Physics 327:
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
e-mail
Office Hour:
Modern Instrumentation
Prof. Weida Wu
Serin 117W
848-445-8751
wdwu@physics.rutgers.edu
arrange by email
Lab TA:
Paul Sass (psass@physics.rutgers.edu)
Textbook: “An Introduction to Modern
Electronics”, by William L. Faissler, Wiley,
1st edition (March 5, 1991)
Web Site for Course:
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/ugrad/327/
Lecture and Lab sessions
Lecture
(Wu):
Wednesday (6:40-8:00 PM) SEC 208
Lab Sect. 3 (Sass):
Monday (6:40pm-9:30pm)
Serin 101
Lab Sect. 1 (Sass):
Tuesday (10:20am-1:20pm)
Serin 101
Lab Sect. 2 (Wu):
Tuesday (3:20pm-6:20pm )
Serin 101
Lab Sect. 4 (Sass):
Thursday (6:40pm-9:30pm)
Serin 101
Nominally 2 peoples per group unless otherwise instructed.
Course Goal
The goal of this class is to learn a number of basic electronic
components and their analysis, so that you can understand and build circuits that
are useful in physics experiments.
Lab Preparation
The lab instructions are available at the course home
page. You are expected to read and understand these instructions before coming to
the lab. In addition, you are expected to read and understand the suggested
chapters of the textbook prior to the lab.
Course syllabus
Lab #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Topic
DC Voltage divider (1 week lab)
Read
Chapters
2-6 15-16
Suggested
Problems
4.10-4.12 5.1 6.6
7-9 12 17 51
53
7.1 7.4 8.5 9.1
12.2
RLC Resonance (1 week lab)
8-12
12.1, 11.2 12.6
Diode and Transistor (1 week lab)
Operational Amplifier (2 week lab)
Difference and Instrumentation Amplifiers (2
week lab)
40-45
28-31
44.1-44.3
29.3-29.6
29 31 32
31.3 31.4
Digital Basics: Timers, Counters (2 week lab)
19 21-24
21.1 23.4
DAC, ADC (2 week lab)
LabView, GPIB (1 week lab)
34-36, 54
AC, Capacitance, Impedance (1 week lab)
No lecture on March 4
11 lectures, 9 labs (reports), 6-8 quizzes
Quizzes (6-8):
• Short quizzes will be given occasionally during lectures through
the semester. Topics in the quizzes are lecture and lab contents,
reading assignments, and homework.
• Make-up quizzes will not be offered unless you have a
documented medical reason for missing the quiz.
• The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Grading:
The course grade will be based mostly on the lab reports (~90%),
with the remainder determined by lab preparation and participation,
quiz scores and lecture attendance. (~10%)
Grade cutoffs (tentative)
A
B+
B
C+
C
D
F
90
85
80
72
65
55
<55
Lab Reports
• Maximum score for each lab is 100.
• Lab reports are due one week after.
• Late reports will be accepted up to one week after the due date, but
will be penalized by a 50% grade reduction.
• The report must be typed; the graphs are to be generated using
OriginLab© (highly preferred). Drawings and circuit diagrams should
be neatly drawn and labeled.
• Include the name(s) of your lab partner(s).
• The grades of lab reports also include lab preparation and participation.
Late attendance of labs (>30 minutes) will be penalized by a 20% of
grade reduction.
• No “carbon copies” of the reports will be accepted. Do not write a
“report” if you have not actually done the lab.
• The report must be brief, yet fairly self-sufficient.
• Please make sure you answer all the questions in lab instructions in
your report.
Lab report
• Introduction
– Clearly state the objective(s), and a short explanation of the theoretically
background, if appropriate. To avoid redundancy, do not copy the entire lab
description in your report.
• Method
– Must include brief description of the equipment used and the experimental
procedures followed. Also include accurate neatly-drawn circuit diagrams.
– Do not include your results in this section.
• Results and discussion
– Tables and figures (with proper labels and units)
– Connect the results back to the theory
– Often, the obtained data are somewhat different from what was expected. In
this case, you should try to understand why and justify.
• Conclusion
– Discuss if the goal(s) set forth were met.
Important concepts: current and voltage
R
Current (I): flow of positive charges.
Q
I
t
Unit: Coulomb/sec
Meter:
A
I
V
in series
Note: In solid conductors (e.g. metals), current is mainly carried by
electrons (negative charges).
Voltage (V): work per unit charge (potential diff.)
W
V
q
Unit: Joule/Coulomb
Meter:
V
in parallel
Simplest I-V: Ohm’s law
R
I
I
V
Ohmic (linear) behavior:
V
V I
Ohm’s law:
V  RI
R: Resistance of
the resistor.
Non-ohmic I-V characteristic deviate from this
linear behavior. Example: diodes.
Kirchhoff’s circuit laws
• Kirchhoff’s current law
(charge conservation)
I
i
 0 or
vertex
I
in
  Iout
• Kirchhoff’s voltage law
(energy conservation)
V
i
loop
0
Equivalent circuits
Resistors in series
V  R1  I  R2  I   R1  R2   I  Req  I
 Req  R1  R2
Resistors in parallel
in general, Req   Ri
i
V1  V2  V 
V
V V
1
1
1
 

 

I  I1  I 2 
Req R1 R2
Req R1 R2
in general, Req1   Ri1
i
Thevenin’s theorem (pg. 45)
Any complex network of linear circuit elements (sources,
resistors and impedances) having 2 terminals can be
replaced by a single equivalent voltage source* connected
in series with a single resistor (or output impedance).
Rth
Vth
Rth is also called output impedance of the equivalent circuit.
*Similar (Norton’s theorem) statement is true for equivalent current source.
Lab 1: DC Voltage divider
Vout
R2

Vin
R1  R2
Non-ohmic I-V
A
Rth
RL
Vth
Rout  Rth  
dVout
dI out
Comment electronic components
LED
resistors
Breadboard
Electric connection of breadboard
Electronic instruments
Function generator
Digital Multimeter
Oscilloscope
Resistor Color Code Bands
Metric prefix
Text Symbol Factor
tera
T
1012
giga
G
109
mega
M
106
kilo
k
103
milli
m
10-3
micro
μ
10-6
nano
n
10-9
pico
p
10-12