EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

GENERAL APTITUDE
Q. No. 1 - 5 Carry One Mark Each

1. The ninth and the tenth of this month are Monday and Tuesday ___________.
(A) figuratively (B) retrospectively (C) respectively (D) rightfully
Answer: (C)

2. 500 students are taking one or more courses out of Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. Registration
records indicate course enrolment as follows: Chemistry (329). Physics (186). Mathematics (295).
Chemistry and Physics (83), Chemistry and Mathematics (217), and Physics and Mathematics (63).
How many students are taking all 3 subjects?
(A) 37 (B) 43 (C) 47 (D) 53
Answer: (D)

3. It is _________ to read this year‟s textbook __________ the last year‟s.

(A) easier, than (B) most easy, than
(C) easier, from (D) easiest, from
Answer: (A)

4. Fatima starts from point P, goes North for 3 km, and then East for 4km to reach point Q. She then
turns to face point P and goes 15km in that direction. She then goes North for 6km. How far is she
from point P, and in which direction should she go to reach point P?
(A) 8km, East (B) 12 km, North (C) 6km, East (D) 10km, North
Answer: (A)
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5. A rule states that in order to drink beer one must be over 18 years old. In a bar, there are 4 people. P is
16 years old, Q is 25 years old, R is drinking milkshake and S is drinking beer. What must be checked
to ensure that the rule is being followed?
(A) Only P‟s drink (B) Only P‟s drink and S‟s age
(C) Only S‟s age (D) Only P‟s drink, Q‟s drink and S‟s age
Answer: (B)

Q. No. 6- 10 Carry Two Marks Each

6. Each of P, Q, R, S, W, X, Y and Z has been married at most once. X and Y are married and have two
children P and Q. Z is the grandfather of the daughter S of P. Z and W are married and are parents of
R. Which one of the following must necessarily be FALSE?
(A) X is the mother-in-law of R (B) P and R are not married to each other
(C) P is a son of X and Y (D) Q cannot be married to R
Answer: (D)

7. The number of 3-digit numbers such that the digit 1 is never to the immediate right of 2 is
(A) 781 (B) 791 (C) 881 (D) 891
Answer: (C)

8. A contour line joins locations having the same height above the mean sea level. The following is a
contour plot of a geographical region. Contour lines are shown at 25m intervals in this plot.


R
425
450 550
575
Q  P S
575
550

500
T
500 475

0 1 2km
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Which of the following is the steepest path leaving from P?

(A) P to Q (B) P to R (C) P to S (D) P to T
Answer: (B)

9. 1200 men and 500 women can build a bridge in 2weeks. 900men and 250 women will take 3 weeks to
build the same bridge. How many men will be needed to build the bridge in one week?
(A) 3000 (B) 3300 (C) 3600 (D) 3900
Answer: (C)

10. “If you are looking for a history of India, or for an account of the rise and fall of the British Raj, or for
the reason of the cleaving of the subcontinent into two mutually antagonistic parts and the effects this
mutilation will have in the respective section, and ultimately on Asia, you will not find it in these
pages; for though I have spent a lifetime in the country, I lived too near the seat of events, and was too
intimately associated with the actors, to get the perspective needed for the impartial recording of these
matters.”
Which of the following statements best reflects the author‟s opinion?
(A) An intimate association does not allow for the necessary perspective.
(B) Matters are recorded with an impartial perspective.
(C) An intimate association offers an impartial perspective.
(D) Actors are typically associated with the impartial recording of matters.
Answer: (A)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Q. No. 1 – 25 Carry One Mark Each

1. Consider the circuit shown in the figure.

Y 0
MUX 0

0 MUX F
1
1
X
Z

The Boolean expression F implemented by the circuit is

(A) XYZ  XY  YZ (B) XYZ  XZ  YZ

(C) XYZ  XY  YZ (D) XYZ  XY  YZ

Answer: (B)

2. An LTI system with unit sample response h  n   5n   7n  1  7n  3  5n  4 is a

(A) Low – pass filter (B) high – pass filter (C) band – pass filter (D) band – stop filter
Answer: (C)

3. In the circuit shown, V is a sinusoidal voltage source. The current I is in phase with voltage V.

5 5H I

V 5F

amplitude of voltage across the capacitor

The ratio is __________.
amplitude of voltage across the resistor

Answer: (0.2)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

4. In a DRAM,
(A) periodic refreshing is not required
(B) information is stored in a capacitor
(C) information is stored in a latch
(D) both read and write operations can be performed simultaneously
Answer: (B)

5. Consider an n-channel MOSFET having width W, length L, electron mobility in the channel n and

oxide capacitance per unit area Cox . If gate-to-source voltage VGS=0.7V, drain-to-source voltage

VDS=0.1V, n Cox   100A / V2 , threshold voltage VTH=0.3 V and (W/L) =50, then the

transconductance gm (in mA/V) is ___________.

