Course contents: 

ΤΗΕΟRΥ

Part A – Circuits

• Introduction – Fundamental Principles: Electricity – Electric forces. Basic electrical quantities (charge, current, voltage, magnetic flux, energy, power). Electric circuits, reference directions, Kirchhoff’s laws, signals – waveforms.
• Circuit Elements: Resistor, capacitor, inductor, sources, energy and power, linearity.
• Circuit Analysis: Circuit equivalence, voltage and current division, superposition principle, linear circuit elements in series and in parallel, balanced bridges, Theorems: Kennelly, Thevenin, Norton, sources transformation, symmetrical networks.
• Transient Analysis of Circuits: First (RC, RL) and second (RLC) order linear circuits.
• Alternating-Current Circuits: Representation using phasors, complex impedance, power, circuit theorems in sinusoidal steady-state.

Part B – Semiconductors

• Semiconductors: Intrinsic Semiconductors, Doped Semiconductors, Current Flow in Semiconductors, The pn Junction with Open-Circuit Terminals (Equilibrium), The pn Junction with Applied Voltage, Capacitive Effects in the pn Junction.
• Diodes: The Ideal Diode, Terminal Characteristics of Junction Diodes, Modelling the Diode Forward Characteristic, Operation in the Reverse Breakdown Region, Zener Diodes, Rectifier Circuits, Limiting and Clamping Circuits, Special Diode Types.
• Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs): Device Structure and Physical Operation, Current-Voltage Characteristics.
• BJT Circuits at DC: Common Emitter, Common Base, Common Collector, Transistor biasing circuits (the DC operating point, Base bias, Emitter bias, voltage divider bias, collector-feedback bias).

LAB

The purpose of the laboratory exercises is to introduce students to electrical circuits and electronics through the use of both laboratory equipment and software tools. Specifically, students will engage with:

• Designing and building electrical circuits using hardware components such as resistors, ohmic sensors, voltage sources, signal generators and diodes
• Simulating complex electronic circuits with transistors using specialized software
• Performing DC and AC measurements of circuits and signals with laboratory instruments, including multimeters and oscilloscopes.
• Analyzing resistor networks, voltage rectifier circuits and the operation of bipolar junction transistors (BJT), specifically NPN and PNP configurations.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

• Define the basic electrical quantities.
• Identify basic circuit components and describe their characteristics.
• Recognize electrical circuits and describe the elements they consist of.
• Interpret the operation of circuits.
• Apply the fundamental laws and theorems of circuits for their study and analysis.
• Design circuits from their individual components.
• Evaluate the results of circuit analysis/synthesis based on theory or through comparison with other circuits.
• Describe the physical operation and calculate currents and voltages of semiconductor components in diode and bipolar transistor applications.
• Calculate currents and voltages of components in circuits with diodes and bipolar transistors.
• Use laboratory instruments to perform measurements on circuits.

Assessment: Theory (70%–80% of final grade): Written examination at the end of the semester. A midterm written exam may be conducted, contributing 20% to the theory grade. Laboratory (20%–30% of final grade): Oral examination at the end of the semester.