters: driving point and transfer functions. State equations for networks.
[26]
[edit] Electronic devices and circuits
Electronic devices: Energy bands in silicon, intrinsic and extrinsic silicon. Carrier transport in silicon: diffusion current, drift current, mobility, resistivity. Generation and recombination of carriers.
p-n junction diode,
Zener diode,
tunnel diode,
BJT,
JFET,
MOS capacitor,
MOSFET,
LED,
p-i-n and
avalanche photo diode, LASERs. Device technology:
integrated circuit fabrication process, oxidation, diffusion,
ion implantation, photolithography, n-tub, p-tub and twin-tub CMOS process.
[27][28]
Analog circuits: Equivalent circuits (large and small-signal) of diodes, BJTs, JFETs, and MOSFETs. Simple diode circuits, clipping, clamping, rectifier. Biasing and bias stability of transistor and FET amplifiers. Amplifiers: single-and multi-stage, differential, operational, feedback and power. Analysis of amplifiers; frequency response of amplifiers. Simple
op-amp circuits. Filters. Sinusoidal oscillators; criterion for oscillation; single-transistor and op-amp configurations. Function generators and wave-shaping circuits, Power supplies.
[29]
Digital circuits: of
Boolean functions; logic gates digital IC families (
DTL,
TTL,
ECL,
MOS,
CMOS). Combinational circuits: arithmetic circuits, code converters,
multiplexers and
decoders.
Sequential circuits: latches and flip-flops, counters and shift-registers. Sample and hold circuits,
ADCs,
DACs.
Semiconductor memories.
Microprocessor 8086: architecture, programming, memory and I/O interfacing.
[30] [31]
[edit] Signals and systems
Definitions and properties of
Laplace transform, continuous-time and discrete-time
Fourier series, continuous-time and discrete-time
Fourier Transform, z-transform.
Sampling theorems.
Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) Systems: definitions and properties; causality, stability, impulse response, convolution, poles and zeros frequency response, group delay, phase delay. Signal transmission through LTI systems. Random signals and noise:
probability,
random variables,
probability density function, autocorrelation,
power spectral density, function analogy between vectors & functions.
[32][33]
[edit] Control systems
Basic control system components; block diagrammatic description, reduction of block diagrams — Mason's rule. Open loop and closed loop (negative unity feedback) systems and stability analysis of these systems. Signal flow graphs and their use in determining transfer functions of systems; transient and steady state analysis of LTI control systems and frequency response. Analysis of steady-state disturbance rejection and noise sensitivity.
Tools and techniques for LTI control system analysis and design: root loci,
Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion, Bode and
Nyquist plots. Control system compensators: elements of lead and lag compensation, elements of
Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller (PID). Discretization of continuous time systems using
Zero-order hold (
ZOH) and ADCs for digital controller implementation. Limitations of digital controllers: aliasing. State variable representation and solution of state equation of LTI control systems. Linearization of Nonlinear dynamical systems with state-space realizations in both frequency and time domains. Fundamental concepts of controllability and observability for
MIMO LTI systems. State space realizations: observable and controllable canonical form. Ackermann's formula for state-feedback pole placement. Design of full order and reduced order estimators.
[34][35]
[edit] Communications
Analog communication systems: amplitude and
angle modulation and demodulation systems,
spectral analysis of these operations,
superheterodyne noise conditions.
Digital communication systems: pulse code modulation (PCM),
Differential Pulse Code Modulation (
DPCM),
Delta modulation (
DM), digital modulation schemes-amplitude, phase and frequency shift keying schemes (
ASK,
PSK,
FSK), matched filter receivers, bandwidth consideration and probability of error calculations for these schemes,
GSM,
TDMA.
[36][37]
[edit] Education and training
Electronics engineers typically possess an
academic degree with a major in electronic engineering. The length of study for such a degree is usually three or four years and the completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Applied Science, or Bachelor of Technology depending upon the university. Many UK universities also offer Master of Engineering (
MEng) degrees at undergraduate level.
The degree generally includes units covering
physics,
chemistry,
mathematics,
project management and specific topics in
electrical engineering. Initially such topics cover most, if not all, of the subfields of electronic engineering. Students then choose to specialize in one or more subfields towards the end of the degree.
Some electronics engineers also choose to pursue a
postgraduate degree such as a Master of Science (
MSc), Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (
PhD), or an Engineering Doctorate (
EngD). The Master degree is being introduced in some European and American Universities as a first degree and the differentiation of an engineer with graduate and postgraduate studies is often difficult. In these cases, experience is taken into account. The Master's degree may consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy consists of a significant research component and is often viewed as the entry point to academia.
