Essentials of Analog Circuit Design (AC15-6-0)

SynopsisWith the prevalent of the digital electronics in every aspect of our life, it is easy to overlook the importance of analog circuits design techniques that are increasingly becoming a forgotten art for practicing design engineers. However, as real world signals are still predominantly analog, there will always be a need for engineers to understand the various analog electronics operations and performance related issues. For example, signal conditioning of analog input signal is always needed to ensure that it can be converted properly to the digital domain, while digital output signal will need to be converted to analog form due to the analog nature of the output transducers. Furthermore, the trend of having digital signals operating at increasingly higher frequency but at lower voltage levels also blur the distinction between digital and analog signal domains.

Course Highlight
This course emphasizes on the practical design aspects of analog electronics circuits through intuitive understanding of circuits’ operations. Characteristics of real, rather than ideal, electronics components are covered, together with some of the more commonly-used approaches in describing and measuring analog circuits’ performance. Basic linear and non-linear electronic circuits are also reviewed to provide the foundations for the participants to design more complicated analog electronic circuits based on discrete BJTs and op-amps. Hands-on practical design exercises in the laboratory are included during the course to enable participants to immediately apply newly acquired practical skill on real circuits and measure their actual performance.

What previous participants say about this course
Answers to the question 'what did you like most about the course'

• "BJT application (advantage and disadvantage), design and filtering operational" - 13 Dec 05
• "Circuit analysis and design examples" - 13 Dec 05
• "Very practical & relate to practical work" - 6 Jun 07
• "The explanation is very good. Easy to understand Prof's lecture" - 26 Sep 07
• "Instructor is very knowledgeable in the field he teaches" - 26 May 08
• "Knowledgeable training materials, experienced instructor, lab is interesting but not enough due to time constraint" - 21 May 08
• “Analyze circuit design using practical approach. Do not need to calculate/use equation to get the result” - 25 Feb 09
• “The application of the concept & idea behind all the theory” - 25 Feb 09

What You Will Learn

• fundamental concepts and analysis techniques for those working with analog circuit design
• understanding and appreciation of commonly used terms like dB, CMR for analog signal measurement
• design of commonly-used analog circuits
• applications of voltage and current feedback operational amplifiers
• signal conditioning circuit design techniques suitable for Data Acquisition System

Who Should AttendTechnicians and engineers who are involved in design, production, test and development of electronics products and systems. It is also applicable for those deploying and maintaining such systems in the field

PrerequisiteTechnical background in electrical, electronics, mathematics at Diploma or Degree levels.

Course MethodologyThis course starts with the discussion of practical components’ characteristics. It then reviews some of the commonly-used circuit analysis techniques and show how they are usually used in actual circuits design. Simple linear and non-linear electronic circuits are then introduced. Once equipped with the basics of analog electronics operation, the participants are then taught some of the commonly-used analog electronic circuits based on discrete BJTs, with emphasis on their practical limitations and how improvement can be achieved through suitable combination of different circuit arrangements. Various Op-amps based analog signal processing circuits are discussed, follows by their practical performance limitations. Current Feedback based Op-amp is introduced to show how it can overcome some of the limitations of the conventional Op-amp. Analog Filter circuits are also covered as it is the most commonly used analog circuits in digital systems. Hands-on practical design exercises in the laboratory are included during the course at appropriate junctures to enable participants to immediately applying the concepts learnt and evaluate their effectiveness.

Course Duration4 days, 9am - 5pm

Course Structure

Day 1

• Passive circuit components and their practical characteristics - Resistor, capacitor and inductor
• Review of commonly encountered terminologies - RMS, maximum power transfer, dB etc
• Practical circuit analysis and design techniques - KVL, KCL, superposition theorem, Thevenin/Norton equivalent model, nodal/mesh analysis, input/output impedance, loading effect
• Semiconductor components and characteristics - Diode, Zener diode, photodiodes
• Passive semiconductor circuits and applications - Half/full wave rectifier, peak detector, voltage doubler, voltage regulator, IR photodiode circuits
• Laboratory exercises - Design of voltage regulator circuits and photodiode based circuits

Day 2

• Semiconductor components and characteristics - Transistors (BJT and FET)
• Laboratory exercises - Design of improved voltage regulator circuits and photodiode based circuits using BJT
• Single transistor amplifier - Operation and biasing of CE, CC, CB
• Laboratory exercise - Designing of BJT biasing circuits
• Amplifier output stages - Class A, Class B, Class A/B
• Response of basic circuits (R, L and C) in time domain and frequency domain - Time constant, rise time, bandwidth, resonance, Q factor, Bode plot

Day 3

• Amplifier small signal analysis - Model of CE, CC and CB amplifier and frequency response
• Laboratory exercises - Measurement of frequency response of amplifier
• Wide bandwidth amplifier - Miller effect, cascode configuration
• Feedback - Effect of feedback on circuit response
• Op-Amp applications - Inverting, non-inverting amplifier, integrator, differentiator, summing amplifier, precision rectifier and peak detectors circuits
• Laboratory exercise - Design of improved voltage regulator circuits and photodiode based circuits using op-amp

Day 4

• Op-amp characteristics - Ideal and practical characteristics, feedback operation, slew rate, GBW
• Current feedBack op-amp - CFB Characteristics and operations
• Laboratory exercises - Comparison of VFB and CFB op-amp switching and slew rate performance
• Analog filters - Passive and active filters design
• Laboratory exercises - Design of active filter circuits and frequency response measurement