MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

ANALOG ELECTRONICS
LABORATORY MANUAL

NOTES ON THE PHYS-305 LAB

Before the experiment you should read the laboratory manual carefully. You may need
to have some conceptual information about the related topics.
You must do the preliminary work as briefly on a paper and hand in before the
experiment, you will also be graded for this arrangement.
At the end of the experiment you will be asked to prepare a report and give before the
next experiment.
Report to be prepared should be consist of the following sections : ObjectivesIntroduction -Equipment-Procedure-Calculations-Discussion and Comments
In the Discussion and Comments part, you should discuss how you did the experiment
and what you have learnt as a result.
In each experiment there will be some questions in the manual to be answered
carefully and must be written in the corresponding report section.
You are going to fail from the lab (and also from the course) if you miss one section
unless you have a medical report. So, please attend all the experiments at your
assigned sections.

EXP.0 Introduction to Analog Electronics

Purpose

To learn how to use the Cadet electronic board and observe the properties.
To learn how to construct a circuit on the bread board.
To set up the typical oscilloscope for operation.
To learn how to read a signal and adjust the oscilloscope for optimum calibration.
To learn how to use Signal Generator and Digital Multimeter (DVM)

Equipment
Cadet-II Electronic Board
The Cadet II electronic board consists of various functional parts:
Bread Board, Power Supply, Logic Probe, 8-Channel Logic Monitor, 7 Segment
Displays, Potentiometers, SPDT Switches, Logic Switches, Debounced Push Buttons
Speaker (Buzzer), Function Generator, BNC Connectors

FIGURE 0-1. Cadet II Electronic Board

Bread Board
A breadboard also known as protoboard is a type of solderless electronic circuit building.
Inside the board, bars and rails allow to construct the circuits. It is well designed for easy
mounting circut elements such as opamps, resistors, transistors, seven segment displays, etc.

FIGURE 0-2. Bread board

Function Generator
There are three types of signal to be generated (Square, Sawtooth and Sinus). Each signal
frequency can be adjusted range from 1Hz to 1MHz and controlled by Frequency, Width,
Rate, Duty, Offset, Push TTL and Amplitude knobs on the front panel.

FIGURE 0-3. Function Generator

Digital Multimeter (DVM)

A typical multimeter can include basic features such as the ability to measure voltage , current
and resistance in units Volt, Ampere and Ohm, respectively. A DVM display the measured value in
numerals. The resolution of a multimeter is the smallest part of the scale which can be shown,
which is scale dependent.

FIGURE 0-4. Digital Multimeter

Oscilloscope
The oscilloscope is one of the most versatile electronic test instruments. Scope specifications
concern the type of scope (single or dual trace), its bandwidth (its operating frequency range)
and sensitivity. The grid allows voltage measurement. When set in calibrate position and on
the 1V range, a vertical deflection of the trace by one centimeter will mean that one volt is
being placed on the scope input. The Horizontal, Vertical and Trigger zone on the front panel
is for the adjustment of the best monitoring the signal.

FIGURE 0-5. Signal on the oscilloscope monitor.

Procedure
(Attention: Before power is on, make sure that there is no short-circuit, otherwise you may
damage electronic devices. Switch the power to OFF while you are changing the DVM
mode.)
A) From the function generator, give five different frequency of sinus signals between
1Hz to 1 Mhz and try to read their frequency and voltage from the oscilloscope.
Do the same procedure for other wave forms.
B) For each frequency of signal note all Vp (peak voltage), Vpp (peak to peak voltage)
and calculate Vrms voltage. (Vrms = 0.707 x Vp) Then, compare your results with
measured values on DVM.

FIGURE 0-6. Vpp,Vp and Vrms

C) Construct a simple voltage driver circuit shown in Figure 0-7 on the bread board
and calculate the desired voltage compare with the measured value on DVM. Note
all your used resistors and voltage values.

FIGURE 0-7. Voltage driver circuit

V2 = (V1 x R2) /(R1+R2)
D) Using the potentiometers on the Cadet board construct another voltage divider and
measure the resistance of potentiometer by using DVM. Then, calculate the
theoretical desired voltage and compare the value with measured on DVM.

