Electronics Engineering:
Introduction
Electronics Engineering is one of the largest and fastest growing industries. It covers a wide range of applications we use daily and which make our life easier and enjoyable such as Television, Radio, computers, telecommunication etc. They helps us to see, hear and communicate over vast distances and do things faster. Electronics has a major role in improving productivity in industries like oil, energy, agriculture and so many other important sectors of economy. In steel, petroleum and chemical industries it is the electronic devices that direct, control and test production processes. Health care industry depend on electronic instruments to perform chemical tests and to check body functions. The safety in transportation , factories and mines and in homes rely heavily on electronics. The uses are endless.
An Electronics engineer must find new solutions to the practical problems affecting our daily lives. An electronics engineer will work in team with other specialists to design, fabricate, produce, test and supervise the manufacture of complex products and systems i.e electronic equipments and components for a number of industries including hospitals, computer industry, electronic data processing systems for communication and in defense etc. They supervise production and manufacturing processes and oversee installation and maintenance. Electronics engineers work with devices that use extremely small amounts of power. They work with microprocessors, fibre optics, and in telecommunication, television, radio etc.
Electronics engineering is a constantly changing and widening branch of the engineering profession. Electronics industry being a labour intensive industry provides many job opportunities for the skilled job seekers . Increased production and demand by government and businesses for communication equipment, computers and military electronics along with consumer demand and increased research and development on robots and other types of automation contributes to the growth of employment opportunities in the field. Candidates having a creative and inventive mind and also are good at physics and mathematics will probably find electronics engineering a challenging and lucrative career.
Job Prospects & Career Option :
An electronics engineer can get a job in Central Government, State Governments and their sponsored corporations in public enterprises and the private organizations like All India Radio, Indian Telephone Industries, MTNL, National Physical Laboratories
Institutes :
Indian institute of Technology (IIT's) in New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur etc are the most prestigious Engineering institutions in India.
TYPES OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
Electronics engineering has many subfields. This section describes some of the most popular subfields in electronic engineering. Although there are engineers who focus exclusively on one subfield, there are also many who focus on a combination of subfields.
Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of electronics circuits that use the electronic properties of components such as resistors , capacitors , inductors , diodes and transistors to achieve a particular functionality.
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals. Signals can be either analogue , in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or digital , in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the amplification and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the modulation and demodulation of signals for telecommunication . For digital signals, signal processing may involve the compression ,error checking and error detection of digital signals.
Telecommunications engineering deals with the transmission of information across a channel such as a coaxial cable , optical fibre or free space .
Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a carrier wave in order to shift the information to a carrier frequency suitable for transmission, this is known as modulation . Popular analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation . The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the transistors and recievers needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way communication device known as a transrecievers. A key consideration in the design of transmitters is their power consumption as this is closely related to their signal strength. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by noise .
Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of commercial aeroplanes to the cruise control present in many modern cars . It also plays an important role in industrial automation .
Control engineers often utilize feedback when designing control systems . For example, in a cars with cruise control the vehicle's speed is continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts the engine speed accordingly. Where there is regular feedback, control theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as pressure , flow and temperature. These devices are known as instrumentation .
The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of physics that often extends beyond electromagnetic theory . For example, radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier-feedback effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.
EDUCATION
Eligibility & Course Area : To become an electronics engineer one needs to have a degree in electronics engineering (BE / B.Tech) or must have passed the AMIE (Associate Membership Examination of the Institute of Engineers) in electronics or Graduate membership Examination.
Electronics engineers typically possess an academic degree with a major in electronic engineering. The length of study for such a degree is usually three or four years and the completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Applied Science depending upon the university.
Some electronics engineers also choose to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Engineering, a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering or an Engineer's degree. The Master degree is being introduced in some European and American Universities as a first degree and the differentiation of an engineer with graduate and postgraduate studies is often difficult. In these cases, experience is taken into account. The Master and Engineer's degree may consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy consists of a significant research component and is often viewed as the entry point to academia.
