PHYS 3180: Intermediate Laboratory
Spring 2015
Lecturer:
Phone:
Email:
Web Page:
Office Hours:
Dr. S. Cheng
Office: MH5008
530-4788
Fax: 530-2723
song.cheng@utoledo.edu
http://astro1.physics.utoledo.edu/~scheng/phys3180/index.html
10:00 –12:00 TR, and by appointments
Prerequisites: PHYS2140
Class Hours: 1:00-5:50 Tuesdays, Room MH2026
Grades given are the A, B, C, D, F including plus and minus. Grades are based on the
combination of the following six scores:
Laboratory designs and reports:
55%
Final Project:
15%
Midterm Exam:
15%
Final Exam:
15%
(Oral presentation of your project: 3-5 minutes per student. For assessment purpose)
The last day for withdrawing from the course without receiving a grade F is March 20. Class
attendance is mandatory to receive credits. Lab reports must be authored by individual
students, though sometimes a common set of data may be shared by the same group.
Course Description:
In this course, students are introduced to basic electronics that form a starting point to
measure physical quantities and to interface to computers for data acquisition, analysis, and
control. The emphasis is on the hardware side, while students are encouraged to engage in
software self learning to enhance the computer interface and control.
Instead of systematically learning electronics theories, this course will rather base on
modular introduction of commonly used electronics and theories associated with them to
emphasize the practical usages. Because of this, there is no required textbook for this course.
We will learn how to collect needed materials and information through internet and lay down
a good foundation of self learning. A good reference book is “The Art of Electronics” by
Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill that gives you not only theories and applications, but also
advices of to-do and not-to-do that can only come with many years of real experiences in
electronics designs.
Advice:
Keep a good laboratory notes with neat schematics. Collect data sheets for references that
might be useful in the future. Learning electronics cannot be achieved with one semester
introductory course but a lifetime long hobby and devotion. Have a USB thumb drive around
you to copy and share free software to facilitate the exchange of ideas and designs. If you
would like to submit homework by email, everything has to be zipped before you send it.
Topics
Basic Tools and Instruments; Bread-boarding; Schematics
DMM, Oscilloscope, Power supply, Function Generator, Soldering Iron;
Computer I/O, Parallel Port, Serial Port, USB Port, Plug-in Cards;
Data Acquisition and Control, C programming Language
Bread-boarding Technique, Schematics and Data Sheets
Error Analysis; Curve fitting
Resistors, capacitors, and Inductors; DC circuits; RC, Transient Analysis; Impedance and
Phase in AC Circuits. Simple High-Pass and Low-Pass filters using RC networks.
Diodes; LED, Zener diode, Infrared emitter; Rectifiers; diode clamping effect, AND and OR
circuits, Free-wheeling diode.
Transistor; PNP and NPN transistors; Amplifier circuit; Current gain; Switching circuit;
Rising and Falling time; Power switch; Power booster; Relay driver; logic level translator
MOSFET; voltage-controlled switch; Turn-on/off high voltage power supply
Operational Amplifier; Golden rules; Inverting Amp; Non-inverting Amp; Follower;
Summing Amp; Differential Amp; Integrator; Differentiator; Comparator;
Simple Power Supplies; Half-wave rectifier, Full-wave rectifier, Bridge rectifier, voltage
doubler and multiplier, Zener diode regulator.
Digital Circuits; Logic gates; Combinational logic; Sequential logic; Flip-Flop; Buffer;
Driver; Counter; Multiplexer/Demultiplexer; Transceiver; Multivibrator; 555 timer and clock
generator; Analog to Digital conversion and Digital to Analog conversion.
Sensors interfaces; Photon Detectors; Temperature measurement; Positioning;
Sound/vibration detection; Relay drive, Alarm driver; DC power on/off, AC power on/off
Designing Project: Based on the knowledge learned, choose physical quantity/quantities to
measure and/or control. Design electronic circuits to perform the task. Write reports on the
measurement and control, error analysis, and results.