A Capstone Laboratory For An Introductory Electronic Devices And Applications Course

The EET analog electronic devices-circuit analysis curriculum team at Purdue University, West Lafayette recommended an integrated circuit (I. C.) waveform generator lab for the capstone or final lab in the introductory electronic devices course. The objective is to introduce students to applications oriented analog integrated circuits. The 555 timer was used during the 1996-97 academic year. This choice was made mainly because this material was covered in the textbook. This was almost too fundamental and was supplemented by having the students investigate other integrated circuit waveform generators through a review of available literature in the library and/or on the world wide web. The following was developed to improve the rigor of this unit of the course. Introduction Special emphasis is placed on the selection of an integrated circuit waveform generator by a comparison of device specifications. The fundamentals of operation of the 555 timer in the astable mode is still covered in the lecture, reading assignments, homework, quizzes and tests. The lab now focuses on the investigation and demonstration of the specifications of integrated circuit function generators. The goal is to introduce skills required for students to become proficient in reviewing literature to select several I. C. waveform generators, reading the corresponding data sheets, and completing the lab measurements to make comparisons required for an informed choice of an I. C. for a particular application. The two I. C. function generators utilized for this lab are Exar’s XR2206 and Maxim’s MAX038. Because of cost, the XR2206 ($5) was selected for the students to purchase and test. The students were not required to purchase the $20 MAX038. However, the data sheets, available on the world wide web, were used to make comparison to the XR2206.