Fall 2007
Page last updated 28 November 2007.
| Contact Info |
Instructor: Prof. Edward F. Kuester |
TA: Aaron Scher |
|
Email: |
kuester@schof.colorado.edu |
Aaron.Scher@Colorado.EDU |
|
Office: |
ECOT 248 |
ECEE 254 |
|
Phone: |
303-492-5173 |
|
|
Office Hours: |
M 9:30-10:30, Tu 11:00-12:00, |
M W 3:00-4:30 |
28 November 2007: Aaron will hold extra office hours on Friday November 30 from 3:00-4:30 for people who want to pick up graded homeworks and lab reports, or to answer questions.
28 November 2007: FCQs (Faculty Course Questionnaires) will be administered online this semester. On November 30, each enrolled student should receive an email from the FCQ office with full instructions and a link to the FCQ form for the course. Each student will get a unique code number in this email, which will allow their enrollment to be verified. Only one submission per student will be processed . Please look out for this email, and do not discard it as spam. It will come from FCQ_Office@Colorado.EDU. If you do not get the email, you can go to http://fcq.colorado.edu/ucb_fcq.htm and enter your birthdate and the last 4 digits of your student ID to access the FCQ form. Students who do not respond by December 5 will get a reminder email. Online collection will go on through December 10. Information obtained via this questionnaire is very helpful in determining future improvements to the course, so please take the time to complete the form.
27 November 2007: The written final exam will take place in the lecture sections on December 4 and 11, covering the topics indicated here. For undergraduates, each part will be from 2:00-2:50 PM; for graduate students from 2:00-3:15 PM. A couple of my final exams (one with solutions) from previous years are given here.
27 November 2007: See the information on projects below. Note in particular the following. You should provide your report electronically to me via email as either a .DOC or .PDF file. There will be oral presentations of each project: 5 minutes for each graduate student project, 8 minutes for each undergraduate project (each member of the team must do at least part of the presentation). I will have a laptop set up for the presentations, and you should bring your files (either in Powerpoint or PDF format) on a memory stick before 7:25 AM on the day of the presentation, or email it to me by 5:00 PM Friday December 14 so they can be loaded onto the laptop. Please be sure that any necessary fonts, figures, etc. are embedded in your files.
Previous AnnouncementsNotes: In this course, you will study microwave transmission-line and antenna structures from the experimental point of view. In the process, you will also become familiar with some of the instruments that permit accurate microwave measurements to be made. No text is used; course notes (including the experiments) are available in PDF form for download here . You must use the username
ecen_4634
and the password given out in class. The file can be read and printed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Use only the 2007 version of the notes, and not earlier ones.
Software: You will need access to a version of the SPICE circuit analysis program in order to work some of the homework problems and lab write-ups. Any version is okay, so long as it supports transmission line sections as circuit elements, as well as nonlinear voltage-controlled current sources. Several free versions of SPICE can be found on the Internet. If your version does not have its own suitable plotting capability (or if you need to plot versus a variable other than frequency or time), you will have to prepare plots using other software (such as Excel, Gnuplot, Matlab, etc.) which you are going to need anyway for other parts of your lab reports and homework. See SPICE Hints for some tips on the usage of SPICE particularly relevant to this course.
You will also need some kind of mathematical numerical analysis software capable of solving matrix equations in more than one unknown (i. e., solving linear systems of equations). Examples of such software are: Mathcad, Matlab, Mathematica, Excel (with the Solver add-in), Euler , Scilab , XLPlot , etc. I don't care which you use, but you will need to be reasonably self-reliant in its usage, because I am not expert in all such programs.
Lab Rules: The laboratory room, ECEE 254, that we use for this course differs from lab rooms you may have used in other courses. It is NOT an open laboratory. Please read and understand the lab rules . You are responsible for the proper use of the facilities.
Further Reading: If you are curious to learn more about RF and microwave measurements, I have put the following books on reserve at the Engineering Library:
C. G. Montgomery (ed.), Technique of Microwave Measurements. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947.
E. L. Ginzton, Microwave Measurements. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.
S. F. Adam, Microwave Theory and Applications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
G. H. Bryant, Principles of Microwave Measurements. Stevenage, UK: Peter Peregrinus, 1993.
D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering. New York: Wiley, 1997.
(Various authors), ARRL UHF/Microwave Experimenter's Manual. Newington, CT: American Radio Relay League, 1990.
