DC motor

Workings of a brushed electric motor with a two-pole rotor (armature) and permanent
magnet stator. "N" and "S" designate polarities on the inside faces of the magnets; the
outside faces have opposite polarities. The + and - signs show where the DC current is
applied to the commutator which supplies current to the armature coils
The Pennsylvania Railroad's class DD1 locomotive running gear was a semipermanently coupled pair of third rail direct current electric locomotive motors built
for the railroad's initial New York-area electrification when steam locomotives were
banned in the city (locomotive cab removed here).
A DC motor relies on the fact that like magnet poles repel and unlike magnetic poles
attract each other. A coil of wire with a current running through it generates an
electromagnetic field aligned with the center of the coil. By switching the current on
or off in a coil its magnetic field can be switched on or off or by switching the
direction of the current in the coil the direction of the generated magnetic field can be
switched 180. A simple DC motor typically has a stationary set of magnets in the
stator and an armature with a series of two or more windings of wire wrapped in
insulated stack slots around iron pole pieces (called stack teeth) with the ends of the
wires terminating on a commutator. The armature includes the mounting bearings that
keep it in the center of the motor and the power shaft of the motor and the
commutator connections. The winding in the armature continues to loop all the way
around the armature and uses either single or parallel conductors (wires), and can
1

circle several times around the stack teeth. The total amount of current sent to the coil,
the coil's size and what it's wrapped around dictate the strength of the electromagnetic
field created. The sequence of turning a particular coil on or off dictates what
direction the effective electromagnetic fields are pointed. By turning on and off coils
in sequence a rotating magnetic field can be created. These rotating magnetic fields
interact with the magnetic fields of the magnets (permanent or electromagnets) in the
stationary part of the motor (stator) to create a force on the armature which causes it
to rotate. In some DC motor designs the stator fields use electromagnets to create their
magnetic fields which allow greater control over the motor. At high power levels, DC
motors are almost always cooled using forced air.
The commutator allows each armature coil to be activated in turn. The current in the
coil is typically supplied via two brushes that make moving contact with the
commutator. Now, some brushless DC motors have electronics that switch the DC
current to each coil on and off and have no brushes to wear out or create sparks.
Different number of stator and armature fields as well as how they are connected
provide different inherent speed/torque regulation characteristics. The speed of a DC
motor can be controlled by changing the voltage applied to the armature. The
introduction of variable resistance in the armature circuit or field circuit allowed
speed control. Modern DC motors are often controlled by power electronics systems
which adjust the voltage by "chopping" the DC current into on and off cycles which
have an effective lower voltage.
Since the series-wound DC motor develops its highest torque at low speed, it is often
used in traction applications such as electric locomotives, and trams. The DC motor
was the mainstay of electric traction drives on both electric and diesel-electric
locomotives, street-cars/trams and diesel electric drilling rigs for many years. The
introduction of DC motors and an electrical grid system to run machinery starting in
the 1870s started a new second Industrial Revolution. DC motors can operate directly
from rechargeable batteries, providing the motive power for the first electric vehicles
and today's hybrid cars and electric cars as well as driving a host of cordless tools.
Today DC motors are still found in applications as small as toys and disk drives, or in
large sizes to operate steel rolling mills and paper machines.
If external power is applied to a DC motor it acts as a DC generator, a dynamo. This
feature is used to slow down and recharge batteries on hybrid car and electric cars or
2

to return electricity back to the electric grid used on a street car or electric powered
train line when they slow down. This process is called regenerative braking on hybrid
and electric cars. In diesel electric locomotives they also use their DC motors as
generators to slow down but dissipate the energy in resistor stacks. Newer designs are
adding large battery packs to recapture some of this energy.

Transistor

Assorted discrete transistors. Packages in order from top to bottom: TO-3, TO-126,
TO-92, SOT-23
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals
and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three
terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair
of the transistor's terminals changes the current through another pair of terminals.
Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input)
power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged
individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.
The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is
ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. Following its development in 1947 by
American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the
transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and
cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on
the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and the inventors were jointly awarded the
1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.

The thermionic triode, a vacuum tube invented in 1907, propelled the electronics age
forward, enabling amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. The triode,
however, was a fragile device that consumed a lot of power. Physicist Julius Edgar
Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925, which
was intended to be a solid-state replacement for the triode.[1][2] Lilienfeld also filed
identical patents in the United States in 1926 [3] and 1928.[4][5] However, Lilienfeld did
not publish any research articles about his devices nor did his patents cite any specific
examples of a working prototype. Because the production of high-quality
semiconductor materials was still decades away, Lilienfeld's solid-state amplifier
ideas would not have found practical use in the 1920s and 1930s, even if such a
device had been built.[6] In 1934, German inventor Oskar Heil patented a similar
device.[7]
From November 17, 1947 to December 23, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at
AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States, performed experiments and observed that
when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was
produced with the output power greater than the input.[8] Solid State Physics Group
leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months
worked to greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors. The term transistor was
coined by John R. Pierce as a portmanteau of the term transresistance.[9][10][11]
According to Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki Daitch, authors of a biography of John
Bardeen, Shockley had proposed that Bell Labs' first patent for a transistor should be
based on the field-effect and that he be named as the inventor. Having unearthed
Lilienfelds patents that went into obscurity years earlier, lawyers at Bell Labs advised
against Shockley's proposal because the idea of a field-effect transistor that used an
electric field as a "grid" was not new. Instead, what Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley
invented in 1947 was the first point-contact transistor.[6] In acknowledgement of this
accomplishment, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain were jointly awarded the 1956
Nobel Prize in Physics "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of
the transistor effect."[12]

Transformer

Pole-mounted distribution transformer with center-tapped secondary winding used to

provide 'split-phase' power for residential and light commercial service, which in
North America is typically rated 120/240 V.[1][2]
A transformer is an electrical device that transfers energy between two or more
circuits through electromagnetic induction.
A varying current in the transformer's primary winding creates a varying magnetic
flux in the core and a varying magnetic field impinging on the secondary winding.
This varying magnetic field at the secondary induces a varying electromotive force
(emf) or voltage in the secondary winding. Making use of Faraday's Law in
conjunction with high magnetic permeability core properties, transformers can thus be
designed to efficiently change AC voltages from one voltage level to another within
power networks.
Transformers range in size from RF transformers less than a cubic centimetre in
volume to units interconnecting the power grid weighing hundreds of tons. A wide
range of transformer designs is encountered in electronic and electric power
applications. Since the invention in 1885 of the first constant potential transformer,
transformers have become essential for the AC transmission, distribution, and
utilization of electrical energy.[3]

Ideal transformer connected with source VP on primary and load impedance ZL on

secondary, where 0 < ZL < .

Ideal transformer
Ideal transformer equations (eq.)
By Faraday's law of induction

. . . (1)[a]

. . . (2)
Combining ratio of (1) & (2)

Turns ratio

. . . (3) where

for step-down transformers, a > 1

for step-up transformers, a < 1
By law of Conservation of Energy, apparent, real and reactive power are each
conserved in the input and output
. . . (4)
Combining (3) & (4) with this endnote[b] yields the ideal transformer identity

. (5)

By Ohm's Law and ideal transformer identity

. . . (6)
Apparent load impedance Z'L (ZL referred to the primary)

. (7)

Ideal transformer and induction law[c]

It is very common, for simplification or approximation purposes, to analyze the
transformer as an ideal transformer model as represented in the two images. An ideal
transformer is a theoretical, linear transformer that is lossless and perfectly coupled;
that is, there are no energy losses and flux is completely confined within the magnetic
core. Perfect coupling implies infinitely high core magnetic permeability and winding
inductances and zero net magnetomotive force.[5][d]
A varying current in the transformer's primary winding creates a varying magnetic
flux in the core and a varying magnetic field impinging on the secondary winding.
This varying magnetic field at the secondary induces a varying electromotive force
(emf) or voltage in the secondary winding. The primary and secondary windings are
wrapped around a core of infinitely high magnetic permeability[e] so that all of the
magnetic flux passes through both the primary and secondary windings. With a
voltage source connected to the primary winding and load impedance connected to the
secondary winding, the transformer currents flow in the indicated directions. (See also
Polarity.)

According to Faraday's law of induction, since the same magnetic flux passes through
both the primary and secondary windings in an ideal transformer,[7] a voltage is
induced in each winding, according to eq. (1) in the secondary winding case,
according to eq. (2) in the primary winding case. [8] The primary emf is sometimes
termed counter emf.[9][10][f] This is in accordance with Lenz's law, which states that
induction of emf always opposes development of any such change in magnetic field.
The transformer winding voltage ratio is thus shown to be directly proportion to the
winding turns ratio according to eq. (3).[11][12][g][h]
According to the law of Conservation of Energy, any load impedance connected to the
ideal transformer's secondary winding results in conservation of apparent, real and
reactive power consistent with eq. (4).

