ECE 549 RF Design for Wireless

 Fall 2009

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Michael Steer, Professor Phone: (919) 515-5191

435 Monteith Research Center

Campus Box 7914 E-Mail mbs@ncsu.edu

Raleigh, NC 27695-7914 URL: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mbs

COURSE WEB SITE:http://courses.ncsu.edu/ece549/lec/001 (not active until early August)

PREREQUISITES:

Graduate standing in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering. You must have circuits and electromagnetics at the least the third-year undergraduate level.

TEXTBOOK:

M.B. Steer, Microwave and RF Design: A Systems Approach, First Edition

COURSE DELIVERY:

This is a web-based class with recorded multimedia lectures.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

RF and microwave systems are central to the wireless revolution that is changing our world. ECE549 is an RF and microwave circuits class that is at the subsystem and component level and covers a lot of territory. The objective is that you will understand all of the components of RF and microwave circuits and be able to make system level design decisions.

This class will be a prerequisite to ECE719 A Microwave design class. It will be a prerequisite to ECE712 an RFIC Design class.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Design of the hardware aspects of wireless systems with principle emphasis on design of radio frequency (RF) and microwave circuitry. Introduction of system concepts then functional block design of a wireless system. RF and microwave transistors, noise, power amplifiers, CAE, linearization and antennas.

COURSE DELIVERY:

The course delivery will be web-based but captured several days before you take the lecture. We will not meet for live lectures.  I do not want to put anyone off and so let me explain this decision. This delivery vehicle is growing in popularity and the move to this delivery vehicle has been an interpretation of overwhelming request of previous classes.  I have taught this class for 10 years as a distance education class.  The mode of delivery in past years was I gave a live lecture and this was taped and made available as a streaming video about 20 minutes after the live class ended.  What I (and other instructors) found was that the live class dwindled and students would say that they preferred the streaming video as the could stop, rewind, etc. and many worked on their homework as they watched the class.  So we have been saying that we need to turn things around.  Teach a class expecting people could watch it over a four or five hour period but get them to do homework as they take the lecture.  So assign a problem at the start of each lecture. Teach the material required to do the homework with examples.  And by the end of the lecture the homework is finished.  So this fits with the new way people want to learn.  So I think that you will benefit tremendously.  I will also hold Skype office hours (times to be decided, my Skype ID is mbsteer), and will monitor the class bulletin board 7 days a week and whenever I am near a computer. I will also be available to meet in person, preferable when we set a time to meet. I believe that you will find this one of the most enriching delivery vehicles available. This has rapidly growing support around the US .

MODULES AND BRIEF SYLLABUS:

The class will be taught as three modules which are more or less independent of each other. Each module will have approximately 10 lectures each nominally 75 minute long.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS :

Homework: Approximately 14 homework sets (10%) . Homework will be due every week.

Examinations: Three quizzes (30% each, one for each module). The schedule final exam will be the Module 3 quiz.

Computer Software: Studenst will want to use MAATLAB and/or MathCAD

Computer Facilities: Students are required to have an NC State EOS account to access the course Web Site.

QUIZ DATES

Quiz 1: not set, Two hours.

Quiz 2: not set, Two hours.

Quiz 3: Wednesday, December 9, 6pm to 8 pm. Two hours.

COURSE OUTLINE BY TOPICAL AREAS:

Wireless Systems; Transmission Line and Substrate Technology; Impedance Matching using Lumped Elements; Scattering Parameters; Passive Microwave Components; Hybrids, Couplers and Baluns, Resonators and Filters.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with Disability Services for Students at 1900 Student Health Center , Campus Box 7509, 515-7653. http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/offices/affirm_action/dss/

For more information on NC State's policy on working with students with disabilities, please see http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/hat/current/appendix/appen_k.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

All the provisions of the code of academic integrity apply to this course. In addition, it is my understanding and expectation that your signature on any test or assignment means that you neither gave nor received unauthorized aid.

GRADING POLICY

I do not follow a grading rule but instead use the following guiding principles

A: Gained competence in all major and minor goals of the course.

B: Gained competence in most major and a some minor goals of the course

C: Gained competence in a minority of the major goals of the course.

D/F: Did not gain sufficient competency.

In the past several years the following table has been the average break points. I cannot guarantee that it will be the same this year as I establish different break points each year considering the difficult of the homework and quizzes relative to those in prior years. After automatic assignment of grades I look over each person's record particularly looking to see if there was just one thing that may have pulled grades down. It is not unusual for me to adjust by 1 percentage point. I do not adjust by more.

In a typical class 47% receive A's, 45% B's, 7% do poorly typically not doing all the homework, dropping out.

When I increased the intensity of the homework several years ago that the average gardes in the class shot up. I know the homework is a lot of work, sometimes frustrating, but when you get through it you have picked up the concepts I want you to have.