The Engineering Projects

Problems Faced by Students in Final Year Project

Hello Friends! Hope you all are doing great. Today, I am very excited because I am going to share my personal experience of streamlining final year project and what are the main Problems Faced by Students in Final Year Project and how to fix them. An idea of developing final year project proves to be very daunting for some students that can scare the hell out of them. They feel like they need to be very prepared and come with a lot of skills and learning before they get their hands on final year project. There are a lot of myth in designing and developing the final year projects that if we deal and address in reality, can fix a lot of worries and save a bunch of time. Let's dive in and discuss the main problems faced by most of the students during the making and execution of final year projects and how they can fix them in order to stay ahead from their peers and secure good marks.

Problems Faced by Students in Final Year Project

There are a lot of problems students may face during the development of the project. However, right steps and proper measurements taken in the early stages of the project can set a right pathway for developing process. Following are some common problems faced by the final year students during project development.

Group Selection

This is the first step and kind of interesting. Everyone feels insecure and wants to join the group that comes with intelligent students of the class. There are two types of students: 1: who are intelligent and worry which student to select in their group. 2. who want to get enrolled themselves in some group of intelligent students. The worry and hassle of the former group look small as compared to the students who are not very talented, feel insecure and look for the help from students who can streamline the project on their own. The very first thing you need to do is to get rid yourself of the thought that only intelligent and genius students can produce a good result when it comes to developing a final year project. I am honestly sharing my thoughts what I had learned from my personal experience that most of the time average students make a promising project that no one can ever think of. Problem with intelligent students is that they can't think out of the box and are very stringent to their rules and don't like change that makes them confined to a small circle of creativity. My sincere advice is, believe in yourself and don't worry if no one is ready to accept you in their group. Be your own boss. It is preferred to make a group of 2,3 average students instead of banging your head on the walls for not getting included in the group of genius students. If you start with believe and clear vision no one can stop you delivering impeccable results.

No Clarity

Most of the students don't know what they are going to develop and how their final product will look like. They start the project with no clarity and think the project will develop and take its own shape as it proceeds. This the first rule to ruin your journey for developing final year project. You must be clear what you are going to do, break down everything into small steps and make sure every step is properly taken care off that will be executed well and on time. When you have no guidelines in hand, your performance and hard work would be at stake.

Ideal Proposal

I can anticipate the students who are reading this post are quite new and haven't had hands-on experience in making the final year project. I can understand, most of the students when entering the final year, are very excited and want to design something different. They want to stun the whole university by their flawless performance so their name is heard and spoken around where everyone knows these students have some special guts. These are the expectations everyone comes across before the development of the project. And this is a good thing as long as your ideas and expectation are aligned with reality. There is no need to dream too high that makes it very difficult for you to convert your dream into reality. Discuss project proposal with your supervisor that you think is possible and can be executed within time. I had many students in my class who proposed very lengthy and complex projects in the first presentation and what they delivered at the end was only 10% of the work they actually discussed. This is not a good thing and can severely affect the overall reputation of your team.

Selection of Components

When you are done submitting a proposal you can deliver on time, this is where a selection of electronic component comes handy. You need to play special heed in the selection of components because wrong selection can put your whole project at risk. It is advised to start small portion of your project using breadboard where small steps and temporary solution are required. Once you are done troubleshooting your project on the breadboard, now it is time to transfer your project to PCB that gives a permanent and reliable solution. Before you intend to place any component on the PCB board, make sure every component comes with exact features and characteristics as defined by the manufacturer. You can order your PCB from PCBWay. If you are feeling skeptical or have any doubt relating to your project, they will not only guide you but also sponsor your project if you prove to be a good fit for their requirements. This is the best company I have found when it comes to developing your final year project. They have a team of professionals and experts who take an extra mile to help you achieve your final goals. We know that developing projects on your own requires lots of expertise, however, if you make a strong contact with the company like this, you'll be able to manifest your skills and expertise in a right way.

