Is learning electronics useful for mechanical engineering?

The divisions between engineering fields is somewhat arbitrary especially today. For
example if you design a phone the electronics are part of EE but the case is part of
mechanical engineering, and how to cool every thing is part of both. Many mechanical
things have electronic controls and electrical power sources.

As another example is the HVAC system in a building and it’s controls part of civil,
electrical, or mechanical engineering.

So knowing electronic could help with mechanical engineering.

Importance of electronics as well as electrical is on an ever rise among mechanical

engineers.

If you ever go for any designing process specially in automotive branch of mechanical
engineering you will work with motors, batteries, sensors, displays, alarms etc.

All this will be much easier to understand or apply if you have a clear understanding,
otherwise you will be at the mercy of internet or other people's design whenever you
have to incorporate these electrical and electronics components in your design.

Absolutely. An ME not comfortable with electronice, particularly single board computer,

is working with a severe handicap. Almost everything combines electrical and
mechanical. I have known ME that didn’t know how to use a multimeter. Pretty
pathetic.

Is knowing electronics an important part of mechanical engineering?

Most answers to these type of questions are that it depends. I know some MEs who
never use their knowledge of electronics and some that have electronics being a big
focus on their job. For me, I have worked closely with the EEs for most of my career.
Most of the time it is to help in packaging and managing thermal and the knowledge
helps. Other times it is to challenge their assumptions. More knowledge is always
useful. That can include more knowledge of electronics, or you can takes classes in
other areas that can also be useful.

Brief History of Electronics and Its Development

 ELECTRONICS
In this 21st century, every day we are dealing with the electronic circuits and devices in
some or the other forms because gadgets, home appliances, computers, transport
systems, cell phones, cameras, TV, etc. all have electronic components and devices.
Today’s world of electronics has made deep inroads in several areas, such as healthcare,
medical diagnosis, automobiles, industries, electronics projects etc. and convinced
everyone that without electronics, it is really impossible to work.
Therefore, looking forward to know the past and about the brief history of electronics is
necessary to revive our minds and to get inspired by those individuals who sacrificed
their lives by engaging themselves in such amazing discoveries and inventions that costs
everything for them, but nothing for us, and, in turn, benefitted us immensely since then.

Brief history of electronics

Brief History of Electronics and Its Development

Electronics’ actual history began with the invention of vacuum diode by J.A. Fleming, in
1897; and, after that, a vacuum triode was implemented by Lee De Forest to amplify
electrical signals. This led to the introduction of tetrode and pentode tubes that dominated
the world until the World War II.

Subsequently, the transistor era began with the junction transistor invention in 1948. Even
though, this particular invention got a Nobel Prize, yet it was later replaced with a bulky
vacuum tube that would consume high power for its operation. The use of germanium
and silicon semiconductor materials made theses transistor gain the popularity and wide-
acceptance usage in different electronic circuits.
 Integrated circuits (ICs)

The subsequent years witnessed the invention of the integrated circuits (ICs) that
drastically changed the electronic circuits’ nature as the entire electronic circuit got
integrated on a single chip, which resulted in low: cost, size and weight electronic devices.
The years 1958 to 1975 marked the introduction of IC with enlarged capabilities of over
several thousand components on a single chip such as small-scale integration, medium-
large scale and very-large scale integration ICs.

And the trend further carried forward with the JFETS and MOSFETs that were developed
during 1951 to 1958 by improving the device designing process and by making more
reliable and powerful transistors.
Digital integrated circuits were yet another robust IC development that changed the
overall architecture of computers. These ICs were developed with Transistor-transistor
logic (TTL), integrated injection logic (I2L) and emitter coupled logic (ECL) technologies.
Later these digital ICs employed PMOS, NMOS, and CMOS fabrication design
technologies.

All these radical changes in all these components led to the introduction
of microprocessor in 1969 by Intel. Soon after, the analog integrated circuits were
developed that introduced an operational amplifier for an analog signal processing. These
analog circuits include analog multipliers, ADC and DAC converters and analog filters.
This is all about the fundamental understanding of the electronics history. This history of
electronics technology costs greater investment of time, efforts and talent from the real
heroes, some of them are described below.
 Inventors in history of electronics

Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)

Luigi Galvani was a professor in the University of Bologna. He studied the effects of
electricity on animals, especially on frogs. With the help of experiments, he showed the
presence of electricity in frogs in the year 1791.

Charles Coulomb (1737-1806)

Charles coulomb was a great scientist of the 18th century. He experimented with the
mechanical resistance and developed coulomb’s law of electro-static charges in the year
1799.

