Electronics - Wikiparency

# Electronics **Electronics** is the branch of physics and electrical engineering that designs, builds and operates devices which control the flow of electrons and other charge carriers, using [[Active_device|active components]] — [[Transistor|transistors]], [[Diode|diodes]], [[Integrated_circuit|integrated circuits]] — to amplify and switch current, and to convert it between forms: alternating to direct, analog to digital. It is the discipline underneath [[Telecommunications]], entertainment, healthcare, industry and security; the semiconductor sector alone generates more than $481 billion a year, and the wider electronics-and-e-commerce economy passed $29 trillion in online sales by 2017.[^wp] This page is the Electronics hub of Wikitube: the pair's skeleton, section by section, with one microsim per section that puts the governing equation under the reader's hand. A [[Resistor]] shows why real resistors have a temperature ceiling; a [[Capacitor]] shows where the ideal 1/ωC curve stops holding once ESR and ESL are counted; a [[Diode]] shows the Shockley exponential turn into a hard knee; a [[Transistor]] shows the load line meeting the output-characteristic fan at the operating point; an [[Alternating_current]] shows why "120 volts" is never the peak; and an [[Electric_motor]] turns torque-speed into one straight line. Seven of the spine's forty-six sections carry a built sim today; the rest are named below as the growth worklist, exactly as redlinks are on Wikipedia. ## Links (Wikipedia order)  `Active_device` · `Adder_(electronics)` · `Air_conditioning` · [[Alternating_current]] · `Altium` · `Ambrose_Fleming` · `Amplifier` · `Analog_circuits` · `Analog_electronics` · `Analog_signal` · `Analogue_electronics` · `Application-specific_integrated_circuit` · `Atomtronics` · `Audio_electronics` · `Audio_engineering` · `Audio_equipment` · `Audion` · `Automotive_electronics` · `Avionics` · `Binary_system` · `Biodegradable_electronics` · `Bioelectronics` · `Boolean_algebra` · `Broadcast_engineering` · `Cadence_Design_Systems` · `Calculator` · [[Capacitor]] · `Cathode-ray_tube` · `Cavity_magnetron` · `Central_heating` · `CircuitLogix` · `Circuit_design` · `Clothes_dryer` · `Computer` · `Computer_cooling` · `Computer_engineering` · `Consumer_electronics` · `Control_system` · `Convection` · `Counter_(digital)` · `Crystal_detector` · `Data_acquisition` · `Dawon_Kahng` · `Digital_camera` · `Digital_electronics` · `Digital_logic` · `Digital_signal` · `Digital_signal_processor` · [[Diode]] · `Direct_current` · `Dishwasher` · `Domestic_robot` · `Donald_Knuth` · `EAGLE_(program)` · `EHealth` · `Electric_charge` · `Electric_current` · `Electrical_engineering` · `Electromagnetic_warfare` · `Electron` · `Electronic_circuit` · `Electronic_circuit_simulation` · `Electronic_component` · `Electronic_design_automation` · `Electronic_engineering` · `Electronic_noise` · `Electronic_packaging` · `Electronics_(magazine)` · `Electronics_engineering` · `Electronics_engineering_technology` · `Electronics_industry` · `Embedded_system` · `FR-2` · `FR-4` · `Failure_of_electronic_components` · `Field-programmable_analog_array` · `Field-programmable_gate_array` · `Flexible_electronics` · `Flip-flop_(electronics)` · `Freezer` · `Fuzzy_electronics` · `GEDA` · `Germanium` · `Go-box` · `Guitar_amplifiers` · `Heat` · `Heat_conduction` · `Heat_dissipation` · `Heat_energy` · `Heat_sink` · `History_of_electronics_engineering` · `Home_appliance` · `Home_automation` · `Home_cinema` · `Home_computer` · `Home_theater_PC` · `IBM_608` · `Index_of_electronics_articles` · [[Inductor]] · `Information_technology` · [[Integrated_circuit]] · `Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit` · `Jack_Kilby` · `John_Bardeen` · `Junction_transistor` · `Karl_Ferdinand_Braun` · `KiCad` · `Kitchen_stove` · `Laptop` · `Large-scale_integration` · `Lee_De_Forest` · `List_of_best-selling_electronic_devices` · `List_of_emerging_technologies` · `Logic_gate` · `Low-power_electronics` · `MOSFET` · `MOSFET_scaling` · `Major_appliance` · `Marine_electronics` · `Mechanical_fan` · `Memory_chip` · `Mentor_Graphics` · `Metal-oxide-semiconductor_field-effect_transistor` · `Microchip` · `Microcontroller` · `Microelectronics` · `Microprocessor` · `Microwave` · `Microwave_oven` · `Mobile_phone` · `Molecular_electronics` · `Multiplexer` · `Multisim` · `Nanoelectronics` · `Networking_hardware` · `Nuclear_electronics` · `ORCAD` · `Open-source_hardware` · `Operating_temperature` · `Optoelectronics` · `Organic_electronics` · `Outline_of_electronics` · `PSpice` · `Photonics` · `Physics` · `Piezotronics` · `Point-contact_transistor` · `Point-to-point_wiring` · `Portable_media_player` · `Power_electronics` · `Power_supplies` · `Printed_circuit_board` · `Printed_electronics` · `Processor_register` · `Quantum_electronics` · `Radar` · `Radiation` · `Radio` · `Radio-frequency_engineering` · `Radio_antenna` · `Radio_navigation` · `Radio_receiver` · `Radio_signal` · `Rectifier` · [[Resistor]] · `Robert_Noyce` · `Robotic_vacuum_cleaner` · [[Robotics]] · `Schematic_capture` · `Schmitt_trigger` · `Semiconductor` · `Semiconductor_device` · `Semiconductor_industry` · `Semiconductor_package` · `Sensor` · `Shot_noise` · `Signal` · `Silicon` · `Simon_Sze` · `Solid-state_electronics` · `Spintronics` · `Surface-mount_technology` · `Surface_mount` · `Switch` · `System_on_chip` · `Tablet_computer` · `Tankless_water_heating` · `Telecommunications` · `Telephone` · `Telephony` · `Television` · `Terahertz_radiation` · `Ternary_computer` · `The_Art_of_Electronics` · `Thermal_management_of_electronic_devices_and_systems` · `Through-hole` · `Thyristor` · `Timeline_of_electrical_and_electronics_engineering` · [[Transistor]] · `Triode` · `VLSI` · `Vacuum_tube` · `Valve_RF_amplifier` · `Video_game_console` · `Walter_Houser_Brattain` · `Washing_machine` · `Water_cooling` · `Wire` · `Wire_wrap` · `Wireless` ## History The first semiconductor device — Karl Ferdinand Braun's [[Crystal_detector|crystal detector]] — dates to 1874, and [[Sir_Joseph_John_Thomson|J. J. Thomson]] identified the electron in 1897; the vacuum tube followed within a decade, with [[Ambrose_Fleming|Ambrose Fleming]]'s diode and [[Lee_De_Forest]]'s triode enabling the commercial radio and telecommunications boom of the 1920s.[^wp] The tube era ended at Bell Labs on 16 December 1947, when [[John_Bardeen]] and [[Walter_Houser_Brattain|Walter Brattain]] built the first point-contact [[Transistor]]; the [[MOSFET|MOSFET]] followed in 1955–1960, and IBM's 608 (April 1955) was the first commercial calculator built entirely from transistors rather than tubes.[^wp] [[Integrated_circuit|Integrated circuits]] compounded the gain from there: [[Jack_Kilby|Kilby]]'s hybrid IC and [[Robert_Noyce|Noyce]]'s monolithic version both date to 1958–59, and by 2008 billion-transistor processors were a commercial commodity — roughly six orders of magnitude beyond that first point-contact device in sixty years.[^wp] ## Passive components *Main articles: [[Resistor]], [[Capacitor]], [[Inductor]] · Connects to: Circuit theory, Alternating current* The three passive components store or dissipate energy without amplifying anything, and each one's textbook law is the easy half of the story — the interesting half is where the ideal formula stops applying. ### Resistor A resistor's own dissipated power heats it, and a hotter resistor usually has higher resistance, which raises the power it dissipates at a fixed voltage: this is a feedback loop with a fixed point, not a runaway, for any resistor operated inside its rated power. The section sim solves that fixed point directly against the manufacturer's power-derating curve, so a rating crossing shows up as a shape change in the curve rather than a red warning label.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Resistor.html" data-title="Resistor"></div> *Try:* push the applied voltage up past the rated power line and watch the self-heating fixed point climb away from the cold-resistance value; back off the ambient temperature slider and the same crossing point moves. ### Capacitor An ideal capacitor's impedance falls forever as 1/ωC; a real one's does not, because equivalent series resistance (ESR) puts a floor under it and equivalent series inductance (ESL) turns the curve back upward past a self-resonant frequency where |Z| again equals ESR.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Capacitor.html" data-title="Capacitor"></div> *Try:* sweep frequency through self-resonance and watch the impedance curve bottom out at ESR exactly, then climb as an inductor instead of a capacitor. ### Inductor Ferromagnetic-core inductors saturate: inductance falls smoothly from its low-current value L0 toward zero as current rises, and the energy the inductor can still store approaches a hard ceiling. The section sim's soft-saturation model puts inductance at exactly half of L0 at the rated saturation current, with the stored-energy ceiling and the coil's Q both shown live.