Course Organization: There will be 9 experiments this semester, as well as a semester project. You must complete all of these to pass the course. If, with serious reason (medical emergencies qualify, workload from other courses does not) you miss one experiment, there will be make-up labs scheduled near the end of the semester. You must inform me ahead of time if you are going to miss a lab. If you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your lab section, you will not be allowed to do the lab, and will have to make it up during one of the make-up weeks.
Homework (the "pre-lab") is assigned for each experiment, and is due at the beginning of your lab section each week. For example, pre-lab homework number H5 is due at the beginning of the lab in which your group does experiment E5. See Prelab Homework Schedule below for which assignments you are responsible for. Students will not be allowed to do the lab work (and hence will not get credit for that week's experiment) unless their pre-labs have been handed in at the beginning of the lab session. The purpose of the homework is to allow you to perform the experiments with some background and insight, rather than by the seat of your pants.
You should also read the assigned sections of the course notes prior to each week's lecture. There is a very limited amount of lecture time available for the many topics we cover in this course, so the lectures cannot go into each one in as much detail as we might wish. Also, some of the material should be a review for you from your previous EM Fields courses. I expect that you will read the notes and review basic EM concepts as needed in order to keep up; I will always be glad to help you with any questions you may have during my office hours since there will not be time for long answers during the lectures. Please feel free to come in for help.
Keep all your homeworks and lab reports on 8½" ´ 11" inch paper in a 3-ring binder (the "Lab Book"). Only these write-ups are used in determining your grade for each lab. Lab reports are due the day after your lab: Tuesday's sections by Thursday noon. They will be graded within 3 school days, and can be picked up in the lab during any of the lab sections or from the TA or myself during office hours. Grading of pre-labs and lab reports is as follows:
10 --- complete and all correct
8-9 --- complete and mostly correct
5-7 --- complete but some errors
3-4 --- complete but mostly wrong
0-2 --- incomplete or wrong
Please follow this guide to writing good lab reports when you write up your labs.
There will be a written final exam near the end of the semester. Here are some sample final exams from previous years (when the exam was in one part only).
FCQs (Faculty Course Questionnaires) will be administered online this semester. You should be receiving an email with instructions on how to fill out the online form. Information obtained via this questionnaire is very helpful in determining future improvements to the course, so please take the time to complete the form.
The schedule of experiments will be posted on this web page. Each group of lab partners will either be in an A Group or a B Group---this will be decided in class when lab partners are chosen. You should follow the schedule as posted, making sure to hand in solutions for the appropriate prelab homeworks (see prelab schedule ).
Finally, there will be a semester project on which you will work for 3 or 4 weeks (undergraduates), or longer (graduate students). The undergraduate projects will be done in small groups, while each graduate student will do a separate project. Graduate students will perform a literature search at the beginning of the semester as background for selecting and planning their projects, and must submit a formal project plan by the first week of October.
Grades for the course will be determined as follows:
| Course | Undergraduate (ECEN 4634-2) |
Graduate (ECEN 5104-3) |
|
Homework and Prelabs |
25% |
30% |
|
Lab Write-ups and Lab Book |
25% |
25% |
|
Semester Project |
25% |
30% |
|
Final Exam (written: covers the entire course) |
25% | 15% |
Undergraduate
vs. Graduate Course Requirements:
Undergraduate (ECEN 4634) students do all the labs and prelabs and a 3
to 4-week group project at the end of the semester. There is a TA for
the two sections of ECEN 4634. The TA will grade the labs and
prelabs for undergraduates.
Graduate (ECEN 5014)
students do the
same labs, but do a semester-long individual project, as well as some
additional homework sets. There is no TA, I will be available during
the lab, but graduate students are expected to work more independently.
I do all the grading for graduate students.
You may discuss your labs with anyone you wish, but you must write up your lab reports and pre-labs yourself. Copying homework or lab reports from someone else (including your lab partners) or letting someone else copy from you is academic dishonesty, and will constitute grounds for failing the class. Please read the information on disabilities, religious observances, standards of behavior and academic integrity.
I and the TA will be available for questions regarding any aspect of the course during our respective office hours, which I hope will be such that everyone in the course can make use of at least some of them. In any case, you can also see me by appointment at other times. If you don't understand something, I'll never know until you ask or until you fail an experiment or an exam. Why not ask?
