Basic Information
- Course Code: EE 619
- Course Name: RF Microelectronics Chip Design
- Course Offered In: 2022-‘23
- Semester Season: Spring
- Instructors: Prof. Jayanta Mukherjee
- Prerequisites: EE 204 and EE 341 basics will help you understand this course better
- Difficulty (1 being easy and 5 being tough): 3
Course Content
At the start, content is focused more on the communication side where linearity, time-invariance, and modulation are discussed. A detailed lecture is there for noise analysis. After this, the topic of LNA is started, which is the core of this course, and the project is on designing and doing the layout of LNA in Cadence. Then, different types of receivers are discussed, and transmitter architecture is covered. Mixers and power amplifiers are also given a good amount of exposure. Finally, oscillators are covered where their basic architectures and VCO are also covered.
Feedback on Lectures
Lectures help understand the content, and the professor’s teaching is fine. He uses a mix of slides and blackboard to explain concepts, but everything is in slides, so the derivations are repeated on the board for better explanation. The professor clears doubts very nicely, so feel free to ask questions. Also, sir gives hints about exam questions in lectures before them, so make sure to attend them and take notes.
Feedback on Evaluations
Quiz 1 and 2: 10% each Midsem and Endsem: 30% each Project: 20%
Study Material and Resources
The slides provided are sufficient to do well in the course, and there is a book by Razavi(RF Microelectronics) recommended by sir, which you can read up to get more exposure and practice some numerical for exams.
Follow-up Courses
If you are interested in antennas, the same professor takes advanced antennas, and microwave integrated circuits is a good follow-up course in a similar field.
Final Takeaway
Good introductory course for basics of RF design. The concepts taught here are not very difficult to understand, and the project provides a good introduction to Cadence as well.