Schmitt trigger: A comparator with hysteresis. It has two trip points. This makes it immune to noise voltages, provided their peak-to-peak values are less than…

Saturation Region: The part of the collector curves that starts at the origin and slopes upward to the right until it reaches the beginning of…

Saturation Point: Approximately the same as the upper end of the load line. The exact location of the saturation point is slightly lower because the…

Saturated Current Gain: The current gain of a transistor in the saturation region. This value is less than the active current gain. For soft saturation,…

Safety Factor: The leeway between the actual operating current, voltage, etc. and the maximum rating specified on a data sheet.

RS Flip-flop: An electronic circuit with two states. Also known as a multivibrator. May be free-running (as in an oscillator) or may exhibit one or…

RMS Value or Effective Value or Heating Value: Used with time-varying signals. Also known as the effective value and the heating value. This is the…

Ripple Rejection: Used with voltage regulators. It tells you how well the voltage regulator rejects or attenuates the input ripple. Data sheets usually list it…

Ripple: With a capacitor input filter, this is the fluctuation in load voltage caused by the charging and discharging of the capacitor.

Reverse Saturation Current: The same as the minority-carrier current in a diode. This current exists in the reverse direction.

Reverse-bias: Applying an external voltage across a diode to aid the harrier potential. The result is almost zero current. The only exception is when you…

Resonant Frequency: The frequency of a lead-lag circuit or the frequency of an LC tank circuit where the voltage gain and phase shift are suitable…

Relaxation Oscillator: A circuit that creates or generates an ac output signal without an ac input signal. This type of oscillator depends on the charging…

Reference Voltage: Usually, a very precise and stable voltage derived from a zener diode with a breakdown voltage between 5 to 6 V. In this…

Reductio ad absurdum: A trick used when a device may be operating as a current source or as a resistor. You assume a current source…