21 Must-Have Features For Ecommerce Sites

Are you creating a new ecommerce store for your business or looking for ways to improve the functionality of your current store?

Creating an ecommerce experience that is sure to delight your customers can be as simple as taking a little inspiration from the top ecommerce brands.

The following are 21 must-have features for ecommerce sites.

Example brands were selected from The Top 50 Ecommerce Companies in the U.S. list published by Similarweb.

1. User-Friendly Navigation

The key to helping customers find the products they need quickly is to offer a user-friendly navigation system.

Products should be logically categorized, with the most popular categories listed first.

Sephora knows how customers like to shop.

Some specifically seek out products by brand, while others shop by category. Their navigation bar reflects this organization, along with quick links to inexpensive and sale products.

2. Site Search

In addition to user-friendly navigation, site search is a feature found on most of the top ecommerce sites.

It allows customers to bypass the navigation and search for exactly what they want.

Nordstrom offers a site search with suggestions for popular brands and products that match what you enter.

Most site searches can be tracked using Google Analytics.

3. Footer Navigation

Have you considered the best way to utilize your website’s footer to help customers find your top products?

Try a list of links to the top products, services, and information that customers want to find.

T-Mobile uses its footer to direct customers to their social media profiles, English and Spanish sites, featured phones and plans, support, and company information.

Their footer effectively includes links to everything they want both customers and search crawlers to discover from any page throughout their website.

4. Product Videos

Adding video to your product pages can increase conversions.

According to Think With Google, over 50% of shoppers said that online video helped them make a decision on which brand or product to purchase.

Most ecommerce platforms allow retailers to add videos and images to their product pages.

Apple uses video to highlight features of its latest iPhone on its sales page. Their use of high-quality product images and video help sell their products online and in-store.

5. Product Reviews

The most popular form of user-generated content found on ecommerce sites is product reviews and ratings.

This section of an ecommerce product page is crucial to providing social proof to shoppers that a product will fit their needs.

eBay allows customers to rate and review products, displaying reviews below the product descriptions and sponsored items.

Other eBay users also have the option to rate reviews as useful or not, moving the best reviews to the top of the list on the product page.

6. Generous Return Policy

Want to increase consumer confidence in the products you sell? Offer a generous return policy and include it on your product page.

 

Place it near your add to cart button to increase the chances that it will have a positive effect on the number of purchases.

7. FAQ For Products

Another way to incorporate user-generated content into your ecommerce store is by adding a section of the most frequently asked questions by customers.

This section can help your store in a number of ways.

• Increase the number of sales by answering your customer’s top pre-sales questions about your products.
• Reduce the amount of time your customer service has to spend on answering questions about products, before and after the purchase.

Amazon’s question and answer section on product pages gives customers the ability to ask questions, answer questions, and vote up the best questions to ensure the most frequently asked ones appear at the top.

8. FAQ For The Store

In addition to the FAQ for your product pages, consider adding a FAQ page for your main store.

This should cover any of the general questions people may ask about online privacy, security, payments, shipping, returns, and other shopping concerns.

Etsy offers answers to the most frequently asked questions in its help center.

This saves their customer support team from having to answer general questions and gives them more time to solve complex issues.

9. Order Tracking

Once your customer places an order, the top question on their mind is when will my order arrive.

Make it simple for customers to check their current order status on your website.

AutoZone has an order tracking page that doesn’t require customers to log in.

They simply need their email address and the order number they received in their order confirmation email.

10. Email Opt-In

According to Mailchimp benchmarks, emails sent by ecommerce businesses have an average open rate of 15.68% and a click rate of 2.01%.

This is important considering the revenue-generating potential ecommerce emails have.

If you can’t get visitors to make a purchase on your website, one of the next best conversions for your store would be to attain the visitor as a subscriber on your email list.

This would allow you to reach them with future sales and email promotions.

Samsung prompts visitors to subscribe to their email list to receive their latest offers using a pop-up.

Another way ecommerce retailers can capture email addresses is by adding an opt-in form in the header and footer of their website.

11. Push Notifications

If you want to bypass spam filters and social media algorithms, the next best way to capture your ecommerce store visitors as subscribers is through push notifications.

Push notification services allow visitors to subscribe to your latest updates in their browser.

When you have a promotion you want to notify subscribers of, you can send a message that will be delivered to their notification center via their browser.

Shein is one of many ecommerce brands that allows visitors to subscribe to push notifications.

