ECE 488

Microwave Engineering II: Active Circuit Design

Spring

Required Course:

Course Level

Undergraduate

Units

Prerequisite(s)

ECE 486

Course Texts

Steer, Michael. Microwave and RF Design: A System Approach. 2nd ed. (rev.). SciTech Publishing, 2013.

Schedule

150 minutes lecture per week

Course Description

Planar active microwave circuits, diode and transistor characteristics, mixers, amps, oscillators, and frequency multipliers. Students will design circuits with CAD tools, fabricate in clean room, and measure performance in the lab.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course the student will be able to:

Understand various modulation schemes, the basics of wireless transmitters and receivers, and the basics of antennas and the wireless link
Understand fundamentals of RF systems
Design lumped element matching networks
Design single- and double-stub matching networks for various loads
Apply single- or double-stub matching network designs for circuits in microstrip form
Create all active circuit designs in microstrip form
Identify the diode equation, the small signal model and equivalent circuit
Explain the role and operation of the depletion and diffusion capacitance
Describe the operation of a Schottky barrier diode
Explain how diodes can be used for RF/microwave signal detection and mixing
Identify and design various types of microwave mixers, as well as parameters used for evaluating their performance
Describe the characteristics of bipolar and FET microwave transistors
Identify the small-signal electric models of microwave transistors
Explain how to measure a transistor's s-parameters
Apply signal flow graphs to evaluate scattering and other parameters of microwave circuits
Identify the different power gain expressions of microwave amplifier circuits, and calculate from s-parameters
Calculate the input and output VSWR of a microwave amplifier
Determine the stability of an amplifier from the transistor, matching networks and terminations
Explain when a two-port network is unilateral
Outline the procedure for drawing the constant G-circles for unconditionally stable and potentially unstable cases
Identify and evaluate the unilateral figure of merit
Design a microwave amplifier for a specific operating power gain and stability
Plot power gain circles for a two-port network
Design a microwave amplifier for a specific power gain, input/output VSWR, and with good ac performance
Design a DC bias network for a microwave amplifier
Design various types of microwave amplifiers: low-noise, broadband, feedback and two-stage
Distinguish between class A, B and C microwave amplifiers
Evaluate the dynamic range of a microwave amplifier
Describe the operation of one-port negative resistance oscillators
Apply the Nyquist test to determine conditions of unstable operations of a given circuit
Design a two-port negative resistor microwave oscillator
Explain the operation of varactor frequency multiplier
Determine which active microwave circuit to use depending on the application
Identify potential limitations in the circuit fabrication process
Explain how different fabrication steps can affect active circuit performance, and explain how each affects it
Perform microwave measurements for the active circuit of the design
Explain differences between simulated and measured data of active microwave

Course Topics

Introduction to modulation techniques
Digital modulation
Receivers, modulators and demodulators
Antennas
Radio link
Radio systems
Cellular radio: 1G-3G
Beyond 3G and radar
Matching networks
Microstrip matching networks
Microwave transistors
Scattering parameters and signal flow graphs
Power gain expressions and VSWR calculations
Stability considerations
Constant gain circles
Simultaneous conjugate match
Operating and available power gain circles
VSWR circles and DC bias networks
Noise in microwave systems
Constant noise figure circles
Design of low-noise amplifier
Amplifier designs: broad-band, high-power and two-stage
Oscillation conditions

Relationship to Student Outcomes

ECE 488 contributes directly to the following specific electrical and computer engineering student outcomes of the ECE department:

Ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering (high)
Ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data (medium)
Ability to design a system, component or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints, such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability and sustainability (low)
Ability to function on multidisciplinary teams (low)
Ability to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems (medium)
Ability to communicate effectively (medium)
Ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice (high)

Syllabus Prepared By

Hao Xin, 04/14/16