EC ENGR 215A
Analog Integrated Circuit Design
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour; outside study, seven hours. Requisite: course 115B. Analysis and design of analog integrated circuits. MOS and bipolar device structures and models, single-stage and differential amplifiers, noise, feedback, operational amplifiers, offset and distortion, sampling devices and discrete-time circuits, bandgap references. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - There is a huge gap in evaluations of Prof. Abidi. Some students blame him for his harsh grading and tough teaching, but other students admire him for what they learned from his lectures. For circuit designers, his lecture is a real feast. To follow his lecture you need a strong fundamental, so it forces you to review all the material of the undergraduate study. The way he analyzes circuits is brilliant, intuitive, and insightful. If you want to be a good analog design engineer, don't waste any minute in his lectures and really understand every word of the lecture notes. As long as you work hard on this class, the technical interview for an internship would be very easy. Forget about grading when you take this class, you will soon forget its grade after graduation, but it will benefit you for a long time.
Fall 2021 - There is a huge gap in evaluations of Prof. Abidi. Some students blame him for his harsh grading and tough teaching, but other students admire him for what they learned from his lectures. For circuit designers, his lecture is a real feast. To follow his lecture you need a strong fundamental, so it forces you to review all the material of the undergraduate study. The way he analyzes circuits is brilliant, intuitive, and insightful. If you want to be a good analog design engineer, don't waste any minute in his lectures and really understand every word of the lecture notes. As long as you work hard on this class, the technical interview for an internship would be very easy. Forget about grading when you take this class, you will soon forget its grade after graduation, but it will benefit you for a long time.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - I thoroughly enjoyed this class, and Professor Darabi prepares you very well for Analog IC design. Class is split up w/ a 27.5% project, 27.5% midterm, 43% final, and 3% participation/survey. Homework is totally optional, but was very good practice for exam and project, with 2 written homeworks and 1 Cadence homework. The project is about designing a differential op-amp with certain gain, swing, and bandwidth requirements, and was overall relatively easy to complete, and gives good practice into using Cadence Virtuoso. The class lectures were very comprehensive and insightful, and Darabi did a good job answering questions and building intuition. The exams are not too bad, and he still curves very well regardless. The TA Somanshu was also excellent in giving us additional practice in his discussion sections, as well as being generous to provide extra office hours where we could ask questions. Overall, I would definitely take this class again.
Fall 2023 - I thoroughly enjoyed this class, and Professor Darabi prepares you very well for Analog IC design. Class is split up w/ a 27.5% project, 27.5% midterm, 43% final, and 3% participation/survey. Homework is totally optional, but was very good practice for exam and project, with 2 written homeworks and 1 Cadence homework. The project is about designing a differential op-amp with certain gain, swing, and bandwidth requirements, and was overall relatively easy to complete, and gives good practice into using Cadence Virtuoso. The class lectures were very comprehensive and insightful, and Darabi did a good job answering questions and building intuition. The exams are not too bad, and he still curves very well regardless. The TA Somanshu was also excellent in giving us additional practice in his discussion sections, as well as being generous to provide extra office hours where we could ask questions. Overall, I would definitely take this class again.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - A serious professor and well respected. He's very passionate about the material and puts forth a lot of effort towards providing an engaging lecture that educates the students. The material is hard but the Razavi is fair; the resources to master it are there if you seek it.
Fall 2022 - A serious professor and well respected. He's very passionate about the material and puts forth a lot of effort towards providing an engaging lecture that educates the students. The material is hard but the Razavi is fair; the resources to master it are there if you seek it.