EECE2412 --- Electronics --- Fall 2016

Prof. DiMarzio | Course Syllabus (.pdf) |
Lab Overview (.pdf) | Lab Schedule | Lab |

Office Hours:
Prof. DiMarzio: 302 Stearns, Office Hours Wednesdays 1:00-3:00 at least while I need PT.
TA Mahmoud Ibrahim (ibrahim.ma @ husky.neu.edu) Office Hours 6:00-8:00 Wed 240DA
Lab TAs: Roufan Zang (zang.r @ husky.neu.edu) Office Hours Mon 6:00-8:00 in 294RY and
Alireza Zahrai (zahrai.s @ husky.neu.edu). Office Hours Thu 3:00-4:00, Fri 1:00-2:00 in 240DA

Recitations: Mr. Ibrahim. Tuesdays 6:00-7:00pm, Fridays 11:30am-12:30pm in 208 SN



Tutoring by Eta Kappa Nu is available for this course. Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) is the honor society for ECE students. The tutors are students who have taken the course in the past few years.


Homework: | HW1| HW2| HW3| HW4 and HW4 notes| HW5| HW6| HW7| HW8| HW9| HW10|


Solutions: | SOL1 | SOL2 | SOL3 | SOL4 | SOL5 | SOL6 | SOL7 | SOL8 | SOL9 | SOL10 |


Exam 1: Solutions | Cumulative Histogram
Exam 2: Solutions | Cumulative Histogram


Class Notes: | Week 1 Wed| Week 1 Thu|
| Week 2 Mon| Week 2 Wed| Week 2 Thu|
| Week 3 Mon| Week 3 Wed| Week 3 Thu|
| Week 4 Wed| Week 4 Thu|
| Week 5 Mon| Week 5 Wed| Week 5 Thu|
| Week 6 Wed Review|
| Week 7 Mon| Week 7 Wed| Week 7 Thu|
| Week 8 Mon| Week 8 Wed| Week 8 Thu|
| Week 9 Mon| Week 9 Wed| Week 9 Thu|
| Week 10 Mon| Week 10 Wed| Week 10 Thu|
| Week 11 Mon| Week 11 Wed Review|
| Week 12 Mon|
| Week 13 Mon| Week 13 Wed| Week 13 Thu|
| Week 14 Mon| Week 14 Wed|"The End"|


Information here applies to my section only unless otherwise noted. Other students are, of course, welcome to use an material here that they find useful. The lab information applies to both sections.


Announcements (Updated 14 December 2016)

(14 Dec 2016) Several students reported today that I had an error in posting the class notes for Wednesday. This was the result of careless cutting and pasting. I've corrected it above and here.

(8 Dec 2016) The Blackboard site and histogram I posted earlier did not reflect the scale on Homework 6. I have updated the grades on Blackboard and revised the histogram accordingly.

I will hold extra office hours during finals week in preparation for the final, on Monday at 4:00 to 5:00 and Thursday 11:00 to 12:00.

The final is Friday, 16 December, 3:30 to 5:30 in 221HA.

I have updated the Blackboard grade center with calculated columns. The course score is your score to date, which excludes HW10 (2 percent of your grade) and of course the final (30 percent), so the perfect score is 68. The usual histogram is here.

(6 Dec 2016) I will not have office hours on Wednesday the 7th because of an off-campus meeting. I will announce extra hours next week, which will probably be on Monday and Thursday.

(30 Nov 2016) I have a rescheduled PT appointment this afternoon that will delay the start of my office hours until about 2:00pm.

(29 Nov 2016) Please note that the other section uses a different symbol for the FET. See page 101 of the class notes; http://www.ece.neu.edu/courses/eece2412/2016fa/class20161107.pdf. In their symbol, the arrow is on the source and points in the direction of normal current flow. I chose to use the symbol from PSPICE because at one time I used PSPICE to prepare my lecture notes. I think in future semesters, I'll go back to the symbol they are using.

(28 Nov 2016) I have made the grades for Exam 2 available on Blackboard. Please check your score to make sure the entry is correct.

