PHYS 0372 - Electronics for Experimental Physicists

Spring (Even) 4 Credit Hours
This course is designed to give students a thorough understanding of the basic principles of electronics starting from Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff s laws, Thevenin/Norton theorems, equivalent circuits, inductors, capacitors, junction diodes and transistors. The main focus will emphasize working knowledge of the circuit elements by learning the fundamental properties of diodes and transistors through intense theoretical background and simple experiments. Operation of field effect transistor devices will be investigated and their applications in rectifier, amplifier and feedback circuits will be analyzed. This course also includes an introduction to logic gates, flip-flops and memory devices. Students in this course will design, construct and analyze circuits at the diode and transistor levels in addition to simple integrated circuits in analog and digital electronics. Applications of field effect transistor devices in the field of nanotechnology will be discussed briefly towards the end of this course. Three lectures and one 3-hour laboratory per week. Prerequisite: PHYS 0290; co-requisite: MATH 0322 or permission of instructor.