EXP.1 Diode Rectifier Circuits

Preliminary work
What are the basics of a diode and Zener diode?
What are the I-V characteristics of a general diode, a Zener diode and a resistor? Plot
them roughly and compare.
What is the ripple voltage? How can you measure it?
Express briefly the half wave and full wave rectification.

Purpose
To explore and measure the DC output voltages of half-wave and full-wave rectifier circuits.

Theory
A device is capable of converting a sinusoidal input waveform into a unidirectional waveform
with non zero average component is called a rectifier. A practical half wave rectifier with a
resistive load is shown in the circuit diagram.

FIGURE 1.1 Half wave rectifier with filter

During the positive half cycle of the input the diode conducts and all the input voltage is
dropped across RL. During the negative half cycle the diode is reverse biased and the output
voltage is zero. The filter is simply a capacitor connected from the rectifier output to ground.
The capacitor quickly charges at the beginning of a cycle and slowly discharges through R L
after the positive peak of the input voltage. The variation in the capacitor voltage due to
charging and discharging is called ripple voltage. Generally, ripple is undesirable, thus the
smaller the ripple, the better the filtering action. Ripple factor is an indication of the
effectiveness of the filter and is defined as
R= Vrms / Vdc

where Vrms : Ripple voltage and Vdc: Peak rectified voltage

The ripple factor can be lowered by increasing the value of the filter capacitor or increasing
the load capacitance.A Full Wave Rectifier is a circuit, which converts an ac voltage into a
pulsating dc voltage using both half cycles of the applied ac voltage rather than one half cycle.
It uses two diodes of which one conducts during one half cycle while the other conducts
during the other half cycle of the applied ac voltage.

Equipment
Breadboard
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
Diode (1N4001/07 ) x 4
Capacitors and Resistors

Half Wave Rectifier

FIGURE 1.2 Half wave rectifier

Procedure:
1. Adjust the function generator for an output of 500 Hz or 1 kHz and maximum voltage
amplitude and use some load resistor let say 1k. Set the oscilloscope in DC mode.
2. Construct the circuit in the figure. It is called the half wave rectifier.
3. Connect the scope across the load resistor. Measure peak voltage of input and output
waves.
Explain the waveform, what happened to the input wave, how does the peak voltage
different.
If you reverse the diode, what would you expect to see? Why?

4. Change the frequency to 5 kHz, observe the waveform. Then increase it to 50 kHz.
Explain what you observed with reasons.
5. Adjust the frequency back to 500 Hz and add a 1 F capacitor parallel to the load resistor.
Change oscilloscope to AC mode and measure the ripple voltage.
V=..

 Change frequency to 50 Hz then 5 kHz and measure ripple voltage for each frequency
V50=.

V5000=..

Explain the difference.

6. Adjust the frequency back to 500 Hz, replace 1 F capacitor with a 100 F capacitor.
Measure the ripple voltage.
Explain the difference.
7. Set oscilloscope to DC mode again and add a zener diode parallel to the load resistor and
the capacitor observe the change of voltage value. Explain the change.
The Full Wave Rectifier

FIGURE 1.3 Full Wave Rectifier

8. Construct the circuit, the full wave rectifier. Here to observe the voltage across the load
resistor, we need to subtract channel 2 from channel 1 of the oscilloscope, because each
channel measures the voltage with respect to ground.
9. Connect the scope across the load resistor. Measure peak voltage and explain the observed
waveform.
Compare the output peak voltage with half wave rectifier, explain the difference.
Add a 1 F capacitor parallel to the load resistor measure ripple voltage, do the same
for 100 F capacitor.
Compare ripple voltages of half wave and full wave rectifiers, discuss advantages and
disadvantages over each other.

Observing I-V Curve

10. With the oscilloscope in the X-Y mode the voltage across the device is V1 and across the
channel 2 is V2, the current I can be determined from the drop across the R.
I= (V2-V1)/R

FIGURE 1.4 Circuit in order to measure I-V characteristics

To get V2-V1, ADD the Ch2 as upside down

To see I-V curve use X via Ch1 thus we get I vs V

Observe the I-V characteristics of a Diode and Zener diode .

