Electronics , from then to now.

[William Gaatjes]

I thought it would be nice to make a thread with pictures of old and new components.

Here is a picture of two inductors together in an integrated circuit shape(Left).
An integrated circuit in DIP16 casing(middle).
An integrated circuit in SO-14 casing (right).

 

[William Gaatjes]

A wideband capacitor in a 10 Ghz range oscillator.

A smallband capacitor in a 10 Ghz range oscillator.

These shapes are on a printed circuit board of special HF properties.
The smallband capacitor acts as a tuned bandpass filter.

 

[exdeath]

I've recently been fascinated with FPGAs. A few years ago it was hundreds of 7400 or 4000 series chips or thousands of dollars in ASIC development. Now we can implement entire systems, even CPUs, in a programmable logic chip less than an inch square. Just my 20k LE Cyclone 2 on my Altera DE1 is a monster and it's a small FPGA.

I wouldn't classify those inductors as IC, it's probably just some coils dipped in a plastic carrier. True IC design on silicon poses severe limitations on the ability to include inductors.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I've recently been fascinated with FPGAs. A few years ago it was hundreds of 7400 or 4000 series chips or thousands of dollars in ASIC development. Now we can implement entire systems, even CPUs, in a programmable logic chip less than an inch square. Just my 20k LE Cyclone 2 on my Altera DE1 is a monster and it's a small FPGA.

FPGAs are amazing material. I hope to one day also design something with FPGAs.

I wouldn't classify those inductors as IC, it's probably just some coils dipped in a plastic carrier. True IC design on silicon poses severe limitations on the ability to include inductors.

I would not classify the inductors as an integrated circuit either. But the choice for the casing/package is interesting. It looks like a huge DIP package. Probably just coincidence though...

 

[PottedMeat]

inductors seemed to have changed quite a bit lately. all the demand for dc dc tiny switching power conversion is giving us things like 10uh/1A sat in a fat 1210 package.

 

[soccerballtux]

A wideband capacitor in a 10 Ghz range oscillator.

A smallband capacitor in a 10 Ghz range oscillator.

These shapes are on a printed circuit board of special HF properties.
The smallband capacitor acts as a tuned bandpass filter.

how could I model the frequency response of such a thing?
I'm trying to visualize how the shapes do what you say.

 

[Matthiasa]

http://wwwold.jlab.org/accel/eecad/pdf/050rfdesign.pdf
Provides basic info and provides names of some books that would help, although accessing those books might be an issue.
There is a reason rf design sometimes get referred to as black magic.

 

[William Gaatjes]

inductors seemed to have changed quite a bit lately. all the demand for dc dc tiny switching power conversion is giving us things like 10uh/1A sat in a fat 1210 package.

Yeah, Improved material for the core.
I am fond of Wurth Electronik, at my work we use their catalogue often and i sampled some stuff for home projects as well. Farnell and mouser both have a lot of WE stuff.

http://www.we-online.com/web/en/wuerth_elektronik/start.php

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

It's amazing how capacitors have improved, and have dramatically increased their capacitances, in ever smaller packages (for the given capacitance value).

If you have never hand built surface mounted stuff, you may not understand what I mean. But if the VERY small sized stuff drop onto the floor, I sometimes don't even bother looking for it, as I know that 99% of the time, I will never see/find it again. They are almost like tiny pieces of dirt/dust/fragments (I mean the REALLY tiny ones, such as 0402).

 

[dkozloski]

When it comes to gates and switches that were in use when I got into the electronics racket; relay logic vs. ICs; what use to require a fork lift and a flat car to move will now disappear into the pores of your skin.