In most countries, a Bachelor's degree in engineering represents the first step towards certification and the degree program itself is certified by a professional body. After completing a certified degree program the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements (including work experience requirements) before being certified. Once certified the engineer is designated the title of Professional Engineer (in the United States and Canada), Chartered Engineer (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe), Chartered Professional Engineer (in Australia) or European Engineer (in much of the European Union).
Fundamental to the discipline are the sciences of physics and mathematics as these help to obtain both a qualitative and quantitative description of how such systems will work. Today most engineering work involves the use of computers and it is commonplace to use computer-aided design programs when designing electronic systems.
Although most electronic engineers will understand basic circuit theory, the theories employed by engineers generally depend upon the work they do. For example, quantum mechanics and solid state physics might be relevant to an engineer working on VLSI but are largely irrelevant to engineers working with macroscopic electrical systems.
MAIN SUBJECTS
Apart from electromagnetics and network theory, other items in the syllabus are particular to electronics engineering course. Electrical engineering courses have other specialisms such as machines, power generation and distribution . Note that the following list does not include the large quantity of mathematics (maybe apart from the final year) included in each year's study.
Electromagnetics
Elements of vector calculus : divurgence and curl ; Gauss*and Stokes theorem , Maxwell's equations : differential and integral forms. Wave equation,Pointing vector, Plane waves : propagation through various media; reflection and refraction; phase and group velocity ;skin depth, transmission lines : characterstic impedance ; impedance transformation; smith chart ; impedance matching ; pulse excitation. waveguides : modes in rectangular waveguides; boundary conditions ; cut-off frequencies ; dispersion relations . Antennas: Dipole antennas ;antenna arrays ; radiation pattern; reciprocity theorem, antenna gain .
Network theory
Network graphs: matrices associated with graphs; incidence, fundamental cut set and fundamental circuit matrices. Solution methods: nodal and mesh analysis. Network theorems: superposition, Thevenin and Norton's maximum power transfer, Wye-Delta transformation. Steady state sinusoidal analysis using phasors. Linear constant coefficient differential equations; time domain analysis of simple RLC circuits, Solution of network equations using Laplace transform: frequency domain analysis of RLC circuits. 2-port network parameters: driving point and transfer functions. State equations for networks.
Electronic devices and circuits
Electronic Devices: Energy bands in silicon, intrinsic and extrinsic silicon. Carrier transport in silicon: diffusion current, drift current, mobility, resistivity. Generation and recombination of carriers. p-n junction diode, Zener diode, tunnel diode, BJT, JFET, MOS capacitor, MOSFET, LED, p-I-n and avalanche photo diode, LASERs. Device technology: integrated circuits fabrication process, oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, photolithography, n-tub, p-tub and twin-tub CMOS process.
Analog Circuits: Equivalent circuits (large and small-signal) of diodes, BJTs, JFETs, and MOSFETs. Simple diode circuits, clipping, clamping, rectifier. Biasing and bias stability of transistor and FET amplifiers. Amplifiers: single-and multi-stage, differential, operational, feedback and power. Analysis of amplifiers; frequency response of amplifiers. Simple op-amp circuits. Filters. Sinusoidal oscillators; criterion for oscillation; single-transistor and op-amp configurations. Function generators and wave-shaping circuits. Power supplies.
Digital circuits: Boolean algebra, minimization of Boolean functions; logic gates digital IC families (DTL, TTL, ECL, MOS, CMOS). Combinational circuits: arithmetic circuits, code converters, multiplexers and decoders. Sequential circuits: latches and flip-flops, counters and shift-registers. Sample and hold circuits, ADCs, DACs. Semiconductor memories. Microprocessor(8085): architecture, programming, memory and I/O interfacing.
Signals and systems
Definitions and properties of Laplace transform, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier series, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier Transform, z-transform. Sampling theorems. Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) Systems: definitions and properties; casuality, stability, impulse response, convolution, poles and zeros frequency response, group delay, phase delay. Signal transmission through LTI systems. Random signals and noise: probability, random variables, probability density function, autocorrelation, power spectral density.
