ELE 2001 - Electric Circuits I: Theory and Applications

• Demonstrate knowledge of electric circuit quantities and their fundamental relationships, including linearity
• Identify common circuit configurations:  series, parallel, series-parallel, ideal op-amp configurations
• Analyze basic DC and AC electrical circuits using fundamental well-known circuit laws
• Demonstrate electrical laboratory measurement and instrumentation skills
• Analyze and simulate circuits with provided models of sensors and actuators, including hardware and machines, and equivalent circuits

• Algebra and trigonometry through precalculus
• Concept of electric charges
• Power and energy concepts

• Electrical quantities in a steady-state DC context:  voltage, current resistance, power, and energy; units and prefixes; sources and loads in an energy conversion context; shorts and opens; symbols, circuit schematics, relationship to physical components and circuit boards
• DC series and parallel circuit analysis, Kirchhoff’s voltage and current laws
• DC series-parallel circuit analysis; voltage and current divider rules of linear circuit elements, passive sign convention and implications for sources and loads
• Nodal analysis, including use of mathematical software and circuit simulation software
• AC sinusoidal steady state signal: time domain and phasor mathematical representations
• Capacitance, inductance, reactance; DC and AC in inductors and capacitors
• Impedance, complex numbers, and use of complex numbers in AC calculation; two-component RL and RC series circuits
• AC series-parallel and nodal circuit analysis
• Superposition, including linearity condition for applicability of superposition
• Real AC power for same and different frequencies; apparent power distinction
• Ideal op-amps and standard configurations circuit analysis
• Model concept and using models; Thevenin/Norton equivalent circuits; models of example devices, such as motors, batteries, pH probes, solar cell, and so forth
• Analytic determination of Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits of limited-size DC circuits using the open circuit - short circuit approach and graphically using voltage-current (i-v) plots
• Variable frequency circuit analysis and semilogarithmic plots:  two-component series RL and RC circuits; the filtering concept; simulations; the 20 dB/decade slope and break frequency concepts; mathematical software, log scales, and the dB (note:  the transfer function is a topic in Electric Circuits 2)
• Overview of signal types: analog versus digital

• Laboratory safety; DC instrumentation use, breadboarding, basic voltage and current measurements
• Practice connections, Kirchhoff’s voltage law, Ohm’s law, input and output relationship
• Series and parallel resistances, loading effects, current-voltage characteristic
• Multi-branch circuits Kirchhoff’s current law
• Portable AC instrumentation:  generator and scope; scope output interpretation
• Benchtop AC instrumentation; imperfections of portable and benchtop equipment
• AC magnitude, phase, and current measurement using a sense resistor
• Inductive component model (RL) extraction from measurements
• DC op-amp circuit
• Superposition, filtering illustration, amplification, periodic signal scope triggering
• Frequency sweep, AC equivalent circuit model extraction
• Op-amp digital-to-analog converter experiment
• Midterm exams are held during laboratory sessions (no experiment that week)