Catalog Description: Laboratory exercises exploring a variety of electronic transducers for measuring physical quantities such as temperature, force, displacement, sound, light, ionic potential; the use of circuits for low-level differential amplification and analog signal processing; and the use of microcomputers for digital sampling and display. Lectures cover principles explored in the laboratory exercises; construction, response and signal to noise of electronic transducers and actuators; and design of circuits for sensing and controlling physical quantities.
Units: 3
Formats:
Spring: 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Fall: 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Grading basis: letter
Final exam status: Written final exam conducted during the scheduled final exam period
Also listed as: BIO ENG C145L
Department Notes:
Course objectives:
- To be able to amplify signals from sensors that have low-level, differential, high impedance outputs
- To learn about noise sources and how to use shielding, grounding, and analog filtering to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio
- To learn the properties of a number of useful sensors for measuring position, temperature, strain, force, light, ionic potentials, biological signals, ionizing radiation, etc.
- To be able to design instrumentation that senses desired quantities, transduces to an electrical signal, and amplifies and filters that signal for interfacing to a microcomputer
- To be able to design simple analog control systems, using sensors, amplification, filtering, controller circuits, power amplifiers, and actuators
- To make analog circuits work (design and debugging)
- To write clear, concise, informative laboratory reports
Topics Covered:
- Properties of the ideal and the realistic op-amp
- Op-amp properties: Open-loop Bode plot, gain-bandwidth product, risetime, slewing rate
- Amplifier circuits using the op-amp and negative feedback: inverting, non-inverting, buffer, differential, current summing, low-level rectification; Bode plot, risetime
- Instrumentation amplifier circuit and properties: common mode and differential gains
- Isolation amplifiers- electromagnetic and optical
- Gaussian curve of error and error propagation
- Johnson and shot noise- combined amplifier noise
- Interference, grounding, and shielding
- Analog filtering using op-amps and negative feedback: gain and phase shift vs. frequency- simple filters and multi-pole Butterworth and Bessel filters
- Notch filter and analysis
- Power op-amp
- Introduction to A/D and D/A conversion- data acquisition using the microcomputer
- Definition, general characteristics, and examples of sensors and actuators
- Position and angle sensors: resistive, Piezoelectric, and optical
- Gray and binary codes
- Position actuators: Piezoelectric, solenoid, and stepper motor
- Thompson, Peltier, and Seebeck emfs
- Thermocouple properties and electronic ice points
- Thermistor properties and optimized bridge readout; self-heating
- Platinum resistance and solid state temperature sensors
- Infrared sensing and imaging
- Thermoelectric heat pump- thermal efficiency and heat transfer equations
- Strain gauge sensors, bridges, and force transducers
- Piezoelectric properties and measurement of force, acceleration, pressure
- Production and measurement of vacua
- Silicon photodiode: construction, properties, and uses
- Production of light: incandescent, fluorescent, lasers
- Electrochemical reactions and the Ag(AgCl) skin electrode
- The characteristics and detection of alpha, beta, x-ray, and gamma radiation, and practical applications in industry and medicine
- Electrical safety: accident scenarios; grounding, isolation transformers and amplifiers, ground fault interrupters, circuit breakers, surge protectors
- Signals from the human heart: electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, blood pressure
- Skeletal muscle and the electromyogram
- The electrooculogram and the mechanics of eye motion
- Analog control systems: sensors, instrumentation amplifiers, controller circuits, power amplifiers, and actuators; on-off, proportional, PID controllers
Related Areas: