Electronic Components and Sensors

Subject description

Standardization,
Reliability, Accelerated aging. Acceleration Factor,
Resistors: Review of structures, properties and applications of resistor families,
Nonlinear resistors: NTC PTC thermistors, varistors,
Capacitors: Review of structures, properties and applications of capacitor families: Plastic, Ceramic. Electrolytic (liquid, solid), Special.
Coils: air core, ferrite cores with/without gap. Filter inductor design, Small network transformer design, Buck/boost SMPS operation and design.
Piezoelectric elements: Piezoelectric effects. Piezoelectric actuators, Quartz crystals. SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) devices.
Sensors: Essential sensor parameters, Overview of sensing principles, Processing of sensor signals, Components of sensor systems, Sensor signal conditioning circuits

The subject is taught in programs

Electrical engineering 1st level

Objectives and competences

The course objective is to familiarize students with advanced properties of electronic components, which can be further applied in the field of electronic systems design. The course comprises an overview of advanced properties of essential linear (RLC) as well as non-linear (thermistor, varistor) components, with emphasis on non-ideal properties (loss analysis) and thermal impact on element operation.
Second part of the course focuses on the overview of sensors, where sensing principles, sensor acquisition and signal conditioning circuits are presented. The course gives a practical and theoretical insight into application of electronic components for use in later courses and represents a foundation for interdisciplinary work particularly in the field of sensor electronics.

Teaching and learning methods

Course lectures provide practical and theoretical background on particular scope items together with presentation of simple practical examples. A complete study material is available to the students.

Practical work is tightly interwoven with course lectures being performed in the laboratory environment, and is accomplished in steps acquainting students with a certain electronic component/sensor and corresponding instrumentation.

Expected study results

After successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
‐ select and apply various passive electronic components during solving practical problems in electronic systems design,
– understand the specifics of selected electronic component variants, based on their properties,
‐ design and evaluate the parameters of a filter inductor and buck/boost switched mode power supply and select appropriate inductor or transformer for this design,
‐ understand the principles of sensor operation and application, analyze circuits for sensor signal conditioning and design sensor systems,
‐ apply various sensor elements (e.g. pressure sensor, accelerometer, flow meter etc.) in solutions to practical problems in sensor systems.

Basic sources and literature

Bǎjenescu, Titu-Marius I, Bâzu, Marius I. "Component reliability for electronic systems", 2010, Boston ; London : Artech House, ISBN 978-1-59693-436-8
Maheshwari, Preeti "Electronic components and processes", 2006, New Delhi : New Age International, ISBN 978-81-224-1794-4
Fraden, Jacob, "Handbook of modern sensors : physics, designs, and applications", 2010, Springer, ISBN 1-4419-6465-7
Horowitz, Paul, Hill, Winfield "The art of electronics", 2008, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-37095-0
Soloman, Sabrie "Sensors handbook",2010 , McGraw-Hil ISBN 978-0-07-160570-0
Amon, Slavko "Elektronske komponente", 2013, spletni učbenik, Fakulteta za elektrotehniko, dostopen na domači strani predmeta: http://ek.fe.uni-lj.si/