Bode design charts for continuous-time and discrete-timecompensators

This paper presents a graphical design method for common continuous-time and discrete-time compensators. The method is based upon a set of design charts which have been generated using appropriately normalized compensator transfer functions. These charts allow compensator parameters to be determined with minimum calculations, and without going through the trial and error procedure presented in most introductory control systems textbooks. A detailed design example is given to illustrate the method     

仪器、仪表用户图型化操作系统设计工具

现代仪器、仪表操作系统图形化用户界面已是仪器、仪表设计的一个发展趋势。尽管NI公司的LabVIEW^TM提供了先进的测量和自动控制系统软、硬件,但更多的应用系统还是以VB或VC＋＋来设计图形化用户界面操作系统。Micrsoft公司的WindowsCE操作系统为我们提供一个可以为特定产品自定义的模块操作系统。特别是WindowsCE2.11中文版的推出,使仪器、仪表监控程序的设计转变为图形化用户界面操作系统的设计。本文简单介绍了WindowsCE操作系统及其在仪器、仪表操作系统设计中要考虑的有关问题。     

A three-terminal piecewise-linear modelling approach to dc analysis of transistor circuits

The simulation of electronic circuits by computer has become an important part of present-day circuit analysis and design, especially in the area of integrated circuit design. One of the goals in computer simulation of integrated circuits is to have a program ‘package’ for which the input consists of chip fabrication data (mask dimensions, impurity profiles, material data such as carrier lifetimes) and the output displays the complete circuit response. This requires both an efficient modelling approach and a fast circuit analysis method. In this paper a simulation method is described which generates dc responses (in the form of operating points or transfer characteristics) of transistor circuits directly from physical parameter data. The basis of the method is a two-dimensional piecewise-linear approach to the dc modelling of bipolar transistors. The model is directly used in a piecewise-linear circuit analysis program to simulate the dc response of a given circuit.     

基于四运放LM324的模拟电子设计综合训练

介绍了四运放集成电路运算放大器LM324.根据全国大学生电子设计竞赛的基本技能训练要求,阐述了运用1片含有4个运放的LM324实现三角波信号产生、二输入加法运算、带通滤波、二输入比较4个功能模块电路,得到最终波形.经过认真设计和反复实验,该电路在Multisim中的仿真结果符合综合训练的设计要求,实际制作出来的电路的测试结果也满足设计要求.实践证明,该训练方案能有效地培养学生的模拟电子设计能力,同时提高学生综合运用专业知识的能力.     

A distribution engineering workstation for undergraduate andgraduate education

The Distribution Analysis and Economic Evaluation Workstation (DANE) provides students with an open architecture, computer aided engineering workstation environment for distribution system application program development and engineering studies. DANE is conceptually divided into four parts which are a relational database, graphical user interface, an application programmer interface, and applications used for analysis, design, and operational studies. Existing code has been developed with the help of several MS and PhD students. The code consists of C language with Embedded Structure Query Language statements, DANE is used in undergraduate design projects and graduate research     

Interactive transmission line computer program for undergraduateteaching

Distributed-circuit analysis using transmission lines is a standard topic in undergraduate education in electrical engineering. This paper presents a simple menu-driven program that students can use to explore the behavior of transmission line circuits, and as a computational laboratory for verifying their solutions to homework problems. At the introductory level the program demonstrates traveling waves and standing waves. Smith-chart calculations of impedance and reflection coefficient can be associated with the standing-wave pattern on the transmission line. A branching circuit can be solved, including impedance matching with a quarter-wave transformer. At the intermediate level, students can use the program to test their designs for two- and three-step Chebyshev transformers, and for impedance matching using single, double and triple-stub circuits. The program makes easy the calculation of the bandwidth of a design by displaying the return loss or transmission loss as a function of frequency. Low-pass and bandstop filters can be solved. The program encourages students to explore the behavior of the voltages and currents on the lines as the frequency is changed to gain insight into the operation of transformers, matching schemes and filters     

EDA仿真技术在电子线路分析中的应用

强调目前电子工程师们从事电子产品设计时,如何利用ＥＤＡ技术,使用计算机仿真软件对电路,信号与系统进行辅助分析,优化电路设计,提高开发产品进程及设计人员的工作效率。并结合实例介绍了Ｅｌｅｃｔｒｏｎｉｃｓ Ｗｏｒｋｂｅｎｃｈ软件对实际电子线路进行仿真分析的方法。     

Incorporating computer-aided design into an electricalengineering/computer science curriculum

