Physics 440 – Electronics – fall 2009

The aim of this course is to give students a practical introduction to modern electronic circuits. It consists of two weekly lectures where the theory and principles of electronics circuits will be discussed, and a three hour lab where students will get some hands-on experience with electronic circuits and a variety of instrumentation such as oscilloscopes, pulsers, power supplies and digital multimeters. The topics covered in the course will start with simple DC circuits and end in computer design of programmable logic devices (PLD's). In between we will study AC circuits, filters, diodes, bipolar transistors, FET's, operational amplifiers and a variety of digital circuits. Where possible we will make use of computer programs such as LabView and software from the Xilinx corporation to program field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA's).

 

Instructors

            Stuart Tessmer, professor, tessmer@pa.msu.edu, 884-5660

            Pengpeng Zhang, professor, zhang@pa.msu.edu, 884-5630

            Megan Romanowich, TA; Ling-Ying Lin, grader

 

Important Data

Lectures: Tu Th   8:30 AM - 9:50 AM, Rm 1308 BPS

            Labs: Sec 1: Tues 3:00-5:50,    Sec 2: Thurs 11:30-2:20,    Sec 3: Thurs 3:00-5:50 in Rm 1254 BPS

            Tessmer office hour: Tuesdays 10am, 1308/4237 BPS

            Zhang office hour: Wednesdays 3pm, 4213 BPS

            Lin office hour: Wednesdays 3pm, 4213 BPS

            Romanowich office hour: Tuesdays 2pm, Strosacker Center, 1248 BPS

 Course Schedule

Week of

Day

Topics

Reading

chapter.section

Homework

chapter – problem #s

Sep 3

Th

introduction, current, voltage, resistance, Ohm's law

1.1 - 1.5

 

 

----

no lab

 

 

Sep 8

Tu

power, series and parallel, circuits

1.6 - 1.8

 

 

Th

dividers, pots, Kirchoff’s equations

1.8 - 1.10

HW#1: Ch1 – 2

 

----

no lab

 

 

 Sep 15

Tu

Thevenin’s and Norton’s theorems, mesh loop method

1.11

 

 

Th

DC measurements, input impedance

6.1 - 6.3

HW#2: Ch1 – 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13

 

Lab 1

Voltage, Current, Ohm's Law, Multimeter

 

 

 Sep 22

Tu

capacitance and inductance

2.1 - 2.4

 

 

Th

RC, LC and RLC circuits

2.5 - 2.6

HW#3: Ch1 – 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 21, 22

 

Lab 2

DC and AC, Function Generator, Oscilloscope

6.6 - 6.7

 

 Sep 29

Tu

AC circuits, complex numbers

3.1 - 3.5, handout

 

 

Th

generalized Ohm’s law

handout

HW#4: Ch2 – 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, T1

 

Lab 3

Capacitors, Inductors, RC and RL Circuits

 

 

 Oct 6

Tu

band width, quality factor, Bode plots

3.4, 3.5, A-3

 

 

Th

transformers, PN junction

4.1 - 4.2

HW#5: Ch3 – 1,2,6,7

 

Lab 4

RLC Passive Filters

 

 

 Oct 13

Tu

diodes, Zener diodes, diode circuits

5.1- 5.4, 5.7

 

 

Th

more diode circuits, bipolar transistor

5.8 - 5.9, 8.1 - 8.3

HW#6: Ch3 – 24, 25; T2; Ch5 – 3

 

Lab 5

Diodes, LED's Rectifiers, Unregulated Power Supply, Zeners

 

 

 Oct 20

Tu

bipolar transistor circuits

8.3 - 8.6

 

 

Th

more bipolar transistor circuits

8.3 - 8.6

HW#7: Ch5 – 12,
HH 1.27, HH 1.29,
HH 1.30, Ch8 – 1

 

Lab 6

Bipolar transistors I, I - V charactersistics, amplifiers

 

 

 Oct 27

Tu

field effect transistors

8.7

 

 

Th

JFET amplifier, op amps

8.8 - 8.9, 9.1 - 9.4

HW#8: Ch8 – 2, 3; T3

 

Lab 7

Bipolar transistors II, regulation, circuit construction

 

 

 Nov 3

Tu

op amp circuits

9.5 - 9.6

 

 

Th

op amp filters and real world op amps

9.7 - 9.12

HW#9: T4, T5,
Ch9 – 3, 4, 5

 

Lab 8

JFET's, Op Amps I

9.5,JFET,OPAMP 

 

 Nov 10

Tu

oscillators and timers, digital electronics

10.1-5

 

 

Th

logic, IC gates

11.1-3

HW#10: Ch9 – 7,  T6, T7, Ch10 – 6, 7

 

Lab 9

Op Amps II

10.4

 

 Nov 17

Tu

Boolean algebra, numbering systems

11.4-11.7

 

 

Th

digital circuitry - flip flops

12.1-12.2

HW#11: T8, T9;  Ch11 – 2, 5b, 6a&c, 9

 

Lab10

Light Emitting Diodes and Digital Circuits 1

12.2

 

 Nov 24

Tu

counters and registers

12.3 - 12.5

 

 

Th

Thanksgiving

 

no homework

 

----

no lab

 

 

Dec 1

Tu

digital to analog conversion, analog to digital conversion

14.6, 14.7

 

 

Th

multiplexer, programmable logic devices

12.6, Introduction to...

HW#12: Ch11 – 7b, 7d, 13; Ch12 – 5

 

Lab11

FPGA Logic - I

Quick Start, DIO1, D2XL, DIO1Pinout

 

Dec 8

Tu

computers, ROM and RAM

13.3

 

 

Th

transducers,  lock-in amplifiers

7.1, 7.2,15.4

HW#13: Ch14 – 11, T10, T11

 

Lab12

FPGA Logic - II

Quick Start, DIO1, D2XL, DIO1Pinout

 

Dec 14-18

 

Finals Week

 

 

 

Textbooks

Required Text: Diefenderfer and Holton, Principles of Electronic Instrumentation, 3rd Ed. Saunders, 1994.

 

Suggested Reference: Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics, 2nd Ed. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995.
This book is an excellent reference and students planning to continue with electronics in future years should consider acquiring it. It will be put on reserve in the BPS library.

 

Homework and Quizzes

There will be weekly homework assignments, due at the beginning of class on Thursdays. Quizzes will be given during lecture; there will be roughly twelve quizzes throughout the semester.

 

Laboratory Procedure and Notebook

The laboratory part of the course consists of a series of experiments that students will perform working alone. Students will be provided with a lab notebook into which all relevant information associated with an experiment will be recorded. The laboratory exercises will be performed during the 3 hour lab period, the data entered into the notebook will be left with the TA for grading. No formal write up will be required but students are cautioned to enter all relevant data and explanations clearly and succinctly so that the TA can easily follow the work done. No erasures or page removal is allowed. If an error is made it should be neatly crossed out and the corrected data re-entered.

 

Grades

Your Total Score will be determined by the scores on the homework assignments, quizzes, and laboratory notebook. The Total Score is weighted as follows: 20%-Homework, 30%-Quizzes, 50%-Laboratory. Grade assignments at the end of the term will be taken from the table below. (It may be shifted slightly in your favor.)

 

Total Score % and Grades

Minimum %

Grade

85

4.0

80

3.5

75

3.0

70

2.5

65

2.0

60

1.5

50

1.0

<50

0.0