Electronic engineering (also called electronics and communications engineering ) is an electrical engineering discipline which utilizes nonlinear and active electrical components (such as semiconductor devices, especially transistors, diodes and integrated circuits) to design electronic circuits, devices, VLSI devices and their systems. The discipline typically also designs passive electrical components, usually based on printed circuitboards.
Electronics is a subfield within the wider electrical engineering academic subject but denotes a broad engineering field that covers subfields such as analog electronics, digital electronics, consumer electronics, embedded systems and power electronics. Electronics engineering deals with implementation of applications, principles and algorithms developed within many related fields, for example solid-state physics, radio engineering, telecommunications, control systems, signal processing, systems engineering, computer engineering, instrumentation engineering, electric power control, robotics, and many others.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is one of the most important and influential organizations for electronics engineers.
Relationship to electrical engineering
Electronics is a subfield within the wider electrical engineering academic subject. An academic degree with a major in electronics engineering can be acquired from some universities, while other universities use electrical engineering as the subject. The term electrical engineer is still used in the academic world to include electronic engineers. However, some people consider the term 'electrical engineer ' should be reserved for those having specialized in power and heavy current or high voltage engineering, while others consider that power is just one subset of electrical engineering, as well as 'electrical distribution engineering '. The term 'power engineering ' is used as a descriptor in that industry.
