Electricity & Electronics Assignment

Name: Daniel Metcalfe

Student number: C19771345

Lecturers name: John Heffernan

Programme: DT011

Module: Electricity & Electronics 2

Submission date: 3rd of May

Word count: 2000

Declaration of Ownership: I declare that the attached work is entirely my own and that all
sources have be acknowledged:

Signed: ______________

Date: ________________
Section A
1

A) There is 3 types of construction for a PN Junction. The first method is the grown method P-
type and N-type impurities are mixed into the manufacturing process. The second method is
fusing alloys together, this process is where one type of impurity is melted into the other
type causing them to fuse together. The third method is point-contact where a N-type
material is heated by a “cat whisker” and the surge of current converts the point of contact
into P-type material.
B) The PN Junction operation is to not allow the flow of electrons from the N-type to the P-type
which would convert the semiconductor to a neutral state
C) The junction barrier has a 0.7V minimum threshold that the current needs to meet in order
for the electrons to cross over
D) Forward Bias and Reverse Bias are terms used to describe the direction of the diode in a
circuit. For electron to flow the diode needs to be in forward bias
E) The characteristics of a diode help describe what the particular diode can withstand. This
included the average and peak current in both forward and reverse bias as well as how much
temperature the diode can handle from either power dissipation, thermal difference from
diode and outside air, operating temperature or the storage temperature range
F) To maintain a diode you need to be able to control the temperature and heat it experiences.
Excess in heat causes more “holes” in the P-type which allows more current to flow,
increasing the heat and creating a dangerous cycle. This process is called Thermal Runaway
and leads to majority of diodes failures

A) A NPN transistor has 3 sections, the emitter and collector being N-type material and the
base being P-type material. A PNP transistor also has 3 sections but the emitter, base and
collector having opposite material type then the NPN transistor. This kind of transistor can
be made in multiple ways; Point Contact where “cat whiskers” is used to convert the surface
of the material that has been made contact with, Grown Junction Where the junction is
grown in the middle of the material resulting in 3 sections forming, Fused and defused
junction where the emitter and collector are fused onto the base. The base material is also
made very thin and only lightly doped to reduce resistance and allow greater electron flow.
The emitter is also heavily doped while the collector is moderately doped.
B) The NPN and PNP transistor symbols are both very similar with one key difference. There is
an arrow on the symbol that either faces in towards the emitter or away from it. If the arrow
is point in towards the emitter it is a PNP transistor and if it is not point in the transistor is a
NPN. From the arrow direction we also know what material the emitter, base and collector
are.
C) The operation of a transistor is to create it into an amplifier. For this to happen a NPN
transistor needs to be placed into a circuit in a specific way. The emitter of the NPN
transistor is N-type and needs to be linked towards the negative terminal of a battery. The
base of the transistor is P-type and needs to be linked to the positive terminal of a battery.
The collector of the NPN is also N-type but is linked to the positive terminal of a battery. 2
circuits are made that will influence each other, a forward-bias circuit between the emitter
and base and a reverse-bias between the emitter, base and collector. A small current flows
through the forward-bias circuit which is able to amplify the flow of the reverse-bias circuit
 and allows it to flow. This is also partially done by the base region being lightly doped and
have reduced resistance.

There are 3 common “subtractive” methods used in the PCB production system. The first method is
called silk screen, this is the process where a very thin copper sheet is placed onto the substrate and
then any and all excess copper is etched off only leaving tracks of the copper left. The second
method is called photoengraving which is the method of using chemical etching and a photomask
which is computer aided and has all the copper needed for etching plotted. The third method is
called PCB Milling and works similarly to photoengraving. This machine works on a two or three axial
premises where a technician inputs co-ordinates of x, y and z and the mill will mill away the copper
from the substrate. 3 advantages for surface mounted technology over through-hole is that if a piece
is surface mounted it takes up less space, Automation is more viable with surface mounted
technology and produces higher manufacture rates and the third advantage is that components can
be a fraction of the size and weight as it is handled by machinery rather than humans.

A) For identifying ESDs a system was put in place of using special decals on the packaging of
ESDs or if certain electrical boxes were prone to being short-circuited by being touched,
special decals were placed next to the connector pins to try warn anyone present and
prevent the ESDs from being destroyed

B) For packaging, protection and transportation there are certain techniques used to keep
components safe and protected. The packaging for devices and card modules are placed into
a specially designed bag as they’re big enough in size to not need to be secured in place or
need physical protection. The material of these bags are carefully designed to be conductive
enough to attract any excess charge from the component but not conductive enough for the
devices to be short-circuited. Spring clips, metal foil or wire are ways of protecting the
connecting pins for components and sometimes they can be placed on conductive foam to
release and charge while protecting the leads and connector from corrosion. For PCBs and
card modules edge connectors or shunts can also be placed on the surrounding edge to
protect against physical damage and any static charge reaching them. Finally for complete
electrical boxes covers or caps of conductive material are placed over the connectors, or if
the material is non-conductive then liquid conducting film is sprayed on the connectors and
the date of treatment needs to be shown as it has a certain life span.

