Course Catalogue

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This is a practical course which brings together many aspects of electronic design and construction. Using all of the academic knowledge and skills encountered in first and second years, the course leads teams through the planning, design, construction, completion and leads to the final demonstration of a working electronic device. In addition, the course integrates a foundation component on Creativity, based on the "double-diamond approach", involving multidisciplinary interaction

1 lecture per week in semester 2 and laboratories

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

None

None

Deliverables; practical work undertaken during semester 1 and 2- 16%

Project work; final circuit - does it function, does it perform to specification - 16%

Project report; prepared as a team -20%

Project presentation; prepared as a team -16%

Peer review - 12%

Creativity module - 20%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.

It is not practicable to offer reassessment in the project because it is carried out in a team and the schedule is rigid to enforce a structured approach to design.

The aims of this course are to:

■ Give students experience in the full design process for an electronic circuit leading to a functional instrument.

■ undertake a project, carried out in a small team, which also draws on material taught in other electronics courses.

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

■ draw circuits using schematic capture making use of analogue, digital and complex modules;

■ Proceed from capture to laying out a printed circuit board, both single and double-sided;

■ describe the basic breakdown of larger projects into modules with specified interconnects;

■ describe the design and circuit of an analogue sensor and signal conditioning circuit;

■ describe the interconnection between analogue and digital domains via an ADC;

■ describe the interconnection between a microprocessor and graphic display device;

■ describe the design choices and implementation of power regulators and associated heat considerations;

■ describe the software required and the need for splitting project software into modules and blocks;

■ explain the principle of design using block diagrams and simple flow charts;

■ explore various input and output techniques used in digital circuitry;

■ describe basic passive components (resistor, capacitor, inductor), their different practical types, and choose an appropriate component for an application;

■ describe the type, use, restrictions and relationships of ADC and DAC modules;

■ explore the use of data sheets and learn to extract relevant information for the current design;

■ demonstrate a systematic approach to the design of an electronic system;

■ devise detailed approach to address given general requirements;

■ perform appropriate preparatory experiments;

■ design complete system, including power supply, decoupling capacitors;

■ lay out printed circuit board;

■ populate printed circuit board, test for continuity, rework as necessary, including surface-mount devices;

■ write software for microcontroller with appropriate structure and documentation;

■ test and debug complete, mixed-signal system;

■ demonstrate an understanding of the importance and systematic application of creativity in engineering;

■ contribute to writing of user's manual and team report;

■ work effectively as a member of a team of 3 or 4 students;

■ keep an individual laboratory book.

Students must attend the degree examination and submit at least 75% by weight of the other components of

the course's summative assessment.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission

rates. Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or

other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.