Filling a curriculum gap: A course in RF to baseband systems engineering for Radio Receiver Design

This paper details the purpose, organization, content, and experience with a new hands-on project-based course on radio receiver front-end system engineering. In many electrical engineering programs, courses on wireless communications tend to focus on the digital signal processing performed on a basebanded signal. Courses on RF circuits tend to focus on the design of individual components (filters, amplifiers, mixers, etc.). Few courses are offered on system level design for the RF front end. Our new course aims to turn students of signal processing into receiver front-end system engineers and give them an opportunity to design, build and test their own receiver front-end system.