Prepare for the experiments each week according to the
schedule
indicated. Note: if the schedule says "no expt", it means
there is no experiment that week, but I will be using the Tuesday lab
section for a lecture period or some other purpose, and you should
attend.
|
Section |
Lab Group |
Group Members |
| ECEN 4634-011 | 1 (A) | Sarah Ditlevson, Mark Kien, Ryan Manning |
| ECEN 4634-011 | 2 (A) | Erez Falkenstein, Sujan Gautam, Nathan Sutton |
| ECEN 4634-011 | 3 (B) | Jeffrey Shin, Tyler Stubbs, Bilal Yousufi |
| ECEN 4634-012 | 1 (A) | Brandon Gilles, Wei-Chu Liao, Wei-Shen Liao |
| ECEN 4634-012 | 2 (B) | Chris Klepac, Adam Marrapode, Zach Miers |
| ECEN 4634-012 | 3 (B) | Dan Crowe, Pavel Mayyak |
| ECEN 5014-021 | 1 (A) | Andrew Casperson, Josh Miers, Mohamad Zainuddin |
| ECEN 5014-021 | 2 (A) | Joe Mruk, Mark Norris, Jim Patterson |
| ECEN 5014-021 | 3 (B) | Rajarshi Paul, Matt Radway, Shruti Yalamarty |
| ECEN 5014-021 | 4 (B) | Ankita Chaturvedi, Dhaval Dhayatkar, Zhou Hongyu |
Lab
Schedule
Please
read the experiment
description BEFORE you come to lab each week.
|
Week |
ECEN 4634 A Group Labs |
ECEN 4634 B Group Labs |
ECEN 5014 A Group Labs |
ECEN 5014 B Group Labs |
|
August 28-30 |
Lab introduction (no expt) | Lab introduction (no expt) | Lab introduction (no expt) | Lab introduction (no expt) |
|
September 4-6 |
Lab lecture (Ansoft Designer - no expt) | Lab lecture (Ansoft Designer - no expt) | Lab lecture (Ansoft Designer - no expt) | Lab lecture (Ansoft Designer - no expt) |
|
September 11-13 |
Experiment L1 | Experiment L2 | Experiment L1 | Experiment L2 |
|
September 18-20 |
Experiment L2 | Experiment L1 | Experiment L2 | Experiment L1 |
|
September 25-27 |
Experiment L4 | Experiment L3 | Experiment L4 | Experiment L3 |
|
October 2-4 |
Experiment L3 | Experiment L4 | Experiment L3 | Experiment L4 |
|
October 9-11 |
No Lab | Experiment L7 | Experiment L6 | Experiment L7 |
|
October 16-18 |
Experiment L7 | No Lab | Experiment L7 | Experiment L6 |
|
October 23-25 |
Experiment L9 | Experiment L8 | Experiment L9 | Experiment L8 |
|
October 30-November 1 |
Experiment L8 | Experiment L9 | Experiment L8 | Experiment L9 |
|
November 6-8 |
Experiment L10 | Experiment L11 | Experiment L10 | Experiment L11 |
|
November 13-15 |
Experiment L12 | Experiment L10 | Experiment L12 | Experiment L10 |
|
November 27-29 |
Experiment L11 | Experiment L12 | Experiment L11 | Experiment L12 |
|
December 4-6 |
Semester project work | Semester project work | Semester project work | Semester project work |
|
December 11-13 |
Semester project work | Semester project work | Semester project work | Semester project work |
| Experiment | ECEN 4634/5014 Prelab Homework | ECEN 5014 Additional Homework |
| L1 | Lecture 1: Problems 1, 5, 10, 11 (pp. 24-27 of course notes) |
A1-1: Problem 7 from
Lecture 1 (page 27). Use the student version of Ansoft Designer and try
simulating 20 instead of 12 cells. |
| L2 | Lecture 2: Problems 2, 8, 12 and 15 (pp. 51-53 of course notes) | A2-1: Design 3 different matching circuits to match a 200 Ω load to a 50 Ω transmission line at 2 GHz and 10 GHz. Compare your results in terms of bandwidth, power delivered to the load and size if implemented in microstrip using a substrate with relative permittivity εr = 2.2 and thickness h = 0.508 mm. You can do this analytically, or using Ansoft Designer. |
| L3 | Lecture 3: Problems 2, 3, 4 and 5 (pp. 64-65 of course notes). You may use Ansoft Designer in problem 5 instead of SPICE | A3-1: Read the Agilent Application Note 1449-3 on uncertainty in power measurement. Give a general summary (in one paragraph) of the factors that affect the accuracy of power measurement at RF and microwave frequencies. If a power measurement is made in a system for which the generator and load reflection coefficients may be as high as 0.1, what is the maximum uncertainty (in dB) of this power measurement? |
| L4 | Lecture 4: Problems 4, 7, 9 (but use a parallel-connected resistor in problem 9 instead of a series-connected one) and 11 (do problem 11 in Ansoft Designer). | Lecture 4: Problem 13 |
| L6 | Lecture 4: Problems 15, 16, 17 and 18 | A6-1: For three mutually intersecting circles as shown in Fig. 4.10 of the course notes, each pair of circles intersects at two points. A straight line drawn through these two points is called a radical axis of the circles; there are three radical axes in general. Show that if the three radical axes are not parallel to each other, they intersect at a single point, which can be used as a best fit to the equations described by the three circles. |
| L7 | Lecture 5: Problems 2, 3, 5, and 6 | A7-1:
Repeat problem 4 of lecture 5 (p. 94 of the course notes) for the case
of a load consisting of a series combination of an inductor L, a capacitor C and a resistor R.
