Kerala PSC Exam syllabus for the posts of Range Forest Officer (Mains) Optional Subject Electrical Engineering

Submitted By Nimi M P on 17 January 2025

Detailed syllabus for the posts of Kerala PSC Range Forest Officer (Mains) Optional Subject Electrical Engineering in Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department Examination are given below. The total marks of the exam is 200. The Syllabus was published in the year 2025. You can refer our 'exam' section for previous and sample question papers. Exam details can be found in our news section or our youtube channel.

Syllabus For The Post Of Range Forest Officer In Kerala Forest & Wildlife Department (Electrical Engineering)

Module-1 (20 Marks)

Introduction to Semiconductor devices: Evolution of electronics - Vacuum tubes to nano electronics. Resistors, Capacitors and Inductors (constructional features not required): types, specifications. Standard values, color coding. PN Junction diode: Principle of operation, V-I characteristics, principle of avalanche breakdown, Zener diode, Photo Diode, Light Emitting Diodes (LED), Bipolar Junction Transistors: PNP and NPN structures, Principle of operation, relation between current gains in CE, CB and CC, input and output characteristics of common emitter configuration. MOSFET- Structure, Enhancement and Depletion types, principle of operation and characteristics. Rectifiers and power supplies: Block diagram description of a dc power supply, Working of a full wave bridge rectifier, capacitor filter (no analysis), working of simple zener voltage regulator. Regulated power supplies: Review of simple zener voltage regulator, series voltage regulator, 3 pin regulators-78XX and 79XX, DC to DC conversion, Circuit/block diagram and working of SMPS. Power Electronic Devices : Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR), TRIAC working, characteristics. Instrumentation : Introduction to measuring instruments Generalized Configurations and Functional elements of Instrumentation systems, Need for Measurement Systems, Classification of Types of Measuring instruments. Static and Dynamic characteristics of measuring instruments. Sensors and Transducers: - Need, Classification and selection criteria. Transducer Principles of operation, construction, theory, advantages and disadvantages, applications of Resistive Transducers: Potentiometers, strain gauges, (metallic and semi-conductor type), Resistance Thermometer, Thermistors. Inductive Transducers: LVDT (Linear variable differential transformer). Capacitive Transducers, capacitive microphone, Active Transducers: Thermocouple, Piezo- electric transducer, Hall Effect transducer, Flow meter Electronic Measuring Instruments : Digital storage oscilloscope, Working principle and applications of waveform analyser, digital frequency meter, harmonic distortion meter, harmonic analyser, spectrum analyser and logic state analyser IEEE - 488 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) Instruments with application. EMI, Grounding and Shielding.

Module-2 (20 Marks)

Number Systems and Codes: Binary and hexadecimal number systems; Methods of base conversions; Binary and hexadecimal arithmetic; Representation of signed numbers; Fixed and floating point
numbers; Binary coded decimal codes; Gray codes; Excess 3 code. Alphanumeric codes: ASCII. Basics of verilog -- basic language elements: identifiers, data objects, scalar data types, operators. Boolean Postulates and Fundamental Gates : Boolean postulates and laws - Logic Functions and Gates De- Morgan's Theorems, Principle of Duality, Minimization of Boolean expressions, Sum of Products (SOP), Product of Sums (POS), Canonical forms, Karnaugh map Minimization. Modeling in verilog, Implementation of gates with simple verilog codes. Combinatorial and Arithmetic Circuits : Combinatorial Logic Systems - Comparators, Multiplexers, Demultiplexers, Encoder, Decoder. Half and Full Adders, Subtractors, Serial and Parallel Adders, BCD Adder. Modeling and simulation of combinatorial circuits with verilog codes at the gate level. Sequential Logic Circuits: Building blocks like S-R, JK and Master-Slave JK FF, Edge triggered FF, Conversion of Flipflops, Excitation table and characteristic equation. Implementation with verilog codes. Ripple and Synchronous counters and implementation in verilog, Shift registers-SIPO, SISO, PISO, PIPO. Shift Registers with parallel Load/Shift, Ring counter and Johnsons counter. Asynchronous and Synchronous counter design, Mod N counter. Modeling and simulation of flipflops and counters in verilog. Logic families and its characteristics: TTL, ECL, CMOS - Electrical characteristics of logic gates - logic levels and noise margins, fan-out, propagation delay, transition time, power consumption and power-delay product. TTL inverter - circuit description and operation; CMOS inverter - circuit description and operation; Structure and operations of TTL and CMOS gates; NAND in TTL and CMOS, NAND and NOR in CMOS.