Allesandro Volta (1745-1827)

Allesandro Volta was an Italian scientist. He invented battery in the year 1799. He was
the first to develop a battery (Voltaic cell) that could produce electricity as a result of
chemical reaction.

Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1852)

Hans Christian Oersted showed that whenever a current flows through a conductor, a
magnetic field is associated with it. He initiated the study of electromagnetism and
discovered Aluminum in the year 1820.

George Simon Ohm (1789-1854)

George Simon Ohm was a German physicist. He experimented with the electrical
circuits and made his own part including the wire. He found that some conductors worked
when compared to others. He discovered Ohms law in the year 1827, which is a relation
between current, voltage& resistance. The unit for resistance is named after him.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was a British scientist and great pioneer experimenter in electricity and
magnetism. After the discovery by Oersted, he demonstrated electromagnetic induction
in the year 1831. This is the basic principle of the working of generators.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
James Clerk Maxwell was a British physicist, and he wrote treatise on magnetism and
electricity in the year 1873. He developed the electromagnetic field equations in the year
1864. The equations in it were explained and predicted by hertz’s work and faradays’
work. James Clerk Maxwell formulated an important theory – that is, electromagnetic
theory of light.

Henrich Rudolph Hertz (1857-1894)

Henrich Rudolph Hertz was a German physicist born in 1857 in Hamburg. He
demonstrated the electromagnetic radiation predicted by Maxwell. By using experimental
procedures, he proved the theory by engineering instruments to transmit and receive radio
pulses. He was the first person to demonstrate the photo-electric effect. The unit of
frequency was named Hertz in his honorarium.
Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836)
Andre Marie Ampere was a French mathematician and physicist. He studied the effects
of electric current and invented solenoid. The SI unit of electric current (the Ampere) was
named after him.

Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)

Karl Friedrich Gauss was a physical scientist and a greatest German mathematician. He
contributed to many fields like algebra, analysis, statistics, electrostatics and astronomy.
The CGS unit of magnetic field density was named after him.

Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891)

Wilhelm Eduard Weber was a German physicist. He investigated terrestrial magnetism
with his friend Carl fried rich. He devised an electromagnetic telegraph in the year 1833,
and also established a system of absolute electrical units, and the MKS unit of flux was
named after Weber.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1932)
Thomas Alva Edison was a businessman and an American inventor. He developed many
devices like, practical electric bulb, motion picture camera, photograph and other such
things. While inventing the electric lamp, he observed the Edison effect.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla coil; the Tesla induction motor; alternating current (AC);
electrical supply system that includes a transformer; 3-phase electricity and motor. In
1891, Tesla coil was invented and used in electronic equipment, television and radio sets.
The unit of magnetic field density was named after him.
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887)
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff was a German physicist. He developed Kirchhoff’s law that
allows calculation of the voltages, currents and resistance of electrical networks.

James Prescott Joule (1818-1889)

James Prescott Joule was a brewer and an English physicist. He discovered the law of
conservation of energy. The unit of energy – Joule was named in his honor. To develop
the scale of temperature, he worked with Lord Kelvin.

Joseph Henry (1799-1878)

Joseph Henry was an American scientist, and independently discovered electromagnetic
induction in the year 1831 – a year before faraday’s discovery. The unit of induction was
named after him.

Lee De Forest (1873-1961)

Lee de forest was an American inventor, and he invented the first triode vacuum tube:
Audion tube in 1906. He was honored as the father of radio.

Walter schottky (1886-1997)

Walter schottky was a German physicist. He defined shot noise-random electron noise in
thermionic tubes, and invented the multiple grid vacuum tube.
Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890-1954)
Edwin Howard Armstrong was an inventor and an American electrical engineer. He
invented electronic oscillator and regenerative feedback. In 1917, he invented super-
heterodyne radio and patented FM radio in the year 1933.

Hope you got somewhat better understanding of this brief history of electronics. Why can’t
we learn something from the above philosophers and great inventors for bettering our
world and technology? Please share your views on this article in the comment section
below.

Electronics[1] is the discipline dealing with the development and application of devices
and systems involving the flow of electrons in a vacuum, in gaseous media, and in
semiconductors. Electronics deals with electrical circuits that involve active electrical
components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes, integrated
circuits, optoelectronics, and sensors, associated passive electrical components, and
interconnection technologies. Commonly, electronic devices contain circuitry consisting
primarily or exclusively of active semiconductors supplemented with passive elements;
such a circuit is described as an electronic circuit.