Few electronic components have basked in the Hollywood limelight as brightly as Back to the Future's awe-inducing, 'flux capacitor.' That's a shame. Because, flux - magnetic flux, to be precise - is more closely associated with the capacitor's 'passive' partner in many electronic circuits. Behold the inscrutable, indispensable, inductor; keeper of the secrets of RF magnetics; the device, without which, there would be no wireless.

Inductors are ubiquitous. They are used in radio equipment; in circuits to block AC while allowing DC to pass; and as electronic filters to separate signals of different frequencies, often in combination with capacitors to make 'tuned circuits' which form the basis of radio and TV receivers.

They are also a little mysterious, subject to the quirky characteristics of Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction.

"Coilcraft's new RF Magnetics Lab Kit" is specifically designed to take the mystery out of magnetics. It contains a broad selection of chip and air inductors, LC filter modules, and wideband transformers and comes with ongoing technical resources such as design tools, a library of application notes, lab posters and 2D and 3D models. Touching a device is to understand it.

The best part? It's free - if you qualify.