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List Lab Section, Bench Number, and Experiment, e.g. EE 346-03,Experiment 3 (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <
First A. Author, Member, IEEE, Second B. Author, Jr., and David Braun, Senior Member, IEEE
How to PrepareEE 346 Lab Reports
First Author’s Abstract—Use these guidelines to prepareCal Poly lab reports based on author instructions for IEEE TRANSACTIONS and JOURNALS.This work describes required lab report content and provides procedures for preparing and submitting lab reports.This document provides atemplate for lab reports to teach students how to document their experimental work, analysis, and learning in a manner conducive of the quality required by the IEEE in its professional JOURNALS and TRANSACTIONS. This documentappears online at . It derives from the original version at with the authors’ commentary interspersed into the original directions.
Second Author’s Abstract—Use this document as a template, if you use Microsoft Word. Otherwise, use this document as an instruction set. Define all symbols used in the abstract. Do not cite references in the abstract. Do not delete the blank line immediately above the abstract; it sets the footnote at the bottom of this column.
Index Terms—Circuit modeling, integrated circuits, professional communication, semiconductor device modeling, semiconductor devices,writing. About four key words or phrases in alphabetical order, separated by commas. The list at provides suggested keywords.
I.INTRODUCTION and LEARNING OBJECTIVES
T
HISsection provides context for the experiment, defines the experimental topics, and explains the learning objectives.Write this section before class.
Cal Poly EE laboratory courses typically prepare students to meet at least ABET outcomes 3a, 3b, 3c, 3e, 3g, and 3k:
(a) an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering
(b) an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data
(c) an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability
(e) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems
(g) an ability to communicate effectively
(k) an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice[1].
The above outcomes and more specific course goals listed in the course syllabus or lab manual provide context for what the course teaches.Your report should demonstrate you have learned the above abilities.
II.Sustainability Issues
Use this section to analyze sustainability issues associated directly or indirectly with your experiment. Sustainability describesa condition in which natural systems and social systems survive and thrive together indefinitely [2]. A sustainable condition allows people to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [3]. Because humanity now consumes and pollutes the Earth’s resources faster than natural and human systems can replenish and clean them, we do not currently live in a sustainable manner [4]. It might prove helpful to consider Commoner’s laws of ecology, which sound unsurprisingly similar to laws of physics:
Everything connects to everything else
Everything must go somewhere
Nature knows best and bats last
There is no such thing as a free lunch[5].
Explain how experiment topics or applications related to the experiment contribute to or prevent sustainability [6]. Reference [7] and others on PolyLearn provide helpful information. Consider issues related to Energy, Environment, Economics, and social or political Equity, four “E”s of sustainability.
III.Proceduresand Data
With a copy of the Lab Manual and your report, the reader should know exactly what you did, how you did it, and what results you obtained. Provide clear and careful explanations of all KEY issues.Answer all how and why questions.
Each report should contain the items shown in Table I. Sectionsin this paper provides rough guidelines about the contents of each section of the lab report. Title, Author, Abstract, Index Terms, Appendix, Acknowledgement, and References sections should follow the guidelines listed on the first and last pages of this paper.
A.Data
Did the results agree with expectations? Did you encounter any problems? Quantity does not necessarily equal quality, so stay concise.Use your course lab manual as a starting point. If you follow the lab manual procedure exactly, write so, and do not copy and paste the lab manual. Do explain carefully how any procedure you use differs from the lab manual.
Please record relevant data clearly, present results accurately, note numerical values, and generally document how you performed all tasks requested in the Lab Manual.Report data using appropriate units, the appropriate number of significant figures, and error bars.Annotate all plots and tables clearly. You may write annotations and some labels by hand to improve clarity or your efficiency. You may sketch figures by hand to improve clarity and save time. Please type figure captions and table captions.
Label signals, data, axes, units, and don't assume that your audience can read your mind. Axis labels belong outside the plot area, usually along the left side and across the bottom. Organize data using good judgment and the procedural outline of the experiment. If it proves clearer and more concise to present data in another section of the report, such as section IV Calculations and Graphs or in an Appendix, leave a roadmap for your reader in this section III.A Data.For oscilloscope traces, align signal grounds with scope gridlines on screen.
B.Troubleshooting
Document any troubleshooting completely, both in your lab notebook and in this section of your lab report. If something goes wrong, explain your methodical approach to resolving the problem. Document hypotheses developed to explain any difficulties, explain how you tested each hypothesis, and document any fixes implemented.
When you open IEEE-EE346-Reports.doc, select “Page Layout” from the “View” menu in the menu bar (View | Page Layout), which makes the footnotes visible. Then, type over sections of IEEE-EE346-Reports.doc or cut and paste from another document and use markup styles via the pull-down style menu to the left of the Formatting Toolbar at the top of your Word window (for example, this point in the document uses the “Text” style). Highlight a section you want to designate with a certain style, then select the appropriate name on the style menu. The style adjusts your fonts and line spacing. Do not change the font sizes or line spacing to squeeze more text into a limited number of pages. Use italics for emphasis; do not underline.
