From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An electronic component is a basic electronic element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads. Components are intended to be connected together, usually by soldering to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode etc.) or in more or less complex groups as integrated circuits (operational amplifier, resistor array, logic gate etc.)

Very often electronic components are mechanically stabilized, improved in insulation properties and protected from environmental influence by being enclosed in synthetic resin

Components may be Passive or Active:

• Passive components are those that do not have gain or directionality. ^[1] In the Electric industry they are called Electrical elements or electrical components
• Active components are those that have gain or directionality, in contrast to passive components, which have neither. They include Semiconductors (Solid State Devices) and Thermionic Valves (Vacuum Tubes)

Contents 1 List of electronic components 1.1 Wires and cables 1.2 Terminals and connectors 1.3 Cords 1.4 Switches 1.5 Resistors 1.6 Protection devices 1.7 Capacitors 1.8 Magnetic (inductive) devices 1.9 Networks 1.10 Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators 1.11 Power sources 1.12 Transducers, sensors, detectors 1.13 Solid State components, Semiconductors 1.13.1 Diodes 1.13.2 Transistors 1.13.3 Integrated circuits 1.13.4 Hybrid Circuits 1.14 Display technologies 1.15 Thermionic Valve, Vacuum Tube 1.16 Discharge devices 1.17 Assemblies, modules 1.18 Prototyping aids 1.19 Mechanical accessories 1.20 Other 2 Standard abbreviations 3 See also 4 References

Many electronic components are on the market today. Here is a list of some of them.

Devices to conduct electrical current

• Wires
• Cables
• Coaxial cables
• Ribbon cable

Devices to make electrical connection

• Terminal
• Connector
  • Socket
  • Screw terminal, Terminal Blocks
  • Header

Cables with connectors or terminals at their ends

• Power cord
• Data Cable
• Patch cord
• Test lead

Components that may be made to either conduct (closed) or not (open)

• Switch - manually operated switch
• Keypad - small array of pushbutton switches
• Relay - Electrically operated switch. This is a mechanical component, unlike the Solid State Relay
• Reed switch - Magnetically activated switch
• Thermostat - Thermally activated switch
• Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
• Limit Switch - Mechanically activated switch
• Mercury switch
• Centrifugal switch

Components that dissipate electrical energy as heat.

1. See the Transducer section below for resistors used to sense environmental conditions (Thermistor, Photoresistor, RTD...)
2. See the Protection section below for resistors used for current or voltage limiting (MOV, Inrush Limiters...)

• Resistor - fixed value
• Resistor network - array of resistors in one package
• Trimmer - Small variable resistor
• Potentiometer, Rheostat - Variable resistor
• Heater - heating element
• Resistance wire - wire of high-resistance material, similar to heating element
• Thermistor - Temperature-varied resistor

Passive components that protect circuits from excessive currents of voltages

1. While these components technically belong to the Wire, Resistor and Vacuum classes, they are grouped here based on their use.
2. Active components that perform a protection function are in the Semiconductor class, below.

• Fuse - Over-current protection, one time use
• Resettable fuse (PolySwitch, self-resetting fuse)- Over-current protection, resettable
• Metal Oxide Varistor, Surge Absorber (MOV) - Over-voltage protection. These are passive components, unlike the TVS
• Inrush current limiter - protection against initial Inrush current
• Gas Discharge Tube - protection against high voltage surges
• Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
• Spark gap - two electrodes with a gap in between too create arcing
• Filament lamp
• GFCI or RCD

Components that store electrical charge in an electrical field

• Capacitor - fixed capacitance
• Capacitor network (array)
• Variable capacitor - change the capacitance
• Varicap diode - variable capacitor come diode

Electrical components that use magnetism

• Inductor, coil, choke
• Variable inductor
• Saturable Inductor
• Transformer
• magnetic amplifier (toroid)
• Ferrite impedances, beads
• Motor
• Solenoid
• Speaker
• bleeper

Components that use more than one type of passive component

• RC network - forms an RC circuit, used in Snubbers
• LC Network - forms an LC circuit, used in tuneable transformers and RFI filters

Passive components that use piezoelectric effect

• Components that use the effect to generate or filter high frequencies
  • Crystal - Is a quartz crystal used to generate precise frequencies (See the Modules class below for complete oscillators)
  • Ceramic resonator - Is a ceramic crystal used to generate semi-precise frequencies
  • Ceramic filter - Is a ceramic crystal used to filter a band of frequencies such as in radio receivers
  • Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters
• Components that use the effect as mechanical Transducers.
  • Ultrasonic motor - Electric motor that uses the piezoelectric effect
  • For piezo buzzers and microphones, see the Transducer class below

Sources of electrical power

• Battery - acid- or alkali-based power supply
• Fuel cell - an electrochemical generator
• Power supply - usually a mains hook-up
• Photovoltaic device - generates electricity from light

1. Transducers generate physical effects when driven by an electrical signal, or vice-versa.
2. Sensors (detectors) are transducers that react to environmental conditions by changing their electrical properties or generating an electrical signal.
3. The Transducers listed here are single electronic components (as opposed to complete assemblies), and are passive (see Semiconductors and Tubes for active ones). Only the most common ones are listed here.

