Course syllabus

Course-PM

EME102 Active microwave circuits lp3 VT25 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience

Contact details

Course purpose

The aim of this course is to learn how to design active microwave circuits; such as amplifiers, oscillators, multipliers, and mixers.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

David M Pozar, Microwave engineering, 4th edition, Wiley,
2011, (ISBN: 978-0-470-63155-3).

Lecture notes
Scientific and technical papers

Optional: Guillermo Gonzalez, Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design 

E-books available from Chalmers’ library

Steve Cripps, RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communications, Second Edition, 2006
(E-book ISBN 9781596930193)

Course design

The course treats analysis and design of microwave circuits, particularly amplifiers but also oscillators and nonlinear circuits like mixers and multipliers.

Topics: Two-port theory, impedance matching, stability, noise/gain optimisation, amplifier design, oscillation conditions, wideband amplifiers, the Bode-Fano criteria, high power amplifiers, microwave oscillators, mixers, multipliers, and nonlinear simulation techniques.

The course contains two lab exercises

  1. Design of a microwave-transistor amplifier using modern commercial soft-ware
  2. Assembly of the designed amplifier and measurement to verify the simulated performance

The course contains two home assignments

  1. Design of a noise optimized small-signal amplifier
  2. Exercise in large-signal modeling and nonlinear simulations, carried out in groups of 2

Organisation

Lectures 28 hours (Dan Kuylenstierna, Vincent Desmaris)

Tutorials 28 hours (Lucian Petrasor)

Laboratory work 8 hours (Lucian Petrasor)

Home assignments X hours (Max Behrens)

assignments X hours (Francois Joint)

Lecture

Date

Topic

Literature/note

Room

1

21/1

Course information, introduction, Transistors, transistor modeling  at a glance

11.2-11.4

Fasrummet

2

23/1

Twoport parameters, Smith chart, Impedance matching

4.1-4.4, 4.5, 5

Fasrummet

3

24/1

Small-signal amplifier design, unilateral, stability, Signal flow graphs

12.1-12.3

Fasrummet

4  

28/1

Small-signal amplifier design, bilateral design, constant-gain circles,

12.1-12.3

Fasrummet

5  

30/1

Noise in twoport networks

10.1-10.2, hand outs

Fasrummet

6/2

Low noise amplifier design

12.3, Hand outs

Fasrummet

11/2

Modeling of semiconductor devices

 11.2-11.3, hand-outs

Fasrummet

13/2

Study visit

Details to come later

 

18/2

Power amplifiers

12.5, Cripps 2.1-2.4 & 3.1-3.4

Fasrummet

10

25/2

Nonlinear simulation techniques

10.3-10.4, 
Maas 1.1-1.3 & 3.1-3.3

Kollektorn

11 

27/2

Mixers and frequency multipliers

13.4-13.5 (Maas 6-7, 10-11)

Fasrummet

12 

4/3

Oscillators

13.1-13.3, Gonzales Oscillators 2.1-2.5

Fasrummet

13

6/3

Challenges in amplifier design: Bandwidth, Multiple-stage amplifiers,

12.4,
hand-outs

Fasrummet

14 

7/3

Resource time

 May be used for lab

 

 

 

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due