Course overview
This course develops a basic understanding of the fundamentals and principles of analog and digital circuits and electronic devices. This understanding is a critical step towards being able to design new electronic circuits or use them appropriately as part of a larger engineering system. Hence the course seeks to develop foundational concepts and skills, but does so through a series of application-oriented topics such as the design of DC power supplies, speed control of electric motors, audio amplification and simple digital control. Learning opportunities include: online presentations with integrated practice exercises; tutorials in which small teams work together to explore, discuss, analyse and explain electronic circuits; and practicals in which theory is put to practical application. Important topics covered include: the key electrical variables and the application of fundamental circuit laws and theorems to DC and AC resistive circuits; power supply applications of diodes and switch-mode transistors; the operating principles of DC, induction and synchronous machines; analysis of simple operational and single-MOSET amplifiers; Boolean logic and binary arithmetic; and combinational and sequential logic circuits. The course is designed to be a broad introduction to electronic systems for students from diverse engineering disciplines. Completing the course will provide the necessary foundation to understand the role, capabilities and constraints of electronics in contemporary engineering systems.
Course learning outcomes
- Apply circuit laws and theorems to predict the steady state behaviour of simple linear DC circuits
- Use piecewise linear models to predict the steady state behaviour of simple diode and transistor circuits, AC and DC motors
- Explain the transient behaviour of RLC circuits with reference to their differential equations
- Simulate simple analog circuits to verify their behaviour
- Explain the operation of circuits using transistors in switching mode to achieve a variable DC output
- Demonstrate practical skills in the simulation, construction and testing of simple electrical and electronic circuits
- Analyse and design simple digital systems based on combinational logic, state machine and programmed microcontroller approaches