Osion kuvaus

  • Course Overview

    Contact sessions

    On Mondays at 10:15 - 12 and Thursdays at 9:30 - 12 in Maarintie 6, room A113. 

    Teacher team

    Prof. Ville Viikari, Univ. Lect. Clemens Icheln, and course assistants Veli-Pekka Kutinlahti and Albert Salmi.

    Pre-requisites

    This course requires students to have passed ELEC-E4420 in order to achieve the learning goals of this course with the given workload allocation corresponding to 5 ECTS. (Lack of pre-requisites means a student needs to independently study more in order to pass this course.) Essential pre-requisites are the ability to use CAD tools (e.g., AWR), matching circuit design, understanding S-parameters, and the use of the Smith chart.

    Learning outcomes
    • After the course, an average student (grade 3) can design and analyze simple microwave circuits and components using analytical and computer-aided design tools. The student knows the key characteristics of different components and has pre-requisites for designing microwave systems. The student is familiar with the selected computer-aided microwave circuit design tool(s).
    • Students have had the opportunity to improve their presentation skills, group-working skills, documentation skills, and problem-solving skills.   
    Course literature
    • The course book is David M. Pozar Microwave Engineering (either 3rd or 4th ed.)
      • the course book is available online as well as in the Aalto Learning Centre
      • there, you can also find the supplementary textbook in Finnish for this course: Lehto/Räisänen "RF- ja Mikroaaltotekniikka", Otatieto, TKY 547, 2006
      • Generally, if getting the course book from the library is a problem (e.g. too few copies), please let us teachers know. We don't have a copy for every student since many students have own copies already, but we want to have just enough so that all who need can borrow one copy.
    Course content
    1. Recap of the fundamentals of impedance matching-circuit design
    2. Design of passive microwave components (resonators, dividers, couplers, filters, Pozar Chapters 5-8)
    3. Design of active microwave components (amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, rectifiers, Pozar Ch. 10-12 in 3rd ed., or Ch. 10-13 in 4th ed.)
    4. Design of a small radio system using computer-aided design tools, as group work.

    Principles of the teaching
    • There will be quizzes embedded in each lecture, and answering these affects grading positively.
    • The course consists of 6 main topics, plus the final project: see the subpages of each topic to the left. Each subpage contains lecture slides and assignments. There will be several homework assignments for each topic, and regular in-class homework returns make up a major part of the final course grade.
    • To support the design- and practice-oriented learning goals, all contact sessions are held on-site and physical attendance is required.

    Workload
    • 5 ECTS ⇔ 5 x 27 hours = 135 hours of working
    • 10 x (2+3) hours = 50 hours of contact teaching ⇔ 5 hours per week
    • 85 hours of independent working ⇔ average 8.5 hours per week
    • The number of hours for independent work is only indicative. It is subject to the pre-knowledge, skills and working "efficiency" of the student.
    Communication and news

    • The main forums for the communication and information are the contact sessions and the top-level News forum on this MyCourses course page. Registered students get these news as an e-mail. All important information will be published in the News forum. 

      The students' questions should be addressed during the lessons or in the corresponding Discussion forums in MyCourses. This is because the same question is very likely interesting for the other students, too!

      If you have a personal question that you cannot ask during lessons, you can send an e-mail to one of the teachers. 

    Assessment

    The course is graded 0-5. Since all grading happens in class (!), physical attendance in most of the contact sessions is required to be able to pass this course. The final grade is based on the following assessment methods (including their weights in the final grade in %).

    • In-class quizzes (15 %): Students have to answer quizzes during each lecture, and attendance in class is required to have these graded.
    • Homework exercises (55 %): Assignments are solved either analytically (calculations) or using computer-aided design tools (e.g. AWR), depending on the topic. The computer exercises can be solved individually or collaboratively in groups depending on students' own choice. However, students return all their solutions to homework assignments individually during a contact session where they are presented to a teacher in order to be graded. The group-project presentation (and physical attendance) in the final seminar contributes to this grade.
    • Final quiz (30 %): The goal of the final quiz is to assess students' overall comprehension of the course, whereas homework assignments concentrate on a more detailed level. Physical attendance is required to have the final quiz in class graded (no remote participation).

    Substitute

    This course substitutes the discontinued course S-26.3100 RF and microwave engineering. If you have passed the course S-26.3100 you do not need to pass this course. If you need to pass S-26.3100, you can substitute it with this course.

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