OVERVIEW

The teaching unit aims to consolidate and put into practice the analogue and digital electronics skills acquired throughout the degree programme, through a laboratory experience that spans the entire semester. The core of the unit is the progressive implementation of a complete electronic system, integrating an analogue section and a microprocessor-based digital section. Students work in groups and tackle the project in successive stages, from specification and design through to the implementation of the final prototype. This approach aims to develop not only technical skills, but also teamwork abilities, project phase management, and documentation of the work carried out.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The purpose of this teaching unit is to provide the theoretical and experimental basis for understanding, analyzing, designing, and implementing electronic systems. The laboratory experiences will allow the student to gain expertise in working with analog electronics and digital electronics.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching unit is positioned at the end of the three-year programme and represents the point at which the analogue and digital electronics knowledge acquired in previous years finds concrete and integrated application. Rather than working on individual circuits or isolated components, students take on the design and implementation of a complete electronic system, which requires bringing together heterogeneous skills: from component physics to circuit analysis, from hardware description in VHDL to FPGA implementation, from microprocessor programming to the integration of both sections into a single working prototype.

The teaching unit thus aims to guide students through the entire development cycle of an electronic system, from specification analysis to the implementation and testing of the prototype.

By the end of the unit, students will be able to:

• design and implement analogue electronic circuits starting from given functional specifications;
• describe in VHDL and implement on FPGA a soft-core processor based on the RISC-V architecture, programming it for the acquisition and processing of digital signals;
• integrate the analogue and digital sections into a working electronic system;
• experimentally verify the behaviour of the implemented system, comparing the results with design predictions;
• document the work carried out in written form, describing design choices, methods adopted and results obtained;
• work effectively as part of a team, contributing to the different phases of the project.

PREREQUISITES

Students are expected to be familiar with the basic concepts of analogue and digital electronics covered in the first two years of the degree programme

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching unit is structured around a semester-long project that students develop in groups: groups are formed at the beginning of the semester and remain fixed for its entire duration. Activities take place mainly in the laboratory, with some sessions held in the classroom, but always dedicated to the development of the project.

Group work is a central and intentional element of the course. The project requires integrating skills of different kinds — analogue, digital, implementation-related — acquired at different stages of the degree programme. This creates the conditions for genuine collaborative learning, in which each student contributes their own skills, engages with those of their teammates, and actively participates in all phases of the project.

Sessions are structured in successive stages, each with defined objectives that progressively lead to the completion of the final prototype. The teacher supervises the groups during the sessions, providing technical and methodological support, and monitors the progress of the work across the different phases.

Students with valid certifications for Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), disabilities or other educational needs are invited to contact the teacher and the School's disability support contact person at the beginning of the course, in order to agree on any teaching arrangements that, while respecting the course's learning objectives, take individual learning needs into account. Contact details for the teacher and the School's disability support contact person are available at the following link: University Committee for the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities or DSAs

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The programme is structured around the progressive implementation of a complete electronic system, developed in stages over the entire semester. The main objective is to apply and systematically integrate previously acquired knowledge, with the introduction of new content limited to what is strictly necessary to complete the project.

The project involves two parallel strands that converge in the final prototype:

Digital section. Students implement a soft-core processor based on the RISC-V architecture, described in VHDL and ported to FPGA. The microprocessor is programmed to generate and manage digital signals according to the project specifications.

Analogue section. Starting from functional specifications, students design and physically build an analogue circuit, following the entire development cycle: from simulation to implementation on a breadboard or PCB.

Integration and testing. The two sections are integrated into a single system, and its operation is verified experimentally. Testing the prototype constitutes the final phase of the semester.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

D.A. Patterson, J.L. Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Pub

S.L. Harris, D.M. Harris, Digital Design and Computer Architecture,  Morgan Kaufmann Pub

Sedra, Smith, MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS, Oxford University Press

Jaeger, Blalock, Microelectronic Circuit Design,  McGraw Hill

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination consists of an individual oral interview in which the contents of the project carried out are discussed, together with certain technical details.

For students who have participated regularly in the semester's activities — meaning those who have been part of a group from the beginning of the semester and have attended at least 70% of the lesson hours — the final grade takes into account both the outcome of the oral interview and the assessment of the work carried out during the semester, based on the progress of the project through its various phases.

Students who, for justified reasons (e.g. working students), are unable to participate regularly in the semester's activities are invited to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course to agree on alternative arrangements. In this case, the project is carried out individually, and assessment takes place through a final oral interview.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The final assessment takes into account two components, consistent with the expected learning outcomes.

Work carried out during the semester (for students attending regularly). The progress of the project through its various phases is assessed, with particular attention to: the correctness of the design choices made for the analogue and digital sections; the ability to integrate the two sections into a working system; the quality of the documentation produced. This component allows the assessment of the learning outcomes related to the design, implementation and documentation of the electronic system, as well as the ability to work effectively as part of a team.

Individual oral interview. The interview assesses the student's understanding of the design choices made and their ability to critically discuss the results obtained. Follow-up questions on specific technical aspects allow the individual mastery of the content to be assessed, distinguishing between different levels of preparation:

• a correct understanding of the fundamental aspects of the project is the minimum requirement for passing the examination;
• the ability to justify design choices and to critically analyse the results obtained characterises an intermediate level of preparation;
• the ability to reason independently about design variants or situations not directly addressed during the semester characterises a high level of preparation.