Module-3 (20 Marks)

Mesh and Node Analysis : Mesh and node analysis of network containing independent and dependent sources. Supermesh and Supernode analysis. Steady-state AC analysis using Mesh and Node analysis. Network Theorems : Thevenin's theorem, Norton's theorem, Superposition theorem, Reciprocity theorem, Maximum power transfer theorem. (applied to both dc and ac circuits having dependent source). Application of Laplace Transforms : Review of Laplace Transforms and Inverse Laplace Transforms, Initial value theorem & Final value theorem, Transformation of basic signals and circuits into s-domain. Transient analysis of RL, RC, and RLC networks with impulse, step and sinusoidal inputs (with and without initial conditions). Analysis of networks with transformed impedance and dependent sources Network functions : Network functions for the single port and two port network. Properties of driving point and transfer functions. Significance of Poles and Zeros of network functions, Time domain response from pole zero plot. Impulse Function & Response. Network functions in the sinusoidal steady state, Magnitude and Phase response. Two port network Parameters : Impedance, Admittance, Transmission and Hybrid parameters of two port network. Interrelationship among parameter sets. Series and parallel connections of two port networks. Reciprocal and Symmetrical two port network. Characteristic impedance, Image impedance and propagation constant (derivation not required).

Module-4 (20 Marks)

Elements of communication systems, Examples of analog communication systems, Frequency bands, Need for modulation. Noise in communication system, Definitions of Thermal noise (white noise), Various types of noise -- Shot noise, Partition noise, Flicker noise, Burst noise, (No analysis required) Signal to noise ratio, Noise factor, Noise temperature, Narrow band noise. Amplitude modulation (AM), Double-side band suppressed carrier (DSB-SC) modulation Single sideband modulation (SSB) - spectrum, power, efficiency of all the three variants. (Study of only tone modulation in DSB-SC, AM, and SSB.) Amplitude-modulator implementations - switching modulator, balanced modulator. AM demodulators -- Coherent demodulator. Envelope detector. Frequency modulation - modulation index, frequency deviation, average power, spectrum of tone modulated FM. Heuristics for bandwidth of FM. Narrow band FM and wide-band FM. FM generation: Varactor diode modulator, Armstrongs method. FM demodulation - slope detection, PLL demodulator. Module V Superheterodyne reciever, Principle of Carrier synchronization using PLL, NTSC Television broadcasting. Elements of digital communication system: Sources, channels and receivers. Classification of communication channels. Discrete sources. Source coding techniques. Waveform coding methods. Sampling theorem. Sampling and reconstruction. Pulse code modulation. Sampling, quantization and encoding. Different quantizers. A-law and mu-law quantization. Practical 15 level mu and A law encoding. Nonlinear Source Coding: Differential PCM, adaptive PCM, Delta modulator and adaptive delta modulator. Issues in delta modulation. Slope overload. Signaling Codes in Telephony : Signalling codes in digital telephony. T1 signalling system. AMI and Manchester codes. Binary Nzero substitution, B3ZS code, B6ZS code. Digital Modulation Schemes : Digital modulation schemes. Baseband BPSK system and the signal constellation. BPSK transmitter and receiver. Base band QPSK system and Signal constellations. Plots of BER Vs SNR (Analysis not required). QPSK transmitter and receiver. Quadrature amplitude modulation. Channel Coding and Receivers : Transmission through AWGN Channel. Capacity of an AWGN channel. Receivers. Correlation and matched filter receiver. Channel coding schemes. Repetition code. Block codes Cyclic codes.

