Electronics Laboratory Manual: (Hands on Practice)

This laboratory manual is intended for use in fundamental electronics as well as introductory semiconductor devices courses and is appropriate for two and four year electrical engineering technology or electrical and electronics curriculums. The manual contains sufficient exercises for two 15-week courses using a two- to three-hour practicum period. It assumes familiarity with basic electrical circuit analysis techniques and theorems. The topics cover basic diodes through DC biasing and AC analysis of small signal bipolar and Field Effect Transistor (FET) amplifiers along with class A and B large signal analysis, and finally soldering and soldering techniques. For equipment, each lab station should include a dual adjustable Direct Current (DC) power supply, a dual trace oscilloscope, a function generator, and a quality Digital Multi-meter (DMM). Some exercises also make use of a distortion analyzer and a low distortion generator (generally, Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) below 0.01%), although these portions may be bypassed. For components, a selection of standard value 1/4 watt carbon film resistors ranging from a few ohms to a few mega ohms is required along with an array of typical capacitor values (film types recommended below 1µF and aluminum electrolytic above). Specialty passives include a Cadmium Sulphide (CdS) or a large area photo resistor cell, a thermistor, and a 20 ohm, 20 watt load resistor. A decade resistance box and a 10 kΩ potentiometer may also be useful. Active devices include small signal diodes such as the 1N914 or 1N4148, rectifying diodes such as the 1N4000 series, the NZX5V1B or 1N751 Zener, single LEDs of various colors, a super bright LED, 2N3904 or 2N2222 NPN transistor, 2N3906 PNP transistor, and MPF102 N channel Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET). A small 12.6-volt center-tapped (VCT) power transformer is used in the power supply project and associated exercises along with a three-terminal linear regulator, for example, IC 7805. Each exercise begins with an objective and a theory overview. The Equipment List follows, with space provided for serial numbers and measured values of components. Schematics are presented next, along with the step-by-step procedure. Many exercises include sections on troubleshooting and design. Simulations are often presented as well, and any quality simulation package such as LTspice, TINA-TI, Multisim, PSpice, or PSIM Professional can be used. All data tables are grouped together, typically with columns for the theoretical and experimental results, along with a column for the percent deviations between them. Finally, a group of appropriate questions are presented.