Fall 2025: Electronics Lab
Fall 2025: Electronics Lab
Fall 2025: Electronics Lab (PHYS 306L)
Instructor: Victor Acosta, vmacosta@unm.edu
Office: CHTM, Rm 115A (email to make an appointment)
Help Sessions: Tuesdays 2:30 - 3:30 pm, PAIS 2224
Teaching Assistant: Rajorshi Bhattacharya, rbhattacharya1995@unm.edu. Office hours: Thursdays 3-4 pm in PAIS 1411 lab.
Mode of Instruction: In person.
Class meets: Mondays, 1:00pm - 4:50pm.
Location: PAIS 1411 (lab).
Textbook: None is required. I will use handouts from “The Art of Electronics” (P. Horowitz, W. Hill) and "Electric Circuits" (Nilsson, Riedel).
Final exam: Monday Dec 8, 1:00-5:30pm. Each student delivers an oral presentation (20 min). Notify the instructor ASAP if you have a conflict.
Syllabus: This webpage is your syllabus.
Slides: See schedule spreadsheet for links.
Homework and Quizzes: See schedule spreadsheet for links.
Class schedules: This webpage will be updated with assignment deadlines. They may change, so please check frequently.
Schedule and deadlines spreadsheet.
Overview: Electronics Lab is organized around twelve modules that are expected to be done in class once a week. The modules are sometimes more complicated than lower-division undergraduate labs. You may find less specific instruction; independent problem-solving is expected. The goal is to provide an environment in which to develop laboratory skills relevant for electronics and experimental physics research in general. Students may work by themselves or with a partner. You are encouraged to get help from the Instructor and TA regularly.
Standard Modules:
1) Basic electrical measurements
2) AC circuits and the oscilloscope
4) Frequency response and resonant circuits
5) Poles and Zeroes in AC circuits
6) Diodes
7) Transistors
10) Oscillators
12) Timing sequencer
Final Project Module: Students (working either alone or with one partner) will choose any of the above experiments or any of the other equipment available in the electronics labs or purchase/build custom hardware if it is possible within the P&A budget (cannot be too expensive) :
1) Develop and test their own hypothesis that is different from the standard lab module. Meet with instructor in late October to discuss and submit a 1-page proposal due 2 weeks before Final Projects begin. Proposals are pass/fail, but the instructor will provide feedback. The quality of your scientific question and experimental plan are part of your final project grade.
2) Submit a 4-page (11 pt font, single spaced) writeup describing the experiment, its procedure, and the key results. Due Monday Dec 9, 1:00 pm.
3) Present findings in 20 min oral presentation (in place of written final exam).
Even if you worked as a pair, each student must submit their own writeup and deliver their own oral presentation.
Grading: Students will be graded on:
-participation (including final project proposal and mini-talks), 15%.
-standard modules, including writeups in lab notebooks, 10 x 5% each = 50% total. Two lowest module grades are dropped.
-quizzes, 2 x 5% each = 10%. The lowest quiz score is dropped.
-final project, including oral presentation and writeup, 25%.
Each module will be graded on the quality of the work and the clarity and professionalism of the writeup/oral presentation. Late assignments will be marked down 2.5 points (out of 10) for each week late up to a maximum of 2 weeks late. In other words, if your assignment is turned in 1 hour late, you will lose 25% of the possible points. If your assignment is turned in 6 days and 23 hrs late, you will still lose the same 25% of the points. If your assignment is turned in 7 days and 1 hr late, you will lose 50% of the possible points. If your assignment is 13 days and 23 hrs late, you will still lose 50% of the possible points. If your assignment is 14 days and 1 hr late, you will not receive any credit. The instructor and TA will often be working directly with the students and will have plenty of opportunity to assess your progress. Be sure to engage them in discussion and ask plenty of questions. Students are expected to attend each lab session. Participation is important and absences will affect the participation component of your final grade. However, the two lowest module grades are dropped, so an occasional absence is unlikely to have a major impact on your final grade.
Lab Notebook: On every module, each student will be responsible for maintaining their own detailed notebook entry. Relevant information should be recorded as the experiment progresses. Results should be tabulated, plotted, and fitted as needed to visualize and interpret the findings. A useful description (if somewhat outdated) of good lab notebook practices can be found here. The instructor and TA will periodically look through the lab notebooks and grade the modules (approximately every 3 weeks). You will be using computer software to plot and fit data--there are PCs in the lab with Mathematica and Matlab and you are welcome to use your own laptop. There is a single Black & White printer which you will use to print and tape into your notebooks.
Mini-talks: Students will be assigned a topic and will deliver a 15 minute talk on this topic at the beginning of class. Each student will give one talk during the semester. These are not graded, but attendance is included in your participation grade, so ask questions and do your best when it is your turn. The instructor will give the first mini-talk and give out pointers.
Final oral presentation: Each student (or pair of students if working in a pair) will deliver an oral presentation during our final exam timeslot. Presentations will cover the work done on the final projects. They should be 15 minutes in length, and there will be an additional 5-10 min for Q/A. The format of the talk should follow that of a standard research talk at, for example, APS March Meeting.
Final project writeup: Each student submits a 4-page (11 pt font, single spaced) writeup describing the experiment, its procedure, and the key results. One writeup per student even if working in pairs. Due Monday Dec 9, 2:30 pm.