To insert images in Word, position the cursor at the insertion point and either use Insert | Picture | From File or copy the image to the Windows clipboard and then Edit | Paste Special | Picture (with “float over text” unchecked). Problems may arise. If figures in the document cover text or figures they shouldn’t, text or figures seem to disappear, or they leap around the page or from page to page in an unusual manner. This document places figures and tables inside Text Boxes, which use the Square Wrapping Style to avoid covering text. MicrosoftWord associates an Anchor with the Text Box to link the Text Box with specific text. If editing the document moves the Anchor, the text box containing the figure or table may move also. Moving the Text Box or its Anchor can resolve the problem.
To minimize text formatting hassles, such as jumping figures, it might help to collect data, figures, figure captions, commentary, notes, and observations in a separate, relatively unformatted file. Later, cut and paste into your report.
If the figure formatting causes you too much grief, consider placing figures and captions in an appendix to the report, using either one or two column format. Do not use this cop-out for final project reports. Insert figures and captions in the appropriate sections of the report inline with the two column format unless they more properly belong in an appendix.
IV.Calculations and Graphs
Complete all calculations and graphs during the lab session. Doing so increases the odds of recognizing and repairing problematic results during class before you have unwired the circuit under test. It also permits you to measure more data points, in case an earlier data set proves too sparse.
Label signals, data, axes, units, and don't assume that your audience can read your mind. The previous sentence appears three times on this page, because many students encounter difficulties with this aspect of presenting data clearly. Label signals, data, axes, units, and don't assume that your audience can read your mind. Axis labels belong outside the plot area, usually along the left side and across the bottom. Report results using appropriate units, the appropriate number of significant figures, and error bars.[1]
A.Figures and Tables
Position figures and tables at the top or bottom of a column. Place figure captions below the figures; place table titles above the tables. If your figure has two parts, include the labels “(a)” and “(b)” as part of the artwork. Please verify that the figures and tables you mention in the text actually exist. Do not put borders around the outside of your figures. Use the abbreviation “Fig.” even at the beginning of a sentence. Do not abbreviate “Table.” Number Tables with Roman numerals.
Figure axis labels often provide a source of confusion. Use words rather than symbols. As an example, write the quantity “Output Voltage,” or “Output VoltageVOUT,” not just “V.” Put units in parentheses. Do not label axes only with units. As in Fig. 1, for example, write “Output Voltage (V)” not just “V.” Do not label axes with a ratio of quantities and units. For example, write “Temperature (K),” not “Temperature/K.”
Multipliers can create great confusion. Write “Current Density (kA/cm2)” or “Current Density (103 A·cm-2).” Do not write “Current Density (A/cm2) 1000” because the reader would not know whether the axis label meant 16000 A/cm2 or 0.016 A/cm2. Make figure labels legible, approximately 8 to 12 point type.
Refer to all figures and tables in the text. Each plot and table requires a caption and number. As an example, Fig. 1 shows how the Output Voltage, VOUT, of the NMOS inverter in Fig. 2 decreases with increasing Input Voltage, VIN.Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 also illustrate IEEE figure and graph formatting. Table III compares predicted circuit parameter values with measured values and illustrates IEEE table formatting.
B.Sizing Graphics
Most charts graphs and tables use one column width (3 1/2 inches or 21 picas) or two-column width (7 1/16 inches, 43 picas wide).
V.Post-Lab Questions
Answer the required post-lab questions. Some lab manuals hide post-lab questions in sneaky places so read carefully.
VI.Compare Experimental Results with Pre-lab
Compare results with predicted and simulated values. Explainsimilarities and differences clearly, specifically, and quantitatively. Answer all how and why questions.
A.Analysis and Theory
Experimental results, data, and observations may agree with analysis and theory. Explain how and why. Pay most attention to theory learned from course textbooks, lab manuals, lectures, and pre-lab questions. Also, consider the previous sentence a strong hint about references to include.
B.Data
Experimental results, data, and observations may agree or disagree with pre-lab data or information in manufacturers’ data sheets. Explain how and why. For example, the measured resistor values in Table III could differ from the predicted values due to manufacturing tolerances.
C.Simulations
Experimental results, data, and observations may agree with simulations you performed before, during, or after a lab session. Explain how and why. Each PSpice simulation should show input decks (Table II), clearly-annotated output plots which you may label by hand (Fig. 1), and a circuit diagram with node numbers labeled (Fig. 2). Include your name in the first comment line of the .cir file.
