MSc Communications and Signal Processing with Extended Research

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700 year 1, £7,350 year 2
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £38,400 year 1, £19,200 year 2

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International student CAS deposit

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Brief description of the unit:

• Review of transmission line theory and brief introduction to practical transmission lines, including stripline, microstripline and coplanar waveguide;
• Microwave resonators;
• RF and microwave filters, dividers and couplers;
• Introduction to RF and microwave active components and their models;
• Noise and nonlinearity in RF and microwave active components;
• Amplifier operating principles and design;
• Mixer operating principles and design;
• Oscillator operating principles and design;
• Brief introduction to switches and frequency multipliers;
• Brief introduction to ferrite components, isolators, phase shifters and circulators;
• Brief introduction to Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs);
• Brief introduction of modern microwave systems.

To select EEEN 60171 Unit, you need to also select 60121 (Antennas and RF Systems).

You need to select either EEEN30212 (Transmission Lines and Optical Fibres) or EEEN40121/60121 (Antennas and RF Systems).

The course unit aims to:

• To build upon earlier topics in RF and microwave circuit analysis and apply them to yield the rudiments of high frequency circuit design;
• To cover the design of key components such as amplifiers, mixers and oscillators;
• To develop an understanding of noise and nonlinearity in active devices and how thiswill lead to the differing design approaches towards low noise and power amplifiers;
• To give an introduction to the applications of passive components and modern Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs);
• To give students the opportunity to undertake aseries of CAD exercises to engender an understanding of microwave component performance.

On the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

ILO 1 - Analyse and design transmission line resonators, power dividers/combiners and couplers. [Developed] [Assessed]

ILO 2 - Synthesise and design low-, high-, band-pass and band-stop RF filters and low-pass microwave filters. [Developed] [Assessed]

ILO 3 - Explain amplifier fundamentals (including origins and effects of noise) and design amplifiers with required gain and noise figure. [Developed] [Assessed]

ILO 4 - Analyse system stability (stable and unstable) using S-parameters and its variation with frequency. [Developed] [Assessed]

ILO 5 - Explain non-linear circuit fundamentals and design nonlinear circuits such as detectors, mixers, multipliers, phase shifters, switches and oscillators. [Developed] [Assessed]

ILO 6 - Apply ADS for microwave circuit designs. [Developed] [Assessed]

Coursework: (Two reports based on laboratory work)

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• RF circuit design: theory and applications by Ludwig, Reinhold, Pearson Education, 2009.
• Microwave engineering by Pozar, David M, John Wiley, 2005.