Introduction
Introduction EE4109
The MSc course EE4109 ‘Structured Electronic Design’ gives a stepwise approach to the transistor-level design of application-specific amplifiers.
Presentation
The presentation “Structured electronic design EE4109 ” briefly introduces the course and the application of the amplifier that will be designed during this course.
Study
Chapter 1.1, 1.2
Demonstrations
Design task for this course
Application description of the active antenna
Amplification is one of the most important basic electronic information processing functions.
Presentation
The “application description of the active antenna” is the starting point of the structured design process that we will execute in this course.
Literature
Lumped-element model of a dipole antenna
Modeling of transmission lines: Telegrapher’s equations
Setting up the specifications
Object Performance and Object Test Specification
The object performance specification and the object test specification can be defined in SLiCAP. The function ‘printSpecs.m’ is used to display the specifications on an html page.
Presentation
The “specifications of the active antenna” are displayed on an html page.
For those who did not attend EE3C11
Relevant presentations from EE3C11
Below, the relevant presentations from EE3C11
Selected topics from systems engineering
Hierarchical structure of products
Products are usually constructed from sub assemblies and parts. All together these objects form a hierarchical structure, which is called the physical breakdown of a product.
Presentation
The presentation “Hierarchical structure of products”, shows the hierarchical structure of products. The physical breakdown at each hierarchical level needs to be defined during design.
Study
Chapter 1.3.1
Product Life-cycle processes
Stakeholders of life-cycle processes, generally contribute all kinds of product requirements that need to be accounted for.
Presentation
The presentation “Product Life-cycle processes” shows that information for all life-cycle processes needs to be generated during design.
Functions and Objects
It is important to distinguish two essentially different breakdowns of a product: the functional breakdown and the physical breakdown. The functional breakdown shows a hierarchy of functions that the product needs to fulfill. The physical breakdown shows the way in which the product is built up. Both breakdowns can be different and the way of distributing functions over objects is considered an important degree of freedom to the designer.
Presentation
The presentation “Functions and Objects” elucidates these concepts.
Study
Chapter 1.3.1
Basic Design Sequence
Structured design uses a design method that is equal at each hierarchical level of the product design.
Presentation
The presentation “Basic Design Sequence” shows the basic sequence of activities that converts a initial requirement for a physical object, at any hierarchical level, into a physical breakdown of sub-assemblies or parts.
Video
Data and documents
The ‘Object Performance Specification’, the ‘Object Test Specification’ and the ‘Object Design Specification’, together with the ‘Object Design Data’, constitute a consistent set of information at each hierachical level of the design.
Presentation
The presentation “Data and documents” discusses this structure of documents.
Selected topics from information processing
Information Processing: Definitions
In structured electronics design, we consider electronic products as information processing systems.
Presentation
The presentation “Information processing: definitions ” gives the definitions of some basic terms used in information processing.
Video
Information processing, definitions (4:19)
Study
Chapter 1.1, 1.2
Shannon: Channel Capacity
The expression for the channel capacity (Shannon 1948) shows us that there are three fundamental limits to the amount of information that can be processed by any real-world system:
Presentation
The presentation “Shannon: Channel Capacity” briefly elucidates this.
Video
Fundamental physical limits to information processing (3:45)
Basic Functions
Although not scientifically proven, we assume that the functional breakdown of information processing systems can be made with a limited number of basic functions. Some of those functions have a one-to-one mapping on basic electronic functions. A group of other basic information processing functions maps on a group of electronic functions.
Taking a limited number of functions as starting point for a design, rather than an almost infinite number of known circuits, is one of the keys of structured electronic design.
All these basic electronic information processing and reference functions have associeted objects, which strongly facilitates orthogonal design.
Presentation
The presentation “Basic Functions” shows basic information processing and reference functions and maps those functions on electronic information processing and reference functions.
Study
Chapter 1.3.2
Error Reduction Techniques
Essential physical and technological limitations may impose unacceptable limits to the quality of information processing of relatively simple implementations of basic functions. On the other hand, economical contraints set limits to the total costs of a possibly more complex design solution. A limited number of error reduction techniques help us to optimize the performan-to-costs ratio of a solution.
