Electronics for Pros!

Course Description

Physics laboratories are filled with all manner of electronic equipment. Unfortunately, a great deal of the lore surrounding the circuits used in low-energy physics labs is often left out of a textbook or university course, instead being left to be passed down by word of mouth. Electronics for Pros is a course designed to collate as much of the oral tradition of electronics in experimental physics into a daily web seminar designed to stimulate discussion between members of experimental physics groups.

The course meets from 12:00-1:00 PM PDT Monday through Thursday and from 1:00-2:00 PM PDT Friday via Zoom. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday meetings are lectures where new material is presented, and Tuesday and Thursday meetings are discussion sections.

Please feel free to reach out to webmasters Zack Pagel (zpagel[at)berkeley.edu) or Andrew Neely (neelya[at)berkeley.edu) if you are interested in joining the course!

Course Content

Video recordings of the course meetings and lecture notes for the course will be available on this site. A catalog of the lectures with their course capture can be found in the table below. The most current version of the lecture notes can be found here [Updated: 21 May 2020].

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Course Outline/Table of Contents

Lecture 1: Passive components
“Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 2: More passive components and simple networks
“Voltage dividers, Attenuators, RC Notch, Wien Bridge, Magic T-Coil, LC Impedance-match Network”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 2.5: Discussion
“Details of Notch Filters, Resonant EOM Driver, Power Splitters and Couplers” Youtube recording.

Lecture 3: Transformers, ground loops, and nodal analysis
“Using Transformers to Reduce Noise, Ground Loops, Nodal Analysis, Mesh Analysis”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 4: Diodes
“Ordinary, Varactor, Schottky, Step Recovery, PIN, Zener, Tunnel (Esaki), Backward, Gunn Element, Photodiode”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 4.5: Discussion
“Fun Circuits with Diodes: Tunnel Diode Trigger, Parametric Amplifier, Diodes as Sensors, Peak Detectors”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 5: Transistors

Lecture 6: Transistors and Op-amps

Lecture 7: Finishing transistors

Lecture 8: Op amp specs

Lecture 9: Op amp circuits

Lecture 10: EO drivers, real world circuit

Lecture 11.5: High voltage
“High Voltage Circuits and Effective Cabling”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 13: Low power photodetectors
“Photodetection and Optical Shot Noise Limit”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 13.5: Photodetection circuit design specifics
“Photodetection circuit design specifics”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 14: More photodetection
“Improving noise and speed, Differential Photodetection, Fast Photodetection”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 15: Feedback Circuits, Servo Loops, PID Circuits
“Feedback Circuits, Servo Loops, PID Circuits”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 15.5: Details of Feedback Circuit Design
“Details of Feedback Circuit Design”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 16: Phase lock loops
“Phase lock loops”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 16.5: Details about the Phase Locked Loop
“Details about the Phase Locked Loop, like phase detectors”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 17: Comparing phase detectors
“Comparing phase detectors; high-speed PLL; auto-locking lockbox”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 18: Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization
“Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 19: Pound Drever Hall in practice
“Pound Drever Hall in practice, RF circuits”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 20: RF impedance matching
“RF impedance matching; transmission line transformers; mixers”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 20.5: Mixer applications
“Mixer applications; Multipliers; Gilbert cell”
Youtube recording.

Lecture 21: Fancy mixer applications
“Fancy mixer applications”
Youtube recording.