A reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on Operational Amplifiers

Abstract

Teaching and learning Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps) in electronic engineering courses is a requirement, since they are a type of integrated circuit widely used for implementing simple or complex circuits. As a contribution to improve the way this integrated circuit is included in electronic engineering courses’ curricula, it was designed and implemented a reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on the OpAmp uA741. Able to run in a PC, the kit comprises a software application locally interfaced with a hardware platform. This platform includes a circuit with the OpAmp uA741 able to be reconfigured according to a set of parameters defined by a software application. Besides the reconfiguration capability provided by this kit, it also enables the establishment of automatic connections for measuring or applying signals to a reconfigured circuit, plus the ability to simulate the same or other OpAmp-based circuits. This paper provides an overview about the OpAmp uA741 and about its relevance in engineering education. Features and functionalities provided by the kit is described. At the end, supported by a technical demonstration of the kit in an international conference, some teachers’ opinions about their perceptions concerning its adoption in a real educational scenario are presented.