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Behrooz Parhami's ECE 10A/AL Course Page for Winter 2025
Fndns of Analog and Digital Circuits & Systems
Last updated: 2025 January 22
Note: This is the first in the 3-course series ECE 10ABC, with labs
Enrollment code: 12328
Prerequisite: Math 2AB or 3AB (see catalog for more)
Class meetings: TR 5:00-6:15 PM, Phelps 1425
Instructor: Behrooz Parhami, Distinguished Professor of ECE
Instructor's office hours: MW 11:15-11:45 AM, Phelps 1431
Teaching assistant: Farzan Rezaei, farzan at umail dot ucsb dot edu
TA's office hour: R 11:00-12:00, ECE Student Office Trailer
Course announcements: Listed in reverse chronological order
Course calendar: Schedule of lectures and links to lecture slides
Homework assignments: Seven assignments, each worth 5%
Exams: Two midterms (each worth 20%) and a final (worth 25%)
Lab work: Six labs (see the course calendar)
Policy on academic integrity: Please read very carefully
Grade stats: Grade range, mean, & median for each activity
Miscellaneous information: Motivation & catalog entry
Course Announcements
2025/01/22: HW2 has been made available. It will be due by midnight on F 1/31.
2025/01/15: HW1 has been made available. It will be due by midnight on F 1/24.
2025/01/10: The TA's office hour has been posted above. Changes to homework and lab report submission procedures have been posted to the homework and lab areas below. HW1 will be posted by the end of next week and will be due on Friday 1/24. We will have no lab next week, but you must do the pre-lab assignment and ask any questions you may have of the TA.
2024/12/12: The course calendar is now final. This schedule will be followed precisely, so that you know which materials you missed in the event of an absence.
2024/12/05: The course schedule has been updated with lecture titles/dates, homework assignment issue & due dates, and labs.
2024/07/22: Welcome to the ECE 10A/AL course Web page for winter 2025. This is the first time I will be teaching this course and am now preparing for the challenge.
I will use the 2005 Morgan Kaufmann textbook, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits, by Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey H. Lang.
I will gradually update this page as I learn/decide how to present the material. See you in 2025!
Course Calendar
Course lectures have been scheduled as follows. Professor Loai Salem, who has taught the course multiple times, including during fall 2024, has kindly agreed to provide us with his PDF lecture slides/notes, homework & exam samples, and lab descriptions. the posted lecture slides contain the needed material, whether or not text sections are cited in the schedule below.
Our textbook: Agrawal & Lang, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits, 2005.
Week 1: Ohm’s Law (No lab this week)
T 1/07, Lecture 1: Voltage, Current, Battery, Charge-Current Relationship
R 1/09, Lecture 2 (Text 1.5): Practical 2-Terminal Elements
Week 2: Kirchhoff’s Laws + Pre-Lab, Equipment Introduction & Laboratory preparation (no lab report)
T 1/14, Lecture 3: (Text 1.6, 1.7): Ideal 2-Terminal Elements + Modeling Physical Elements
R 1/16, Lecture 4 (Text 2.1, 2.2): Terminology + Kirchhoff’s Laws
F 1/17, HW1-w2025 (posted on W 2025/01/15): Resistors and Ohm's Law
Week 3: Circuit Analysis + Lab 1, Resistors and Ohm's Law
T 1/21, Lecture 5: (Text 2.3, 2.5): Basic Circuit Analysis + Circuit Analysis Examples
R 1/23, Lecture 6 (Text 2.4, 2.6): Series/Parallel Simplification + Dependent Sources
F 1/24, HW2-w2025 (posted on W 2025/01/22): Kirchhoff’s Voltage & Current Laws
Week 4: Node Method + Lab 2, Resistive Networks & Series-Parallel Simplification
T 1/28, Lecture 7: (Text 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.1): Node Voltage + Intro to Node Method
R 1/30, Lecture 8 (Text 3.3): Node Method
F 1/31, HW3-w2025 (not yet posted): Series/Parallel Simplification
Week 5: Loop & Special Methods + Lab 3, Resistive Networks and Voltage Dividers
T 2/04, Lecture 9: (Text 3.4): Loop Method
R 2/06, Lecture 10 Node Voltage Method, Mesh Current Method, Δ-Y Transformation
Week 6: Midterm + Source Transformations (No lab this week)
T 2/11, First Midterm, during class time (covers Lectures 1-10)
R 2/13, Lecture 11 Source Transformations
F 2/14, HW4-w2025 (not yet posted): Node Method
Week 7: Thevenin’s & Norton’s Theorems + Lab 4, Digital Combinational Circuits
T 2/18, Lecture 12 (Text 5.2, 3.6): Boolean Logic + Tevenin’s & Norton’s Theorems
R 2/20, Lecture 13 (Text 3.6, 3.5): Thevenin’s & Norton’s Theorems + Superposition
F 2/21, HW5-w2025 (not yet posted): Mesh Method
Week 8: Nonlinear Elements + Lab 5, Digital/Analog Conversion
T 2/25, Lecture 14 (Text 4.1, 4.2): Intro to Nonlinear Elements + Analytical Solutions
R 2/27, Lecture 15 (Text 16.1-16.3): Semiconductor Diode + Analysis of Diode Circuits
F 2/28, HW6-w2025 (not yet posted): Δ-Y & Source Transformations
Week 9: Midterm + Graphical & Piecewise-Linear Analyses (No lab this week)
T 3/04, Second Midterm, during class time (covers Lectures 1-15)
R 3/06, Lecture 16 (Text 4.3, 4.4): Graphical & Piecewise-Linear Analyses
F 3/07, HW7-w2025 (not yet posted): Thevenin’s & Norton’s Theorems and Superposition
Week 10: Incremental Analysis + Logic Functions + Lab 6, Analysis of Diode Circuits
T 3/11, Lecture 17 (Text 4.5): Incremental Analysis
R 3/13, Lecture 18 (Text 6.1-6.3): Switches & Logic Functions + The MOSFET Device
W 3/19, Final exam, 7:30-10:30 PM in Phelps 1425 (covers Lectures 1-18)
T 3/25, Course grades due by midnight
Homework Assignments
- Homework submission will be via Gradescope, before midnight on the due date.