Once subscribed, visitors will see the latest messages from Shein in their desktop notifications.

12. Chatbots

One of the benefits of running an ecommerce website is its ability to generate revenue, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the year. That also means providing support to your customers during those hours as well.

According to LivePerson’s survey of 5,000 consumers, positive sentiment about the use of chatbots nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021, from 31% to 61%.

Many ecommerce stores use chatbots to assist online shoppers with basic questions and navigate them to a specific product or support page.

Lowes uses an always online expert, which is an automated assistant with specific prompts for visitors to choose when looking for a specific answer, finding a specific product, or solving a basic customer service inquiry.

13. Coupon Codes

We know that consumers often search for coupon codes on Google when presented with a coupon or discount box on a checkout page.

In the United States, 88% of consumers use coupons when shopping, using coupon sites like slickdeals.com, groupon.com, and retailmenot.com.

If you want to keep customers on your website throughout the checkout process, give them great deals via your own coupon codes.

Victoria’s Secret uses a bar at the top of its website to highlight its latest offer.

When visitors click on View Offers, they will get additional offers and coupon codes to apply at checkout.

14. Product Availability Filters

Do you have multiple options for customers when it comes to pickup or delivery methods?

Give customers the ability to quickly find the products that are available with their preferred pickup or delivery option.

Walgreens offers customers an item availability filter that will sort products based on their pickup, same-day delivery, shipping, or in-stock availability. This gives you the best chance to convert customers based on fast availability.

15. Mobile App

In addition to having a mobile-friendly store for shoppers to make a purchase from any device, also consider having a mobile app for your store.

Mobile apps allow you to keep your brand on your customer’s minds, placing your app icon/brand logo on the smart devices customers use most.

You don’t have to wait for customers to open up a browser or another app for social media or email to get your latest sales messages.

You can push those promotional updates through your app to any customers that have notifications turned on.

Home Depot offers an app that allows customers to shop for products online and have them shipped to their homes or reserved for in-store pickup.

16. Gift Registries

If you do a search for gift registries on Google, you will find dozens of well-known brand retailers.

Target, Amazon, Walmart, Crate & Barrel, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond are just a few that appear on the first page of SERPs.

Why are gift registries important to driving sales? Let’s just look at wedding registries for a moment.

According to The Knot 2020 Wedding Registry Study, 80% of respondents set up a wedding registry.

CNBC reported findings from Baird’s 2022 survey that Amazon leads as the top wedding registry provider with 45% listing penetration.

Target offers gift registries for babies, weddings, and charities. You can also create a custom registry to celebrate any occasion you choose.

17. Multilingual Support

If your ecommerce store caters to customers in a specific region, you have two options to support the top languages spoken in their region:

• Depend on Google Translate to help customers translate your website into their language.
• Create multiple versions of your website for specific languages.

Xfinity uses English on their www subdomain, and Spanish on their es subdomain.

Content can be switched from English to Spanish using the En and Es links in the main navigation bar.

18. Loyalty Program

Do you want to increase customer retention? One way to encourage people to shop from your ecommerce store again is to offer a loyalty program.

These are typically free or paid programs where customers get private or early access to the best deals.

Many allow customers to accrue points per purchase that lead to various rewards, such as a specific dollar amount off your next purchase or a free product.

Ulta is one of many brands that offer a free rewards program for their loyal customers.

Customers can join for free and earn points redeemable for products and services online and in-store.

19. Carousels

While marketers may not agree on the value of image and video carousels on the homepage, you will find many ecommerce brands use them.

Major retailers such as Walmart, eBay, Home Depot, Samsung, Wayfair, Lowes, Costco, Sam’s Club, and Kohls have carousels with their latest promotions and sales.

Chewy is another ecommerce brand that features a carousel on the homepage. Theirs promote discounts for auto-ship orders, healthy pet food, flea & tick medications, pet bedding, and more.

20. Local Store Information

If your ecommerce brand also has physical store locations, you can boost offline sales by adding details for the nearest store to your website’s header.

This would allow customers to shop online, reserve for in-store pick up, or browse their local store inventory before going to make an in-store purchase.

Costco offers a link to the closest store based on your zip code. They also display current store hours.

21. Personal Data Policy

Depending on where your ecommerce store is based and the customers that it serves, your site may need a policy that notifies visitors of the data that is collected about them on your website using cookies from the website and other analytics tools.