In most countries, a Bachelor's degree in engineering represents the first step towards certification and the degree program itself is certified by a professional body. After completing a certified degree program the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements (including work experience requirements) before being certified. Once certified the engineer is designated the title of Professional Engineer (in the United States, Canada and South Africa), Chartered Engineer or Incorporated Engineer (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Zimbabwe), Chartered Professional Engineer (in Australia) or European Engineer (in much of the European Union).
Fundamental to the discipline are the sciences of physics and mathematics as these help to obtain both a qualitative and quantitative description of how such systems will work. Today most engineering work involves the use of computers and it is commonplace to use computer-aided design programs when designing electronic systems. Although most electronic engineers will understand basic circuit theory, the theories employed by engineers generally depend upon the work they do. For example,
quantum mechanics and
solid state physics might be relevant to an engineer working on
VLSI but are largely irrelevant to engineers working with macroscopic electrical systems.
[edit] Professional bodies
Professional bodies of note for electrical engineers include the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the
Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) (now renamed the Institution of Engineering and Technology or IET). The
IEEE claims to produce 30 percent of the world's literature in electrical/electronic engineering, has over 370,000 members, and holds more than 450 IEEE sponsored or cosponsored conferences worldwide each year.
[edit] Subfields
Electronic engineering has many subfields. This section describes some of the most popular subfields in electronic engineering; although there are engineers who focus exclusively on one subfield, there are also many who focus on a combination of subfields.
[edit] Overview of electronic engineering
Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of
electronic circuits that use the
electronic properties of
components such as
resistors,
capacitors,
inductors,
diodes and
transistors to achieve a particular functionality.
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of
signals. Signals can be either
analog, in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or
digital, in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the
amplification and
filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the
modulation and
demodulation of signals for
telecommunications. For digital signals, signal processing may involve the
compression,
error checking and
error detection of digital signals.
Telecommunications engineering deals with the
transmission of
information across a
channel such as a
co-axial cable,
optical fiber or
free space.
Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a
carrier wave in order to shift the information to a
carrier frequency suitable for transmission, this is known as
modulation. Popular analog modulation techniques include
amplitude modulation and
frequency modulation. The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the
transmitters and
receivers needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way communication device known as a
transceiver. A key consideration in the design of transmitters is their
power consumption as this is closely related to their
signal strength. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by
noise.
Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of
commercial airplanes to the
cruise control present in many modern
cars. It also plays an important role in
industrial automation.
Control engineers often utilize
feedback when designing
control systems. For example, in a
car with
cruise control the vehicle's
speed is continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts the
engine's power output accordingly. Where there is regular feedback,
control theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as
pressure,
flow and
temperature. These devices are known as
instrumentation.
The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of
physics that often extends beyond
electromagnetic theory. For example,
radar guns use the
Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly,
thermocouples use the
Peltier-Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the
sensors of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.
Computer engineering deals with the design of
computers and
computer systems. This may involve the design of new
hardware, the design of
PDAs or the use of computers to control an
industrial plant. Computer engineers may also work on a system's
software. However, the design of complex software systems is often the domain of
software engineering, which is usually considered a separate discipline.
Desktop computers represent a tiny fraction of the devices a computer engineer might work on, as computer-like architectures are now found in a range of devices including
video game consoles and
DVD players.
[edit] Project engineering
For most engineers not involved at the cutting edge of system design and development, technical work accounts for only a fraction of the work they do. A lot of time is also spent on tasks such as discussing proposals with clients, preparing budgets and determining project schedules. Many senior engineers manage a team of technicians or other engineers and for this reason project management skills are important. Most engineering projects involve some form of documentation and strong written communication skills are therefore very important.
The workplaces of electronics engineers are just as varied as the types of work they do. Electronics engineers may be found in the pristine laboratory environment of a fabrication plant, the offices of a consulting firm or in a research laboratory. During their working life, electronics engineers may find themselves supervising a wide range of individuals including scientists, electricians, computer programmers and other engineers.
Obsolescence of technical skills is a serious concern for electronics engineers. Membership and participation in technical societies, regular reviews of periodicals in the field and a habit of continued learning are therefore essential to maintaining proficiency. And these are mostly used in the field of consumer electronics products.
[38]
from : wikipedia