It is hardly possible to name a sphere of science, engineering or the national economy where electrical and electronic engineering equipment is not used. Electrical engineering, the largest and most diverse field of engineering, is concerned with the development and design, application, and manufacture of systems and devices that use electric power and signals. Among the most important subjects in the field are electric power and machinery, electronic circuits, control systems, computer design, superconductors, solid-state electronics, medical imaging systems, robotics, lasers, radar, consumer electronics, and fiber optics. Despite its diversity, electrical engineering can be divided into four main branches: electric power and machinery, radio engineering and electronics, communications and control, and computers.
Electronics, field of engineering and applied physics deals with research, design, integration and application of devices, usually electronic circuits, the operation of which depends on the flow of electrons for the generation, transmission, reception, processing and storage of information. Information is now generated, transmitted, received, and stored electronically on a scale unprecedented in history, and there is every indication that the explosive rate of growth in this field will continue.
The information can consist of voice or voice or music (audio signals) in a radio receiver, a picture on a television screen, or numbers and other data in a computer. That’s why there is every reason to believe that television, radio-receiving, tape-recording – are all based on electronics. Electronics engineers design circuits to perform specific tasks, such as amplifying electronic signals, adding binary numbers, and demodulating radio signals, adding binary numbers, and demodulating radio signals to recover the information they carry. Circuits are also used to generate waveforms useful for synchronization and timing, as in television, and for correcting errors in digital information, as in telecommunications.
Prior to the 1960s, circuits consisted of separate electronic devices – resistors, capacitors, inductors, and vacuum tubes – assembled on a chassis and connected by wires to form a bulky package. Since then, there has been a revolutionary trend toward integrating electronic devices on a single tiny chip of silicon or some other semiconductive material. The complex task of manufacturing these chips uses the most advanced technology, including computers, electron-beam lithography, micro-manipulators, ion-beam implantation, and ultra clean environments. Much of the research in electronics is directed toward creating even smaller chips, faster switching of components, and three-dimensional integrated circuits.
Engineers work on control systems ranging from the everyday, passenger-actuated, as those that run an elevator, to the exotic, as systems for keeping spacecraft on course. Control systems are used extensively in aircraft and ships, in military fire-control systems, in power transmission and distribution, in automated manufacturing, and in robotics.
Engineers have been working to bring about two revolutionary changes in the field of communications and control: Digital systems are replacing analog ones at the same time that fiber optics are replacing copper cables. Digital systems offer far greater immunity to electrical noise. Fiber optics are likewise immune to interference; they also have tremendous carrying capacity, and are extremely light and inexpensive to manufacture.
The greatest application of electronics is in the field of communications.
Radio communications has become to play an important part in our life. Our country has a radio communications system that connects it with the capitals of many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Radio communications is a means of contact between industrial centers. Radio is of essential importance for keeping in touch with remote points on the globe for in some cases it is the only source of contact. Television is now one of the most popular mass media. The significance of radar can hardly be overestimated. By means of radar installations, aircraft and missiles can be detected at great distance. Radiolocation makes it possible to ensure safe navigation of ships and control the flight and landing of aircraft at night and in bad weather.
Radio electronics, which embraces radio engineering and electronics, has come into use. Radio electronics is branch of engineering of the utmost consequence in every branch of the national economy. It has found an extremely wide application in industrial automation; it is a means by which chemical analysis can be quickly made. Radio electronics is also extensively used in medical research – in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Virtually unknown just a few decades ago, computer engineering is now among the most rapidly growing fields. The electronics of computers involve engineers in design and manufacture of memory systems, central processing units, and peripheral devices. Foremost among the avenues now being pursued are the design of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) and new computer architectures. The field of computer science is closely related to computer engineering; however, the task of making computers more “ intelligent” (artificial intelligence), through creation of sophisticated programs or development of higher level machine languages or other means, is generally regarded as being in the realm of computer science. One current trend in computer engineering is microminiaturization. Using VLSI, engineers continue to work to squeeze greater and greater numbers of circuit elements onto smaller and smaller chips. Another trend is toward increasing the speed of computer operations through use of parallel processors, superconducting materials, and the like. A most challenging field in modern science is cybernetics. This science studies the control and communications systems. High-speed computing facilities, capable of making the same amount of computation in a second, that would take years of manual labour to complete, constitute the equipment utilized in cybernetics.
Microelectronics is the technology of constructing electronic circuits and devices in extremely small packages by various techniques. Microelectronics today deals with designing, fabrication and applying of integrated circuits (IC). They may contain hundreds of thousands of transistors on a small piece of material and allow the construction of complex electronic circuits, such as those in microcomputers, audio and video equipment, and communications satellites.
Now we cannot imagine our life without electronics because it provides the basis for countless innovations – CD players, TVs, and computers, to name just a few. From vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits, engineers have made electronics smaller, more powerful, and more efficient, paving the way for the products that have improved the quality and convenience of modern life.