• Audio (see also Piezoelectric devices)
  • microphone - Magnetic, electrostatic (capacitive), piezoelectric and others. Convert audio to electrical signal
  • loudspeaker - Magnetic or piezoelectric device to generate full audio
  • Buzzer - Magnetic or piezoelectric sounder to generate tones
• Position, motion
  • Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) - Magnetic - detects linear position
  • Rotary encoder, Shaft Encoder - Optical, magnetic, resistive or switches - detects absolute or relative angle or rotational speed
  • Inclinometer - Capacitive - detects angle with respect to gravity
  • Motion sensor, Vibration sensor
  • Flowmeter - detects flow in liquid or gas
• Force, torque
  • Strain gauge - Piezoelectric or resistive - detects squeezing, stretching, twisting
  • Accelerometer - Piezoelectric - detects acceleration, gravity
• Thermal
  • thermocouple, thermopile - Wires that generate a voltage proportional to delta temperature
  • Thermistor - Resistor whose resistance changes with temperature, up PTC or down NTC
  • Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) - Wire whose resistance changes with temperature
  • Bolometer
  • Thermal cutoff - Switch that is opened or closed when a set temperature is exceeded
• Magnetic field (see also Hall Effect in semiconductors)
  • Magnetometer, Gaussmeter
• Humidity
  • Hygrometer
• Electromagnetic, light
  • Photoresistor - Light dependent resistor (LDR)

Electronic control components with no moving parts. Active components

A device which conducts electricity in only one direction.

• Standard Diode, Rectifier, Bridge Rectifier
• Schottky Diode, Hot Carrier Diode - superfast diode with low forward voltage drop
• Zener Diode - lets electricity flow "backwards" if it is suitably high in voltage
• Transient Voltage Suppression Diode (TVS), Unipolar or Bipolar - used to block high-voltage spikes
• Varactor, Tuning diode, Varicap, Variable Capacitance Diode - A diode come capacitor
• Light Emitting Diode (LED) - A diode which gives out light
  • LASER Diode - A laser LED
• Photodiode - Only passes power when in light
  • Solar Cell, photovoltaic cell, PV array or panel
  • Avalanche Photodiode
  • Diode for Alternating Current (DIAC, Trigger Diode, SIDAC)
  • Current source Diode
  • Peltier cooler

• Bipolar transistors
  • Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT, "transistor") - NPN or PNP
    • photo transistor
  • Darlington transistor - NPN or PNP
    • Photo Darlington
  • Sziklai pair (Compound transistor, complementary Darlington)
• field effect transistor (FET)
  • Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL
  • Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET (MOSFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL
  • MEtal Semiconductor FET (MESFET)
  • High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)
• Thyristors
  • UniJunction Transistor (UJT)
  • Programmable UniJunction Transistor (PUT)
  • Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)
  • Static Induction Transistor/Thyristor (SIT, SITh)
  • TRIode for Alternating Current (TRIAC)
• Composite transistors
  • Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)

• digital
• analog
  • Hall effect sensor - Senses a magnetic field
  • Current sensor - Senses a current through it

• Optoelectronics
  • Opto-Isolator, Opto-Coupler, Photo-Coupler - Photodiode, BJT, JFET, SCR, TRIAC, Zero-crossing TRIAC, Open collector IC, CMOS IC, Solid State Relay (SSR)
  • Opto Switch, Opto Interrupter, Optical Switch, Optical Interrupter, Photo switch, Photo Interrupter
  • LED Display - Seven-segment display, Sixteen-segment display, Dot matrix display

Current:

• Filament lamp (indicator lamp)
• Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) (preformed characters, 7 segment, starburst)
• Cathode ray tube (CRT) (dot matrix scan (eg computer monitor), radial scan (eg radar), arbitrary scan (eg oscilloscope)) (monochrome & colour)
• LCD (preformed characters, dot matrix) (passive, TFT) (monochrome, colour)
• Neon (individual, 7 segment display)
• LED (individual, 7 segment display, starburst display, dot matrix)
• Flap indicator (numeric, preprinted messages)
• Plasma (dot matrix)

Obsolete:

• Filament lamp 7 segment display (aka 'minitron')
• Nixie
• Pixie
• Trixie
• Dekatron (aka glow transfer tube)
• Magic eye indicator
• Penetron (a 2 colour see-through CRT)

Active devices that operate in vacuum

• Diode
• Triode
• Tetrode
• Pentode
• Hexode
• Pentagrid
• Octode
• Barretter
• Nuvistor
• Compactron

Microwave

• klystron
• magnetron

Optical

• Photodiode
• cathode ray tube (CRT)
• Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD)
• photomultiplier tube

• Gas discharge tube

Obsolete:

• Mercury arc rectifier
• Voltage regulator tube
• nixie tube
• Thyratron
• Ignitron

Multiple electronic components assembled in a device that is in itself used as a component

• Oscillator
• Display devices
  • liquid crystal display
• Filter
• Antennas
  • elemental dipole
  • biconical
  • Yagi
  • phased array
  • magnetic dipole (loop)
  • parabolic dish
  • feedhorn, waveguide

• wire-wrap
• breadboard

• Enclosure
• Heat sink
• Heatsink paste & pads
• Fan

• printed circuit boards
• Lamp

Obsolete:

• Carbon amplifier
• Carbon arc (negative resistance device)
• Dynamo (historic rf generator)

Component name abbreviations widely used in industry:

• Circuit Design
• Circuit diagram
• Electrical element
• Electronic components' Datasheets

• Allied's list of classes of components
• Newark's list of classes of components
• PartNumber.com, a utility to assign part numbers to electronic components.
• Digikey's list of all classes of components
• Otxi's extensive list of various electronic components