Frequency (measured in hertz, Hz — cycles per second) spans an enormous range in electronics: from the 50/60 Hz AC power grid, through kilohertz-range switching power supplies and audio, into the megahertz range used by radio broadcasting and many microcontroller clocks, up to the gigahertz range used by WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals.
| Unit | Symbol | Value in Hz | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hertz | Hz | 1 | Mains power (50/60 Hz), low-frequency signals |
| Kilohertz | kHz | 10³ | Switching power supplies, AM radio, audio |
| Megahertz | MHz | 10⁶ | FM radio, microcontroller clocks, VHF/UHF |
| Gigahertz | GHz | 10⁹ | WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, radar |
Divide by 1000: e.g. 50,000 Hz = 50 kHz.
Divide by 1000: e.g. 2400 MHz = 2.4 GHz.
50 Hz is standard in India, most of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. North America, parts of South America, and a few other regions use 60 Hz instead.
The two most common WiFi bands are 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; newer WiFi 6E adds a 6 GHz band. Each offers different tradeoffs between range/penetration (better at lower frequency) and available bandwidth/speed (better at higher frequency).
Common values range from a few MHz for low-power microcontrollers up to several hundred MHz for more powerful ones; classic Arduino boards typically run at 16 MHz, while modern ARM-based boards often run at 48-480 MHz or higher.
Higher switching frequency (typically tens of kHz to a few MHz) allows smaller inductors and capacitors in the converter, reducing size and cost, at the tradeoff of higher switching losses — see the Switching Loss calculator for that tradeoff in detail.
They are reciprocals: f=1/T. A 50 Hz signal has a period of 1/50=0.02 seconds (20 milliseconds) — see the Frequency & Period calculator for this specific conversion.
RF and wireless applications often require very precise frequency values (sometimes to the Hz level even at GHz frequencies) due to tight regulatory channel allocations, so always use the full precision your application demands rather than rounding prematurely.
Human hearing is roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is why audio equipment specifications are usually given directly in Hz and kHz rather than needing MHz or GHz.
Generally yes in wireless systems — higher-frequency bands typically have more available spectrum bandwidth for a given percentage allocation, allowing higher data rates, though at the cost of reduced range and worse penetration through obstacles compared to lower frequencies at the same power.
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