Structured Electronic Design

This course focuses on the structured design of analog electronic circuits using CMOS transistors. The methodology integrates principles from network theory, control theory, signal processing, and physics to provide a rigorous foundation for analog circuit development.

Analog design is often seen as complex due to the wide range of performance criteria and the multitude of ways to achieve them. The design space spans theoretical models, circuit topologies, device characteristics, operating conditions, and physical layout, making it easy to lose direction. As a result, analog design is sometimes regarded more as an art than a structured discipline.

Experienced designers often rely on intuition, but intuition, being hard to transfer, is not a suitable basis for education. This course addresses that gap by promoting a systematic and teachable approach: students learn to clearly define design goals, distinguish between abstract concepts and physical implementations, and navigate the design space effectively.

Rather than relying on existing solutions, students are encouraged to start from first principles, using theory to guide implementation in ways that fully exploit the potential of modern technologies. This leads to robust, transparent, and reusable designs with predictable performance.

A key element of the course is that students work in design teams to collaboratively develop analog circuit solutions. Through this process, they practice higher-level design skills, including:

• Critically evaluating the impact of design decisions

• Balancing performance and cost

• Exploring innovative solutions

• Communicating and justifying engineering trade-offs

This team-based, problem-driven approach introduces a strong systems engineering perspective, preparing students to handle the complexities of real-world circuit design and integration.

During the engineering phase, students identify or define components, set their operating conditions, and derive design equations—mathematical relationships that connect device behavior to system-level requirements. These equations, particularly at the transistor level, are challenging and require an understanding of device modeling, circuit behavior, and symbolic analysis. To support this, students will use SLiCAP (Symbolic Linear Circuit Analysis Program), which facilitates robust symbolic calculations:
https://analog-electronics.tudelft.nl/SLiCAP.html

The course builds on prior knowledge from EE3C11 and is closely related to EE4C10. The textbook of EE3C11 is also used in this course. Students should be familiar with:

• Chapters 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 (except 10.3.5, 10.3.7, 10.3.8)

• Chapter 11 (except 11.4.4, 11.4.6, 11.4.7, 11.5.1)

• Sections 12.1 and 12.2

Students without this background are encouraged to complete the homologation program:
https://analog-electronics.tudelft.nl/Homologation/courseWebSite/index.html

Support for mastering the prerequisite material is available from the teaching team. Additional lectures on key background topics (e.g. poles and zeros) can be arranged for external or international students upon request.