Electronics Overview

basic electronics

Basic Circuit Analysis

• What we won’t do:
– common electronics-class things: RLC, filters, detailed
analysis
• What we will do:
– set out basic relations
– look at a few examples of fundamental importance (mostly
resistive circuits)
– look at diodes, voltage regulation, transistors
– discuss impedances (cable, output, etc.)

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 basic electronics

The Basic Relations

• V is voltage (volts: V); I is current (amps: A); R is
resistance (ohms: ); C is capacitance (farads: F); L
is inductance (henrys: H)
1
• Ohm’s Law: V = IR; V = C Idt ; V = L(dI/dt)
• Power: P = IV = V2/R = I2R
• Resistors and inductors in series add

• Capacitors in parallel add
• Resistors and inductors in parallel, and capacitors in
series add according to:
1 1 1 1
   
X tot X1 X 2 X 3



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 basic electronics

Example: Voltage divider

• Voltage dividers are a classic way to
set a voltage
• Works on the principle that all charge
flowing through the first resistor goes R1
through the second
– so V  R-value V Vout
– provided any load at output is 1
negligible: otherwise some current R2 3
goes there too 2
• So Vout = V(R2/(R1 + R2))
• R2 here is a variable resistor, or
potentiometer, or “pot”
– typically three terminals: R12 is fixed,
tap slides along to vary R13 and R23,
though R13 + R23 = R12 always

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 basic electronics

Real Batteries: Output Impedance

• A power supply (battery) is characterized by a
voltage (V) and an output impedance (R)
– sometimes called source impedance
• Hooking up to load: Rload, we form a voltage
divider, so that the voltage applied by the battery
R terminal is actually Vout = V(Rload/(R+Rload))
– thus the smaller R is, the “stiffer” the power supply
V
– when Vout sags with higher load current, we call this
“droop”
• Example: If 10.0 V power supply droops by 1%
(0.1 V) when loaded to 1 Amp (10  load):
D-cell example: 6A
out of 1.5 V battery – internal resistance is 0.1 
indicates 0.25  output – called output impedance or source impedance
impedance – may vary with load, though (not a real resistor)

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 basic electronics

Power Supplies and Regulation

• A power supply typically starts with a transformer
– to knock down the 340 V peak-to-peak (120 V AC) to something
reasonable/manageable
• We will be using a center-tap transformer
A A’

AC input CT AC output

B B’

– (A’  B’) = (winding ratio)(A  B)

• when A > B, so is A’ > B’
– geometry of center tap (CT) guarantees it is midway between A’
and B’ (frequently tie this to ground so that A’ = B’)
– note that secondary side floats: no ground reference built-in

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 basic electronics

Diodes
• Diodes are essentially one-way current gates
• Symbolized by:
• Current vs. voltage graphs:

acts just like a wire

(will support arbitrary
I I I I
current) provided that
voltage is positive
V V 0.6 V V V
plain resistor diode idealized diode WAY idealized diode

the direction the

arrow points in the
diode symbol is the
direction that current
will flow
no current flows current flows
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 basic electronics

Diode Makeup
• Diodes are made of semiconductors (usually silicon)
• Essentially a stack of p-doped and n-doped silicon to
form a p-n junction
– doping means deliberate impurities that contribute extra
electrons (n-doped) or “holes” for electrons (p-doped)
• Transistors are n-p-n or p-n-p arrangements of
semiconductors

p-type n-type

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 basic electronics

LEDs: Light-Emitting Diodes

• Main difference is material is more exotic than silicon used in ordinary
diodes/transistors
– typically 2-volt drop instead of 0.6 V drop
• When electron flows through LED, loses energy by emitting a photon of
light rather than vibrating lattice (heat)
• LED efficiency is 30% (compare to incandescent bulb at 10%)
• Must supply current-limiting resistor in series:
– figure on 2 V drop across LED; aim for 1–10 mA of current

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 basic electronics

Getting DC back out of AC

• AC provides a means for us to distribute electrical
power, but most devices actually want DC
– bulbs, toasters, heaters, fans don’t care: plug straight in
– sophisticated devices care because they have diodes and
transistors that require a certain polarity
• rather than oscillating polarity derived from AC
• this is why battery orientation matters in most electronics
• Use diodes to “rectify” AC signal
• Simplest (half-wave) rectifier uses one diode:
input voltage

AC source load

diode only conducts voltage seen by load

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 basic electronics

Doing Better: Full-wave Diode Bridge

• The diode in the rectifying circuit simply prevented
the negative swing of voltage from conducting
– but this wastes half the available cycle
– also very irregular (bumpy): far from a “good” DC source
• By using four diodes, you can recover the negative
swing:
B & C conduct
input voltage
A B
AC source