Answer: (0.5)

6. Two conducting spheres S1 and S2 of radii a and b (b>a) respectively, are placed far apart and
connected by a long, thin conducting wire, as shown in the figure.

S2
S1
Wire

Radius a
Radius b

For some charge placed on this structure, the potential and surface electric field on S1 are V a and Ea,
and that on S2 are Vb and Eb, respectively, which of the following is CORRECT?

(A) Va  Vb and Ea  E b (B) Va  Vb and Ea  E b

(C) Va  Vb and Ea  E b (D) Va  Vb and Ea  E b

Answer: (C)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

7. For the circuit shown in the figure, P and Q are the inputs and Y is the output.

PMOS

Y
P NMOS
Q

The logic implemented by the circuit is

(A) XNOR (B) XOR (C) NOR (D) OR
Answer: (*)

8. An n-channel enhancement mode MOSFET is biased at VGS  VTH and VDS   VGS  VTH  , where VGS is

the gate-to-source voltage, VDS is the drain-to-source voltage and VTH is the threshold voltage.
Considering channel length modulation effect to be significant, the MOSFET behaves as a
(A) voltage source with zero output impedance
(B) voltage source with non-zero output impedance
(C) current source with finite output impedance
(D) current source with infinite output impedance
Answer: (C)

9. A connection is made consisting of resistance A in series with a parallel combination of resistances B

and C. Three resistors of value 10, 5, 2 are provided. Consider all possible permutations of the

given resistors into the positions A,B,C, and identify the configurations with maximum possible
overall resistance, and also the ones with minimum possible overall resistance. The ratio of maximum
to minimum values of the resistances (up to second decimal place) is ____________.
Answer: (2.14)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

10. Annpn bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is operating in the active region. If the reverse bias across the
base – collector junction is increased, then
(A) the effective base width increases and common – emitter current gain increases
(B) the effective base width increases and common – emitter current gain decreases
(C) the effective base width decreases and common – emitter current gain increases
(D) the effective base width decreases and common – emitter current gain decreases
Answer: (C)

11. Consider the state space realization

 x1  t   0 0   x1  t   0   x1  0    0 
       u  t  , with the initial condition   
 x2  t  0 9  x 2  t    45  x 2  0   0  ,

where u(t) denotes the unit step function. The value of lim x1  t   x 2  t  is _______.
2 2
t 

Answer: (5)

1 1 0 0 0 
0 0 1 1 0 

12. The rank of the matrix 0 1 1 0 0  is ___________.
 
 1 0 0 0 1 
0 0 0 1 1

Answer: (4)

13. A two – wire transmission line terminates in a television set. The VSWR measured on the line is 5.8.
The percentage of power that is reflected from the television set is ___________.
Answer: (49.82)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

The input x(t) and the output y (t) of a continuous-time system are related as y  t    x  u  du. The
t
14.
t T

system is
(A) Linear and time-variant (B) Linear and time-invariant
(C) Non-linear and time-variant (D) Non-linear and time-invariant
Answer: (D)

15. Which of the following statements is incorrect?

(A) Lead compensator is used to reduce the settling time.
(B) Lag compensator is used to reduce the steady state error.
(C) Lead compensator may increase the order of a system.
(D) Lag compensator always stabilizes an unstable system.
Answer: (D)

16. The residues of a function

1
f  z  are
 z  4 z  1
3

1 1 1 1
(A) and (B) and
27 125 125 125

1 1 1 1
(C) and (D) and
27 5 125 5
Answer: (B)

17. A sinusoidal message signal is converted to a PCM signal using a uniform quantizer. The required
signal-to-quantization noise ratio (SQNR) at the output of the quantizer is 40dB. The minimum
number of bits per sample needed to achieve the desired SQNR is ______.
Answer: (7)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

d2 y dy
18. The general solution of the differential equation 2
 2  5y  0 in terms of arbitrary constants K1
dx dx
and K2 is
 1 6 x  1 6 x
(A) K1e  K 2e

 1 8 x  1 8 x
(B) K1e  K 2e

 2 6 x  2 6 x
(C) K1e  K2e

 2 8 x  2 8 x
(D) K1e  K 2e

Answer: (A)

19. Which one of the following graphs shows the Shannon capacity (channel capacity) in bits of a memory
less binary symmetric channel with crossover probability P?

