University of Southern California

School of Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering

 

EE 478L                                  Digital Electronic Circuit Design                                                                                      

Description:

 

This senior-level project design course offers students an intensive design experience with real-world constraints.  It includes a significant design project with deliverables.  The design project involves finding a working and practical circuit solution to a problem for a new product or an improvement to an existing product. The complexity of the project will require the application of three or more major concepts/functions of electrical engineering.

 

Students will apply engineering knowledge and analytical skills acquired in earlier course work to explore design concepts and applications of digital electronic circuits, which may be in a mixed signal environment.  Practical circuits solutions may include metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) logic circuits, bipolar junction transistor (BJT) saturation logic families, current-mode logic families, programmable logic devices (PLDs), regenerative logic circuits, digital displays drivers, memories and interface logic circuits, level-shifter, power-on reset circuit, fractional divider circuit, pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit, data-bus keeper, edge detection circuit, non-overlap clock phase generator, DC-DC converter, phase frequency detector, charge pump circuit, phase lock loop (PLL), analog to digital (A/D) and digital to analog (D/A) converters.

 

Group Project Administration and Deliverables:

 

Students must work in groups of two to four.  Two or more groups can work on designs for a similar product, but each group must work independently.  Two or more groups can work together on a more complex final product, with each group responsible for a significant and distinct portion of the final product.  Project topics/partitions must be approved by the instructor.  The design must incorporate engineering standards and realistic constrains that include most of the following considerations:

  • Economic
  • Environmental
  • Sustainability
  • Manufacturability
  • Ethical
  • Health and safety
  • Social
  • Political

 

Project phases:

 

1. Project proposal

·        Names of group member

·        Description of the product to be designed and built

a.       Justify the need for the product

b.      Describe the deliverables

·        Task schedule and time line

·        Material and resources requirements

·        A budget

2. Preliminary design review

·        System block diagram

·        Product specifications

·        Major circuit design schematic and analysis

·        Components/material selection/acquisition and specification

3. Final design review

·        Complete detail design schematic and analysis

·        Functional sub-circuits

4. Product demonstration

·        Demonstration of the working hardware  

5. Oral presentation and written documentation

·        Complete product specifications

·        User’s documentation

·        Final design schematic and analysis documentation. Hand analysis/calculation and appropriate computer-aided design tools (schematic capture, simulation and data plot) must be used.

·        List of functional features and engineering concepts/functions included in this product

·        The unit cost of manufacturing this product, assume the quantity of a thousand units.

·        Test result documentation

 

Circuit characterization and application problems and simulation experiments requiring the use of SPICE and circuit hardware will be assigned.  Analytical assignments related to circuit applications will also be given.  Work received pass due date will earn no points.  Every student must complete all assignments even if the work earns no points.  Failure to complete all of the assignments and projects will result in an F in this class.

 

Further information specifically related to the current semester will be provided in class.

 

Note:

Criterion 4 of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria states that “Students must be prepared for engineering practice through the curriculum culminating in a major design experience (capstone design course) based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating engineering standards and realistic constrains that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political.”