PHYS 524 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Topics covered

(note: order subject to change)

Unit 1: Integrated development environments

• a. Arduino C++ programming environment
• b. Anaconda Scientific Python
• c. KiCAD printed circuit board layout facility

Unit 2: Inter-device communication protocols and oscilloscope techniques

• I2C, SPI
• The oscilloscope

Unit 3: Microcontroller-interfaced sensors

• a. Motion: acceleration, rotation, orientation
• b. Proximity
• c. Thermometry
• d. Voltage
• e. Gas and atmospheric properties: humidity, barometric pressure, particulates
• f. IR, visible, and UV illumination (tentative)
• g. Sound and acoustics (tentative)
• h. GPS (tentative)

Unit 4: Rapid prototyping and PCB construction

• a. 3D structure modeling: TinkerCad, Cura
• b. Soldering and PCB assembly 

Unit 5: Cooling and thermal management (Cryogenics)

     Tentative topics:

• 5.1 Some thermal regulation concepts devices and heat exchangers;
• 5.2 Monophase liquid cooling (specific heat capacity), conduction of heat into fluid;
• 5.3 Phase change cooling, latent heat: solid-liquid and liquid - vapor;
• 5.4 Thermodynamic cycles and the pressure-enthalpy diagram;
• 5.5 Heat pipes and Peltier devices as heat extractors;
• 5.6 Isenthalpic Joule-Thompson cooling and the vortex tube

Unit 6: Modeling - Finite Element Analysis

• Introduction to COMSOL

Special topics:

     Project Management (A. Pearlman)

     Particle Detection (M. Grosse Perdekamp)

     Technical Writing 

     Error Analysis