Basic Electronics Questions;

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Theory Based Questions

What is Electronic? The study the devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or
other electrically charged particles.

What is battery?
A device, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power.

What is Electric Charge ? Electric charge is the physical property of matter that experience a
force when close to other electrically charged matter.

What is voltage ? Voltage is the potential energy that makes the electrical current flow in a
circuit by pushing the electrons around.

What is current ? An electric current is a flow of electric charge

What is resistor? A resistor is a passive component that opposes an electric Current.

OHM'S LAW: The potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor is proportional
to the current through it. The constant is called the "resistance", R.

Active Components:
Those devices or components which required external source to their operation is called Active
Components.
For Example: Diode, Transistors, SCR etc...

Passive Components:
Those devices or components which do not required external source to their operation is called
Passive Components.
For Example: Resistor, Capacitor, Inductor etc

What is inductor? An inductor is a passive component that stores the energy in the form of the
magnetic field. An inductor typically is a loop or coil of wire.

What is capacitor? A capacitor is a passive component that stores energy in the form of charge
or an electrostatic field

How to Calculate the value of Ceramic / Non-Polarized Capacitors?

Below is a very useful chart for calculation the right value of Ceramic / Non - Polarized
Capacitors.
Example:
Here is the Capacitor marking is "105"
It's mean that = 10 + 5 Zeros = 1,000,000 pF
= 1000 nF = 1 µF

What is transformer: is a device which can reduce or increase the voltage of an alternating
current. It transforms electrical energy from one circuit to another without any direct electrical
connection, with the help of mutual induction between to windings. It can be designed to “step
up” or “step down” voltages

Explain the working principle of Transformer?

Working principle of Transformer is based on Faraday’s Laws of Electromagnetic Induction. If
an alternating current is applied to an electric coil, there will be an alternating flux surrounding
that coil. Now if we bring another coil near the first one, there will be an alternating flux linkage
with that second coil. As the flux is alternating, there will be obviously a rate of change of flux
linkage with respect to time in the second coil. Therefore emf will be induced in it as per
Faraday’s laws electromagnetic induction.

What is an isolation transformer?

A. An isolation transformer also referred to as insulating transformer, is one where the primary
and secondary windings are separate.

What is conductor, insulator, semiconductor,superconductor?

A conductor is a substance or material that flow the electricity in circuits. i.e cu(Copper),
Ag(Silver), Au
An Insulator is a material that resists the flow of electric current i.e wood, All gases
A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity in between that of a conductor and
that of an insulator i.e Ge, Si
a superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity without resistance. i.e NbN, Lead
(Pb) ,Lanthanum (La) ,Tantalum (Ta),Mercury (Hg) work as supercundctor at very coldest
temp(4-7 K)
Superconductivity is the flow of electric current without resistance in certain metals, alloys, and
ceramics at temperatures near absolute zero

P Type & N type Semiconductor material

If the semiconductor materials is doped with elements having five valence electrons(arsenic [As]
or phosphorus [P]), Semiconductor material is known as N type.
If the semiconductor materials is doped with elements having three valence electrons(Boron [B]
or Gallium [Ga]), Semiconductor material is known as p type.

What is PN Junction?
A p–n junction is a boundary or interface between two p-type and n-type semiconductor. It is
created by doping, for example by ion implantation, diffusion of dopants, or by epitaxy (growing
a layer of crystal doped with one type of dopant on top of a layer of crystal doped with another
type of dopant)

What is diode?
A diode is a two-terminal semiconductor device that has low (ideally zero) resistance in forward
direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in reverse direction. Used in rectifier, AC-DC
conversion, Microwave Circuit

A Zener diode is a diode which allows current to flow in the forward but also permits current in
the reverse direction when the voltage is above a certain value known as the breakdown voltage,
"zener knee voltage", "zener voltage", "avalanche point", or "peak inverse voltage". Used as a
voltage regulator.