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Inductor.html" data-title="Inductor"></div> *Try:* drive the current past the saturation point and watch L/L0 cross 0.5 exactly, then watch the stored-energy curve flatten toward its ceiling. ## Active devices *Main articles: [[Diode]], [[Transistor]] · Connects to: History, Digital and further devices* ### Diode The [[Diode|p–n junction]] is the Shockley equation made physical: forward current rises exponentially with voltage until the diode's own series resistance turns the curve into a nearly vertical line — the "knee" every datasheet draws. The section sim derives, rather than hard-codes, two textbook constants: a temperature coefficient of −1.96 mV per kelvin and a 59.16 mV-per-decade swing, both emerging from the underlying model rather than being written in as presets.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Diode.html" data-title="Diode"></div> *Try:* drag the load line across the curve and find the operating point by eye before the readout confirms it; then slide temperature and watch the whole curve shift by the derived coefficient. ### Transistor A bipolar junction transistor's output characteristics are a fan of curves — collector current against collector-emitter voltage, one curve per base current — tilted by the Early effect rather than perfectly flat. Where a load line crosses the fan at the actual base drive is the quiescent (Q) point, and the section sim solves for it directly rather than reading it off a chart by eye.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Transistor.html" data-title="Transistor"></div> *Try:* change the load resistor and watch the Q point slide along the load line to a new curve in the fan; push the base drive high enough and the transistor saturates, where the fan's tilt stops mattering at all. ## Alternating current and electromechanical power *Main articles: [[Alternating_current]], [[Electric_motor]] · Connects to: Passive components, Active devices* ### Alternating current "120 volts" is a root-mean-square figure, not a peak, and the ratio between the two — the crest factor — depends on the waveform: a sine, a square wave and a half-rectified sine all relate peak to RMS to rectified-mean differently. The section sim computes all three for any waveform shape rather than only the sine case most textbooks stop at.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Alternating_current.html" data-title="Alternating current"></div> *Try:* switch from sine to square to half-rectified and watch the crest factor jump; the peak-to-RMS relationship that "just works" for household power is one case among several. ### Electric motor A DC motor's torque-speed line is straight: maximum torque at zero speed (stall), maximum speed at zero torque (no load), and a power curve that peaks exactly halfway between. Efficiency, absent friction, equals the speed fraction exactly — a motor spinning at 80% of its no-load speed converts 80% of the electrical input to mechanical output, no more calculation required.[^plan] <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/Electric_motor.html" data-title="Electric motor"></div> *Try:* load the motor down from no-load speed toward stall and watch power peak at the midpoint while efficiency falls in a straight line the whole way. ## Circuit theory *Verified, not yet built: `Ohm's_law` · `Kirchhoff's_circuit_laws` · `Thévenin's_theorem` · `Superposition_principle` · `Electrical_impedance` · `Electrical_reactance` · `RLC_circuit` · `Q_factor` · `Electronic_filter` · `Bode_plot`* Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's two circuit laws are the three facts that make a schematic solvable at all; Thévenin's theorem and the superposition principle are how an engineer collapses a complicated linear network down to something a load line can be drawn against, exactly as the diode and transistor sections above already do by hand. Impedance and reactance generalize resistance to AC, the RLC circuit and its Q factor are where the capacitor and inductor sections above meet in the same network, and the electronic filter and Bode plot are how that combination gets designed on purpose rather than discovered by accident. Each of these ten titles is a verified Wikipedia article pinned and ready to mint; none has a Wikitube article or sim yet. ## Digital and further devices *Verified, dense, needs a sim only:* [[Logic_gate]] · [[Flip-flop_(electronics)]] *Verified, not yet