Michael’s ecommerce store displays a popup advising visitors about cookie usage to enhance user experience and analyze website traffic.

Visitors then have the option to accept the policy or adjust their cookie preferences.

Start Creating Fantastic Shopping Experiences

It’s important to remember that you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel in order to provide a fantastic shopping experience for your users.

It’s simply a matter of listening to your customer’s feedback and monitoring your competitors to see if new trends in ecommerce arise.

While you don’t need to try every new feature your ecommerce platform has to offer, you should look into the ones that your customers have come to expect from the top retailers in your vertical.

Combine your customer’s feedback with A/B testing to see what implementations drive more sales and higher customer satisfaction.

 

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Contents

Does your PCBA house check for component errors?

Electronics is about transforming information into electrical signals and using the high-speed processing capabilities of electronics to perform tasks reliably, repeatedly, and fast. Electronic components and printed circuit boards form the basic parts of an electronic system.

While electronic components process information in form of electrical signals, a printed circuit board is the skeletal structure on which the electronic components are mounted and soldered to hold them together and provide pathways for information to flow between components through PCB traces.

PCB traces are metal wires connected between components. These traces are usually copper strips and sometimes aluminum or silver. The material, on which the components and traces are placed, is made of insulator material (dielectric), typically fiberglass impregnated with resin. This dielectric material can be of various kinds depending on the application of the circuit board.

Over the last few decades’ electronics technologies and product development have been growing and rapidly have become more and more complex. Knowledge of electronic components is essential to build successful electronic products.

This article gives an overview of the different types of electronic components. It focuses on the parameters to be considered while selecting an electronic component and gives details about standard sizes and shapes of components. These are essential while designing and manufacturing an electronic product. To learn about failures, read common errors encountered in discrete components.

Some of the most commonly used electronic components are resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, LEDs, transistors, crystals and oscillators, electromechanical components like relays and switches, ICs, and connectors. These components have leads/terminals and are available in specific standardized packages, that the designer can choose to suit his application. SMT (surface mount technology) and through-hole are the two types of mounting techniques used to place components on a PCB.

 

Design for Assembly Handbook

6 Chapters - 50 Pages - 70 Minute Read

What's Inside:

• Recommended layout for components
• Common PCB assembly defects
• Factors that impact the cost of the PCB assembly, including:
  • Component packages
  • Board assembly volumes

Download Now

 

Types of electronic devices

Electronic devices can be divided into two major kinds: Passive and Active devices based on their functionality.

Passive devices

Generally, resistors, capacitors, inductors, are specified as passive devices.

Resistors

The resistor is a passive electrical component whose function is to introduce resistance to the flow of electric current in an electrical circuit to limit the current. The magnitude of the opposition to the flow of current is called the resistance of the resistor. A larger resistance value indicates a greater opposition to current flow. The resistance is measured in ohms (Ω), and its equation is as follows.

R=V/I   

The voltage (V), current (I), and resistance (R) are related by Ohm’s law. i.e. V = IR. The higher the resistance R, the lower is the current I for a given voltage V across it. It is a linear device.

Resistors dissipate electrical energy given by P=I² R Watts or Joules/sec.

Resistors are made using different materials such as carbon film, metal film, etc. However, we will concentrate on the most common varieties and their attributes.

Resistors’ values vary from milliohms to mega ohms and the tolerance of typical resistors varies from 1% to 5%. However, for precision resistor tolerance varies below 1% from 0.1% to 0.001% and hence they are more expensive and are used in analog circuits where precise/reference voltage is needed. Commonly used Resistor are available with maximum power rating of 1/8(0.125W), 1/4W (0.25W), 1/2W (0.5W), 1W, 5W. Based on the values and power ratings, SMD resistors are made in different sizes codes 1210, 1206, 0805, 0603, 0402, 0201. This also includes R-packs resistor network used for pull up /pull down for circuits interfaces.

Different types of resistors by size and form

• Through-hole resistors
• Surface-mount resistors SMD/SMT

Different types of resistors by application

• Common resistor: used in current limiter, setting biases, voltage dividers, pull up, filtering, termination resistors, load resistors, etc.
• Precision resistor for voltage feedback circuits, voltage references.
• Current sense resistors
• Power resistors

Resistor selection parameters

While selecting any resistor in the circuit, the designer needs to consider the following parameters based on the application and real-estate available on the printed circuit board.

