Electronics and Instrumentation

In the field of electronic engineering, engineers design and test circuits that use the electromagnetic properties of electrical components such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and transistors to achieve a particular functionality. The tuner circuit, which allows the user of a radio to filter out all but a single station, is just one example of such a circuit. 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. The conversion from schematics to layouts can be done by software (see electronic design automation) but very often requires huma...

Electronics engineering, or electronic engineering, is an electrical engineering discipline which utilizes non-linear and active electrical components (such as semiconductor devices, especially transistors, diodes and integrated circuits) to design electronic circuits, devices, microprocessors, microcontrollers and other systems. The discipline typically also designs passive electrical components, usually based on printed circuit boards. Electronics is a subfield within the wider electrical engineering academic subject but denotes a broad engineering field that covers subfields such as analog electronics, digital electronics, consumer electronics, embedded systems and power electronics. Electronics engineering deals with implementation of applications, principles and algorithms developed within many related fields, for example solid-st...

Instrumentation  is defined as the art and science of measurement and control of process variables within a production or manufacturing area.  The process variables used in industries are Level, Pressure, Temperature, Humidity, Flow, pH, Force, Speed etc.  Control engineering  or control systems engineering is the engineering discipline that applies control theory to design systems with desired behaviors. Control engineers are responsible for the research, design, development and control devices/systems, typically in manufacturing facilities and plants. The practice uses sensors to measure the output performance of the device being controlled and those measurements can be used to give feedback to the input actuators that can make corrections toward desired performance. When a device is designed to perform without the need of human inputs for correction it is called automatic control (such as cruise control for regulating a car's speed). Multi-disciplinary in nature...

Ralph Müller (1940) stated "That the history of physical science is largely the history of instruments and their intelligent use is well known. The broad generalizations and theories which have arisen from time to time have stood or fallen on the basis of accurate measurement, and in several instances new instruments have had to be devised for the purpose. There is little evidence to show that the mind of modern man is superior to that of the ancients. His tools are incomparably better." Davis Baird has argued that the major change associated with Floris Cohen ' s identification of a "fourth big scientific revolution" after World War II is the development of scientific instrumentation, not only in chemistry but across the sciences. In chemistry, the introduction of new instrumentation in the 1940s was "nothing less than a scientific and technological revolution" in which classical wet-and-dry methods of structural organic chemistry were discarded, ...

Introduction In industrial applications, almost everything uses a motor, in fact, motors may account for up to 80% of our country’s energy usage. There are generally three different ways to start a motor: full-voltage, reduced voltage, and inverter. A full voltage, across-the-line, or direct on-line (DOL) start uses a contactor, which is a heavier duty three-phase relay. Reduced voltage starting can be accomplished via several different ways: auto-transformer, wye-delta, primary resistor/reactor, or with a solid state soft starter. Inverters are generally referred to as drives. This paper focuses on solid state soft starters (referred to as soft starter only from here on): what they are, why they are used, their construction, and applications . What is a soft starter? A soft starter is a solid state motor starter that is used to start or stop a motor by notching the voltage waveform, thereby, reducing the voltage to each phase of a motor and gradually increasing the voltage u...

Instrumentation is used to measure many parameters (physical values). These parameters include: Pressure, either differential or static Flow Temperature Levels of liquids, etc. Density Viscosity ionising radiation Frequency Current Voltage Inductance Capacitance Resistivity Chemical composition Chemical properties Vibration Weight Instrumentation engineering Instrumentation engineering is loosely defined because the required tasks are very domain dependent. An expert in the biomedical instrumentation of laboratory rats has very different concerns than the expert in rocket instrumentation. Common concerns of both are the selection of appropriate sensors based on size, weight, cost, reliability, accuracy, longevity, environmental robustness and frequency response. Some sensors are literally fired in artillery shells. Others sense thermonuclear explosions until destroyed. Invariably sensor data must be recorded, transmitted or display...