Electronic engineering
Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flow. Previously electrical engineering only used passive devices such as mechanical switches, resistors, inductors, and capacitors.
It covers fields such as analog electronics, digital electronics, consumer electronics, embedded systems and power electronics. It is also involved in many related fields, for example solid-state physics, radio engineering, telecommunications, control systems, signal processing, systems engineering, computer engineering, instrumentation engineering, electric power control, photonics and robotics.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is one of the most important professional bodies for electronics engineers in the US; the equivalent body in the UK is the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The International Electrotechnical Commission publishes electrical standards including those for electronics engineering.
History and development
Electronics engineering as a profession emerged following Karl Ferdinand Braun´s development of the crystal detector, the first semiconductor device, in 1874 and the identification of the electron in 1897 and the subsequent invention of the vacuum tube which could amplify and rectify small electrical signals, that inaugurated the field of electronics. Practical applications started with the invention of the diode by Ambrose Fleming and the triode by Lee De Forest in the early 1900s, which made the detection of small electrical voltages such as radio signals from a radio antenna possible with a non-mechanical device. The growth of electronics was rapid. By the early 1920s, commercial radio broadcasting and communications were becoming widespread and electronic amplifiers were being used in such diverse applications as long-distance telephony and the music recording industry.The discipline was further enhanced by the large amount of electronic systems development during World War II in such as radar and sonar, and the subsequent peace-time consumer revolution following the invention of transistor by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
Specialist areas
Electronics engineering has many subfields. This section describes some of the most popular.Electronic signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals. Signals can be either analog, in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or digital, in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the amplification and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment and the modulation and demodulation of radio frequency signals for telecommunications. For digital signals, signal processing may involve compression, error checking and error detection, and correction.
Telecommunications engineering deals with the transmission of information across a medium such as a co-axial cable, an optical fiber, or free space. Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a carrier wave in order to be transmitted, this is known as modulation. Popular analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the transmitters and receivers needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way communication device known as a transceiver. A key consideration in the design of transmitters is their power consumption as this is closely related to their signal strength. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by noise.
Aviation-'electronics engineering and Aviation-telecommunications engineering, are concerned with aerospace applications. Aviation-telecommunication engineers include specialists who work on airborne avionics in the aircraft or ground equipment. Specialists in this field mainly need knowledge of computer, networking, IT, and sensors. These courses are offered at such as Civil Aviation Technology Colleges.
Control engineering has a wide range of electronic applications from the flight and propulsion systems of commercial airplanes to the cruise control present in many modern cars. It also plays an important role in industrial automation. Control engineers often use feedback when designing control systems.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as pressure, flow, and temperature. The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of electronics engineering and physics; for example, radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier–Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.
Computer engineering deals with the design of computers and computer systems. This may involve the design of new computer hardware, the design of PDAs or the use of computers to control an industrial plant. Development of embedded systems—systems made for specific tasks —is also included in this field. This field includes the microcontroller and its applications.
Computer engineers may also work on a system's software. However, the design of complex software systems is often the domain of software engineering which falls under computer science, which is usually considered a separate discipline.
VLSI design engineering' VLSI stands for very large-scale integration. It deals with fabrication of ICs and various electronic components. In designing an integrated circuit, electronics engineers first construct circuit schematics that specify the electrical components and describe the interconnections between them. When completed, VLSI engineers convert the schematics into actual layouts, which map the layers of various conductor and semiconductor materials needed to construct the circuit.
Education and training
Electronics is a subfield within the wider electrical engineering academic subject. In electronics engineering ceramics are materials used to create electronic components. Ceramics are used for the creation of connectors, elements for encapsulation, multilayer capacitors, resistors, and sensors. Electronics engineers typically possess an academic degree with a major in electronics engineering. The length of study for such a degree is usually three or four years and the completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Applied Science, or Bachelor of Technology depending upon the university. During a bachelor’s degree, students usually complete a capstone course at the end of their degree. The capstone project involves designing and completing a real world project using knowledge from previous courses. Many UK universities also offer Master of Engineering degrees at the graduate level.Some electronics engineers also choose to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, or an Engineering Doctorate. The master's degree is being introduced in some European and American Universities as a first degree and the differentiation of an engineer with graduate and postgraduate studies is often difficult. In these cases, experience is taken into account. The master's degree may consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy consists of a significant research component and is often viewed as the entry point to academia.
In most countries, a bachelor's degree in engineering represents the first step towards certification and the degree program itself is certified by a professional body. Certification allows engineers to legally sign off on plans for projects affecting public safety. After completing a certified degree program, the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements, including work experience requirements, before being certified. Once certified the engineer is designated the title of Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer or Incorporated Engineer, Chartered Professional Engineer or European Engineer.
A degree in electronics generally includes units covering physics, chemistry, mathematics, project management and specific topics in electrical engineering. Initially, such topics cover most, if not all, of the subfields of electronics engineering. Students then choose to specialize in one or more subfields towards the end of the degree.
Fundamental to the discipline are the sciences of physics and mathematics as these help to obtain both a qualitative and quantitative description of how such systems will work. Today, most engineering work involves the use of computers and it is commonplace to use computer-aided design and simulation software programs when designing electronic systems. Although most electronic engineers will understand basic circuit theory, the theories employed by engineers generally depend upon the work they do. For example, quantum mechanics and solid-state physics might be relevant to an engineer working on VLSI but are largely irrelevant to engineers working with embedded systems.
Apart from electromagnetics and network theory, other items in the syllabus are particular to electronic engineering courses. Electrical engineering courses have other specialisms such as machines, power generation, and distribution. This list does not include the extensive engineering mathematics curriculum that is a prerequisite to a degree.
Various universities have updated their electrical and electronics programs to include renewable energy courses. The courses are being created because the world is shifting towards becoming more energy efficient.