(18 Nov 2016) HW 9 and HW 8 Solutions are both posted here and above.

(17 Nov 2016) For the last session of the lab (lab5 part B), we will hold two sessions as below to ensure all of you can attend the lab and finish the complete lab5: Friday Dec. 2, 1-3pm and Friday Dec. 9, 9:15-11:15am.

(12 November 2016) Homework 8 above is corrected. In problem 1, VCC is 15 volts. The original document said 12, although it was correct in the figure. Thanks to a student who caught the mistake.

(10 November 2016) Homework 8 is posted above and here.

(27 Oct 2016) Juniors/Seniors: If you're applying to graduate school, HKN is hosting a writing workshop on 1 November 5:30 to 7:00pm n 210 Shilman. Bring a copy of your cover letter, statement of purpose, personal statement, or other document to receive help on improving it.

(26 Oct 2016) Class notes are posted above.
If you are interested in international study come to the Dialogues of Civlization fair Thursday 11:00 to 2:00 in the "indoor quad" on the second floor of the student center.
The ECE Advice Session is **this Friday, Oct 28*** 11:45am-1:25pm in 135 Shillman. Sophomores and middlers: come eat pizza, hear ECE students talk about their experiences and ask them questions.
HW6 is now posted.

(19 October 2016) Exam grades are now visible on Blackboard. Lecture notes for this week are posted above.

(18 October 2016) Homework 5 is posted here and above.

(12 October 2016) I've posted the lecture notes and solutions for all homework to date above. For your convenince, here are the notes , SOL3 , and SOL4 . As a reminder, you may bring two sheets of paper 8.5 by 11 inches with notes on both sides. Bring a calculator and make sure the batteries are good. You may not share calculators or use phones during the exam.

(6 October 2016) The ``lecture notes'' page mentioned in homework 4 is posted above and here. I've also posted today's class notes.

(4 October 2016) There are several announcements here. First, there will be a HW4 due next Wednesday. I know this is not what I said in class. I remembered reading the date on HW5 and thinking it was HW4. We will post solutions Wednesday night so you can see them for studying for the exam. This means no late homework will be accepted. Second, I've added HW4 and class notes for yesterday and last Thursday above. Finally, for anyone using Windows 10, thanks to Prof. Onabajo and one of his students for instructions on installing Pspice.

(28 Sep 2016) Solutions to HW2 will be posted Friday evening. Please arrange with the TA, Mahmoud Ibrahim to submit late solutions before that happens, so that you only lose the 10 points.
Homework 3 is now posted above and here.
Today's lecture material is above and here.

(27 Sep 2016) Just some clarifications/hints for part a) of problem 4 on homework 2:
- "Vs" in the closed-loop transfer function should be "Vi" (as in the schematic)
- The open-loop gain of the op-amp ("A0") is "AOL" in the schematic. You can think of it as a finite gain that is constant vs. frequency because the op-amp is ideal otherwise.

(22 Sep 2016) I've posted notes for today. Remember: No class Monday. I'll start diodes on Wednesday.

(22 Sep 2016) Homework 1 solutoins are now posted.

(21 Sep 2016) I've posted Homework 2 as well as lecture notes from Monday and today.

(16 Sep 2016) The week's lecture notes are all posted above.

(14 Sep 2016) Today's lecture notes are posted above and here. HKN, the ECE honor society will provide tutoring for this course. Check the website: http://www.northeastern.edu/hkn/hkn_tutoring.html.

(12 Sep 2016) Today's lecture notes are posted above and here. The Matlab file I demonstrated is w1.html and is also posted below in the supplementary materials.

Here's an article about a new definition of the ampere, based on a device something like the FET that we will be studying toward the end of the term.

(11 Sep 2016) The web link for the book has been changed by the publisher. I just updated it below in the 25 August entry.

(11 Sep 2016) I've moved my office hours to 1:00 to 2:00 PM on Wednesdays, at least for the next few weeks as I have PT for my ankle on Monday mornings.

