Monday 2 January 2012

Passive and Active devices

What are Passive devices? Give examples.

What are Active devices? Give examples.

2 comments:

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

Passive Components are electronic components that may be characterized as follows:

1) they do not require a power supply in order to operate;
2) they do not amplify or switch signals;
3) their behavior or basic electrical characteristics do not change with the application of signal; and
4) they are often used for simple and basic applications such as limiting current, storing electrical charge, filtering, suppressing current surges, timing, and tuning.

Examples of passive components are resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

Active Components are electronic components that can change their basic electrical characteristics in a powered electrical circuit, i.e., a change in their input signal can result in a change in their electrical behavior. Most active components today are in the form of semiconductors.

Active components have the ability to rectify, switch, or amplify signals. Aside from the input signal, most active components require a power supply in order to perform their assigned functions. They are often used in dynamic applications such as rectification, switching, amplification, modulation, etc.

Examples of active components are diodes, bipolar transistors, field effect transistors, and thyristors.