Electronic component
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What is a component?
A component is a single element of an electronic device. Multiple components are combined in order to form circuits. Most components are designed with metal leads that are used as the points of access for electron flow into and out of the component. The leads are then connected via wires to other components or are inserted into a printed circuit board (PCB) or breadboard, which contains built-in pathways for electrons to travel between the components. The operating parameters and available functionality of an electronic component is typically explained in its datasheet.
Commonly used components
Cords
Cables with connectors or terminals at their ends
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 - Thermally activated switch
- Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
- Limit switch - Mechanically activated switch
- Mercury switch
- Centrifugal switch
Resistors
Components used to resist current.
- See the Transducer section below for resistors used to sense environmental conditions (Thermistor, Photo resistor, 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
- Resistance wire - wire of high-resistance material, similar to heating element
- Thermistor - temperature-varied resistor
- Varistor - voltage-varied resistor
Protection devices
Passive components that protect circuits from excessive currents or voltages
- 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 Tube - protection against high voltage surges
- Circuit Breaker - Over-current activated switch
- Spark gap - two electrodes with a gap in between to create arcing
- GFCI or RCD
- Voltage Regulator
External links
- DatasheetArchive, a large free resource for electronic component datasheets and scanned data books.
- Glossary of Electronics , large free glossary of electronic component terminology
- ALLDATASHEET, another free repository of component datasheets.
