Refresher in practical electronics

Tuesday 22 June 2010 23:43

The objective of the course is to get a feel for the behaviour of pulse electronic circuits by playing around with various capacitors, resistors, etc., and to think about the differences between theory and actual results.

1. Build this generic RC circuit

Trigger: e.g. pulse generator e.g. 0.1 ms, 10 V

Thyristor or SCR switch (a diode which is turned on via a pulse)

Isolated from main circuit by transformer to avoid high currents in the trigger circuitry or allowing the main circuit to see a different load from .

Load with impedance . Usually the thing you want to drive (e.g. plasma). In general, the impedance is a complex function of resistance and inductance (RLC circuits).

Capacitor

: various types (electrolytic, thin film, etc)

Charging circuitry Voltage-controlled current source e.g. set 20 V to charge the capacitor

i. Set and . Measure voltage across the capacitor and across the load. What do you observe ? What do you conclude ? ii. Set . What do you observe ? What do you conclude ? How does the capacitor's role change between the early part and the later part of the discharge ? iii. How does the voltage across the SCR behave ? In comparison to voltages across the capacitor and the load ? What is the effect of the SCR switch on the circuit ? iv. Try with other values of . Record your observations. v. Try with other types of capacitors but the same indicated capacitance (radial or axial electrolytic, low V or high V ceramic, tantalum, mylar, etc...). Record your observations. vi. Derive the equation for the voltage across the load and compare to your observations. What is the meaning of the ?

2. Effect of circuit components on the rest of the circuit

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This is a general circuit with a power supply (ideal emf impedances in series and in parallel).
i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.

and an internal impedance

) and a load (which consists of

What is (the equation for the) current drawn from the power source by the load ? What happens if ? What happens if ? What are the currents drawn into and into ? What happens if ? Give an example of how this situation would be useful in practice. How would the capacitance of cables affect the circuit (hint: suppose )? How would cable inductance affect the circuit (hint: suppose )?

Oscilloscope probes
If is finite, it can sometimes be too large for the test circuit. The usual solution is to use a high impedance probe (often available with the oscilloscope), but which also divides the measured voltage.

The probe contains another resistor to give a total of 10 with the oscilloscope input impedance. The probe also contains small variable capacitances. Adjusting the capacitances allows calibration of the measuring circuit and minimise overshoots (e.g. calibrate using a square wave and tune until the measured signal is clean). But a 10x divider probe makes it difficult to measure mV signals and a 1x divider probe can be used.

Ground in oscilloscopes
The reference value for a measurement is at the outer connection of the BNC connectors on the oscilloscope, which is always connected to the ground via the 3-pin power lead. Thus all measurements are made relative to this absolute ground. Take care not to connect the reference pin/clip to a portion of the test circuit which has a voltage w.r.t. ground: this will short that portion of the circuit with potentially disastrous consequences.
Can float the oscilloscope (i.e. not connect the ground pin/clip). Not always recommended. Make a differential measurement by inverting one channel and ADD-ing the two channels. Also make sure that the oscilloscope ground is the same as the test circuit ground, especially for weak signals or high frequency signals.

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3. RLC (series) circuit theory

i. Write out Kirchoff's laws for DC circuits and the principles they are based on. ii. Write out the two main assumptions for AC circuits (hint: think of terms to neglect in Maxwell's equations), then Kirchoff's laws for AC circuits. iii. Write out the (inhomogeneous ordinary differential) equation describing the behaviour of current through the RLC circuit component above, driven by a voltage source . iv. Transient response: solve the homogeneous form of the equation you just wrote down. Assume the external emf is constant so . Solve for the general solution of the current with arbitrary constants (which will be defined with initial conditions). Plot the different type of solutions, labelling the important points. v. Steady-state response: assume the applied emf is an oscillating function of time, e.g. where is constant. Also assume that the switch has been closed for a long enough time that any transient response will have been damped out. Look for a special solution of the inhomogeneous form of the circuit equation. As usual, deal with complex quantities (of which the real part represents the physical quantities), so for example the voltage becomes Re-write the circuit equation in the form What is the ? What is the real part ? What is the imaginary part (what are the terms in the imaginary part) ? What is the significance of a complex impedance ? Represent the complex impedance in polar complex coordinates (phase and magnitude). Write the expression for the real quantities and . What are the three regimes of behaviour of the steady-state response (how does the current behave with respect to the imposed emf ?

