// advanced track
Advanced
Specialize. Power, control, RF, communications.
Power Electronics
Efficiently change voltage levels. Buck steps down, boost steps up, buck-boost does both. Switching converters are far more efficient than linear regulators β essential for battery-powered devices.
- Analyze buck, boost, and buck-boost topologies
- Calculate duty cycle for desired output voltage
- Design inductor and capacitor values
- Understand continuous vs discontinuous conduction
- Buck converter
- Boost converter
- Duty cycle
- CCM/DCM
Bridge between AC and DC worlds. Rectifiers convert AC to DC (power supplies), inverters convert DC to AC (motor drives, solar systems). PWM techniques control output waveform quality.
- Design single and three-phase rectifiers
- Analyze inverter switching patterns
- Understand PWM for waveform synthesis
- Calculate power factor and THD
- Bridge rectifier
- H-bridge
- PWM
- THD
MOSFETs and IGBTs handle the heavy lifting. Understand switching losses, thermal management, and safe operating areas. Device selection determines efficiency, size, and cost of your power stage.
- Select appropriate power devices for application
- Calculate switching and conduction losses
- Design heatsinking for thermal management
- Understand gate drive requirements
- Power MOSFET
- IGBT
- Switching losses
- Thermal design
Control Systems
Make systems do what you want. Feedback compares actual output to desired setpoint and adjusts input accordingly. Negative feedback stabilizes, positive feedback can oscillate. The foundation of automation.
- Analyze open and closed-loop systems
- Derive transfer functions from block diagrams
- Understand steady-state error
- Determine system stability using pole locations
- Open/closed loop
- Transfer function
- Steady-state error
- Stability
The workhorse of industrial control. Proportional reduces error, Integral eliminates steady-state error, Derivative predicts and dampens. Tune these three gains and solve most control problems.
- Design PID controllers for simple systems
- Tune PID gains using various methods
- Understand the effect of each gain term
- Implement PID in software and hardware
- P, I, D terms
- Tuning methods
- Anti-windup
- Derivative kick
Before building, prove your system won't oscillate or run away. Bode plots show frequency response, Nyquist plots reveal stability margins, Root locus shows how poles move with gain changes.
- Construct and interpret Bode plots
- Determine gain and phase margins
- Apply Nyquist stability criterion
- Use root locus for controller design
- Bode plot
- Gain/phase margin
- Nyquist
- Root locus
RF & Microwave
At high frequencies, wires become distributed circuits. Characteristic impedance, reflections, and standing waves dominate. Match impedances or lose power to reflections. The 50Ξ© standard exists for good reasons.
- Calculate characteristic impedance
- Understand reflections and VSWR
- Use transmission line equations
- Design matching networks
- Characteristic impedance
- Reflection coefficient
- VSWR
- Matching
A graphical tool that turns complex impedance calculations into geometry. Plot impedances, read reflections, design matching networks. Once cryptic, now your best friend for RF work.
- Navigate the Smith chart
- Convert between impedance and reflection coefficient
- Design L and pi matching networks
- Use VNA data with Smith chart
- Impedance mapping
- Matching network design
- VNA measurements
The interface between circuits and free space. Dipoles are simple and effective, Yagis add directionality, patches fit in tight spaces. Impedance matching and radiation patterns determine performance.
- Understand antenna radiation patterns
- Calculate dipole and monopole characteristics
- Match antennas to transmission lines
- Interpret antenna specifications (gain, beamwidth)
- Radiation pattern
- Gain
- Polarization
- Impedance matching
Communication Systems
Encode information onto carrier waves. AM and FM for analog audio, ASK/FSK/PSK for digital data, QAM for high spectral efficiency. Modulation choice trades bandwidth, power, and noise immunity.
- Analyze AM and FM signals
- Understand digital modulation schemes
- Calculate bandwidth requirements
- Compare BER performance of different schemes
- AM/FM
- ASK/FSK/PSK
- QAM
- Bandwidth efficiency
Combat noise with redundancy. Parity bits detect single errors, Hamming codes correct them, convolutional and turbo codes approach theoretical limits. Essential for reliable digital communication.
- Implement simple error detection schemes
- Understand Hamming code principles
- Calculate code rate and overhead
- Appreciate Shannon's channel capacity theorem
- Parity
- Hamming code
- CRC
- Shannon limit
Put it all together: transmitter, channel, receiver. Link budgets predict range, fading models capture real-world impairments, protocols manage access. From WiFi to cellular to satellite.
- Calculate link budget for wireless systems
- Understand propagation and fading effects
- Analyze receiver sensitivity requirements
- Compare different wireless standards
- Link budget
- Path loss
- Fading
- RSSI
Power Systems
How electricity gets made. Synchronous generators convert mechanical energy to electrical, whether from steam turbines, hydro, wind, or gas. Understanding generation basics matters for grid integration.
- Understand synchronous generator operation
- Calculate power output and efficiency
- Analyze generator equivalent circuits
- Understand excitation and voltage regulation
- Synchronous generator
- Prime movers
- Excitation
- Grid synchronization
Moving power from generators to loads. High voltage reduces losses over distance, transformers step up and down. Understanding the grid helps you design systems that connect to it.
- Calculate transmission line losses
- Understand why high voltage reduces losses
- Analyze transformer connections (delta/wye)
- Read single-line diagrams
- Transmission losses
- Voltage levels
- Delta/Wye
- Single-line diagrams
Real power has harmonics, sags, and surges. Power quality issues damage equipment and reduce efficiency. Protection systems detect faults and isolate them before damage spreads.
- Identify common power quality issues
- Understand harmonic sources and effects
- Design basic protection schemes
- Select appropriate protective devices
- Harmonics
- Sags/swells
- Protective relays
- Grounding
// topic connections