Control systems
Basic control system components; block diagrammatic description, reduction of block diagrams. Open loop and closed loop (feedback) systems and stability analysis of these systems. Signal flow graphs and their use in determining transfer functions of systems; transient and steady state analysis of LTI control systems and frequency response. Tools and techniques for LTI control system analysis: root loci, Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Bode and Nyquist plots. Control system compensators: elements of lead and lag compensation, elements of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control. State variable representation and solution of state equation of LTI control systems.
Communications
Analog communication systems: amplitude and angle modulation and demodulation systems, spectral analysis of these operations, superheterodyne receivers; elements of hardware, realizations of analog communication systems; signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) calculations for amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) for low noise conditions. Digital communication systems: pulse code modulation (PCM), differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), delta modulation (DM); digital modulation schemes-amplitude, phase and frequency shift keying schemes (ASK, PSK, FSK), matched filter receivers, bandwidth consideration and probability of error calculations for these schemes.
Professional bodies
Professional bodies of note for electrical engineers include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). The IEEE claims to produce 30 percent of the world's literature in electrical/electronic engineering, has over 360,000 members worldwide and holds over 300 conferences annually. [6] The IEE publishes 14 journals, has a worldwide membership of 120,000, certifies Chartered Engineers in the United kingdom and claims to be the largest professional engineering society in Europe.
Introduction
Electronics Engineering is one of the largest and fastest growing industries. It covers a wide range of applications we use daily and which make our life easier and enjoyable such as Television, Radio, computers, telecommunication etc. They helps us to see, hear and communicate over vast distances and do things faster. Electronics has a major role in improving productivity in industries like oil, energy, agriculture and so many other important sectors of economy. In steel, petroleum and chemical industries it is the electronic devices that direct, control and test production processes. Health care industry depend on electronic instruments to perform chemical tests and to check body functions. The safety in transportation , factories and mines and in homes rely heavily on electronics. The uses are endless.
An Electronics engineer must find new solutions to the practical problems affecting our daily lives. An electronics engineer will work in team with other specialists to design, fabricate, produce, test and supervise the manufacture of complex products and systems i.e electronic equipments and components for a number of industries including hospitals, computer industry, electronic data processing systems for communication and in defense etc. They supervise production and manufacturing processes and oversee installation and maintenance. Electronics engineers work with devices that use extremely small amounts of power. They work with microprocessors, fibre optics, and in telecommunication, television, radio etc.
Electronics engineering is a constantly changing and widening branch of the engineering profession. Electronics industry being a labour intensive industry provides many job opportunities for the skilled job seekers . Increased production and demand by government and businesses for communication equipment, computers and military electronics along with consumer demand and increased research and development on robots and other types of automation contributes to the growth of employment opportunities in the field. Candidates having a creative and inventive mind and also are good at physics and mathematics will probably find electronics engineering a challenging and lucrative career.
Job Prospects & Career Option :
An electronics engineer can get a job in Central Government, State Governments and their sponsored corporations in public enterprises and the private organizations like All India Radio, Indian Telephone Industries, MTNL, National Physical Laboratories
Institutes :
Indian institute of Technology (IIT's) in New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur etc are the most prestigious Engineering institutions in India.
TYPES OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
Electronics engineering has many subfields. This section describes some of the most popular subfields in electronic engineering. Although there are engineers who focus exclusively on one subfield, there are also many who focus on a combination of subfields.
Electronic engineering involves the design and testing of electronics circuits that use the electronic properties of components such as resistors , capacitors , inductors , diodes and transistors to achieve a particular functionality.
Signal processing deals with the analysis and manipulation of signals. Signals can be either analogue , in which case the signal varies continuously according to the information, or digital , in which case the signal varies according to a series of discrete values representing the information.
For analog signals, signal processing may involve the amplification and filtering of audio signals for audio equipment or the modulation and demodulation of signals for telecommunication . For digital signals, signal processing may involve the compression ,error checking and error detection of digital signals.