(A) (B)
1 1
Capacity Capacity

p p
0 1 0 1

(C) (D)
1 1
Capacity
Capacity

p p
0 1 0 1

Answer: (C)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

20. The output Vo of the diode circuit shown in the figure is connected to an averaging DC voltmeter.

10 sin t
f  50Hz ~ 1k V0

The reading on the DC voltmeter in Volts, neglecting the voltage drop across the diode, is ________.

Answer: (3.1847)

21. Consider the random process X  t   U  Vt, where U is a zero-mean Gaussian random variable and V

is a random variable uniformly distributed between 0 and 2. Assume that U and V are statistically
independent. The mean value of the random process at t = 2 is ____________
Answer: (2)

22. For the system shown in the figure,

  
X s Gs2 Y s


Y s
 _________.
X s

Answer: (1)
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

23. The smaller angle (in degrees) between the planes x + y + z =1 and 2x – y + 2z = 0 is ________.

Answer: (54.73)

24. Consider the circuit shown in the figure. Assume base-to- emitter voltage VBE=0.8 V and common

base current gain    of the transistor is unity.

18V

44k 4k

16k 2k

The value of the collector- to – emitter voltage VCE (in volt) is _______.
Answer: (6)

25. In the figure, D1 is a real silicon pn junction diode with a drop of 0.7V under forward bias condition
and D2 is a zener diode with breakdown voltage of -6.8V.

10F
Vin  t 

14V
D1
10 Vout  t 
0
t  seconds 
D2

14V
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

The input Vin(t) is a periodic square wave of period T, whose one period is shown in the figure.
Assuming 10  T where is the time constant of the circuit, the maximum and minimum values of the
output waveform are respectively,
(A) 7.5 V and –20.5V (B) 6.1 V and –21.9V
(C) 7.5 V and –21.2 V (D) 6.1 V and –22.6 V
Answer: (A)

Q. No. 26 to 55 Carry Two Marks Each

26. If the vector function


F  ax  3y  k1z   ay  k 2 x  2z   az  k3 y  z 

is irrotational, then the values of the constants k1, k2 and k3, respectively, are
(A) 0.3, –2.5, 0.5 (B) 0.0, 3.0, 2.0
(C) 0.3, 0.33, 0.5 (D) 4.0, 3.0, 2.0
Answer: (B)

27. The un-modulated carrier power in an AM transmitter is 5kW. This carrier is modulated by a
sinusoidal modulating signal. The maximum percentage of modulation is 50%. If it is reduced to 40%,
then the maximum un-modulated carrier power (in kW) that can be used without overloading the
transmitter is ___.
Answer: (5.21)

28. Consider an LTI system with magnitude response

 |f |
1  , | f | 20
| H  f  |  20
0, | f | 20

And phase responseArg H  f   2f .

If the input to the system is

 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

     
x  t   8cos  20t    16sin  40t    24cos  80t   .
 4  8  16 

Then the average power of the output signal y (t) is _________.

Answer: (8)

29. A MOS capacitor is fabricated on p-type Si (silicon) where the metal work function is 4.1 eV and
electron affinity of Si is 4.0 eV. EC-FF=0.9 eV, where EC and EF are the conduction band minimum and

the Fermi energy levels of Si, respectively. Oxide r  3.9, 0  8.85  1014 F / cm. oxide thickness

tox= 0.1 m and electronic charge q = 1.6×10-19 C. If the measured flat band voltage of the capacitor is

–1V, then the magnitude of the fixed charge at the oxide-semiconductor interface,in (nC/cm2), is
__________.
Answer: (6.9)

30. An electron  q1  is moving in free space with velocity 105 m/s towards a stationary electron  q 2  far

away. The closest distance that this moving electron gets to the stationary electron before the

repulsive force diverts its path is ________ 108 m.

Given: Mass of electron, m  9.11  1031 kg.

Charge of electrons e  1.6 1019 C

1
and Permittivity, 0   109 F/m
36
Answer: (5.06)

31. The values of the integrals

1 1 xy  11
xy 
0  0  x  y 3 
 dy  dx and 0  0  x  y 3  dy are
 dx
   
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

(A) same and equal to 0.5

(B) same and equal to -0.5
(C) 0.5 and – 0.5, respectively
(D) – 0.5 and 0.5, respectively
Answer: (C)

32. Passengers try repeatedly to get a seat reservation in any train running between two stations until they
are successful. If there is 40% chance of getting reservation in any attempt by a passenger, then the
average number of attempts that passengers need to make to get a seat reserved is _________.
Answer: (2.5)

33. Figure I shows a 4-bits ripple carry adder realized using full adders and Figure II shows the circuit of a
full-adder (FA). The propagation delay of the XOR, ANDand OR gates in Figure II are 20 ns, 15 ns
and 10 ns respectively. Assume all the inputs to the 4-bit adder are initially reset to 0.