• Resistance value(R),
• Power (Wattages) dissipated across it,
• Tolerance (+/- %)
• Size based on available space on PCB.

Resistor manufacturers: AVX, Rohm, Kemet, Vishay, Samsung, Panasonic TDK, Murata, etc.

Capacitor

The Capacitor is a passive electrical component, whose function is to store electrical energy and deliver it to the circuit when needed. The capacity of a capacitor to store electrical charge is known as the capacitance of that capacitor. It is denoted by (C). The unit of capacitance is Farad (F) and can range from, micro Farad (µF) 1x 10-6 F, Kilo pico Farad (KpF), or nano Farad (nF) 1x 10-9 F to pico Farad (pF) 1x 10-12  F. Typical values range from 1pF to 1000uF.

The various uses of capacitors are:

• It blocks the flow of DC voltage and permits the flow of AC hence used for coupling of the circuits.
• It bypasses the unwanted signal frequencies to ground.
• It is used for phase shifting and for creating time delays.
• It is also used for filtration, especially in removing ripples from the rectified waveform.
• It is used to get the tuned frequency.
• It is used as a motor starter.

Capacitor equation is given as follows;

C=Q/V

Where Q denotes charge and V denotes voltage across the capacitor and C denotes the capacitance.

Since current   i=dq/dt  i.e. rate of change of charge,

Hence, I = C dV/dt 

Therefore, if the voltage across a capacitor is constant, there will be no current flow through the capacitor; and current will only flow across the capacitor if the voltage across it changing with time for example an AC voltage. That is why a capacitor blocks DC signals and allows only AC signals to pass through it when used in the series of the path of the signal.

The energy stored in a capacitor C which has been charged to voltage V is given by

E= 1/2 CV²; where V is in Volts and C in capacitance.

Though the ideal capacitor doesn’t offer resistance and inductance, however in a real capacitor it has a small amount of effective series resistance due to capacitor plates, dielectric material, and terminal leads. Higher ESR increases noise across the capacitor, decreasing filtering effectiveness hence ESR needs to be of smaller value.

A capacitor consists of two parallel plates (conductors) separated by a non-conductive region such as dielectric form a capacitor.

 C=  ε A/d

Where A is an area of the plate, d is spacing between two plates and ε is dielectric permittivity. The dielectric media can be of air, paper, ceramic, plastic, mica, glass, etc.

Different types of capacitors

Capacitors fall into two categories – polarized and non-polarized.

Polarized capacitors can be given positive voltage in only one direction and placed on board in only one direction. Polarized capacitors are electrolytic and tantalum capacitors

Non-polarized is the ceramic capacitor, polyester capacitor, paper capacitor which does not have polarity and can be placed in any direction.

Capacitor selection parameters

While selecting a capacitor in any circuit users need to take care of the following parameters apart from the application/usage.

• Capacitance value
• Maximum operating voltage of the capacitor.
• Tolerance
• Breakdown voltage
• Frequency range
• Equivalent series resistance (ESR)
• Size

Manufacturers: AVX, Kemet, Vishay, Samsung, Panasonic TDK, Murata, etc.

Inductors

The inductors (also called as a coil or choke) is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores magnetic energy when an electric current is passed through it. It’s an insulated wire wound into a coil around a core of some material (air, iron, powdered iron, or ferrite material) in a spiral form.

The inductor is denoted by inductance ‘L’ and the measuring unit is Henry (H).  Inductors have values that typically range from 1 µH to 2000 mH.

When the time-varying current flows through an inductor, the magnetic field is created which induces an electromotive force (e.m.f.) (voltage) in the inductor. Voltage V, across an inductor of inductance L, is given by:

V = L di/dt

That is, there is a voltage across the inductor only if the current through it is changing; DC produces no voltage through an inductor. In general, inductor blocks the AC and passes the DC.

The energy stored in an inductor with value ‘L’ Henries is given by;

E = 1/2 Li² energy E is in Joules, and I is in ampere.

An ideal inductor has zero resistance and zero capacitance. However, real inductors have a small value resistance associated with the winding of the coil and whenever current flows through it, energy is lost in the form of heat.

Application of inductors

• In buck/boost power regulators
• In filter circuits in DC power supplies
• Isolating signals
• In transformer to step up/down the AC voltage level
• In oscillator and tuning circuits
• For generating voltage surges in fluorescent lamp sets

Types of inductors

Inductors are mainly classified depending on the core material used and operating frequency. The following are the different types of inductors and available in through-hole as well as SMD package based on the construction.