The restructuring of the circuits and computer hardware courses at the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to include a uniform set of electronic design automation (EDA) tools beginning early in the undergraduate curriculum is discussed. The ability to teach good engineering in the department has been significantly strengthened by these changes. The program and the details which have made it successful, including using a consistent set of well-supported commercial tools throughout the curriculum, providing adequate computing resources through a tuition surcharge for engineering students, and offering department-wide support through CAD short courses and consulting hours, are described     

Workstation-based logic animation and microarchitecture emulationfor teaching introduction to computer engineering

The authors describe two software tools used for teaching logic design and analysis and basic computer organization in the introductory course on computer engineering at the authors' department. The first computer-aided instruction tool described is a schematic capture, simulation, and logic animation package targeted for teaching combinational and sequential logic concepts. The tool incorporates logic animation capability rather than waveform displays, which allows students to view and control logic values propagating throughout the entire network. The second tool teaches computer organization, including microprogramming concepts, by means of the graphical display of an instructional microprocessor architecture in which users are allowed to view and control internal registers, memory locations, and microcontrol store. Both of the computer-aided instructional tools run on UNIX workstations, with graphics displays, local hard-disk mass storage, and mouse input     

Teaching introductory autonomous robotics with JavaScript simulations and actual robots

This paper describes a flexible method of teaching introductory robotics. Students program an autonomous mobile robot to complete a set of tasks of increasing complexity, including multirobot tracking. Two proximity detectors (1 b each) and a pair of photosensors (2 b each) provide six sensory inputs to logic circuits, which control two drive motors and two internal memory flip-flops. The robot brain is a digital logic circuit programmed by loading an AS CH code that specifies the logic circuit configuration, similar in approach to a field-programmable gate array. The logic circuit design evolves with task complexity. Two internal set/reset flip-flops can be used to design a finite-state machine to implement a memory. One novelty of the method is that students develop and test their logic circuits on a Web-based graphic simulation before downloading the code to an actual robot. The simulation is written in JavaScript to acquire sensor readings and control robot motors to interact with the environment in a flexible manner. The simulation is downloaded with the Web page and runs smoothly on the client's machine, eliminating the need for high-speed connections. The ASCII code producing successful simulation performance is downloaded to an actual robot through a printer port on a PC in the robot laboratory. A microcontroller on the actual robot interprets the ASCII code in the same manner as the simulation. Classroom experience indicates that evolving a robot brain is an effective teaching tool and students enjoy applying logic circuit design to program a robot.     

Implementing CS1 with embedded instructional research design in laboratories

Closed laboratories are becoming an increasingly popular approach to teaching introductory computer science courses. Unlike open laboratories that tend to be an informal environment provided for students to practice their skills with attendance optional, closed laboratories are structured meeting times that support the lecture component of the course, and attendance is required. This paper reports on an integrated approach to designing, implementing, and assessing laboratories with an embedded instructional research design. The activities reported here are parts of a departmentwide effort not only to improve student learning in computer science and computer engineering (CE) but also to improve the agility of the Computer Science and Engineering Department in adapting the curriculum to changing technologies, incorporate research, and validate the instructional strategies used. This paper presents the design and implementation of the laboratories and the results and analysis of student performance. Also described in this paper is cooperative learning in the laboratories and its impact on student learning.     

A graphical electromagnetic simulation laboratory for power systemsengineering programs

The recent availability of Electromagnetic Transient Programs with graphical front ends now makes it possible to put together models for circuits and systems in a manner similar to the connection of components in a laboratory, In the past, the nongraphical EMT Programs required considerable expertise in their use and thus distracted the students into the details of simulation. The introduction of a graphical simulation based laboratory into undergraduate and graduate power engineering education programs is presented, based on the PSCAD/EMTDC program. The philosophy behind the design of suitable example cases is presented within the framework of an Undergraduate Power Electronics Course, an HVDC Transmission Course and a course on Power System Protection     

Animated analytical and partially discretized solutions to theone-dimensional magnetic diffusion equation

An educational computer program which takes advantage of the graphical and computational capabilities of personal computers in order to help students visualize the dynamic phenomenon of magnetic diffusion is discussed. The program is capable of animating analytical and numerical steady-state solutions to a one-dimensional magnetic diffusion equation. The analytical solution is straightforwardly found from phasor analysis, while the numerical solution is calculated via the partial discretization method     

Characterizing BJTs using the Early voltage in the forward active mode

Bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) have been at the core of linear electronics from its beginnings. Here, we suggest an Early‐based inspired geometric model of BJT devices and its application to derive models of related electronic circuits (more specifically a common‐emitter configuration). The approach involves using a beam of isolines converging at the Early voltage as the model of a BJT. The angles of the isolines are experimentally verified often to vary almost linearly with the base current. A numerical methodology is suggested for the Early voltage estimation and applied to 12 real‐world small signal NPN BJTs. Interesting results are obtained, including the identification of diverse Early voltage values for different BJT types and estimation of transfer functions.     

