MEng Mechatronic Engineering with Industrial Experience

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Microwave Circuit Principles and Design

Course unit fact file
Unit code EEEN40171
Credit rating 15
Unit level Level 4
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

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.

 

Pre/co-requisites

Unit title Unit code Requirement type Description
Antennas and RF Systems EEEN40121 Pre-Requisite Compulsory

Aims

This course unit detail provides the framework for delivery in the current academic year and may be subject to change due to any additional Covid-19 impact.  Please see Blackboard / course unit related emails for any further updates.

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.

 

 

Learning outcomes

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

Developed

Assessed

ILO 1

Analyse and design transmission line resonators, power dividers/combiners and couplers. 

x

x

ILO 2

Synthesise and design low-, high-, band-pass and band-stop RF filters and low-pass microwave filters.

x

x

ILO 3

Explain amplifier fundamentals (including origins and effects of noise) and design amplifiers with required gain and noise figure. 

x

x

ILO 4

Analyse system stability (stable and unstable) using S-parameters and its variation with frequency.

x

x

ILO 5

Explain non-linear circuit fundamentals and design nonlinear circuits such as detectors, mixers, multipliers, phase shifters, switches and oscillators. 

x

x

ILO 6

Apply ADS for microwave circuit designs

x

x

 

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures                                             21 

Practical classes & workshops          18 

Tutorials                                              6 

 

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Other 30%
Written exam 70%

Coursework: (Two reports based on laboratory work)

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 21
Practical classes & workshops 18
Tutorials 6
Independent study hours
Independent study 105

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Zhirun Hu Unit coordinator

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