10

Heat engine
In thermodynamics, a heat engine is a system that converts heat or thermal energy to
mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work.[1][2] It does this by
bringing a working substance from a higher state temperature to a lower state
temperature. A heat "source" generates thermal energy that brings the working
substance to the high temperature state. The working substance generates work in the
"working body" of the engine while transferring heat to the colder "sink" until it
reaches a low temperature state. During this process some of the thermal energy is
converted into work by exploiting the properties of the working substance. The
working substance can be any system with a non-zero heat capacity, but it usually is a
gas or liquid.
In general an engine converts energy to mechanical work. Heat engines distinguish
themselves from other types of engines by the fact that their efficiency is
fundamentally limited by Carnot's theorem.[3] Although this efficiency limitation can
be a drawback, an advantage of heat engines is that most forms of energy can be
easily converted to heat by processes like exothermic reactions (such as combustion),
absorption of light or energetic particles, friction, dissipation and resistance. Since the
heat source that supplies thermal energy to the engine can thus be powered by
virtually any kind of energy, heat engines are very versatile and have a wide range of
applicability.
Heat engines are often confused with the cycles they attempt to mimic. Typically
when describing the physical device the term 'engine' is used. When describing the
model the term 'cycle' is used.

Figure 1: Heat engine diagram

In thermodynamics, heat engines are
often modeled using a standard
engineering model such as the Otto
cycle. The theoretical model can be
refined and augmented with actual

11

data from an operating engine, using tools such as an indicator diagram. Since very
few actual implementations of heat engines exactly match their underlying
thermodynamic cycles, one could say that a thermodynamic cycle is an ideal case of a
mechanical engine. In any case, fully understanding an engine and its efficiency
requires gaining a good understanding of the (possibly simplified or idealized)
theoretical model, the practical nuances of an actual mechanical engine, and the
discrepancies between the two.
In general terms, the larger the difference in temperature between the hot source and
the cold sink, the larger is the potential thermal efficiency of the cycle. On Earth, the
cold side of any heat engine is limited to being close to the ambient temperature of the
environment, or not much lower than 300 Kelvin, so most efforts to improve the
thermodynamic efficiencies of various heat engines focus on increasing the
temperature of the source, within material limits. The maximum theoretical efficiency
of a heat engine (which no engine ever attains) is equal to the temperature difference
between the hot and cold ends divided by the temperature at the hot end, all expressed
in absolute temperature or kelvins.
The efficiency of various heat engines proposed or used today has a large range:

3 percent[4] (97 percent waste heat using low quality heat) for the OTEC ocean
power proposal.

25 percent for most automotive gasoline engines [5]

49 percent for a supercritical coal-fired power station such as the Avedre

Power Station

60 percent for a steam-cooled combined cycle gas turbine.[6]

All these processes gain their efficiency (or lack thereof) from the temperature drop
across them. Significant energy may be used for auxiliary equipment, such as pumps,
which effectively reduces efficiency.

12

13

Rectifier

A rectifier diode (silicon controlled rectifier) and associated mounting hardware. The
heavy threaded stud attaches the device to a heatsink to dissipate heat.
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which
periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one
direction. The process is known as rectification. Physically, rectifiers take a number
of forms, including vacuum tube diodes, mercury-arc valves, copper and selenium
oxide rectifiers, semiconductor diodes, silicon-controlled rectifiers and other siliconbased semiconductor switches. Historically, even synchronous electromechanical
switches and motors have been used. Early radio receivers, called crystal radios, used
a "cat's whisker" of fine wire pressing on a crystal of galena (lead sulfide) to serve as
a point-contact rectifier or "crystal detector".
Rectifiers have many uses, but are often found serving as components of DC power
supplies and high-voltage direct current power transmission systems. Rectification
may serve in roles other than to generate direct current for use as a source of power.
As noted, detectors of radio signals serve as rectifiers. In gas heating systems flame
rectification is used to detect presence of flame.
Because of the alternating nature of the input AC sine wave, the process of
rectification alone produces a DC current that, though unidirectional, consists of
pulses of current. Many applications of rectifiers, such as power supplies for radio,
television and computer equipment, require a steady constant DC current (as would be
produced by a battery). In these applications the output of the rectifier is smoothed by
an electronic filter (usually a capacitor) to produce a steady current.

