NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

COURSE TITLE: ECE 221 Fundamentals of Circuits

 

CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Review of fundamental concepts in electrical circuits. Circuit analysis  and network theorems; linearity and superposition; series/parallel combinations of R, L, and C circuits; sinusoidal forcing; complex frequency and Bode plots; mutual inductance and transformers; two port networks; Elements of Fourier analysis; response of circuits to periodic non-sinusoidal sources.

 

REQUIRED TEXT: Hayt, Kemmerly and Durbin Engineering Circuit Analysis, 8th edition, McGraw Hill, 2012.

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Prof. Martin Plonus

Office: M390; Tel: 491-3445; E-mail: plonus@eecs.northwestern.edu

Office Hours: Wednesday, Friday:  3:30-4:30 in M390 ??

 

COURSE GOALS: To provide an introduction for sophomores in the field of electrical engineering to the fundamental concepts of electrical circuits. This course will be one of five fundamentals courses required of all electrical engineering majors. A further goal is to prepare students to take advanced courses in the area of circuits and electronics.

 

PREREQUISITES: ECE 202

 

DETAILED COURSE TOPICS:

Week 1: Voltage, Current, Power, Circuits, Kirchhoff's Laws, Circuit Analysis – Nodal and Mesh methods.

Week 2: Linearity and Superposition, Ideal and Practical Sources, Source Transformations, Thevenin and Norton Equivalents, Maximum Power Transfer.

Week 3: Ideal Op Amp Circuits, Capacitors and Inductors, Series/Parallel Combinations of L and C, Integrating and Differentiating Op Amps

Week 4: Transient Response, Forced Response and Complete Response in RL and RC circuits, Step Function, Time Constants, RLC Circuits.

Week 5: Overdamped, Critically damped and Underdamped RLC Circuits, Initial Conditions, Relation to Mechanical Systems.

Week 6: Sinusoidal Forcing, Sinusoidal Steady-State, Phasors, Impedance and Admittance, Phasor Analysis and Phasor Diagrams, Nodal and Mesh Analysis Revisited.

Week 7: Instantaneous and Average Power, Effective or RMS, Complex Power, Power Factor, Intro to Poly-phase Circuits.

Week 8: Mutual Inductance, Linear and Ideal Transformers, Circuits with Mutual Inductance

Week 9: Complex Frequency, S-Plane, Poles and Zeros, Response Function, Frequency Response of Series/Parallel Resonances, High-Q Circuits.

Week 10: Bode Plots, Two Port Networks, Admittance, Impedance, Hybrid, and Transmittance Parameters.

 

 

COMPUTER USAGE: Use of PSPICE for circuit modeling and instrument control using HP-Vee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

READING AND HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: Weekly homeworks will be assigned to test concepts taught in class.

Week 1: pp 1-29          

                    39-55       

                    55-66       

Week 2: pp 79-109      

                   123-140        

                   141-159   

Week 3: pp 175-194    

                    217-235        

                    235-249        

Week 4: pp 261-282    

                    282-289

                   289-308 

Week 5: pp 321-333        

                   334-345   

                   Midterm

Week 6: pp 345-363      

                   371-387             

387-397

Week 7: pp 421-438      

                    438-448

Week 8: pp 457-464,  493-504     

                   505-511                     

                   512-523                      

Week 9: pp 533-540,  571-578,  598-611

                    Review        

                   619-633          

                   633-644          

Week 10: pp 648-657     

                    687-707

                     Final: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 3-5 pm, Rm M177         

 

LABORATORY PROJECTS: There will be no lab during the first and the last week of classes. The lab time during the last week, however, will be used for a make-up lab (for those who may have missed a lab during the quarter for reasons of medical emergency or equivalent).

 

Lab 1: Introduction to HP VEE and PSPICE

Lab 2: Thevenin's / Norton's Theorem and Kirchhoff's Laws

Lab 3: First Order Transient Responses

Lab 4: Second Order Transient Responses

Lab 5: Frequency Response of RC Circuits

Lab 6: Frequency Response of RLC Circuits

Lab 7: Filters

 

GRADES: The following formula will be used to compute the final grade:

Homeworks - 20%; Labs - 20%; Exams - 60% [midterm   (30%)) and  final exam (30%).  Note: A 20-min impromptu exam might be given at the end of May, which would count 10% towards your final grade].

 

One 8 1/2  by 11 cheat-sheet (1-sided) allowed for the midterm.

Since the final is cumulative, in addition to an 8½ by 11 final cheat sheet (1-sided), you can also

use the midterm cheat sheet.

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES: When a student completes this course, s/he should be able to:

1. Understand the fundamentals of the sub-area of electrical circuits within the field of electrical engineering so as to get excited about the area.

2. Have a basic understanding of circuit analysis concepts and network theorems.

3. Apply linearity and superposition concepts to analyze RL, RC, and RLC circuits in time and frequency domains.

4. To apply Phasor Analysis to Sinusoidal Steady State Circuits

5. Understand the relationship between under-, critically-, over-damped circuits and resonant circuits to the position of poles in the complex frequency s-domain.

6. Analyze two port networks.

7. Introduce Fourier analysis to evaluate responses of circuits to periodic sources.

8. Take advanced courses in the area of circuits and electronics.

 

COURSE POLICY:

1.Attendance at all lectures is expected. Class attendance will be taken on random days. A miss will cause a point drop in the final grade.  

2. No make-ups for midterm and final.

3. All homework and labs must be turned in.

4. Points deducted for late homework.

5. Help for homework, consult the TA's during counseling hours; help for lecture material and concepts consult the instructor during office hours.

6. Must see  instructor (in M390) at least once during the quarter for individual consultation.

7. Regular homework is due in class on Friday. The TA’s will return graded homework on Monday in class. The students should look over their graded homework carefully on Monday and develop questions for the TA’s which will be present in Tuesday’s class. The entire class can then participate in the discussion. This is an efficient way to address HW questions – the alternative is 40 or more students individually seeing the TA’s with perhaps the same question

 

 

Instructions                 Write-up

lab1                            

lab2                             lab2w

lab3                             lab3w

lab4                             lab4w

lab5                              lab5w

lab6                              lab6w

lab7                              lab7w