Communication Gap

Make sure to circle your project adviser in a loop and keep him updated with all the problems you face throughout the whole process. Project adviser always comes with more experience and can give you some valuable instructions that can prevent your project struggle big time. Develop a proper communication with your team members and allocate each task to every member based on their skills and expertise. If someone is expert in programming, giving him the task of developing electronic circuits is not a good idea.

Work Delay

It looks like quite a long time between the proposal date and development of the whole project. You may feel relaxed during the process but time flies in the blink of an eye and within no time you will be delivering a final presentation for project submission. If you work daily, you will have a bunch of time for troubleshooting and execution process. Most of the students waste the whole year and become serious when there are only one or two months left before project submission. If you work this way, you'll be left no choice but to outsource your project that makes your learning goes dead before it gets started at first place.

 Risk Management

Decide one thing before you start your project; are you looking to learn new thing out of curiosity or you are just interested in marks? The former thing gives you both learning and marks, but starting the project just for the intention of obtaining marks will provide you no or little help converting your knowledge into designing something practical. Don't be afraid of taking a risk. If you are doing mistakes it means you are learning something new. I'd like to share highly relevant words in this situation by Thomas Edison when he was unable to make one project despite doing 10,000 efforts: "I haven't failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Try new things, go out of your way, come out of your comfort zone if you really want to deliver something special. That's all for today. I have tried my best to give you a valuable solution to each problem. You are most welcome to share your experience of developing final year project. If you are unsure or have any question, you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to help you based on my expertise and knowledge. Thanks for reading the article.

Introduction to NPN Transistor

Hello Friends! I hope you are well. Today, I am going to give you a detailed Introduction to NPN transistor. In this tutorial, we'll look at the NPN transistor, how it works, circuit diagram, output characteristics curve, and applications. It is a bipolar junction transistor mainly used for current amplification and switching purposes. BJTs (Bipolar Junction Transistor) are divided into two types i.e. NPN transistor and PNP transistor. Both transistors are different in terms of their electrical composition and construction, however, both are used for amplification and switching purposes in one way or the other.

What is NPN Transistor?

• NPN transistor is a bipolar junction transistor(BJT), composed of 3 semiconductor layers in a way that one P-doped layer(Base) is sandwiched between two N-doped layers(Emitter & Collector) and is mainly used for current amplification and fast switching.
• In NPN transistors, the majority charge carriers are electrons and thus conduction is carried out by the flow of electrons from emitter to collector.
• NPN transistor package comes with three terminals named:
  1. Emitter.
  2. Base.
  3. Collector.
• These terminals are used for external connection with the circuit and a small current at the base terminal is used to control the large current at the collector and emitter side. (We will cover it in detail in the working section)

Let's have a look at the symbol of NPN transistor:

NPN Transistor Symbol

• As we use logos to represent companies, similarly in electronics, specific symbols are used to represent components. These electronic symbols prove helpful in designing circuit diagrams especially block diagrams of electronic models.
• Below figure shows the NPN transistor's Symbol:

Now let's have a look at the Construction of NPN Transistor:

Construction of NPN Transistor

• NPN transistor consists of 3 regions, two of them are constructed using N-type semiconductor material while the third one is of P-Type Semiconductor.
• The P-type region is sandwiched between these two N-Type regions.
• So hypothetically, NPN Transistor is constructed by connecting two diodes in opposite directions.
• The equivalent circuit of NPN transistor is shown in the below figure:

• An NPN transistor has two P-N junctions in it, named as:
  1. Emitter-Base Junction.
  2. Collector Base Junction.

Doping Concentration in NPN Transistor

• Impurities are added to Intrinsic(Pure) Semiconductors which increase their conductivity and are called Extrinsic(Doped) Semiconductors.
• In NPN transistors, the Base region is heavily doped, the Emitter is lightly doped while Collector's doping lies in between the Base & Emitter.
• So, in terms of doping concentration from high to low, we have the sequence as follow:

Base > Collector > Emitter

• Moreover, the Base region is constructed using P-type semiconductors, while Emitter & Collector are designed using N-type semiconductors.

Now, let's have a look at the working of NPN transistors:

How NPN Transistor Works?