14

A more complex circuitry device that performs the opposite function, converting DC
to AC, is called an inverter.

Rectifier devices
Before the development of silicon semiconductor rectifiers, vacuum tube thermionic
diodes and copper oxide- or selenium-based metal rectifier stacks were used.[1] With
the introduction of semiconductor electronics, vacuum tube rectifiers became
obsolete, except for some enthusiasts of vacuum tube audio equipment. For power
rectification from very low to very high current, semiconductor diodes of various
types (junction diodes, Schottky diodes, etc.) are widely used.
Other devices that have control electrodes as well as acting as unidirectional current
valves are used where more than simple rectification is requirede.g., where variable
output voltage is needed. High-power rectifiers, such as those used in high-voltage
direct current power transmission, employ silicon semiconductor devices of various
types. These are thyristors or other controlled switching solid-state switches, which
effectively function as diodes to pass current in only one direction.

Rectifier circuits
Rectifier circuits may be single-phase or multi-phase (three being the most common
number of phases). Most low power rectifiers for domestic equipment are singlephase, but three-phase rectification is very important for industrial applications and
for the transmission of energy as DC (HVDC).

Single-phase rectifiers

Half-wave rectification
In half wave rectification of a single-phase supply, either the positive or negative half
of the AC wave is passed, while the other half is blocked. Because only one half of
the input waveform reaches the output, mean voltage is lower. Half-wave rectification
requires a single diode in a single-phase supply, or three in a three-phase supply.
Rectifiers yield a unidirectional but pulsating direct current; half-wave rectifiers
produce far more ripple than full-wave rectifiers, and much more filtering is needed to
eliminate harmonics of the AC frequency from the output.
15

Half-wave rectifier
The no-load output DC voltage of an ideal half wave rectifier for a sinusoidal input
voltage is:[2]

Where:
Vdc, Vav - the DC or average output voltage,
Vpeak, the peak value of the phase input voltages,
Vrms, the root-mean-square value of output voltage.

16

Diode

Closeup of a diode, showing the square-shaped semiconductor crystal (black object

on left).

Various semiconductor diodes. Bottom: A bridge rectifier. In most diodes, a white or

black painted band identifies the cathode terminal, that is, the terminal that positive
charge (conventional current) will flow out of when the diode is conducting.[1][2][3][4]

17

Structure of a vacuum tube diode. The filament may be bare, or more commonly (as
shown here), embedded within and insulated from an enclosing cathode.
In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal electronic component with asymmetric
conductance; it has low (ideally zero) resistance to current in one direction, and high
(ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A semiconductor diode, the most common
type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material with a pn junction
connected to two electrical terminals.[5] A vacuum tube diode has two electrodes, a
plate (anode) and a heated cathode. Semiconductor diodes were the first
semiconductor electronic devices. The discovery of crystals' rectifying abilities was
made by German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. The first semiconductor diodes,
called cat's whisker diodes, developed around 1906, were made of mineral crystals
such as galena. Today, most diodes are made of silicon, but other semiconductors such
as selenium or germanium are sometimes used.[6]

Main functions
The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one
direction (called the diode's forward direction), while blocking current in the opposite
direction (the reverse direction). Thus, the diode can be viewed as an electronic
version of a check valve. This unidirectional behavior is called rectification, and is
used to convert alternating current to direct current, including extraction of
modulation from radio signals in radio receiversthese diodes are forms of rectifiers.

18

However, diodes can have more complicated behavior than this simple onoff action,
due to their nonlinear current-voltage characteristics. Semiconductor diodes begin
conducting electricity only if a certain threshold voltage or cut-in voltage is present in
the forward direction (a state in which the diode is said to be forward-biased). The
voltage drop across a forward-biased diode varies only a little with the current, and is
a function of temperature; this effect can be used as a temperature sensor or voltage
reference.
Semiconductor diodes' currentvoltage characteristic can be tailored by varying the
semiconductor materials and doping, introducing impurities into the materials. These
techniques are used to create special-purpose diodes that perform many different
functions. For example, diodes are used to regulate voltage (Zener diodes), to protect
circuits from high voltage surges (avalanche diodes), to electronically tune radio and
TV receivers (varactor diodes), to generate radio frequency oscillations (tunnel
diodes, Gunn diodes, IMPATT diodes), and to produce light (light emitting diodes).
Tunnel, Gunn and IMPATT diodes exhibit negative resistance, which is useful in
microwave and switching circuits.

