Week #5: Zener Diodes, LEDs & Laser Diodes

[rjagodowski]

We will spend a bit of time reviewing Zener Diodes and their applications from last week's lecture. A data sheet pdf has been attached here for the 1N47xx zener diode family from Vishay.

1n47xx Zener Diode DataSheet.pdf

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We will then discuss Light Emitting Diodes. Here's additional information on LEDs from adafurit.com and Wikipedia. Both have very good practical and technical information about LEDs.

Fundamentals of Lasers

Wikipedia on Laser Diodes

Here is an example of a laser materials processing machine (lathe) manufactured Meribeni Citizen-Cincom. Currently a couple of our recent grads work at their facility in Agawam. This uses a fiber laser, NOT a laser diode. The fiber laser is much more powerful than a laser diode. By the way, the fiber laser is made by IPG Photonics in Oxford, MA. Several of our former grads work (or have worked) there. We will discuss more about lasers in the EET-255 Advanced Topics in EET/Automation class in the fourth semester.

A reminder that we will miss Tuesday (10/11) lecture due to the Columbus Day Observance. Classes are cancelled on Monday, 10/10 and Tuesday (10/11) follows a Monday schedule for day & evening classes.

This week's lab can be found here. Printed copies will be provided to you on Tuesday.