Intermediate Report Guidelines
Begin by reading and understanding Writing IP-1 Reports for general writing principles.
Similar information is available in Project Skills: Reporting.
The following guidelines detail additional, specific instructions on how to write intermediate reports in the Booming Bass project.
Submission Requirements¶
You may submit either one integrated report covering the entire team’s work or three separate reports for power supply, power amplifier, and loudspeaker analysis/filter design.
Your choice must be agreed upon with your tutor, who may have a preference.
If you choose an integrated report, divide the work as you would for separate reports and also divide the remaining parts (intro and concluding sections) and clearly indicate authorship for each section you contributed to.
Each section should have no more than three authors, and you should avoid excessive fragmentation by splitting the report into too many short sections.
An integrated report offers the advantage of potentially requiring less effort in preparing the final report and provides practice in integrating content before the final submission.
Reports must be submitted via Brightspace.
The deadline for the intermediate report(s) is at the end of week 2.6.
The Brightspace Assignment Submission page has entries for each subteam, including three subteams for low, mid, and high speakers. A report can be submitted in any of the assignment ‘slots’ that it covers. Therefore, either one or three slots will be used.
Assessment and Feedback¶
The intermediate reports will be assessed by the tutor, according to specific rubrics that can be found on Brightspace:
The rubrics correspond to the guidelines and instructions that you can find below, you can use the rubrics as a checklist.
The tutor will give feedback on the quality (contents and structure) of the report.
The tutor will grade the intermediate report. It is a group grade; it will constitute 20% of the total grade.
Integrated Report Structure¶
When you submit one integrated intermediate report describing different subsystems, the report will contain multiple ‘body sections’—one for each subsystem. These chapters are preceded by an overall main introduction and followed by the typical document-level concluding sections.
Further Explanation of Integrated Report Structure
In this structure, you should not create single sections (such as ‘Design’ or ‘Simulation’) that sequentially discuss each subsystem in turn. Instead, organize the report with separate chapters for each subsystem, where each chapter covers the complete workflow for that subsystem—from design through to measurements. Each subsystem chapter should include:
A brief subsystem introduction
Main body, typically consisting of design, simulation, and measurement sections (see above)
A brief subsystem discussion/analysis
A brief subsystem conclusion
The complete report will then also contain:
A main introduction at the beginning, before the individual subsystem chapters
Top-level concluding sections at the end (such as overall discussion, conclusion, and recommendations)
A single references section for the entire report (not per subsystem)
Appendices at the document level (not per subsystem)
This structure ensures each subsystem is presented as a coherent, self-contained unit while maintaining overall report cohesion.
Subsystem-Specific Guidelines¶
Each subsystem report should follow the steps for designing the subsystem as given in the sections from Course Modules. There is a section for the Power Supply, a section for the Power Amplifier and two sections for the filters: Speaker Impedance and Filters.
The instructions below give specific requirements for the contents of the Main Body sections. Refer to the text above for the contents of the other sections.
Power Supply Report/Chapter Main body Sections
Focus: Inform readers about power supply dimensioning and design choices
The body of the text for this report can again be broken down into a number of subsections as follows.
“Design Methodology” Section
Contains a general description of the design procedure.
Start by briefly discussing the role of the elements in the circuit schematic of the power supply to be designed.
Note: In case of elaborate expressions needing to be derived, please consider moving them to appendices, by giving proper references, and keep in this subsection the final results only.
“Simulations” Section
Perform the simulations in LTspice.
Include a properly legible schematic of the simulated circuit.
Some of the obtained plots should be included in the report; pay special attention to ensuring the legibility of these plots. Make a judicious selection of presented results, with one or two essential plots being included in this subsection and all other results being included in appendices, by giving proper references.
Compare simulated and previously obtained analytic results and attempt to explain possible discrepancies.
“Power Supply Assembly” Section
Description of the assembling of the power supply.
Explain your choices for the circuit elements and justify possible deviations from the previously designed values.
Should redesign be dictated by the unavailability of some components, please include a discussion on how to deal with these unavailabilities.
“Measurements” Section
Describe the procedure which you followed to perform the measurements.
Include illustrating snapshots of waveforms; pay attention to the legibility of the plots and/or images.
Compare measured results with simulated and/or analytic results and attempt to explain possible discrepancies.
