Electronics Unit 1 - Introductory Electronics

Electronics is about getting electrical currents to do more interesting things, beyond heating, lighting, and driving electric motors.  Electronic devices have made a major impact on society in the areas of:

  • Entertainment – TV, Hi-fi, Digital broadcasting

  • Telecommunications – land based and mobile telephony

  • ICT – computers, both in commerce and at home.

  • Medicine - machines that do diagnoses and support very ill patients.

Without flows of charge, no electronic device could work.  Electronic devices have advanced hugely in the last thirty years.  In the late nineteen-seventies, the Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre bought the largest hard drive that could be built - a massive 100 megabytes!  Nowadays 500 gigabytes is routine, while 1.5 terabytes are common.  You can carry a 64 GB flash drive round your neck. The computer on which I write these notes has the same or more computing power than a machine that occupied a vast building thirty years ago.  When I was 18, the notion that I could carry such a powerful computer in a bag over my shoulder and use it on the train each day was a complete fantasy.

Electronics represents one of the pinnacles of human ingenuity.  You are starting on a journey that will equip you with the skills which will open doors to many careers in electronic and mechanical engineering.  This course provides the foundation for success at university level study in physics and electronics.

The unit starts off looking at the basic architecture of electronic systems.  You will then be introduced to the basic tools of the electronic engineer.  It then teaches you about basic electricity.  If you want to go deeper into the theory, then there is a link to the Physics pages.

Then we go on to look at a range of electronic components and how they are used in electronic circuits.

Then we move on to digital circuits and discuss the basic building blocks that make up a range of digital devices.

Basic Electricity and System Synthesis
Tutorial 1 System Synthesis

Go
Tutorial 2 Basic Electric Measurement Go
Tutorial 3 Basic Electricity Go

Electronic Components
Tutorial 4 Diodes Go
Tutorial 5 Resistive Transducers Go
Tutorial 6 Transistors and MOSFETs. Go
Tutorial 7 Output Devices Go
Tutorial 8 Operational Amplifiers Go

Digital Systems
Tutorial 9 Logic Gates and Boolean Algebra Go
Tutorial 10 Combinational Logic Go

AS Data Sheet (.pdf file).  Click on the PDF icon.  Download it, print it off, and use it whenever you do a test. 

It will also make very good lavatory reading.  Knowing where a formula can be found will help you no end in the exam.

Unit Test (Past Paper - June 2009)

 Past Paper

Unit Test (Mark Scheme - June 2009) - Note that a mark scheme does not give model answers.  If in doubt, ask your teacher.

 Mark Scheme

Home (just like it says on the button)

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