A & D conduct
C load
D
voltage seen by load

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 basic electronics

Full-Wave Dual-Supply
• By grounding the center tap, we have two opposite
AC sources
– the diode bridge now presents + and  voltages relative to
ground
– each can be separately smoothed/regulated
– cutting out diodes A and D makes a half-wave rectifier

AC source
A B
voltages seen by loads

C + load
D
 load

can buy pre-packaged diode bridges

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 basic electronics

Smoothing out the Bumps

• Still a bumpy ride, but we can smooth this out with a
capacitor
– capacitors have capacity for storing charge
– acts like a reservoir to supply current during low spots
– voltage regulator smoothes out remaining ripple

A B capacitor
AC source

C load
D

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 basic electronics

How smooth is smooth?

V
• An RC circuit has a time constant  = RC
– because dV/dt = I/C, and I = V/R  dV/dt = V/RC C R
– so V is V0exp(t/)
• Any exponential function starts out with slope =
Amplitude/
• So if you want < 10% ripple over 120 Hz (8.3 ms)
timescale…
– must have  = RC > 83 ms
– if R = 100 , C > 830 F

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 basic electronics

Regulating the Voltage

• The unregulated, ripply voltage may not be at the
value you want
– depends on transformer, etc.
– suppose you want 15.0 V
• You could use a voltage divider to set the voltage
• But it would droop under load Vin
– output impedance  R1 || R2 R1
– need to have very small R1, R2 to make “stiff”
Vout
– the divider will draw a lot of current
– perhaps straining the source
1 Rload
R2 3
– power expended in divider >> power in load
2
• Not a “real” solution
• Important note: a “big load” means a small resistor
value: 1  demands more current than 1 M
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 basic electronics

The Zener Regulator

• Zener diodes break down at some reverse
voltage
– can buy at specific breakdown voltages
– as long as some current goes through
zener, it’ll work zener voltage
– good for rough regulation
• Conditions for working: high slope is what makes the
zener a decent voltage regulator
– let’s maintain some minimal current, Iz
through zener (say a few mA)
Vin
– then (Vin  Vout)/R1 = Iz + Vout/Rload sets the
requirement on R1 R1
– because presumably all else is known
Vout = Vz
– if load current increases too much, zener
shuts off (node drops below breakdown) Rload
Z
and you just have a voltage divider with the
load

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 basic electronics

Voltage Regulator IC
note zeners
• Can trim down ripply voltage to
precise, rock-steady value
• Now things get complicated!
– We are now in the realm of
integrated circuits (ICs)
• ICs are whole circuits in small
packages
• ICs contain resistors,
capacitors, diodes, transistors,
etc.

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 basic electronics

Voltage Regulators
• The most common voltage regulators are the
LM78XX (+ voltages) and LM79XX ( voltages)
– XX represents the voltage
• 7815 is +15; 7915 is 15; 7805 is +5, etc
– typically needs input > 3 volts above output (reg.) voltage

beware that housing is not always ground

• A versatile regulator is the LM317 (+) or LM337 ()

– 1.2–37 V output
– Vout = 1.25(1+R2/R1) + IadjR2
– Up to 1.5 A
– picture at right can go to 25 V
– datasheetcatalog.com for details
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 basic electronics

Transistors
• Transistors are versatile, highly non-linear
devices
• Two frequent modes of operation:
– amplifiers/buffers
– switches
• Two main flavors:
– npn (more common) or pnp, describing doping C E

structure B B

• Also many varieties: E C

– bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) such as npn, pnp npn pnp

– field effect transistors (FETs): n-channel and p-
channel
– metal-oxide-semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs)
• We’ll just hit the essentials of the BJT here
– MOSFET in later lecture
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 basic electronics

BJT Amplifier Mode

• Central idea is that when in the right regime, the BJT
collector-emitter current is proportional to the base
current:
– namely, Ice = Ib, where  (sometimes hfe) is typically ~100
– In this regime, the base-emitter voltage is ~0.6 V
– below, Ib = (Vin  0.6)/Rb; Ice = Ib = (Vin  0.6)/Rb
– so that Vout = Vcc  IceRc = Vcc  (Vin  0.6)(Rc/Rb)
– ignoring DC biases, wiggles on Vin become  (Rc/Rb) bigger
(and inverted): thus amplified
Vcc