History
Thermionic (vacuum tube) diodes and solid state (semiconductor) diodes were
developed separately, at approximately the same time, in the early 1900s, as radio
receiver detectors. Until the 1950s vacuum tube diodes were more often used in radios
because the early point-contact type semiconductor diodes (cat's-whisker detectors)
were less stable, and because most receiving sets had vacuum tubes for amplification
that could easily have diodes included in the tube (for example the 12SQ7 doublediode triode), and vacuum tube rectifiers and gas-filled rectifiers handled some high
voltage/high current rectification tasks beyond the capabilities of semiconductor
diodes (such as selenium rectifiers) available at the time.

19

Amplifier

A practical bipolar transistor amplifier circuit

An electronic amplifier, amplifier, or (informally) amp is an electronic device that
increase the power of a signal. It does this by taking energy from a power supply and
controlling the output to match the input signal shape but with a larger amplitude. In
this sense, an amplifier modulates the output of the power supply to make the output
signal stronger than the input signal.
The four basic types of electronic amplifiers are voltage amplifiers, current amplifiers,
transconductance amplifiers, and transresistance amplifiers. A further distinction is
whether the output is a linear or nonlinear representation of the input. Amplifiers can
also be categorized by their physical placement in the signal chain.[1]

Amplifier types
Amplifiers are described according to their input and output properties. [2] They exhibit
the property of gain, or multiplication factor that relates the magnitude of the output
signal to the input signal. The gain may be specified as the ratio of output voltage to
input voltage (voltage gain), output power to input power (power gain), or some
combination of current, voltage, and power. In many cases, with input and output in
the same unit, gain is unitless (though often expressed in decibels (dB)).

20

The four basic types of amplifiers are as follows:[1]

Voltage amplifier This is the most common type of amplifier. An input

voltage is amplified to a larger output voltage. The amplifier's input
impedance is high and the output impedance is low.

Current amplifier This amplifier changes an input current to a larger output

current. The amplifier's input impedance is low and the output impedance is
high.

Transconductance amplifier This amplifier responds to a changing input

voltage by delivering a related changing output current.

Transresistance amplifier This amplifier responds to a changing input current

by delivering a related changing output voltage. Other names for the device
are transimpedance amplifier and current-to-voltage converter.

In practice the power gain of an amplifier will depend on the source and load
impedances used as well as the inherent voltage/current gain; while an RF amplifier
may have its impedances optimized for power transfer, audio and instrumentation
amplifiers are normally designed with their input and output impedances optimized
for least loading and highest signal integrity. An amplifier that is said to have a gain of
20 dB might have a voltage gain of ten times and an available power gain of much
more than 20 dB (power ratio of 100), yet actually be delivering a much lower power
gain if, for example, the input is from a 600 ohm microphone and the output is
connected to a 47 kilohm input socket for a power amplifier.
In most cases an amplifier will be linear; that is, the gain is constant for any normal
level of input and output signal. If the gain is not linear, e.g., clipping of the signal,
the output signal will be distorted. There are however cases where variable gain is
useful. Exponential gain amplifiers are used in certain signal processing applications.
[1]

There are many differing types of electronic amplifiers used in areas such as: radio
and television transmitters and receivers, high-fidelity ("hi-fi") stereo equipment,
microcomputers and other digital equipment, and guitar and other instrument
amplifiers. The essential components include active devices, such as vacuum tubes or
transistors. A brief introduction to the many types of electronic amplifiers follows.

21

Power amplifier
The term power amplifier is a relative term with respect to the amount of power
delivered to the load and/or provided by the power supply circuit. In general the
power amplifier is the last 'amplifier' or actual circuit in a signal chain (the output
stage) and is the amplifier stage that requires attention to power efficiency. Efficiency
considerations lead to the various classes of power amplifier based on the biasing of
the output transistors or tubes: see power amplifier classes.

Power amplifiers by application

Audio power amplifiers

RF power amplifier, such as for transmitter final stages (see also: Linear
amplifier).

Servo motor controllers, where linearity is not important.