Computer-Flavored Circuit Theory-Revisited

The impact of the computer and computation on the introductory circuits courses is examined. In response to this impact, changes that include the analysis of nonlinear circuits and experimentation using APL are recommended for the teaching of the circuits courses.     

A Digital Computer Engineering Laboratory

The course and laboratory discussed in this paper offer students an opportunity to gain realistic experience in the engineering of digital computers. The laboratory provides a sufficient number of logic elements to allow students to construct general purpose digital computers of modest design; only a few assemblies of fixed design are provided. The course progresses from work with basic combinational and sequential circuits through the design and testing of digital subsystems, to a project in which groups of students are challenged to specify, design, test, program, and demonstrate their digital computer. Two years of experience indicate that students are willing to enthusiastically expend a great deal of effort to meet this challenge.     

An electromagnetics course with EMC applications for computerengineering students

When computer engineering students follow a different (separate) program of study from the electrical engineering students, only a single course in engineering electromagnetics can be accommodated in the computer engineering (CE) core program. An outline for a course on electromagnetics for computer engineering is given combining traditional electromagnetics topics with definitions, concepts, and discussions drawn from EMC. In this way engineering electromagnetics is made relevant and vital for the CE student. Specific EMC topics are included as they arise in a presentation based on a standard engineering electromagnetics text. Shielding, radiated emissions, susceptibility, the electromagnetic environment, EMC test methods, open sites, shielded anechoic rooms, screen rooms, TEM cells, and EMC test antennas are discussed. The goal of the computer engineering electromagnetics course is to prepare the student for a full-scale EMC course to be taken as an elective in the final undergraduate year or the first year of graduate study     

SSCSSC: a tool for the teaching of digital circuits

The authors present a computer program to support the teaching of digital circuits. The program is used to describe, synthesize, and simulate combinational and synchronous sequential logic circuits, and to help students in their first contact with automatic synthesis tools. The program runs on both MS-DOS and UNIX machines, and it can be given freely to students for home use to significantly reduce the crowding in laboratories. Care has been taken to provide a friendly interface, so that the user can immediately concentrate on the study of circuits instead of having to learn a new program. The software described by the authors is currently used as a support tool in the course on Digital Circuits for Electronic Engineers at the University of Pisa     

SPOC-a stored program optical computer

The Digital Optical Computing (DOC) group at the University of Colorado at Boulder have built the world's first stored program optical computer (SPOC). Several features that distinguish this computer from traditional electronic computers are: the use of optical fibers and pulses of light instead of wires and electronic signals; the use of space and time to store information instead of flip-flops; synchronization based on the predictable propagation time of signals; and return to zero signal encoding. One goal was to show that optics could be used to build a general purpose stored program computer. Another goal was to demonstrate that predictable signal propagation time could replace flip flops for synchronization. The SPOC is a functionally complete computer. The constant speed of light was used to synchronize the signals in the SPOC. We adjusted the length of the input fibers to the logic gates so the signals would arrive at the same time. This synchronization technique is called time-of-flight design. The group developed a design tool, called XHatch, to help design time-of-flight circuits. We used XHatch to determine the lengths of the optical fibers for the SPOC based on its circuit design. The fibers act as registers by storing the signals in space and time until they are fed into a logic element     

A sophomore capstone course in measurement and automated data acquisition

A novel multidisciplinary course (Engineering Applications III) was developed that integrates knowledge gained and tools acquired from the introductory freshman circuits, mechanics, and C/C++ courses. It is built around the concepts associated with automated data acquisition systems. This three-quarter-hour, laboratory-intensive course uses a suite of data acquisition equipment located in the computer aided teaching laboratory at the University of Denver, Denver, CO. The presentation format is two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week. The lectures are designed to cover material that directly supports the laboratories. Early in the course, laboratories explore the subsystems of an automated data acquisition system. The students then learn the operation of a PCMCIA (personal computer memory card international association) data acquisition card, write C/C++ programs to control the data acquisition, learn the operation of analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, and learn the use of the C/C++ commands provided for controlling these subsystems. These concepts are introduced while doing typical experiments dealing with the measurement of temperature and strain and the evaluation of a temperature controller.