ELECTRONIC COMPONENT

An 'electronic component' is a basic electronic element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads.
Components are intended to be connected together, usually by soldering to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode etc) or in more or less complex groups as integrated circuits (operational amplifier, resistor array, logic gate etc).
Very often electronic components are mechanically stabilized, improved in insulation properties and protected from environmental influence by being enclosed in synthetic resin
Components may be Passive or Active:

★ 'Passive components' are those that do not have gain or directionality. ^[1]. In the Electric industry they are called Electrical elements or electrical components

★ 'Active components' are those that have gain or directionality, in contrast to passive components, which have neither. They include Semiconductors (Solid State Devices) and Thermionic Valves (Vacuum Tubes)

Contents

List of electronic components

Wires and cables

Terminals and connectors

Cords

Switches

Resistors

Protection devices

Capacitors

Magnetic (inductive) devices

Networks

Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators

Power sources

Transducers, sensors, detectors

Assemblies, modules

Prototyping aids

Mechanical accessories

Other

See also

References

List of electronic components

Many electronic components are on the market today. Here is a list of some of them.

Wires and cables

Devices to conduct electrical current

★ Wire

★ Cable

★ Coaxial cable

Terminals and connectors

Devices to make electrical connection

★ Terminal

★ Connector

★
★ Socket

★
★ Screw_terminal, Terminal Blocks

★
★ Header

Cords

Cables with connectors or terminals at their ends

★ Power cord

★ Data Cable

★ Patch cord

★ Test lead

Switches

Components that may be made to either conduct (closed) or not (open)

★ Switch - manually operated switch

★ Keypad - small array of pushbutton switches

★ Relay - Electrically operated switch. This is a mechanical component, unlike the Solid State Relay

★ Reed switch - Magnetically activated switch

★ Thermostat switch - Thermally activated switch

★ Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch

★ Limit Switch - Mechanically activated switch

Resistors

Components that dissipate electrical energy as heat.
# See the Transducer section below for resistors used to sense environmental conditions (Thermistor, Photoresistor, RTD...)
# See the Protection section below for resistors used for current or voltage limiting (MOV, Inrush Limiters...)

★ Resistor - fixed value

★ Resistor network - array of resistors in one package

★ Trimmer - Small variable resistor

★ Potentiometer, Rheostat - Variable resistor

★ Heater - heating element

Protection devices

Passive components that protect circuits from excessive currents of voltages
# While these components technically belong to the Wire, Resistor and Vacuum classes, they are grouped here based on their use.
# Active components that perform a protection fuction are in the Semiconductor class, below.

★ Fuse - Over-current protection, one time use

★ Resettable fuse (PolySwitch, self-resetting fuse)- Over-current protection, resettable

★ Metal Oxide Varistor, Surge Absorber (MOV) - Over-voltage protection. These are passive components, unlike the TVS

★ Inrush current limiter - protection against initial Inrush current

★ Gas Discharge Arrestor - protection against high voltage surges

Capacitors

Components that store electrical charge in an electrical field

★ Capacitor

★ Capacitor network (array)

★ Variable capacitor

Magnetic (inductive) devices

Electrical components that use magnetism

★ Inductor, coil, choke

★ Variable inductor

★ Saturable_reactor}Saturable Inductor

★ Transformer

★ magnetic amplifier (toroid)

★ Ferrite impedances, beads

★ Motor

★ Solenoid

Networks

Components that use more than one type of passive component

★ RC network - forms an RC circuit, used in Snubbers

★ LC Network - forms an LC circuit, used in tuneable transformers

Piezoelectric devices, crystals, resonators

Passive components that use piezoelectric effect

★ Components that use the effect to generate or filter high frequencies

★
★ Crystal - Is a quartz crystal used to generate precise frequencies (See the Modules class below for complete oscillators)

★
★ Ceramic resonator - Is a ceramic crystal used to generate semi-precise frequencies

★
★ Ceramic filter - Is a ceramic crystal used to filter a band of frequencies such as in radio receivers

★
★ Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters

★ Components that use the effect as mechanical Transducers.

★
★ Ultrasonic_motor - Electric motor that uses the piezoelectric effect

★
★ For piezo buzzers and microphones, see the Transducer class below

Power sources

Sources of electrical power

★ Battery

★ Power supply

Transducers, sensors, detectors

# Transducers generate physical effects when driven by an electrical signal, or vice-versa.
# Sensors (detectors) are transducers that react to environmental conditions by changing their electrical properties or generating an electrical signal.
# The Transducers listed here are single electronic components (as opposed to complete assemblies), and are passive (see Semiconductors and Tubes for active ones). Only the most common ones are listed here.