Piezoelectric audio amplifier includes a DC-to-DC converter to generate the

high voltage output required to drive piezoelectric speakers.[3]

Power amplifier circuits

Power amplifier circuits include the following types:

Vacuum tube/valve, hybrid or transistor power amplifiers

Push-pull output or single-ended output stages

Vacuum-tube (valve) amplifiers

An ECC83 tube glowing inside a preamp

22

Main article: Valve amplifier

According to Symons, while semiconductor amplifiers have largely displaced valve
amplifiers for low power applications, valve amplifiers are much more cost effective
in high power applications such as "radar, countermeasures equipment, or
communications equipment" (p. 56). Many microwave amplifiers are specially
designed valves, such as the klystron, gyrotron, traveling wave tube, and crossed-field
amplifier, and these microwave valves provide much greater single-device power
output at microwave frequencies than solid-state devices (p. 59).[4]
Valves/tube amplifiers also have niche uses in other areas, such as

electric guitar amplification

in Russian military aircraft, for their EMP tolerance

niche audio for their sound qualities (recording, and audiophile equipment)

Transistor amplifiers
See also: Transistor, Bipolar junction transistor, Field-effect transistor, JFET and
MOSFET
The essential role of this active element is to magnify an input signal to yield a
significantly larger output signal. The amount of magnification (the "forward gain") is
determined by the external circuit design as well as the active device.
Many common active devices in transistor amplifiers are bipolar junction transistors
(BJTs) and metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).
Applications are numerous, some common examples are audio amplifiers in a home
stereo or PA system, RF high power generation for semiconductor equipment, to RF
and Microwave applications such as radio transmitters.
Transistor-based amplifier can be realized using various configurations: for example
with a bipolar junction transistor we can realize common base, common collector or
common emitter amplifier; using a MOSFET we can realize common gate, common
source or common drain amplifier. Each configuration has different characteristic
(gain, impedance...).

23

Operational amplifiers (op-amps)

An LM741 general purpose op-amp

Main articles: Operational amplifier and Instrumentation amplifier
An operational amplifier is an amplifier circuit with very high open loop gain and
differential inputs that employs external feedback to control its transfer function, or
gain. Though the term today commonly applies to integrated circuits, the original
operational amplifier design used valves.

Fully differential amplifiers

Main article: Fully differential amplifier
A fully differential amplifier is a solid state integrated circuit amplifier that uses
external feedback to control its transfer function or gain. It is similar to the
operational amplifier, but also has differential output pins. These are usually
constructed using BJTs or FETs.

Video amplifiers
These deal with video signals and have varying bandwidths depending on whether the
video signal is for SDTV, EDTV, HDTV 720p or 1080i/p etc.. The specification of the
bandwidth itself depends on what kind of filter is usedand at which point (-1 dB or
-3 dB for example) the bandwidth is measured. Certain requirements for step response
and overshoot are necessary for an acceptable TV image.

Oscilloscope vertical amplifiers

These deal with video signals that drive an oscilloscope display tube, and can have
bandwidths of about 500 MHz. The specifications on step response, rise time,

24

overshoot, and aberrations can make designing these amplifiers difficult. One of the
pioneers in high bandwidth vertical amplifiers was the Tektronix company.

Distributed amplifiers
Main article: Distributed Amplifier
These use transmission lines to temporally split the signal and amplify each portion
separately to achieve higher bandwidth than possible from a single amplifier. The
outputs of each stage are combined in the output transmission line. This type of
amplifier was commonly used on oscilloscopes as the final vertical amplifier. The
transmission lines were often housed inside the display tube glass envelope.

Switched mode amplifiers

These nonlinear amplifiers have much higher efficiencies than linear amps, and are
used where the power saving justifies the extra complexity.

Negative resistance devices

Negative resistances can be used as amplifiers, such as the tunnel diode amplifier.

Microwave amplifiers

Travelling wave tube amplifiers

Main article: Traveling wave tube
Traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) are used for high power amplification at
low microwave frequencies. They typically can amplify across a broad spectrum of
frequencies; however, they are usually not as tunable as klystrons.

Klystrons
Main article: Klystron
Klystrons are specialized linear-beam vacuum-devices, designed to provide high
power, widely tunable amplification of millimetre and sub-millimetre waves.
Klystrons are designed for large scale operations and despite having a narrower
bandwidth than TWTAs, they have the advantage of coherently amplifying a reference
signal so its output may be precisely controlled in amplitude, frequency and phase.

25

Musical instrument amplifiers

Main article: Instrument amplifier
An audio power amplifier is usually used to amplify signals such as music or speech.
Several factors are especially important in the selection of musical instrument
amplifiers (such as guitar amplifiers) and other audio amplifiers (although the whole
of the sound system components such as microphones to loudspeakers affect these
parameters):

Frequency response not just the frequency range but the requirement that the
signal level varies so little across the audible frequency range that the human
ear notices no variation. A typical specification for audio amplifiers may be 20
Hz to 20 kHz +/- 0.5 dB.

