Courses
Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits
This course addresses the design of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for wireless communication systems. It emphasizes both theoretical foundations and practical design techniques, covering the full flow from architecture-level considerations down to transistor-level implementation. The course begins with fundamental RF design concepts, including harmonic distortion, noise, and impedance matching and transformation. It then explores transceiver architectures and their key building blocks, such as low-noise amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, and power amplifiers.
Special Topics in Electronics
This course focuses on advanced circuit- and system-level topics in wireless communications and assumes prior completion of a course in RFIC design or an equivalent background. At the circuit level, it covers noise-cancellation techniques for low-noise amplifiers (LNAs); the design of harmonic-rejection mixers; injection-locked and low-phase-noise oscillators; phase-locked loops (PLLs) and frequency synthesizers; high-efficiency power amplifiers and their linearization methods; and phase shifters used in modern wireless standards. The course then transitions from individual circuits to complete wireless transceiver systems. It discusses in-band full-duplex transceivers and subsequently extends the discussion to phased-array transceivers. For both single-channel and phased-array simultaneous transmit-and-receive (STAR) systems, the course examines essential features and key challenges—such as self-interference and inter-channel interference—and explores corresponding architectural and circuit-level solutions.
Electronics III
This course begins by reviewing DC characteristics and the basics of single- and multistage amplifiers. It then introduces the frequency-dependent model of transistors and analyzes the frequency response of amplifiers. It covers pole-zero calculation, Bode plots, time-constant methods, feedback concepts, stability analysis, and frequency compensation methods for amplifiers. The course concludes with the design of an operational amplifier (op-amp) with specified requirements and verification of its performance through simulations.
Electronics II
This course contains a review of BJT and MOSFET physics, deriving their small-signal models, and analyzing DC characteristics, input/output resistances, and gain of single-stage amplifiers. It then covers the ins and outs of differential pairs, current mirrors, active loads, output stages, and passive feedback networks. It also includes the design of telescopic, low-voltage, and folded cascode CMOS amplifiers.
Communication Circuits
This course covers the basic concepts of communication systems. It emphasizes both theoretical and practical communication circuit design techniques, from architectural considerations to active and passive circuit design. It begins with fundamental concepts, including scattering parameters, Smith chart, matching networks, nonlinearity effects, and noise. It proceeds to explore transceiver architectures, with a significant emphasis on the design of low-noise amplifiers, mixers, and oscillators for the desired performance.
