What are abbreviations used in electrical engineering?

Question

This question is meant to be a glossary of abbreviations used in electrical engineering.

Some abbreviations are very common and universal, and are therefore acceptable to use on this site. Others are quite localized or pet abbreviations used by individuals without a wide following, so are not acceptable on this site. One purpose of this question is to list all abbreviations so that others have a chance to decode them if encountered, but thru voting also show which ones are acceptable to use in a wide international context or not.

So here are some rules to make this question work:

1. Each answer must only be for ONE abbreviation.

2. This will be community wiki, so only ONE answer for each abbreviation. If you want to expand on a description, edit the existing answer for that abbreviation.

3. This is going to get long, so consistant formatting will help. For each answer (abbreviation), start with just the abbreviation within HTML "h1" and "/h1" tags on a line by itself.

4. Upvote answers for abbreviations you think would be acceptable to use in a post on this site without any expansion or explanation.

5. Downvote abbreviations (answers) you think should not be used "bare" on this site. This will be community-wiki, so nobody will loose reputation as a result. In this special case, you are voting on the universality of the abbreviation, not on the quality of the writeup. If you don't like the write up, fix it instead.

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INDEX

A - A(2) AC(7) ADC(15) ALU(3) AM(7) ASCII(12) ASIC(6) ASK(1) AWG(7)

B - BCD(5) BJT(16) BLDC(4) BNC(6) BPF(1) BW(3)

C - CAD(5) CAN(7) CC(1) CC-II(-1) CCCS(1) CCD(6) CMOS(16) CMRR(1) COG(0) CPLD(4) CPM(-1) CPU(7) CRO(-1)

D - DAC(15) DC(7) DEMUX(2) DFT(2) DIP(5) DLL(2) DMA(7) DRC(3) DSO(3) DSP(13) DTFT(0) DVD(-10) DVM/DMM(4)

E - ECL(4) EDA(6) EE(7) EEPROM(13) EMC(3) EMS(-7) EOS(0) EPROM(3) ESD(9)

F - F(2) FDNR(-3) FET(17) FFC(2) FFT(6) FIFO/LIFO(7) FM(7) FPGA(9) FSK(1) FSM(4)

G - GBW(5) GIC(-1) GND(16) GPIO(9) GPS(4)

H - H(2) HDTV(-11) HF(4) hFE(2) HPF(2) HVSP(-1) Hz(3)

I - i(-1) I/P(-7) I2S(1) IC(11) IF(4) IFT(1) IGBT(9) IGFET(0) ISP(4) I²C(13)

J - j(-1) JFET(10) JTAG(7)

K - KCL(6) KVL(6)

L - LCD(17) LED(19) LF(3) LPF(4) LSB, MSB(2) LUT(5) LVD(-1) LVDS(5) LVDT(0) LVS(-2)

M - MCU(6) MEMS(6) MIDI(4) MOSFET(17) MPU(-1) ms(2) MUX(6)

N - NEXT(-6) NPN(12) NTSC(0) NVM(0)

O - O/P(-7) OCXO(2) OLED(4) OP-AMP(8) OTA(3)

P - P-P(0) PAL (logic)(2) PAL (television)(0) PC(-1) PCB(17) PCBA(-5) PCM(4) PFM(-2) PIC(0) PID(9) PLL(9) PM(0) , duplicate(0) PNP(14) POR(3) PPM(-1) PSK(5) PUT(-1) PWM(24)

Q - QM(-6) QVGA(0)

R - RADAR(0) RAM(12) RF(5) RFID(6) RGB(4) RJ45(6) ROM(3) RTL (discrete logic)(2) RTL (Verilog)(2)

S - SAW(3) SCR(9) SD,SDHC(0) SDCC(-3) SMA(4) SMPS(9) SMT(5) SNR(5) SOC/SoC(5) SPI(13) SPICE(8) SRAM(6) SRPP(-2) STA(0)

T - TBH(-8) TCXO(2) THD(6) TRF(-1) TTL(10) TVS(4)

U - UART(12) UHF(4) UJT(0) UL(3) USART(4) USB(4)

V - V(2) VCA(1) VCC / VEE / VDD / VSS(14) VCCS(1) VCO(5) VCXO(3) VFD(3) VGA(-2) VHDL(7) VHF(5) VLSI(2) VNL,VFL(-1) VSWR(4)

W - W(2)

X - XO(1) XOR(3) XTAL(5)

Ω - Ω(0)

_{186 answers - Sun May 11 09:17:28 2014 (CET)}

Answer 1

DIP

Dual-Inline Package, an integrated packaging style for through-hole assembly

Answer 2

BCD

Binary Coded Decimal.

The act or process of encoding decimal in a binary format, usually 0000 to 1001.

Answer 3

MEMS

Micro ElectroMechanical Systems.

MEMS are devices that can fit into small sized packages, typically up to few millimeters wide, and implement electro-mechanical functions such as sensing or actuating.

Answer 4

XTAL

Piezoelectric crystal (quartz)

Answer 5

XOR

exclusive-or

Boolean logic function. Returns true if any input is different from another input.

Answer 6

KCL, KVL

Kirchhoff's laws

Kirchhoff's Current Law: The sum of currents flowing into a node is zero.
In come countries this is referred to as 1st Kirchhoff's law.

Kirchhoff's Voltage Law: The sum of voltages around a loop is zero.
In come countries this is referred to as 2nd Kirchhoff's law.

Answer 7

CAD

Computer-Aided Design (as in CAD/CAM)

Answer 8

GPS

Global Positioning System

but not Global Positioning Satellite

Answer 9

SMT

Surface mount technologies. Also written as SMD, for surface mount devices.

Components that are soldered directly to pads of exposed copper on circuit boards, instead of the traditional through hole, or wire wrapped construction methods.

Answer 10

OLED

organic light-emitting diode

Answer 11

SOC/SoC

System On a Chip

Answer 12

SMA

SubMiniture version A - a subminiture RF coaxial connector

Answer 13

GBW

Gain Bandwidth Product. The product of an amplifier's gain and its open loop bandwidth is commonly considered constant. When an amplifier is configured for high gain, the bandwidth will be reduced and the other way around.

Answer 14

TVS

Transient Voltage Suppression diode

Answer 15

ISP

In System Programming, also referred to as ICSP -- In Circuit System Programming

Answer 16

DVM/DMM

Digital Volt Meter / Digital Multimeter; A DVM measures only voltage, while a DMM includes (at least) current and resistance. May be used interchangeably.

Answer 17

BLDC

Brushless Direct Current (DC) Motor

Answer 18

LUT

Look Up Table: a component in FPGA, or a part of software program.

Answer 19

PSK

Phase Shift Keying. Simple modulation method used for digital communications

Answer 20

RF

Short for Radio frequency. (3 kHz ~ 300 GHz)

Answer 21

VCO

Voltage Controlled Oscillator. An oscillator which its frequency can be controlled with an input voltage.

Answer 22

VHF

Very High Frequency radio (30 MHz ~ 300 MHz). Today the terms "low", "medium", "high", etc, are not very meaningful relative to the radio spectrum in common use. However, these terms have evolved somewhat standard meanings from historical context, so now are just used to refer to certain radio bands. See other terms like ELF, VLF, LF, HF, UHF, etc.

Answer 23

USART

Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter. Usually used to describe a microcontroller peripheral that can be configured to be used as a UART, but also to implement one or more synchronous serial protocols (like SPI and I²C, for example).

Answer 24

EMC

ElectroMagnetic Compatibility. It's the discipline of electrical engineering concerned with controlling the electromagnetic radiation generated by electronic devices and the amount of such radiation that the devices can withstand/tolerate. Wiki

Answer 25

FSM

Finite State Machine, can be either Mealy or Moore style

Answer 26

DRC

Design Rule Checking or Check(s)

Answer 27

RGB

Red Green Blue, an additive color model

Answer 28

PCM

pulse-code modulation

Answer 29

CPLD

complex programmable logic device

Answer 30

ECL

Emitter coupled logic, a fast BJT logic family. Also related: NECL -- negative emitter coupled logic and PECL -- positive emitter coupled logic