1.1 Text

1.1.1 History about Electronics

There can be no doubt that the 1900s is remembered as the electronic century. Of course there have been other great advances, in medicine, in transport, in science, in commerce, and many other fields, but where would they have been without the instruments and devices that electronics has provided? How would you see a 3D virtual reality image of your beating heart with no electronics? How would you get money out of the bank on a Sunday night without electronics? Would you go to a pop concert that had no amplifiers, large screens or lighting effects? Don't say you would rather watch TV - there would not be any.

Electronics in the early 20th century started thriving at a greater speed unlike the pre-20th century developments. The radio invented by the Italian genius Marconi and the work of Henry Hertz opened the road to further discoveries and inventions. In the first decade the new thing that was welcomed to the technical world was the vacuum tube. The vacuum tubes at that time worked as a miraculous component for the radio devices.

The invention of the television was a miraculous thing for the mankind. It was revolution in both communication technology and also for the world media. The distances between the continents did not seem to be far enough. The credit goes to the British engineer John Logic Baird who followed the footprints of Marconi and tried to send the images in the same way as the speech. After a long experiment he found that a series of static pictures if sent within a small interval of time in between them, seem to be moving.

The real electronics what it is called today was actually started after the discovery of the transistor effect. Transistor opened the road for the electronics and more importantly it opened the road for the computing world. Computers of various types started hitting the market and the research works got a boost.

Some other problems were also there like the assembling of the electronic components on a single mother board. Jack Kilby in Texas Instruments found a very nice solution. He suggested to throw away all the wires and tried to connect the resistors, capacitors and transistors on the same piece of wafer internally. Surprisingly his ideas worked and gave birth to the integrated circuit industries.

1.1.2 Introduce to Some Courses

As a student majoring in the electronic technology, you will study many courses such as:

1. Direct Current Circuits & Alternating Current circuits

This course covers the fundamental theory of passive devices (resistor, capacitor and inductor) and electrical networks supplied by a DC source, and then an introduction to the effects of alternating voltage and current in passive electrical circuits is given. This module also covers DC machines, three phase machines and transformers.

2. Analog Electronics

This module introduces the characteristics of semiconductor devices in a range of linear applications and electronic circuits consisting of these devices (Fig 1.1). The following specific topics are covered. Semiconductor diodes: PN junction diodes, special purpose diodes; Transistors: field effect and bipolar transistors;Signal amplifiers: practical amplifiers, biasing circuits, operational amplifiers circuit; Other circuits: rectification, regulation and DC power supplies.

3. Digital Electronics

In this unit the following topics are covered: basic concepts about Logic circuits, number representations, combinatorial logic circuits, sequential logic circuits, introduction to CMOS digital circuits，logic operations theorems and Boolean algebra, number operations (binary, hex and integers), combinatorial logic analysis and synthesis, sequential logic analysis and synthesis, registers, counters, bus systems, CAD tools for logic design.

4. Microcontroller Systems

The use of computers and microcontrollers is now found in every field of the electronics industry. This use will continue to grow at a rapid pace as computers become more complex and powerful. The ability to program these devices will make a student an invaluable asset to the growing electronic industry. This module enables the student to program a simple microcontroller to perform typical industrial tasks. Assembler and C are used to program the MPU (Microprocessor Unit). The student will set up the internal devices such as RS232 port, timer, interrupts, counters, I/O ports, ADC etc. The program will then use these devices for control operations.

5. Computer Programming for Engineering Applications

It is a continuation of more advanced programming techniques. The language of C will be used for teaching purposes. Emphasis is towards the use of programming for engineering applications and problem solving.

The electronic technology will provide a sound educational foundation to enable graduates to follow a career in: electrical engineering; power and control engineering; electronics; computer engineering; telecommunications engineering etc.

Technical Words and Phrases

Notes to the Text

1.MPU Microprocessor Unit微处理器的缩写

2.microcontroller微控制器，微处理器，单片机（有时用microprocessor）