EXP.2 Introduction to Transistors

Preliminary work
What are difference between NPN and PNP transistors?
What are the I-V characteristics of a NPN and PNP transistors? Plot them roughly and
compare.
What are the meanings of GAIN and SATURATION for a common transistor?
What are the fundamental uses of general transistor in electronics?

Purpose
To explore, measure and calculate the gain of a transistor and obtain the I-V characterisitcs.

Theory
The word Transistor is an acronym, and is a combination of the wordsTransfer Varistor used
to describe their mode of operation way back in their early days of development. There are
two basic types of bipolar transistor construction, PNP and NPN, which basically describes
the physical arrangement of the P-type and N-type semiconductor materials from which they
are made.
The Common Emitter (CE) Configuration
In the Common Emitter or grounded emitter configuration, the input signal is applied between
the base, while the output is taken from between the collector and the emitter as shown. This
type of configuration is the most commonly used circuit for transistor based amplifiers and
which represents the normal method of bipolar transistor connection.
The common emitter amplifier configuration produces the highest current and power gain of
all the three bipolar transistor configurations. This is mainly because the input impedance is
LOW as it is connected to a forward biased PN-junction, while the output impedance is HIGH
as it is taken from a reverse biased PN-junction.

FIGURE 2.1 Common emitter amplifier circuit

In this type of configuration, the current flowing out of the transistor must be equal to the
currents flowing into the transistor as the emitter current is given as Ie = Ic + Ib.
As the load resistance ( RL ) is connected in series with the collector, the current gain of the
common emitter transistor configuration is quite large as it is the ratio of Ic/Ib. A transistors
current gain is given the Greek symbol of Beta, ( ).
The small changes in current flowing in the base will thus control the current in the emittercollector circuit. Typically, Beta has a value between 20 and 200 for most general purpose
transistors. So if a transistor has a Beta value of say 100, then one electron will flow from the
base terminal for every 100 electrons flowing between the emitter-collector terminal.

The Common Collector (CC) Configuration

In the Common Collector or grounded collector configuration, the collector is now common
through the supply. The input signal is connected directly to the base, while the output is
taken from the emitter load as shown. This type of configuration is commonly known as
a Voltage Follower or Emitter Follower circuit.
The common collector, or emitter follower configuration is very useful for impedance
matching applications because of the very high input impedance, in the region of hundreds of
thousands of Ohms while having a relatively low output impedance.

FIGURE 2.2 The Common collector transistor circuit

The common emitter configuration has a current gain approximately equal to the value of
the transistor itself. In the common collector configuration the load resistance is situated in
series with the emitter so its current is equal to that of the emitter current.

As the emitter current is the combination of the collector and the base current combined, the
load resistance in this type of transistor configuration also has both the collector current and
the input current of the base flowing through it.

Equipment:
Cadet
Breadboard
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
Transistor
Resistors

I-V Characteristics of NPN Transistor

Procedure:

1. Use cadet for power supplies. Use 5 V out and variable for Vin.
2. While increasing Vin from 0 to 12V. Take measurements of Vc, Vb, Ic and Ib for every Vin.
3. Plot (a) Ib vs. Vb, (b) Ic vs. Ib, and (c) Vc vs. Ib. Add graphs to your report.
Vin 0V
Vc

5V

Ic

0A

Vb

0V

Ib

0A

0.5V 0.75V 1V

1.5V 2V

2.5V 3V

4V

5V

6V

8V

10V 12V

4. Using the information from the graphs answer/comment on the questions.

How does the base-emitter junction behaves?
Write an equation to calculate Ib with the information of Vin and Rb. Compare it with
your measurements.
What is current gain (beta) of this transistor.
When Vc is smallest transistor is saturated. What is Vc, Vin and Ic when transistor
reaches to saturation.
Maximum Ic for this transistor is 200 mA. Find the smallest Rc possible to operate at
5V without burning the transistor.
Emitter Follower
Consider we have an application to supply a low impedance load with function generator.
5. Set function generator output to 1 kHz, 1Vpp.
6. While simultaneously observing input voltage on oscilloscope, connect a 56 ohm load
resistor to output terminals. Do the same for 10 ohm resistor and observe the change.
Why does the voltage reduce when you connect a low impedance load to the
terminals?
V56 =..