An avalanche diode is a diode that create the avalanche breakdown effect at a specified reverse
bias voltage. The avalanche breakdown is due to minority carriers accelerated enough to create
ionization in the crystal lattice, producing more carriers, which in turn create more ionization.
Because the avalanche breakdown is uniform across the whole junction, the breakdown voltage
is more nearly constant with changing current compared to a non-avalanche diode. Used in
frequency multiplier circuit.

Difference between Zener & Avalanch diode

The Zener diode exhibits an apparently similar effect in addition to Zener breakdown. Both
effects are actually present in any such diode, but one usually dominates the other. Avalanche
diodes are optimized for avalanche effect so they exhibit small but significant voltage drop under
breakdown conditions, unlike Zener diodes that always maintain a voltage higher than
breakdown. This feature provides better surge protection than simple Zener diode and acts more
like a gas discharge tube replacement. Avalanche diodes have a small positive temperature
coefficient of voltage, where diodes relying on the Zener effect have a negative temperature
coefficient.

What is photodiode:
A photodiode is a semiconductor diode which convert light into current .

What is transistor?
a transistor is three terminal semiconductor device that commonly used to amplify or switch
electronic signals.
Common Base: Emitter base forward wise & Collector base reversed biased. High voltage gain
& low current gain
Common Emitter: Base emitter forward biased & Emitter collector reverse biased . Medium
voltage gain & current gain
Common Collector: Base emitter forward biased & Emitter collector reverse biased but output is
taken from load connected across emitter. High current gain & low voltage gain

Field effect transistor. A FET is a voltage controlled semiconductor device that outputs current
varies in proportion to its input voltage. FETs use a small amount of control current to regulate a
larger output current.
What is the definition of "SCR"?
 A Silicon Controlled Rectifier - also known as a thyristor - is a diode with an added terminal
whereby, by applying a "control voltage", the diode can be turned  "on" but never "off". When
supplied with alternating current an SCR
or A solid state switching device that turns current on and off by application of gate terminal.
This device is generally used in switching applications

What is an Amplifier?
An electronic device or electrical circuit that is used to boost the power, voltage or current of an
applied signal.

Feedback is process in which some proportion of the output is passed (fed back) to the input.
This is often used to control the dynamic behaviour of the system.
When the feedback signals is in phase with the input signal, feedback is known as negative
feedback. This tends to reduce output i.e amplifiers
When the feedback signals is out of phase with the input signal, the feedback is known as
negative feedback. i.e Oscillators. This tends to increase output.

What is Oscillator?
An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive, oscillating electronic
signal i.e a sine wave or a square wave. Or Oscillators is an electronic circuit that converts direct
current (DC) from a power supply to an alternating current signal.

what is barkhausen criterion for oscillation?

The magnitude of the loop gain AB must be 1 and The phase shift of the loop gain AB must be
180,or 180 plus an integer multiple of 360.

What is an Integrated Circuit?

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a
microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small plate ("chip") of semiconductor material,
normally silicon. Their main advantages are low cost, low power, high performance, and very
small size.

Operational amplifier
operational amplifier (or an op-amp) is an voltage amplifier device that has a single output very
high gain,

What is communication?
Communication means transferring a signal from source to destination
Analog signal is a continuous signal which uses continuous range of values to represent
information.
Digital signals are discrete time signals which uses discrete or discontinuous values to represent
information
Analog communiication is the process of taking the continuos value of an audio or video signal
(the human voice) and converting it into electronic pulses. Digital communication is process of
taking the discrete value in for of binary i.e 1 or 0 and converting it into digital signal.
What is sampling: sampling is the process of converting a continuous signal or analog signal
information into discrete signal information or numeric sequence..

Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem: It states that, while taking the samples of a continuous
signal, the sampling rate is equal to or greater than twice the cut off frequency and the minimum
sampling rate is known as the Nyquist rate.

What is cut-off frequency?

The frequency at which the response is -3dB with respect to the maximum response.

What is pass band or band pass filter?

