-tron, -tronic, -tronics +

A single-anode mercury-vapor rectifier in which current passes as an arc between the anode and a mercury-pool cathode, used in power recification.

A segment of a gene situated between exons that is removed before translation of messenger RNA and does not function in coding for protein synthesis.

1. A mass spectrometer in which the mass distribution of orbiting ions within a magnetic field is detected by bringing ion frequencies sequentially into resonance with applied radio frequencies.
2. A device for detecting and measuring the mass distribution of ions orbiting in an applied magnetic field, either by applying a constant radio-frequency signal and varying the magnetic field to bring ion frequencies equal to the applied radio frequency sequentially into resonance, or by rapidly varying the radio frequency and applying Fourier transform techniques (an operation that transforms one complex-valued function of a real variable into another one).

Fourier transform techniques as used in electronics, control systems engineering, and statistics, is a term used to describe the analysis of mathematical functions or signals with respect to frequency, rather than time.

1. A device for separating isotopes.
2. A type of antenna that is physically short as compared to a dipole (separation of positive and negative charges) for a given frequency.

1. An electron tube used to amplify or generate ultrahigh frequency by means of velocity modulation.
2. An electron tube that uses an electric field to generate and amplify microwaves.

A high-speed solid-state switching device triggered by light pulses and used in nuclear devices.

1. A vacuum tube in which the flow of electrons is manipulated by electric and magnetic fields to generate microwaves.

The microwave radiation produced is either pulsed, for use in radar applications, or continuous, as required for microwave cooking.

2. A diode vacuum tube in which the flow of electrons is controlled by an externally applied magnetic field to generate power at microwave frequencies.

Mechatronic Research.

A blend of mechanics and electronics, mechatronics has come to mean the combined use of precision engineering, control theory, computer science, and sensor and actuator technology to design and to improve products and processes.

The word was first coined by a senior engineer of a Japanese company; Yaskawa, in 1969, as a combination of mecha of "mechanisms" and tronics of "electronics" and the company was granted the trademark rights to the word in 1971.

The word soon received broad acceptance in industry and, in order to allow its free use, Yaskawa elected to abandon its rights to the word in 1982.

Mechatronics has taken a wider meaning since then and is now being widely used as a technical jargon to describe a philosophy in engineering technology, more than the technology itself.

For this wider concept of mechatronics, a number of definitions has been proposed, differing in the particular characteristics that the definition is intended to emphasize.

The most commonly used term emphasizes synergy: "Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering with electronics and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacture of products and processes."

1. One million electron volts.
2. A unit of energy commonly used in nuclear and particle physics, equal to the energy acquired by an electron in falling through a potential of 10⁶ volts.

A unit of energy commonly used in nuclear and particle physics, equal to the energy acquired by an electron in falling through a potential of 1,000,000 volts.

A unit of radioactive power, equal to the power generated by one curie emitting an average energy of 10⁶ electronvolts per disintegration.

Switches, gates, transistors and other electronic devices built on a molecular scale; a combination of molecular + electronics.

Research in this area is done with the purpose of surpassing the power and the capacity of the silicon-based technology used in current computers.

An electron: Jack learned that a negatron is the old-fashioned term for electron, which is a subatomic particle with a negative charge.

1. An uncharged elementary particle that has a mass nearly equal to that of the proton and is present in all known atomic nuclei except the hydrogen nucleus.
2. A neutral hadron that is stable in the atomic nucleus but decays into a protron, an electron and an antineutrino with a mean life of 12 minutes outside the nucleus. Neutronics exist in all atomic nuclei except normal hydrogen. Reported in 1932 by James Chadwick.