Course overview
This course covers the fundamental principles of analog and digital circuits and electronic devices. This knowledge is critical for students needing to work on or with electrical systems within larger engineering systems. The course seeks to develop foundational concepts and skills and complements the material with a series of application-oriented topics relevant to defence industries. Important topics covered include: the key electrical variables and the application of fundamental circuit laws and theorems to DC and AC circuits; power supply applications of diodes and switch-mode transistors; the operating principles of DC, induction and synchronous machines; analysis of simple operational amplifiers; Boolean logic and binary arithmetic; combinational and sequential circuits; and simple microcontroller programming.
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
- 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
- Design simple digital systems based on combinational logic, state machine and programmed microcontroller approaches