Module-5 (20 Marks)

Introduction to Continuous Time Signals : Definition of signal. Basic continous-time signals. Frequency and angular frequency of continoustime signals . Basic operation on signals. Classification of continous-time signals:Periodic and Nonperiodic signals.Even and Odd signals, Energy and power signals. Noise and Vibration signals. Discrete Time Signals : Basic discrete-time signals. Frequency and angular frequency of discrete-time signals.Classification of discrete-time signals:Periodic and Non-periodic signals.Even and Odd signals, Energy and power signals. Systems : System definition. Continuous-time and discrete-time systems. Properties - Linearity, Time invariance, Causality, Invertibility,Stability. Representation of systems using impulse response. Linear time invariant systems : LTI system definition. Response of a continous-time LTI system and the Convolutional Integral. Properties. Response of a discrete-time LTI system and the Convolutional Sum. Properties. Correlation of discrete-time signals Frequency analysis of signals : Concept of frequency in continous-time and discrete-time signals. Fourier transform of continuous time and discrete-time signals. Parsevals theorem. Interpretation of Spectra. The sampling theorem. Signal Processing Fundamentals : Discrete-time and digital signals. Basic elements of digital processing system- ADC, DAC and Nyquist rate. Frequency aliasing due to sampling. Need for anti- aliasing filters. Discrete Time Fourier Transforms - Properties. Computation of spectrum. Discrete Fourier Transform - Properties and Application Discrete Fourier transform - DFT as a linear transformation, Properties - circular convolution, Relationship of the DFT to other transforms, IDFT, Properties of DFT and examples. Filtering of long data sequences - FFT-Radix-2 DIT and DIF algorithms. Computational complexity of DFT and FFT -application. Digital Filters Digital FIR Filter: Transfer function - Difference equation, Linear phase FIR filter, Concept of windowing, Direct form and cascade realization of FIR and IIR filters. Digital IIR Filters - Transfer function, Difference equation. Direct and parallel Structures. Design of analogue Butterworth filters, Analog frequency transformations, Impulse invariance method. Bilinear transformation, Analog prototype to digital transformations. Finite word length effects in digital filters and DSP Hardware Fixed point arithmetic, Floating point arithmetic, Truncation and Rounding, Quantization error in ADC, Overflow error, Product round off error, Scaling ,
Limit cycle oscillation. General and special purpose hardware for DSP: Computer architectures for DSP - Harvard, pipelining, MAC, special instruction, replication, on chip cache. General purpose digital signal processors (TMS 320 family) - Implementation of digital filtering on dsp processor. Special purpose DSP hardware

Module-6 (20 Marks)

Wave shaping circuits: First order RC differentiating and integrating circuits, First order RC low pass and high pass filters. Diode Clipping circuits - Positive, negative and biased clipper. Diode Clamping circuits - Positive, negative and biased clamper. Transistor biasing: Need, operating point, concept of DC load line, fixed bias, self bias, voltage divider bias, bias stabilization. BJT Amplifiers: RC coupled amplifier (CE configuration) - need of various components and design, Concept of AC load lines, voltage gain and frequency response. Small signal analysis of CE configuration using small signal hybrid-pi model for mid frequency and low frequency. (gain, input and output impedance). High frequency equivalent circuits of BJT, Miller effect, Analysis of high frequency response of CE amplifier. MOSFET amplifiers: MOSFET circuits at DC, MOSFET as an amplifier, Biasing of discrete MOSFET amplifier, small signal equivalent circuit. Small signal voltage and current gain, input and output impedance of CS configuration. CS stage with current source load, CS stage with diode-connected load. Multistage amplifiers - effect of cascading on gain and bandwidth. Cascode amplifier. Feedback amplifiers: Effect of positive and negative feedback on gain, frequency response and distortion. The four basic feedback topologies, Analysis of discrete BJT circuits in voltage-series and voltage-shunt feedback topologies - voltage gain, input and output impedance. Oscillators: Classification, criterion for oscillation, Wien bridge oscillator, Hartley and Crystal oscillator. (working principle and design equations of the circuits; analysis of Wien bridge oscillator only required). Power amplifiers: Classification, Transformer coupled class A power amplifier, push pull class B and class AB power amplifiers, complementary-symmetry class B and Class AB power amplifiers, efficiency and distortion (no analysis required) Regulated power supplies: Shunt voltage regulator, series voltage regulator, Short circuit protection and fold back protection, Output current boosting.

