Integrated circuits are built of many electronic elements connected in a circuit that is enclosed in a package. These integrated circuits are connected in various circuits. An example is an op-amp (built of many transistors, resistors and capacitors) that is used to build an op-amp inverting amplifier. Then what is the op-amp here - a circuit or an element?
Another example is a negative impedance converter. It consists of a few resistors and an op-amp, and acts as a negative resistor. What is it - a circuit (NIC) or an element (NR)?
Dear Cyril,
Your question concerns the definition of a circuit. I will try to give a definition based on the construction of a circuit. A circuit consists of electrical and electronic elements connected in certain pattern by conducting wires to perform a specified function or functions. If the circuit elements are only electrical the circuit is called an electrical circuit. Adding electronic elements to the circuits it becomes an electronic circuit. The element is a single device such as resistor, capacitor, inductor , switch, diode, transistor ..etc.
On the other side, an electronic system is composed of functional building blocks called components or subsysrems. Every component is an electronic circuit performing predetermined function or functions in the system. These components can be fabricated as modules or as integrated circuits. Examples are the operational amplifiers, the micro processor, the memory,....etc. Some date books of the manufacturers of the integrated circuit call the integrated circuit a device. Then a transistor is an element of electronic circuits and not a device as normally termed in the literature.
By applying the above definitions and concepts on your circuit:.
Your circuit is an electronic circuit consisting of one component or a device in addition to the resistors which are electrical circuit elements.
I hope that i shed some light on you question.
Thank you for questions!
Yeeeeesss! A brilliant answer! But what do I do then to persuade you that the NIC in the picture above is an element-:)? A powerful idea flashes across my mind - to hide the circuit (with the power supply) into a black box with a label NEGATIVE RESISTOR... just like Prof Horowitz has done it in the YouTube movie below-:)
Thank you for the excellent answer, Zekry! Regards, Cyril.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKqrXcU2jGo
If your circuit is built in a larger systems and given a symbol it is then a component or a device according to the above definitions. Elements are not dividable as we know from the chemistry. You can call it an element as analogy with the conventional resistors i, e, from the functionality point of view.
Maybe, this is the remedy needed to cope with the growing complexity of electronic circuits - to make the present (already familiar) circuit an "element" and then to combine more such "elements" at this level into a new circuit at a higher level... and so on... and so on...
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