Welcome to "Basics in Electronics" Course!
From teachers:
Dear students, if you wish to take this course, please read through this page carefully because this page includes an overview of course contents, implementation, teaching schedule and grading criteria.
Wishing to get fundamentals knowledge to start understanding and designing modern electronic equipment including computers,
vehicles,
robots, satellites and any intelligent and autonomous systems? This is an essential course to start with, if you are interested in any activities of electronic equipment and systems! There is a continuation course "Electronic circuits" in the next spring semester after you get fundamental knowledge of circuits and electronics.
1. Contents of the course
1.1 Motivation and objectives
This course aims
at covering fundamentals to understand and design electronic circuits, aiming at introduction to 1) basic circuit components and Kirchhoff, Thevenin and Norton's theorems for simple direct-current (DC) circuit problems and 2) useful software simulation tool, e.g., KiCad, to solve a more complex circuit problems. Knowledge and skills
learnt in this course will be essential for the next level of this course, i.e., "Electronic circuits" taught in the next spring semester and be helpful for electronics design labs.
1.2 Learning Outcomes
After this course, students get familiar with
- Basic models and analysis methods of DC circuits, including operational amplifiers.
- An electronic circuit simulation software and basic design and measurements of DC circuits.
2. Course implementation
2.1 Teachers
- Prof. Katsuyuki Haneda, room 2143, TUAS building (katsuyuki.haneda@aalto.fi); teacher in charge
- Prof. Martin Andraud, room 292, TUAS building (martin.andraud@aalto.fi); lecture and exercise sessions
- Senior University Lecturer Juha Mallat, room 2157, TUAS building (juha.mallat@aalto.fi); exercise sessions, simulation exercises
2.2 General organization
This course is organized around three basic activities:
- Lectures x 4, including 4 in-class assignments
- Calculation assignments x 12, to be returned during exercise return sessions
- Simulations assignments x 2, using the tool KiCad.
2.3 The period I of autumn 2021 semester will be fully remote teaching
Following the University guidelines for the period I of the Autumn semester, no contact sessions will take place for this course. Instead, lectures and exercise return sessions will be organized remotely in Zoom. Please see course schedule for details.2.4 Schedule
| Date |
Sessions and deadlines | Nilsson chapter | Glisson chapter |
Lecturer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Sep 14 |
Introduction to this course - what we learn and how it works? | Katsu, Martin, Juha, Bing |
||
| Thu, Sep 16 |
Lecture 1 - Kirchhoff theory | 2.1 2.2 2.4 3.1 3.2 |
2.1-2.7, 3.1-3.9, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2 |
Katsu |
| Tue, Sep 21 |
Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 1 | Katsu, Juha, Martin, Karthek and Bing |
||
| Thu, Sep 23 |
Lecture 2 - Circuit transforms | 3.3 3.4 4.9 4.10 4.13 |
3.4-3.10, 4.3, 4.4 |
Katsu |
| Tue, Sep 28 |
Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 2 | Katsu, Juha, Martin, Karthek and Bing |
||
| Thu, Sep 30 |
Lecture 3 - DC circuit analysis methods | 4.1-4.6 |
3.7, 3.8, 6.2 |
Katsu |
| Tue, Oct 5 |
Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 3 | Katsu, Juha, Martin, Karthek and Bing | ||
| Thu, Oct 7 |
Lecture 4 - Operational amplifiers | 5.1 - 5.5 |
7.1-7.6 |
Katsu |
| Tue, Oct 12 |
Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 4 | Katsu, Juha, Martin, Karthek and Bing | ||
| Thu, Oct 14 |
Q&A session for Simulation exercise (voluntary session; no need to join if not necessary) |
Juha and Katsu |
||
| Tue, Oct 19 |
Deadline of simulation assignment 1 (NO contact session; just submit the assignment on MyCourses!) |
|
||
| Thu, Oct 21 |
Deadline of simulation assignment 2 (NO contact session; just submit the assignment on MyCourses!) | |
Note: this course does not have an exam.
2.5 How to return exercises? [Important!]
- Calculation exercises can be returned during exercise sessions only; see Calculation Assignments section.
- Simulation exercises can be returned through MyCourses page only; see Simulation Assignments section.
2.6 Expected study efforts of students
2 credits x 27.5 = 55 hours of study include
- Contact session: 2 hours x 2 sessions in a week x 6 weeks = 24 hours
- Self-study for calculation assignments: 1.5 hours x 12 assignments = 18 hours
- Getting familiar with circuit simulation tool KiCad: 4 hours
- Self-study for simulation assignments: 4 hours x 2 assignments = 8 hours
In total, 24 + 18 + 4 + 8 = 54 hours. Note
that, being able to complete the course in 54 hours assumes that
students have right mathematical background and aim at grade 3. Those
students who lag in background knowledge and aim at higher grades than 3
may have to use more than 54 hours.
2.7 Grading criteria and evaluation method
Total number of points is 56:
- 8 points based on in-class assignments (2 points x 4 assignments).
- 24 points based on calculation assignments (2 points x 12 assignments).
- 24 points based on simulation assignments (12 points x 2 assignments).
Questions? Share them!
If you have questions of any sorts, post them to "General discussions" page. One of teachers will respond to the questions as soon as possible. Our discussions are visible to all our fellow colleagues registered in this course. In many cases, your questions are also points of clarification for your peers. It is therefore helpful to share questions and answers to all students registered in this course. You can send an individual question email to teachers, but do so only when it is a private issue.