Name: _______________________ Student ID: ___________________ Signature: ____________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications FINAL EXAMINATION

Session 2 2010 ELEC/TELE/PHTN ELEC3117 3117 Electrical Engineering Design

TIME ALLOWED: TOTAL MARKS: TOTAL NUMBER OF QUESTIONS:

3 hours 100 4

THIS EXAM CONTRIBUTES 40% TO THE TOTAL COURSE ASSESSMENT. Reading Time: 10 minutes. This paper contains 6 pages . Candidates must ATTEMPT ALL questions. Answer each question in a separate answer book. Marks for each question are indicated beside the question. This paper MAY be retained by the candidate. Print your name, student ID and question number on the front page of each answer book. Authorised examination materials: Drawing instruments may be brought into the examination room. Candidates should use their own UNSW-approved electronic calculators. This is a closed book examination. Assumptions made in answering the questions should be stated explicitly. All answers must be written in ink. Except where they are expressly required, pencils may only be used for drawing, sketching or graphical work.

QUESTION 1

[26 marks ]

A. [6 marks] Briefly describe four (4) methods for discovering customers needs for a potential new electronic product, elaborating on their advantages and disadvantages. Explain how you would use one of these methods to identify the usability requirements for the new product. B. [4 marks] Explain what is meant by window of opportunity, listing the factors that contribute to the window of opportunity. C. [8 marks] You are the project manager for a product that was estimated to cost $3 million to develop and to give a net present value (NPV) profit of $1 million. The project is halfway through and although you are keeping to the original timeline, $3.5 million have already been spent. Revised estimates indicate that the product will be completed on time but will require an additional $2.5 million in funds. One of your engineers proposes a modification to the plan that will allow the product to be completed with an additional investment of only $2.2 million and will give a total NPV profit of $1.2 million, calculated based on the costs and revenue from this point forward (that is the recalculation eliminates all past considerations of costs and revenues.) All other things being equal, and assuming there is has been no discount in the value of the dollar between the original estimate and the re-evaluation, determine whether the project should be abandoned, should continue as is, or the plans should change as suggested by the engineer. You must justify your answer. D. [8 marks] Discuss and explain the various steps and activities involved in the design of a new product, starting from the identification of a product concept through to the high level design.

QUESTION 2

[23 marks ]

A. [2 marks] Explain what is meant by the term lead user and how they might contribute to process of product development. B. In the context of project management (i) [4 marks] Explain the function of a project plan and comment on the importance of sticking to it. (ii) [4 marks] What activities, in addition to planning, are important? C. [6 marks] Explain the difference between regulatory and industry standards, referring to the role they play in new product development. List three (3) reasons for the need for industry standards. D. [4 marks] Discuss the purpose of the ISO9001 standard and its implications for the design process. E. [3 marks] List three (3) fundamentally different reasons that might prevent you from patenting an invention.

QUESTION 3

[26 marks ]

A. [6 marks] (i) Discuss the interaction between cost, price, and sales volume in relation to product pricing using graphs/equations where appropriate. (ii) Explain the two methods for setting the price of a product placing them in the context of the interaction between the three factors in product pricing discussed in part (i). B. [4 marks] Explain what is meant by Return on Investment (ROI) in the context of product economics. In particular, how would you use the projected ROI to determine whether or not to go ahead with a product development project? C. [6 marks] An engineering firm purchases a new high-tech assembly machine, which is capable of performing both component insertion and soldering, as required. Depreciation, maintenance and operation expenses for this machine come to $2 million per year. The machine uses a pipelining strategy so that components can be placed on one board at the same time that the previous board is being soldered. The machine is capable of placing 400 components per minute and soldering 5 boards per minute. The machine can be operated for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 48 weeks each year, allowing 4 weeks for maintenance. (i) Identify (including values) the two cost drivers for this machine, explaining how they should be used to assign the costs of operating the machine to the products being manufactured. (ii) Using your answer to part (i), calculate the incremental soldering and insertion charge associated with enlarging a circuit board, which already carries 60 components, to carry an additional 40 components. D. [6 marks] Explain the difference between direct and indirect costs giving two examples for each category. Give a method for accounting for indirect costs in the product development plan. E. [4 marks] Explain why risk assessment is important in the context of the management of a complex project.

QUESTION 4

[25 marks ]

A. [8 marks] Consider the circuit design shown in the figure below.

Vs

Vc

(i) You are to assume that Vs = 10V, the control voltage Vc is a square wave of some frequency fc, and the resistor and inductor values are 50 and 5mH respectively. Given the absolute maximum ratings data on the two transistors, taken from a datasheet, and shown in the table below which transistor, if any, would you choose for the circuit? You must justify your answer. Transistor 1 Transistor 2 Collector Emitter Voltage 80V 50V Collector Current 100mA 1.5A Peak Collector Current 200mA 3A Total Power Dissipation 500mW 1.25W Max. Operating Junction Temp. 150C 150C (ii) A colleague points out to you that the circuit has a problem. Explain what the problem is and describe a possible solution to it. B. [3 marks] For each of the following applications, identify the most appropriate capacitor technology out of the following list: polyester film capacitors (green/red caps); aluminium electrolytic capacitors; ceramic capacitors. In each case, explain your selection. (i) Bypass capacitor for an FPGA operating at 500 MHz. (ii) Smoothing capacitor for the rectified output from a 50Hz mains power transformer in a 10W 5V power supply. (iii)Opamp-based low-pass filter for removing frequencies below 100 Hz from an analog waveform. C. [8 marks] Consider the integrator circuit depicted in the figure below. We want to use this circuit to accurately integrate the input voltage waveform Vin(t) for a period of 10 seconds! The integral might be positive or negative. The maximum output swing on the opamp is +/- 5V and Vin(t) lies in the range -1V to +1V.

Vin

Vout

dump

(i) Noting that the I-V relationship for a capacitor is I = C dV/dt, what would be a good choice for the time constant R C ? 5

(ii) What capacitor types would be most appropriate for this type of application? Your answer should mention the types of capacitor you would not use and why. (iii)Given your answers to parts (a) and (b) above, what would be good choices for the values of R and C? You should endeavour to use preferred values for both R and C. You should also explain your reasoning. (iv) What non-ideal property of the opamp would we be most concerned about for this application? In view of this, what type of opamp would you select? (technology, not part number). D. [6 marks] Describe at least 3 (three) PCB layout conventions which help either to reduce generated electromagnetic interference or increase immunity to electromagnetic interference from other sources. In each case, explain why the convention helps.

END OF EXAMINATION PAPER