High-frequency border: The frequency above which a capacitor acts as an ac short. Also, the frequency where the reactance is one-tenth of the total series…

Heat Sink: A mass of metal attached to the case of a transistor to allow the heat to escape more easily.

Hartley oscillator: A circuit distinguished by its inductively tapped tank circuit.

Harmonics: A sine wave whose frequency is some integer multiple of a fundamental sine wave.

Hard Saturation: Operating a transistor at the upper end of the load line with a base current that is one-tenth of the collector current. The…

Half-wave rectifier: A rectifier with only one diode in series with the load resistor. The output is a half-wave rectified voltage.

h parameters: An early mathematical method for representing transistor action. Still used on data sheets.

Ground loop: If you use more than one ground point in a multistage amplifier, the resistance between the ground points will produce small unwanted feedback…

go/no-go test: A test or measurement where the readings are distinctly different, really high or really low.

Germanium: One of the first semiconductor materials to be used. Like silicon, it has four valence electrons.

Gate-source cutoff voltage: The voltage between the gate and the source that reduces the drain current of a depletion-mode device to approximately zero.

Gate: The terminal of a field-effect transistor that controls drain current. Also, the terminal of a thyristor used to turn on the device.

Gain-bandwidth product (GBP): The high frequency at which the gain of an amplifier is 0 dB (unity).

Full-wave rectifier: A rectifier with a center-tapped secondary winding and two diodes that act as back-to-back half-wave rectifiers. One diode supplies one-half of the output,…

Frequency Scaling Factor (FSF): The formula used to scale pole frequencies in direct proportion; cutoff frequency divided by I kHz.