Written exam at the end of the course. The exam requires that students provide the solution to two exercises about electronic circuits, and answer questions about the subjects discussed during the course.
1. Introduction. Evolution of microelectronic technologies. Moore’s Law. Impact of microelectronics in the biomedical field and in the monitoring of patients. 2. Biomedical signals. Electronic systems for signal processing and acquisition. Basic concepts of electromagnetism (voltage, current, electric charge). Analog and digital current and voltage signals. Origin of biomedical signals. 3. Mathematical tools. Signals in the time domain and in the frequency domain. Fourier analysis. Frequency spectrum. Methods of complex variables. Complex impedances. Low-pass, band-pass, high-pass filters. Bode diagrams. Filter response to a step signal. 4. Sensors. Static and dynamic parameters. Physical sensors: measurements of temperature, position, speed, motion. Accelerometers. Sensors and electronic systems for ECG. 5. Amplifiers and filters. Ideal operational amplifier. Negative feedback. Inverting and noninverting amplifier. Differential amplifiers. Instrumentation amplifier. Integrators and differentiators. Band-pass filter. 6. Comparators and Schmitt's Trigger. 7. Digital electronics. Logic families. Noise margins, propagations delay, power dissipation. Logic gates: OR, AND, NOT, NAND, NOR, Exclusive OR. De Morgan’s theorem. Combinatorial and sequential circuits. Latch and flip-flop. 8. Analog-to-Digital Converters. Analog-to-digital conversion. Sampling and quantization. Resolution and aliasing error. Flash ADC. 9. Biomedical applications of microelectronic systems. 10. Microcontroller Systems. 11. Processing of digital signals
