electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

, high impedance means that a point in a circuit (a node) allows a relatively small amount of current through, per unit of applied voltage at that point. High impedance circuits are low current and potentially high voltage, whereas low impedance circuits are the opposite (low voltage and potentially high current). Numerical definitions of "high impedance" vary by application. High impedance inputs are preferred on measuring instruments such as

voltmeter A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electric potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. It is connected in parallel. It usually has a high resistance so that it takes negligible current from the circuit. A ...

s or

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

s. In audio systems, a high-impedance input may be required for use with devices such as crystal microphones or other devices with high internal impedance.

Analog electronics

In analog circuits a high impedance node is one that does not have any low impedance paths to any other nodes ''in the frequency range being considered''. Since the terms low and high depend on context to some extent, it is possible in principle for some high impedance nodes to be described as low impedance in one context, and high impedance in another; so the node (perhaps a signal source or amplifier input) has ''relatively low currents'' for the voltages involved. High impedance nodes have higher

thermal noise A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

voltages and are more prone to capacitive and inductive noise pick up. When testing, they are often difficult to probe as the impedance of an

multimeter A multimeter (also known as a multi-tester, volt-ohm-milliammeter, volt-ohmmeter or VOM, avometer or ampere-volt-ohmmeter) is a measuring instrument that can measure multiple electrical properties. A typical multimeter can measure voltage, elec ...

can heavily affect the

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

or voltage on the node. High impedance signal outputs are characteristic of some

transducer A transducer is a device that Energy transformation, converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another. Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, M ...

s (such as crystal pickups); they require a very high impedance load from the

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

to which they are connected.

Vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

amplifiers, and

field effect transistor The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the current through a semiconductor. It comes in two types: junction FET (JFET) and metal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET). FETs have three termi ...

s more easily supply high-impedance inputs than

bipolar junction transistor A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A ...

-based amplifiers, although current buffer circuits or step-down

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

s can match a high-impedance input source to a low impedance amplifier.

Digital electronics

digital circuit In theoretical computer science, a circuit is a model of computation in which input values proceed through a sequence of gates, each of which computes a function. Circuits of this kind provide a generalization of Boolean circuits and a mathematica ...

s, a high impedance (also known as hi-Z, tri-stated, or floating) output is not being driven to any defined logic level by the output circuit. The signal is neither driven to a logical high nor low level; this third condition leads to the description "tri-stated". Such a signal can be seen as an open circuit (or "floating" wire) because connecting it to a low impedance circuit will not affect that circuit; it will instead itself be pulled to the same

voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...

as the actively driven output. The combined input/output pins found on many ICs are actually tri-state capable outputs which have been internally connected to inputs (resulting in

three-state logic In digital electronics, a tri-state or three-state buffer is a type of digital buffer that has three stable states: a high voltage output state (logical 1), a low output state (logical 0), and a high-impedance (Hi-Z) state. In the Hi-Z state, th ...

or four-valued logic). This is the basis for bus-systems in

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s, among many other uses. The high-impedance state of a given node in a circuit cannot be verified by a voltage measurement alone. A

pull-up resistor In electronic logic circuits, a pull-up resistor (PU) or pull-down resistor (PD) is a resistor used to ensure a known state for a signal. More specifically, a pull-up resistor or pull-down resistor ensures that a wire will have a high logic lev ...

(or pull-down resistor) can be used as a medium-impedance source to try to pull the wire to a high (or low) voltage level. If the node is not in a high-impedance state, extra current from the resistor will not significantly affect its voltage level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:High Impedance Digital circuits