Module-7 (20 Marks)

Computer Arithmetic and Processor Basics : Algorithms for binary multiplication and division. Fixed and floating-point number representation. Functional units of a computer, Von Neumann and Harvard computer architectures, CISC and RISC architectures. Processor Architecture - General internal architecture, Address bus, Data bus, control bus. Register set - status register, accumulator, program counter, stack pointer, general purpose registers. Processor operation - instruction cycle, instruction fetch, instruction decode, instruction execute, timing response, instruction sequencing and execution (basic concepts, datapath. 8051 Architecture Microcontrollers and Embedded Processors : Architecture - Block diagram of 8051, Pin configuration, Registers, Internal Memory, Timers, Port Structures, Interrupts. Assembly Language Programming - Addressing Modes, Instruction set (Detailed study of 8051 instruction set is required). Programming and Interfacing of 8051: Simple programming examples in assembly language. Interfacing with 8051 using Assembly language programming: LED, Seven segment LED display. Programming in C - Declaring variables, Simple examples - delay generation, port programming, code conversion. Interfacing of - LCD display, Keyboard, Stepper Motor, DAC and ADC -- with 8051 and its programming. Advanced Concepts : 8051 Timers/Counters - Modes and Applications. Serial Data Transfer - SFRs of serial port, working, Programming the 8051 to transfer data serially. Introduction to ARM - ARM family, ARM 7 register architecture. ARM programmer's model. System software - Assembler, Interpreter, Compiler, Linker, Loader, Debugger. The Memory System : Types of memory - RAM, ROM. Memory Characteristics and Hierarchy. Cache memory - The basics of Caches, Mapping techniques, Improving Cache performance. Virtual memory - Overlay, Memory management, Address translation. Input/Output Organization - Introduction, Synchronous vs. asynchronous I/O, Programmed I/O, Interrupt driven I/O, Direct Memory Access.

Module-8 (20 Marks)

Operational amplifiers(Op Amps): The 741 Op Amp, Block diagram, Ideal op-amp parameters, typical parameter values for 741, Equivalent circuit, Open loop configurations, Voltage transfer curve, Frequency response curve. Differential Amplifiers: Differential amplifier configurations using BJT, DC Analysis- transfer characteristics; AC analysis- differential and common mode gains, CMRR, input and output resistance, Voltage gain. Constant current bias, constant current source; Concept of current mirror-the two transistor current mirror, Wilson and Widlar current mirrors. Op-amp with negative feedback: General concept of Voltage Series, Voltage Shunt, current series and current shunt negative feedback, Op Amp circuits with voltage series and voltage shunt feedback, Virtual ground Concept; analysis of practical inverting and non-inverting amplifiers for closed loop gain, Input Resistance and Output Resistance. Op-amp applications: Summer, Voltage Follower-loading effects, Differential and Instrumentation Amplifiers, Voltage to current and Current to voltage converters, Integrator, Differentiator, Precision rectifiers, Comparators, Schmitt Triggers, Log and antilog amplifiers. Op-amp Oscillators and Multivibrators: Phase Shift and Wien-bridge Oscillators, Triangular and Sawtooth waveform generators, Astable and monostable multivibrators. Active filters: Comparison with passive filters, First and second order low pass, High pass, Band pass and band reject active filters, state variable filters. Timer and VCO: Timer IC 555- Functional diagram, Astable and monostable operations;. Basic concepts of Voltage Controlled Oscillator and application of VCO IC LM566, Phase Locked Loop - Operation, Closed loop analysis, Lock and capture range, Basic building blocks, PLL IC 565, Applications of PLL. Voltage Regulators: Fixed and Adjustable voltage regulators, IC 723 - Low voltage and high voltage configurations, Current boosting, Current limiting, Short circuit and Fold-back protection. Data Converters: Digital to Analog converters, Specifications, Weighted resistor type and R-2R Ladder type. Analog to Digital Converters: Specifications, Flash type and Successive approximation type.

