Electronics and Communication Engineering
Introduction
Electronics engineering, or
electronic engineering, is an
engineering discipline where non-linear and
active electrical components such as
electron tubes, and
semiconductor devices, especially
transistors,
diodes and
integrated circuits, are utilized to design
electronic circuits,
devices and
systems, typically also including
passive electrical components and based on
printed circuit boards. The term denotes a broad engineering field that covers important sub fields such as
analog electronics,
digital electronics,
consumer electronics,
embedded systems and
power electronics.
Electronics
engineering deals with implementation of applications, principles and
algorithms developed within many related fields, for example
solid-state physics,
radio engineering,
telecommunications,
control systems,
signal processing,
systems engineering,
computer engineering,
instrumentation engineering,
electric power control,
robotics, and many others.
Relationship between electronics and communication and electrical engineering
Electronics is a sub field within the wider
electrical engineering
academic subject. An academic degree with a major in electronics
engineering can be acquired from some universities, while other
universities use electrical engineering as the subject. The term
electrical engineer is still used in the academic world to include electronic engineers.
However, some people consider the term 'electrical engineer' should be
reserved for those having specialized in power and heavy current or high
voltage engineering, while others consider that power is just one
subset of electrical engineering and (and indeed the term '
power engineering' is used in that industry) as well as '
electrical distribution engineering'. Again, in recent years there has been a growth of new separate-entry degree courses such as '
information engineering', '
systems engineering' and '
communication systems engineering',
often followed by academic departments of similar name, which are
typically not considered as subfields of electronics engineering but of
electrical engineering.
Beginning in the 1980s, the term
computer engineer
was often used to refer to a sub field of electronic or information
engineers. However, computer engineering is now considered a subset of
electronics engineering and
computer science and the term is now becoming archaic.
History of Electronics Engineering
Electronic engineering as a profession sprang from technological improvements in the
telegraph industry in the late 19th century and the
radio and the
telephone
industries in the early 20th century. People were attracted to radio by
the technical fascination it inspired, first in receiving and then in
transmitting. Many who went into broadcasting in the 1920s were only
'amateurs' in the period before
World War I.
To a large extent, the modern discipline of electronic engineering was born out of telephone, radio, and
television equipment development and the large amount of electronic systems development during
World War II of
radar,
sonar, communication systems, and advanced munitions and weapon systems. In the interwar years, the subject was known as
radio engineering and it was only in the late 1950s that the term
electronic engineering started to emerge.
Electronics
In the field of electronic engineering, engineers design and test
circuits that use the
electromagnetic properties of
electrical components such as
resistors,
capacitors,
inductors,
diodes and
transistors to achieve a particular functionality. The
tuner circuit, which allows the user of a radio to
filter out all but a single station, is just one example of such a circuit.
In designing an integrated circuit, electronics engineers first construct circuit
schematics that specify the electrical components and describe the interconnections between them. When completed,
VLSI engineers convert the schematics into actual layouts, which map the layers of various
conductor and
semiconductor materials needed to construct the circuit. The conversion from schematics to layouts can be done by
software (see
electronic design automation)
but very often requires human fine-tuning to decrease space and power
consumption. Once the layout is complete, it can be sent to a
fabrication plant for manufacturing.
Integrated circuits and other electrical components can then be assembled on
printed circuit boards to form more complicated circuits. Today, printed circuit boards are found in most electronic devices including
televisions,
computers and
audio players.
Scope of Electronics and Communication Engineering
There are huge scope of ECE few are listed below :-
- In medical field- Almost all medical equipments are electronic
and hence for the installation and maintenance of those equipments.
- In automobile- The speed dial, air bag systems etc are all based on electronics.
- In modern equipments- For the production, maintenance and repair of computers, laptops, tabs, mobiles etc.
- In communication- Radio,telephones etc.
- In government and private companies- Installation, operation and maintenance of electronics equipments and systems.
- Defence- For design and development of complex devices and systems for signal processing and telecommunication.
- Space and other research organisations- For design and development of complex devices and systems for signal processing and telecommunication.
- Electronic industries- Design and fabrication of devices, embedded systems, electronic equipments etc.
- Process industries- For instrumentation and control of electronic devices.
- IT companies- Well preferred as IT professionals.
- Manufacturing- PCB, IC etc.
Sub-fields
One of interesting fact is that there are lots of fields on ECE so its field broad is as :-
Electronic engineering has many subfields. This section describes
some of the most popular subfields in electronic engineering; although
there are engineers who focus exclusively on one subfield, there are
also many who focus on a combination of subfields.
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of
signals. Signals can be either
analog, in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or
digital, in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the
amplification and
filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the
modulation and
demodulation of signals for
telecommunications. For digital signals, signal processing may involve the
compression,
error checking and
error detection of digital signals.
Telecommunications engineering deals with the
transmission of
information across a
channel such as a
co-axial cable,
optical fiber or
free space.
Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a
carrier wave in order to shift the information to a
carrier frequency suitable for transmission, this is known as
modulation. Popular analog modulation techniques include
amplitude modulation and
frequency modulation.
The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system
and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the
transmitters and
receivers needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way communication device known as a
transceiver. A key consideration in the design of transmitters is their
power consumption as this is closely related to their
signal strength. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by
noise.
Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of
commercial airplanes to the
cruise control present in many modern
cars. It also plays an important role in
industrial automation.
Control engineers often utilize
feedback when designing
control systems. For example, in a
car with
cruise control the vehicle's
speed is continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts the
engine's power output accordingly. Where there is regular feedback,
control theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as
pressure,
flow and
temperature. These devices are known as
instrumentation.
The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of
physics that often extends beyond
electromagnetic theory. For example,
radar guns use the
Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly,
thermocouples use the
Peltier-Seebeck effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the
sensors
of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used
to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For this
reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart
of control engineering.
Computer engineering deals with the design of
computers and computer systems. This may involve the design of new
computer hardware, the design of
PDAs or the use of computers to control an
industrial plant. Development of
embedded systems—systems made for specific tasks (e.g., mobile phones)—is also included in this field. This field includes the
micro controller and its applications. Computer engineers may also work on a system's
software. However, the design of complex software systems is often the domain of
software engineering, which is usually considered a separate discipline.
VLSI Design Engineering VLSI stands for very large scale integration. It deals with fabrication of ICs and various electronics components
