Circuits and Electronics

(2-0-0-2)

CMPE Degree: This course is N/A for the CMPE degree.

EE Degree: This course is N/A for the EE degree.

Lab Hours: 0 supervised lab hours and 0 unsupervised lab hours.

Technical Interest Groups / Course Categories: Courses for non-ECE majors

Course Coordinator: Michael E West

Prerequisites: PHYS 2212 [min D, with concurrency] or PHYS 2232 [min D, with concurrency]

Catalog Description

An introduction to electric circuit elements and electronic devices and a study of circuits containing such devices.

Textbook(s)

Circuits, myDAQ

Course Outcomes

Determine voltages and currents in a resistive network. 

Sketch the transient response of RC and RL circuits and be familiar with the standard transient responses of RLC circuits. 

Use complex phasors to determine the steady-state responses of sinusoidal sources voltages or currents.

Understand and analyze the frequency response characteristics of filters. 

Analyze power characteristics in reactive circuits. 

Build and test real circuits containing RLC components, op amps, diodes, and transistors. 

Design and build simple filters, rectifiers, and amplifiers.

Strategic Performance Indicators (SPIs)

N/A

Topic List

  1. Resistive Circuits (3.5 weeks)
    1. Components
    2. Ohm's Law
    3. Resistors in parallel, series
    4. Kirchhoff's Current and Voltage Laws
    5. Voltage divider and current divider laws
    6. Thevenin Equivalent Circuits
    7. Superposition
  2. Reactive Circuits (1.5 weeks)
    1. Inductors and Capacitors
    2. Parallel and series connections of inductors and capacitors
    3. Transient Analysis of First-Order circuits
  3. Frequency Analysis of Circuits (2.5 weeks)
    1. Steady-state sinusoidal analysis and impedance
    2. Transfer function
    3. Bode plots
    4. Filtering
  4. Power in AC Circuits (1 week)
    1. Real, reactive, and apparent power
    2. Power factor
  5. Fundamental Devices in Electronics (2.5 weeks)
    1. Ideal diodes
    2. Simple piecewise linear model of diode
    3. MOS Field-Effect Transistors, Logic Gates, and Digital Circuits
    4. Operational Amplifiers
  6. Electronic Applications (3.5 weeks)
    1. Rectifiers
    2. Amplifiers
    3. Active Filters

Students will perform hands-on activities using data acquisition boards. Some of these activities include exploration of RC and RLC circuits, op amp circuits, filters, and physically-motivated applications of electronic circuits.