Such a limited number of error reduction techniques of which their error reduction capabilities can be clearly be defined, is another key characteristic of structured electronic design.
Presentation
The presentation “Error Reduction Techniques” lists these techniques and briefly discusses their error-reduction capabilities.
Study
Chapter 1.3.2
Electronics Design Sequence
Presentation
The presentation “Electronics Design Sequence” illustrates the use of basic functions and error reduction techniques in the basic design sequency.
Video
Characterization of amplifiers
The amplification function
Amplification is one of the most important basic electronic information processing functions.
Presentation
The presentation “Amplification” gives a definition of the amplification function and elucidates the amplification mechanism.
Video
The amplification Function (3:35)
Study
Chapter 2.1
Amplifiers: performance measures, cost factors and figure of merit
During the design it is important to have some figure of merit for design solutions. Comparison of the figure of merit of different solutions is the basis for taking properly motivated design decisions.
Presentation
The presentation “Amplifers, performance measures and cost factors” gives a general performance measures and costs factors for amplifiers en proposes a figure of merit that can be used throughout the design process.
Video
Performance measures and cost factors (3:38)
Study
Chapter 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.1.5, 2.1.6
Amplifiers: types
Electronic amplifiers are often used to interface with sensors and actuators. The nature of the input signal of the sensor or the output signal of an actuator, and the pysical operating mechanism of such transducers, tell us which electrical quantity (short-circuit current or open-circuit voltage) needs to be selected at the input port or at the output port of the amplifier.
Presentation
The presentation “Amplifier Types” introduces nine different unilateral amplifier types, based on the sensing and the driving properties of the input port and the output port, respectively.
Video
Study
Chapter 2.2
Amplifiers: modeling of the ideal behavior
Conceptually, amplifiers are intended to behave as linear, time-invariant systems. Although the supply of power is essential for their operation, the power port can be omitted when considering its functional operation only.
Presentation
In the presentation “Amplifiers: modeling ideal behavior” we will elucidate the use of the transmission-1 two-port representation for modeling of the functional (conceptual, or ideal) behavior of amplifiers. The use of these parameters results in clear design conclusions for making the source-to-load transfer independent of the source impedance and the load impedance. This is of particular interest if the voltage-current relation of the source or the load has a (partly) unpredictable character.
Videos
Study
Chapter 2.3
Amplifiers: port isolation configurations
The functional behavior of the amplifier has been modeled while omitting the power port.
Presentation
The presentation “Amplifiers: port isolation configurations” gives types of amplifiers, based on intended connections between the amplifier ports.
Study
Chapter 2.2.2, 2.2.3
Guidance with homework
Prerequired knowledge from EE3C11: Chapter 1 and 2.
Those who are not familiar with SLiCAP, please study the SLiCAP tutorial: My First RC Network.
The theory presented in this lecture and the prerequired knowledge on structured design will be applied in the design of the active antenna. Please use SLiCAP as documentation tool.
Which functions should be performed by the active antenna?
Extract the environmental operating conditions from the application description.
Extract the cost factors from the application description.
Which performance measures are given in the application description?
At this stage, do you notice conflicting requirements?
At this stage, do you notice redundant requirements?
At this stage, do you miss any requirements?
Summarize the above (1-7) in an ‘Object Performance Specification’ and an ‘Object Test Specification’
The SLiCAP format for these specifications is found in: Lecture1SLiCAP.zip.
The whip antenna itself converts E-field into voltage, while the output impedance of the antenna amplifier should be 50 \(\Omega\).
Could we also use the short circuit current as input quantity for the antena amplifier? Motivate your answer.
If we would use the short circuit current of the antenna as input quantity for the amplifier:
Give the transmission-1 matrix parameters for this amplifier.
Verify your answer with SLiCAP.
Tip: SLiCAP does not allow the use of ‘s’ in parameter definitions. Please select an appropriate model from Figure 2.22 in the course book.
