Electronic Glossary

What Is a Regulator in Automatic Control?   A Regulator is a device which has the function of maintaining a designated characteristic. It performs the activity of managing or maintaining a range of values in a machine. The measurable property …

Material embedded in the resin of a laminate to provide additional mechanical strength. Typical materials are glass cloth, random glass fibers, paper, and a variety of high-strength plastic fibers. Reinforcement sometimes refers to Stiffener.

What Is Relaxation Oscillator?   In electronics, a Relaxation Oscillator is a nonlinear electronic oscillator circuit that produces a nonsinusoidal repetitive output signal, such as a triangle wave or square wave. The circuit consists of a feedback loop containing a …

What Is a Relay?   A Relay is an electromagnetic switch operated by a relatively small electric current that can turn on or off a much larger electric current. The heart of a relay is an electromagnet (a coil of …

The probability that an item will function under a specific set of conditions, for a stated period of time, without failure or unacceptable degradation of performance.

What Is Reluctance?   Magnetic Reluctance, or Magnetic Resistance, is a concept used in the analysis of magnetic circuits. It is defined as the ratio of magnetomotive force (mmf) to magnetic flux. It represents the opposition to magnetic flux, and …

Restoring the functional capability of a defective component or assembly.

Excess of unwanted substances remaining after soldering, such as flux or oil.

Coating material used to mask or to protect selected areas of a pattern from the action of an etchant, solder, or plating.

What Is Resistance?   Resistance is a measure of the opposition to current flow in an electrical circuit. It is measured in ohms, symbolized by the Greek letter omega (Ω). Ohms are named after Georg Simon Ohm (1784-1854), a German …