Ever since electrical engineering has emerged as a distinct field from general physics, it has been granulated into ever finer distinct domains. These distinct domains are mostly separated by their application. The design of an electronic circuit converting electric power differs widely from the design of an integrated data processing chip. While the used components, transistors, capacitors or inductors, are based on the same physical principal, their profile of requirements for each application domain varies immensely. Therefore, engineers are trained to become experts in their domain. However, in recent years, technical progress has ensured that the boundaries of certain domains are getting more and more blurry. For example, the advances in semiconductor processes have led to novel fast switching high-power semiconductors, such as enhancement mode Gallium-Nitride field-effect transistors, which can be switched at a rate of several tens of megahertz. These frequencies are within the very high frequency band, known very well by microwave engineers. Therefore, it is time to transfer the knowledge from certain domains to neighbouring domains, not only for the advancement of the state-of-the-art, but for the creation of synergy to the benefit of both domains. In this thesis, an open-source software is introduced which aids the practical training of the Smith chart, the main graphical tool used by microwave engineers. Using three examples, the synergies emerging at the boundary of neighbouring electrical engineering domains are explored. Firstly, a high-frequency circuit that enables an isolated gate driver for power electronics. Secondly, a power electronic circuit that enables an energy-efficient high-frequency signal modulator. And thirdly, a high-frequency integrated circuit that forms a symbiosis with a photonic chip, by implementing the activation function in an optical neural network.
Lukas Hüssen (Wed,) studied this question.