LINEAR CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

LABORATORY MANUAL
SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. SYED ASAD ULLAH
LECTURER
ENGR. NAQEEB ULLAH
LABORATORY ENGINEER

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

FACULTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
BALOCHISTAN UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING AND
MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
syed.asad@buitms.edu.pk, naqeeb.ullah@buitms.edu.pk
SUBMITTED BY:
STUDENT NAME: ____________________.
CMSID: ____________________.
PROGRAM: ____________________.
SEMISTER: ____________________.
TERM: ____________________.

SIGNATURE: ____________________.
DATE: ______, ______, ______.
SCORE: ____________________.
 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Contents

Objectives: .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Requirements: ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Theory: .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Resistor: ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
Potentiometer: ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Inductor: ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
Capacitor: ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Transformer: ................................................................................................................................................. 6
Diode:............................................................................................................................................................ 7
Light Emitting Diode: ................................................................................................................................... 7
Transistor: ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Switches: ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Practical Exercise 1: .................................................................................................................................... 11

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Objectives:
 To get familiar with basic electronic components such as
o Resistor
o Capacitors
o Inductor
o Diodes
o Transistors
o Light emitting diode (LED)
o Transformer
o Switches
 To test and understand the function of various electronic components.

Requirements:
Resister, Capacitor, Switch, Transformer Transistor, Light emitting diode (LED), Inductor,
Multimeter

Theory:
In this lab we will become familiar with electronics components that play essential role in
electronics field.

Resistor:
A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as
a circuit element. The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the voltage across the
resistor's terminals. This relationship is represented by Ohm's law. A device used in electrical
circuits to maintain a constant relation between current flow and voltage. Resistors are used to step
up or lower the voltage at different points in a circuit and to transform a current signal into a
voltage signal or vice versa, among other uses. The electrical behavior of a resistor obeys Ohm's
law for a constant resistance; however, some resistors are sensitive to heat, light, or other variables.

Figure 1. Resistors

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Resistors are one of the most used components in a circuit. Most are color coded, but some have
their value in Ohms and their tolerance printed on them. A multimeter that can check resistance
can also be helpful, providing the resistor is already removed from the board (measuring it while
still soldered in can give inaccurate results, due to connections with the rest of the circuit). They
are typically marked with an “R” on a circuit board.

Figure 2. Color coding table

To measure ohms with a multimeter, turn the dial to the Ω symbol and selecting the proper range,
unless you treated on an auto-ranging multimeter. To determine the correct range, you will need
to be able to 'read' the resistor, which we are going to get to in a moment.

Figure 3. Finding resistance using digital multimeter

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Potentiometer:
This is the most common variable resistor and utterly ubiquitous in your day-to-day life. Every
time you use a slider or knob on an electrical device, you are using a potentiometer. For instance,
every single mechanical light dimmer you have ever used is a potentiometer. Potentiometers come
in a wide range of resistances, and have a physical actuator that sweeps from 0 ohms resistance to
whatever value is marked upon it so by connecting a wire to either one of its outer terminals, and
another to the center terminal, we can wire a potentiometer as a variable resistor. In a schematic a
variable resistor looks like a normal resistor with a line reaching around and pointing back at itself.
The potentiometer has three legs, when two seems to be enough to work as a variable resistor

Figure 4. Potentiometer with Schematic

Inductor:
An inductor, also called a coil or reactor, is a passive two-terminal electrical component which
resists changes in electric current passing through it. It consists of a conductor such as a wire,
usually wound into a coil. When a current flows through it, energy is stored in a magnetic field in
the coil. When the current flowing through an inductor changes, the time-varying magnetic field
induces a voltage in the conductor, according to 4 Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction,
which by Lenz's law opposes the change in current that created it. Inductors, also called coils, can

Figure 5. Different types of Inductor

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

be a bit harder to figure out their values. If they are color coded, the resources listed for resistors
can help, otherwise a good meter that can measure inductance will be needed. They are typically
marked with an “L” on a circuit board.