built:* `Bipolar_junction_transistor` · `Field-effect_transistor` · `MOSFET` · `Power_MOSFET` · `Vacuum_tube` · `Rectifier` · `Operational_amplifier` · `Electronic_oscillator` · `Voltage_regulator` [[Logic_gate|Logic gates]] and the [[Flip-flop_(electronics)|flip-flop]] are the two building blocks of everything digital built on top of the transistor above, and both already have Wikitube articles at full density — they are next in line for a section sim, not a rewrite. The remaining nine titles split the transistor family into its practical variants (bipolar, field-effect, MOSFET, power MOSFET), keep one seat for the vacuum tube the transistor replaced, and cover the handful of standard building-block circuits — the rectifier, the operational amplifier, the oscillator, the voltage regulator — that turn a handful of active devices into every analog circuit above them. ## Signals, power conversion and spintronics *Verified, not yet built:* `Amplifier` · `Analog-to-digital_converter` · `Signal_modulation` · `Pulse-width_modulation` · `DC-to-DC_converter` · `Buck_converter` · `Phase-locked_loop` · `Wheatstone_bridge` · `Transmission_line` · `Electromagnetic_induction` · `Sequential_logic` · `Semiconductor_device_fabrication` · `Spintronics` · `Giant_magnetoresistance` · `Spin_Hall_effect` · `Tunnel_magnetoresistance` · `Spin-transfer_torque` · `Spin_valve` · `Rashba_effect` · `Magnetic_skyrmion` The signal and power-conversion cluster is where the alternating-current section above becomes useful: an amplifier and an [[Alternating_current|AC]]-to-digital converter move a signal between domains, modulation schemes put information onto a carrier, and the DC-to-DC converter family (buck converter and phase-locked loop included) is how one voltage rail becomes another inside every piece of modern electronics. Spintronics is the newest cluster on the spine — giant magnetoresistance, the spin Hall effect, tunnel magnetoresistance, spin-transfer torque, the spin valve, the Rashba effect and the magnetic skyrmion are eight verified, pinned titles with no Wikitube presence yet, the frontier end of the same electron-control story the lede opens with. ## Industry The semiconductor sector generated more than $481 billion in 2018, and the broader electronics-and-e-commerce economy passed $29 trillion in online sales by 2017; manufacturing leadership has shifted over the same period from the United States toward East Asia — Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan now anchor most of global semiconductor production.[^wp] ## See also [[Electrical_engineering]] · [[Semiconductor]] · [[Electronic_component]] · [[Printed_circuit_board]] · [[Integrated_circuit]] · [[Electronics_industry]] ## Notes [^wp]: Wikipedia, "Electronics", rev. 1375411875 (17 September 2026) — lede figures, the History section's dates and names, and the Industry section's market figures are drawn directly from the pair article. [^plan]: Wikitube electronics run, `_registry/plans/ELECTRONICS_SECTIONS.md` §1.1 (2026-09-12) — every physics claim in Passive components, Active devices and Alternating current/electromechanical power was checked against a closed-form hand solution before the sim shipped (Diode: KCL closes to 5.0000, the −1.96 mV/K and 59.16 mV/decade constants emerge from the model; Transistor: Q point matches to 3 dp, KVL closes to 1e-4; Electric motor: energy balance closes to 1.4e-14 W; Resistor: self-heating fixed point and derating crossing match hand values; Capacitor: |Z| at self-resonance equals ESR to 6 dp; Inductor: L/L0 exactly 0.5 at I_sat, energy ceiling exact). ## Bibliography - Horowitz, P. and Hill, W., *The Art of Electronics*, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press) — the standard reference for every section above; cited by the Wikipedia pair article itself. - Struik, R. et al., *Structured Electronics Design: A Conceptual Approach to Amplifier Design*, 3rd ed. (TU Delft OPEN, 2023) — Portal Book (`Portal Books/PORTAL_Feedback/`); amplifier and operational-amplifier design once that section is minted. - *Operational Amplifiers & Linear Integrated Circuits: Theory and Application*, 3rd ed. (2018) — Portal Book (`Portal Books/PORTAL_Feedback/`); queued for the operational-amplifier section. - *Microwave and RF Design: Amplifiers and Oscillators* (2019) — Portal Book (`Portal Books/PORTAL_Feedback/`); queued for the oscillator and RF-adjacent sections. ## External links - [Wikitube microsim set for this hub](https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/electronics/manifest.json) — every sim on this page and its sources, one