S.M.Dees: The Album!

So how do you explain about Integrated Circuits and IC Packages, about thru hole and SMDs, and electronic components - in general - to a fresher undergrad engineering student?

Of course you go about by getting them to open up old electronics devices and letting them observe the various printed circuit boards installed in those devices. You can then point out the various components soldered on to the boards to help them get started with identifying the kind and package of each components: "This one's a 33 kiloohms 0805 resistor, and thats a Case B 10 microfarad 35 volts Case C Tantalum Capacitor and that big flat black thing there is a 240 Pin 0.5 mm pitched LQFP package - an Application Specific Integrated Circuit - the brains which used to make this DVD writer drive work its magic!"

So after you are done breaking things apart and guiding the students through the component "jungles" inside modern day electronics, you realize that they would still need a ready reckoner which they can refer to regularly till they have built up enough confidence to identify components in various packages and so here's what we came up with:

We stuffed a coin album from Archies (a novelty/gift brand in India) with as many variety of components as we can find. The album had 8 sheets, we used the alternate sheets to hold labels for the components held in the preceding sheet. The labels themselves are colour coded - different label colour for different kind of components - sky blue for ICs, tan for diodes, parrot green for crystals and so on. Here are the scans of each of the 4 pair of sheets:

Sheet 1 - SMD ICs:

Sheet 2 - SMD ICs and SMD Passives:

Sheet 3 - thru hole Passives:

Sheet 4 - thru hole Passives:

Extra Sheet - a thin slice (wafer) of silicon with transistors etched on it :

We use such teaching aids at LARE's Learning Center, India during practical hands-on courses for undergraduates in the field of embedded electronic design. Do join us for a unique learning experience and go beyond your academic courseware!