Capacitor:
A capacitor consists of conductive metal plates separated by an insulating material called a
dielectric. The dielectric can be anything such as ceramics, plastics, oxidizing metals, glass, and
paper. For instance, if you crack open an electrolytic capacitor you will find it's just two metal
plates wrapped in a chemically coated film. When electricity is applied, the metal conductors
polarize the electrons in the film and store an electric field.
Capacitors can be either polarized or non-polarized. Put simply, a polarized capacitor has a positive
lead which needs to be connected to power, and a negative lead which needs to get connected to
ground. Nonpolarized capacitors can be connected any which way. Ceramic disc and mylar film
capacitors are non-polarized. Electrolytic capacitors are polarized.

Figure 6. Different types of Capacitor

Transformer:
A transformer is a static electrical device that transfers energy by inductive coupling between its
winding circuits. A varying current in the primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the
transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic flux through the secondary winding. This varying
magnetic flux induces a varying electromotive force (emf) or voltage in the secondary winding.
Transformers are normally pretty easy to identify by sight, and many have their specs printed on
them. They are typically marked with a “T” on a circuit board.

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Figure 7. Step-down Transformer

Diode:
A diode a two terminal component that allows electricity to flow through in one direction, and all
but stops it from flowing the opposite way. Unlike other electrical components we have looked at
thus far, whose primary role is to influence the voltage or current within the circuit, the diode's
primary role is to route electricity. This is extremely useful for preventing an electrical signal from
taking unwanted or unexpected routes within the circuit.
In a schematic, diodes look like arrows pointing at a wall. A good way to think of this is that a
positive voltage can flow in the direction of the arrow, but the wall stops it from flowing back the
other way

Figure 8. Diode with symbol

Light Emitting Diode:

An LED is a diode that emits photons when it is forward biased and there is electricity flowing
through it. The photons are simply light particles and what makes it glow. There are typically three
ways to tell a LED's anode from its cathode.
1) The leg connected to the anode is typically longer than the one connected to the cathode.
2) The body of the LED typically has a flat spot on the cathode side.

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

3) If you look inside the LED, the little metal bit connected to the anode lead is much smaller than
the cathode

Figure 9. Different color LEDs

Transistor:
A transistor is an electronic component that takes a small amount of current and amplifies it as
shown in Figure 10.
A common transistor has three pins which are the base, collector, and emitter. Unlike all of the
other components we have looked at where electricity goes in one side and out the other, a more
complicated process is at work within the transistor. There are two types of basic transistors in this
world - those which are NPN, and those which are PNP.

Figure 10. Transistor with pin configuration

In a schematic a transistor will be represented as an NPN, which has the arrow pointing outwards
away from the vertical line, or as a PNP, which has the arrow pointing inwards towards the line

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Figure 11. Schematic of NPN and PNP transistors

Switches:
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can break an electrical circuit,
interrupting the current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most familiar form of
switch is a manually operated electromechanical device with one or more sets of electrical
contacts, which are connected to external circuits. Each set of contacts can be in one of two states:
either "closed" meaning the contacts are touching and electricity can flow between them, or
"open", meaning the contacts are separated and the switch is nonconducting .In other words, a
switch consists of two (or more) conductive terminals that can be connected or disconnected with
a mechanism (such as a lever or button).
A pole as the point a switch enters a circuit and the throw as the potential exit points. The most
basic switch has a single throw and a single pole, since electricity only has a single point of entry
and exit. This is often referred to in shorthand as SPST. If we were to add another throw or exit
point, we have created a single pole, double throw - or SPDT - switch.

Figure 12. Different types of Switches

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

This allows you to toggle between two different electrical pathways. We can also add additional
poles. If we were to add another pole to the SPDT switch, we would get a double-pole double-
throw (DPDT) switch. This is basically the same as having two separate SPDT switches that get
toggled by the same lever.

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Practical Exercise 1:
Take three resistors of different values, then calculate the resistance
a) By color coding
b) By digital Multimeter
c) Observe and record the values in the table 1 as shown below

Table 1.

No. Color code Measured Value (DMM) Tolerance (%)

1

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 Linear Circuit Analysis
Instructor Manual Laboratory #1: Introduction to Electronic Components
Fall 2017

Conclusion:
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