Welcome to the electronics glossary in our library!

The following glossary entries were abstracted from the book, Bebop to the Boolean Boogie (An Unconventional Guide to Electronics), with the kind permission of LLH Technology Publishing, Eagle Rock, VA, USA  ( to return to the main glossary.)

A paper-thin slice cut from a cylindrical crystal of pure semiconductor.

The process of testing individual integrated circuits while they still form part of a wafer. An automated tester places probes on the device's pads, applies power to the power pads, injects a series of signals into the input pads, and monitors the corresponding signals returned from the output pads.

A transparent path bounded by non-transparent, reflective areas, which is fabricated directly onto the surface of a substrate. Used in the optical interconnection strategy known as guided-wave.

A process used to solder circuit boards populated with through-hole components. A wave generating mechanism maintains a wave( ) of hot, liquid solder traveling back and forth across the surface of a tank. The populated circuit boards are passed over the wave soldering machine on a conveyer belt. The velocity of the conveyer belt is carefully controlled and synchronized such that the solder wave brushes across the bottom of the board only once.

The process of connecting the pads on an unpackaged integrated circuit to corresponding pads on a substrate using wires that are finer than a human hair. Wire bonding may also be used to connect the pads on an unpackaged integrated circuit, hybrid, or multichip module to the leads of the component package.

A layer carrying wires in a discrete wired board. See also signal layer.

A group of signals or logic functions performing a common task and carrying or storing similar data; for example, a value on the data bus could be referred to as a data word.

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