• Iron cored inductors
• Air cored inductors
• Powdered iron cored inductors
• Ferrite cored inductors
• Variable inductors
• Audio frequency inductors
• Radio frequency inductors

Inductor selection parameters

While selecting an inductor in any circuit user needs to take care of the following parameter apart from the application/usage.

• Inductance value
• Tolerance
• Maximum current rating
• Shielded and non-shielded
• Size
• Q ratings
• Frequency range
• The resistance of the inductor
• Type of core used

Manufacturers: Murata, TDK, Bourns Inc., Abracon Electronics, AVX corporation, Schaffner, Signal Transformer, etc.

Diodes

The diode is two terminal semiconductor devices that allow an electric current to pass in one direction while blocking it in the reverse direction. The diode is made up of a semiconductor device with P-type material and N-type material. Typical material used in a diode is silicon and germanium. They conduct when a minimum forward voltage (~ 0.7V for Silicon) is applied across it and remain off during reverse bias condition.

The diode symbol is represented as below and their physical packages.

Applications of diode:

• Power conversion (AC to DC)/ rectification
• Clamping the voltage
• Zener diode as a voltage regulator
• Overvoltage protection
• ESD protection
• Demodulation of signals

Type of diodes:

• Rectifier diode
• Switching diode
• Light-emitting diode
• Zener diode
• Schottky diode
• ESD diode
• Tunnel diode
• Varicap diode
• Photodiode
• The laser diode in optical communication

Size of diode packages

Diodes are available in through-hole (DIP) and SMD versions.

E.g. DIP: DO214, SMA, TO- 220 with heatsink  SMD 1206, 1210, SOD323, SOT23, TO-252, D2PAK,

Diode selection parameters

While selecting a diode in any circuit users need to take care of the following parameters apart from the application/usage.

• Forward bias voltage
• Maximum forward current
• Average forward current
• Power dissipation
• Reverse breakdown voltage/peak inverse voltage
• Max reverse current
• Operating junction temperature
• Reverse recovery time
• Size

Manufacturers: Rohm Semiconductor, Diodes Incorporated, On Semi, Vishay, etc.

Crystals

The quartz crystal is made from a thin piece of quartz wafer. This wafer is made from silicon material. The wafer is tightly fitted and controlled between two parallel metalized surfaces which make an electrical connection. When an external voltage is applied to the plates, the crystal vibrates with a certain fundamental frequency which creates alternating waveform which swings between high and low levels. This phenomenon is known as the piezoelectric effect. Due to this property, they are used in electronic circuits along with active components to create stable clock input to the processor.

Crystal application

• Used in oscillator circuit to provide a clock input to the processor device
• Source of reference signals for RF

Crystal selection parameter

• Load capacitance
• Fundamental frequency
• Frequency tolerance
• Frequency stability
• ESR
• Operating voltage

Manufacturers: NDK, Murata, Epson, ECS, CTS, Kyocera, etc.

Relays

A relay is an electromagnetic switch that opens and closes potential-free contacts. An electromechanical relay consists of an armature, coil, spring, and contacts. When the voltage is applied to a coil, it generates a magnetic field. This attracts the armature and causes a change in the open/closed state of the circuit. It is mainly used to control a high-powered circuit using a low power signal.

There are mainly two types of relays based on constructions – electromechanical (EMR) and solid-state (SSR) relays.

A solid-state relay has a photodiode at its input side and a switching device such as transistor/FET at its output side. When a specific voltage is applied at its input, photodiode conducts and triggers the base of the transistor to cause the switching. Due to its fast switching, miniaturized form factor, low voltage requirement, and eliminating the mechanical arching, electrical noise, and contact bounce, it’s widely used in applications compared to mechanical relay.

Different types of relay form

Relays are categorized based on the poles and throws such as SPDT, SPST, DPST, DPDT.

Application 

• Controlling the high power circuit with isolated low power. E.g. Controlling 230V a.c. circuits with a +5V signal.
• Switching voltage ON/OFF
• Electrical MCB
• Driving diac/triac circuits

Selection parameter for relay:

• Output load type – AC/DC
• Input coil voltage for a mechanical relay
• Photodiode voltage for SSR
• Output switching voltage
• Output current
• On-State resistance
• Number of clicks/switching
• Number of poles and contacts
• Type of output contacts NC/NO
• Packages

Active devices

The basic electronic components that depend on an external power source for their operation are called active components. They can amplify signals and/or process signals. Some of the active components are transistor, integrated circuits ICs.