C) To create a static-free work environment all surfaces need to be safe from static charge. This
is done by the work surface being connected to the ground and as well as any stool or chair
the technician is using. Another safety precaution is placing a band around the wrist which is
grounded so any charge on the person will be defused into the ground link. An ionizer can
also be present in the room to stop any random charges, it functions by generating positive
or negative charges and blows the charges air across the work area and technician.

D) Handling of ESDs outside of a special handling area will only be done with installation or
removal of components. For these procedures safety precaution still need to be used and a
technician must wear a grounding wrist band while attempting these procedures to make
sure there is no static charge built up. The technician should remove the component by its
 extractors and immediately place it in a conductive bag and seal it properly according to
design and place a special decal on the outside.

Step 1: Remove tag and electrical power. Step 2: Check the AMM. Step 3: Remove ESDs and do not
touch connector pins or other exposed conductors as damage to the component may occur. Step 4:
Install dust caps on all connectors. Step 5: Carefully transport unit with caps installed. Step 6: Record
all work done and sign the log book.

Section B

A) The Central Processing Unit transforms binary data from other components and transforms
that into programmed instructions.
B) The clock in a computer dictates the speed at which it functions. A computer seems to run
instantaneously but a clock is measured in megahertz or gigahertz, hertz is the measure of
time it takes for a sin wave to do 1 revolution so a clock speed of 1 GHz allows 1,000,000,000
functions per second.
C) Registors are temporary storage for data within the CPU that either needs to be processed
or has already been processed. Unlike a permanent storage unit, data stored in a registor
will be overridden and if the computer is restarted the data will be lost.
D) The Arithemetic Logic Unit (ALU) handles all arithemetic problems with addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division as well as logic problems.

In my opinion fibre optic cables are a better way to transfer data then electrical wire systems.
Advantages of using fibre optic cables is that data travels as the speed of light as the fibre optic
cables using total internal reflection to contain the light within the glass tube within the cable. On
top of the very fast speed different colours can be used as their wavelengths are slightly different
depending on the colour so you can transfer 7 times the amount of data using ROYGBIV colours then
just using 1 light source. Advantages of using electrical wire systems is that it is cheaper to use them
then using fibre optic. Electrical wire systems can be very flexible and bend sharp angles while fibre
optic cables cannot bend past a certain angle as it would disrupt the incident angle of the light and
ruining total internal reflection within the cable.

A) Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) is when you use a single cable to transfer multiple
loads of data using different frequency. This can be done as only waves of the same
frequency will interfere with each other but using FDM the frequency range is divided by a
multiplexing machine to send waves of data with different frequency with the same interval
difference.
B) Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is the process of separating multiple signals into segments
and sending those segments through the data line and the multiplexer that is receiving them
separates the segments and through multiple signals being sent reconstructs segments of
the same original data.
4

There are 3 types of software used on aircraft; Firmware, Operational Software and Databases.
Firmware is a non-volatile memory device which means it acts like a ROM component, Read-only
memory. The memory stored cannot be changed or altered electrically and can only be read. It
also allows data manipulation as well as monitoring and control for the systems hardware. The
second software that can be found on an aircraft is Operational Software (OS) that controls the
Line Replacement Unit (LRU). The storage and design of operational software has changed over
time. It was first designed on a ROM component which meant that if the OS needed to be
changed the ROM unit would need to be removed and replaced. Then OS was installed on an
EEPROM which meant it was able to be Electrically Erased and Programmable so connecting the
unit to a computer would allow you to erase and re-programme the OS. In current events we
have On-Board Replacement Modules (OBRM) that allows quick, easy and secure replacement of
the software.

A) All of the aircraft structure is bonded together to minimize Electromagnetic Interference

(EMI). With all the components being bonded any charge that occurs on the structure can
travel across the aircraft and be discharged by the negative potential.
B) Wires and cables are screened from multiple forms of EMI which include noise, charge and
magnetic interference. Looms of cables are sometimes screened inside a metal sheet that is
bonded to the aircraft if it is in a sensitive area. Cables can be twisted around one another to
stop Magnetic interference too.
C) Static build up can be a huge problem for electronics and the outside of an aircraft
experiences a lot of friction from air resistance and therefore has a lot of static charge. A
design feature that help mitigate the static is static discharges. They’re placed on sharp or
trailing parts of the aircraft like the wing and fin tip.
D) Capacitors are used in places that generate noise to try reduce the amount of noise that is
created. Relays and motors are good examples of where a capacitor could be introduced to
reduce noise levels. Detection of the capacitor failing to do its job can be easy to notice as
noise will be produced if it isn’t working properly.
E) Aerial interference can be caused by the location of 2 aerials being positioned too close
together. This can occur if the wavelength match up or if their frequency is the same. How to
reduce EMI would be to follow the aerial instructions and recommendations provided by the
manufacturer in the manual
F) Engine ignitions produce a lot of noise so in order to stop EMI they are screen completely
from other components. If the screen was to fail audio issues could occur in circuits.