Passband is the range of frequencies or wavelengths that can pass through a filter without
attenuation.

Explain RF?
Radio frequency (RF) is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300
GHz.

What is modulation? And where it is utilized?

Modulation is the process of mixing of high frequency carrier signal with baseband signal. It’s is
used for distance communication.
Amplitude modulation is the process in which the amplitude of the carrier signal are varied in
accordance with the baseband signal
Frequency modulation is the process in which the frequency of the carrier signal are varied in
accordance with the baseband signal
Phase modulation is the process in which the phase of the carrier signal are varied in
accordance with the baseband signal
For Analog modulation--AM, SSB, FM, PM and SM
Digital modulation--OOK, FSK, ASK, Psk, QAM, MSK, CPM, PPM, TCM, OFDM
AM is used for video signals for example TV. Ranges from 535 to 1705 kHz.
FM is used for audio signals for example Radio. Ranges from 88 to 108 MHz.

What is demodulation?
Demodulation is the process to recover the original analog signal from modulating signal.

What is a base station?

Base station is a radio receiver/transmitter that serves as the gateway between a wired network
and the wireless network.

What is a repeater?
A repeater is an electronic device that amplify the power of signal. so that the signal can cover
longer distances without degradation.

What are CDMA, TDMA, FDMA?

Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method which employs spread-
spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to
allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel.
By contrast, In time division multiple access (TDMA), Physical Channel is distributed by
different -2 time slot, In frequency-division multiple access (FDMA), channel is distributed by
different -2 frequency slot.

Reason based questions

Explain about the losses in Transformer?
Transformer losses have two sources-copper loss and core loss.
Copper losses are caused by the resistance of the wire (I2R). In primary side it is I12R1 and in
secondary side it is I22R2 loss, where I1 & I2 are primary & secondary currents of transformer
and R1 & R2 are resistances of primary & secondary winding. As the both primary & secondary
currents depend upon load of transformer, copper losses vary with load.
Core losses are caused by eddy currents and hysteresis in the core.
Eddy current losses: In transformer we supply alternating current in the primary, this alternating
current produces alternating magnetizing flux in the core and as this flux links with secondary
winding there will be induced voltage in secondary, resulting current to flow through the load
connected with it. Some of the alternating fluxes of transformer may also link with other
conducting parts like steel core or iron body of transformer etc. As alternating flux links with
these parts of transformer, there would be an locally induced emf. Due to these emfs there would
be currents which will circulate locally at that parts of the transformer. This type of energy loss is
called eddy current loss of transformer.
Hysteresis losses: The magnetic core of transformer is made of Silicon Steel, Steel is very good
ferromagnetic material. The domains are arranged inside the material structure in such a manner,
that net resultant magnetic field of the said material is zero. Whenever external magnetic field or
mmf is is applied to that substance, these randomly directed domains arrange themselves in
parallel to the axis of applied mmf. After removing this external mmf, maximum numbers of
domains again come to random positions, but some few of them still remain in their changed
position. Because of these unchanged domains the substance becomes slightly magnetized
permanently. This magnetism is called “Spontaneous Magnetism”. To neutralize this magnetism
some opposite mmf is required to be applied. For this reason, there will be a consumption of
electrical energy which is known as Hysteresis loss of transformer.
Hysteresis loss is constant for a particular voltage and current. Eddy-current loss, however, is
different for each frequency passed through the transformer.

Why we can’t store AC in Batteries instead of DC?

We cannot store AC in batteries because AC changes their polarity upto 50 (When frequency =
50 Hz) or 60 (When frequency = 60 Hz) times in a second. Therefore the battery terminals keep
changing Positive (+ve) becomes Negative (-Ve) and vice versa, but the battery cannot change
their terminals with the same speed so that’s why we can’t store AC| in Batteries.

Why the transformer ratings are in kva?

Since the power factor of transformer is dependent on load we only define VA rating and does
not include power factor .In case of motors, power factor depend on construction and hence
rating of motors is in KWatts and include power factor.