Y3 X3 Y2 X 2 Y1 X1 Y0 X 0

Z3 Z2 Z1
Z4 FA FA FA FA Z0

S3 S2 S1 S0
Figure  I

Xn 

Yn  Sn

 Zn 1

Zn
Figure  II
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

At t=0, the inputs to the 4-bit adder are changed to

X3 X2 X1X0  1100, Y3Y2 Y1Y0  0100 and Z0  1.

The output of the ripple carry adder will be stable at t (in ns) = ___________.
Answer: (50)

34. The permittivity of water at optical frequencies is 1.75  0 . It is found that an isotropic light source at

a distance d under water forms an illuminated circular area of radius 5 m as shown in the figure. The

critical angle is  C  .

Air 5m

Water C
d

Light source

The value of d (in m) is _________________.

Answer: (4.33)

35. A unity feedback control system is characterized by the open-loop transfer function

10k  s  2 
G s 
s 2  3s2  10
The Nyquist path and the corresponding Nyquist plot of G(s) are shown in the figures below.

j  j5.43k
s  plane G  s   plane
 j
 j
s  Re j 0
 Re G
R  k
0 2k
 j

 j  j5.43k
Nyquist path for G  s  Nyquist Plot of G  s 
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

If 0 < k < 1, then the number of poles of the closed-loop transfer function that lie in the right – half of
the s-plane is
(A) 0 (B) 1 (C) 2 (D) 3
Answer: (C)

36. The signal x  t   sin 14000t  , where t is in seconds is sampled at a rate of 9000 samples per second.

The sampled signal is the input to an ideal low pass filter with frequency response H(f) as follows:

1, | f | 12kHz
H f   
0, | f | 12kHz.

What is the number of sinusoids in the output and their frequencies in kHz?
(A) Number = 1, frequency = 7 (B) Number = 3, frequencies= 2,7,11
(C) Number = 2, frequencies = 2,7 (D) Number = 2, frequencies = 2,11
Answer: (B)

37. A unity feedback control system is characterized by the open-loop transfer function

2  s  1
G s 
s  ks2  2s  1
3

The value of k for which the system oscillates at 2 rad/s is ________.

Answer: (0.75)

38. Consider the circuit shown in the figure.

 
3i0

P
1 i0

10V  1 1

1
Q
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

The Thevenin equivalent resistance (in  ) across P – Q is _________.

Answer: (-1)

39. The transfer function of a causal LTI system is H(s) = 1/s. If the input to the system is x(t) =
[sin(t) / t]u(t), where u(t) is a unit step function, the system output y(t) as t  is ______.

Answer: (0.5)

40. An integral I over a counter clock wise circle C

z2  1 z
is given by I   e dz. If C is defined as |z| = 3, then the value of I is
C z 1
2

(A) isin 1 (B) 2isin 1 (C) 3isin 1 (D) 4isin 1

Answer: (D)

41. Consider a binary memory less channel characterized by the transition probability diagram shown in
the figure. The channel is .
0.25
(A) Lossless 0 0
0.25
(B) Noiseless

(C) Useless 0.75

(D) Deterministic 1 1
0.75

Answer: (C)

42. An abrupt pn junction (located at x = 0) is uniformly doped on both p and n sides. The width of the
depletion region is W and the electric field variation in the x-direction is E(x). Which of the following
figures represents the electric field profile near the pn junction?
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

(A) (B)
Ex Ex
n  side p  side
n  side p  side
 0, 0 
 0, 0  x
x
W
W

(C) (D)
Ex Ex
n  side p  side n  side p  side
W x W
x
 0, 0   0, 0 

Answer: (A)

43. A second – order LTI system is described by the following state equations,

d
x1  t   x 2  t   0
dt
d
x 2  t   2x1  t   3x 2  t   r  t 
dt

Where x1  t  and x 2  t  are the two state variables and r(t) denotes the input. The output c(t) = x1(t).

The system is.

(A) Undamped (oscillatory) (B) Under damped
(C) Critically damped (D) Over damped
Answer: ((D)

44. Consider the parallel combination of two LTI systems shown in the figure.

h1  t 

xt  yt

h2  t 
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The impulse responses of the systems are

h1  t   2  t  2   3  t  1
h 2  t     t  2.

