HKIE Professional Assessment - Electronics Discipline study plan
HKIE Professional Assessment - Electronics Discipline · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Electronics Engineering Practice
Map the Domain 1 syllabus into a one-page checklist covering component selection, tolerance and derating, PCB layout, EMC/ESD, thermal management, reliability and testability
Derive and tabulate derating rules for resistors, capacitors, semiconductors and connectors against typical industrial and safety-critical margins
Work through five hand calculations on trace current capacity, voltage drop and thermal rise, and record the assumptions used in each
Build a personal glossary of 40 electronics-practice terms with a one-line definition and a worked example for each
Your checkpoint
A 6-8 page Domain 1 revision note containing the syllabus checklist, the derating table and the five worked calculations with stated assumptions
Electronics Engineering Practice
Explain the design review and verification cycle from requirements capture through prototype, qualification and production release
Compare EMC mitigation techniques for conducted and radiated emissions and justify a chosen technique for two concrete product scenarios
Assess failure modes using FMEA logic on a simple power supply and rank at least six failure modes by severity and detection
Interpret a typical environmental and reliability test schedule (temperature cycling, damp heat, vibration, burn-in) and state the acceptance criteria
Your checkpoint
A completed FMEA worksheet for a notional DC power supply with severity, occurrence and detection ratings plus recommended actions
Electronic Circuit and System Design
Analyse analogue building blocks (biasing, small-signal gain, feedback stability, op-amp non-idealities) and solve eight numerical problems without reference notes
Design and calculate a switched-mode converter stage: duty cycle, inductor ripple, output capacitor sizing and switching loss estimate
Draw and explain the signal integrity implications of a high-speed digital interconnect: transmission line, termination, crosstalk and return path
Compare linear versus switching regulation and justify a topology choice for given load, efficiency and noise requirements
Your checkpoint
A design calculation pack for one analogue and one switching regulator, each with schematic-level component values, loss budget and a stated design margin
Electronic Circuit and System Design & Signals, Communications and Embedded Systems
Design a mixed-signal chain from sensor to ADC, selecting anti-alias filter order, resolution and sampling rate against a stated accuracy target
Quantify noise sources (thermal, shot, quantisation, reference) and compute an overall noise budget for that chain
Apply sampling theory and aliasing reasoning to three signals and identify the required filter corner in each case
Simulate or hand-verify the frequency response and step response of a second-order filter and state the stability margin
Your checkpoint
A sensor-to-ADC signal chain report with noise budget table, filter design and a verification plot or tabulated response showing margin against the accuracy target
Signals, Communications and Embedded Systems
Work through modulation and coding fundamentals: AM/FM, QAM, OFDM and error-correcting codes, and compute bit error rate trends for at least two schemes
Calculate link budgets including transmit power, path loss, antenna gain, noise figure and required Eb/N0 for a given data rate
Explain real-time embedded architecture: interrupt latency, scheduling, watchdog and memory partitioning, and map each to a design decision
Compare common embedded buses (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, Ethernet) on speed, determinism, topology and fault behaviour
Your checkpoint
A link budget spreadsheet plus a one-page embedded architecture decision record covering bus choice, timing budget and fault handling
Engineering Management, Contracts and Professional Ethics
Outline the project lifecycle under a standard form of contract and identify the obligations of employer, engineer and contractor at each stage
Distinguish professional negligence, breach of contract and statutory liability, and apply the distinction to three short scenarios
Apply a recognised code of professional conduct to resolve four ethical dilemmas involving conflicts of interest, safety and confidentiality
Explain variation, extension of time, delay and liquidated damages mechanisms and calculate a simple entitlement
Your checkpoint
Four written ethics and contract case responses, each 300-400 words, with the governing principle, the decision and the reasoning stated explicitly
Hong Kong Statutory, Safety and Regulatory Framework
Map Hong Kong statutory duties relevant to electrical and electronic works: electricity supply regulations, wiring regulations and the role of the registering authority
Identify the safety obligations for design, installation, inspection and testing, and state who holds each duty
Summarise the regulatory route for placing electrical products on the Hong Kong market, including conformity assessment and labelling expectations
Explain professional registration and discipline mechanisms for engineers in Hong Kong and the consequences of non-compliance
Your checkpoint
A two-page statutory and regulatory reference sheet cross-referencing each obligation to its source instrument and the responsible party
Electronics Engineering Practice & Electronic Circuit and System Design & Signals, Communications and Embedded Systems & Engineering Management, Contracts and Professional Ethics & Hong Kong Statutory, Safety and Regulatory Framework
Sit two full-length timed mock assessments under exam conditions and record score by domain
Re-teach the three weakest sub-topics from the mock results using the notes produced in weeks 1-7
Consolidate all deliverables into a single indexed revision pack with a one-page summary per domain
Rehearse concise written answers to professional-assessment style questions, targeting structure, assumptions and conclusion
Your checkpoint
A complete indexed revision pack plus a mock score log showing improvement between the two attempts and a prioritised list of residual weak areas
Milestones
Week 2: Can state derating rules and FMEA reasoning from memory and complete a 20-question Domain 1 self-test at 70% or above
Week 4: Can produce a full noise budget and regulator loss calculation unaided within 30 minutes, with all assumptions written down
Week 6: Can write a structured 300-word response to an unseen ethics or contract scenario scoring full marks against a self-made rubric of principle, decision and reasoning
Week 8: Second mock attempt scores at least 65% overall with no single domain below 55%, and every week's deliverable is present in the indexed pack