Laboratory for circuit technology (C201)

Goals and idea

Without electricity almost nothing works. It is only when there is a power failure that you become aware of this. Even humans (and many animals) would die within seconds if their electrical communication network (nervous system) failed or was severely disturbed by electromagnetic fields.

Circuit technology is thus a completely universal basis of natural and technical life: for the power supply networks, the communication networks, for the countless - indeed, billions of times worldwide - electrical and electronic applications. If we consider what we only have around us in the household from getting up to going to bed with electrical companions, this becomes clear: Light switches, electric toothbrush/hair dryer/razor/scale, kettle/stove/toaster, refrigerator/freezer, dishwasher, radio/hifi/PC/scanner/printer/mobile phone/smartphone/TV, electromobility: railways, eBikes (estimated: 300 million produced in China), e-cars and almost all combustion engines not possible without circuit technology.

Therefore, the aim of the Circuit Engineering Laboratory is to provide students with a first practical basis for electrical and electronic components, the principles of basic circuits, circuit designs, their calculation/design/also non-linear modelling, analysis by simulation and verification by intensive measurements, starting from very primitive fundamentals such as series/parallel connection, Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws etc.

The simulation tools are free of charge and extremely powerful, so that entire multiphysics systems can now be simulated at home on the PC before the experiment. After the circuit design phase (consideration/design/simulation) in the preparation at home, the experiments deal with the circuit setups, verification measurements, improvement iterations per simulation/measurement on modified setups in a practical way.