Electronics glossary — Letter G

60 terms starting with G

GaAs Field Effect Transistor

A field effect transistor made with gallium arsenide.

gage element

Term used to designate the element of a gage which is accurately finished to size and is employed for size control. Example: A go no-go plug gage consists of a double-ended handle with a “go” gage member on one end, and a “no-go” gage member on the other. Also referred to as gage (or gaging) member

gage member

Term used to designate the element of a gage which is accurately finished to size and is employed for size control. Example: A go no-go plug gage consists of a double-ended handle with a “go” gage member on one end, and a “no-go” gage member on the other. Also referred to as gage (or gaging) element.

Gain

Gain is the ratio between the amplitude of the output signal of a device or circuit compared to the amplitude of the input signal. Gain is normally expressed in decibels (dB). A number of factors may affect the measured gain, so it is often necessary to specify the conditions or methods of measurement.

Gain Control

Part of an amplifier to which a control signal is applied to vary the gain of the amplifier. The ability to externally vary the gain of an amplifier.

gallium nitride

GaN – A wide-bandgap semiconductor used for high-efficiency power transistors and RF amplifiers. GaN devices enable compact fast chargers, data center power supplies, radar and 5G RF stages.

galvanic corrosion

Electrical flow or chemical interaction caused by dissimilar materials (usually metal).

Ganged port protection

Protection method where one circuit protection device (or output) is used to protect more than one output port.

Gap loss

Loss resulting from the end separation of two axially aligned fibers.

garbage

Unwanted, incorrect, or meaningless information in memory, transmission media, or other electronic circuit.

GAST

Greenwich Sidereal Time Angle

gate

(1) A circuit having an output and one or more inputs, so designed that the output is energized when – and only when – a certain combination of inputs is energized. Used in digital computers. See also AND gate, logic gate, IGFET. (2) The terminal of a field effect transistor that controls the resistance of the channel through the application of an electric field established between the gate and the source as a result of an externally-applied voltage. The gate corresponds to the base of a bipolar transistor.

gate-all-around

GAA – A transistor architecture in which the gate completely surrounds stacked horizontal channels called nanosheets, giving better control than a FinFET. GAA transistors are used at leading-edge 3 nm and 2 nm-class process nodes.

gate array

A type of integrated circuit that, by virtue of being partially fabricated, allows much shorter lead times in the design and production of custom circuits.

Gauge

A term used to denote the physical size of a wire. See also AWG.

Gauss

The CGS unit of measurement for flux density. One Gauss is equal to 1 Maxwell per cm2.

Gbps

A data rate. Gigabits per second.A gigabit is one billion bits.

GDDR

Graphics Double Data Rate – high-speed DRAM designed for graphics cards and accelerators. Current generations include GDDR6 and GDDR7.

GDDR6

Graphics Double Data Rate 6 – high-bandwidth graphics memory used in graphics cards, AI accelerators, networking equipment and gaming consoles. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X each use 16GB of GDDR6, the high-bandwidth memory pool for powering games like the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI. The PlayStation 4 used earlier GDDR5, while handhelds such as the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2 use low-power LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X instead. Read the full GDDR6 guide →

GDOP

Geometric DOP

generator

A machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.

GEO

Geostationary or Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (See also LEO & MEO)

g-force

Gravitational acceleration of a freefalling body. Equal to 32.2 ft/sec2.

GGA

An NMEA message

giga

A prefix that indicates a factor of 109 (one billion), abbreviated as “G.” Giga is a French prefix, and should be pronounced “jeegah,” at least when in France.

Gigabit Ethernet

Transmission technology based on the Ethernet frame format and protocol used in local area networks (LANs), provides a data rate of 1 billion bits per second (one gigabit). Gigabit Ethernet is defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard and is currently being used as the backbone in many enterprise networks. Gigabit Ethernet is carried primarily on optical fiber (with very short distances possible on copper media). Existing Ethernet LANs with 10 and 100 Mbps cards can feed into a Gigabit Ethernet backbone. An alternative technology that competes with Gigabit Ethernet is ATM. A newer standard, 10-Gigabit Ethernet, is also becoming available. See 1000BASE-T also.

Gigabits Per Second (Gbps)

1,000,000,000 bits per second. A measure of transmission speed.

GIGO

From garbage in/garbage out, expressing that the quality of a computer depends on the quality of the programs and data used with it.

Gilbert

A unit of magnetomotive force in the CGS system.

