PHYS 3330, Electronics for the Physical Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder (commonly referred to as “Junior Lab”) is a two credit course that provides an introduction to electronic design through hands-on experimentation.
In the first part of the course you will conduct guided experiments that cover important topics in analog (Lab 1-8) and digital (Lab 9-10) electronics. Before mid-semester, you will begin to conceive of independent electronics projects. The project part of the course will be after you complete the 10 guided labs. Instructors will make every effort to support original and creative projects. At the end of the semester, you will submit a project report and describe your project to the class in an oral presentation.
Note: This web site is intended to be used as supplement to your Canvas course page, and not used by itself.
Lectures: Lectures are on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:55 pm - 1:45 pm in Duane G125. The material includes theoretical background that you will need to do the experiments as well as discussions of lab skills. We will be using iClicker for interactive lecture questions and discussion. Lectures will not be recorded but the slides used will be posted in Canvas.
Lab Sessions: Each section has one three-hour instructional lab session per week, supervised by your lab instructor. You must attend the weekly scheduled lab session that corresponds with the section you are enrolled in. Not all sections listed below are offered each semester. Be sure to visit classes.colorado.edu for the currently offered sections.
There is no required textbook for this course but there are several great options for electronics textbooks you can reference available in the lab or library. Each lab writeup includes suggested readings from three different reference books:
Additionally, we have a copy of “Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components” by Windell Oskay and Eric Schlaepfer in the lab. This book “is a photographic exploration of the beautiful design inside everyday electronics. Its stunning cross-section photography unlocks a hidden world full of elegance, subtle complexity, and wonder.” It’s worth having a look to get some insight into how the electronic components we will be using in this course are manufactured.
Lab equipment may fail, malfunction, or become damaged throughout the semester. If this happens, please report it to the lab technical staff by completing this form and report it to you instructor or TA. The lab issue form allows you to also submit attachments which helps the technical staff identify and troubleshoot the issue.