Course Catalogue

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This course provides the skills and understanding required to analyse the behaviour of electrical circuits containing inductors, capacitors, resistors and operational amplifiers when dc, ac and transient dc signals are applied to the circuits. It develops insight into the relationship between the ac and transient solution and the impedance representation of an electrical circuit.

This course will be timetabled in blocks, typically one week in four.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

None

None

75% Written Exam

25% Report: Laboratory report

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Due to the nature of the coursework and sequencing of courses, it is not possible to reassess the coursework laboratory. The initial grade on coursework laboratories will be used when calculating the resit grade.

This course aims to provide a basic understanding of the behaviour of electrical circuits containing inductance, capacitance and resistance and the circuits response to dc, steady-state ac, and transient d.c. voltages and currents. It also establishes the relationship between the ac and transient solution and the impedance representation. The concepts are illustrated through simulations and practical experiments to refine analysis techniques and develop measurement skills.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ define the fundamental electrical properties of charge, current, voltage, power and their units;

■ apply the fundamental laws of circuits analysis, including Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's laws for current and voltages, and Thévenin's and Norton's theorems, to circuits containing resistors, capacitors, inductors, and operational amplifiers;

■ employ the concepts of phasors and impedances in the analysis of linear steady-state AC electrical circuits;

■ analyse the behaviour at transients of 1st order and 2nd order DC electrical circuits;

■ design and characterise passive and active filters;

■ practice and apply the concepts acquired in class to laboratory experiments involving the use of basic equipment such as multimeters, DC power supplies, digital oscilloscopes, and waveform generators.

Students must attend the degree examination and submit at least 75% by weight of the other components of the course's summative assessment.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.