Calculate and plot the reflected and total voltages due to an incident
unit step-function voltage for this load. Do this for the following
sets of element values: L = 1 nH, C = 10 pF, and (a) R = 5 Ω. (b) R = 50 Ω. A7-2: Read the Agilent Application Note 1304-7 on High-Precision TDR. On page 4, it is stated that a BNC to SMA adapter shows a reflection equivalent to "77 Ω" for an incident signal with a rise time of 20 ps. Interpret this as an equivalent parasitic capacitance in parallel with the transmission line, indicating the assumptions you have made. What is the approximate value of this capacitance? |
| L8 | Lecture 6: Problems 2, 3 and 4. Either Ansoft Designer or SPICE can be used for the first two problems; you have to use SPICE on problem 4 (see below for free versions). The G-element neede for this problem is sometimes called a behavioral model. | A8-1: Using Ansoft Designer, simulate a half-wave microwave resonator at 4 GHz capacitively coupled to a 50-ohm input port. Use a realistic (lossy) transmission line for the resonator (copper). For the first part, couple the resonator to the feed with a 0.05 pF capacitor, and observe the input reflection coefficient. Change the following parameters and comment on how they affect the resonator behavior: (1) impedance of resonator line (is the line exactly 180 degrees long?); (2) Q factor (higher loss); (3) value of coupling capacitor. Repeat this analysis using a coupling capacitor at both ends, observing both S11 and S12. Compare the measurements you would do for the one-port case – which case would be easier to get precise results from? What values of coupling capacitors are reasonable to use? How would you implement them? |
| L9 | Lecture 7: Problems 3, 7, 8, 9 | A9-1: Draw a horn antenna as an extension of a TE10 rectangular waveguide. Label the E and H planes of the co-polarized radiation pattern. Sketch two sets of patterns that you would expect from two differently sized horns: one flared only in the E-plane to a size of 2 wavelengths on a side, and one flared in both planes to 10 wavelengths on a side. |
| L10 | Lecture
8: Problems 1, 3, 6 and 7. For Problem 7, import S-parameter data
into Ansoft, using the following procedure: Download the text file FujitsuFET.s2p. You can open it in a text editor to see its contents. To place a model in an existing circuit, 1) Go to the “Draw” menu and select the “N-Port…” menu item. 2) On the “N-Port Data” tab, select “Import Data”, and specify the path to the file you downloaded. Leave the other fields the same. 3) On the “Network Data” tab, verify that the Frequency and S:Port table has been populated. 4) Click “OK” and place the object in your circuit. |
Lecture 8: Problems 2 (refer to MESFET Parameters) and 8. |
| L11 | Lecture 9: Practice Question 3, and Problems 1, 2 and 3 | A11-1: Write a summary of the application of baluns for balanced and double-balanced mixers, including an explanation as to why they are required. One source of information is M/A-COM Application Note M565. Find one additional reference for your summary. The summary should not exceed one page in 12-point font, single spaced, including figures. |
| L12 | Lecture 10: Problems 1, 2, 3 and 4 | A12.1: A |
| August 28 | Lecture 1: Review of Transmission Lines |
| September 4 | Lectures 1 and 2: S-Parameters and Smith Chart |
| September 11 | Lecture 2, continued |
| September 18 | Lecture 3: Microwave Power Measurements |
| September 25 | Lecture 4: Multiport Networks |
| October 2 | Lecture 5: Time-Domain Reflectometry |
| October 9 | Lecture 6: Nonlinear Microwave Circuits |
| October 16 | Lecture 7: Antennas |
| October 23 | Lectures 7 and 8: Microwave Transistor Amplifiers |
| October 30 | Lecture 8, continued |
| November 6 | Lecture 9: Microwave Communication Links |
| November 13 | Lecture 10: Radar Fundamentals |
| November 27 | Lecture 11: Miscellaneous |
| December 4 | Final Exam [Part 1: covers Lectures 1-5 and Labs 1-4, (6), 7] |
| December 11 | Final Exam [Part 2: covers Lectures 6-10 and Labs 8-12] |
| Project Timetable | ||
| ECEN 5014 project proposals due | Thursday October 11 | |
| ECEN 4634 project proposals due | Thursday October 18 | |
| ECEN 5014 project proposals approved; begin work on projects | Thursday October 18 | |
| ECEN 4634 project proposals approved | Thursday October 25 | |
| Project Progress Check | Tuesday November 6 and Thursday November 8 | During Lab Sections |
| Project presentations (5 or 8 min. each) in ECEE 1B28 |
Saturday December 15 (Finals Week) |
7:30 AM - 10:00 AM |
