I.

FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRONICS

Electronic Devices

- devices that use electrical energy to control, process, or transmit information. They are made up of
electronic components, such as transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, and integrated circuits, which
manipulate electrical signals to perform specific functions.
- perform three main functions; amplification, switching, and oscillation, all as part of circuits.

SEMICONDUCTORS

Semiconductor – special class of elements having a conductivity between that of a good conductor and that
of an insulator.

Semi-Conductors Materials

• Single Crystal – germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) having repetitive crystal structure.
• Compound – gallium arsenide (GaAs), cadmium sulphide (CdS), gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium
arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) are constructed two or more semiconductor materials of different atomic
structure.

Three semiconductors used most frequently in construction of electronic devices are; germanium (Ge),
silicon (Si) and gallium arsenide (GaAs).

Silver

Copper Best Conductors (one valence electron)

Gold

Best Insulators (eight valence electrons)

Best Semiconductor (four valence electrons)

• Valence band – outermost orbit electrons in an

atom, highest energy level.
• Conduction band – loose electrons responsible
for current.
• Forbidden energy gap – gap between valence and
conduction bands.
Silicon Crystal Structure

- Silicon atoms arrange themselves in an orderly pattern called a crystal.

- Each silicon atoms shares its electrons with four neighboring atoms.
- This sharing allows each atom to have a total eight electrons in its valence orbit.

Intrinsic semiconductor
- An extremely pure conductor pure conductor is called intrinsic semiconductor.
- Intrinsic semiconductor has a negative temperature coefficient of resistance, meaning their resistivity
decreases and conductivity increases with a rise in temperature.

Extrinsic semiconductor
- Is not useful for electronic devices.
- Extrinsic semiconductors are classified based on the type of impurity is added:
• N-type semiconductor: when a donor impurity is added, creating excess free electrons.
• P-type semiconductors; when an acceptor impurity is added, creating excess holes.
• The process of adding impurities to a semiconductor is called doping, which needs to be closely
controlled. Types of Electronics Components

1. Passive Components 2. Active Components

These components are those that do These components are those that have gain or
not have gain or directionally. They are also called directionality.
electrical components. Example: Resistors, Capacitors,
Example: Transistors, Integrated Circuits or ICs,
Diodes, Inductors.
Logic Gates.
 Active Components Passive Components

Light Emitting Diode (LED) Resistor

Transistor Capacitor

Integrated Circuit (IC) Inductor

Battery Circuit Breaker

Relay (Can also be used as Passive) Fuse

Diode Switch

Solar Cell Transformer

Current Sensor Electrical Wires & Power Cables

SMD Components Motor

Function of Basic Electronic Components

1. Terminals and Connectors: Components to make electrical connection.
2. Resistors: Components used to resist current.
3. Switches: Components that may be made to either conduct (closed) or not (open).
4. Capacitors: Components that store electrical charge in an electrical field.
5. Magnetic or Inductive Components: These are Electrical components that use magnetism.
6. Network Components: Components that use more than 1 type of Passive Component.
7. Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators: Passive components that use piezoelectric. effect.
8. Semiconductors: Electronic control parts with no moving parts.
9. Diodes: Components that conduct electricity in only one direction.
10. Transistors: A semiconductor device capable of amplification.
11. Integrated Circuits or ICs: A microelectronic computer circuit incorporated into a chip or
semiconductor; a whole system rather than a single component.
Circuit Symbols of Electronic Components

II. RADIO TRANSMITTER

• device that sends out radio or televisions signal.
• transmit signals to complex geographical areas and also incorporates the devices connected
through mobile phones.
• electronic device that can produces radio waves and radiates these waves with the help of an
antenna.
• It consists of a message signal, modulator, carrier
signal, power amplifier, and an antenna. As the name
implies, the transmitter sends the information from one
end to the other. The baseband signal, also known as the
message signal, is translated to a radio frequency using
modulation. The baseband signal is multiplied by the
carrier signal by the modulator. It helps in improving the
frequency of the signal. The selected carrier signal has the
same
amplitude as the original signal. A power amplifier further amplifies the signal and radiates

through the antenna.

Two Types of Radio Transmitter

• Amplitude Modulation – the information is added to the radio signal by varying its amplitude.
• Frequency Modulation – it is added by varying the radio signal’s frequency slightly.

