Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Wanted: Book recommendations for discrete circuit design

S

Stefan Heinzmann

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all,

I'm interested in your recommendations for textbooks on electronic
design using discrete components. Most texts nowadays seem to emphasize
integrated circuits, and most applications material from manufacturers
also circle around ICs. There's nothing wrong with ICs, but there are
plenty of areas where discrete circuits continue to be appropriate. Do I
have to resort to 30-year old unobtainable transistor application
manuals or is there anything more up-to-date?

I've already got:

Amos & James "Principles of Transistor Circuits" 9th Ed.
AoE 2nd Ed.
Tietze/Schenk (in German) 11th Ed.
Mauro "Engineering Electronics"
Langford-Smith "Radio Designer's Handbook" (ok, that's pretty old
material, but still relevant)
Jim William's two books
Bob Pease's Troubleshooting book
Various more specialized texts on amplifiers, OpAmps, SMPS and such, but
they're not that relevant to discrete design.

Is there anything I ought to add to this list? I'm interested in smart
real-world circuits with explanations, not in the 17th analysis of the
bipolar transistor in common emitter configuration (unless it is truly
original).

Are there any good bibliographies (with reviews) on electronic design
available on the net?
 
E

eric van slee

Jan 1, 1970
0
Electronics Designers Handbook by Giacoletto ( 1977; 2nd edition - McGraw
Hill).
Regards
Eric
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all,

I'm interested in your recommendations for textbooks on electronic
design using discrete components. Most texts nowadays seem to emphasize
integrated circuits, and most applications material from manufacturers
also circle around ICs. There's nothing wrong with ICs, but there are
plenty of areas where discrete circuits continue to be appropriate. Do I
have to resort to 30-year old unobtainable transistor application
manuals or is there anything more up-to-date?

I've already got:

Amos & James "Principles of Transistor Circuits" 9th Ed.
AoE 2nd Ed.
Tietze/Schenk (in German) 11th Ed.
Mauro "Engineering Electronics"
Langford-Smith "Radio Designer's Handbook" (ok, that's pretty old
material, but still relevant)
Jim William's two books
Bob Pease's Troubleshooting book
Various more specialized texts on amplifiers, OpAmps, SMPS and such, but
they're not that relevant to discrete design.

Is there anything I ought to add to this list? I'm interested in smart
real-world circuits with explanations, not in the 17th analysis of the
bipolar transistor in common emitter configuration (unless it is truly
original).

Are there any good bibliographies (with reviews) on electronic design
available on the net?


The "Reference Data for Radio Engineers" books are cheap and plentiful
on the used market, and are very handy.

John
 
N

normanstrong

Jan 1, 1970
0
eric van slee said:
Electronics Designers Handbook by Giacoletto ( 1977; 2nd edition - McGraw
Hill).
Regards
Eric

Interesting. I have an "Electronic Designers' Handbook by Landee et
al (1957 - also by McGraw Hill) An excellent book.

Norm Strong
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Stefan,

My favorite: Horowitz and Hill, "The Art of Electronics", Cambridge.
Lots of discrete stuff in there. Also, Winfield Hill (one of the
authors) participates in this forum.

Then check out the ARRL: "The ARRL Handbook" is a "must have" when doing
any discrete design in the RF or microwave ranges.

The Tietze/Schenk you've got is also a really good one. It has almost
everything in there that is needed for discrete designs. I was surprised
when I saw a version of it in Spanish the other day.

Regards, Joerg
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Stefan,

My favorite: Horowitz and Hill, "The Art of Electronics", Cambridge.
Lots of discrete stuff in there. Also, Winfield Hill (one of the
authors) participates in this forum.

Then check out the ARRL: "The ARRL Handbook" is a "must have" when doing
any discrete design in the RF or microwave ranges.

The Tietze/Schenk you've got is also a really good one. It has almost
everything in there that is needed for discrete designs. I was surprised
when I saw a version of it in Spanish the other day.

Regards, Joerg

Bowick's paperback, RF Circuit Design, is good too.

John
 
E

eric van slee

Jan 1, 1970
0
The Landee edition was the first edition of this book
Eric
normanstrong said:
eric van slee said:
Electronics Designers Handbook by Giacoletto ( 1977; 2nd edition - McGraw
Hill).
Regards
Eric

Interesting. I have an "Electronic Designers' Handbook by Landee et
al (1957 - also by McGraw Hill) An excellent book.

Norm Strong
 
D

dB

Jan 1, 1970
0
Stefan Heinzmann said:
Hi all,

I'm interested in your recommendations for textbooks on electronic
design using discrete components.
Is there anything I ought to add to this list?


I've found "Electronic Circuit Design - an engineering approach" by
Savant Roden and Carpenter, pub. Benjamin/Cummings, ISBN
0-8053-7860-X, to be very good.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've found "Electronic Circuit Design - an engineering approach" by
Savant Roden and Carpenter, pub. Benjamin/Cummings, ISBN
0-8053-7860-X, to be very good.

What would a non-engineering approach to circuit design be like?

John
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
What would a non-engineering approach to circuit design be like?

John

Pick the closest "one chip" solution(s) out of data books, sort-of
read the example circuits, hack it all together on a solderless
breadboard and play with it until the prototype seems to work.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
F

Fred Bloggs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Spehro said:
Pick the closest "one chip" solution(s) out of data books, sort-of
read the example circuits, hack it all together on a solderless
breadboard and play with it until the prototype seems to work.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

The publisher would not go with a 3rd edition of that, so the authors
self-published through Discovery Press. It is now titled Electronic
Design : From Concept to Reality. They are nutcases- a very sterile
presentation, and I don't like their attitude.
 
F

Fred Bloggs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Stefan said:
Are there any good bibliographies (with reviews) on electronic design
available on the net?

You can always check out the "listmania" submissions under electronic
design on Amazon- but I suspect that the subject of discrete electronics
design has been subsumed by integrated circuit design. As for
Giacoletto, the former RCA genius, his handbook is a compendium of
abbreviated articles, but it should be useful for a biblio of ancient
references.
 
S

Stefan Heinzmann

Jan 1, 1970
0
Fred Bloggs wrote:

[...]
[...]
The publisher would not go with a 3rd edition of that, so the authors
self-published through Discovery Press. It is now titled Electronic
Design : From Concept to Reality. They are nutcases- a very sterile
presentation, and I don't like their attitude.

There's another, more recent, tome from the same authors, published by
Addison-Wesley: "Electronic Design: Circuits and Systems". Do your
comments apply to this, too? I normally tend to trust Addison-Wesley.
 
B

Ben Bradley

Jan 1, 1970
0
You can always check out the "listmania" submissions under electronic
design on Amazon- but I suspect that the subject of discrete electronics
design has been subsumed by integrated circuit design. As for

It just about has, but not totally. One interesting source of
discrete-component design discussion is in audio power amplifier
design. Douglas Self's book is here:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/books/book.htm

Some discussion of audio power amps here:

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/ampdept.htm

I recall seeing on amazon.com the names of 'competing' authors in
the field.
 
S

Stefan Heinzmann

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ben said:
It just about has, but not totally. One interesting source of
discrete-component design discussion is in audio power amplifier
design. Douglas Self's book is here:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/books/book.htm

Some discussion of audio power amps here:

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/ampdept.htm

He has written two books, both of which I've got. I agree with your
recommendation (I know Doug personally, btw.).
I recall seeing on amazon.com the names of 'competing' authors in
the field.

The field of audio power amplifiers? I suppose you mean John Linsley
Hood or G. Randy Slone, for example?!?
 

Similar threads

Top