JSON row each. ## Microsims The sims on this page are the *electronics* set built by the Wikitube microsim framework (`MICROSIM_GUIDE/specs/`, pack `PORTAL_Electronics`), one per section: [[Resistor]], [[Capacitor]], [[Inductor]], [[Diode]], [[Transistor]], [[Alternating_current]] and [[Electric_motor]]. Every number a sim shows comes from the sim's own hooks file, checked against a closed-form hand solution (see the physics note above); the remaining thirty-nine sections in the spine below will each get one section sim once their articles are minted, built against a shared `wt-elec` physics library rather than inline code. ## Minnesota Minnesota's own electronics industry runs from Control Data Corporation, founded in Minneapolis in 1957 and for a time one of the world's largest computer makers, through Honeywell's long Minneapolis history in controls and avionics (carried into the sister [[Aviation]]/[[Avionics]] hubs), to 3M's materials and connector business headquartered in Maplewood. Medical-electronics leader Medtronic, also headquartered in Minneapolis, sits at the boundary between this hub and bioelectronics.[^mn] [^mn]: Institutional histories (Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, 3M, Medtronic) to be linked with primary sources in a later article pass, following the same placeholder pattern used in the Aviation hub's own Minnesota section. ## Wikipedia : Wikitube **Strict pair:** [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics) : [Wikitube](https://en.wikitube.io/wiki/Electronics) ## Previous hub tags Room: [[PORTAL_Electronics]]. Legacy hubs: GENERATIVE, Systems (wave1 mint, 2026-07-30). Legacy portal memberships kept: [[PORTAL_Control_theory]], [[PORTAL_Feedback]], [[PORTAL_Systems_science]], [[PORTAL_Systems_theory]]. --- *Text adapted from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics), licensed [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Raised to flagship density 2026-09-19 from a wave1-mint seed (2026-07-30); the article's earlier body — a 150-item p5.js microsim candidate checklist, partially built in the p5.js Web Editor — is preserved byte-for-byte at `wiki/Electronics.md.bak-2026-09-19-preflagship` rather than deleted, since some of its checked-off rows point at real, already-built p5.js sketches that the `microsim/` route has not yet absorbed.*  ## Spine · sections still to build (39 of 46) The full spine, MTN-verified 2026-09-12 (titles resolved through the Wikipedia API, redirects followed, revisions pinned, 3 redirect traps caught), lives at `_registry/plans/ELECTRONICS_SECTIONS.md` §3. Built sections (above) are struck from this list; what remains, grouped as the plan groups it: **Circuit theory (10).** `Ohm's_law` · `Kirchhoff's_circuit_laws` · `Thévenin's_theorem` · `Superposition_principle` · `Electrical_impedance` · `Electrical_reactance` · `RLC_circuit` · `Q_factor` · `Electronic_filter` · `Bode_plot` **Devices (9).** [[Logic_gate]]† · [[Flip-flop_(electronics)]]† · `Bipolar_junction_transistor` · `Field-effect_transistor` · `MOSFET` · `Power_MOSFET` · `Vacuum_tube` · `Rectifier` · `Operational_amplifier` · `Electronic_oscillator` · `Voltage_regulator` **Components and lines (2).** `Wheatstone_bridge` · `Transmission_line` **Signals and power (7).** `Amplifier` · `Analog-to-digital_converter` · `Signal_modulation` · `Pulse-width_modulation` · `DC-to-DC_converter` · `Buck_converter` · `Phase-locked_loop` **Spintronics (8).** `Spintronics` · `Giant_magnetoresistance` · `Spin_Hall_effect` · `Tunnel_magnetoresistance` · `Spin-transfer_torque` · `Spin_valve` · `Rashba_effect` · `Magnetic_skyrmion` **Also verified (3).** `Electromagnetic_induction` · `Sequential_logic` · `Semiconductor_device_fabrication` **Also promotable now, no minting needed (5).** `Signal-to-noise_ratio` · `Noise_(electronics)` · `Semiconductor_device` · `Integrated_circuit` · `Electrochemistry` — existing stub or thin articles the plan already scored; they need denser prose and a section sim, not a new article. † Article already exists at full density; only the section sim is missing. Backbone gap: no `wt-elec.js` physics library exists yet. The seven sims above keep their device physics inline in each sim's own hooks file — workable at seven sims, explicitly flagged in the plan as the wrong shape at thirty. Building that library is the first step before minting the circuit-theory and devices clusters. *Spine drafted 2026-09-19 · append-only, 0 deletions · sourced from `_registry/plans/ELECTRONICS_SECTIONS.md`.*