V10 =

7. Calculate peak current value passing through the resistor for each case.
8. We can supply high current using a low current source by using a transistor.
Construct a circuit with one transistor, where load resistor connected to emitter
and 5 V supplied to the collector. Connect function generator output to base.
Use 10 ohms load resistor.
9. Probe emitter voltage with ch2 of your oscilloscope and input with ch1.
What do you see in ch 2. Why? Does the transistor biased correctly.
10. Give positive dc offset to input until you correctly see the waveform from
ch2. Measure the dc offset value (use dc mode of your oscilloscope). Does this
value makes sense considering your measurements in the first part?
Voffset =.
11. Increase the offset voltage and measure the peak voltage that this configuration supports,

 Why does the transistor dont support higher voltage in this circuit configuration.
12. Connect the other end of the load resistor to -5V instead of gnd. Remove the dc offset and
observe output voltage.
Why do you see the waveform correctly now?
13. We see that a transistor can be used as a current gain device to support higher current
applications without changing the voltage. Now increase the frequency and observe Vin and
Vout simultaneously.
Comment on your observation.

EXP.3 RC Coupled Amplifier

Preliminary work
What is the meaning of a BANDWIDTH for an amplifier? Plot it roughly.
Explore and write brief information about the following terms: Noise, Linearity,
Efficiency, Slew rate and Stability.
Write down the conditions for an ideal Amplifier.
Write the differences of Class A, Class B and Class C amplifiers and compare their
efficiencies.

Purpose
To explore and observe a transistor as amplifer.

Theory
A single stage common emitter RC coupled amplifier is a simple and elementary amplifier
circuit. The main purpose of this circuit is pre-amplification that is to make weak signals to
be stronger enough for further amplification. If designed properly, this RC coupled amplifier
can provide excellent signal characteristics.

FIGURE 3.1 Single stage common emitter RC coupled amplifier

The capacitor Cin at the input acts as a filter which is used to block the DC voltage and allow
only AC voltage to the transistor. If any external DC voltage reaches the base of the transistor,
it will alter the biasing conditions and affects the performance of the amplifier.

R1 and R2 resistors are used for providing proper biasing to the bipolar transistor. R1 and R2
form a biasing network which provides necessary base voltage to drive the transistor in active
region.
The region between cut off and saturation region is known as active region. The region where
the bipolar transistor operation is completely switched off is known as cut off region and the
region where the transistor is completely switched on is known as saturation region.
Resistors Rc and Re are used to drop voltage of Vcc. Resistor Rc are a collector resistor and
Re is emitter resistor. Both are selected in such a way that both should drop Vcc voltage by
50% in the above circuit. The emitter capacitor Ce and emitter resistor Re makes a negative
feedback for making the circuit operation more stable.
RC-coupled CE amplifier is widely used in audio frequency applications in radio and TV
receivers. It provides current, voltage and power gains. Base current controls the collector
current of a common emitter amplifier. A small increase in base current results in a relatively
large increase in collector current. Similarly, a small decrease in base current causes large
decrease in collector current.
R1 and R2 are employed for the voltage divider bias of the transistor. Voltage divider bias
provides good stabilization independent of the variations of . The input signal Vin is coupled
through C1 to the base and output voltage is coupled from collector through the capacitor C2.

Equipment:
Cadet
Breadboard
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
Transistor
Resistors
Design of a Common Emitter Amplifier
Output requirements: Mid-band voltage gain of the amplifier = 50 and required output
voltage swing = 10V
Procedure:
1. Selection of transistor Transistor is selected according to the frequency of operation, and
power requirements. The hFE of the transistor is another aspect we should be careful about.
Low frequency gain of a BJT amplifier is given by the expression.

