PHYSICS W3083y

Welcome to the home page for the Spring'01 course "Electronics Laboratory" (Physics W3083x), taught by Prof. W.A. Zajc. I will use this page to announce various course-related information.

How to reach me: My office hours are by appointment. There's lots of contact information on my home page, my preferred mode (other than in person) is by e-mail at zajc@columbia.edu.

Teaching Assistant: Mickey Chiu.

Lectures: Mondays, 1:10-2:10 pm, 513 Pupin.

Laboratory: Mondays, 2:10-4:00 pm, Wednesdays, 1:10-4:00 pm, both in 605 Pupin.

Texts:  

• The Student Manual for the Art of Electronics, T.C. Hayes and P. Horowitz (required).
• The Art of Electronics, Second Edition, P. Horowitz and W. Hill (highly recommended)

Description: The goal of the course is to give you a working knowledge in the fundamentals of digital and analog electronics. You will perform roughly 14 labs over the semester.  You should maintain a bound laboratory notebook in which you record what you did, why you did it, and what you learned. The notebook should contain sufficient qualitative and quantitative detail that you could reproduce the experiment several years later without using the lab manual.

Homework: I may assign a few problems on an as needed basis to illustrate the material. The assignments should be completed before the relevant laboratory.

Examinations: None.

Week of January 23rd:

• Organizational meeting at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, the 23rd.
• Read "Class 1" and "Lab 1" in lab manual.
• Come to class on Monday prepared to do "Laboratory 1 (DC Circuits)"

Week of January 29th:

• Read "Class 2, pp. 32-53" and "Lab 2" in lab manual.
• Let me know by e-mail if you are concerned about learning RC circuit theory via complex numbers. Don't be afraid to say "I've never even heard of that"-- the more information I have on your background, the better I can tailor lectures to fit your needs.
• Come to class on Monday, February 5th prepared to do "Laboratory 2 ( Capacitors)"

Week of February 5th:

• Read "Class 3 and Lab 3:, pp. 61-81 in lab manual
• Come to class on Wednesday, February 7th prepared to finish "Laboratory 2 ( Capacitors)", and, if you're far enough along, prepared to start "Lab 3 (Diode Circuits)".
  Note: You should skip Section 2-9 "LC Filter" for now.

Week of February 12th:

• Read pp. 82-99 in lab manual 
• Come to class having read and prepared to start "Lab 4 (Transistors I)".

Week of February 19th:

• Read pp. 100-106 in lab manual
• Be ready to continue on to "Lab 5 (Transistors II)" this week.

Week of February 26th:

• Read pp. 107-117 in lab manual
• Work on "Lab 5 (Transistors II)" this week 

Week of March 5th:

• Finish Lab 5 (Transistors II)

Week of March 19th:

• Read pp. 124-141 in lab manual
• Be prepared to start "Lab 6 (Transistors II)" this week (the differential amp is very important to understanding the internals of Op Amps, the subject of Labs 8 and 9.
• I will give an extended lecture touching on Op Amps, to prepare you for the next two labs on same.

Week of March 26th:

• We will  not do the next lab in sequence in the lab manual (FET's).
• Instead, come to class prepared to start the first lab on Operational Amplifiers.
• You should try to finish the Lab 6 by the end of lab on Monday, the 26th, so you can start Op Amps on Wednesday the 28th. This may require you to "declare victory" on the material prior to Lab 5 you have not yet completed, but it's necessary to do this in order to stay more-or-less in phase with the rest of the course material.