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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Signals and Analog Electronics

Gain

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

/ɡeɪn/nounCommon term

In electrical & electronics engineering, gain means: The ratio of a circuit's output to its input, showing how much it amplifies a signal. It can be given as a plain number, such as ×10, or in decibels.

In Turkish: kazanç

How it is used

Used for amplifiers, antennas, control loops and sensors. Engineers set, adjust, increase or reduce the gain, and talk about voltage gain, open-loop gain, unity gain and gain in dB. Too much gain can make a circuit unstable or cause clipping.

Example sentences

  1. Reduce the gain to 20, otherwise the signal saturates the ADC.

  2. The new antenna has a gain of 5 dBi.

Common collocations

  • voltage gain
  • unity gain
  • open-loop gain
  • adjust the gain
  • gain stage
  • amplifierA circuit or device that makes a signal larger, increasing its voltage, current or power while keeping its shape. How much larger it becomes is called the gain.
  • decibelA logarithmic unit (dB) that compares two power or voltage levels. An increase of 3 dB roughly doubles the power, and 20 dB means ten times the voltage.
  • op-ampShort for operational amplifier: an integrated amplifier with two inputs and very high gain. With a few resistors and capacitors around it, it can amplify, filter, compare or buffer signals.
  • bandwidthThe range of frequencies a circuit, instrument or channel can handle well, usually up to the point where the signal falls by 3 dB. In communications it also means data capacity.

More terms: Signals and Analog Electronics

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