Course Description: Electric circuit fundamentals including DC and transient circuit analysis are covered in the course. Topics include independent and dependent sources, circuit elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors and operational amplifiers, linearity, source transformation, Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits, as well as the analysis and design of first and second order circuits.

Course Overview: The goal of this course is NOT to teach you the intracies of circuit analysis as though it is some art. Circuit analysis is a topic that applies to many fields beyond electrical engineering (e.g. acoustics, fluid flow). This is really a course in linear system theory. Eventually you will learn all the techniques discussed in this class can be replaced with a generalized approach based on state variables.

However, the specific goals for this course are to teach you the basics on AC and DC circuit analysis. We will build on what you have learned in physics about inductors and capacitors, and what you are learning in match about differential equations, and will develop simple models of these components that allow electrical circuits to be designed and analyzed using some simple theoretical calculations. We will also rely heavily on computer simulation tools such as MutliSim, to handle complex circuits.

The laboratory experience will teach you how to design, prototype and fabricate simple electrical circuits. Extensive use of simulation tools will be made to debug and verify hardware performance.

Course Learning Objectives (CLO):

1. Identify electrical circuits and problems and basic concepts (SO A, E, K).
2. Understand Kirchoff's Current and Voltage Laws, nodal and loop analysis, voltage and current division, Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits for DC resistive circuits (SO A, E, K).
3. Solve circuits with operational amplifiers and demonstrate the ability to use PSPICE to solve electrical circuits (SO A, E, K).
4. Solve first order and second order circuits with switches, capacitors and inductors (SO A, E, K).

Course Topics: Refer to the CLOs above to understand how these topics relate to our stated program outcomes.

1. Voltage, current, power, energy and independent/dependent sources (CLO 1).
2. Basic laws such as Kirchoff's voltage and current laws, Ohm's law, series/parallel resistance, voltage and current division (CLO 1, 2).
3. Nodal and loop analysis, circuit analysis using circuits theorems (CLO 2).
4. Operational amplifiers (CLO 3).
5. Inductance, capacitance, switches (CLO 2).