1-18
DIE BONDING—Process of mounting a chip to a package [14].
DIELECTRIC—An insulator; a term applied to the insulating material between the plates of a capacitor
[2].
DIELECTRIC CONSTANT—The ratio of a given dielectric to the dielectric value of air [2] [11].
DIELECTRIC FIELD—The space between and around charged bodies in which their influence is felt.
Also called ELECTRIC FIELD OF FORCE or an ELECTROSTATIC FIELD [1].
DIELECTRIC HEATING—The heating of an insulating material by a high-frequency electric field [10].
DIELECTRIC HYSTERESIS LOSS—Power loss of a capacitor because of the changes in orientation of
electron orbits in the dielectric; the changes in orientation are caused by rapid reversal in polarity of line
voltage. The higher the frequency, the greater the loss [2].
DIELECTRIC LEAKAGE—Power loss of a capacitor because of the leakage of current through the
dielectric. Also relates to leakage resistance; the higher the leakage resistance, the lower the dielectric
leakage [2].
DIELECTRIC LOSSES—The losses resulting from the heating effect on the dielectric material between
conductors [10] [11].
DIELECTRIC STRENGTH—The ability of an insulator to withstand a potential difference without
breaking down (usually expressed in terms of voltage) [4].
DIFFERENCE FREQUENCY—See BEAT FREQUENCY [18].
DIFFERENCE OF POTENTIAL—A voltage between two points [6].
DIFFERENTIAL AMPLIFIER—A circuit that amplifies the difference between two input signals [8].
DIFFRACTION—The bending of waves (as light or RF) when the waves are met with some form of
obstruction [10].
DIFFUSION—(1) The scattering of reflected light waves from an object, such as white paper [10]. (2)
Controlled application of impurity atoms to a semiconductor substrate [14].
DIGIT—A symbol that represents one of the nonnegative integers smaller than the radix. For example, in
decimal notation a digit is one of the characters from 0 through 9 [13].
DIGITAL COMPUTER—(1) A computer in which discrete representation of data is used. (2) A computer
that operates on discrete data by performing arithmetic and logic processes on these data [13].
DIODE—An electron tube containing two electrodes: a cathode and a plate [6]. (2) A two element, solid-
state device made of either germanium or silicon; it is primarily used as a switching device [7] [13].
DIODE DETECTOR—A demodulator that uses one or more diodes to provide a rectified output with an
average value that is proportional to the original modulation [12] [18].
DIPOLE—A common type of half-wave antenna made from a straight piece of wire cut in half. Each half
operates at a quarter wavelength of the output [10].
DIRECT CURRENT—An electric current that flows in one direction only [1].
