Electronic Engineering Glossary Terms

Load. A device through which an electric current flows and which changes electrical energy into another form. Power consumed by a device or circuit in performing its function. A digital load my be represented by a resistor and capacitor [for example]. TTL Load Schematics

Load

The input impedance of a circuit presented to the output of the circuit driving it.

Load Cell. A transducer which converts force into an electrical output. [Load Cell Manufacturers]

Load Characteristic. The characteristic curve of a transistor or other device showing the relationship between two variables.

Load Circuit. See load.

Load Factor. The ratio of average power to peak power over some specified time.

Loading. The insertion of impedance into a circuit to change the characteristics of the circuit.

Loading Coil. A coil that does not provide coupling to any other circuit, but is inserted in a circuit to increase its inductance.

Loading Effect. The effect of a load on a transmitting interface. The effect of connecting one device to another. The effect of a voltmeter upon the circuit being measured that results in an inaccurate measurement. Loading effect is minimized by using a voltmeter with an internal resistance many times higher than the resistance of the circuit being measured. Obsolete reference, as a digital voltmeter has Meg Ohms of input resistance.

Load Impedance. [Z_L] The AC resistance a load represent to a driver circuit.

Load Isolator. A passive attenuator in which the loss in one direction is much greater than that in the opposite direction. One example is a ferrite isolator for waveguides that allows energy to travel in only one direction. [Waveguide Vendors]

Load Life. The endurance or failure rate of a component operating at full load over the life of the component. Also refer to the Definition of Capacitor Load Life [part of the dictionary of capacitor terms.

Load Line. A line drawn on a collector characteristic curve of a transistor showing the point that the operating point moves as the collector current changes. An operating line drawn on a characteristic curve which shows the relationship between the output current and voltage for a given load. Graphic shown above.

Load Regulation. The change in output voltage for a change in load current, at constant chip temperature.

Load Sharing. The distribution of communication traffic between two or more paths. Two or more power supplies used to power a load in a redundant manner, sharing the electrical load equally. Two or more devices or components equally supplying current to an electrical load.

Lobe. An identifiable segment of an antenna radiation pattern. Refer to the Antenna Dictionary for more detail.

Local Action. A continuation of current flow within a battery cell when there is no external load. Caused by impurities in the electrode. [Battery Producers and Data]

Local Area Network. [LAN] A network which only operates or spans a small area, although there is no strict size to the operational area. A network which only operates within a particular building. A data communications system that (a) lies within a limited spatial area, (b) has a specific user group, (c) has a specific topology, and (d) is not a public switched telecommunications network, but may be connected to one.

Local Loop. The voice-band telco channel between the central office [local office] and the subscriber [home].

Local Oscillator. An oscillator used to feed a mixer to produce a sum and difference of its frequency and a frequency of interest. A local oscillator is used to generate an IF frequency by applying the oscillator signal and the incoming RF signal into a mixer.

Lock. The state of being synchronized in frequency or phase to another signal.

Lock-in Frequency. A frequency at which a closed-loop system can acquire and track a signal.

Logarithmic Receiver. A receiver that uses a linear logarithmic amplifier (lin-log) instead of a normal linear amplifier.