ADVANCED ELECTRONICS - MOD. 1

The course is one of the educational activities of the Master’s degree in Engineering Physics and allows the student to depend and exploit the basic knowledge of electronics, acquired with the Bachelor degree.
The lectures cover different topics regarding the analysis and the design of electronics and microelectronics circuits, measurement chains and detection systems based on semiconductor sensors.
At the end of the course, the student will have a sound knowledge of the operating principle of the operational amplifiers with their key parameters and limitations. The student will be able to understand and design the main blocks of an analog integrated system and of linear circuits containing operational amplifiers.
In addition, the course will enable the understanding of the noise in the electronics circuits and in acquisition systems, thanks to the study of the physical noise sources and to their equivalent circuit representation. The study of the main filtering techniques and of the implementation of active filters will provide the necessary tools in order to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio, which is a key element in the design of measurement chains.
In order to explore possible applications in the framework of in Engineering Physics, the lectures will also introduce the basic concepts of radiation detection systems based on semiconductor sensors. The student will get basic understanding of the interaction of radiation with matter and the main architecture of silicon detectors with their low-noise readout.

Knowledge and understanding
• Thorough knowledge of the fundamental characteristics of operational amplifiers and their use in different configurations.
• Knowledge of the main architectures of A/D and D/A converters.
• Understanding of noise sources in electronic circuits and knowledge of basic filtering techniques
• Understanding of the operating principles of some of the main semiconductor radiation detectors with the main requirements of their readout electronics

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
• Analysis of an electronic circuit starting from the identification of the operating parameters of the individual components. Ability to understand the limits of the used approximations.
• Design of analog feedback circuits containing operational amplifiers.
• Verification of the analysis and dimensioning of the circuits through the use of a simulator. Knowledge and autonomous use of circuit simulation software (e.g. PSpice).
• Analysis and estimation of the figures of merit and performance of specific radiation detection system, taking into account the characteristics of the reading electronics.

Communication skills
• Knowing how to communicate the knowledge learned using appropriate terminology

Learning skills
• Knowing how to take notes, selecting and collecting information according to their relevance and priority

The course requires basic notions of electric circuits, electronic devices, and basic concepts of control systems. The student must be familiar with the concept of frequency response of a circuit and the Laplace transform. A brief review will be made at the beginning of the course. Basic knowledge of semiconductor physics is also recommended.

Introductory concepts and background
• Basic concepts of the theory of electric circuits
• Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits.
• Time response and frequency analysis of elementary circuits.
• Bode plots.
• MOS diodes and transistors.

Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps)
• Main characteristics of ideal and real OpAmps.
• OpAmps in open loop: the comparator
• Characteristics of feedback systems. Concept of ideal gain, loop gain and real gain. Calculation of input and output impedances.
• Frequency response and stability of feedback amplifiers
• Circuits with operational amplifiers: the summing amplifier, the difference amplifier, the instrumentation amplifier, the Miller and approximate integrator amplifier, the differentiator amplifier and filters.
• Basic blocks of the internal structure of OpAmps: differential stage, current mirrors and output stages
• Non-linear circuits with OpAmps and configurations with p[positive feedback. Basic principles of waveform generators and oscillators.


Digital-to-Analog (DAC) and Analog—to-Digital Conversion (ADC)
• Basic Circuits for DAC Conversion: binary-weighted resistors, R-2R ladders. Precision, errors and non-linearities.
• ADC converters. Transfer characteristic of an ADC, offset, gain error, INL and DNL, quantization error.
• Examples of the main ADC architectures: flash ADC, ramp-type ADC, tracking ADC, successive approximation (SAR) ADC
• Sample-and-Hold circuits

Noise in electronic devices and circuits:
• Noise sources in resistors and transistors and equivalent input noise generators. Thermal noise, shot noise and 1/f noise.
• Equivalent input noise generators in Operational Amplifiers


Semiconductor detectors and associated electronics:
• Semiconductors as radiation detectors
• The readout chain.
• Main characteristics of Si sensors (eg PIN diodes, CCDs, Active pixels).
• Examples of applications.

• Sedra, Smith: Microelectronic Circuits, 7th Ed. Oxford University Press. There are several editions. All editions starting from the 5th are in principle ok.
• Richard Jaeger, Travis Blalock, Microelectronic Circuit Design, 6th Edition, ISBN10: 1259852687 | ISBN13: 9781259852688

The achievement of the teaching objectives is assessed through participation in the activities and exercises assigned during the course and a final written exam

Frontal lectures. For most of the topics, the theoretical lessons will be followed by examples and exercises carried out in the classroom.

During the laboratory hours, the use of a circuit simulation software is foreseen. This will allow the student to verify the acquired knowledge and evaluate the impact of the approximations introduced for the analytical solution of some exercises.

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development