Electronics
Full course description
In this course you will learn the fundamentals of electronics beginning with simple electrical theory. You’ll explore the role of different components and devices, learn the laws governing their behaviours and should develop an understanding of basic circuitry. You will learn about Ohm’s and Kirchhoff’s laws, resistances, voltages, DC and AC currents, capacitors, inductors, diodes, junctions and transistors. You’ll also cover the basics of digital electronics (logic gates and Boolean algebra). We will look at how combinations of discrete devices can be used to build up more complex circuitry and you will have the opportunity to see how electronics can be used to build up the technology which we are most familiar today from flat-screen TVs and smartphones. Nearly everything we use in this day and age relies on electronics. We hope that throughout this course you learn to appreciate how the technology around you functions and we hope to pull apart some electronic devices to explore their inner workings.
Course objectives
- Identify various electronic components and describe their basic functions in DC or AC circuits;
- Apply Ohm’s law and Thevenin’s theorem to circuits determining a range of different resistance, voltage and power values in different configurations;
- Apply basic magnetic principles to the process of AC power generation and DC motors;
- Explain the different mechanisms for conduction in various semiconductor types and how these differ from conductors and insulators;
- Sketch band-gap diagrams and IV characteristics of various materials and semiconducting components and describe how these change under different biasing conditions;
- Describe a variety of different uses for semiconductors and specify the functioning of some semiconducting devices;
- Sketch and calculate the output voltages of op-amps when in open-loop or controlled-gain circuits, when given information about the input voltages (or vice versa);
- Perform conversions and calculations in base 2 (binary), draw and simplify logic gate circuits, write out their truth tables and use Boolean algebra, de Morgan’s laws and Karnaugh maps to simplify Boolean expressions and logic circuits;
- Calculate correct sampling frequencies in signal processing, resolutions for DAQ and optimal amplifications of signals;
- Apply DAQ theory to hypothetical problems solely based on the specification sheets of a DAQ card and proper description of a signal.
Prerequisites
- None
Co-requisites
- PRA2006
Corequisites
Recommended reading
To be confirmed.