EC ENGR 162A
Wireless Communication Links and Antennas
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Enforced requisite: course 101B. Basic properties of transmitting and receiving antennas and antenna arrays. Array synthesis. Adaptive arrays. Friis transmission formula, radar equations. Cell-site and mobile antennas, bandwidth budget. Noise in communication systems (transmission lines, antennas, atmospheric, etc.). Cell-site and mobile antennas, cell coverage for signal and traffic, interference, multipath fading, ray bending, and other propagation phenomena. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2015 - This is my first and probably last bruinwalk review, so the fact that I took the time to write this means I really got a lot out of this class. If you are interested in electromagnetics, take this class. If you don't know if you're interested, take this class. If you definitely aren't interested at all, don't touch this class with a 10000 mile stick. This is an introductory class into antennas, but you will get so much more out of this than just learning about antenna theory. Prof. Rahmat-Samii really stresses the fundamentals, meaning that he starts from plain old vector calculus and Maxwell's equations, but he makes sure you fully understand the physical meaning of it all. Believe me, this class made me realize that I had no idea how important it is to get the fundamentals right, and how often people don't give them the attention they deserve. This is a great introduction into electrodynamics, and you will "appreciate" (Rahmat-Samii loves using this word) everything about Maxwell's equations by the end of this course. As a lecturer, Rahmat-Samii is fantastic! He's super enthusiastic, explains everything very clearly, and definitely encourages student interaction (he's gonna pick on you to answer a question at some point in the quarter...). He's incredibly knowledgeable in the subject (he's pretty famous in the EM field). Rahmat-Samii also uses his own course reader which is a bunch of really well thought out slides, so you don't really need the textbook (although it's actually a pretty decent textbook and it's not that hard to find a pdf). Fair warning, this class will put you to work. There ain't no easy A's here, unfortunately, but I thought the class was more than worth it. Not a class for 4th years with senioritis. If you can do the homework, though, you can do the exams for sure, and the TA's are really helpful, since they all work in his lab and know their stuff. tl:dr take this class, work hard, profit
Spring 2015 - This is my first and probably last bruinwalk review, so the fact that I took the time to write this means I really got a lot out of this class. If you are interested in electromagnetics, take this class. If you don't know if you're interested, take this class. If you definitely aren't interested at all, don't touch this class with a 10000 mile stick. This is an introductory class into antennas, but you will get so much more out of this than just learning about antenna theory. Prof. Rahmat-Samii really stresses the fundamentals, meaning that he starts from plain old vector calculus and Maxwell's equations, but he makes sure you fully understand the physical meaning of it all. Believe me, this class made me realize that I had no idea how important it is to get the fundamentals right, and how often people don't give them the attention they deserve. This is a great introduction into electrodynamics, and you will "appreciate" (Rahmat-Samii loves using this word) everything about Maxwell's equations by the end of this course. As a lecturer, Rahmat-Samii is fantastic! He's super enthusiastic, explains everything very clearly, and definitely encourages student interaction (he's gonna pick on you to answer a question at some point in the quarter...). He's incredibly knowledgeable in the subject (he's pretty famous in the EM field). Rahmat-Samii also uses his own course reader which is a bunch of really well thought out slides, so you don't really need the textbook (although it's actually a pretty decent textbook and it's not that hard to find a pdf). Fair warning, this class will put you to work. There ain't no easy A's here, unfortunately, but I thought the class was more than worth it. Not a class for 4th years with senioritis. If you can do the homework, though, you can do the exams for sure, and the TA's are really helpful, since they all work in his lab and know their stuff. tl:dr take this class, work hard, profit
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - If you are interested in electromagnetics/antennas at all, 162A with Wang is great to take. Homework is minimal and exams are very similar to the homework/practice exams he provides, so the overall workload is essentially nonexistent if you keep up with the short homework/lectures. His lectures are not bad in my opinion, as he goes through derivations and such for understanding antenna fundamentals. The slides themselves are weak but his explanations in class give a lot of intuition. At the end of the quarter, you do a short project simulating a loop antenna in ADS. Take Wang's class if you're interested in the material and want a decently light class.
Spring 2024 - If you are interested in electromagnetics/antennas at all, 162A with Wang is great to take. Homework is minimal and exams are very similar to the homework/practice exams he provides, so the overall workload is essentially nonexistent if you keep up with the short homework/lectures. His lectures are not bad in my opinion, as he goes through derivations and such for understanding antenna fundamentals. The slides themselves are weak but his explanations in class give a lot of intuition. At the end of the quarter, you do a short project simulating a loop antenna in ADS. Take Wang's class if you're interested in the material and want a decently light class.
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