COURSES TAUGHT

Syllabus of courses

Optical Communications
(2nd semester, 4th year of Engineering curriculum)

Optical fibers: multi and single-mode, structures and types, propagation and parameters, windows, spectral attenuation, dispersion (multimode, guide, material, polarization). Standard, dispersion-shifted, flattened, and NZD fibers. HiBi and spun fibers. Optical fiber components: couplers, polarizers/retarders, isolators, circulators, filters, AWGs, Bragg gratings. All-fiber vs. m-optics and integrated optics technologies, lithium niobate, silica on silicon.
Sources and detectors for TLC: LED/lasers, pin/APD's. FP and DFB lasers. Pigtailing of lasers. Design and performances of front-ends for photodetectors. Design of point-to-point communication links. The electrical repeater (RX/TX). Design of PON for MAN/LANs.
Optical amplifiers. EDFA: dopes fibers, pump-diode lasers, small-signal gain, saturation, and noise analysis. SOAs. Cascading amplifiers and fibers (all-optical regeneration). DWDM techniques. Solitons. Measurements on fibers and optoelectronic components.
Textbooks: "Photodetectors" by S.Donati, Prentice-Hall 1999; lecture
notebooks: "Optical Fibers" by S.Donati, CUEP 1997
Testi dei problemi d'esame: Opto I dom/esame
 Student group photos

Optoelectronic Instrumentation
(2nd semester, 5th year of Engineering curriculum)

Overview. Alignment systems, laser level, pointing and tracking. Diameter sensors by diffraction. Granulometry. Telemetry with pulse laser sources and modulated CW sources for topography and geodesy. Analysis of noise and timing accuracy. Laser interferometry for mechanical metrology. Profilometry. Injection Interferometry. Vibrometry. Testing of large structures. Doppler velocimetry. Speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI).
Optical fiber sensors: intensity, polarization and interferometric. Strain, temperature, electrical (V/I) and chemical OFS.
The Zeeman gyroscope for avionics and the optical fiber gyroscope (FOG). Applications to navigation systems and attitude control.
Textbooks:  "Electro-Optical Instrumentation" by S.Donati, Prentice Hall 2004
Errata Corrige

Testi dei problemi d'esame: Opto II dom/esame
 

Photodetectors
(2nd semester, 5th year of Engineering curriculum)

Detectors. The photodetection processes. Direct and coherent detection. Spectral sensitivity, threshold of photoemission. Regimes of thermal- and quantum-limited photodetection. Figures of merit of detectors. Photocathodes. Photomultipliers: types, biassing, gain and dark current, the SER response, noise in energy and light-pulse measurements, accuracy of timing, counting mode. Semiconductor photodiodes: parameters and design. Junction engineering. Low-noise design of front-end amplifiers for photodiodes. The APD's: materials, ionization ratio, multiplication gain, bandwidth and noise analysis.
Other semiconductor photodetectors: photoresistors, infrared detectors for MIR, FIR and EIR. Responsivity and detectivity. Thermal detectors with application to thermovision.
Image devices: vidicon, intensified vidicons, CCD's. Charge transfer and readout organizations; noise Image intensifiers, X-ray converters, streak cameras. Advanced topics: injection detection, squeezed state, parametric and QND detection, optically preamplified detection.
Textbooks: "Photodetectors" by S.Donati, Prentice-Hall 1999.
Solved Problems to download
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Note: Viewgraphs are intended for Professors holding a University course
Testi dei problemi d'esame: Opto II dom/esame
  Student group photos

Electronic Materials and Technologies
(2nd semester, 3th year of Engineering curriculum)

Passive components: resistances, capacitors and inductances/transformers, performance and comparison between different types available. Trends: THD versus SMD devices. Piezoelectric materials, theory of piezoelectricity. Quartz resonators. Electro- and magneto-strictive devices and transducers. SAW devices and applications as filters.
Printed circuit boards. Production of laminates. Double face PCBs with metallized holes, multilayers, volumetric PCBs.
Interconnection techniques: soldering, wave-soldering, reflow soldering; photoresists. Cold interconnections. Physics of the contact, resistance vs force and critical temperature.
Hybrid thick-film and thin-film circuits. Patterning and photolithography. IC technologies, custom and ASICs. Reliability (theory), failure rate, fits. Parallel and series reliability. Estimate of reliability from standards data (MIL217C). Packaging of devices. Polymers and ceramic materials in electronics.
Textbooks: lecture notes on "Electronics Materials and Technology" by S.Donati and G.Torelli
 

Electronic Circuits Design
(Laboratory course, 2nd semester, 4th year of Engineering curriculum)

Laboratory instruments and their use: oscilloscope multimeter, waveform generator. RC and CR response. Op-Amp characterization measurements. Elementary circuits with Op-Amps: summer, follower, differentiator/integrator, clamping, clipping precision rectifier, log-converter.
Logic gates (TTL, CMOS, ECL) and their use. Bistable multi and counters. Oscillators. Quartz oscillators with BJT and gates. Multivibrators, mono and multi, with transistors schemes and logic gates. A/D and D/A converters. High-frequency amplifiers. One circuit designed by students, built and tested.