Difference between revisions of "Electronics boot camp I: passive circuits and transfer functions"

'“It is exciting to discover electrons and figure out the equations that govern their movement; it is boring to use those principles to design electric can openers. From here on out, it's all can openers.”

— Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

Here is a checklist of all things you have to turn in: (individually)

1. answers to the prelab questions
2. answers to the following voltage divider questions:
   • Record the values you selected for R₁ and R₂.
   • Find the gain of the circuit, $ ^{V_{out}}/_{V_{in}} $
   • Plot an I-V curve with I on the vertical axis and V_in on the horizontal axis, over the range 0 V < V_in < 15 V. (A hand-drawn plot is fine.)
   • What is the maximum power dissipated in each resistor between 0 V < V_in < 15 V?
3. the measured values of your resistors.
4. your measured voltages V_out for V_in = 0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 V.
5. your measured voltage across R₂ in the presence of the 1kΩ resistor. By what percentage did the measurement change?
6. Recorded values of the current through the circuit for V_in = 0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 V
7. A plot of the measured I-V curve on the same set of axes as the calculated curve.
8. your choice of capacitor and resistor values and corresponding Bode plot. Make sure to label the cutoff frequency.
9. a plot of the measured values of $ \frac{V_{out}}{V_{in}} $ versus frequency on the same set of axes as your Bode plot.
10. your Bode gain and phase plots and the corresponding circuit diagram for each of the four circuits A through D. Optional: In Matlab, use nlinfit to fit parameters of a transfer function for each circuit.