A Hands-On, System-Level Analog Electronics Course

This Innovative Practice Category, Work in Progress paper presents an undergraduate electronics course that aims to better allow students to see the application of analog electronics at the system level. System-level analog electronics design is lacking in many of today's curricula, with many students finding the use of operational amplifiers and negative feedback techniques in application sensitive engineering confusing. The purpose of this paper is to present curriculum that attempts to address this issue by exposing students to a more top-down (as opposed to bottom-up) approach towards analog electronics. In the process, two projects are used (one in power management, and another in bio-potential instrumentation) to create a handson environment where students can test and apply the concepts taught towards realizing systems that meet certain performance specifications.