Module-9 (20 Marks)

Control Systems Introduction: Basic Components of a Control System, Open-Loop Control Systems and Closed-Loop Control Systems, Examples of control system Feedback and its effects: Types of Feedback Control Systems, Linear versus Nonlinear Control Systems, Time-Invariant versus Time-Varying Systems. Mathematical modelling of control systems: Electrical Systems and Mechanical systems. Transfer Function from Block Diagrams and Signal Flow Graphs: impulse response and its relation with transfer function of linear systems. Block diagram representation and reduction methods, Signal flow graph and Mason's gain formula. Time Domain Analysis of Control Systems: Introduction- Standard Test signals, Time response specifications. Time response of first and second order systems to unit step input and ramp inputs, time domain specifications. Steady state error and static error coefficients. Frequency domain analysis: Frequency domain specifications, correlation between time and frequency responses. Stability of linear control systems: Concept of BIBO stability, absolute stability, Routh Hurwitz Criterion, Effect of P, PI & PID controllers. Root Locus Techniques: Introduction, properties and its construction, Application to system stability studies. Illustration of the effect of addition of a zero and a pole. Nyquist stability criterion: Fundamentals and analysis Relative stability: gain margin and phase margin. Stability analysis with Bode plot. Design of Compensators: Need of compensators, design of lag and lead compensators using Bode plots. State Variable Analysis of Linear Dynamic Systems: State variables, state equations, state variable representation of electrical and mechanical systems, dynamic equations, merits for higher order differential equations and solution. Transfer function from State Variable Representation, Solutions of the state equations, state transition matrix Concept of controllability and observability and techniques to test them - Kalman's Test.

Module-10 (20 Marks)

Optical Communication System - Block Diagram - Advantages Of Optical Fiber Communication Systems - Principles Of Light Transmission In A Fiber Using Ray Theory - Single Mode Fibers, Multimode Fibers - Step Index Fibers, Graded Index Fibers (Basic Concepts Only) - Attenuation In Optical Fibers - Absorption Losses, Scattering Losses, Bending Losses, Core And Cladding Losses. Optical transmitters: LED and semiconductor LASER, characteristics, transmitter design. Optical receivers: Common photo detectors. Receiver design. Basic Radar System- Applications - Radar Range Equation (Qualitative Treatment Only) - Factors Influencing Maximum Range - Basic Pulsed Radar System - Block Diagram - Display Methods- A - Scope, PPI Display - Instrument Landing System - Ground Controlled Approach System. Cellular Communication, Hand off, Frequency Reuse, Principles of Multicarrier communication, Multiple Access techniques, CDMA Systems: General aspects of CDMA cellular systems, IS-95 standard, Downlink and uplink, GSM standard and service aspects - GSM architecture, Evolution to Third Generation systems, WCDMA and CDMA-2000 standards,4G, 5G Module 4 (Satellite Communication) Basic concept of satellite communication, Keppler's law, Satellite orbits, Geosynchronous satellites, Active and Passive satellite, Block diagram for Satellite uplink, Transponder and earth station receiver. Data Communication and Networks : Study of OSI and TCP/IP protocol suit: The Model, Functions of each layer, TCP/IP Protocol Suites. Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: Issues and Challenges, Wireless Sensor Networks: Architecture, Data dissemination, Data gathering, MAC Protocols, Location discovery, Quality of a sensor network 6LoWPAN, Microwaves and Antenna- Basic antenna parameters: gain, directivity, beam width and effective aperture calculations, effective height, wave polarization, radiation resistance, radiation efficiency, antenna field zones. Duality and Principles of reciprocity, Helmholtz theorem (derivation required), Field, directivity and radiation resistance of a short dipole and half wave dipole (far field derivation). Broad band antenna: Principle of Log periodic antenna array and design, Helical antenna: types and design. Design of Microstrip Rectangular Patch antennas and feeding methods. Principles of Horn, Parabolic dish antenna (expression for E, H and Gain without derivation), Mobile phone antenna - Inverted F antenna, Arrays of point sources, field of two isotropic point sources, principle of pattern multiplication, linear arrays of 'n' isotropic point sources. Array factor, Grating lobes. Design of Broadside, End fire and Dolph Chebyshevarrays. Concept of Phase array, Microwaves : Introduction, advantages, Cavity Resonators- Derivation of resonance frequency of Rectangular cavity. Single cavity klystron- Reflex Klystron Oscillators: Derivation of Power output, efficiency and admittance. Magnetron oscillators: Cylindrical magnetron, Cyclotron angular frequency, Power output and efficiency. Travelling Wave Tube: Slow wave structures, Helix TWT, Amplification process, Derivation of convection current, axial electric field, wave modes and gain.

NOTE: - It may be noted that apart from the topics detailed above, questions from other topics prescribed for the educational qualification of the post may also appear in the question paper. There is no undertaking that all the topics above may be covered in the question paper.