Telecommunications engineering deals with the transmission of information across a channel such as a coaxial cable , optical fibre or free space .
Transmissions across free space require information to be encoded in a carrier wave in order to shift the information to a carrier frequency suitable for transmission, this is known as modulation . Popular analog modulation techniques include amplitude modulation and frequency modulation . The choice of modulation affects the cost and performance of a system and these two factors must be balanced carefully by the engineer.
Once the transmission characteristics of a system are determined, telecommunication engineers design the transistors and recievers needed for such systems. These two are sometimes combined to form a two-way communication device known as a transrecievers. A key consideration in the design of transmitters is their power consumption as this is closely related to their signal strength. If the signal strength of a transmitter is insufficient the signal's information will be corrupted by noise .
Control engineering has a wide range of applications from the flight and propulsion systems of commercial aeroplanes to the cruise control present in many modern cars . It also plays an important role in industrial automation .
Control engineers often utilize feedback when designing control systems . For example, in a cars with cruise control the vehicle's speed is continuously monitored and fed back to the system which adjusts the engine speed accordingly. Where there is regular feedback, control theory can be used to determine how the system responds to such feedback.
Instrumentation engineering deals with the design of devices to measure physical quantities such as pressure , flow and temperature. These devices are known as instrumentation .
The design of such instrumentation requires a good understanding of physics that often extends beyond electromagnetic theory . For example, radar guns use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of oncoming vehicles. Similarly, thermocouples use the Peltier-feedback effect to measure the temperature difference between two points.
Often instrumentation is not used by itself, but instead as the sensors of larger electrical systems. For example, a thermocouple might be used to help ensure a furnace's temperature remains constant. For this reason, instrumentation engineering is often viewed as the counterpart of control engineering.
EDUCATION
Eligibility & Course Area : To become an electronics engineer one needs to have a degree in electronics engineering (BE / B.Tech) or must have passed the AMIE (Associate Membership Examination of the Institute of Engineers) in electronics or Graduate membership Examination.
Electronics engineers typically possess an academic degree with a major in electronic engineering. The length of study for such a degree is usually three or four years and the completed degree may be designated as a Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Applied Science depending upon the university.
Some electronics engineers also choose to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Engineering, a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering or an Engineer's degree. The Master degree is being introduced in some European and American Universities as a first degree and the differentiation of an engineer with graduate and postgraduate studies is often difficult. In these cases, experience is taken into account. The Master and Engineer's degree may consist of either research, coursework or a mixture of the two. The Doctor of Philosophy consists of a significant research component and is often viewed as the entry point to academia.
In most countries, a Bachelor's degree in engineering represents the first step towards certification and the degree program itself is certified by a professional body. After completing a certified degree program the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements (including work experience requirements) before being certified. Once certified the engineer is designated the title of Professional Engineer (in the United States and Canada), Chartered Engineer (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe), Chartered Professional Engineer (in Australia) or European Engineer (in much of the European Union).
Fundamental to the discipline are the sciences of physics and mathematics as these help to obtain both a qualitative and quantitative description of how such systems will work. Today most engineering work involves the use of computers and it is commonplace to use computer-aided design programs when designing electronic systems.
Although most electronic engineers will understand basic circuit theory, the theories employed by engineers generally depend upon the work they do. For example, quantum mechanics and solid state physics might be relevant to an engineer working on VLSI but are largely irrelevant to engineers working with macroscopic electrical systems.
MAIN SUBJECTS
Apart from electromagnetics and network theory, other items in the syllabus are particular to electronics engineering course. Electrical engineering courses have other specialisms such as machines, power generation and distribution . Note that the following list does not include the large quantity of mathematics (maybe apart from the final year) included in each year's study.
