-I-

Integrated Circuit (IC) ~  A complete, very compact circuit made up from tiny resistors, diodes, transistors and capacitors.  These components are combined on a silicon chip and are usually packaged in plastic or ceramic with metal leads for power connections and I/O's.

Impedance (Z) ~  Measured in ohms, it is the total opposition to the flow of current offered by a circuit.  It includes opposition caused by Inductance, Reactance and Resistance.

Impurity ~ Any conductive substance injected into pure silicon to form a semi-conductor.

Inductance ~ The property of a circuit to oppose a change in current.  The moving magnetic field produced by a change in current causes an induced voltage to oppose the original change.

Inductor ~ Length of conductor used to introduce inductance into a circuit.  The conductor is usually wound into a coil to concentrate the magnetic lines of force and maximize the inductance.

Infrared ~ Radiant energy with wavelengths longer than visible red light.

Intrinsic Material ~ A semiconductor material with electrical properties which are  characteristic of an ideal pure crystal. Essentially silicon or germanium crystal with no measurable impurities.

Insulation resistance ~ The electrical resistance of the insulating material between any pair of contacts, conductors, or grounding devices in various combinations. 

-J-

J-Lead ~ A surface mount device lead which is formed into a "J" pattern folding under the component body.

Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) ~ A type of transistor commonly used for weak-signal amplification.

Joule (J) ~ The unit of work and energy.

-K-

Kilobyte (KB) ~ One thousand bytes. Actually 1024 bytes, it's a power of two you know..

Kilowatt (KW) ~ One thousand watts.

Kerf ~ The width of cut made during the process of separating a wafer into individual integrated circuits.

-L-

Laminate ~ The plastic material usually reinforced by glass or paper that supports the copper cladding from which the circuit traces are created.

Land ~ A pad typically used to solder a component pin to the printed circuit board.

Latency ~  The time that elapses between a stimulus and the response.

Lay-up ~ The process of registering and stacking layers of a multi-layer printed circuit board in preparation for lamination.

Leadless Chip Carrier (LCC) ~ Electronic device without electrical leads extending from the body of the package. These packages may have solder bumps or lands located on the package.

Leakage ~ Small undesirable flow of current through an insulator or dielectric.

Legend ~ Silk-screened reference designators on a printed circuit board.

Linear ~ Relationship between input and output in which the output varies in direct proportion to the input.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) ~ A diode emitting light when operated in a forward direction.  Diodes have nearly zero forward resistance, therefore must a series current limiting resistor is required.

Leadframe ~  A stamped or etched metal frame, provides external electrical connections to a packaged electronic  device.

Low Pass Filter (LPF) ~ A tuned circuit designed to pass all frequencies below a designated cut-off frequency.  Frequencies above the cut-off frequency are rejected or attenuated.

 

These definitions were compiled from the internet and CADKraft Engineering assumes no liability in their accuracy nor their completeness.