ECE202A. Microwave Circuit Design

This course has not been taught since ~1998, having been mostly superseded by the new course ECE145AB taught by Prof. Long, together with my class ECE145C. There are quite a few portions of the notes, however, which remain useful for graduate students pursuing work in transistor modeling on mm-wave IC design. The notes would benefit from re-drawing; that will be done if and when I again present the course in lecture form.

Notes set 1: Transmission lines ece202a_notes_set_1.pdf

Models, equations, equivalents, reflections, time-domain analysis

Notes Set 2 Transmission lines in the frequency domain. ece202a_notes_set_2.pdf

Reflection coefficients, impedance relationships, standing waves, the Smith chart.

Notes Set 3: Planar Transmission Lines. Characteristics. Parasitic modes. Skin and radiation losses. Junctions. How to avoid going wrong with transmission-line interconnects. ece202a_notes_set_3.pdf

Notes Set 4: 2 Port Parameters. Transistor characteristics. S, Y, Z parameters. How to calculate S parameters. Network analysis and calibration. A first rough treatment of transistor model extraction from S-parameter data. ece202a_notes_set_4.pdf

Notes Set 5: Impedance Matching Lecture. Mostly pictures. ece202a_notes_set_5.pdf

Notes Set 6: Transistors. Structure and operation. High frequency equivalent circuits. Biasing and bias networks. T to hybrid-pi conversion. Figures of merit: ft and fmax. Maximum available gain. ece202a_notes_set_6.pdf

Notes Set 7: A quick and broad review of Non-microwave high frequency circuit design. Coverage of ECE137A, ECE137B, and ECE145C in one lecture. Basic transistor stages. Gain relationships. Nodal analysis. Transfer functions. Separated poles. Method of time constants. Emitter and source degenerations. Poles and zeros of common emitter/base/collector and common source/gate/drain. This material is better covered by the combined ECE137AB and ECE145C notes. ece202a_notes_set_7.pdf

Notes set 8: Resistively terminated amplifiers and resistive feedback amplifiers ece202a_notes_set_8.pdf

This material is largely superseded by ECE145C.

Notes set 9: Distributed amplification. ece202a_notes_set_9.pdf

The general utility of distributed or traveling-wave amplifiers is debatable, though they do find use in EW, in broadband instrument preamplifiers, and in modulator drivers 40 Gb/s fiber links. The principles are however also of importance in understanding a broad range of traveling-wave devices, including optical modulators.

Notes set 10: Power Gain Definitions. ece202a_notes_set_10.pdf
Transducer Gain, Available Gain, Operating Gain, Maximum Available Gain.

Notes set 11: Signal Flow Graphs and Mason's Gain Rules ece202a_notes_set_11.pdf

Notes set 12: Derivation of expressions for various power gains ece202a_notes_set_12.pdf

Notes set 13: Comments on near-unilateral amplifier design ece202a_notes_set_13.pdf

Notes set 14: 2-port Stability theory ece202a_notes_set_14.pdf

Notes set 15: stabilization and amplifier design with potentially unstable devices ece202a_notes_set_15.pdf

Notes set 16: A short treatment of power limits ece202a_notes_set_16.pdf

Notes set 17: A short treatment of noise ece202a_notes_set_17.pdf

The ECE594 noise lectures, and the ECE145C notes both supersede this material.

Maximum Stable Gain, Unilateral Gain.