A Teaching Assistant for Microelectronic Circuits Problems

Ever since their introduction, personal computers have been used as a tool for education. An Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is one such tool that can provide automated feedback to students when solving problems. This paper discusses the design and implementation of an ITS to aid instructors of microelectronic circuits, a topic often taught to undergraduate electrical and computer engineering students. The proposed ITS allows an instructor to create and add problems related to metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors, and to simulate the underlying circuits using the commonly available LTspice tool. Students are then able to load that problem and enter equations to solve it, while the ITS provides immediate feedback and hints, as applicable. Currently, the proposed ITS can handle MOS transistors at DC, including Ids equations for triode and saturation regions of operation. The intent is to extend the capabilities of the proposed ITS to handle different circuit elements such as diodes and bipolar transistors, and to facilitate open-ended design problems.