EE 448 USC Fall Semester 2001 J. Choma, Jr.
University of Southern California
School Of Engineering
Department Of Electrical Engineering
EE 448: #34242 Fall, 2001
Course Syllabus Choma
ABSTRACT:
EE 448 is an applications-oriented course that exploits the basic electronic circuit analysis and design concepts advanced in EE 348. EE 448 extends the list of canonical cells introduced in EE 348 and develops advanced engineering analysis methods that conduce insights about the salient characteristics of practical, high performance analog integrated circuits.
Several objectives are implicit to an engineering analysis of an integrated circuit proposed for design and ultimate monolithic fabrication. First, the analysis must be analytically insightful; that is, it must inspire a fundamental understanding of the electrical dynamics implicit to the network undergoing investigation. Second, the understanding that accrues from engineering analysis must forge innovative new network topologies or, at a minimum, optimization guidelines for existent networks that reinforce circuit attributes and circumvent serious circuit performance limitations. Third, analysis must reveal parametric sensitivities that impact circuit reliability and manufacturing reproducibility.
An analysis that achieves the foregoing objectives invariably mandates the use of approximate models of devices embedded in the network undergoing study. But the understanding that accrues from computationally efficient, albeit approximate, manual analyses pave the way toward efficient and meaningful computer-aided investigations of the actual circuits proposed for design. Such understanding, complemented by the technical illumination afforded by high order network simulations, is a prerequisite to the reliable, reproducible, and cost effective design of high performance integrated circuits.
EE 448 applies fundamental theoretic concepts, sound modeling strategies, and proven engineering analysis methods to develop models, circuit topologies, and design procedures appropriate to the state of the art in monolithic analog integrated circuits and systems. Included among the circuits addressed in this course are radio frequency (RF) amplifiers, broadband amplifiers, oscillators, analog multipliers and mixers, voltage mode and current mode operational amplifiers, operational transconductance amplifiers, and active filters.
1. Course Administration
The prerequisite for EE 448 is EE 348 or its equivalent. Course lectures are given on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00 -to- 3:20 in Kaprielian Hall (KAP) Room #147.
EE 448 lectures commence on Monday, 27 August 2001, and end on Wednesday, 05 December 2001. Students who are absent from a given lecture should arrange for a colleague to obtain any notes, homework assignments, homework solutions, or other information that may have been distributed during their absence. Extra copies of disseminated material are not retained by the instructor.
The last day to drop the course without a “W” grade is Friday, 14 September 2001. The last day to drop the class with a “W” grade is Friday, 16 November 2001. An Incomplete “IN” course grade is rarely given. An “IN” grade can be justified only in such substantiated exceptional cases as an extended student illness, a temporary physical disability, or a personally tragic circumstance experienced after the twelfth week of the semester (subsequent to 16 November 2001).
The final examination is scheduled for Wednesday, 12 December 2001, from 11:00 -to- 1:00 PM. One midterm examination is also planned. A tentative date for the midterm examination, which is announced well in advance of its administration, is Wednesday, 17 October 2001. Optional review sessions designed to facilitate comprehension of especially difficult technical material may be scheduled aperiodically, pending the extent of student interest in such sessions.
The results of the midterm examination, the final examination, and the design project (to be executed in groups of nominally three -to- four students), combine with averaged homework grades in accordance with the algorithm given below to determine the final course average for each student. It should be noted that a conscientious effort is made to have homework assignments complement lecture material. Homework is assigned periodically, and solutions are normally distributed on the day that assignments are handed in.
MIDTERM EXAMINATION GRADE: 25%
FINAL EXAMINATION GRADE: 35%
DESIGN PROJECT GRADE: 25%
HOMEWORK GRADE: 15%
Examinations can never be made up, and design project reports or homework solutions cannot be accepted late. If a student fails to take the midterm examination, his or her grade is based on a normalized maximum possible score of 75, as opposed to the routine maximum of 100. An automatic failure results if the student has a non–excused absence from the final examination or fails to contribute to the design project.
Prof. John Choma, Jr. is the course instructor, and Mr. Jonathan Roderick is the course teaching assistant. Prof. Choma’s office hours are 10:30 -to- 12:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays and 10:30 -to- 2:00 on Thursdays in Powell Hall of Engineering (PHE) Room #616. Appointments for other meeting times can be arranged by telephoning Prof. Choma at 213-740-4692 or by e-mailing him at . Mr. Roderick will also establish regular office hours.
