Linear Systems and Circuits These laboratory exercises are designed to introduce students to the fundamental properties of electro-optic devices, as well as the properties of classical optics. The topics covered in the lectures and accompanying experiments include semiconductor lasers, photodetectors, thin lenses, diffraction gratings, beam splitters, polarization, and the basics of ray-tracing. The motivation behind the exercises is the optical section of the CD player. The final experiment includes design and construction of a large-scale version of the CD optical system. This is used to demonstrate the various optical signals that are read from the CD and to show how the optical section is related to the electronics (digital audio signals) and servo (focus and tracking signals) systems. Electromagnetics The goal of this group of laboratory exercises is to bring a variety of electromagnetic fundamentals employed in CD technology to the attention of the students. Optics and Optical Devices This laboratory exercise is designed to introduce students to some of the properties of continuous-time and discrete-time, linear, and time-invariant systems. Topics covered in both lecture and laboratory exercises include Fourier analysis, frequency response, Kirchhoff's and Ohm's laws, power transfer and impedance matching, operational amplifiers, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion (ADC and DAC), quantization effects, sampling, and aliasing. Each of these topics is motivated through the use of audio band circuits and computer simulations.
