Course Title: EE 316 Electric Circuits & Electronic Devices Design Laboratory
ABET Course Description: This hands-on laboratory allows students to construct several design circuits and master the use of electronic measurement instrumentation. These labs emphasize electrical engineering concepts through a practical approach, that allows students to gain significant experience with electrical instruments such as function generators, digital multimeters, oscilloscopes, step down transformers, power supplies, operational amplifiers, etc. Topics covered include KCL, KVL, Norton/Thevenin equivalent circuits, inverting and non-inverting amplifiers, differentiators and integrators, bridge rectifiers, AC/DC converters, filter design, and signal amplification using BJTs, JFETs and MOSFETs. Finally, students measure various electronic device characteristics. Pre/co-requisite: EE315 (Introduction to Electronic Analysis & Design)
Objectives: Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply Kirchhoff’s laws and linear algebra to analyze electronic circuits
- Employ circuit analysis, mathematics, and laboratory techniques to design, build, and analyze electronic circuit in a laboratory setting
- Write laboratory reports on electronic circuit experiments and designs to demonstrate proficient technical communication abilities
- Gain experience using laboratory equipment (e.g. oscilloscope, signal generators, digital multi-meters, power supplies) to evaluate electrical and electronic circuits Use NI Multisim to build circuits and run simulations. Master how to find the right electronic components and measure their functionalities. Build circuits on a breadboard and fix the issue if the output is not correct.
ABET Outcomes: Student outcomes (Criterion 3) addressed by this course:
(3) ability to communicate, and (6) an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgement to draw conclusions
Required Text:
- Sedra, A., et. al. (2020). Microelectronic Circuits (8th ed.) Oxford University Press. New York.
Supplemental Materials: Electronic Circuits and Electronic Design Laboratory Notes by Dr. Jennifer English. Posted on the Canvas course delivery system.
Suggested Resources: (I use these materials/resources frequently…)
- Hayes, T. C., & Horowitz, P. (2016). Learning the art of electronics: a hands-on lab course. Cambridge University Press.
- Irwin, J. D., & Nelms, R. M. (2020). Basic engineering circuit analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
- Jaeger, R. C., & Blalock, T. N. (1997). Microelectronic circuit design 3rd New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Wilamowski, B. M., & Irwin, J. D. (2018). Fundamentals of industrial electronics. CRC Press.
- Horowitz, P., Hill, W., & Robinson, I. (1989). The art of electronics (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
- TI-89 Calculator (Or equivalent ACT-approved calculator i.e. TI-Nspire CAS)
- MATLAB, Octave, SciPy/NumPy
- Multisim, LTSPICE or similar SPICE software
Additional References:
- Roberge, J. K. (1975). Operational amplifiers: theory and practice (Vol. 197). New York: Wiley.
- Carter, B., & Mancini, R. (2002). Op Amps for everyone. Texas Instruments.
- Pease, R. (1991). Troubleshooting analog circuits. Newnes.
Brief list of topics to be covered
- Electronic instrumentation
- Electronic circuit analysis
- Electronic circuit design & characterization
- Inverting and non-inverting amplifiers
- Differentiators and integrators
- Rectifier circuits
- AC/DC converters
- Analog filter design
- Small signal BJTs, FETs and MOSFET amplifier circuits
- Bandwidth consideration of BJTs, JFETs and MOSFETs
Safety Expectations Coming soon…
Pre-lab Assignment Expectations Your pre-labs are the simulation part of the lab handouts. A tutorial for Multisim 7 is provided on CANVAS, but we will use Multisim 11, which is very similar. Your pre-lab must have your Multisim simulation including circuit and results (tables, plots, etc.). A discussion is not required for prelabs. Pre-Lab Assignments must be uploaded as a PDF file to Canvas before the associated laboratory meeting. An example of a student-submitted pre-laboratory report can be found here (coming soon).
Laboratory Report Expectations Each lab report should have a title page that includes the name of the experiment and your name. The content of the reports needs to have the following parts:
- Theoretical analysis (Pre-Lab)
- Pictures or screenshot of simulations in NI Multisim and the simulation results. c. Picture of the circuits built on breadboard and the experiment results.
