Topic outline

  • Welcome to "Basics in Electronics" Course!

    From teachers:

    Dear students, if you wish to receive credits out of this course, please read through this page carefully because this page includes an overview of course contents, implementation, teaching schedule, deadlines and grading criteria. Thank you.


    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.

    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; teacher in charge
    • Prof. Martin Andraud, room 2192, TUAS building; lecture and exercise sessions
    • Senior University Lecturer Dr. Juha Mallat, room 2157, TUAS building; exercise sessions, simulation exercises
    • University Teacher Dr. Aleksi Tamminen, room 2138, TUAS building; exercise sessions
    • Doctoral student Mr. Ahmed Mohey, room 2191, TUAS building; exercise sessions.
    • Doctoral student Mr. Ali Kourani, room 2147, TUAS building; exercise sessions.
    • Master student Mr. Juha Tuomela; exercise sessions.

    2.2 General organization
    This course is organized around three basic activities:
    • Lectures x 4, including 4 pre-assignments
    • Calculation Assignments x 12, to be returned during exercise return sessions
    • Simulations Assignments x 2, using the tool KiCad.  
    Note! Students must attend all teaching activities on Wednesdays (H01 series) and Thursdays (L01 series).

    2.3 The period I of autumn 2023 semester will be fully on-site teaching
    Following the University guidelines for the period I of the Autumn semester, contact teaching of this course will take place fully on campus.  All contact sessions are held in room  of School of Business building, with exceptions when the number of students exceeds the room capacity. Teachers will communicate room changes with students through the annoucement channel of MyCourses. Remote activities may be organized due to teacher's needs.
    However, in case you cannot attend on-site activities, we offer the following options to supplement the on-site teaching:
    • Lecture video recordings; but the videos do not cover all activities in the contact sessions, e.g., solving sample quizzes.
    • Remote exercise return sessions; but the # of seats will be smaller than those of on-site exercise return sessions.
    Please take advantage of these options when necessary. Still, teachers strongly recommend that students come to on-site activities where we have support of teachers and peers.

    2.4 Schedule

    All lectures and exercise sessions are scheduled for 12-14, Finnish time. Lecture room is TU4 of TUAS building on Wednesdays and V001 of School of Business Building on Thursdays, except for Wednesday September 6 where the room is Luentosali 1, Otakaari 3 building and Thursday September 7th where the room is T004 in the School of Business Building.
    Date and room
    		 Sessions and deadlines Nilsson chapter Glisson chapter
    		 Lecturer
    Wed, Sep 6, Luentosali 1, Otakaari 3 building

    		 Introduction to this course - what we learn and why we learn about it?

    		Katsu, Juha M., Ahmed, Aleksi and Juha T.
    Thu, Sep 7, T004

    		 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
    Wed, Sep 13, TU4

    		 Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 1

    		Katsu, Juha M., Aleksi, Ahmed, Ali and Juha T.
    Thu, Sep 14, V001
    		 Lecture 2 - Circuit transforms

    		 3.3 3.4 4.9 4.10 4.13
    		 3.4-3.10, 4.3, 4.4
    		 Katsu
    Wed, Sep 20, TU4
    		 Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 2

    		Katsu, Juha M., Ahmed, Ali, Kazybek and Juha T.
    Thu, Sep 21

    		 Q&A session for simulation exercise (voluntary session; no need to join if not necessary. This session is ONLY in remote mode to share screens of KiCad.)

    		Juha M., Katsu
    Wed, Sep 27
    		 Deadline of simulation assignment 1 (NO contact session; just submit the assignment on MyCourses!)

    Thu, Sep 28, V001
    		 Lecture 3 - DC circuit analysis methods

    		 4.1-4.6

    		 3.7, 3.8, 6.2

    		 Katsu
    Wed, Oct 4, TU4
    		 Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 3

    		Katsu, Juha M., Martin, Aleksi, Ali and Juha T.
    Thu, Oct 5, V001
    		 Lecture 4 - Operational amplifiers

    		5.1 - 5.5

    		 7.1-7.6

    		 Katsu
    Wed, Oct 11, TU4
    		 Exercise session; Deadline of calculation assignment 4

    		     Katsu, Juha M., Martin, Aleksi, Ali and Juha T.
    Thu, Oct 12

    		 Q&A session for simulation exercise (voluntary session; no need to join if not necessary. This session is ONLY in remote mode to share screens of KiCad.)
    		  
    		Juha M., Katsu

    Fri, Oct 13
    		 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.
    How flexible are deadlines? Deadlines of assignment submissions are clearly indicated in the schedule table above. Deadlines can be postponed only if a student agrees with one of teachers for a valid reason, e.g., sick leave, visiting a hospital, business trip, in advance of the above-mentioned deadlines. Otherwise the mentioned deadlines must be respected.


    2.6 Expected study efforts of students

    2 credits x 27.5 = 55 hours of study include

    • Self-study for pre-assignments: 1 hour x 4 sessions  = 4 hours
    • 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: 2 hours x 2 assignments = 4 hours
    In total, 4 + 24 + 18 + 4 + 4 = 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/or 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 48:
    • 8 points based on pre-assignments (2 points x 4 assignments).
    • 24 points based on calculation assignments (2 points x 12 assignments).
    • 16 points based on simulation assignments (8 points x 2 assignments).
    We guarantee that with 24 points the course is accepted, i.e., grade 1. Thresholds for grades 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 are 29 / 34 / 39 / 44 points, respectively.


    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.

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