Electronics

Terms related to electronics, including definitions about electrical components and words and phrases about computers, laptops parts, digital cameras, televisions and home appliances.

G-code - G-code (also known as geometric code or RS-274) is the most prevalent programming language for computer numerical control (CNC) machines used in computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM).
gallium arsenide (GaAs) - Gallium arsenide (chemical formula GaAs) is a semiconductor compound used in some diode s, field-effect transistors (FETs), and integrated circuits (ICs).
gallium arsenide field-effect transistor (GaAsFET) - A gallium arsenide field-effect transistor (GaAsFET) is a specialized type of field-effect transistor (FET) that is used in amplifier circuits at very-high, ultra-high, and microwave radio frequencies.
gas - A gas is a substance that is in a gaseous, or vaporous, state of matter.
graphic equalizer - A graphic equalizer is a high-fidelity audio control that allows the user to see graphically and control individually a number of different frequency bands in a stereophonic system.
green networking - Green networking is the practice of selecting energy-efficient networking technologies and products and minimizing resource use whenever possible.
harmonic - A harmonic is a wave or signal whose frequency is an integral (whole number) multiple of the frequency of the same reference signal or wave.
HDTV (high-definition television) - HDTV (high-definition television) is a television display technology that provides picture quality similar to 35 mm movies with sound quality similar to that of a compact disc.
henry (H) - The henry (symbolized H) is the International System of Units (SI) derived unit of electrical inductance.
hole - In physics, a hole is an electric charge carrier with a positive charge, equal in magnitude but opposite in polarity to the charge on the electron.
horsepower (hp) - Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement in the foot-pound-second (fps or ft-lb/s) or English system, sometimes used to express the rate at which mechanical energy is expended.
hydraulics - Hydraulics is a mechanical function that operates through the force of liquid pressure.
IBM Roadrunner - Roadrunner was a supercomputer developed by IBM at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
impedance - Impedance, denoted Z, is an expression of the opposition that an electronic component, circuit, or system offers to alternating and/or direct electric current.
inductor - An inductor is a passive electronic component that temporarily stores energy in a magnetic field when electric current flows through the inductor's coil.
instant app (Google Android instant app) - A Google Android instant app is a small software program that enables users to test out a portion of a native Android app without installing it on a device.
integrated circuit (IC) - An integrated circuit (IC), sometimes called a chip, microchip or microelectronic circuit, is a semiconductor wafer on which thousands or millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors are fabricated.
intellectual property core (IP core) - An intellectual property core (IP core) is a functional block of logic or data used to make a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit for a product.
intelligent system - An intelligent system is an advanced computer system that can gather, analyze and respond to the data it collects from its surrounding environment.
interlaced display - An interlaced display, or interlaced scan video, is when a video only changes every other row of pixels in the image at each screen refresh.
International System of Units (SI) - The International System of Units is a global standard for expressing the magnitudes or quantities of important natural phenomena.
iPhone - The iPhone is a smartphone made by Apple that combines a computer, iPod, digital camera and cellular phone into one device with a touchscreen interface.
judder - Judder is a television screen artifact that occurs when content recorded on film is shown on a television with a 60Hz refresh rate.
kill switch - A kill switch in an IT context is a mechanism used to shut down or disable a device or program.
kinetic energy - Kinetic energy is the energy of motion, observable as the movement of an object or subatomic particle.
laser - A laser is a coherent and focused beam of photons; coherent, in this context, means that it is all one wavelength, unlike ordinary light which showers on us in many wavelengths.
LCD TV - LCD TV is a television display technology based on a liquid crystal display.
LED TV (LED-backlight LCD television) - LED TV is a type of LCD television that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to backlight the display instead of the cold cathode fluorescent lights (CCFLs) used in standard LCD televisions.
lithium polymer battery (LiPo) - A lithium polymer battery is a rechargeable battery with a polymer electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyte.
logic gate (AND, OR, XOR, NOT, NAND, NOR and XNOR) - A logic gate is a device that acts as a building block for digital circuits.
logical equivalence - Logical equivalence is the condition of equality that exists between two statements or sentences in propositional logic or Boolean algebra.
machine-to-machine (M2M) - Machine-to-machine, or M2M, is a broad label that can be used to describe any technology that enables networked devices to exchange information and perform actions without the manual assistance of humans.
magnetic field strength - Magnetic field strength is a measure of the intensity of a magnetic field in a given area of that field.
magnetomotive force (magnetic potential) - Magnetomotive force, also known as magnetic potential, is the property of certain substances or phenomena that gives rise to magnetic field s.
matter - Matter is a substance made up of various types of particles that occupies physical space and has inertia.
memristor - A memristor is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in a circuit and remembers the amount of charge that has previously flowed through it.
MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) - A MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) is a miniature machine that has both mechanical and electronic components.
metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) - The metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, pronounced MAWS-feht) is the most common type of field-effect transistor (FET).
micro USB - A micro USB is a miniaturized version of the Universal Serial Bus interface developed for connecting compact and mobile devices, such as smartphones, MP3 players, Global Positioning System devices, printers and digital cameras.
microchip - A microchip -- also called a chip, computer chip or integrated circuit (IC) -- is a unit of integrated circuitry that is manufactured at a microscopic scale using a semiconductor material, such as silicon or, to a lesser degree, germanium.
microcontroller (MCU) - A microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system.
microfarad - The microfarad -- symbolized as µF using the Greek symbol mu -- is a unit of capacitance, equivalent to 0.
microgrid - A microgrid is a small-scale power grid that can operate independently or collaboratively with other small power grids.
microphone - A microphone is a device that translates sound vibrations in the air into electronic signals and scribes them to a recording medium or over a loudspeaker.
milliampere-hour (mAh) - A milliampere-hour (mAh) is one-thousandth of an ampere hour (Ah), which can also be written as 1 mAh = 0.
MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) - MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) is an antenna technology for wireless communications in which multiple antennas are used at both the source (transmitter) and the destination (receiver).
modulation - Modulation is the process of converting data into radio waves by adding information to an electronic or optical carrier signal.
molecule - A molecule is two or more atoms connected by chemical bonds, which form the smallest unit of a substance that retains the composition and properties of that substance.
motherboard - A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in a computer.
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) - MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) is a method to compress and store audio.
mPOS (mobile point-of-sale) - MPOS, or mobile point-of-sale, is a smartphone, tablet or dedicated wireless device that performs the functions of a cash register or electronic POS terminal wirelessly.
mu - The lowercase Greek letter µ (pronounced mu) generally represents the prefix multiplier 0.
NAND flash memory - NAND flash memory is a type of non-volatile storage technology that does not require power to retain data.
nanomachine (nanite) - A nanomachine, also called a nanite, is a mechanical or electromechanical device whose dimensions are measured in nanometers (millionths of a millimeter, or units of 10 -9 meter).
nanopaint - Nanopaint is a coating that can modify the properties of a surface or substance according to user-defined parameters.
nanosecond (ns or nsec) - A nanosecond (ns or nsec) is one-billionth (10-9) of a second.
neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) - A neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) is a type of battery-electric vehicle that is capable of traveling at a maximum speed of 25 mph and which has a maximum loaded weight of 3,000 lbs.
network node - A computer network is a system of computers and computing devices that are connected via communication links.
neural radiance field (NeRF) - Neural radiance fields (NeRF) are a technique that generates 3D representations of an object or scene from 2D images by using advanced machine learning.
neutron - A neutron is a subatomic particle found in the nucleus of every atom except that of simple hydrogen.
no-fly zone - A no-fly zone is a restricted area of airspace over a landmark, event or geographic region in which aircraft are forbidden to fly, unless they have special authorization.
noise - Noise is unwanted electrical or electromagnetic energy that degrades the quality of signals and data.
non-interlaced display - A non-interlaced display is a screen display in which the lines are scanned progressively from the top to the bottom of the screen.
NOR flash memory - NOR flash memory is one of two types of non-volatile storage technologies.
NRZ (non-return-to-zero) - NRZ (non-return-to-zero) refers to a form of digital data transmission in which the binary low and high states, represented by numerals 0 and 1, are transmitted by specific and constant DC (direct-current) voltage s.
Nyquist theorem - The Nyquist theorem is also known as the sampling theorem.
ohm - The ohm is the standard unit of electrical resistance in the International System of Units (SI).
Ohm's Law - Ohm's Law is the mathematical relationship among electric current, resistance, and voltage.
