Neets Master Glossary

1-18 DIE BONDING—Process of mounting a chip to a package [14]. DIELECTRIC—An insulator; a term applied to the insulating material between the plates of a capacitor [2]. DIELECTRIC CONSTANT—The ratio of a given dielectric to the dielectric value of air [2] [11]. DIELECTRIC FIELD—The space between and around charged bodies in which their influence is felt. Also called ELECTRIC FIELD OF FORCE or an ELECTROSTATIC FIELD [1]. DIELECTRIC HEATING—The heating of an insulating material by a high-frequency electric field [10]. DIELECTRIC HYSTERESIS LOSS—Power loss of a capacitor because of the changes in orientation of electron orbits in the dielectric; the changes in orientation are caused by rapid reversal in polarity of line voltage. The higher the frequency, the greater the loss [2]. DIELECTRIC LEAKAGE—Power loss of a capacitor because of the leakage of current through the dielectric. Also relates to leakage resistance; the higher the leakage resistance, the lower the dielectric leakage [2]. DIELECTRIC LOSSES—The losses resulting from the heating effect on the dielectric material between conductors [10] [11]. DIELECTRIC STRENGTH—The ability of an insulator to withstand a potential difference without breaking down (usually expressed in terms of voltage) [4]. DIFFERENCE FREQUENCY—See BEAT FREQUENCY [18]. DIFFERENCE OF POTENTIAL—A voltage between two points [6]. DIFFERENTIAL AMPLIFIER—A circuit that amplifies the difference between two input signals [8]. DIFFRACTION—The bending of waves (as light or RF) when the waves are met with some form of obstruction [10]. DIFFUSION—(1) The scattering of reflected light waves from an object, such as white paper [10]. (2) Controlled application of impurity atoms to a semiconductor substrate [14]. DIGIT—A symbol that represents one of the nonnegative integers smaller than the radix. For example, in decimal notation a digit is one of the characters from 0 through 9 [13]. DIGITAL COMPUTER—(1) A computer in which discrete representation of data is used. (2) A computer that operates on discrete data by performing arithmetic and logic processes on these data [13]. DIODE—An electron tube containing two electrodes: a cathode and a plate [6]. (2) A two element, solid- state device made of either germanium or silicon; it is primarily used as a switching device [7] [13]. DIODE DETECTOR—A demodulator that uses one or more diodes to provide a rectified output with an average value that is proportional to the original modulation [12] [18]. DIPOLE—A common type of half-wave antenna made from a straight piece of wire cut in half. Each half operates at a quarter wavelength of the output [10]. DIRECT CURRENT—An electric current that flows in one direction only [1].