• The NPN transistor comes with two junctions, called:
  1. Emitter-Base Junction.
  2. Collector-Base Junction.
• The NPN transistor sets in operating condition when an emitter-base junction is forward biased and the collector-base junction is reverse biased and enough current is present at the base terminal. In order to make emitter-base junction forward biased, a positive voltage is applied at the base side and a negative voltage is applied at the emitter side.
• Similarly, in order to make emitter-base junction reverse biased, collector voltage must be kept more positive than base and collector.

Circuit Diagram

Following figure shows the circuit diagram of the NPN transistor.

• We can see from the diagram, voltage and resistive loads are applied at the terminals of the transistor.
• A negative voltage is connected to the emitter while a positive voltage is connected to the base terminals.
• The base is more positive with respect to the emitter.
• The resistive load is applied at the base terminal which limits the current produced in this terminal.
• The positive voltage is applied at the collector terminal and load resistance is applied at this terminal that limits the electrons entering at this terminal.

Working

• The base is responsible for initiating transistor action. When a voltage is applied at the base, it gets biased and draws a small current which is then used to control a large current at the collector and emitter side.
• The base action is considered as an ON-OFF valve that generates current when a proper bias voltage is applied at this terminal.
• The small change in the voltage applied at the base terminal shows a large impact on the output terminals. Actually, the base acts as an input and the collector acts as an output in NPN transistor.
• In case of silicon transistor emitter-base junction draws voltage around 0.7 when there is no voltage at the base terminal, in order to initiate the electron action and put the transistor in running condition, the base voltage must be greater than 0.7 voltage in the case of silicon transistor and 0.3 in case of germanium transistor.
• In the N-side of the transistor which represents emitter, the electrons act as the majority charge carriers which are then diffused into the base when a suitable voltage is applied at the base terminal. These electrons act as minority charge carriers when they enter the base terminal, where they join with holes present in the base. Not all electrons join with the holes present at the base terminal. Some of them join with the holes, and the resulting electron-hole pair disappears. Most of the electrons leave the base terminal and then enter the collector region where they again act as a majority charge carriers.
• When a voltage is applied across the base terminal, the base current is given by;

 

• Collector current is directly related to base current times a constant factor.
• In order to increase the efficiency of the NPN transistor, the base is made very thin and a collector is made thick for two reasons i.e collector can handle more heat and accept more electrons diffused through the base terminal.

Current Gains and Relation between Them

• Current gains play an important role in the amplification process. The common emitter current gain is a ratio between collector current and base current. It is called beta and denoted by ß. It is also known as an amplification factor which defines the amount of current being amplified.
• Beta is a ratio between two currents, so it features no unit. The beta value is always greater than unity and ranges between 20 to 1000 - 20 for high power transistors and 1000 for low power transistors, however, most of the time its value is taken as 50.
• Similarly, a common base current gain is another important factor which is a ratio between collector current and emitter current. It is called alpha and denoted by a. An alpha value ranges between 0.95 and 0.99, however, most of the time its value is taken as unity.
• Following figure shows the relation between two current gains.

• IF alpha = 0.99 then b = 0.99/0.01 = 99.
• An alpha value cannot exceed from unity, because it is a ratio between collector current and emitter current i.e emitter current always remains greater than collector current because it exhibits 100% current of the transistor and is equal to the sum of collector current and base current.

NPN Transistor Configurations

• This NPN transistor can be configured into three configurations called common emitter configuration, common collector configuration, and common base configuration.
• Common emitter configuration is mostly used for amplification purpose where base acts as an input, collector acts as an output while emitter acts as a common terminal between input and output.
• This common emitter configuration acts always operates in a linear region where small current at the base side is used to control large current at the collector side.
• The common emitter configuration used in the electronic circuits always produces inverted output that is highly affected by the bias voltage and temperature. This configuration is an ideal choice for ampliation circuits because it comes with high input impedance and low output impedance and produces the exact voltage and power gain required for amplification purpose.
• During common emitter configuration, transistor always operates between saturation and cut-off region that helps in amplifying the negative and positive cycles of the input signals. If the base terminal is not biased with the proper voltage, only half of the signal would be amplified.