Fig. 1 shows the voltage transfer curves for the NMOS inverter in Fig. 2 based on the input deck in Table II. The experimental characteristics and the PSpice simulations have roughly the same shapes, but the PSpice simulations do not coincide with the measured data. One possible explanation derives from the difference in real and measured resistor values.
Please prevent artificial kinks in transient simulation results due to not specifying the maximum time step PSpice uses in the calculations. To specify a smaller max_step, use the .TRAN statement:
.TRAN print_stepfinal_time (results_delay) (max_step)
For example: .TRAN 20p 40n 0 10p
Use the last two parameters to specify a max_step no greater than the smaller of final_time/1000 or (rise or fall time)/10.
VII.Quality Writing
If you wish, you may write in the first person singular or plural. Use the active voice (“I observed that ...” or “We observed that ...” instead of “It was observed that ...”). Remember to check spelling and grammar.
A.Prefer the Active Voice
The previous paragraph appears in the original IEEE document. It emphasizes the need to write clear, concise, descriptive lab reports. Consequently, avoid employing the passive voice in your writing. Instead, use the active voice. Table IV provides example sentences in the active voice.
If you employ the passive voice in any sentence in a lab report you turn in, please accompany it with a footnote that indicates you did so intentionally. Otherwise, I assume you did not consider whether or not to employ the active voice.
In order to avoid the passive voice, employ a variety of verbs. Using forms of the verb "to be" often leads to passive voice sentences. Many other verbs exist. Use them to improve clarity and to convey more informative thoughts. To makeone easy fix for the excessive passive voice, look for instances of "is VERBed" and eliminate the "is." For example, "is changed" becomes "changes"; "is increased" becomes "increases"; "is observed" becomes "occurs"; "were observed" becomes "occur"; "was lowered" becomes "drops" or "decreases"; etc.
Also, other fixes involve eliminating "is observed, was observed, and were observed" for example, "is observed to increase" becomes "increases."
B.Use the Paramedic Method.
For a nice checklist to improve writing, consider the Paramedic Method, by UCLA Professor Richard Lanham [8]. Watch the PolyLearn Videos and employ the MS Word macro. As a nice last step to this method, read your writing aloud to catch spelling, grammar, and logic errors.
Consider a quote from Jack Kilby's Nobel Prize lecture [9]: “T.R Reid has pointed out that building a circuit is like building a sentence. There are certain standard components—nouns, verbs and adjectives in a sentence, and resistors, capacitors, transistors and diodes in a circuit. Each has its own function. By connecting the components in different ways, you can get sentences, or circuits, that perform in different ways.”
VIII.Common Writing Mistakes To Avoid
The word “data” is plural, not singular. Use the word “micrometer” instead of “micron.” A graph within a graph is an “inset,” not an “insert.” Prefer the word “alternatively” to the word “alternately” (unless you really mean something that alternates). Use the word “whereas” instead of “while” (unless referring to simultaneous events). Do not use the word“essentially” to mean “approximately” or “effectively.” Do not use the word “issue” as a euphemism for “problem.” For unspecified compositions, separate chemical symbols by en-dashes; for example, “NiMn” indicates the intermetallic compound Ni0.5Mn0.5 whereas “Ni–Mn” indicates an alloy of some composition NixMn1-x.
Distinguish differenthomophone meanings: “affect” (usually a verb) and “effect” (usually a noun), “complement” and “compliment,” “discreet” and “discrete,” “principal” (e.g., “principal investigator”) and “principle” (e.g., “principle of measurement”). Do not confuse “imply” and “infer.”
Prefixes such as “non,” “sub,” “micro,” “multi,” and “ultra” are not independent words; they should join to the words they modify, usually without a hyphen. No period follows the “et” in the Latin abbreviation “et al.” (also italicize it). The abbreviation “i.e.,” means “that is,” and the abbreviation “e.g.,” means “for example” (do not italicize these abbreviations).
A general IEEE style guide, the original inspiration for this paper, Template and Instructions on How to Create Your Paper, andInformation for Authorsappear at excellent style manual and source of information for science writers is [11].
IX.More Helpful Hints
A.References
Provide references for any information sources used to complete an experiment, such as required reading indicated by the lab manual and data sheets [12]–[14].
Number citations consecutively in square brackets [15]. The sentence punctuation follows the brackets [16]. Multiple references [16], [17] each have separately numbered brackets [15]–[17]. When citing a section in a book, please give the relevant page numbers [16]. In sentences, refer simply to the reference number, as in [17]. Do not use “Ref. [17]” or “reference [17]” except at the beginning of a sentence: “Reference [17] shows ... .”
Number footnotes separately in superscripts (Insert | Footnote).[2] Place the actual footnote at the bottom of the column containing the citation; do not put footnotes in the reference list. Use letters for table footnotes (see Table III).