Coupling (electronics)
In electronics and telecommunication, coupling is the desirable or undesirable transfer of energy from one medium, such as a metallic wire or an optical fiber, to another medium.
Coupling is also the transfer of electrical energy from one circuit segment to another. For example, energy is transferred from a power source to an electrical load by means of conductive coupling, which may be either resistive or hard-wire. An AC potential may be transferred from one circuit segment to another having a DC potential by use of a capacitor. Electrical energy may be transferred from one circuit segment to another segment with different impedance by use of a transformer. This is known as impedance matching. These are examples of electrostatic and electrodynamic inductive coupling.
Types of coupling
Electrical conduction:
Electromagnetic induction:
- electrodynamic -- commonly called inductive coupling, also magnetic coupling
- electrostatic -- commonly called capacitive coupling
- evanescent wave coupling
Electromagnetic radiation:
- radio -- wireless telecommunications
- electromagnetic interference (EMI) -- Sometimes called radio frequency interference (RFI), is unwanted coupling. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requires techniques to avoid such unwanted coupling, such as electromagnetic shielding.
- Microwave power transmission
Other kinds of energy coupling:
See also
- antenna noise temperature
- coupling loss
- coupling coefficient of resonators
- directional coupler
- equilibrium length
- fiber-optic coupling
- loading coil
- shield
- list of electronics topics
- AC Coupling
- impedance matching
- impedance bridging
- decoupling
- cross-talk
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the General Services Administration document "Federal Standard 1037C" (in support of MIL-STD-188).