Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

In the laboratory, the student will construct several digital circuits including a circuit that could be used to control a furnace and a circuit that lights LEDs in a specified sequence. The student will use standard laboratory instrumentation, including the oscilloscope, to verify the operation of each circuit. The student will also use PC-based electronic circuit simulation software to simulate the operation of at least one digital circuit.
 

Upon successful completion students should be able to: 
1. Use basic electrical digital systems concepts and theorems to analyze circuits 
2. Build and simulate electrical digital systems circuits and perform measurements with electronic test equipment. 
3. Write technical reports using collected experiment data. 

Assessment methods are to be determined by the instructor. Typically, in-class quizzes, exams and weekly homework assignments will be used. Laboratory assessment will be by reports and/or practical skills testing.
 

1. Basic electrical concepts including voltage, current, and resistance and the use of Ohm°s Law for simple circuits
2. The decimal, binary, and hexadecimal ("hex") number systems and the conversion of numbers between the decimal system and the binary system
3. The Boolean operations of AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, and XOR in terms of their schematic symbols, Boolean equations, and truth tables
4. The mechanical and electrical characteristics of the TTL family of logic devices including the pinout of the device, the allowable power supply voltage range, allowable temperature range, input voltage specifications, output voltage specifications, and the propagation delay of the device
5. The identities and use of Boolean algebra and the use of DeMorgan°s Theorem
6. Simplification of logic functions using Boolean algebra and Karnaugh maps
7. The specification of the required logic to implement a desired combinational logic function where the logic has been simplified as much as possible using Boolean algebra or Karnaugh maps
8. The use of timing diagrams to describe the response of a logic circuit to time-varying inputs
9. MSI (medium scale integration) functions including half adders, full adders, decoders, encoders, multiplexers, and demultiplexers
10. The use of multiplexers to implement logic functions
11. An architectural overview of common programmable logic devices (PLDs) including the programmable read-only memory (PROM), programmable logic array (PLA), and programmable array logic (PAL)
12. The use of PC-based circuit simulation software to simulate a digital circuit