Power output the power level obtainable with little distortion, to obtain a
sufficiently loud sound pressure level from the loudspeakers.

Low distortion all amplifiers and transducers distort to some extent. They
cannot be perfectly linear, but aim to pass signals without affecting the
harmonic content of the sound more than the human ear can tolerate. That
tolerance of distortion, and indeed the possibility that some "warmth" or
second harmonic distortion (Tube sound) improves the "musicality" of the
sound, are subjects of great debate.

Radio
26

Classic radio receiver dial

Radio is the radiation (wireless transmission) of electromagnetic signals through the
atmosphere or free space.[n 1] Information, such as sound, is carried by systematically
changing (modulating) some property of the radiated waves, such as their amplitude,
frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the
oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the
waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form.
Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate (change) some property of the energy
produced to impress a signal on it. Some types of modulation include amplitude
modulation and frequency modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert
electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. An antenna can be used for both
transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow
individual stations to be selected. The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned
receiving antenna. A radio receiver receives its input from an antenna and converts it
into a form usable for the consumer, such as sound, pictures, digital data,
measurement values, navigational positions, etc.[2] Radio frequencies occupy the range
from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a
small part of this spectrum.[3]
A radio communication system sends signals by radio. [4] The radio equipment
involved in communication systems includes a transmitter and a receiver, each having
an antenna and appropriate terminal equipment such as a microphone at the
transmitter and a loudspeaker at the receiver in the case of a voice-communication
system.[5]

Etymology
27

The etymology of "radio" or "radiotelegraphy" reveals that it was called "wireless

telegraphy", which was shortened to "wireless" in Britain. The prefix radio- in the
sense of wireless transmission, was first recorded in the word radioconductor, a
description provided by the French physicist douard Branly in 1897. It is based on
the verb to radiate (in Latin "radius" means "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray").
The word "radio" also appears in a 1907 article by Lee De Forest. It was adopted by
the United States Navy in 1912, to distinguish radio from several other wireless
communication technologies, such as the photophone. The term became common by
the time of the first commercial broadcasts in the United States in the 1920s, and was
soon adopted in Europe and Asia. ("Broadcasting" is based upon an agricultural term
meaning roughly "scattering seeds widely".) British Commonwealth countries
continued to commonly use the term "wireless" until the mid-20th century, though the
magazine of the BBC in the UK has been called Radio Times ever since it was first
published in the early 1920s.
In recent years the more general term "wireless" has gained renewed popularity
through the rapid growth of short-range computer networking, e.g., Wireless Local
Area Network (WLAN), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, as well as mobile telephony, e.g.,
GSM and UMTS. Today, the term "radio" specifies the actual type of transceiver
device or chip, whereas "wireless" refers to the lack of physical connections; one talks
about radio transceivers, but another talks about wireless devices and wireless sensor
networks.

Mixer
An electronics device:

Electronic mixer, a device for adding or multiplying signal voltages together

28

Frequency mixer, a telecommunications device used to shift the frequency

spectrum of a signal
Sound card mixer, a component of the audio subsystem of a personal
computer
Vision mixer, an electronic device for combining video signals
Audio mixing console, an electronic device for combining, routing, and
changing the level, tone, and/or dynamics of two or more audio signals
o DJ mixer, a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys
Mode scrambler (known as a mode mixer), a telecommunications device for
handling signals on optical fibers

A mechanical device:

Mixer (cooking), an appliance used to combine ingredients

Mixer (engine), a device for quieting an airplane engine
Concrete mixer, a machine which combines the ingredients of concrete
Feed mixer, a machine used in the feed industry for mixing feed ingredients
High-shear mixer, a device that disperses a material into a liquid phase by
passing it through an array of rotors and/or stators
Industrial mixer, a machine for mixing the materials in industrial scale
Micro mixer, a device used in flow chemistry
Static mixer, a device for mixing two fluid materials through a tube containing
a series of baffles
Submersible mixer, a machine used for mixing liquids and slurries in tanks
(e.g. wastewater, liquid manure, etc.)
Vortex mixer, a laboratory device
Carburettor, a device for mixing a hydrocarbon and air, for an engine

A synonym for an occupation:

Mix engineer or sound mixer, the operator of an audio mixing console

Production sound mixer, the head of a film production sound crew
Mixer, a follower of a particular philosophy within the practice of chiropractic

Electronic mixer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the kitchen utensil, see Electric mixer.
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December 2009)

29

A simple three-channel passive additive mixer. More channels can be added by simply
adding more input jacks and mix resistors.

