Three components account for most of what a beginner sees on a circuit board, and each does one thing that the other two cannot. A resistor limits current, a capacitor stores charge, and a diode lets current pass one way and not the other. Knowing which is which turns a random scatter of parts into … Read more
Everything a diode does comes from one thin boundary inside it. The package, the leads and the markings are just delivery; the behaviour lives in a zone a few micrometres wide where two differently treated regions of silicon meet, and understanding that zone makes the rest of the device class predictable rather than mysterious. Two … Read more
A diode is the simplest interesting component in electronics: it conducts in one direction and blocks in the other. What makes it worth learning first is that almost every power supply, every battery circuit and every electronic device you own depends on that single behaviour, and the rest of the device catalogue is variations on … Read more
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