Electronics glossary

Common terminology

Terms that are commonly used in low voltage/DC/electronics.

Term	Symbol	Meaning
Forward voltage	$V_{f}$	Voltage used by a component as current travels through.
Forward current	$I_{f}$	Current that a LED/component pulls.
Cathode	$-$ , $K$	Negative terminal on a diode.
Anode	$+$ , $A$	Positive terminal on a diode.
Positive supply voltage	$V DD$ , $V CC$ , $V S +$ , $V +$
Negative supply voltage	$V EE$ , $V SS$ , $V S -$ , $V -$
Ground	$GN D$ , $0$ , ⏚
Rectifier	$A C / D C$	Device that converts $A C$ to $D C$ ¹.
Inverter	$D C / A C$	Device that converts $D C$ to $A C$ ².

$GN D$ and $V SS$ are not always the same³, for example analog vs. digital ground⁴.
Forward voltage $V_{f}$ is sometimes referred to as "voltage drop"⁵.
Forward current $I_{f}$ is sometimes refer to as the "draw" of a component.
Rectifiers can exist in my forms, for example as 4 diodes in a bridge (known as a Graetz bridge¹, and is used in alternators) connected in a way that only allows the current to pass through the bridge in one direction.

Term
I²C	Inter-Integrated Circuit⁶ ⁷.
`SDA`	Serial data line
`SCL`	Serial clock line
SPI	Serial peripheral interface⁸ ⁹.
`CLK`/`SCLK`/`SCK`	Serial clock
`MOSI`/`DIN`	Data output from main device/controller. Sometimes referred to as `DIN` (`D`igital `in`put) as the input of the component.
`MISO`	Data output from client devices to target devices
`CE`	Chip enable
`CS`	Chip select (active low) signal from controller to address clients and start transmitting⁸.

⁴

⁵

⁶

⁷

⁸

⁹