Main Page
Welcome to the wiki page for the course PC5271: Physics of Sensors!
This is the repository where projects are documented. Creation of new accounts have now been blocked,and editing/creating pages is enabled. If you need an account, please contact Christian.
Projects
Project 1 (Example)
Keep a very brief description of a project or even a suggestion here, and perhaps the names of the team members, or who to contact if there is interest to join. Once the project has stabilized, keep stuff in the project page linked by the headline.
Laser Gyroscope
Team members: Darren Koh, Chiew Wen Xin
Build a laser interferometer to detect rotation.
Laser Distance Measurer
Team members: Arya Chowdhury, Liu Sijin, Jonathan Wong
Description: To build a device that uses lasers to measure distances.
Alcohol Concentration Measurement
Team members: Lim Gin Joe,Sun Weijia, Yan Chengrui, Zhu Junyi
This project aims to build a sensor to measure the concentration of alcohol by optical method
Ultrasonic Acoustic Remote Sensing
Team member(s): Chua Rui Ming
How well can we use sound waves to survey the environment?
Blood Oxygen Sensor
Team members: He Lingzi, Zhao Lubo, Zhang Ruoxi, Xu Yintong
This project aims to build a sensor to detect the oxygen concentration in the blood.
Terahertz Electromagnetic Wave Detection
Team members: Shizhuo Luo
This project aims to detect Terahertz waves, especially terahertz pulses (This is because they are intense and controllable). We may try different ways like electro-optical sampling and VO2 detectors.
Air contaminant measurement with interferometry
Team member(s): Ta Na, Cao Yuan
This project aims to make use of the change in refractive index, hence different path length, due to different contaminants present in the air.
Resources
Books and links
- A good textbook on the Physics of Sensors is Jacob Fraden: Handbook of Mondern Sensors, Springer, ISBN 978-3-319-19302-1 or doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19303-8. There shoud be an e-book available through the NUS library at https://linc.nus.edu.sg/record=b3554643
Software
- Various Python extensions. Python is a very powerful free programming language that runs on just about any computer platform. It is open source and completely free.
- Gnuplot: A free and very mature data display tool that works on just about any platform used that produces excellent publication-grade eps and pdf figures. Can be also used in scripts. Open source and completely free.
- Matlab: Very common, good toolset also for formal mathematics, good graphics. Expensive. We may have a site license, but I am not sure how painful it is for us to get a license for this course. Ask if interested.
- Mathematica: More common among theroetical physicists, very good in formal maths, now with better numerics. Graphs are ok but can be a pain to make looking good. As with Matlab, we do have a campus license. Ask if interested.
Apps
Common mobile phones these days are equipped with an amazing toolchest of sensors. There are a few apps that allow you to access them directly, and turn your phone into a powerful sensor. Here some suggestions:
- Physics Toolbox sensor suite on Google play store or Apple App store.
Data sheets
A number of components might be useful for several groups. Some common data sheets are here:
- Generic Silicon pin Photodiode type BPW34
- Thermistor type B57861S (R0=10kΩ, B=3988Kelvin). Search for Steinhart-Hart equation. See Thermistor page here as well.
- Resistor color codes are explained here
Some wiki reference materials
Old Wiki
You can find entries to the wiki from AY2023/24 Sem 2