★ Audio (see also Piezoelectric devices)

★
★ microphone - Magnetic, electrostatic (capacitive) or piezoelectric device to convert audio to electrical signal

★
★ loudspeaker - Magnetic or piezoelectric device to generate full audio

★
★ Buzzer - Magnetic or piezoelectric sounder to generate tones

★ Position, motion

★
★ Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) - Magnetic - detects linear position

★
★ Rotary encoder, Shaft Encoder - Optical, magnetic, resistive or switches - detects absolute or relative angle or rotational speed

★
★ Inclinometer - Capacitive - detects angle with respect to gravity

★
★ Motion sensor, Vibration sensor

★
★ Flowmeter - detects flow in liquid or gas

★ Force, torque

★
★ Strain gauge - Piezoelectric or resistive - detects squeezing, stretching, twisting

★
★ Accelerometer - Piezoelectric - detects acceleration, gravity

★ Thermal

★
★ thermocouple, thermopile - Wires that generate a voltage proportional to delta temperature

★
★ Thermistor - Resistor whose resistance changes with temperature, up PTC or down NTC

★
★ Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) - Wire whose resistance changes with temperature

★
★ Bolometer

★
★ Thermal cutoff - Switch that is opened or closed when a set temperature is exceeded

★ Magnetic field (see also Hall Effect in semiconductors)

★
★ Magnetometer, Gaussmeter

★ Humidity

★
★ Hygrometer

★ Electromagnetic, light

★
★ Photoresistor - Light dependent resistor
=== Solid State components, Semiconductors ===
Active components

Diodes

★ Standard Diode, Rectifier, Bridge Rectifier

★ Schottky Diode, Hot Carrier Diode

★ Zener Diode

★ Transient Voltage Suppression Diode (TVS), Unipolar or Bipolar

★ Varactor, Tuning diode, Varicap, Variable Capacitance Diode

★ Light Emitting Diode (LED)

★
★ LASER Diode

★ Photodiode

★
★ Solar Cell, photovoltaic cell, PV array) or panel

★
★ Avalanche Photodiode

★
★ Diode for Alternating Current (DIAC, Trigger Diode, SIDAC)

★
★ Current_source Diode

★
★ Peltier cooler

Transistors

★ Bipolar transistors

★
★ Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT, "transistor") - NPN or PNP

★
★
★ photo transistor

★
★ Darlington transistor - NPN or PNP

★
★
★ Photo Darlington

★
★ Sziklai_pair (Compound transistor, complementary Darlington)

★ field effect transistor (FET)

★
★ Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL

★
★ Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET (MOSFET) - N-CHANNEL or P-CHANNEL

★
★ MEtal Semiconductor FET (MESFET)

★
★ High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)

★ Thyristors

★
★ UniJunction Transistor (UJT)

★
★ Programmable UniJunction Transistor (PUT)

★
★ Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)

★
★ Static Induction Transistor/Thyristor (SIT, SITh)

★
★ TRIode for Alternating Current (TRIAC)

★ Composite transistors

★
★ Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)

Integrated circuits

★ digital

★ analog

★
★ Hall effect sensor - Senses a magnetic field

★
★ Current sensor - Senses a current through it

Hybrid Circuits

★ Optoelectronics

★
★ Opto-Isolator, Opto-Coupler, Photo-Coupler - Photodiode, BJT, JFET, SCR, TRIAC, Zero-crossing TRIAC, Open collector IC, CMOS IC, Solid State Relay (SSR)

★
★ Opto Switch, Opto Interrupter, Optical Switch, Optical Interrupter, Photo switch, Photo Interrupter

★
★ LED Display - Seven-segment_display, Sixteen-segment_display, Dot_matrix_display
=== Thermionic Valve, Vacuum Tube ===
Active devices that operate in vacuum

★ Microwave

★
★ klystron

★
★ magnetron

★ Optical

★
★ Photodiode

★
★ cathode ray tube (CRT)

★
★ nixie tube

★
★ photomultiplier tube

Assemblies, modules

Multiple electronic components assembled in a device that is in itself used as a component

★ Display devices

★
★ liquid crystal display

★ Filter

★ Antennas

★
★ elemental dipole

★
★ biconical

★
★ Yagi

★
★ phased array

★
★ magnetic dipole (loop)

★
★ parabolic dish

★
★ feedhorn, waveguide

Prototyping aids

★ wire-wrap

★ breadboard

Mechanical accessories

★ Enclosure

★ Heat sink

Other

★ printed circuit boards

★ Lamp

See also

★ Circuit Design

★ Circuit diagram

★ Electrical_element

★ Electronic components' Datasheets

References

★ Allied's list of classes of components

★ Newark's list of classes of components

★ PartNumber.com, a utility to assign part numbers to electronic components.

★ Digikey's list of all classes of components
1. Young EC, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Electronics'', Penguin Books, 1988