Physics 327 (Spring 2014): "Modern

Instrumentation"

Instructor: Prof. Weida Wu
Office: Serin W117
Lab sec. Mon 6:40-9:30 pm
e-mail wdwu@physics.rutgers.edu
Office Hour: Wednesday 3-4 PM

TA: Theodore Siu
Lab sec. Tue 10:20 am 1:20 pm;
Th 6:40-9:30 pm
Office:
e-mail: theodoresiu7@gmail.com
Office Hour: please arrange by e-mail


Meeting Times:
Lecture (for all sections): Wed 6:408:00 pm SEC 208
Lab Sec. 3 (Siu) Mon 6:40-9:30 pm Serin 101
Lab Sec. 1 (Wu) Tue 10:20 am-1:20 pm Serin 101
Lab Sec. 2 (Siu) Tue 3:20-6:20 pm Serin 101
Lab Sec. 4 (Siu) Th 6:40-9:30 pm Serin 101

Course Schedule:


Week
Lectures (Wednesdays)
Monday and Tuesday
(Section 1, 2, and 3)
Thursday (6:40-9:30pm)
Jan. 20 24 Lec 1 (ppt, pdf) Jan. 22 No labs 1 - DC Voltage divider
Jan. 27 31 Lec 2, (pdf) Jan. 29 1 - DC Voltage divider 2 - AC, Capacitance, Impedance
Feb. 3 7 Lec 3, (pdf) Feb. 5 2 - AC, Capacitance, Impedance 3 - RLC Resonance
Feb. 10 14 Lec 4, (pdf) Feb. 12 3 - RLC Resonance 4 - Diode and Transistor
Feb. 17 21 Lec 5, (pdf) Feb. 19 4 - Diode and Transistor 5 - Operational Amplifier (I)
Feb. 24 28 Lec 6a, (pdf) Feb. 26 5 - Operational Amplifier (I) 5 - Operational Amplifier (II)
Mar. 3 7 No lecture (Mar. 5) 5 - Operational Amplifier (II) 6 - Difference and Instrumentation Amplifiers (I)
Mar. 10 14 Lec 6b, (pdf) Mar. 12 6 - Difference and Instrumentation Amplifiers (I) 6 - Difference and Instrumentation Amplifiers (II)
Mar. 17 21 Spring Break

Mar. 24 28 Lec 7a, (pdf) Mar. 26 6 - Difference and Instrumentation Amplifiers (II) 7 - Digital Basics: Timers, Counters (I)
Mar. 31 Apr. 4 Lec 7b, (pdf) Apr. 2 7 - Digital Basics: Timers, Counters (I) 7 - Digital Basics: Timers, Counters (II)
Apr. 7 11 Lec 8, (pdf) Apr. 7 7 - Digital Basics: Timers, Counters (II) 8 - DAC, ADC (I)
Apr. 14 18 Lec 9, (ppt, pdf) Apr. 14 8 - DAC, ADC (I) 8 - DAC, ADC (II)
Apr. 21 25 No lecture 8 - DAC, ADC (II) 9 - LabView, GPIB
Apr. 28 May 2 9 - LabView, GPIB Make up labs
May. 5 9
All lab reports due. Make up labs



Prerequisites: 01:750:203-204 and 205-206, or equivalent.

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. You should normally perform laboratory experiments with a
partner(s). You must share all phases of the experimental work, so all the partners
understand the entire experiment. Each partner must participate actively in building
the circuits, taking measurements and interpreting the data. Each student must keep
his (her) own notes and prepare individual lab reports (no copying of reports from
a partner is allowed!). The ideal lab reports have to be brief (3-5 pages), neat, and
complete.

Preparation for the Labs:
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 (see the schedule for detailed reading assignments). Being
prepared for the labs will make your learning experience satisfying and will save
your time and improve your grade.

Lab Reports:
Lab reports are to be prepared individually and handed in during the next lab
session, i.e. in a week for the one-week labs and in 2 weeks for the two-week
labs. The report must be typed; the graphs are to be generated using OriginLab
(highly preferred). Drawings and circuit diagrams can be neatly drawn and labeled
by hand. Please 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. Late reports will be accepted up to one week after the due date, but will
have to be penalized by a 50% grade reduction. Maximum score for each lab
is 100.
No carbon copies of the reports will be accepted. Do not write a report
if you have not actually done the lab: it will not be accepted. Write the report so
that the reader can understand what you did, what you measured, and what theory
predicted, etc. The report must be brief, yet fairly self-sufficient. Do not simply
copy the lab instructions of excerpts from the textbook into your report, unless
these are formulas or circuits diagrams. Please make sure you answer all the
questions in lab instructions in your report.
Your report should have the following structure:
I ntroduction: 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.
Experimental Method: Brief description of the equipment used and the
experimental procedures followed must be included. Also include
accurate neatly-drawn circuit diagrams. Do not include your results in
this section.
Results and Discussion: Show the data obtained in numbered tables and
figures. All quantities have to be given with the correct
units. Omitted units may result in a lower grade. The figures must
have appropriate axis labels with units. If drawings of observed
effects/waveforms clarify your data description, include
them. Analyze the data, including pertinent equations, calculated
numbers, discussion of what observations and measurements
mean. Discuss what was expected and how well the experiment
agrees with the theory. Do not give more significant figures than
warranted by the accuracy of your measurements. Include an
elementary error analysis where appropriate.
Conclusions: Discuss if the goals set forth were met. Often, the obtained data are
somewhat different from what was expected. In this case, you should
try to understand why and justify your conclusion.

Quizzes:
Short quizzes (~ 6-8) will be given occasionally during the lecture. They
will not be announced. Topics to be quizzed are the lecture contents and reading
assignments. Make-up quizzes will not be offered, unless you have a documented
medical reason for missing a quiz. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped at the
end of semester.

Some important tips on preparing your lab reports.

A Brief Guide to Debugging:
Generally we are going to set up circuits with wires and components arranged
on a bread board or prototype board. The components range from simple passive
resistors to active chips with tens of inputs and outputs. When you set up a circuit
the first time, it often does not work as you think it should. Then you need to debug
it, i.e., figure out why the circuit is behaving as it is instead of as it should.

To make the debugging less painful:
Arrange the circuit neatly on the prototyping board so that you can
trace where wires go and hook up the circuit correctly.
Understand the circuit: Figure out before the lab what you should see
when you make the stated measurements.
Understand your equipment: Common examples of mistakes include
measuring the wrong voltage with an oscilloscope, because the input
was AC-coupled instead of DC-coupled, or incorrectly using a DVM to
measure current.
Are all the wires connected? Check voltage levels and signal shapes at
various points and determine if they are as they should be.
Is the individual component what you think it is, resistor, capacitor,
inductor, op amp, etc? You can measure the resistance of a resistor. For
a complicated chip, first check that all inputs are hooked up correctly. If
the chip pops, the circuit is not hooked up correctly, and you should
figure out why rather than popping more. If you have a few bad (non-
popping) chips in a row, it is probable that the circuit is hooked up
incorrectly.
If the circuit is complicated, build parts of it first and test each part
separately.