(Last Modified: 04 November 2010 06:11:59 PM )
Welcome to ECE-3220, the second semester Electronics course. Most people find this course very challenging and end up spending a great deal of time on the homework and projects in this course. Part of this is the nature of the material - the course begins with the small signal analysis of multi-transistor circuits and gets progressively more complicated from there. But the amount of time and effort required in this course can be greatly reduced by proper preparation prior to beginning the course.
To this end, the following self-study review of the key elements of prior course work, in particular the first semester Electronics course, has been prepared for your benefit. It is optional, but disregard it at your own risk. By thoroughly reviewing the material and working the problems listed, you should be able to identify areas in which you are weak and you should work to overcome those weaknesses as much as possible before the beginning of the semester.
You need a solid grip of the fundamentals of electronic circuit analysis including, but not by any means limited to, the fundamental characteristics and mathematical models of resistors, capacitors, diodes, bipolar transistors, and field effect transistors. In the latter two cases, be sure you fully understand the differences between the two basic types of transistors within each family, i.e., npn vs. pnp and NMOS vs. PMOS.
Furthermore, you need to be proficient with fundamental circuit analysis using Kirchhoff's Current and Voltage Laws as well as the structured techniques applicable to linear circuits such as Mesh Current Analysis, Node Voltage Analysis and Superposition. Be sure you are comfortable with dealing with controlled sources, particularly voltage- and current-controlled current sources, using these techniques. The technique of Superposition is particularly important since small signal analysis of transistor circuits can best be summarized as the analysis of nonlinear circuits though the careful application of Superposition. You therefore want to be sure that you understand what Superposition is, why it works, and what the necessary conditions are for it to yield valid results.
While Transform Methods will not be a cornerstone of the material covered in this course, you will want to be comfortable with converting review the relationship between s-domain equations and the frequency response characteristics of high-pass, low-pass and band-pass systems.
Thoroughly review the following sections of Sedra &
Smith (4th Ed) and work the associated problems:
|
Chapter 1 |
Sec 1.{4} |
Prob. 1.{15} |
|
Chapter 3 |
Sec 3.{2,4,5} |
Prob. 3.{21,22,26,48,56,70,71} |
|
Chapter 4 |
Sec 4.{2,5,6,7,8,10,11} |
Prob. 4.{4,10,26,29,33,37,45,47,51,63,70,75,84,95} |
|
Chapter 5 |
Sec 5.{2,4,5,6,7} |
Prob. 5.{10,18,41,43,55,56,61,70,75,81} |
This is not a simple, short assignment. While some of the problems only take a few minutes to work, others take considerably longer. Your first homework assignment will include many of these problems. Also be aware that while most of the answers in the back of the book are correct, in a couple of instances this is not the case.