Feedback Made Easy for the Undergraduate

The increased use of linear integrated circuit amplifiers, which require feedback stabilization, has resulted in increased emphasis on teaching feedback techniques to undergraduates. This paper describes the method used at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn to teach juniors how to analyze and design feedback circuits. We have found that these students can, after taking the course, analyze and design complicated feedback circuits, and test feedback amplifiers to determine (and adjust) the feedback present in an amplifier. The procedure presented in this paper is different from that used by other instructors in that we teach by example. Therefore, we do not use a block diagram approach which students have difficulty in relating to real amplifiers, but instead analyze and design actual circuits. Generality is sacrificed for clarity.