2. Discussion Sections
Each student is required to attend one of two weekly discussion sections, which are offered as follows.
1:00 -to- 1:50 Wednesday GFS #205
5:00 -to- 5:50 Tuesday KAP #141
Homework and project assignments are addressed in the discussion sections, as is particularly challenging lecture material. Discussion sections begin meeting during the week of 03 September 2001.
3. Study Guidelines and Suggestions
3.1. Spend some time reading the Abstract of this Course Syllabus. It attempts to define the pedagogical philosophy of the course. Fundamentally, it conveys the notion that the solutions to problems are not the only important issue. Equally important is the ability to develop the insights that enable useful interpretations of these solutions so that the fruits of analyses conduce creative and efficient circuit and system design. A matter related to interpretive acuity is the development of skills for defining, applying, and assessing meaningful analytical approximations, which you will discover are all but mandated if mathematical tractability and engineering understandability are to be assured.
3.2. It is imprudent to view the 15% weight attached to homework as being sufficiently small to justify your tacit neglect of such assignments. Many of the problems assigned derive from EE 448 examinations administered in previous semesters, and most, when thoroughly addressed and considered, provide you with the analytical experience and engineering insights that are likely to prove beneficial during formal examinations. It should also be understood that homework is counted in the compilation of your final course grade only when its average score enhances your final course average. When the homework average degrades your final course average, the homework score is not factored into the final course average, which is then based on an achievable maximum score of 85%, as opposed to 100%.
3.3. Electrical and computer engineers rarely work independently. Accordingly, students are encouraged to work in small teams (no larger than four) on homework assignments, assuming, of course, that such collaboration is done intelligently, conscientiously, and in a manner that encourages equal participation among all group members. If you choose to work in homework teams, you need only hand in one assignment per group, making sure that the first page of each submitted assignment clearly identifies all group members. Each member of a given group receives the same numerical mark for the given submission.
3.4. Do not fall behind in the course lectures and assignments! Elective electrical engineering classes, such as EE 448, are hierarchical; that is, the ability to understand material presented in any given week relies strongly on your comprehension of technical matter discussed in preceding lectures or addressed in earlier assignments.
3.5. Do not miss class or the discussion section segment of the class! I rarely follow the textbook closely, and I have no reservations about compiling homework assignments and examinations predicated, at least in part, on material discussed in class but not addressed in the assigned textbook.
3.6. Do not be shy in the classroom about asking questions about material you do not clearly comprehend. If you do not understand something, chances are that many of your peers are experiencing similar confusion. Do not be shy about coming to my office for additional assistance, and do not hesitate to ask the teaching assistant, who is my doctoral student and is very knowledgeable in the analog circuit and systems domain, for help. It is worthwhile interjecting that the teaching assistant has complete liberty to address course issues in any manner he deems appropriate. This discretionary latitude includes sharing with you any insights he may have about my grading, lecturing, and examination styles.
4. Required Textbook and Suggested References
The required textbook is as follows:
Thomas H. Lee, The Design Of CMOS Radio–Frequency Integrated Circuits. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1998 [ISBN Number 0-521-63922-0]. The assigned readings in the Course Schedule refer to this text.
The following second book is recommended, but is not required.
David Johns and Ken Martin, Analog Integrated Circuit Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997 [ISBN Number 0-471-14448-7].
The following textbooks contain potentially beneficial reference reading material.
Marco Annaratone, Digital CMOS Circuit Design. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1986.
R. Boylestad and L. Nashelsky, Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1987.
Stanley G. Burns and Paul R. Bond, Principles of Electronic Circuits. Boston: PWS Publishing Company, 1997.
W-K Chen, L. O. Chua, J. Choma, Jr., and L. P. Huelsman (editors), The Circuits And Filters Handbook. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC/IEEE Press, 1995.
P. M. Chirlian, Analysis and Design of Integrated Electronic Circuits. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1987.
J. Choma, Jr., Electrical Networks. New York: Wiley–Interscience, 1985.
K. K. Clarke and D. T. Hess, Communication Circuits: Analysis and Design. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1978.
J. A. Connelly and P. Choi, Macromodeling With SPICE. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1992.
R. C. Dorf (editor), The Electrical Engineering Handbook. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, 1993.
Daniel P. Foty, MOSFET Modeling With SPICE: Principles and Practice. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR, 1997.