III. COMMUNICATION RECEIVERS

A radio receiver which is especially suited for receiving shortwave radio waves.

Characteristics of Communication Receivers:

- A communication receiver must be able to identify and select the desired signal from thousands of
others present in the frequency spectrum (selectivity) and to provide sufficient amplification to
recover the modulating signal (sensitivity).
 Sensitivity – ability to amplify weak signals.
Selectivity – ability to differentiate desired signal from unwanted signals. Fidelity –
measure of the ability of a communication system to produce an exact replica of the
original source information at the output of the receiver. Noise figure – determines the
smallest signal power that it can receive without making the output signal get drowned
in noise.

IV. ANALOG PULSE MODULATION

Types of Analog Modulation

1. Pulse Amplitude Modulation

2. Pulse Duration/ Pulse Width Modulation
3. Pulse Position Modulation

Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

It is the simplest form of pulse modulation. In this type of modulation, each sample is made proportional to
the amplitude of the signal at the instant of sampling. The PAM signal follows the amplitude of the original signal,
as the signal traces out the path of the whole wave.

There are two types of PAM:

1. Single Polarity PAM: A fixed DC level is added to the signal so that the signal is always positive.
2. Double Polarity PAM: Here, the pulses are both positive and negative.

PAM is illustrated in the figure below:

From the figure, it is clear that the pulse amplitude

modulated signal follows the amplitude of the message
signal.

Advantages of PAM

• Both modulation and demodulation are simple.

• Easy construction of transmitter and receiver circuits.
Disadvantages of PAM

• A large bandwidth is required for transmission.

• More noise.
• Here, the amplitude varies. Therefore, the power required will be more.

Applications of PAM

• Mainly used in Ethernet communication.

• Many microcontrollers use this technique in order to generate control signals.
• It is used in photo-biology.
• It acts as an electronic driver for LED circuits.

Pulse Time Modulation (PTM)

Here, the pulses will have the same amplitude. However, one of their timing characteristics is made proportional to
the amplitude of the sampled signal. This variable characteristic can be either frequency, position or width. This
way, pulse time modulation can be classified into three types.

Pulse Width Modulation

Pulse width modulation is also known as pulse duration modulation (PDM). Here, as the name suggests, the width
of the pulse is varied in proportion to the amplitude of the signal. Since the width is changing, the power loss can be
reduced when compared to PAM signals.
From the figure, it is clear that the amplitude of the signal is
constant. Amplitude limiters are used for this. Since clipping
of amplitude at desired levels take place, this modulation
produces less noise.

Advantages of PTM

• Low power consumption.

• It has an efficiency of about 90 per cent.
• Noise interference is less.
• High power handling capacity.

Disadvantages of PTM

• The circuit is more complex.

• Voltage spikes can be seen.
• The system is expensive as it uses semiconductor devices.
• Switching losses will be more due to high PWM frequency.
Applications of PTM

• Used for encoding purposes in the telecommunication system.

• Used to control brightness in a smart lighting system.
• It helps to prevent overheating in LEDs while maintaining their brightness.
• Used in audio and video amplifiers.

Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

In this type of modulation, both the amplitude and width of the pulse are kept constant, but we change the position
of each pulse with reference to a particular pulse. Here, a single pulse is transmitted with the required number of
phase shifts. So, we can say that pulse position modulation is an analogue modulation scheme where the amplitude
and width of the pulse are kept constant, while the position of the pulse with respect to the position of a reference
pulse is varied according to the instantaneous value of the message signal.

PPM can be obtained from PWM. This is done by getting rid of the leading edge and bodies of PWM pulses. The
main advantage of pulse position modulation is that it requires constant transmitter power output, while the major
disadvantage is that it depends upon transmitter-receiver synchronization.
The waveforms of PPM are given below:

However, the third type, pulse-frequency modulation,

is not used.

Advantages of PPM

• As it has constant amplitude, noise interference is

less.
• We can easily separate a signal from a noisy signal.
• Among all three types, it has the most power
efficiency.
• It requires less power when compared to pulse amplitude modulation.

Disadvantages of PPM

• The system is highly complex.

• The system requires more bandwidth.

Applications of PPM

• It is used in the air traffic control system and telecommunication systems.

• Remote-controlled cars, planes, and trains use pulse code modulations.
• It is used to compress data, and hence it is used for storage.