Welcome to our classroom!

What do electronic engineers mean by the "analog" and "digital" views of the world? If the digital view is only a subset of the analog view, then why do so many engineers practice digital electronics? And what does a fool sliding down a ramp and a brick on the end of a piece of elastic have to do with anything?

Matter, the stuff that everything is made of, is formed from atoms, but what are atoms made from? How could you fit a camel through the eye of a needle? How do atoms form larger structures like molecules and crystals, and where do circus jugglers fit into the picture?

In addition to attempting to take the world record as the longest title, this section introduces the most fundamental of electronic concepts.

Most materials are either conductors, insulators, or somewhere in-between, but a special class of materials known as "semiconductors" can exhibit both conducting and insulating properties. Here we'll look at the way in which semiconductors are formed and used to make components such as diodes and transistors, and why transistors can be considered to act as switches

Here we stalk the primitive logic function into its lair - confront the rambunctious NOT gate, the lovable AND, the indecisive OR, and the esoteric XNOR. Also, why do the switches controlling the lights in your hallway at home provide a classic example of an XNOR function?

No longer are the ancient mysteries of the transistor to be available only to the members of the inner sanctum; those furtive creatures of dubious morals who practice strange handshakes and outlandish rituals involving esoteric fruits. Finally, the veils are ripped asunder and the transistor's gruesome secrets are exposed for all to see!

Where did numbers come from? Why did the Babylonian's number system give them so much trouble when it rained? Why do we have twenty-four hours in a day and why do some people count using both fingers and toes? What number systems are favored by electronics engineers and what is a "trit?"

Starting with the ancient technique of "casting out the nines," we learn the grizzly truth about unsigned versus signed binary numbers, binary addition, subtraction, and multiplication, and why binary division is best left to computers (because they're in no position to argue about it!).

Boolean Algebra, which is currently one of the most significant mathematical tools available to electronics engineers, was actually invented around the 1850s to represent and test philosophical arguments. Here we discover the difference between a statement ("Your face resembles a cabbage") and a proposition ("I just tipped a bucket of boiling oil into your lap"). On a more serious note, understanding the basic concepts of Boolean algebra will help to make sense of they way in which engineers design things and also how logic synthesis tools perform their magic.

An alternative technique for representing Boolean functions which, in addition to being useful for minimizing said functions, can be lots of fun if you know what you're doing (and something of a pain if you don't).

This is where things start to get really interesting. Learn how to use primitive logic gates to construct more complex functions, including equality comparators, multiplexers, decoders, tri-state functions, latches, registers, shift registers, and counters.

An intimate expose of a coin-operated machine that accepts nickels and dimes and, for the princely sum of fifteen cents, dispenses some useful article called a "gizmo" without which a well-dressed-man-about-town could not possibly sally forth!

As we commenced the day by separating the analog and digital views of the world, it seems appropriate to close it by reuniting them in the form of "Analog-to-Digital" and "Digital-to-Analog" conversion.

In the 1950s, transistors and other electronic devices were only available as individually packaged components. The vast miniaturization of modern electronic artifacts is due to the invention of the integrated circuit, in which millions of transistors can be formed on a sliver, or chip, of semiconductor material. Here we describe just how we go about making these cunning little devices.

Memory devices are a special class of integrated circuit which are used to store binary data for later use. Here we introduce the underlying architectures of ROMs, RAMs (including SRAMs and DRAMs), PROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, FLASH Memory, and nvRAMs.

Programmable logic devices (PLDs) are integrated circuits which are constructed in such a way that a designer can configure them to perform a specific function. Although the concepts are simple, there are a multiplicity of PLD alternatives, most of which seem to have mnemonics formed from different combinations of the same three or four letters. Here we introduce PLAs, PALs, GALs, PROMs, EPLDs, EEPLDs, FLASH-PLDs, CPLDs, and FPGAs .....you see what we mean, but all will become clear during this seminar.

An application-specific integrated circuit is a device whose function can be customized by the designer for a particular application. In addition to the programmable logic devices discussed above, this section introduces gate arrays (including sea-of-gates), standard cell devices (including compiled cells), and full-custom devices (which, by some strange quirk of fate, also include compiled cells).

Early electronic circuits were constructed using discrete (individually packaged) components, which were mounted on a non-conducting board and connected using individual pieces of insulated copper wire. The thankless task of wiring the boards by hand was time consuming, boring, prone to errors, and expensive. By the 1950s, a new interconnection technology had gained commercial acceptance: printed circuit boards (PCBs). After introducing PCBs, we'll also consider discrete wire technology, conductive ink technology, chip-on-board (COB), and flexible printed circuits.

The word hybrid is defined as: "the offspring resulting from crossbreeding." Many would agree that this is an apt description for the species of electronic entities known as hybrids, which combine esoteric mixtures of interconnection and packaging technologies. Here we introduce hybrid substrates and the thick-film and thin-film hybrid processes. Also revealed is the relationship between hybrids and musical socks .... you know, the ones that you receive as a Christmas present from your doting aunts, which play an annoying tune when you squeeze them (the socks, not the aunts).

The term multichip module is the generic name for a group of advanced interconnection and packaging technologies. In addition to answering the question "Why use Multichip Modules?" we will discuss cofired ceramics, low-fired cofired ceramics, pin grid arrays, pad grid arrays, ball grid arrays, column grid arrays, and the concept of equivalent integrated circuits.

To close we introduce a smorgasbord of technologies, many of which have only recently become commercially available or are on the cutting-edge of research and development. Among other topics, this section introduces dynamically reconfigurable hardware, optical interconnect, protein memories and switches, hetrojunction transistors, diamond substrates, superconductors, and nanotechnology.

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