AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course provides the basic knowledge needed for the analysis and design of simple electronic circuits, both analog and digital, aimed at performing physics measurements. Particular attention is paid to the use of laboratory instruments and the use of data acquisition techniques.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students will have developed the ability to:
- use the main tools adopted for the analysis of electronic circuits, having understood their operating principles;
- design and build analog circuits aimed at processing DC and AC signals;
- design digital circuits starting from the desired specifications or from the description of the algorithmic behavior to be implemented;
- interfacing microcontrollers and microprocessor systems with the aforementioned instruments and circuits;
- understand the project behind an experiment performing a physics measurement and relying heavily on electronic circuits, developing the critical thought to modify the project itself;
- communicate, using the correct technical / scientific language, the specifications of the circuits built in practice and the results of the experiments performed.

TEACHING METHODS

The course consists in theory lectures (about 80 hours) and laboratory exercises (about 80 hours)

Attendance is mandatory for the laboratory activities and highly recommended for the lectures.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Electric circuits operating in direct current. Current, voltage, power, Kirchhoff's laws. Resistors, voltage and current generators, both ideal and real. Node analysis, superposition principle, Thevenin and Norton theorems and equivalent circuits. Capacitors and inductors. Study of the transient and steady state behavior for first order circuits in series and in parallel.

Electric circuits operating in alternating current. Analysis of first order circuits in sinusoidal regime, in the time domain and using the phasor method. Frequency response and Bode diagrams. Second order circuits, RLC circuits, resonant circuits. Use of the LTSPICE simulation program.

Semiconductors, PN junction, diode, transistor, MOSFET. Integrated circuits, operational amplifier, inverting and non-inverting amplifier. Adder circuits, integrators, differentiators, comparators, rectifiers. Feedback and applications to circuits with operational amplifiers. Active filters: low pass, high pass, band pass. Four-wire measurements, instrumentation amplifier and its characterization.

Digital systems, Boole algebra and real implementation of logic gates. Combinatorial and sequential logic circuits. Digital / analog and analog / digital converters. Design of state machines and Karnaugh maps.

Programmable circuits and microcontrollers. Development of state machines and control programs; data acquisition via serial port and Arduino boards.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Millmann, Grabel / Millmann, Halkias - Microelectronics - McGraw-Hill
Horowitz, Hill - The art of electronics - Cambridge University Press

Lesson notes are made available on Aulaweb

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

See the schedule for Laurea in Fisica 2026/2027 and the University managed website  https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti/

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists of two parts:

- a practical laboratory test aimed at determining the student's ability to design, build and characterize a circuit, analog or digital, similarly to what seen in the guided exercises carried out during the year

- an oral test in which their knowledge and understanding of the theoretical topics covered during the course are verified

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The practical test evaluates the ability to design analog and digital circuits starting from the required specifications.
If the construction of a prototype is required, the quality of its technical characterization is evaluated.
In the oral discussion, circuit design skills are further verified, and the theoretical understanding of the key concepts presented in the course is also evaluated.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Compensatory and dispensatory measures Disability/Invalidity/Specific Learning Disorder

Dispensatory measures and compensatory tools are intended to enable students to achieve the same learning objectives as their fellow students, not to facilitate the examination.

The use of compensatory tools and the application of dispensatory measures must be authorised in advance by the teacher in agreement with the Referee.

To take advantage of the adaptations during the examination, fill in the Adaptation request form; the request will be automatically sent by the system to the teacher in charge of the teaching, to the Contact Person of your School/Area/Department and in copy to the Sector; you will also receive a copy of the request sent by e-mail.

The adjustments available to students are as follows:

• Additional time (+30% DSA)
• Additional time (+50% disability/invalidity)
• Additional time during oral exams to organise the answer
• Calculator (programmable and graphing calculators are not allowed)
• Conceptual Maps
• Tables and/or Forms
• Take the exam in written form
• Take the exam in oral form
• Tutor reader (for written tests only)
• Tutor-writer (for written tests only)

Your request for adaptations must be submitted at least 7 working days before the scheduled exam date.

All information for students with disabilities and DSA is available on the webpage: Services for students with disabilities or DSA | UniGe | University of Genoa

Reference for inclusion: Sergio Di Domizio - sergio.didomizio@unige.it