Electromagnetics
Elements of vector calculus : divurgence and curl ; Gauss*and Stokes theorem , Maxwell's equations : differential and integral forms. Wave equation,Pointing vector, Plane waves : propagation through various media; reflection and refraction; phase and group velocity ;skin depth, transmission lines : characterstic impedance ; impedance transformation; smith chart ; impedance matching ; pulse excitation. waveguides : modes in rectangular waveguides; boundary conditions ; cut-off frequencies ; dispersion relations . Antennas: Dipole antennas ;antenna arrays ; radiation pattern; reciprocity theorem, antenna gain .
Network theory
Network graphs: matrices associated with graphs; incidence, fundamental cut set and fundamental circuit matrices. Solution methods: nodal and mesh analysis. Network theorems: superposition, Thevenin and Norton's maximum power transfer, Wye-Delta transformation. Steady state sinusoidal analysis using phasors. Linear constant coefficient differential equations; time domain analysis of simple RLC circuits, Solution of network equations using Laplace transform: frequency domain analysis of RLC circuits. 2-port network parameters: driving point and transfer functions. State equations for networks.
Electronic devices and circuits
Electronic Devices: Energy bands in silicon, intrinsic and extrinsic silicon. Carrier transport in silicon: diffusion current, drift current, mobility, resistivity. Generation and recombination of carriers. p-n junction diode, Zener diode, tunnel diode, BJT, JFET, MOS capacitor, MOSFET, LED, p-I-n and avalanche photo diode, LASERs. Device technology: integrated circuits fabrication process, oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, photolithography, n-tub, p-tub and twin-tub CMOS process.
Analog Circuits: Equivalent circuits (large and small-signal) of diodes, BJTs, JFETs, and MOSFETs. Simple diode circuits, clipping, clamping, rectifier. Biasing and bias stability of transistor and FET amplifiers. Amplifiers: single-and multi-stage, differential, operational, feedback and power. Analysis of amplifiers; frequency response of amplifiers. Simple op-amp circuits. Filters. Sinusoidal oscillators; criterion for oscillation; single-transistor and op-amp configurations. Function generators and wave-shaping circuits. Power supplies.
Digital circuits: Boolean algebra, minimization of Boolean functions; logic gates digital IC families (DTL, TTL, ECL, MOS, CMOS). Combinational circuits: arithmetic circuits, code converters, multiplexers and decoders. Sequential circuits: latches and flip-flops, counters and shift-registers. Sample and hold circuits, ADCs, DACs. Semiconductor memories. Microprocessor(8085): architecture, programming, memory and I/O interfacing.
Signals and systems
Definitions and properties of Laplace transform, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier series, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier Transform, z-transform. Sampling theorems. Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) Systems: definitions and properties; casuality, stability, impulse response, convolution, poles and zeros frequency response, group delay, phase delay. Signal transmission through LTI systems. Random signals and noise: probability, random variables, probability density function, autocorrelation, power spectral density.
Control systems
Basic control system components; block diagrammatic description, reduction of block diagrams. Open loop and closed loop (feedback) systems and stability analysis of these systems. Signal flow graphs and their use in determining transfer functions of systems; transient and steady state analysis of LTI control systems and frequency response. Tools and techniques for LTI control system analysis: root loci, Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Bode and Nyquist plots. Control system compensators: elements of lead and lag compensation, elements of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control. State variable representation and solution of state equation of LTI control systems.
Communications
Analog communication systems: amplitude and angle modulation and demodulation systems, spectral analysis of these operations, superheterodyne receivers; elements of hardware, realizations of analog communication systems; signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) calculations for amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) for low noise conditions. Digital communication systems: pulse code modulation (PCM), differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), delta modulation (DM); digital modulation schemes-amplitude, phase and frequency shift keying schemes (ASK, PSK, FSK), matched filter receivers, bandwidth consideration and probability of error calculations for these schemes.
Professional bodies
Professional bodies of note for electrical engineers include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). The IEEE claims to produce 30 percent of the world's literature in electrical/electronic engineering, has over 360,000 members worldwide and holds over 300 conferences annually. [6] The IEE publishes 14 journals, has a worldwide membership of 120,000, certifies Chartered Engineers in the United kingdom and claims to be the largest professional engineering society in Europe.