- Comparison of simulation and experiments and conclusion. Lab reports and Pre-lab will be collected and graded via Canvas. The acceptable formats are .doc/.docx/.pdf. Assignments are generally due at the beginning of the lab session, and the upload function is turned off after that. No late submission is accepted without written and reasonable excuse. The reports will be graded within one week upon submission. The graded assignments will be made available on Canvas for download and review.
- Laboratory Attendance
Dr. Beal’s Course Statement: Coming soon…
Dr. Beal’s Course Description: Coming soon…
Some exciting questions we can answer:
- Coming soon…
Threads and themes for my electronics course:
- Coming soon
Notional Schedule of Topics & Assignments:
| Meeting | Topics Covered | Course Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Lab 01: | Introduction, Safety & Basic Circuit Measurements | |
| Course overview & intro, lab safety rules, and syllabus, KCL, KVL and verification of Norton and Thevenin Equivalent Circuits | ||
| Lab 02: | Basic Operational Amplifier Circuits | |
| Inverting and Non-Inverting Operational Amplifier Circuits using 741 | ||
| Lab 03: | Op amp Integrator and Differentiator Circuits | |
| As described | ||
| Lab 04: | Digital-to-analog Converter Design | |
| As described | ||
| Lab 05: | Basic Fitlers & Frequency Response | |
| Low pass, high pass, & band pass filters | ||
| Lab 06: | AC Signals, Transformers and Rectifier | |
| Halfwave and fullwave rectifier circuits | ||
| Midterm Exam / Makeup Day | ||
| Lab 07: | BJT Devices | |
| (NPN and PNP Transistors) Characteristics (Q-point operating behavior in Active Region) | ||
| Lab 08: | BJT Amplifiers | |
| Amplification of a Signal Using BJT at Low/High Frequency. | ||
| Lab 09: | JFET Devices | |
| P-channel/N-channel configurations Characteristics | ||
| Lab 10: | JFET Amplifiers | |
| Amplification of a weak signal (50 – 100mV) Using JFET and studying bandwidth | ||
| Lab 11: | MOSFET Devices | |
| MOSFETs using P-channel N-channel configurations | ||
| Lab 12: | MOSFET Amplifiers | |
| Amplification of a weak signal (50 – 100mV) Using MOSFET and studying bandwidth w.r.t. JFET. | ||
| Final Exam |
Tips & F.A.Q.
Suggested Projects & Challenges
Resources and instructions for Teaching Assistants
Although Dr. Beal is the instructor of record for EE316, graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) will be doing the fun part - actually teaching the course. A private, shared folder that contains all of the EE316 materials is located here. Only TAs will have access to this folder. If you are a TA, feel free request access after your TA assignment is given by clicking on the link while signed into your UAH account.
There are a few important items to discuss:
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This lab is not designed to be taken simultaneously with EE315, however, our curriculum allows for this. If you have students who have not completed EE315, make sure they understand that they will need to read ahead of their EE315 course at times. They should not expect EE315 and EE316 to have topics perfectly synchronized in time throughout the semester.
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It is important that we complete ABET ‘books’ for your courses. Examples are in the google drive link above. The file structure is specific and the content includes final grades, scanned examples of student work, etc. If you would like to discuss further, please let me know. These ABET books are due when your final grades are to be submitted.
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Don’t be afraid to ask me questions if needed. Email is the easiest: aubrey.beal@uah.edu but I’m also usually in my office ENG 263-C.
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We must use CANVAS for a few things per the Provost’s office. I will be adding you to the CANVAS sections shortly. i) your syllabus (example in the link) in the CANVAS syllabus tab. You can just copy and past the contents of the word document using last semester’s example as a go-by.
ii) your grading. it is easiest to get you students to upload their submissions through canvas so you don’t have to scan anything. Make sure that the grades in CANVAS accurately reflect the students’ grade in your class. This is how grades will be uploaded and made official at the end of the semester.
Will has taught EE316 before. Sorry to nominate you, Will, but if anyone has any questions, Will may be able to answer them more practically and succinctly than I can.
I hope you have a great semester! Please, let me know if you need anything or have any concerns. If you feel like it is helpful for us to have a group meeting (maybe in Zoom or in person) I’m happy to organize it.
Please, enter upload your syllabus and welcome your students via an announcement in CANVAS before your first class meeting
Thanks! Looking forward to a great semester with you all,