The final projects are INDIVIDUAL (ECEN 5014) or in GROUPS (ECEN 4634) and the experimental part starts in November. A draft project proposal (1 page) in electronic format (MS Word, LaTeX or PDF), must be submitted to me by Wednesday October 3 (ECEN 5014) or Wednesday October 10 (ECEN 4634). I will review each one and provide comments. The final project proposals are due by Wednesday October 10 (ECEN 5014) or Wednesday October 17 (ECEN 4634), also by email. Some possible project topics are listed below, but you are not limited to these. I will judge each proposal for suitability of level and effort required. Topics for graduate students should be related in some way to your research.
Format for project proposals: Use 2.54-cm (one-inch) margins, font 12pt, single-spacing. The title should be in font 14pt bold, centered. The names and affiliations, including email addresses, of the authors should be under the title in font 12pt. The text of the abstract should start 2 lines below the author name/affiliation. Your abstract needs to include the following information: (1) how the content uses things you have learned/ will learn in the class; (2) how the content expands what you have learned in class; (3) how the work will be distributed among team members for ECEN 4634; (4) a detailed weekly timeline and set of milestones for ECEN5014.
The final project
reports should be written in either MSWord or LaTeX in IEEE publication
format. You should provide your report electronically to me via email
as either a .DOC or .PDF file. Here is a sample file
(warts and all) so you can learn the correct format for an engineering
technical paper. There will be oral presentations of each project: 5
minutes for each graduate student project, 8 minutes for each
undergraduate project (each member of the team must do at least part of
the presentation). I will have a laptop set up for the presentations,
and you should bring your files (either in Powerpoint or PDF format) on
a memory stick before 7:25 AM on the day of the presentation, or email
it to me by 5:00 PM Friday December 14 so they can be loaded onto the
laptop. Please be sure that any necessary fonts, figures, etc. are
embedded in your files.
I will also entertain your own topic suggestions ...
Some links of possible interest:
SOFTWARE
Ansoft offers feature-limited student versions of Ansoft Designer SV (high-frequency linear circuit simulator) and Maxwell SV (AC/DC electromagnetic and electrostatic-field simulator). From their web site: "Our free downloads are feature-limited, student versions of some of our commercially distributed software. Intended for electrical engineering students studying topics in electronic design, our free software fosters the development of engineering skills throughout the electronic-design community. Each download comes with a set of examples specially designed for topics commonly studied at the junior, senior, and graduate levels of study."
Free from Hewlett-Packard. Their Website description: "AppCAD is an easy-to-use program that provides you with a unique suite of RF design tools and computerized Application Notes to make your wireless design job faster and easier. AppCAD's unique, interactive approach makes engineering calculations quick and easy for many RF, microwave, and wireless applications. AppCAD is useful for the design and analysis of many circuits, signals, and systems using products from discrete transistors and diodes to Silicon and GaAs integrated circuits. The keyword for AppCAD is easy - no circuit files, no manuals - just quick and easy."
"HbFree is a free Harmonic Balance Microwave and radio frequency circuit simulation program. It is intended for simulation of MW & RF analog non-autonomous circuits under multi-frequency excitations. It was developed for MW mixer and power amplifier design. It is a command-line program with no GUI interface. The package contains source codes of the harmonic balance simulator program hbl, the Spice-to-hbl translator s2h and a few utilities. It allows the following components to be used: R,L,C, transmission lines (lossless for now), V and I sources, diodes and MESFETs. The hbl simulator implements a piecewise harmonic balance technique with 2-D FFT to handle a fewsingle-frequency sources. The input language is very close to SPICE. The hbl simulator itself allows additional elements to be used: S- and Y- matrices of N-ports, strip- and microstrip transmission lines and some discontinuities. But these elements are not implemented in the s2h translator and are available in native hbl input format only." I have not tried it myself.
