Analog Circuit Design Courses by Kent Lundberg

Feedback Circuit Techniques

All electronic systems employ feedback. All analog circuits, including op amps, oscillators, filters, and power supplies (just to name a few), critically depend on feedback. Some of these feedback loops are explicit, some are implicit, some are intentional, and some are unintentional. In all cases, the analysis and design of circuits using feedback requires the knowledge of analytical techniques, creative design, and an appreciation for possible trade-offs. Understanding feedback theory, and its use in practical applications, is the key to successful system design.
  1. Introduction to Feedback Circuit Techniques
  2. Desensitivity and Return Ratio
  3. Linear System Behavior
  4. Feedback Analysis Tools
  5. Op-Amp Transfer Function
  6. Compensation and Design
  7. Internal Op-Amp Compensation
  8. Driving Capacitive Loads
  9. Current Feedback Amplifiers
  10. Oscillators
A detailed syllabus is available.

Analog Filter Design

Focuses on the design on classical analog filters and analog oscillators. The course covers Butterworth, Chebyshev, Cauer, and Bessel filter types, frequency transformations, and detailed circuit implementations. Circuits discussed include passive networks, op-amp filters, state-variable types, impedance converters, switched capacitors, and operational transconductance amplifiers. The second section of the course covers analog oscillator analysis and design, including feedback and nonlinear-circuit analysis, amplitude stabilization, voltage control, and a variety of applications.
  1. Introduction to Analog Filter Design
  2. Approximation Functions and Frequency Transformations
  3. Op-amp Circuits and State-Variable Filters
  4. Passive Network Synthesis
  5. Simulated Passives and Sensitivity
  6. Switched-Capacitor and OTA-C Filters
A detailed syllabus is available.

Feedback Control Systems

Systems that employ feedback control are all around you: stereo amplifiers, hard-disk drives, automobiles, radar antennas, and high-performance airplanes, to name a few. The creation of successful control systems almost always requires more than the application of a set of analytical techniques. Good feedback-system design requires the connection and application of theory to problems of practical interest, as well as a rich understanding of how to make trade-offs amongst all the parts of a system.

This course covers the design of feedback systems, using the intuitive analysis tools of classical control theory. The course content includes time-domain, frequency-domain, and s-plane concepts that provide insight into the behavior of linear and nonlinear systems. Applications to the design of mechanical and electronic systems, including servomechanism design, vibration isolation, operational-amplifier compensation, power conversion, waveform generation, and phase-lock loops are explored.

  1. Introduction to Feedback Systems
  2. Modeling and Responses
  3. Stability
  4. Root-Locus Method
  5. Nyquist Criterion
  6. Frequency-Domain Analysis
  7. Compensation and Design
  8. Minor-Loop Compensation
  9. Operational-Amplifier Compensation
  10. Nonlinear Systems
A detailed syllabus is available.

Analog CMOS Circuits

Covers the analysis and design of analog circuits in CMOS technology. The first half of the course includes coverage of fundamental material, such as MOS transistor device modeling, simple sub-circuits, and device noise theory. The design of operational amplifiers in CMOS is covered in detail, and the course concludes with a discussion of analog filter design. The second half of the course covers the design of switched-capacitor circuits, comparators, digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, oscillators, and phase-lock loops.
  1. MOS Device Modeling
  2. Large-Signal and Small-Signal Models
  3. Simple CMOS Amplifiers
  4. Analog Subcircuits
  5. Noise in CMOS Circuits
  6. CMOS Op Amps
  7. Frequency Compensation
  8. Fully Differential Op Amps
  9. Rail-to-Rail Op Amps
  10. Comparators
A detailed syllabus is available.

Analog Bipolar Circuits

Covers the analysis and design of analog circuits using bipolar junction transistors. The course includes coverage of fundamental and historical material, including op amps, buffers, bandgap references, translinear circuits, bipolar digital circuits, and the charge control model. Insight and intuition, as well as analysis tools and familiarity with common building blocks, are emphasized to design useful circuits using active devices. The tools and methods studied can be applied to circuits using JFETs, MOSFETs, MESFETs, future exotic devices, or even vacuum tubes.
  1. Bipolar Transistor Models and Circuits
  2. Amplifier Topologies
  3. Bipolar Op Amp Topologies
  4. Commercial Op Amp Circuits
  5. Voltage and Current References
  6. Bandgap Reference Circuits
  7. Translinear Circuits
  8. Mixers, Modulators, and Multipliers
  9. The Charge-Control Model
  10. Digital Circuits in Bipolar Technology
A detailed syllabus is available.

