Semiconductor Basics

6Other Electrical Components

OBJECTIVES OF THIS CHAPTER

After explaining how the diode operates, I was eager to start discussing some of its applications. I realized, though, that there are other electrical passive components that are necessary to design useful electronic circuits and we need to understand them. Therefore, after a digression on voltage and current, both direct and alternating, I discuss three electrical/electronical components: the resistor, the capacitor, and the inductor. The first two are indispensable to creating working electronic circuits and systems. Inductors are not as commonly used, partly because it is awkward to fabricate them in a miniaturized setting. Some of you may already be familiar with these elements and may want to scan or skip this chapter.

6.1 Voltage and Current

First, just a comment about voltage and current, which sometimes are confused. Let me explain the difference using the analog of fluids. As a matter of fact, there is a field call fluidics that mimics electronic circuits, but it uses liquids, fluids, instead of electrons.

To have motion of fluids you need, obviously, the fluid. You also need a path for the fluid to move through and a force, a pump or just gravity, to push the fluid through the chosen path. The same is true in an electrical system. The battery or the generator is the equivalent of the pump. The batteries sitting in your drawer have an electrical potential which we call voltage and the units are measured ...