English (depending on the course attendance of foreign students)
Course Content
The course provides the basics for the design of analog electronic systems that include sensors and transducers, narrow band and broadband analog signal processing components and circuits.
The course refers mainly to ultrasonic and georadar electronic systems devoted to medical and non destructive testing applications.
A series of laboratory units are part of the course for the design and characterization of analog front end for different kind of transducers and signal processing blocks for the transmission and interface to A/D circuits.
- TIETZE SCHENK "Electronic Circuits" Handbook for design and applications , 2nd Edition, Springer
- Slides and application notes in electronic format.
-Ultrawideband Radar, Applications and Design Edited by James D. Taylor - Published 2012 by CRC Press
2nd Edition
Learning Objectives
Knowledge of the main electronic circuits and devices for the analog signal processing, transducers front-end in complex electronic systems used in industry, medical and telecommunications fields.
Prerequisites
none
Teaching Methods
The course material in English will be delivered to participants in the form of slides, review articles, technical documents of components and lecture notes, seminar presentations and exercise examples.
For the laboratory units will be used the ANALOG SYSTEM KIT of Texas Instruments:
http://www.ti.com/ww/eu/university/brochures/Analog_Systems_Lab_Manual_en.pdf
Further information
The students are organined in lab teams and they propose their own design of an analog system
including also sensors. The design is completed with a laboratory prototype built around the ASKL and presented on a final event at both academic supervisors and TI analog design experts.
Type of Assessment
final interview on the course contents and review of the laboratory unit reports
Course program
General criteria for the design of analog systems with sensors.
Bus control systems for analog SPI, I2C, RS232
Examples of interfacing with microcontroller
General information on sensors. Temperature (thermistors, thermocouples), linearization of the response of the sensors (eg temperature sensors PTC / NTC), capacitive MEMS accelerometers, piezoelectric sensors (pressure, microphones).
Circuits for sensors interfacing with measurement instruments:
- Galvanic isolation transformer or optical,
- Isolation Amplifiers optical type or with transformer
- Instrumentation Amplifier (application temperature sensors)
- Converters Current-voltage and current-voltage (applied to the photodiodes)
- Converters voltage-frequency and frequency-to-voltage
Circuits for processing analog signals:
- Operational Amplifiers special:
- Single power amplifiers (single-supply)
- Amplifiers Rail - to - Rail
- Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)
- Variable Gain Amplifiers static and dynamic (VGA, TGC, AGC)
- Chopper amplifiers (application with thermistors, phase detectors)
- Analog Multipliers
Linear power amplifiers
Configurations for amplifier in class A, B, AB, Legislative Analysis and comparison of characteristics: efficiency, output impedance, bandwidth, total harmonic distortion and intermodulation
Electronics for ultrasound systems:
- Ultrasonic transducers: principle of operation and construction technologies
- High voltage pulse generators.
- Decoupling circuits (duplexer) sample application to ultrasonic transducers
- Synchronous demodulator analog and digital
- Circuits for the extraction of the signals in phase and quadrature: example of chain for ultrasonic Doppler effect and for holographic radar.
Electronics for radar based sensors.
Examples from ground penetrating radar systems. Analysis block diagrams and components (VCO, envelope detector, mixer) penetrating radar pulse (UWB) and narrowband (FM / CW)
EXERCISES
1. Measuring system with two thermocouples for differential measurement of temperature
2. Characterization of a circuit for measuring vibrations with MEMS accelerometers
3. Airborne ultrasound ranging with analog Multiplier for envelope detection
4. Final project assigned to groups of student: theory, simulations, measurements and discussions with engineers Kilby Labs Texas Instruments.
SEMINARS
Seminar by Texas Instruments staff and by teachers/ researchers from Italian or foreign research institutes
Seminars on doctoral research topics
Seminar on applications of robotic scanning systems with holographic radar: operating principle of holography microwave, architecture of the robotic system