Instructors

David Abrams
Kathyrn Ledbetter

Course Description

the fall 2023 version of 123/223 will teach the full course material of learning the art of electronics.  In the first (analog) half of the course we will cover dc circuits, rc circuits in the frequency domain and time domain, rlc circuits, filters, bipolar transistors, operational amplifiers, and mosfets as switches.    In the second (digital) half of the course we will learn about digital logic, programmable logic devices, data conversion and embedded microcontrollers.

This course surveys practical electronics, with little mathematical or physical explanation but much opportunity to design and build circuits. Each of the class meetings devotes up to 2 1/2 hours to a laboratory session. The small class size allows a format closer to seminar than to ordinary lecture. Since the course aims above all to enable students to design useful circuits, it concentrates on the most effective techniques for learning analog and digital electronics and designing working circuits.

We start with an introduction to the analog circuits basics: voltage, current, resistance and capacitance.  We then look at other passive devices including diodes, inductors, and transformers used to build passive filters, unregulated power supplies and AM receivers.  The remaining first half of the course uses active devices starting with bipolar transistors (“BJTs”) which we use to buffer and amplify signals and are used to create the building block of analog circuits, the operational amplifier (op amps).  The remainder of the analog half uses op amps to create computational circuits like integrators, summing amplifier, differentiators and oscillators.  We will introduce MOSFET transistors first as switches, then as the building blocks of digital circuits.  The analog lessons end with a group project to transmit music optically through the air. (Due to the compressed schedule, we will not have time to discuss instrumentation amplifiers, lock-in amplifiers, voltage regulations, PID controllers, JFETS and phase-clocked loops which are included in the analog only version of the course.)

In the second half of the course, we look first at discrete-gate design, then at analog-digital interfacing. Students will learn about programmable logic devices (PLDs, we will explore a modern FPGA) and programming them through a logic compiler (Verilog).  After a short review of data conversion, we end with the application of microcomputers, microcontrollers, and the design of their interfaces. The laboratories conclude with a series of sessions in which students use a single-chip ARM uController programmed in C and debugged with a laptop computer.  We try to keep the code simple so that the concentration of the course remains on interfacing to the uController, not programming.  We will, however, explore sophisticated embedded systems topics including interrupt handling and Real Time Operating Systems.

Prerequisite: Secondary school algebra. A course in basic physics is useful in understanding the analog basics at the beginning of the course and in debugging non-working circuits.  Some previous exposure to C (or Arduino) programming is helpful but not required. (Khan Academy has a set of free introduction to programming lessons.)

We have provided some introductory material on programming in C on our Microcontroller Resources page.

Notes:

Limited to 20 students (total both 123a and 223a). Physics 123a is also offered as Physics 123a. Students may only take one for credit. Undergraduate physics students should enroll in Physics 123a. Graduate students should enroll in Physics 223a. Both registrations use this Physics 223a Canvas site.