GIS

Geographic Information System

Glass Microwave Integrated Circuit

GMIC – A technology invented and patented by M/A-COM to produce microwave integrated circuits, consisting of a glass wafer that is laminated to a silicon wafer. Various materials are deposited in succeeding layers on top of the glass wafer, which are then selectively removed using photolithographic masking and etching techniques to form lumped element and transmission line components. Semiconductor dice that contain discrete transistors, diodes or integrated circuits can be mounted on the GMIC substrate as required by the design.

GMIC

Glass Microwave Integrated Circuit – A technology invented and patented by M/A-COM to produce microwave integrated circuits, consisting of a glass wafer that is laminated to a silicon wafer. Various materials are deposited in succeeding layers on top of the glass wafer, which are then selectively removed using photolithographic masking and etching techniques to form lumped element and transmission line components. Semiconductor dice that contain discrete transistors, diodes or integrated circuits can be mounted on the GMIC substrate as required by the design.

GNSS

Global Navigation Satellite System

Government Rubber Synthetic

GRS – a government standard for Buna-S Rubber for jacketing and insulating compounds for military wires and cables.

GPRS

Generalized Packet Radio Service. (A GSM-based packet data protocol)

GPS

Global Positioning System

GPU

Graphics Processing Unit – a processor with thousands of parallel cores, originally designed for rendering graphics and now the dominant hardware for training and running AI models. Data center GPUs are typically paired with high-bandwidth memory in the same package.

Graded Cores

MPP and HF cores are graded into increments of permeability within their normal ±8% tolerance. It is expressed as a percent deviation from the nominal value.

graded index fiber

An optical fiber whose core has a nonuniform index of refraction. The differences in the refractive index reduce signal spreading caused by modal dispersion.

Graded-index fiber

An optical fiber whose core has a nonuniform index of refraction. The core is composed of concentric rings of glass whose refractive indices decrease from the center axis. The purpose is to reduce modal dispersion and thereby increase fiber bandwidth.

Grain Oriented

Silicon steel or other granular magnetic material that has a preferred direction of magnetization.

Gray code

The mirror image of the binary counting code which changes one bit at a time when increasing or decreasing by one.

green ceramic

Generally refers to unfired ceramic.

grid

A two-dimensional network consisting of a set of equally spaced parallel lines superimposed upon another set of equally spaced parallel lines so that the lines of one set are perpendicular to the lines of the other, thereby forming square areas. The intersections of the lines provide the basis for an incremental location system. Also called matrix.

grid-spaced

Equally spaced in a rectangular pattern.

grommet

A rubber seal used on the cable side of a multiple-contact connector to seal the connector against moisture, dirt, or air.

ground

A connection – intentional or accidental – between an electrical circuit and the earth, or some conducting body (eg chassis) serving in place of the earth. Also, reference level for signals.

Ground fault

A type of overcurrent event that occurs due to momentary, usually accidental, grounding of a conducting wire.

Ground Loop

Condition caused when two or more system components share a common electrical ground line. A feedback loop is unintentionally induced, causing unwanted voltage levels.

ground loop noise

Noise that results when different points of a grounding system are at different potentials and thereby create an unintended current path.

Ground Plane

A copper plane connected to ground

Grounding Conductor

A conductor that provides a current return path from an electrical device to ground.

Ground-loop noise

Noise that results when equipment is grounded at ground points having different potentials and thereby creating an unintended current path. The dielectric of optical fibers provides electrical isolation that eliminates ground loops.

Group Delay

The first derivative of the phase versus frequency response of a network, component, or transmission line.

GSA

An NMEA message

GSM

Global System for Mobile Communication. The world’s most widely used mobile system, based primarily on TDMA transmission, operating around 900 MHz or 1800 MHz in Europe, Asia and Australia, and around 1800 MHz in the Americas. (See also TDMA, CDMA, and PCS)

GSV

An NMEA message

guard band

The unused area which serves to isolate elements in a printed circuit. Examples: area between printed circuit paths; area between an element and the edge of the mounting base.

guide pin and socket

A device which provides alignment between mating connectors during engagement. May also be used to provide polarization and/or keying and to prevent damage to the contacts caused by mismating of the connectors.

Gunn Effect

In some materials (III-V compounds such as GaAs and InP), after an electric field in the material reaches a threshold level, the mobility of electrons decrease as the electric field is increased, thereby producing negative resistance. A two-terminal device made from such a material can produce microwave oscillations, the frequency of which is primarily determined by the characteristics of the specimen of the material and not by any external circuit. The Gunn Effect was discovered by J. B. Gunn of IBM in 1963.