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Experiences from a new course in mechatronics at Technical University of Denmark are conveyed in this paper. The course is supposed to teach students enrolled in the bachelor degree in electrical engineering some fundamental knowledge about mechanics and to teach students enrolled in the bachelor degree in mechanical engineering fundamentals about electronics. Furthermore the course uses project work as a method to keep the students actively participating and in part have them teach each other the subjects. The general course plan is presented and the reasoning behind the course structure is discussed in the paper, together with a brief look at the student's reactions in form of data from the course evaluation.

In this paper, a method for identifying uncertain parameters in a rotordynamic system composed of a flexible rotating shaft, rigid discs and two radial active magnetic bearings is presented. Shaft and disc dynamics are mathematically described using a Finite Element (FE) model while magnetic bearing forces are represented by linear springs with negative stiffness. Bearing negative stiffness produces an unstable rotordynamic system, demanding implementation of feedback control to stabilize the rotordynamic system. Thus, to identify the system parameters, closed-loop system identification techniques are required., The main focus of the paper relies on how to effectively identify uncertain parameters, such as stiffness and damping force coefficients of bearings and seals in rotordynamic systems. Dynamic condensation method, i.e. pseudo-modal reduction, is used to obtain a reduced order model for model-based control design and fast identification., The paper elucidates how nodal parametric uncertainties, which are easily represented in the full FE coordinate system, can be represented in the new coordinate system of the reduced model. The uncertainty is described as a single column vector of the system matrix A of the full FE model while it is represented as several elements spread over multiple rows and columns of the system matrix of the reduced model. The parametric uncertainty, for both the full and reduced FE model, is represented using Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT). In this way the LFT matrices represent the mapping of the uncertainties in and out of the full and reduced FE system matrices. Scaling the LFT matrices easily leads to the amplitudes of the uncertainty parameters., Youla Parametrization method is applied to transform the identification problem into an open-loop stable problem, which can be solved using standard optimization methods., An example shows how to decouple and identify an uncertainty in the linear bearing stiffness of a reduced FE rotordynamic system.

In this paper, we present flicker noise measurements of two X-band direct conversion mixers implemented in a SiGe:C BiCMOS technology. Both mixers use a ring structure with either Schottky diodes or diode-connected HBTs for double balanced operation. The mixers are packaged in a metal casing on an Arlon 25N substrate to shield the sensitive noise measurement. Conversion loss measurements of both mixers is performed both for on-wafer and packaged versions. The experimental results shows that the Schottky diode mixer exhibits a 1/f noise corner frequency of 250 kHz, while the diode connected HBT circuit demonstrates a 1/f noise corner frequency around 10 kHz.

A new type of Marchand balun is presented in this paper, which has the property of complex impedance transformation. To allow the Marchand balun to transform between arbitrary complex impedances, three reactances should be added to the circuit. A detailed analysis of the circuit gives the governing equations. To verify the theory, a design and electromagnetic simulation of a lumped element Marchand balun is made in a SiGe BiCMOS technology. The lumped element impementation is favorable because capacitors are placed where the additional reactances should be added. Thus it is possible to absorb a positive reactance by reducing a capacitor. At the design frequency of 10.5 GHz it matches 50Ω to 50 - j66Ω. It has an insertion loss of 5.1 dB, an input reflection of −20.8 dB, as well as phase and magnitude imbalance better than 0.2° and 0.12 dB, respectively.