Transistor

The transistor is a non-linear semiconductor three-terminal device. The transistor is considered to be one of the most important devices in the field of electronics. The transistor has transformed many aspects of man’s life. There are two main functions of transistors, to amplify input signals and to acts as solid-state switches. The transistor acts as a switch when operated either in saturation or cut-off region. Whereas it amplifies signals when used in the active region. It offers very high input resistance and very low output resistance.

Transistors are categorized into bipolar junction transistor and field effect transistor based on their construction.

Type of transistor:

• BJT:  NPN and PNP,
• FET: JFET, P-MOSFET,N-MOSFET

Transistor symbol is represented as below.

The most popular and commonly used transistors are BC547, 2N2222. Given below are a few common transistor packages:

MOSFET 

The MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) transistor is a semiconductor device that is different than bipolar junction transistor in terms of construction though the applications remain the same as switching and amplifying. It has four terminals such as drain, gate, source, and body. The body is shorted with a source terminal. The gate is insulated from the channel near an extremely thin layer of metal oxide. Due to which it offers very high resistance compared to BJT.

By controlling the gate voltage (VGS +ve/-ve) width of a channel along which charge carriers flow (electrons or holes) from source to drain can be controlled. The P-Channel MOSFET has a P-Channel region between the source and drain and for N-channel MOSFET has an N-channel region.

Advantages of MOSFET over BJT:

• Very high input resistance
• Low on-state resistance
• Low power loss
• High frequency of operations

Application of transistors (BJT/FET)

• Amplification of analog signals
• Used as switching devices in SMPS, microcontrollers, etc.
• Oscillators
• Over/under voltage protection
• Modulation circuits & demodulation of signals
• Power control in invertors and chargers (high-current power transistors)

Types of transistor packages

In terms of packaging BJT and MOSFET, transistors are available in through-hole (DIP) and SMD versions. e.g. DIP: TO-92, TO- 220 and  SMD: SOT23, SOT223, TO-252, D2PAK.

Transistor selection parameters

While selecting a transistor in any circuit, the user needs to take care of the following parameters:

• Maximum collector current (Ic)
• Max collector voltage (Vce)
• VBE voltage
• Saturation Vce (sat) voltage
• Current gain, hfe/ß
• Input resistance
• Output resistance
• Reverse breakdown voltage
• Max reverse current
• Power dissipation
• Operating junction temperature
• Size
• Switching time/frequency

Manufacturers: Analog Devices, Rohm Semiconductor, Diodes Incorporated, On Semi, Texas Instrument, Panasonic, Infineon, Honeywell, etc.

Integrated circuits

An integrated circuit (IC) is an electronic circuit built on a semiconductor wafer, usually made of silicon. On this wafer, there are millions of miniaturized transistors, resistors, and capacitors, which are connected by metal traces. The ICs are powered by an external power supply for their operations. ICs perform specific functions such as data processing and signal processing. The entire physical size of the IC wafer is extremely small compared to that of discrete circuits hence it is called a microchip or simply chips. Because of their small size, ICs have low power consumption.

Types of ICs

ICs are categorized as digital, analog, and mixed-signal ICs based on their circuit functionality.

Digital ICs

Digital ICs can be divided into further two categories for the sake of simplicity:

• Simple ICs: Timer, counter, register, switches, digital logic gates, adder, etc.
• Complex ICs: Microprocessor, memories, switching ICs, ethernet MAC/PHY.

A microprocessor/microcontroller is an integrated circuit, which can process the digital data. For example, temperature sensor data can be read by a microprocessor and using its internal logic to perform control functions such as switching an air-conditioner ON or OFF. The ability to program a microprocessor gives it the flexibility to be used in a wide range of applications. Some of the applications are consumer electronics (microwave, washing machine, TV), industrial applications (motor control, process control), communication applications (wireless communication, telephony, satellite communication).

A microprocessor is a complex IC having an inbuilt central processing unit (CPU) consisting of an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), registers, buffer memory, clock. The processor does not have inbuilt memory and needs to interface RAM and ROM externally. Applications: computers, laptops, servers, basically for high-end processing.

