How To Use Passive Components, Capacitors
Passive components are electronic components that do not need the power to work. Just as the name suggests, these components only require a source of passive electricity to operate. This can be in the form of a battery, an external power supply, or even the surrounding air. Passive electronics help reduce power consumption by using elements that don’t require external power to operate.
Examples of passive components include resistors, inductors, and capacitor. Passive components are commonly used in electronics because they generally have very few moving parts than active counterparts with similar functionality. Passive components are usually soldered directly onto circuit boards and integrated circuits; however, it is also possible to use passive components with pre-soldered circuit boards.
Conductors are materials that easily allow electrons to move through them. Some conductors, like copper, are necessary for the transmission of electricity. Conductivity is a property of a material used to measure its ability to transfer electrons. It’s measured by the electrical current (measured in amps) flowing through a one-meter length of material divided by the potential difference (measured in volts) between its ends.
Materials with low resistance can be used as conductors, but they have other drawbacks, such as high thermal resistance and poor mechanical strength. Materials with high resistance cannot be used for circuit boards because they waste too much energy when electrons flow through them. Materials with low resistance are best suited for circuit boards; however, their low energy loss comes at the cost of poor thermal conductivity and mechanical strength.
Materials with good properties in all three categories are called semiconductors. Semiconductors such as silicon and germanium have been widely used in electronics because they offer good properties across all three categories. Integrated circuits were just one type of semiconductor device; however, they were so helpful that they quickly replaced many other electronic components such as vacuum tubes and electromechanical relays. The invention of ICs made it possible for computers to achieve much higher speeds because their number-crunching functions could now be performed by semiconductor devices instead of electromechanical ones.
Modern transistors are still made of silicon, but they are much smaller than the first silicon transistors. The first silicon transistor was about the size of a quarter, while today’s smallest transistors are just a few nanometers across. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; if you placed 100 apple seeds in a row on the table, you would reach one nanometer!
Transistor design has also evolved to avoid some problems such as overheating and electrical leakage. The first transistors were made from germanium; however, this material has a relatively high leakage current, which means that some electric charge flows through it even when its voltage is zero. Today’s transistors are designed to have shallow leakage current using several techniques, such as isolating each transistor with tiny trenches filled with an insulating material called an oxide layer. Transistor designers also use materials with significant band gaps so that electrons cannot jump into the conduction band even when they absorb heat energy. This makes it possible for modern semiconductor devices to be tiny and efficient.
Transistor performance depends heavily on temperature because heat can cause electrons to jump back into their original energy state before reaching their intended destination. As such, modern integrated circuits include several features that improve cooling efficiency and prevent overheating problems:
Thermal vias connect different layers in integrated circuits so that heat can be dissipated more quickly through the circuit board.
With a solid foundation in technology, backed by a BIT degree, Lucas Noah has carved a niche for himself in the world of content creation and digital storytelling. Currently lending his expertise to Creative Outrank LLC and Oceana Express LLC, Lucas has become a... Read more