Output Characteristics Curve of NPN Transistor

Following figure shows the output characteristic curve of the NPN bipolar transistor which is plotted between output collector current and the collector-emitter voltage with varying base current.

• As described earlier, there will be no output collector current if the applied voltage at the base terminal is zero. When proper bias voltage above 0.7 V, is applied at the base terminal, it gets biased and draws current that controls and effects the output collector current.
• We can see, Vce directly effects the value of output collector current as long as the applied voltage is 1 V. Above that value collector current no longer remains under the influence of Vce value. In that case, the collector current is widely dependent and controlled by the base current. A small change in the base current and bias voltage would produce a large change in the collector current.
• The load resistor applied at the collector terminal controls the amount of current entering the collector terminals. Keeping in the view of the load resistor and the voltage applied at the collector-emitter terminals, the collector current is given by;

• Straight load line between point A and B falls under active region when an emitter-base junction is forward biased and the transistor conducts where electrons are majority charge carriers.
• The Q point in the graph can be defined by the load line which is actually referred as an operating point of the transistor.
• The output characteristics curve of this NPN transistor is used to describe the collector current when base current and collector voltage is given.
• In order to conduct, collector voltage needs to be more positive than base and emitter.
• It is important to note that, when an emitter-base junction is not forward biased, Ic will be zero, no matter how much voltage is applied at the base terminals. When the emitter-base junction is forward biased and voltage is applied at the base terminal, it draws small current which is then used to control large current at other terminals.

Difference between NPN and PNP Transistors

• Both NPN and PNP transistors are different in terms of electrical construction and layers doping. NPN stands for negative-positive-negative and also known as sourcing device. While PNP stands for positive-negative-positive and also known as sinking device.
• In NPN transistor base is positive as compared to emitter and collector voltage is more positive as compared to both emitter and base. Similarly, in PNP transistor base is negative as compared to emitter and emitter voltage is much larger than collector voltage.
• The voltage polarities and current directions are reversed in both transistors.
• The NPN transistor conducts and initiates transistor action when a positive voltage is applied at the base terminal. The PNP transistor conducts when a negative voltage lower 0.7 V (for silicon) than emitter voltage is applied at the base terminal.
• The NPN transistor uses electrons as majority charge carriers for the conduction while PNP transistor uses holes as majority charge carriers for conduction process.
• In NPN transistor current flows from the collector to emitter while in case of PNP transistor current flows from emitter to collector terminal.
• Both transistors differ in terms of how they are powered on. The NPN transistor powers on when there is enough current present at the base terminal while PNP transistor powers on when there is no current at the base terminal.

Now, let's have a look at the applications of NPN transistor:

Applications of NPN Transistor

NPN Transistor is the most commonly used type of transistor because of its wide range of applications. A few of NPN transistor applications are as follows:

• As NPN transistors are fast switching devices, thus they are used for switching purposes i.e. Pulse Width Modulation.
• NPN transistors are also used as automatic switches in electronics products.
• Because of high current gain, NPN transistors are used for current amplification i.e. small current at input allows heavy current to pass at the output(Ic).
• In embedded computers(i.e. microcontrollers, microprocessors etc.), thousands of transistors are joined together(in SMD form) performing different functions i.e. switching of pins.

Real-Life Applications of NPN Transistor

• Used in logarithmic converters and high-frequency applications.
• Signal processing and radio transmission applications involve NPN transistors.
• Darlington pair circuits make use of this NPN transistor for amplifying signals.
• Used in temperature sensor.
• Push-Pull amplifying circuits, which fall under the category of the classic amplifier circuit, make use of this NPN transistor.
• In small quantities, transistors are used to make logic circuits and in the circuits where amplification is required.

That's all for today. I hope you have got clear what is NPN transistor and why it is used for. If you are unsure or have any questions, you can approach me in the comment section below, I'd love to help you according to the best of my expertise and knowledge. Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions, they help us provide you quality content that aligns with your needs and requirements. Thanks for reading the article.