PHYS 404 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Course Description

Objectives

The objective of PHYS 404 is to develop your confidence and competence in working with electronic circuits and instrumentation. The first half of the course will focus primarily on analog electronics, followed by an introduction to digital electronics, along with more in-depth discussions of measurement techniques. These skills are broadly applicable to experimental physics and other research projects involving electronic instrumentation.

Lecture Topics:

We will begin with steady-state circuit analysis using complex numbers, followed by an introduction to time-domain analysis. We will then explore the fundamentals of semiconductor physics, including p–n junctions and transistors, and apply these concepts to the design and analysis of amplifiers, feedback and control circuits, filters, and oscillators. You will also learn to use SPICE circuit simulation, an important tool for circuit design and analysis.

The course will then introduce the fundamentals of digital electronics, including field-effect transistors, logic gates, and microcontrollers. We will subsequently return to more advanced analog topics, including signals and noise, modulation techniques, and selected topics in high-frequency electronics. If time permits, we will conclude the semester with an introduction to KiCad and EasyEDA, PCB design tools that allow you to turn your circuit designs into professionally fabricated printed circuit boards.

Lecture notes are posted; they can be updated anty time without notice. Check for the latest version.

There is no required textbook, but if you wish to buy one, I'd recommend the following texts:

Physics 404 is a 5 credit hour course, so it takes quite some time commitment.  Each week, there are 4 hours of lecture/demo and 6 hours of on-time, mandatory lab attendance, followed by a lab report.  

Lectures

Two 2-hour lectures per week, Mondays & Wednesdays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m, Room 222 Loomis Lab. Attendance to lectures is required, as you will be asked to make presentations (focused on circuit analysis) during the class time. Each presentation takes 10-15 minutes. You will sign up for topics and prepare them in advance of the lecture. Teaching is the best way to learn; it forces you to think thoroughly and deeply.

Each presentation learns 10 points, and you need to make a minimum 10 presentations throughout the semester to earn full credits.

Laboratory

Two 3-hour sessions per week in 6106 Engineering Science Building (ESB).  There are two lab sessions every week: 

There are four units of the lab work. Most units take multiple weeks to complete. Attendance is mandatory.

*If you are late to the lab by more than 20 minutes, you will be marked late for that lab session, with a possible panelty in your lab grade.

*An excused absence requires a written permission from the instructor (by email) in advance.

Descriptions of each unit of the lab is posted on the course website, linked through the schedule.  Lab reports are due one week after the completion of the lab unit.

Skills: Hardware & Software

The lab activities are designed around the Analog-Discovery 2 (AD2),  which is a sophisticated electronic test station that fits in your pocket, communicates with your computer through a USB port. It functions as an oscilloscope, 2 signal generators, power supplies, logic and spectrum analyzers, and digital input/output.  Each student will sign out one of these devices along with some other components.  

This arrangement will allow you to continue working on the circuits at home if you wish to.  

We will also use Arduino microcontrollers for some of the digital circuits, so you'll need to do some simple programming with C when the time comes.   However, this is not a course on using software to analyze or to design circuits.   We should be far more concerned with developing an intuitive feel and qualitative understanding of electronics and their behaviors in circuits.  

Other Skills

For circuit analysis (both in class and in the lab), you might need to refresh some of your math. I will suggest you to read these references as we progress through the various topics during lectures:

Learning Assessment

Your performance is accessed by

  1. classroom participation through in-class presentations,
  2. your lab reports; there are four lab reports, due one week after the end of each lab, and
  3. a presentation of your final project.

The final presentation replaces the traditional sit-down final exam.