Data Converters

Focuses on analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters in bipolar and CMOS technologies. Course content includes discussions of applications, appropriate system specifications, circuit elements, topology tradeoffs, and history.
  1. Introduction to Data Converters
  2. Specifications in time and frequency
  3. Modern ADC comparisons and trends
  4. Digital-to-analog circuits
  5. Commercial DAC designs
  6. Analog-to-digital techniques
  7. Commercial ADC designs
  8. Oversampling converters
  9. High-speed sample-and-hold circuits
  10. High-accuracy sample-and-hold circuits
A detailed syllabus is available.

Instrumentation: Sensors and Signals

Science requires data, and gathering good data requires interfacing useful circuitry to useful sensors. This course is an introduction to the science and practice of instrumentation. Measurement of the real world is the basis of science, engineering, manufacturing, and design. Topics covered include surveys of sensors and transducers, the design of interface circuitry, and techniques for data acquisition.
  1. Introduction to Instrumentation
  2. Sensor Types and Technologies
  3. Op-Amp Interface Circuits
  4. Bridge Circuits
  5. Noise Sources and Analysis
  6. Analog Signal Conditioning
  7. Analog-to-Digital Conversion
A detailed syllabus is available.

Circuits for Electronic Music

This course covers the analysis and design of electronic circuits for music synthesis. Topics include audio generation, subtractive synthesis, frequency modulation, and some digital techniques. Analog circuits such as voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, and amplifiers, as well as timbre modulators, effects boxes, interfaces to microcontrollers, and other op-amp applications are explored. Optional course content on synthesizer history, music appreciation, and performance.
  1. Introduction to Circuits for Electronic Music
  2. Oscillators
  3. Voltage-to-Frequency Converters
  4. Transfer Functions and Filters
  5. Filter Topologies
  6. Voltage-Controlled Filters
  7. Drum Circuits
  8. Effects Circuits
A detailed syllabus is available.

EE Proto

In this course, students learn to design, build, and debug electronic prototype systems. Topics include multiple aspects of the prototyping process, including circuit and system design, soldering, deadbugging, troubleshooting, component selection, schematic capture, printed-circuit board (PCB) layout, PCB fabrication, PCB assembly, and thermal analysis. We will discuss the tradeoffs among "faster, better, cheaper", and explore examples in the realms of analog, digital, RF, and power. Discussions of reverse engineering, fabrication, and technical communication are included.
  1. Introduction to Prototyping
  2. Schematics
  3. SigSys Refresher
  4. Datasheets
  5. Capacitors
  6. PCB Layout
  7. Layout Software
  8. Op-Amp Applications
  9. Op-Amp Nonidealities
  10. Oscillators
  11. Analog-to-Digital Conversion
  12. Grounding
  13. Power Supplies
  14. Thermal Issues
  15. Noise Sources and Analysis
A detailed syllabus is available.

Custom Courses

Custom courses, tailored specifically to your needs, are available. Inquire within.

Lecturer

Kent H. Lundberg is an educator, consultant, and historian. He is president of Keeling Flight Hardware, Ltd., which provides design, research, and educational consulting services in the fields of aerospace, electronics, and control systems for companies, universities, and government organizations.

Since 2008, Dr. Lundberg has been a Visiting Professor at Olin College of Engineering, where he teaches courses in controls, circuit design, and instrumentation. From 2002 to 2005 and in 2011, he was a Lecturer with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests include the application of classical control theory to problems in analog circuit design, and the development of educational toys (lecture demos, take-home laboratory kits, and tutorial computer applications) for feedback systems and control engineering.

Dr. Lundberg was the Associate Editor for History of IEEE Control Systems Magazine from 2004 to 2011. He attended M.I.T. earning a Bachelor's degree in physics in 1992, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2002. He owns 43 Tektronix oscilloscopes, and he obsessive-compulsively collects analog synthesizers, technology artifacts, and classic textbooks on radar, nuclear energy, analog computing, and control.

Kent Lundberg. Last updated at 10:11 on Thursday, 10 Jan 2013.