BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Lab 3 Exploring Gain

Home Eau That Smell Lab iTunes Device Lab Picture This Lab What a Colorful World Lab Bioethics Essay Assignment Design Assignment Glossary back to BioBuilder.org

PDF of this page Examining system behavior at different gain values Resistance = 10 MΩ Right now, the OpAmp's output and minus input are connected with a 10 MΩ resistor. What happens to the LED when you power up the circuit? What happens to the LED when you shine the flashlight on the photodiode? Can you get the LED to hold steady at 1/2 its maximal brightness, by moving the flashlight farther away, shading it, etc? A circuit with very tight fully-on-or-fully-off behavior is more "digital", or switch-like, while a circuit where the LED can have a wide middle range of brightness is more "analog", or dial-like. The range of flashlight intensities that can hold the LED half-lit is a measure of the gain or strength of the amplifier. More precisely, the gain is the slope of the LED-output-vs.-photodiode-input line. Because the maximum brightness is the same for every circuit, a high-gain amplifier will cause the LED's brightness to max out even at a low level of input to the photodiode, whereas a low-gain amplifier will cause the LED's brightness to increase slowly before maxing out, as the photodiode input increases. We can tune this gain by changing the value of the gain resistor. 4. Sketch a graph with flashlight intensity on the x-axis and LED light intensity on the y-axis. At infinite resistance in place, is the circuit's behavior better described as a switch or a dial? Resistance = 0Ω Replace the 10MΩ resistor with a wire. What happens to the LED when you power up the circuit? What happens to the LED when you shine the flashlight on the photodiode? Can you get the LED to hold steady at 1/2 its maximal brightness? Add a line for this circuit to your graph. Is this circuit's behavior better described as a switch or a dial? Resistance = infinite Ω Remove the wire connecting the OpAmp's output to its negative input. What happens to the LED when you power up the circuit? What happens to the LED when you shine the flashlight on the photodiode? Can you get the LED to hold steady at 1/2 its maximal brightness? Add one last line to your graph. Is this circuit's behavior better described as a switch or a dial? Discussion How does this relate to the end of the computer simulation exercise, when you tuned the system with sliders? When might you want switch-like behavior in a biological system, and when might you want dial-like behavior? What are some everyday examples of switch-like and dial-like systems? What element or aspect plays the role of "gain" in each one? Navigation BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Lab 1 BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Lab 2 BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Lab 3 BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Lab 4 BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Essay BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Design Assignment BioBuilding: Synthetic Biology for Students: Glossary [back to biobuilder]