OLED TV (organic light-emitting diode television) - An OLED TV (organic light-emitting diode television) is a type of display technology that uses OLEDs to render images on the panels used for TV screens.
on-screen display (OSD) - An on-screen display (OSD) is a control panel superimposed on a computer monitor, mobile device, television screen or another electronic device display that enables users to select viewing options and/or adjust components of the display, such as brightness, contrast, and horizontal and vertical positioning.
optoisolator (optical coupler or optocoupler) - An optoisolator (also known as an optical coupler, photocoupler, optocoupler) is a semiconductor device that transfers an electrical signal between isolated circuits using light.
oscillator - An oscillator is a mechanical or electronic device that works on the principles of oscillation: a periodic fluctuation between two things based on changes in energy.
oscilloscope - An oscilloscope is a laboratory instrument commonly used to display and analyze the waveform of electronic signals.
Parallel ATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment or PATA) - Parallel ATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment or PATA) is a legacy standard for connecting internal floppy disks, hard disk drives (HDDs) and optical drives to older computer systems.
pascal - The pascal (Pa) is the unit of pressure or stress in the International System of Units (SI).
passive keyless entry (PKE) - Passive keyless entry (PKE) is an automotive locking system that operates automatically when the holder is in proximity to the vehicle.
peak-to-peak (pk-pk) - Peak-to-peak (pk-pk) is the difference between the highest and the lowest values in a waveform.
permittivity (electric permittivity) - Permittivity (electric permittivity) is defined as the ratio of electric displacement to the electric field intensity.
permittivity of free space - The permittivity of free space is a physical constant that reflects the ability of electrical fields to pass through a classical vacuum.
personal digital assistant (PDA) - A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a small, mobile, handheld device that provides computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use, often for keeping schedules, calendars and address book information handy.
phase - In electronic signaling, a phase is the position of a wave at a point in time (instant) on a waveform cycle.
phase-locked loop (PLL) - A phase-locked loop (PLL) is an electronic circuit with a voltage or voltage-driven oscillator that constantly adjusts to match the frequency of an input signal.
phenomenon - A phenomenon, in a scientific context, is something that is observed to occur or to exist.
pixel - The pixel -- a word invented from picture element -- is the basic unit of programmable color on a computer display or in a computer image.
Planck's constant - Planck's constant, symbolized as h, is a fundamental universal constant that defines the quantum nature of energy and relates the energy of a photon to its frequency.
plasma - Plasma is a form of matter in which many of the electrons wander around freely among the nuclei of the atom s.
plasma TV - Plasma TV is a television display technology in which each pixel on the screen is illuminated by a tiny bit of plasma (charged gas).
plenum - In building construction, a plenum (pronounced PLEH-nuhm, from Latin meaning full) is a separate space provided for air circulation for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (sometimes referred to as HVAC).
plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) - A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a type of hybrid electric vehicle that combines a gasoline or diesel engine with an electric motor and a large battery, which can be recharged by plugging it into an electrical outlet or charging stations.
podcasting - Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio files using RSS feeds to the computers or mobile devices of subscribed users.
point of care (POC) testing - Point of care testing (POC testing or POCT) is medical testing performed with the patient, outside of a laboratory setting.
polarity - Polarity is when an entity contains two distinct and opposite poles that can either attract or repel each other.
positron - A positron is a particle of matter with the same mass as an electron but an opposite charge.
potential energy (U) - Potential energy, expressed in science as U, is energy that is stored within an object, not in motion but capable of becoming active.
power - Electrical power is the rate at which electrical energy is converted to another form, such as motion, heat, or an electromagnetic field.
power factor correction (PFC) - Power factor correction (PFC) is the set of mechanisms built into a power supply circuit to raise the power factor (PF).
power take-off (PTO) - Power take-off (PTO) is a device that transfers an engine's mechanical power to another piece of equipment.
power-on reset (PoR) - A power-on reset (PoR) is a circuit that provides a predictable, regulated voltage to a microprocessor or microcontroller with the initial application of power.
printed circuit board (PCB) - A printed circuit board (PCB) is a structure for assembling electronic components and their connections into a unified circuit that allows electrical current to pass between components.
processing in memory (PIM) - Processing in memory, or PIM (sometimes called processor in memory), refers to the integration of a processor with Random Access Memory (RAM) on a single chip.