:santagrin: This book is suggested by Jason Crist

Terms and Conditions:

Hans Camenzind wrote:This book is can be downloaded without fee from www.designinganalogchips.com. Re-publishing of any part or the whole is prohibited.

Book Excerpts:

Imminent death has been predicted for analog since the advent of the PC. But it is still here; in fact, analog ICs have been growing at almost exactly the same rate as digital ones. A digital video disk player has more analog content than the (analog) VCR ever did.

The explanation is rather simple: the world is fundamentally analog. Hearing is analog. Vision, taste, touch, smell, analog all. So is lifting and walking. Generators, motors, loud-speakers, microphones, solenoids, batteries, antennas, lamps, LEDs, laser diodes, sensors are fundamentally analog components.

The digital revolution is constructed on top of an analog reality. This fact simply won't go away. Somewhere, somehow you have to get into and out of the digital system and connect to the real world. Unfortunately, the predominance and glamour of digital has done harm to analog. Too few analog designers are being educated, creating a void. This leaves decisions affecting analog performance to engineers with a primarily digital background.

Hence this book. It should give readers an overview of the world of analog IC design, so that they can decide what kind of analog function can and cannot, should and should not be integrated. What should be on the same chip with digital and what should be separate. And, equally important, this book should enable readers to ask the right questions of the foundry, so that their design works. The first time.

Academic text books on IC design are often filled with mathematics. It is important to understand the fundamentals, but it is a waste of time to calculate every detail of a design. Let the simulator do this chore, it can do it better and faster than any human being. An analysis will tell readers within seconds if they are on the right track and how well their circuit performs. Assuming that they have competent models and a capable simulator, an analysis can teach them more about devices and circuits than words and diagrams on a page.

Intended Audience:

The book presumes no prior knowledge of linear design, making it comprehensible to engineers with a non-analog background. The emphasis is on practical design, covering the entire field with hundreds of examples to explain the choices. Concepts are presented following the history of their discovery.