Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Unit Catalogue 2006/07

EE10142 Electronic laboratory techniques

Credits: 6

Level: Certificate

Semester: 1

Assessment: EX 50%, PR 50%

Requisites:

Aims: This Unit aims to improve student skills in the areas of practical electrical and electronic laboratory work. This covers an appreciation of accuracy, precision and estimation of errors when performing measurements, as well as proper presentation of measured data and the ability to manipulate and derive other information from the measurements.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, a student should be able to demonstrate the proper techniques for performing a range of measurements in an electrical laboratory environment and be able to manipulate the measured data to derive supplementary information, for example error estimations or derived parameters.
Skills:
The required skills, in terms of a proper approach to measurement techniques, estimating and processing errors, etc. will be taught, facilitated and tested through a combination of lectures, tutorial exercises and a comprehensive series of practical measurement exercises. Content: Lectured
Content:

* Dimensional analysis, unit multipliers (f, p, n, μ, m, k, M, G, T). Function & curve sketching - poles, zeroes & asymptotes. Log-linear & log-log plots, Decibel notation.
* Errors - random & systematic. Accuracy and precision in measurements. Errors in voltage and current measurements. Plotting error bars and extracting derived error bounds.
* Troubleshooting techniques, failure modes & effects analysis.
Lab work:
* Measurement of circuit variables, translation to linear relationships, plotting of graphs including estimate of errors, derivation of slope/intercept values including error bounds.
* Investigation of earth-loop and related problems.
* "Black box" investigations to establish internal circuit structure and values of components.
* Estimation of resistance value ina resonant circuit both at and away from resonant frequency (as an appreciation of possible errors).

University | Catalogues for 2006/07