This textbook is intended for EE majors envisioning industrial careers in analog electronics. Analog integrated-circuit (IC) designers, product, process, and reliability engineers, test and test-development engineers, analog applications, marketing, and customer-support engineers are always in strong demand.
The first three chapters, covering Diodes, BJTs, and MOSFETs, and emphasizing the more traditional discrete design approach, are suited for a first course in electronics, typically at the junior level. Pedagogically, it makes sense to start out with basic discrete circuits before progressing to multi-transistor systems – so much the better if this first course is accompanied by a lab, where it is easier to investigate simpler circuits. The objective of these chapters is to establish strong foundations based on intuition and on physical insight of the type engineers use daily on the job, as well as a thinking style and a problem-solving methodology that will prove invaluable in the subsequent chapters.
The remaining chapters, covering Analog IC Building Blocks, Representative Analog ICs, Frequency and Time Responses, and Negative Feedback, Stability, and Noise, are suited for a junior/graduate-level course in analog IC analysis and design. These advanced chapters are intended for IC designers but also for all other categories of engineers involved in fabrication, test, and applications. Application engineers, by far the largest group, need a working familiarity both with the technology (in order to make educated selections), and with the IC’s inner functioning (in order to optimize its application). The book’s aim is to promote a balance between the ability to design on chip and the ability to design on board.
Semiconductor theory is covered in sufficient depth to serve the daily needs of a practicing engineer in industry. Every analog function is inextricably rooted in a physical phenomenon, so analog engineers, particularly IC designers and product/process/reliability engineers, need to be conversant with the physics of semiconductors in order to function optimally.
The book makes abundant use of SPICE both as a software oscilloscope to display device characteristics, transfer curves, and waveforms, and as a verification tool for hand calculations.
2015