Free Windows high performance Spice III simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer. Primarily intended for applications using the company's switching regulators, it is a very good general-purpose SPICE program, including transmission-line circuit elements.
Free feature-limited circuit design software for Windows. The OrCAD Demo software includes demo versions of the following tools: OrCAD Capture, OrCAD Capture CIS Option, PSpice® A/D, PSpice AA, OrCAD PCB Editor and SPECCTRA® for OrCAD.
Puff is an MS-DOS program for computer aided design and analysis of RF circuits. It was originally developed at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) by the research group of Prof. David Rutledge. You can freely download a copy of this program without a manual. More information is available at the Caltech website.
A free (for noncommercial use) circuit analysis program for UNIX or Windows, slanted towards RF and microwave work. Its primary advantage (at least in its present state of development) over SPICE is that it handles coupled transmission lines, and easily computes S-parameters and plots on Smith charts. On the other hand, it does not presently support nonlinear elements or other exotic things. From their web page: "ViPEC is a powerful tool for the analysis of high frequency, linear electrical networks. It takes a text based description of the electrical network and an analysis is performed in the frequency domain. The output is in the form of 2-port parameters (S, Y or Z) with results presented on a user defined grid and Smith chart. It can also be used to compute the input and output impedance/admittance as well as amplifier stability factors (Linvill & Stern). ViPEC supports various lumped elements (capacitors, resistors etc.) as well as distributed networks like transmission lines, microstrip and stripline structures. Two port data files are also supported e.g. the 2-port frequency parameters of various RF transistors as supplied by the manufacturer. The component library is under constant development with new elements added at regular intervals." Development seems to have come to a standstill since 2003.
From their website: "Transmission lines, including directional couplers, of arbitrary cross section and an arbitrary number of dielectrics can be analysed with atlc. The impedance Zo of a two-conductor transmission line, as well as the odd-mode, even-mode, differential mode and common mode impedances of a directional coupler can all be computed with atlc. Tools to both analyse and synthesise directional couplers are available." atlc is primarily a UNIX or linux program, but ports to many other OSs have been made.
Presents two useful Windows software programs for microwave and RF modeling. Windows FDTD 1.10 Software is Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) software by F. Kung for printed circuit board (PCB) modeling. "This software can model propagation of electromagnetic wave in a three-dimensional PCB structure, with lump components such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, and bipolar junction transistors. Sinusoidal and pulse voltage sources model are also included. The software runs on Windows platform (Win95 and above), and requires minimum 64 MByte RAM. Included with this version are utilities to view the output data and to draw the model." Windows Smith Chart/Impedance Matching Tool (1.15) is a simple and intuitive tool for viewing an impedance value in Smith chart. "The latest version also allows the user to perform L, T, Pi and single stub transmission line network interactive impedance matching/transformation. It is a versatile tool, which can be used to teach engineers and students on transmission line and impedance matching theory."
Freeware Windows software for the solution of Maxwell's equations and extraction of circuit parasites (inductance and capacitance), thanks to which equivalent circuits can be derived for simulation of EM behaviour of a 3D structure with SPICE-like simulators. Common usages include the analysis of connectors, strip lines, IC pacakges, ram cells, etc.
Freeware. From the reference manual: "FEMM is a suite of programs for solving low frequency electromagnetic problems on two-dimensional planar and axisymmetric domains. The program currently addresses linear/nonlinear magnetostatic problems, linear/nonlinear time harmonic magnetic problems, and linear electrostatic problems." FEMM is a Windows program, useful for getting numerical solutions of fields and line parameters for TEM and quasi-TEM modes on transmission lines, among many possible applications.
Freeware tool for generating transmission parameters and SPICE models from descriptions of electronics interconnect (transmission line) dimensions and materials properties.
TX-Line is a free, easy-to-use, Windows-based interactive transmission line calculator from AWR. It can be used for the analysis and synthesis of transmission line structures. TX-Line enables users to enter either physical characteristics or electrical characteristics for common transmission media such as: microstrip, stripline, coplanar waveguide, grounded coplanar WG and slotline. TX-Line has an easy-to-use interactive graphical user interface and runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.
A freeware numerical mathematics program similar in many ways to Matlab. It is available for Windows, Linux, Unix and OS/2 (this latter is no longer maintained). May be worth a look, though I haven't really used it myself.
A portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari (!) and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i. e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses, including web scripting and integration as a plotting engine for third-party applications like Octave. Gnuplot supports many types of plots in either 2D and 3D. It can draw using lines, points, boxes, contours, vector fields, surfaces, and various associated text. It also supports various specialized plot types. Gnuplot supports many different types of output: interactive screen terminals (with mouse and hotkey functionality), direct output to pen plotters or modern printers (including postscript and many color devices), and output to many types of file (eps, fig, jpeg, LaTeX, metafont, pbm, pdf, png, postscript, svg, ...).
A free mathematical software package for various Unix flavors and for Windows, somewhat more advanced in capabilities than Euler. From its website: "Scilab is a scientific software package for numerical computations in a user-friendly environment. It features:
Elaborate data structures (polynomial, rational and string matrices, lists, multivariable linear systems,...).
Sophisticated interpreter and programming language with Matlab-like syntax.
Hundreds of built-in math functions (new primitives can easily be added).
Stunning graphics (2d, 3d, animation).
Open structure (easy interfacing with Fortran and C via online dynamic link).
Many built-in libraries:
Linear Algebra (including sparse matrices, Kronecker form, ordered Schur,...).
Control (Classical, LQG, H-infinity,...).
Package for LMI (Linear Matrix Inequalities) optimization.
Signal processing.
Simulation (various ode's, dassl,...).
Optimization (differentiable and non-differentiable, LQ solver).
Scicos, an interactive environment for modeling and simulation of dynamical systems.
Metanet (network analysis and optimization).
Symbolic capabilities through Maple interface.
Parallel Scilab."
I have used it only sparingly myself.
"This open source, digitizing software converts an image file showing a graph or map, into numbers. The image file can come from a scanner, digital camera or screenshot. The numbers can be read on the screen, and written or copied to a spreadsheet." Very handy for comparing your own calculations with those someone else has previously published only in the form of a graph.
Windows Freeware. From the website: "Create your graphs for scientific publication with XL-Plot. It reads ascii files and it outputs a vector drawing. XL-Plot is for Windows 95,98, 2000 and XP. The primary purpose of XL-Plot is to create a figure for scientific publication rapidly. It contains a few basic statistical functions, such as Students t-test and linear correlation of two sets of data (two columns in a spreadsheet). XL-Plot has a number of built-in functions that can be fitted to the data in columns on a spreadsheet or to a curve in a graph. The user can easily add fitting functions of his own design. Additional options are Fourier Transformation, (de-)convolution and Matrix inversion." It is a modest piece of software that does a surprising number of tasks well.
INFORMATION
Various links containing information about the Smith chart, as well as Postscript and PDF files of the chart.
Various links containing information about impedance matching, including some Smith chart tools. Many of the links are to MathCAD files.
From their web site: "We're building a practical web resource covering the fundamental principles of microwave design, just for microwave engineers like you. Here you'll find:
The content on Microwaves101 is intended to be the following mix: Useful microwave information - 75%, Humor and assorted foolishness - 20%, Historical stuff - 15%, The remainder of 5% is stuff we've misplaced... We are here to help. If you can't get a response on the message board, send a question directly to the Unknown Editor. In-line content provided by vendors is intended to be useful technical information, not cheesy product releases."
Quick Guide to Ansoft Designer SV
Time-Domain Simulation with Ansoft Designer
Information collected from a variety of sources about RF and microwave coaxial connectors.
Instructions for Circuit Etching
Agilent Interactive Model for S-Parameter Techniques
Agilent (né Hewlett-Packard) Application Note 95-1, "S-Parameter Techniques for Faster, More Accurate Network Design", discusses S-parameter techniques for designing networks used in amplifiers and oscillators. The basic theory behind using S-parameters to characterize any two-port network is presented, and the measurements of s-parameters for a transistor are summarized. Examples of using S-parameters to optimize amplifier and oscillator performance are presented and the optimization of the power gain of a narrow-band amplifier is used to illustrate the use of S-parameters and the Smith Chart in network design. This application note is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format and is bundled with QuickTime animations. It is available for download for all major computing environments. There is also an interactive JavaTM model that illustrates basic techniques for using S-parameters in network design.
An article by David J. Dascher entitled "Measuring Parasitic Capacitance and Inductance Using TDR" from the Hewlett-Packard Journal. The article discusses TDR for transmission lines that have inductive or capacitive loads (in PDF, so Acrobat Reader or something similar is needed to view it).
