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ECE 3074 - AC Circuit Analysis Laboratory (1C)

Course Description

Construction, analysis, and characterization of circuits with student-owned Lab-in-a-Box system. Experiments include: sinusoids and phasors including impedance, admittance, and Kirchhoff's laws; sinusoidal steady-state analysis including node and mesh analysis, Thevenin and Norton equivalent, and op amps; ac power analysis including instantaneous and average power, power factor, and complex power; magnetically coupled circuits including mutual inductance, energy in a coupled circuit, and transformers; frequency response including transfer functions, Bode plots, resonance, and passive and active filters; and two-port circuits. A C- or better is required for all prerequisities.

Why take this course?

Circuit analysis and design using discrete R, L, and C components, as well as op amps and transformers, is a fundamental skill for electrical engineering. Using a student-owned analog and digital trainer, a digital multimeter, and a software oscilloscope (equipment also used in four other required courses in the EE and CpE curriculum), the student learns to build and analyze real circuits and compare experimental results with theoretical results and computational models. This course complements the lecture course (ECE 3004) and stresses modeling, design, construction, measurement, and characterization skills for ac circuits.

Learning Objectives

  • Build basic circuits on a student-owned analog and digital trainer kit using student-owned tools and components to departmental wiring standards.
  • Measure and characterize these circuits using a student-owned digital multimeter and software oscilloscope.
  • Analyze and model the performance of these circuits using modern computing tools such as MatLab and PSpice.