Voltage gain Av = hFE x RL/Ri. In the worst case with RL = Ri ; Av = hFE x hFE of any
transistor will vary in large ranges.
Select NPN transistor BC108/2N3904 since its minimum guaranteed hFE (=100) is more than
the required gain (=50) of the amplifier.
2. Selection of supply voltage Vcc for a distortionless output from an audio amplifier, the
operating point must be kept around the middle of the load line. selecting Vcc 20% more than
the required voltage swing is enough. We can choose Vcc as 12V since we need a voltage
swing of 10V.
3. Selection of collector current Ic The nominal value of Ic can be selected from the data
sheet of transistor. Usually it will be given corresponding to hFE bias.
Ic =..mA
4. Design of emitter resistor RE Current series feedback is used in this circuit using RE.
Voltage across RE must be as high as possible. But, higher drop across RE will reduce the
output voltage swing. So, as a rule of thumb, 10% of Vcc is fixed across RE. RE=VRE/IE
VRE = 0.1 Vcc and IE ~ Ic
RE=~.
5. Design of Rc Value of Rc can be obtained from the relation Rc = 0.4xVcc = Ic since 40% of
Vcc is dropped across Rc.
RC=..~..
6. Design of potential divider R1 and R2 Value of Ib is obtained by using the expression
Ib = Ic/hFE min . At least 10 x Ib should be allowed to flow through R1 and R2 for the better
stability of bias voltages. If the current through R1 and R2 is near to Ib, slight variation in Ib
will affect the voltage across R1 and R2. So design such that 10 Ib flows through R1 and 9 x Ib
flows through R2.
R1=.
R2=.
7. Design of bypass capacitor Ce The purpose of the bypass capacitor is to bypass signal
current to ground. To bypass the frequency of interest, reactance of the capacitor XCE
computed at that frequency should be much less than the emitter resistance. As a rule of

thumb, it is taken XCE < RE/10. Lets say we want to bypass 100 Hz. Choose a capacitor
considering these.
CE=..F
8. Design of coupling capacitors C1 and C2 The purpose of the coupling capacitor is to
couple the ac signal to the input of the amplifier and block dc. It also determines the lowest
frequency that to be amplified. Value of the coupling capacitor C1 is obtained such that its
reactance XC at the lowest frequency (say 100 Hz or so for an audio amplifier), should be less
than the input impedance of the amplifier. Same goes for C2 such that XC being lower than
output impedance. We can use 10 F capacitors that satisfy these conditions.
9. Construct the circuit using the components you have found, apply 100mV (peak to peak)
sinusoidal signal from the function generator to the circuit input. Observe the input and output
waveforms on the oscilloscope screen simultaneously.
What is the low frequency gain, does it match your calculations.
10. Keep the input voltage constant at 100 mV, vary the frequency of the input signal from 0
to highest frequency available in the generator. Measure the output amplitude corresponding
to different frequencies for at least 10 different frequency. Plot frequency vs. Vout graph.
11. Find the bandwidth of the amplifier you have built. To calculate bandwidth you need to
find fL and fH, which are the frequency values that Vout goes to 0.707 times of its max value.
fL=Hz

fH=..Hz

bw=..Hz

12. Remove bypass capacitor CE and repeat steps 10 and 11.

fL=Hz

fH=..Hz

bw=..Hz

What happened to gain and bandwidth of the amplifier when you remove the
capacitor?

EXP.4 Operational Amplifiers

Preliminary work
How are the ideal characteristic parameters of an OP-AMP, that is, which are zero,
infinite or finite for Open loop gain, Input impedance, Output impedance, Bandwidth
and Offset voltage?
Draw roughly the voltage gain vs. frequency for a real op-amp (for ex: LM741)
Draw the equivalent circuit of an Ideal Operational Amplifier.
Write briefly information about inverting and non-inverting amplifier.

Purpose
To explore inverting and non-inverting amplifier.