Power Amplifier Report/Chapter Main Body Sections
Focus: Report on amplifier design methodology and performance verification
“Design Methodology” Section
Present and discuss the circuit schematic in terms of basic signal processing blocks, namely filter circuits and the amplifier topology. For a clear explanation you may divide the complete circuit into two or three sub-circuits.
Derive expressions for the transfer functions of the (sub)circuits.
Briefly discuss the role of the unknown components in the amplifier and discuss which components are important to meet the design specifications.
Calculate the ideal component values to meet the required design requirements.
Match the ideal components to the available components (see E12/E24 series) and select the component values to be used. Include in your report a table with the calculated component values and the selected values.
Recalculate your design with the used component values to validate that the required specifications are indeed met.
“Simulations” Section
Simulations should be in LTspice.
Derive the overall transfer function of the amplifier, based on nodal analysis, and then simulate it.
Include a readable schematic with the nodes and the components marked.
Make a selection of the simulation results, i.e. include plots showing essential design specifications. Other relevant data can be placed in an appendix, with a proper reference in your text.
Compare the calculated and simulated results and explain differences.
“Measurements” Section
This section should present the measurement results on your final circuit, with a goal to demonstrate that the product (amplifier) meets the specifications and/or reflect on possible design goals that were not met.
Briefly describe the measurement setup, procedure(s) and the equipment used.
Make a selection of the measurement results, i.e. include plots that indicate that essential design specifications have been measured.
Discuss the relevant measurements and include a table with the amplifier requirements and the obtained measurement results.
Filter Report/Chapter Main Body Sections
Focus: Understanding loudspeaker behavior and filter optimization
The report will contain two separate parts:
Loudspeaker Analysis
Filter Design.
Loudspeaker Analysis Chapter
“Loudspeaker Modeling” Section
Present and discuss the circuit schematics of the various impedance models of the loudspeaker: Model 1 in Figure 5 in the 4. Speaker Impedance chapter and Model 2 according to Equation (8), also in the 4. Speaker Impedance chapter.
Briefly discuss the role of the components in Model 1 and how you link this equivalent model to the electrical measurements which you have from the loudspeaker.
Present calculations of the model component values based on the measurement results. Include a table with the calculated component values.
“Loudspeaker Simulations” Section
With LTspice, simulate the behavior of the loudspeaker using the obtained values of the equivalent circuit.
Make a selection of the simulation results. Plots and tables that are essential for the model. Other relevant data can be placed in the appendix, with a proper reference in your text.
Compare the simulated and measured results and explain the differences.
Include a short discussion on how this Part 1 is relevant to the rest of your analysis in Part 2 for the filter design.
Filter Design Chapter
“Filter Design Methodology” Section
Contains a general description of the design procedure.
Start by briefly discussing the motivation behind the choice of the adopted filter structure and Zobel network. Use the speaker acoustic measurement results as a baseline for the choice of the cut-off frequencies.
Recommendation: Add the main acoustic measurements in an Appendix.The design steps for the passive filter design.
Note: In case of elaborate expressions needing to be derived, please consider moving them to appendices, by giving proper references, and keep in this section the final results only.
“Filter Simulations” Section
Provide information on the employed tools and on the steps to be followed, based on the implied questions in Section passive filter design.
Including a properly legible schematic of the simulated circuit(s) in LTspice is appreciated.
Some of the obtained plots should be included in the report — pay special attention to ensuring the legibility of these plots. Make a judicious selection of presented results, with one or two essential plots being included in this section and all other results being included in appendices, by giving proper references.
Provide a critical discussion on the obtained simulation results using LTspice for the three separate filters and of the total transfer using nodal analysis with respect to expected performance from theoretical considerations.
“Filter Measurements” Section
Provide and discuss the circuit-response measurements of the filters.
Include illustrating snapshots of waveforms — pay attention to the legibility of the plots and/or images.
Compare measured results with simulated and/or analytic results and attempt to explain possible discrepancies.
Key Success Factors¶
Preparation: Read relevant tutorial sections before lab work
Integration: Connect results between related analyses
Critical thinking: Explain discrepancies between theoretical, simulated, and measured results
Documentation: Maintain clear traceability of all design decisions
Professional presentation: Ensure all figures, tables, and equations meet formatting standards
Remember: These intermediate reports may be incorporated into your final project report with minimal changes, so invest in quality from the start.
Learn More
Project Skills: Reporting under *Project Skills’
IEEE Citation Style for citation and reference style
Citations for how and what to cite
Book: Writing for Readers with Little Time by R. Elling, H. Elling, and R. Grit.