Rc

Rb out C
in B

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 basic electronics

Switching: Driving to Saturation

• What would happen if the base current is so big that
the collector current got so big that the voltage drop
across Rc wants to exceed Vcc?
– we call this saturated: Vc  Ve cannot dip below ~0.2 V
– even if Ib is increased, Ic won’t budge any more
• The example below is a good logic inverter
– if Vcc = 5 V; Rc = 1 k; Ic(sat)  5 mA; need Ib > 0.05 mA
– so Rb < 20 k would put us safely into saturation if Vin = 5V
– now 5 V in  ~0.2 V out;
Vcc< 0.6 V in  5 V out

Rc

Rb out
in

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 basic electronics
Vcc

in
Transistor Buffer
out
R

• In the hookup above (emitter follower), Vout = Vin  0.6

– sounds useless, right?
– there is no voltage “gain,” but there is current gain
– Imagine we wiggle Vin by V: Vout wiggles by the same V
– so the transistor current changes by Ie = V/R
– but the base current changes 1/ times this (much less)
– so the “wiggler” thinks the load is V/Ib = ·V/Ie = R
– the load therefore is less formidable
• The “buffer” is a way to drive a load without the driver
feeling the pain (as much): it’s impedance isolation
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 basic electronics

Improved Zener Regulator

• By adding a transistor to the zener
regulator from before, we no longer
have to worry as much about the current
being pulled away from the zener to the Vin Vin
load
– the base current is small Rz
– Rload effectively looks  times bigger
Vz
– real current supplied through transistor
Vreg
• Can often find zeners at 5.6 V, 9.6 V, Z
Rload
12.6 V, 15.6 V, etc. because drop from
base to emitter is about 0.6 V
– so transistor-buffered Vreg comes out to
5.0, 9.0, etc.
• Iz varies less in this arrangement, so the
regulated voltage is steadier

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 basic electronics

Switching Power Supplies

• Power supplies without transformers
– lightweight; low cost
– can be electromagnetically noisy
• Use a DC-to-DC conversion process
that relies on flipping a switch on and
off, storing energy in an inductor and
capacitor
– regulators were DC-to-DC converters too,
but lossy: lose P = IV of power for
voltage drop of V at current I
– regulators only down-convert, but
switchers can also up-convert
– switchers are reasonably efficient at
conversion

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 basic electronics

Switcher topologies

The FET switch is turned off or on in a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) scheme,

the duty cycle of which determines the ratio of Vout to Vin

from: http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/4087
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 basic electronics

Step-Down Calculations
• If the FET is on for duty cycle, D (fraction of time on),
and the period is T:
– the average output voltage is Vout = DVin
– the average current through the capacitor is zero, the
average current through the load (and inductor) is 1/D times
the input current
– under these idealizations, power in = power out

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 basic electronics

Step-down waveforms
• Shown here is an example of FET
the step-down with the FET
duty cycle around 75%
• The average inductor current
Inductor
(dashed) is the current Current
delivered to the load
– the balance goes to the
capacitor Supply
• The ripple (parabolic sections) Current

has peak-to-peak fractional

amplitude of T2(1D)/(8LC)
Capacitor
– so win by small T, large L & C Current
– 10 kHz at 1 mH, 1000 F
yields ~0.1% ripple
Output
– means 10 mV on 10 V
Voltage
(ripple exag.)

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 basic electronics

Cable Impedances
• RG58 cable is characterized as 50  cable
– RG59 is 75 
– some antenna cable is 300 
• Isn’t the cable nearly zero resistance? And shouldn’t
the length come into play, somehow?
• There is a distinction between resistance and
impedance
– though same units
• Impedances can be real, imaginary, or complex
– resistors are real: Z = R
– capacitors and inductors are imaginary: Z = i/C; Z = iL
– mixtures are complex: Z = R  i/C + iL

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Impedances, cont.
• Note that:
– capacitors become less “resistive” at high frequency
– inductors become more “resistive” at high frequency
– bigger capacitors are more transparent
– bigger inductors are less transparent
– i (√1) indicates 90 phase shift between voltage and current
• after all, V = IZ, so Z = V/I
• thus if V is sine wave, I is cosine for inductor/capacitor
• and given that one is derivative, one is integral, this makes
sense (slide # 3)
– adding impedances automatically takes care of summation
rules: add Z in series
• capacitance adds as inverse, resistors, inductors straight-up

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 basic electronics

Impedance Phasor Diagram

• Impedances can be drawn
imag. axis
on a complex plane, with Zi
pure resistive, inductive, and Z
capacitive impedances
represented by the three L
cardinal arrows Zr

• An arbitrary combination of real axis

components may have a
complex impedance, which R
can be broken into real and
imaginary parts
1/C
• Note that a system’s
impedance is frequency-
dependent

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