Kelaniya University students invent IC tester

Universities can play an important role as a source of fundamental knowledge promoting industrially relevant technology. In modern knowledge-based economies, research and development should be an integral part of the university curricular.

In recognition of this fact, governments throughout the industrialised world have launched numerous initiatives since the 1970's to link universities to industrial innovation more closely.

Many of these initiatives seek to spur local economic development based on university research, such as creating 'science parks' close to research university campuses, support for 'business incubators', public 'seed capital' funds and the organisation of other forms of bridging institutions that link universities to industrial innovation.

Developed countries such as the USA have recognised this and initiatives such as the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, that is widely credited with improving university-industry collaboration and technology transfer in the US national innovation system is in operation.

This Act gives universities, small businesses and non-profit institutions to pursue ownership of an invention in preference to the government.

Sri Lankan universities too carry out research and some of their inventions have the capacity of commercial production and have market value.

The Department of Physics of the University of Kelaniya now present a range of electronic products invented by students through their research projects in their degree programs.

Senior lecturer (Electronics), of the Department of Physics, N.W.K Jayatissa said that there were a number of electronic devices that can be commercially produced and supplied at competitive prices and compared well or even better with imported equivalents.

The Logic Gate Tester invented by four students in the electronic media, T.B.Arambepola, C.P.Buwanekabahu, K.P.Lankathilaka and S.M.Wijesundara, is one such apparatus used in electronic laboratories, electronic devices repair centres and the electronic industry. This user- friendly apparatus can test TTL 74XX, CMOS 40XX series digital integrated circuits (ICs) and 14 pins ICs. This small portable light weight device can be used with 9V batteries or powered with a 9V external DC adapter.

This invention was focused to make electronic experiments much easier.

Normally different hardware circuits are used to test different ICs and there is no single equipment to test ICs.

This tester can test Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) and Transistor Transistor Logic (TTL). It can test ICs gate by gate and it is reliable, Jayatissa said. He said that the equipment used to test ICs were expensive, while this device is affordable and was user-friendly. Students were motivated to invent this apparatus because of the practical issues they faced at electronic laboratories.

The Logic Gate Tester contains an LCD panel to display results and a keyboard to enter IC numbers. At the beginning of the test it displays the gate species included in the IC, then the number of gates in the IC and finally checks and displays whether the gates are working or not.

Jayatissa said that with new initiatives by the Government such as EDCON for business promotion and Window 4 of the Item Commercialisation Grant funded by the World Bank, the University can commercially produce these products.

GW