A microcontroller is an integrated circuit that has CPU, inbuilt memory, general-purpose IO’s, communication interface such as SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, DAC, PWM. Depending on the size of memory and interface microcontrollers are targeted for specific applications. Applications: Embedded devices such as washing machines, weighing scales, CNC machines, etc.

Digital signal processing (DSP) controllers are a type of processor which are used in high-computing applications such as image processing, speech processing, video compression, etc.

Analog ICs

Operational amplifiers, differential amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers, RF devices, ADCs, DACs.

Interfacing ICs – RS232 driver, ethernet, CAN bus drivers, buffers, and level converters.

Power ICs – Voltage regulators such as linear regulators, LDOs, switching regulators

Field programmable gate array – FPGA, mixed-signal FPGA

IC packages

IC’s are available in different packages and pin counts such as DIP and SMD. Below are some of the popular and widely used packages.

Package Package name and pin count Small outline package SOIC-8,12,14,16, 24 TSSOP Through-hole package DIP-8,12,14,16,24, Ball grid array BGA 44, 48… 1000, etc. Flat package QFN , DFM 44 etc.

Typical selection parameters

While selecting an IC in any circuit user need to consider about following parameters apart from the application/usage.

Digital ICs

• Operating voltage (Vcc): +2.5V, +3.3V, +1.8V, +5V, +12V/-12V
• Maximum operating frequency
• Switching time and maximum data rates
• IO voltage level (TTL5V, CMOS), max tolerance, VIH, VIL, VOH, VOL
• IO setup time, hold time, data valid time
• Type of IO: Digital or analog pin
• Open collector or totem pole output
• Total number of IOs required for application
• Type of communication interfaces such as SPI or I2C and speed
• Power dissipation.
• Commercial 0° C to 60° C, mil-grade -55° C to 125° C, industrial -40° C to 85° C
• Size

Analog ICs

• Operating voltage (Vcc): +2.5V, +3.3V, +1.8V, +5V, +12V/-12V
• Ref voltages
• Maximum and minimum output voltage
• Offset voltages and current
• CMRR, PSRR
• Input signal magnitude range
• Type of digital communication interface and speed
• Power dissipation
• Commercial 0° C to 60° C, mil-grade -55° C to 125° C, industrial -40° C to 85° C
• Size

SMT device sizes

The component sizes of the selected SMT components are important while manufacturing the electronic product. The assembler should have the capability to assemble the small size components on the PCBs. The passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors which have two leads are found in standard sizes as shown in the table below. The SMT component sizes are given in inches as well as metric systems. The most common sizes are in inches such as 0402, 0603,0805 1210, etc.

The table below gives the packages of SMT two lead components and their sizes.

COMMON PASSIVE SMT PACKAGE CODE

SMD PACKAGE TYPE
IPC Standard DIMENSIONS DIMENSIONS MM
Metric Standard INCHES 2920 7.4 x 5.1(7451) 0.29 x 0.20 2725 6.9 x 6.3(6936) 0.27 x 0.25 2512 6.3 x 3.2(6332) 0.25 x 0.125 2010 5.0 x 2.5(5025) 0.20 x 0.10 1825 4.5 x 6.4(4564) 0.18 x 0.25 1812 4.5 x 3.2(4532) 0.18 x 0.125 1806 4.5 x 1.5(4516) 0.18 x 0.06 1210 3.2 x 2.5(3225) 0.125 x 0.10 1206 3.0 x 1.5(3216) 0.12 x 0.06 1008 2.5 x 2.0(2520) 0.10 x 0.08 805 2.0 x 1.2(2012) 0.08 x 0.05 603 1.6 x 10( (1608) 0.06 x 0.03 402 1.0 x 0.5(1005) 0.04 x 0.02 201 0.6 x 0.3(0603) 0.02 x 0.01

Basic electronic component part numbers and datasheets

Basic electronic components are identified with their respective manufacturer part numbers (MPN). They are also identified by distributor/vendor part number (VPN).

Each basic electronic component has its datasheet which explains its performance, features, and specifications. For example, for a 100-ohm resistor:

Component distributors

Electronic component distributors are a key resource for supply chain management. They are a single-window source of components from where a designer can buy components directly rather than buying from an individual manufacturer. Distributors stock components from different manufacturers and provide a simple and efficient web portal interface for selecting and purchasing components.

Most widely known component distributor in the world are as follows:

• Digi-key
• Mouser
• Arrow
• Avnet
• Future Electronics