A collection of links to S-parameter related things (including the HP item above), courtesy of Spread Spectrum Scene magazine.
Some useful hints on operation of network analyzers.
12 November 2007: A 30-minute training session on
printed-circuit board fabrication (for those of
you who requested it) will take place during the lecture period
November 13 at 2:00, in place of the usual lecture. If you have not
signed
up for this training, you do not need to come to class at 2:00 on
this day. Those of you who did sign up should go to Room ECCE 167 (in
the Civil Engineering wing:
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/department/maps/ecce1.html) according to the
following schedule:
2:00 to 2:30: Chris Klepac, Adam Marrapode, Zach Miers, Jeffrey
Shin, Tyler Stubbs, Bilal Yousufi, Sarah Ditlevson, Mark Kien, Ryan
Manning
2:30 to 3:00: Dan Crowe, Pavel Mayyak, Ankita Chaturvedi, Dhaval Dhayatkar, Zhou
Hongyu, Rajarshi Paul, Matt Radway, Shruti Yalamarty, Mohamad Zainuddin
3 November 2007: Anyone whose semester project requires fabrication of printed circuit transmission lines will need to schedule a training session on how to do this in order to use the ITLL facilities for this purpose. Please notifiy me by the end of the day on Tuesday November 6 so I can arrange a schedule of these training sessions.
3 November 2007: My office hour on Wednesday November 7 will be from 4:00-5:00 PM instead of its usual time. This change is for this day only.
30 October 2007: During the labs on November 6 and 8, I will be consulting with each group (ECEN 4634) or individual (ECEN 5014) about the progress of their semester project. Please be prepared to give me a short (3 minutes or so) summary of the current state of your work after your experiment is completed.
25 September 2007: Problem 5 of lecture 3 should refer to the diode equivalent circuit of problem 4, not problem 3.
25 September 2007: Preliminary drafts of semester project proposals are due from graduate students (ECEN 5014) on Wednesday October 3. The final project proposals are due Wednesday October 10. For undergraduate students (ECEN 4634), proposal drafts from each group are due Wednesday October 10, and final proposals are due Wednesday October 17. I will look over each preliminary draft, and respond to you with comments that will allow you to write the final version. All submissions should be in electronic format (MS Word, LaTeX or PDF only) and sent to me by email.
19 September 2007: Because of the failure of one of the oscillators in the lab, undergraduate (ECEN 4634) students will not do Experiment L5. There will be a week off in its place, and students who due to an emergency need to make up one of the labs may do it on that date.
14 September 2007: Due to a conflict with a committee meeting, I have changed the time of my Monday office hour. Please note the new times.
31 August 2007: I have decided to omit the midterm exam for lack of time in the semester, and the grading scale has been changed as indicated below. Also, schedules for the labs, lectures and project milestones have now been put on this page below. Please look at them to see which assignments you must do and labs you must prepare for each week. Pay close attention to which lab group you are in, and whether it is a "Group A" or "Group B" to ensure that you are doing the correct assignments and labs.
30 August 2007: I have realized that an outdated version of one of the experiments was inadvertently put into the version of the course notes I posted earlier this week, and another experiment was omitted altogether. I have corrected the notes, and also taken the opportunity to correct some other errors I found, and this new version is now posted on this page below. If you downloaded the notes before 3:30 PM on Thursday August 30, please download them again and discard your old copy. The correct version has 12 experiments.
30 August 2007: Contrary to what I said in lecture on Tuesday, THE LAB SECTIONS WILL MEET NEXT WEEK ON TUESDAY AND THURSDAY so I can lecture on some important topics before the first labs take place the following week. Section 011 of ECEN 4634 will start at 9:00 AM and meet for about one hour for next Tuesday only, so you (and I) don't have to get here quite so early. The Thursday sections next week will start at their regular times, and meet for about one hour.
30 August 2007: I have changed the time of my Friday office hour.
22 August 2007: This page is still under construction. Dates and other parts of the schedule are subject to change. Note, however, that BOTH LECTURE AND LAB SECTIONS WILL MEET FOR INTRODUCTORY LECTURES DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES.
22 August 2007: The course notes and experiment descriptions are not sold in the bookstore; instead they are available for download in PDF form here . The username
ecen_4634
must be used, along with the password supplied in class. Use only the 2007 version of the notes, and not earlier ones. You will need to print out the experiment descriptions and have them with you when you do the labs. Otherwise, please do not waste paper needlessly: print the file only if you need to, and only those pages you really need hard copies of. Try to refer to the notes on your computer whenever possible. The file can be read and printed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software.