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Good basic circuit design books?

37 points by gokdisjtrdcvv5 4 years ago · 15 comments · 1 min read


I just took my physics II class and learned about basic circuits. I really enjoyed it and want to learn more! However, I’m having trouble finding a good quality book. Anyone have some suggestions?

Thanks!

PennRobotics 4 years ago

Do you mean circuit theory or applied circuits?

No idea for purely circuit theory. My textbooks were not great, but videos from 6.002 (a course at MIT) were a godsend.

Sedra/Smith is my recommendation for applied circuits. It's mostly amplifiers---still with a heavy emphasis on theory. At 1400 pages, it's really, really long. (A good portion of this is also taught in 6.002.)

The Art of Electronics is a gold mine of knowledge but very, very in-depth/technical. By chapter 4, you're analyzing a precision waveform generator with 3 ICs, a MOSFET, and a handful of passive components for biasing/filtering. Horowitz/Hill even recommend specific components (lots of tables) with explanations, and they point out some common circuit mistakes, workarounds, and improvements. Also, it's over 1,000 pages just in the main book. If I had to pick one book as the sole resource for an EE degree, it's this one.

As a supplement to books: Falstad's circuit simulator[1] because it is very easy to use (compared to SPICE) and has examples of nearly every circuit you would learn as an undergrad.

[1] https://www.falstad.com/circuit/

  • _benj 4 years ago

    I second “The Art of Electronics”!

    It packed to the brim with usable circuits, you can feel the excitement of the authors sharing a material that they are deeply passionate and excited about!

    And what I like the most out of it is how they work super hard to teach you to “think” about components and circuits in an intuitive way. One example, the refer to the opamp as the Lego of analog design and process to share a bunch of configuration in which it can be used, from a buffer to an inverter, filter, amplifier… and how those circuits can be put together to create other cool and useful things!

    It’s a book that I’ve enjoyed A LOT!

ThrowawayR2 4 years ago

How deep do you want to go? There's hobbyist books like Forrest Mims's classic "Getting Started in Electronics" or the more recent "Practical Electronics For Inventors". For a more in-depth treatment, you might take a look at Horowitz and Hill's "Art of Electronics".

rg111 4 years ago

You should definitely look at Practical Electronics for Inventors, 4e by Scherz, Monk (ISBN- 1259587541).

This is a fantastic book.

If you care about learning circuit design properly, you should do projects. Projects are absolutely necessary in learning Electronics.

Solve your real life problems with Electronics- no matter how trivial.

That is the way.

arisbe__ 4 years ago

Not many people will have experience with too many different texts but they might be familiar with a books reputation. Of course they can compare their experience with the text to a great textbook from another subject e.g. a Spivak in math or Knuth in CS.

Also I've self studied and am confused about the whole pure/applied distinction, do some books fall somewhere in between depending on the chapter?

I have Forest Mims's which is a cult classic, but is the size of a magazine. Also I have Foundations of analog & digital electronic circuits by Anant Agarwal which is quite good. I'm not aware of a Spivak/Knuth level text but I imagine there will be something like that out there but perhaps not as well known as those texts.

I can't vouch for its quality but if you want a free secondary resource, All About Circuits has some html books at https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

The others comments about M&H have me curious.

NonEUCitizen 4 years ago

not a book, but take a look at:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...

chrisp_how 4 years ago

Applied Circuits, is a good study, which is the careful application of electricity and components to solving a real-world problem. You’ll find a lot of interesting ability from https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/, good luck!

srvmshr 4 years ago

If you are looking for Electronic circuit theory, Milman & Halkias is a time tested classic. Or Boylestad & Nashelsky

  • rg111 4 years ago

    Milman and Halkias over Boylestad, any day.

    M&H teaches in style. They have a nice pedagogical philosophy and upon reading, you will get stuff.

    I never liked B&N.

  • busbus 4 years ago

    May I ask you what is the book title ?

    • srvmshr 4 years ago

      Integrated electronics: Milman & Halkias

      Electronic devices & circuit theory: Boylestad & Nashelsky

teleforce 4 years ago

Ed Lipiansky has written these two excellent books that cover electrical, electronics and computer design:

[1] Electrical, Electronics, and Digital Hardware Essentials for Scientists and Engineers

[2] Embedded Systems Hardware for Software Engineers

mardiyah 4 years ago

Encyclopedia of Electronics in multi volumes

IMHO even better have PC installed with latest Kicad as it's growing flourishly, so ones uploaded many creative schematics and SPICE components

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