S. Franco, Design With Operational Amplifiers And Analog ICs. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988.
M. S. Ghausi, Electronic Devices and Circuits: Discrete and Integrated. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985.
Arthur B. Glaser and Gerald E. Subak-Sharpe, Integrated Circuit Engineering. Reading Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977.
Glenn M. Glasford, Analog Electronic Circuits. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1986.
Glenn M. Glasford, Digital Electronic Circuits. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
M. N. Horenstein, Microelectronic Circuits and Devices. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1990.
R. L. Geiger, P. E. Allen, and N. R. Strader, VLSI Design Techniques For Analog And Digital Circuits. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.
A. B. Grebene, Bipolar and MOS Analog and Integrated Circuit Design. New York: Wiley–Interscience, 1984.
Roubik Gregorian and Gabor C. Temes, Analog MOS Integrated Circuits For Signal Processing. New York: Wiley–Interscience, 1986.
Roger T. Howe and Charles G. Sodini, Microelectronics: An Integrated Approach. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1997.
Johan H. Huijsing, Rudy J. van der Plassche, and Willy Sansen (editors), Analog Circuit Design. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993.
Mohammed Ismail and Terri Fiez (editors), Analog VLSI Signal and Information Processing. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994.
Richard C. Jaeger, Microelectronic Circuit Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
E. J. Kennedy, Operational Amplifier Circuits: Theory And Applications. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1988.
Kenneth R. Laker and Willy M. C. Sansen, Design of Analog Integrated Circuits and Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994.
R. Mauro, Engineering Electronics: A Practical Approach. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989.
Jacob Millman and Arvin Grabel, Microelectronics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1987.
F. H. Mitchell, Jr. and F. H. Mitchell, Sr., Introduction to Electronics Design. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1992.
C. J. Savant, Jr., M. S. Roden, and G. L. Carpenter, Electronic Circuit Design: An Engineering Approach. Menlo Park, California: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc., 1987.
Edgar Sánchez-Sinencio and Andreas G. Andreou (editors), Low–Voltage/Low–Power Integrated Circuits And Systems. New York: IEEE Press, 1999.
D. L. Schilling, C. Belove, T. Apelewicz, and R. J. Saccardi, Electronic Circuits: Discrete and Integrated. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1989.
Thomas F. Schubert, Jr. and Ernest M. Kim, Active And Non–Linear Electronics. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.
A. S. Sedra and K. C. Smith, Microelectronic Circuits. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1987.
R. M. Warner, Jr. and B. L. Grung, Transistors: Fundamentals for the Integrated Circuit Engineer. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1983.
G. C. Temes and J. W. LaPatra, Introduction to Circuit Synthesis and Design. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1977.
The following information is a partial list of relevant journal literature organized loosely among the indicated topical areas.
ACTIVE FILTERS
M. Banu and Y. P. Tsividis, “An Elliptic Continuous-Time CMOS Filter With On-Chip Automatic Tuning,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-19, pp. 932-938, 1984.
Y. Chang, J. Choma, Jr., and J. Wills, “An Active CMOS Image Reject Filter,” Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits And Signal Processing; vol. 28, pp. 41-49, July 2001.
R. L. Geiger and E. Sánchez–Sinencio, “Active Filter Design Using Operational Transconductance Amplifiers: A Tutorial,” IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, pp. 20-32, March 1985.
CIRCUIT CONCEPTS, THEORIES, MODELS
A. Arbel, “Multistage Transistorized Current Modules,” IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems, vol. CT-13, pp. 302-310, Sept. 1966.
J. Choma, Jr., “A Generalized Bandwidth Estimation Theory for Feedback Amplifiers,” IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems, vol. CAS-31, pp. 861-865, Oct. 1984.
J. Choma, Jr., “Gain and Bandwidth Characteristics of a Variable-Gain, Actively Neutralized, Differential Pair,” IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems, vol. CAS-33, pp. 66-71, January 1986.
J. Choma, Jr., “Signal Flow Analysis of Feedback Networks,” IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems, vol. 37, pp. 455-463, Apr. 1990.
J. Choma, Jr. and S. A. Witherspoon, “Computationally Efficient Estimation of Frequency Response and Driving Point Impedance in Wideband Analog Amplifiers,” IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems, vol. CAS-37, pp. 720-728, June 1990.