15 October 2004

Suggestions wanted for web electronics text

Hans Camenzind of Array Design has written "Designing Analog Chips," an outstanding book on analog circuit design. As remarkable as the book's content is the fact it is available free to anyone on the web. The author requires only that you provide your name, title, general location and an e-mail address only for notification about future chapters and revisions.

Of special interest to electronics engineers and amateur scientists with a strong circuit design experience is that Camenzind is requesting comments and suggestions for future revisions of the book.

Hans Camenzind is a legend among electronic circuit designers. Among his most notable achievements was designing the 555 timer chip, one of the most popular integrated circuits ever designed. He has designed 135 other linear integrated circuits, including the 8038 waveform generator, 565 phase-locked loop and 566 function generator. You can read the fascinating details about the design of the 555 in a special article in EE Times and other web sites. You can find out more about Camenzind's background and other chips he designed at his Array Design web site.

"Designing Analog Chips" is described as, "A comprehensive introduction to CMOS and bipolar analog IC design. 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."

The book includes these chapters:  

1.  Devices
2.  Simulation
3.  Current Mirrors
4.  The Royal Differential Pair
5.  Current Sources
6.  Time Out: Analog Measures
7.  Bandgap References
8.  Op Amps
9.  Comparators
10.  Transimpedance Amplifiers
11.  Timers and Oscillators
12.  Phase-Locked Loops
13.  Filters
14.  Power
References
Index

(Additional chapters to be added, depending on feedback.)

The current version of the book is a 206-page (1.9MB) Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf).

According to the author, "If you decide to print it, a color printer is recommended. All chapters have an even number of pages to make double-sided printing easy."

Forrest M. Mims III