PHY 305L: Digital Electronics Lab (VI)
1 credits | Prerequisites: PHY 207L
Course rationale
This is the second of two lab courses on electronics for students majoring in physics. It focuses on the fundamentals of digital electronics. Students will construct a micro-computer by gradually adding different analog and digital components during each lab session. By the end of the semester, a micro-computer will be ready for use.
Course content
D1. Digital gates: use integrated gates to carry out Boolean logic operations and put together a logic gate from transistors. D2. Flip-flops: construct a flip-flop using NAND gates and verify its operation. Counter: construct a 16-bit fully synchronous counter and use it in a circuit. D3. Memory and state machines: add memory to a counter and use it to make a versatile state machine. D4. Analog-digital and phase-locked loop: use an A/D converter to generate the digital equivalent of an analog voltage, use a phase-locked loop to generate a signal matched in frequency to an input signal. D5. CPU: use a loadable RAM to hold programs and data for a processor. D6. Input-output: add a little hardware to the RAM-CPU to enable it to do I/O operations. D7. Subroutines and I/O programming: put to use the previously wired hardwire and transform the delay routine into a subroutine. D8. A/D-D/A and data handling: write a program so that the computer takes data from an 8-bit A/D, do something and use the result to drive a D/A. D9. Interrupts and exceptions: use pointers to read and fill tables. D10. Applying the microcomputer: use the simple computer assembled in the semester to run some interesting programs.
Course objectives
- Construct electrical circuits with resistors, capacitors and diodes.
- Check good and bad transistors and use them in circuits with useful applications.
- Measure various properties of field-effect transistors.
- Use op-amps and FETs together to construct circuits and verify their behavior.
- Verify the usefulness of positive feedback and voltage regulators.
References
- Paul Horowitz & Winfield Hill, The Art of Electronics Lab Manual.
- Paul Horowitz & Winfield Hill, The Art of Electronics, 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press.