Open Circuits

Open Circuits

by Windell Oskay, Eric Schlaepfer
Released November 2022
Publisher(s): No Starch Press
ISBN: 9781718502345

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Book description

Open Circuits is a photographic exploration of the beautiful design inside everyday electronics. Its stunning cross-section photography unlocks a hidden world full of elegance, subtle complexity, and wonder.

Our phones, computers, and appliances are made of hundreds of internal components, each precisely engineered to perform a certain function, but none intended to actually be seen. Through painstakingly executed, vividly detailed cross-section photography, Open Circuits reveals the surprising—and often accidental—beauty hiding inside the electronic components that drive our everyday devices.

From resistors to LEDs, USB cables to headphone jacks, stepper motors to nixie tubes, the book’s arresting imagery transforms more than 130 components into delightful works of art. As you visually dissect the components’ insides, you’ll learn about how they work and how they were made. Open Circuits has something for everyone to appreciate, whether you’re a seasoned electrical engineer, an amateur tinkerer, or simply a lover of art and photography.

Table of contents

  1. Acknowledgments
  2. Introduction
  3. 1 Passive Components
  4. 32 kHz Quartz Crystal
  5. Carbon Film Resistor
  6. High-Stability Film Resistor
  7. Wirewound Power Resistor
  8. Thick-Film Resistor Array
  9. Surface-Mount Chip Resistor
  10. Thin-Film Resistor Array
  11. Wirewound Potentiometer
  12. Trimmer Potentiometer
  13. 15-Turn Trimmer Potentiometer
  14. 10-Turn Potentiometer
  15. Ceramic Disc Capacitor
  16. Glass Capacitor
  17. Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor
  18. Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitor
  19. Film Capacitor
  20. Dipped Tantalum Capacitor
  21. Polymer Tantalum Chip Capacitor
  22. Polymer Aluminum Chip Capacitor
  23. Axial Inductor
  24. Surface-Mount Inductor
  25. Sintered Ferrite Inductor
  26. Ferrite Bead
  27. Three-Terminal Filter Capacitor
  28. Toroidal Transformer
  29. Power Supply Transformer
  30. Low-Power Cartridge Fuses
  31. Axial Lead Fuse
  32. Liquid Power Fuse
  33. Compact Power Fuse
  34. Thermal Fuse
  35. 2 Semiconductors
  36. 1N4002 Diode
  37. Glass-Encapsulated Diodes
  38. Rectifier Bridge
  39. 2N2222 Transistor
  40. 2N3904 Transistor
  41. LM309K Voltage Regulator
  42. Dual In-Line Package (DIP) ICs
  43. ATmega328 Microcontroller
  44. Small Outline Integrated Circuit
  45. Thin Quad Flat Pack
  46. Ball Grid Array
  47. Microprocessor SoC
  48. Through-Hole Red LED
  49. Surface-Mount LED
  50. Red Green Bicolor LED
  51. White LED
  52. Laser Diode
  53. Optocoupler
  54. Optical Tilt Sensor
  55. Optical Encoders
  56. Ambient Light Sensor
  57. CMOS Image Sensor
  58. 3 Electromechanics
  59. Toggle Switch
  60. Slide Switch
  61. Pushbutton Switch
  62. DIP Switch
  63. Tactile Switch
  64. Microswitch
  65. Electromagnetic Relay
  66. Thermal Switch
  67. Brushed DC Motor
  68. Stepper Motor
  69. Magnetic Buzzer
  70. Speaker
  71. Smartphone Camera
  72. Inside the Camera Module
  73. Rotary Voice Coil Motor
  74. Optical Drive Focusing Motors
  75. Electret Microphone
  76. 4 Cables and Connectors
  77. Solid and Stranded Wire
  78. AC Power Cable
  79. IDC Ribbon Cable
  80. Modular Telephone Cable
  81. DIP Sockets
  82. Barrel Plug and Jack
  83. Quarter-Inch Audio Plug and Jack
  84. 3.5 mm Audio Connector
  85. LMR-195 Coaxial Cable
  86. Laptop Power Cable
  87. RG-6 Coaxial Cable
  88. Cable TV RG-59
  89. F Connector
  90. BNC Plug and Jack
  91. SMA Connector
  92. DE-9 Connector
  93. Category 6 Ethernet Cable
  94. SATA Cable
  95. HDMI Cable
  96. VGA Cable
  97. Basic USB Cable
  98. USB Jack
  99. SuperSpeed USB Cable
  100. 5 Retro Tech
  101. Neon Lamp
  102. Nixie Tube
  103. Inside the Nixie Tube
  104. 12AX7 Vacuum Tube
  105. Vacuum Fluorescent Display Tube
  106. Cathode Ray Tube
  107. Inside the CRT
  108. Mercury Tilt Switch
  109. Vintage Wirewound Resistors
  110. Carbon Composition Resistor
  111. Cornell-Dubilier 9LS Capacitor
  112. Dipped Silver Mica Capacitor
  113. Axial Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor
  114. IF Transformer
  115. Incandescent Light Bulb
  116. Camera Flashbulb
  117. Photoresistor
  118. Point Contact Diode
  119. Germanium Diode
  120. µA702 Integrated Circuit
  121. Windowed EPROM
  122. Core Memory
  123. IBM SLT Module
  124. Analog Panel Meter
  125. Magnetic Tape Head
  126. Thin-Film Hard Drive Head
  127. GMR Hard Drive Head
  128. 6 Composite Devices
  129. LED Filament Light Bulb
  130. Single-Side Printed Circuit Board
  131. Two-Layer Printed Circuit Board
  132. Multilayer Circuit Boards
  133. Flex and Rigid-Flex Circuit Boards
  134. Elastomeric Connector
  135. MicroSD Card
  136. Glob-Top Packaging
  137. EMV Credit Card Chip
  138. NFC Key Card
  139. Smartphone Logic Board
  140. Inside the Logic Board
  141. Ethernet Transformer
  142. DC-DC Converter
  143. Seven-Segment LED Display
  144. Thick-Film LED Numeric Display
  145. 5×7 LED Dot Matrix Display
  146. Vintage LED Bubble Display
  147. Alphanumeric LED Display
  148. Temperature-Compensated Clock
  149. Crystal Oscillator
  150. Avalanche Photodiode Module
  151. 3656HG Isolation Amplifier
  152. Inside the Isolation Amplifier
  153. Afterword
  154. Cutting and Polishing
  155. Cleaning
  156. Potting
  157. Mounting
  158. Photographic Equipment
  159. Retouching
  160. About Macro Photography
  161. Focus Stacking
  162. Glossary
  163. Index

Product information

  • Title: Open Circuits
  • Author(s): Windell Oskay, Eric Schlaepfer
  • Release date: November 2022
  • Publisher(s): No Starch Press
  • ISBN: 9781718502345