The student should understand the principles governing systems and devices commonly used in the electronic processing of signals, and the different advantages offered by analogue and digital approaches. The student will then be able to design, simulate, build and test basic systems typical of those useful in experimental physics; to understand and analyse more complicated systems encountered in commercial instruments; and to specify appropriately characteristics of more sophisticated instruments to be designed by professional engineers.
Relation between information and signals. Operations on waveforms representing signals, square, triangular, pulse, sinusoidal.
Series and parallel CR elements time and frequency effects; use in energy storage, timing, differentiation, integration. Passive low-, high band-pass filtering. Bode plots.
Feedback theory General treatment, voltage/current, series/shunt, effects on input and output impedance. Ideal and real op amp chips.
Negative feedback circuits simplifying assertions, summing point, virtual short. Inverting configuration. Weighted summer and difference amplifier. Non-inverting configuration; voltage follower. Integrator circuit. Non-linear and logarithmic amplifiers. Phase shifting circuits.
Positive feedback circuits Clockwise and anticlockwise Schmitt triggers and noise rejection. Op amp oscillators, square- wave (relaxation) and sinusoidal (Wien bridge) circuits.
Electrical properties of pn junctions. Applications in rectification, peak detection, signal limiting, level clamping, light detection, light emission, varactors, voltage reference, non-linear feedback circuits, waveform shaping.
Device modelling. Loadline analysis. Dissipation limits .
Comparison of actions of unipolar and bipolar transistors. Switching applications and and necessary biassing, for both unipolar and bipolar transistors. Elementary single-stage common-emitter amplifier.
TTL circuit action Multiple emitters, totem-pole output, impedance considerations. CMOS logic circuit action, advantages and disadvantages relative to TTL. CMOS transmission gates and multiplexers.
Positional number representation, in binary, hexadecimal, octal bases. Positive and negative integers and fractions. Binary arithmetic and flags. BCD. Representation of characters and other entities.
Combinational logic; logic levels and voltage. AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR symbols, truth tables. Applications for decoding, multiplexing, alarms, etc. Three-state gates. • Boolean algebra. Masking, forcing, toggling applications.
Sequential logic Latches and flipflops. Timing diagrams. Clocking and edge triggering. SR, D, JK, T.
Binary counters and scalers, BCD counters and display applications.
Shift registers, serial and parallel conversion, multiplication uses.
Lectures
Laboratory classes
Problem-solving assignments
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Formal Examination | 56 |
| Other Assessment(s) | 44 |