If the input x(t) is a unit step signal, then the energy of y(t) is ____________.
Answer: (7)

45. Assuming that transistors M1 and M2 are identical and have a threshold voltage of 1V, the state of
transistors M1 and M2 are respectively. 3V
(A) Saturation, Saturation

(B) Linear, Linear 2.5V M2

(C) Linear, Saturation

(D) Saturation, Linear 2V M1

Answer: (C)

46. A programmable logic array (PLA) is shown in the figure.

P P Q Q R R

* * *
* * * F
* * *
P

The Boolean function F implemented is

 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

(A) PQRPQRPQR (B)  P  Q  R  P  Q  R  P  Q  R 

(C) PQRPQRPQR (D)  P  Q  R  P  Q  R  P  Q  R 
Answer: (C)

47.  
A modulating signal given By x(t) = 5 sin 4103 t  10 cos2103 t V is fed to a phase modulator with

phase deviation constant kp=5rad/V. If the carrier frequency is 20 kHz, the instantaneous frequency (in
kHz) at t = 0.5 ms is __________
Answer: (70)

The minimum value of the function f  x   x  x 2  3 in the interval  100  x  100 occurs at x =
1
48.
3
________.
Answer: (–100)

49. The switch in the circuit, shown in the figure, was open for a long time and is closed at t = 0.

it 5

10A 5 t 0

2.5H

The current i(t) (in ampere) at t = 0.5 seconds is ________

Answer: (8.16)

50. In the voltage reference circuit shown in the figure, the op-amp is ideal and the transistors Q1 Q2…..,
Q32 are identical in all respects and have infinitely large values of common emitter current the relation
IC = IS exp ((VBE/VT), where Isis the saturation current. Assume that the voltage VP shown in the figure
is 0.7 V and the thermal voltage VT = 26mV.
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

20k 15V
20k

Vout

5k 15V
Vp 

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q32

The output voltage Vout(in volts) is _______.

Answer: (1.1 to 1.2)

51. The state diagram of a finite state machine (FSM) designed to detect an overlapping sequence of three
bits is shown in the figure. The FSM has an input „In‟ and an output „Out‟. The initial state of the FSM
is S0. In  0
00 Out  0

S0
In  1
In  1 Out  0
Out  0
In  0 01
Out  0 In  0
S1 Out  0

10 In  1
Out  0
In  0 S2 In  1
Out  0 Out  1

11
S3

If the input sequence is 10101101001101, starting with the left-most bit, then the number times „Out‟
will be 1 is __________.
Answer: (4)
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52. Standard air-filled rectangular waveguides of dimensions a=2.29 cm and b=1.02 cm are designed for
radar applications. It is desired that these waveguides operate only in the dominant

TE10 mode with operating frequency at least 25% above the cutoff frequency of the TE10 mode but

not higher than 95% of next higher cutoff frequency. The range of allowable operating frequency f is
(A) 8.19 GHz  f  13.1GHz

(B) 8.19 GHz  f  12.45 GHz

(C) 6.55 GHz  f  13.1GHz

(D) 1.64 GHz  f  10.24 GHz

Answer: (B)

53. For a particular intensity of incident light on a silicon p-n junction solar cell, the photocurrent density
(JL) is 2.5 mA/cm2 and the open-circuit voltage (Voc) is 0.451 V. Consider thermal voltage (VT) to be
25mV. If the intensity of the incident light is increased by 20 times, assuming that the temperature
remains unchanged. Voc (in volts) will be ___________.
Answer: (0.53)

54. In the circuit shown, transistors Q1 and Q2 are biased at a collector current of 2.6mA.

5V

1k

VO

Q1
VS

Q2
R B2

5V
 EC, GATE-2017, PAPER-II

Assuming that transistor current gains are sufficiently large to assume collector current equal to
emitter current and thermal voltage of 26 mV, the magnitude of voltage gain V0/Vs in the mid-band
frequency range is ____ (up to second decimal place).
Answer: (50)

55. Two n-channel MOSFETs, T1 and T2, are identical in all respects except that the width of T2 is

double that of T1. Both the transistors are biased in the saturation region of operation, but the gate

overdrive voltage (VGS-VTH) of T2 is double that of T1, where VGS and VTH are the gate – to – source

voltage and threshold voltage of the transistors, respectively. If the drain current and transconductance

of T1 are ID1 and gm1 respectively, the corresponding values of these two parameters for T2 are

(A) 8ID1 and 2gm1 (B) 8ID1 and 4gm1

(C) 4ID1 and 4gm1 (D) 4ID1 and 2gm1

Answer: (B)

 END OF THE PAPER 