Topic outline

  • Welcome to the "Electronic Circuits" course!

    Wishing to get fundamental knowledge to start understanding (and hopefully soon start designing) modern electronic equipment including sensor interfaces, data converters, and computers? In this case, Electronic Circuits is an essential course for you!

    In this course, we will detail basic design mechanisms for (a) analog circuits, such as amplifiers and filters, (b) digital circuits, from gates to small computers, and (c) data converters interfacing both analog and digital worlds.


    General description of an electronic system

    DISCLAIMER This course is considered to be the continuation course of "Basics in Electronics" from last autumn semester (ELEC-C9610). Hence lectures and exercises are the continuations of the ones from "Basics in Electronics". Students starting this course are expected to have a background covered in ELEC-C9610 or equivalent as a prerequisite. The present course is therefore primarily intended for students in the "Digital Systems and Design (DSD)" bachelor program, but other students are also welcome to attend given the prerequisite. However, students of the bachelor programme in Electrical Engineering, who have Electronics and Electrical Engineering as a major (EST) are not allowed to include the course in their degree as this course is considered redundant with other courses in their major.

    THE FIRST SESSION ON THIS COURSE (28.02.2022) IS A GENERAL INTRODUCTION AND RECAP. IT WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM ONLY: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69412356480?pwd=MzlFdjF3YjdpN0IwV2pIMWlnejJUQT09

    Summary of basic rules for this course
    • The course is organized around 4 main activities (see details by clicking on each activity): Lecture and in-class exercise, Exercise assignment, Simulation assignments, and Discussion session with reflective assignments. This year the total course duration is 14 weeks, but some weeks contain reduced or even no activities (public holidays, spring holidays). We will count the course weeks from 1 (starting 28.02.2021) to week 14 (starting on 30.05.2021). Week 7 is the spring holidays.
    • Every typical week of this course (see Course plan), you will have:
    1. One lecture and in-class exercise, or one discussion session (Tuesdays 14:00 to 16:00 EET). Lectures are assumed to be the continuation of the "Basics in Electronics" course. During this time we will have 1) a lecture on the topic of the week, and 2) a small (graded) in-class assignment on the lecture's topic, in preparation for the next exercise assignment. After every lecture, the Coursebook will contain the new lecture materials, that are the same as the slides. You can print them in pdf directly. 
    2. One return session for the exercise assignment (Mondays 10:15 to 12:00 EET). There you will have a 15min time slot reserved to return and/or discuss your exercises with the teachers. There is a one-week gap between a given lecture and the corresponding exercise assignment deadline, to give you time to perform the assignment but not overlap with the following lecture. Please note that participating in the exercise return session is mandatory to have your exercise graded.
    • Additionally, along the course, three extra simulation assignments are planned to give you practical experience with the simulator software KiCad.
    • There is no final exam, but the evaluation is made by earning points for every activity. Grades are calculated regarding the number of points accumulated during the whole course (see Grading and study efforts).
    • Every week there are deadlines to meet (you will receive an Email weekly to remind you):
    1. Exercise assignments or reflective assignment deadlines, related to lectures or discussion sessions. There will be 11 deadlines, all weeks except on weeks 1, 7, and 8.
    2. Simulation assignments deadlines, 3 in total (normally weeks 6, 11, and 13)

    Intended learning outcomes (ILO)

    • ILO1 – After the "AC analysis and power" part of the course (Weeks 1-2), students will be able to interpret quantities such as amplitude, phase, frequency, magnitude, or power to perform Alternating Current (AC) analysis on simple circuits. This will be assessed with exercise assignments.
    • ILO2 – After the "Frequency analysis and filters" part (Week 3-4), students will be able to interpret quantities such as poles, zeros, and resonance. They will apply this to perform frequency analysis through transfer functions and be able to build basic filters (order 1 and 2 mostly). This will be assessed through exercise assignments and one simulation assignment.
    • ILO3 – In the "Analog versus digital circuits and introduction of MOS transistor" part (Weeks 5,8), students will clarify the main differences between analog and digital circuits. They will also interpret how the MOS transistor works. This will be assessed through exercise assignments.
    • ILO4 – After the "digital circuits and basic processor architecture" part (Weeks 9,10), students will be able to analyze basic binary and digital circuits (logic gates, latches, multiplexers, adders, etc.). They will be able to also describe the main blocks of a simple processor. This will be assessed through exercise assignments and one simulation assignment.
    • ILO5 – After the "systems and data converter" part (Week 11-13), students will be introduced to basic concepts and circuits performing data conversion. They will have an intuitive understanding of concepts such as quantization and sampling and be able to describe basic data converter topologies. This will be assessed through exercise assignments and one simulation assignment.
    • ILO6 – In addition, after the course, students will be able to interpret the main blocks of modern electronic systems and identify their general role. This will be assessed through the last reflective assignment on systems in week 14. 
    • ILO7 – Students will practice also their communication skills in exercise return sessions and discussion sessions, and be able to communicate with an international group of teachers and students. This will not be formally assessed but practiced through the course.