(8 Sep 2016) Look above for notes I wrote in class. I'll post these probably the day following each lecture.

(5 Sep 2016) The syllabus is now posted above, as is Homework 1 and information about the lab. We will be meeting in 035SL, starting at 4:35 on Wednesday, 7 September.

(25 Aug 2016) Welcome to EECE2412, Electronics. We will introduce you to the basic components of modern electronics, namely diodes and transistors, along with their use in a variety of circuits. There will be lectures, homework assignments, computer-based design assignments, and of course, exams. The laboratory, EECE2413, will be closely coordinated with the class material. The textbook, is Hambley, Electronics , Second Edition.
We will make use of Pspice and Matlab software in this course.
I'm just beginning to build the website. Eventually all the important course material including schedules, homework assignments, and announcements will be here. The supporting material below is from the last time I taught the course, and may change this year.






Supporting Material
matlab_tutorial.pdf MATLAB Tutorial Students unfamiliar (or slightly familiar) with Matlab may find this useful.
ch4-op-amp.pdf Op-AMP Chapter This chapter was provided by Prof. Grabel.
html/w1.html AC Circuit This circuit blocks AC and passes DC.
html/opamp.html Matlab code for the Op. Amp. lectures. You can create html code like this from Matlab using mym;publish('mywebpage','html'), where you have written a script called myfile.m. and want to produce html code into mywebpage.html. Try "help publish" to learn more.
html/gbp.html Matlab code for Cascaded Amps.
ac_amp.m Matlab code for the AC Op. Amp. This is for the example problem in class on Wed. 16 Jan 2013.
spice/opamp1.sch OpAmp SPICE Schematic. I use this DC op-amp circuit to demonstrate SPICE in class. We can do DC sweeps to generate the transfer characteristic, and we can find the "bias point" or "Q Point," although the latter doesn't mean much in this case.
spice/opamp2.sch OpAmp SPICE Schematic. I added some capacitors to illustrate the AC sweep and transient behavior.
semiconductor.pdf Semiconductor Pictures. Here are some slides I will use in class in discussion of semiconductors.
acdc.pdf DC and AC Models. This table tells you how to create DC and AC models for the components of a circuit.
BJT Amplifiers BJT Amplifier Cheat Sheet. You may find this summary of BJT amplifiers useful.
html/fet1.html FET Bias. There is some Matlab code for the FET bias problem here.
html/cs_amp_freq.html Common Source Amplifier. This shows the frequency response for a common source amplifier (Spring 2016).
html/fet2.html FET Current Source. There is some Matlab code for the FET current source problem here.
html/fet3.html FET Amplifier and Logic There is some Matlab code for the FET amplifier and logic circuits here.
http://www.interfacebus.com/voltage_threshold.html Logic Levels Here are some typical logic levels.
Other Resources
The textbook had a website with a variety of resources that you may find interesting. It was located at http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/hambley/chapter0/deluxe.html, but that link doesn't seem to work anymore and I haven't found a replacement (11 Sep 2016).

Pspice information (Thanks to Prof. McGruer) PSpice (Available on NU computers or download for free). We will extensively use PSpice. The student version of PSpice is available for free. You may use any version of PSpice that you wish, but you may find it helpful to be consistent in your versions. You cannot save in version 9.1 and use in version 8.0. In fact, sometimes there is difficulty in saving in version 8.0 and then using in version 9.1, but less so. Pspice is avaliable at http://www.electronics-lab.com/downloads/schematic/013/ .
Thanks to Prof. Onabajo and one of his students for instructions for Windows-10 users.

If you want to review circuits or more problems to solve in electronics, you might find Schaum's Outlines for Electric Circuits or Electronic Devices and Circuits useful. I have not looked at these in a while but I found their earlier outlines quite useful when I was a student.


ABOUT THE BACKGROUND: My favorite winter passtime is skiing. I put this background together from a detail of a photograph taken at Park City, in 2003. There are four copies in different orientations so that the tracks (and more importantly, the brightness levels) line up as the pattern repeats.