RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design¶

Course Overview¶

• Institution: Eindhoven University of Technology
• Course code: RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design
• Track: RF, Microwave, and Antennas
• Tier: A
• Role: Mainline
• Level: Not standardized by provider (use prerequisites)
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-28

Eindhoven University of Technology's RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design builds a simulation-first RF and millimeter-wave circuit path in Qucs-S and Octave, with about seventy percent reproducible and hardware optional.

Why choose this course

Mainline course. A reliable option that can serve as a main course or strong alternative. Review note: A+

Before you start

• Recommended foundation: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
• Recommended foundation: Circuit Analysis
• Recommended foundation: Communication Systems

Verifiable learning outcomes

• Explain the core models in RF, Microwave, and Antennas, including their assumptions and limits
• Solve representative derivations and problems, checking units, limiting cases, or numerical results
• Complete a reproducible experiment or implementation with raw data, parameters, versions, and verification

Workload and pacing

13 weeks at 11 hours/week. This maintainer planning estimate is derived from course role and the density of public practice and labs; it is not a provider workload promise. Pilot two weeks while logging instruction, practice, lab, and review time, then adjust the remaining plan when actual effort differs by more than 25%.

Safety level

Simulation only. The default practice scope is software, computation, or simulation only; a lab label in the resource inventory does not authorize connecting physical equipment, and any hardware extension requires provider-scope verification and a new risk assessment.

Course Resources¶

Software, hardware, and cost

Software

• Maintainer-suggested open-source/free verification path: openEMS, scikit-rf, GNU Octave or Python 3, and KiCad
• The resource inventory lists public code coverage; pin interpreter, dependencies, toolchain, datasets, and PDK versions where applicable

Hardware

• The resource inventory lists lab coverage, but this course's maintainer path explicitly limits it to computational or simulation work. It assumes only a general-purpose computer able to run the software above and retain results; do not purchase or connect a vector network analyzer, calibration kit, shielded interconnects, attenuators, and course-specified fixture/antenna in a compliant lab

Cost note

The current maintainer path uses computation and simulation only, with no dedicated hardware purchase, and prefers open-source/free tools. This is not a provider requirement; platform, commercial-software, or cloud-compute costs still vary by provider, region, and plan.

Public resource coverage

Resources and access

“Listed by official page” means the link was discovered on a successfully fetched official source on the verification date; it does not guarantee that every region or account can open the target directly. Access does not grant redistribution rights. Re-check the provider page, target link, and third-party notices before downloading, adapting, or publishing material.

Practice and Verification¶

Practice loop

RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design · Eindhoven University of Technology RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design: Passive RF Network and Antenna-Matching Simulation

This is a maintainer-suggested self-study project for RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design · Eindhoven University of Technology RF and Millimeter-Wave Circuit Design, not an official course assignment. Design a passive matching network, transmission line, or antenna model for RF, Microwave, and Antennas and audit S-parameters, passivity or stability, and manufacturing tolerance.

Origin: Maintainer-suggested project

Deliverables

• A specification of band, port impedance, geometry or materials, matching, and regulatory boundary
• Circuit or full-wave models, mesh and port settings, and parameter-sweep sources
• Raw S-parameters, Smith-chart data, efficiency or gain or loss, and tolerance Monte Carlo results
• A report comparing analytic, circuit, and field solutions and explaining resonance drift and mismatch failure

Verification

• Meet the predeclared return-loss or insertion-loss target over the nominal band and pass a passivity check
• Cover the DC or low-frequency limit, center frequency, band edges, and material-parameter extremes
• Cross-check at least five frequency points against transmission-line or matching equations within 5%
• Inject ±10% geometry or permittivity variation and report resonance shift and worst mismatch

Reproducibility

• Commit geometry, circuit, mesh, sweep, and post-processing sources
• Pin solver, material models, ports, meshing rules, and convergence tolerances
• Preserve raw Touchstone or field data, solver logs, and the generated report

Safety boundary: Simulation only — Use passive RF or antenna simulation only; do not transmit or connect power amplifiers, microwave sources, or unknown antennas, and do not violate local spectrum rules.

Risks, gaps, and boundaries

About seventy percent of the course uses reproducible Qucs-S and Octave simulations, but Coursera access may require payment and hardware is optional.

Completion evidence

• Weekly learning log with time, questions, corrected errors, decisions, next steps, and links to that week's reproducible artifacts
• Theory dossier with explicit assumptions, notation, derivation, units, and boundary conditions, checked by at least one independent method
• Simulation package with model or netlist, inputs, solver and version, parameter-sweep script, benchmark comparison, expected results, and one rerun command
• Design-review package with requirements and constraints, trade-offs, editable sources, applicable ERC/DRC/timing/stability checks, exports, and a reproduction test
• Code repository with pinned dependencies and toolchain, a minimal run command, tests or waveform/benchmark checks, expected output, and license notes