- Solutions will be made available on the course Web page and via Gradescope.
- Include your name, course title, and assignment number at the top of the first page.
- For handwritten-and-scanned solutions, make sure the result is sharp & legible.
- Although some cooperation is permitted, direct copying will have severe consequences.
Homework 1: Resistors and Ohm's Law (Due F 2025/01/24)
HW1-w2025 (posted on W 2025/01/15); HW1 sample.
Homework 2: Kirchhoff’s Voltage & Current Laws (Due F 2025/01/31)
HW2-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/01/24); HW2 sample.
Homework 3: Series/Parallel Simplification (Due F 2025/02/07)
HW3-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/01/31); HW3 sample.
Homework 4: Node Method (Due F 2025/02/21)
HW4-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/02/14); HW4 sample.
Homework 5: Mesh Method (Due F 2025/02/28)
HW5-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/02/21); HW5 sample.
Homework 6: Δ-Y & Source Transformations (Due F 2025/03/07)
HW6-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/02/28); HW6 sample.
Homework 7: Thevenin’s & Norton’s Theorems and Superposition (Due F 2025/03/14)
HW7-w2025 (forthcoming by 2025/03/07); HW7 sample.
Sample Exams
The following sample exams (from previous quarters) are meant to indicate the types and levels of problems, rather than the coverage (which is outlined in the course calendar). Students are responsible for all topics discussed in lecture notes and in explicitly-mentioned textbook sections. These sample exams have been graciously provided by Professor Loai Salem, who has taught this course multiple times.
Midterm 1: Sample 1; Sample 2.
Midterm 2: Sample 1; Sample 2.
Final: Sample.
Lab work
ECE 10A/AL has six lab sessions, Lab 1 to Lab 6. Instructions for completing these labs and reporting your work via Gradescope are given in PDF documents accessible via links in the course calendar. A mandatory pre-lab (Lab 0) in Week 2 will familiarize you with the lab equipment and how they are used. You will have to buy some of the equipment, which are available from the ECE Shop, or you can choose to purchase them independently based on the given specs.
The following photos show the the lab room, 5162D Harold Frank Hall, with 20 workstations, close-up of the equipment on one of the workstations, and the ECE 10A instructor wearing his Ohm's-Law T-shirt.
Grade Statistics
Grades are in percent, unless otherwise noted.
HW1 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW2 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW3 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW4 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW5 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW6 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
HW7 grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Overall HW grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Midterm 1 grades: Range = [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Midterm 2 grades: Range = [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Final exam grades: Range = [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Overall exam grades: Range [0, 0], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Course letter grade: Range = [F, A], Mean = 0, Median = 0
Miscellaneous Information
Motivation: In the realm of modern technology, electronic devices and circuits play a crucial role in powering everything from everyday gadgets to complex machinery. Understanding the fundamentals of these components can provide valuable insights into how various electronic systems operate and interact. This course explores the basics of electronics devices and circuits, their types, functions, and the significance of their design in today's technological landscape. Electronics means study of the flow of electrons in electrical circuits. The word Electronics comes from electron mechanics which means learning the way an electron behaves under different conditions of externally applied fields.
Catalog entry: ECE 10A. Foundations of Analog and Digital Circuits & Systems. (1) STAFF. 3 hour/week. ECE 10AL is the lab component for this course.
Prerequisite: Math 2A-B or 3A-B or Math 3AH-BH, and Math 4A or 4AI or 3C, all with a minimum grade of C; and, Math 4B or 4BI or 5A with a minimum grade of C (may be taken concurrently); Physics 3, 7B or 23 (may be taken concurrently); open only to electrical engineering and computer engineering majors.
Restrictions: Not open for credit for those who have received a C- or higher in ECE 2A.
The objective of the course is to establish the foundations of analog and digital circuits. The course will introduce the student to the power of abstraction, resistive networks, network analysis, nonlinear analysis and the digital abstraction.