Theory
An Operational Amplifier, or op-amp for short, is fundamentally a voltage amplifying device
designed to be used with external feedback components such as resistors and capacitors
between its output and input terminals. These feedback components determine the resulting
function or operation of the amplifier and by virtue of the different feedback configurations
whether resistive, capacitive or both, the amplifier can perform a variety of different
operations, giving rise to its name of Operational Amplifier.
An Operational Amplifier is basically a three-terminal device which consists of two high
impedance inputs, one called the Inverting Input, marked with a negative or minus sign, ( - )
and the other one called the Non-inverting Input, marked with a positive or plus sign ( + ).

Equipment:
Cadet
Breadboard
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
LM741 opamp
Resistors

Procedure
Open Loop Test
1. Construct The circuit shown in the figure below.

2. Try to measure the gain of the open loop operational amplifier.

G=.. (approximately)
What output voltage value did you observe most of the time? Why?
Why an op-amp is essentially never used in this open loop configuration? (Answer
considering the concepts gain and output range)

Inverting Amplifier
3. Construct the inverting amplifier circuit.
Use function generator to generate the
input voltage. (~1kHz).
4. Measure the gain of the circuit.
G=.

5. What is the phase difference between Vin and Vout.

=..
6. Calculate the theoretical gain. Compare it with experimental result.
Gth=.........
Change shape of input wave. Try square and triangular output. How does the amplifier
responds to sharp steps.
Does the gain change with frequency if yes how?
If you increase the feedback resistor what do you think the maimum gain you can
achieve?

Non-inverting Amplifier
7. Repeat the step 6 for non-inverting
amplifier. Note each result below.
8. Remember the role of emitter follower
arrangement of transistors.
Can you use an opamp to get similar
result? How?
9. Research; 1.Voltage follower 2.
Comparator 3. Zero crossing detector. For
each of them draw their circuit and
summarize their working and applications in
a few sentences.

EXP. 5 Operational Amplifiers II

Preliminary work
Write briefly information about Adder, Differentiator and Integrator by drawing
simple circuits.
Consider three types of waves as triangle, square and sine, what do you expect as an
output of these wave forms from a differentiator and integrator? Draw roughly input
and output waves.

Purpose
To explore adder, differentiator and integrator circuits and observe the change of different
input waves.

Theory
One of the Operational Amplifier circuit performs the mathematical operation
of Differentiation, that is it produces a voltage output which is directly proportional to the
input voltages rate-of-change with respect to time. In other words the faster or larger the
change to the input voltage signal, the greater the input current, the greater will be the output
voltage change in response, becoming more of a spike in shape.
In the Inverting Operational Amplifier that the inverting amplifier has a single input voltage,
( Vin ) applied to the inverting input terminal. If we add more input resistors to the input, each
equal in value to the original input resistor, Rin we end up with another operational amplifier
circuit called a Summing Amplifier, summing inverter or even a voltage adder circuit.
The Op-amp Integrator is an Operational Amplifier circuit that performs the mathematical
operation of Integration, that is we can cause the output to respond to changes in the input
voltage over time as the op-amp integrator produces an output voltage which is proportional
to the integral of the input voltage.
Equipment:
Cadet
Breadboard
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
LM741 opamp
Resistors

Procedure
Adder Circuits
1. Construct non-inverting adder circuit shown in
the first figure. Choose the resistors such that
Vout=V1+V2+V3. Take V1 from function generator
and V2 any dc voltage from cadet.
What resistance values did you choose?
Why?
2. Construct inverting adder circuit shown in the
second figure choose resistors such that
Vout = (-2.1xV1-3.9xV2-4.5xV3). use voltage
values as you wish and observe the output
What resistance values did you choose?
Why?

Differentiator

3. Construct the differentiator circuit. Use function generator to generate the input voltage.
Choose time constant 1s.
4. Simultaneously observe input and output voltage of the circuit in the oscilloscope.

 What do you see for sinusoidal, triangle and square waveforms?

Try different frequencies and different time constants, write down your observations.

Integrator

5. Construct the integrator circuit. Use function generator to generate the input voltage.
Choose time constant 1s.

6. Simultaneously observe input and output voltage of the circuit in the oscilloscope.
What do you see for sinusoidal, triangle and square waveforms?
Try different frequencies and different time constants, write down your observations.