Introduction

The circuit analysis walkthroughs on these pages are basically the same as the worked examples you will find in the course notes, lecture slides and in text books... but with a couple of enhancements. First, the component values and the assumptions used for the analysis can be changed at any time. Secondly, you get to choose how deep the analysis goes. Extra information windows are available throughout which will (hopefully) explain how various steps in the analysis were achieved.

Using the Walkthroughs

The basic layout of the pages is shown in the example window. It is split into three frames: The left hand frame shows the circuit diagram under analysis. The upper right frame is a menu used to navigate through the analysis. The lower right frame is the analysis itself. The first page of the analysis is always the page where you get to choose the component values and the assumptions to be used. You can return to this page at any time. Any changes to these values are immediately reflected in the following analysis. The subsequent pages take you through the analysis itself. Whenever you see a value shown in blue during these pages, this is a component value or assumption that can be can be changed on page one, Whenever you see a value shown in red, this is a value that has been calculated during the analysis. During the analysis, look out for links at the right-hand side of the page. Click on these to bring up a window explaining the corresponding step in the analysis in more detail.

What Should I Do With These Pages?

It's up to you! The original idea was to allow students to study circuit analysis in a different (partly interactive) environment, hopefully aiding understanding. Also, many students tend to be uncomfortable with the number of assumptions that are 'plucked out of the air' during worked examples (e.g. "lets say V_BE is 0.5V..." etc.). Using these pages, you can change those assumptions at any time and see exactly what effect they have on the calculations. You should find that small variations make little or no difference and so the assumptions are justified. Beyond this, you can use the pages to explore the limitations of the circuits (e.g. try and get an 'ideal' amplifier design using a single stage!) and experiment with individual component values to see exactly what effect they have.

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