Electronic Circuits and Design

a potpourri of basic electronic circuits, circuit ideas, and formulae for anyone undertaking electronic circuit design

The exact configuration of an electronic circuit is not always easy to remember, and even then there are associated electronic circuit design formulae to calculate the various circuit values. This section of the Radio-Electronics.Com website contains information about basic electronic circuits, building blocks, along with the relevant formulae to provide a unique reference on the web for anyone undertaking electronic circuit design.

 

This section is organised by the chief component in the circuit. Thus a filter using an operation amplifier would come under the operational amplifier section, and a transistor radio frequency amplifier would come under the transistors section and a pin diode attenuator would be found in the diodes section.

Resistor circuits

Resistors are the most widely used components in electronic circuits. Although very simple in concept they are key to the operation of many circuits. They can be used in a variety of ways to produce the requried results.

Resistors in parallel
Resistor attenuator circuits
 

Resistor capacitor (RC) circuits

RC or resistor capacitor circuits are used in a number of applications and may be used to provide simple frequency dependent circuits.
Twin T notch filter
 

LC filter circuits

Using inductors and capacitors a whole variety of filters can be designed and made. These include low pass, high pass and band pass filters

A basic filter overview
Low pass LC filter
High pass LC filter
Band pass LC filter
 

Diode circuits

The diode is one of the most elementary semiconductor devices. It essentialy allows current though the device in one direction. Using this facet of the diode there are many uses, but there are also other facets of its nature that enable to to be used in other applications as well.

Simple PIN diode attenuator and switch
Constant impedance pin diode attenuator
Power supply current limiter
Diode voltage multiplier
Single balanced diode mixer
Double balanced diode mixer
 

Transistor circuits

Two transistor amplifier circuit with feedback
Transistor active high pass filter
Transistor current limiter for power supplies
Transistor crystal oscillator

SCR, Diac and Triac Circuits

SCR overvoltage crowbar circuit
 

Operational amplifier circuits

Operational amplifiers are one of the main building blocks these days used in analogue electronics. They are not only easy to use, but they are plentiful, cheap and offer a very high level of performance.

Operational amplifier basics
Inverting amplifier
High input impedance inverting amplifier
Non-inverting amplifier
High pass filter
Low pass filter
Band pass filter
Variable gain amplifier
Fixed frequency notch filter
Twin T notch filter with variable Q
Multivibrator oscillator
Bistable multivibrator
Comparator
Schmitt trigger
 

Digital logic circuits

Logic circuits consisting of building blocks including AND and OR and NAND and NOR gates for the basis of today's digital circuitry that is used in widely in electronics. Trigger, bistables, flip flops,etc, are also widely sued and can be made up from the basic building blocks.

Logic truth table
Hints and tips on designing and laying out digital or logic circuits
Using inverters to create other functions
A divide by two frequency divider using a D-type flip-flop
An R S flip flop using two logic gates
An edge triggered R S flip flop using two D types
An electronically controlled inverter using an exclusive OR gate