Final analysis
Impedance is the generalization of resistance. However, it is a function of the applied frequency and is not simply characterised by the electromagnetic parameters of the circuit. So the steady-state current will depend on the frequency. Therefore, the resonant frequency is the frequency at which the current will be maximum , i.e. when is minimum, i.e. when the reactance of the circuit .

The resistance

determines the "sharpness" of the resonance (i.e. how quickly the current changes from it's . The peak current will depend on the

resonance value as is changed from ). Define driving frequency, parameterised by :

As

of the circuit is increased, the sharper the response.

Summary
Write out the most general solution for the current when the imposed e.m.f. is oscillatory (sum of the transient and the steady-state solutions), with all the terms and variables defined:

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Imposed emf

Current in circuit (general solution) where the variables are defined as Damping Impedance Phase Impedance Definition Reactance Series combination of impedance Parallel combination of impedance Admittance Resistors Inductors Capacitors

4. Helmholtz coil
i. Derive the magnetic field on axis from a circular loop. Start off with the Biot-Savart rule. ii. Derive the magnetic field on axis from a Helmholtz coil (two coils of radius placed at distance apart). i. Also derive the gradient of the magnetic field ii. Also derive the second derivative of the magnetic field Therefore, why is the Helmholtz coil useful for calibrating magnetic probes ? iii. Build a Helmholtz coil (coil radius of about 5 cm, about 5 turns for each set) which will be the load of your RC circuit above. iv. Use a current monitor (0.1 V/A connected to the oscilloscope) to measure the current going through the circuit. Use a 50 capacitor charged to about 20 V to drive the coil. Measure the voltage across the coil input as well. What do you observe ? Is the measured current what you expect ?

5. Magnetic Probe
i. Draw the circuit diagram of a magnetic probe made from an inductive pickup coil with turns and radius placed in an arbitrary magnetic field (not necessarily aligned). ii. Derive the expression for (where is the direction normal to the loop) as a function of the induced voltage across the loop ends. iii. Build a magnetic probe to measure the magnetic field at the center of your Helmholtz coil circuit above. iv. Compare the voltage measured across the probe with the voltage and currents in the Helmholtz circuit. What is the measured magnetic field (how did you obtain it) ?

6. Passive integrator
i. Draw the circuit diagrams of a passive integrator (bonus: and a passive differentiator) ii. Derive the output voltage in terms of the input voltage. When is the output voltage the integral of the input voltage ? iii. Knowing what time scales are involved in the Helmholtz coil circuit, choose an appropriate combination of RC for the passive integrator and connect it to the magnetic probe. What is the measured output now (equation and plots) ? iv. What are your observations ? Are there any differences between capacitors ? Do you observe any noise or spurious signals ? How do you minimise them ? Compare the measured voltage from the current monitor and the voltage from the passive integrator. What do you see and how does that compare to what you expect ? The difference is called the "droop", which is characteristic of a passive integrator. Test the integrator with a square signal.

7. Active integrator

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Feedback loop

Gain

note:

i. Complete the schematic of an active integrator (currents, other voltages, with ideal OpAmp assumptions, etc..) ii. Derive the equation for output voltage as a function of the input voltage (ideal active integrator, so ignore ). Note: The feedback resistor is generally chosen to be larger than (e.g. ). The input signal is integrated properly if the time period of the signal is greater than the feedback loop time . So the output gain will depend on the frequency of the signal , the natural frequency . and the natural frequency of the feedback loop

iii. Use the active integrator in lieu of the passive integrator and compare the results. Note that the oscilloscope input impedance is effectively the load on the active integrator diagram, so there is no need to use another . The opamp (typically OP07 needs to have V supplied, with the negative pole grounded). The resistor to ground on the non-inverting input is optional. Try different combinations of , with . Note down the time constants, differences, effects on noise, quality of integration, gain. iv. Bonus: repeat sections 6 and 7 but with an active differentiator setup.

8. Transmission lines
: Termination impedance

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V2

V1

V2

Voltage source can be a single pulse generator or a square wave generator ( )

The coaxial cable is a long transmission line with impedance and length .

i. Choose . Compare the input voltage (input into trasnmission line) and output (output of transmission) line. ii. What is the time delay ? At what speed does the electrical signal travel ? iii. Choose a different (e.g. use the 1 M input of the oscilloscope directly). What do you observe ? iv. From the technical specifications of the coaxial cable, calculate the permeability , permittivity and inductance unit length of the cable.

per

and where is the radius of the core conductor,

and is the radius of the insulating di-electric.

Ground loops

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