A "virtual ground" active additive mixer. The buffer amplifiers serve to reduce
crosstalk and distortion.
An electronic mixer is a device that combines two or more electrical or electronic
signals into one or two composite output signals. There are two basic circuits that
both use the term mixer, but they are very different types of circuits: additive mixers
and multiplicative mixers.
Simple additive mixers use Kirchhoff's circuit laws to add the currents of two or more
signals together, and this terminology ("mixer") is only used in the realm of audio
electronics where audio mixers are used to add together audio signals such as voice
signals, music signals, and sound effects.
Multiplicative mixers multiply together two time-varying input signals
instantaneously (instant-by-instant). If the two input signals are both sinusoids of
specified frequencies f1 and f2, then the output of the mixer will contain two new
sinsoids that have the sum f1 + f2 frequency and the difference frequency absolute
value |f1 - f2|.
Note: Any nonlinear electronic block driven by two signals with frequencies f 1 and f2
would generate intermodulation (mixing) products. A multiplier (which is a nonlinear
device) will generate ideally only the sum and difference frequencies, whereas an
arbitrary nonlinear block would generate also signals at e.g. 2f 1-3f2, etc. Therefore in
the past often more or less normal nonlinear amplifiers or just single diodes have been
used as mixers, instead of a more complex multiplier. A multiplier has usually the
advantage of rejecting - at least partly - undesired higher-order intermodulations and
larger conversion gain.

30

Air conditioning

Air conditioning units outside a classroom building at the University of North

Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Window unit
Air conditioning (often referred to as A/C, AC or aircon) is the process of altering the
properties of air (primarily temperature and humidity) to more comfortable
conditions, typically with the aim of distributing the conditioned air to an occupied
space to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality.

Overview
In common use, an air conditioner is a device that lowers the air temperature. The
cooling is typically achieved through a refrigeration cycle, but sometimes evaporation
or free cooling is used.
In the most general sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of technology that
modifies the condition of air (heating, cooling, (de-)humidification, cleaning,
31

ventilation, or air movement). However, in construction, such a complete system of

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning is referred to as HVAC (as opposed to AC).[1]

History
This section may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted citations that do
not verify the text. Please help improve this article by checking for
inaccuracies. (help, talk, get involved!) (September 2010)
The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancient
Egypt, where reeds were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling water.
The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through the window. This process
also made the air more humid, which can be beneficial in a dry desert climate. In
Ancient Rome, water from aqueducts was circulated through the walls of certain
houses to cool them. Other techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns
and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season.[2]
Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th century,
and the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used in 1902 by
American inventor Willis Carrier. The introduction of residential air conditioning in
the 1920s helped enable the great migration to the Sun Belt in the United States.

Development of mechanical cooling

Three-quarters scale model of Gorrie's ice machine John Gorrie State Museum,
Florida

32

The 2nd-century Chinese inventor Ding Huan (fl 180) of the Han Dynasty invented a
rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter and
manually powered.[3] In 747, Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712762) of the Tang Dynasty
(618907) had the Cool Hall (Liang Tian) built in the imperial palace, which the Tang
Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as
rising jet streams of water from fountains. During the subsequent Song Dynasty (960
1279), written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as even more widely
used.[4]
In the 17th century, Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated "Turning Summer into Winter" for
James I of England by adding salt to water.[5]
In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge
University, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a
means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of
highly volatile liquids (such as alcohol and ether) could be used to drive down the
temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their
experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows
used to speed-up the evaporation. They lowered the temperature of the thermometer
bulb down to 14 C (7 F) while the ambient temperature was 18 C (64 F).
Franklin noted that, soon after they passed the freezing point of water 0 C (32 F), a
thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that the ice mass
was about a quarter-inch thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching
14 C (7 F). Franklin concluded: "From this experiment one may see the possibility
of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day"[6]
In 1820, English scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing
and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to
evaporate. In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to
create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola,
Florida.[7] He hoped to eventually use his ice-making machine to regulate the
temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could
cool entire cities.[8] Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie
was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. [9] His hopes for its success
vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died; Gorrie did not get the
money he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M.

33

Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that
Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr. Gorrie died
impoverished in 1855, and the idea of air conditioning went away for 50 years.

34