ECE 524 Radio System Design

3 Credit Hours

Introduction to communication theory and radio system design. Design and analysis of radio systems, such as heterodyne transceivers, and effects of noise and nonlinearity. Design and analysis of radio circuits: amplifiers, filters, mixers, baluns, and other transmission line and discrete circuits. Students will learn to design, build and test a cell phone radio by hand. Radio can be made at home.

Prerequisite

Suggested:

Microelectronics (NC State 302) OR

Electromagnetic Fields (NC State 303)

Course Objectives

Learn modulation methods for analog and digital radios
Learn signal processing techniques (as they are used in analog circuits) for bandwidth and itnerference rejection
Learn how to simulate modern radios at the system level
Learn how RF components operate and are designed, including transmission line circuits
Learn how to design, simulate, build and test exemplar RF circuits (mixer, amplifier, power combiner, etc)
Learn how to construct a fully hand made 950 MHz digital radio

Course Requirements

60-90 min of lecture per week
Weekly short quizzes (15%)
Weekly HW for 1st half of semester (15%)
Two exams 1st half of semester (10% each)
Weekly labs (virtual) done using software on your home computer. Labs are done with instructor virtually. (25%)
Final project is to design/simulated a 950 MHz digital radio from scratch (25%)

Textbook

None Required

Cadence AWR Microwave Office. Licenses for 6 months is free and can be installed on PC or mac with PC emulation

Updated: 10/31/2022