The truth is out there! "The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters"

This article is a translation of Ted Yapo's article from 01/23/20 on the technical portal «HACKADAY». It is dedicated to the book by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill: “The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters”. From it, a potential reader can glean information about the book that interests him.

Introduction

If you have ever done any electronics work, you have certainly come across the authoritative book in this field – “The Art of Circuit Design”. Any book fan will certainly want to pick up the latest book in the series: “The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters”. It came out immediately after the third edition of “The Art of Circuit Design”, published in 2015. This new book covers the topics covered in the previous editions in more detail. In addition, it covers some interesting, but rarely touched upon topics of practical electrical engineering.

A few words for those who are not familiar with the book “The Art of Circuit Design”, first published in 1980. It is an extremely useful hybrid of a textbook and an engineering reference book, where only the necessary theoretical material and many examples from practical experience are provided. Thanks to the lively form of communication and informal style, this book has enabled people of different professions to design and create electronic circuits.

The first edition of The Art of Circuit Design was followed by the second (in 1989) and third (in 2015) editions. Each subsequent edition updated and expanded the scope of the material to keep up with the rapid development of electronics. I began my acquaintance with the book with the second edition. The book had become very shabby by the time I purchased the third edition. I personally recommend such an update of the book collection to anyone who has not yet decided whether to buy a new edition. The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters is somewhat different from the second and third editions of The Art of Circuit Design, which are similar to the first edition of the book. The book The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters contains an expanded description of the topics covered in the third edition of The Art of Circuit Design and, at the same time, is an independent reference book on a number of topics in practical electrical engineering.

I pre-ordered the book the same day I learned it was coming out. I finally got it this week. After holding it in my hands for a few days now, I think I have some idea about it. I want to share my thoughts on the latest book in the Art of Circuits series.

General idea

The first paragraph of the preface sets the scene. The “X” in the title comes from the English word “eXtra.” This means that the material in this book was originally intended to be part of the third edition of The Art of Electronics, but simply did not fit. The third edition is 1,250 pages long. This book is 500 pages long and is divided into five chapters: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, and 9x. This unusual numbering of the contents corresponds to the chapters of the third edition of The Art of Electronics. This indicates that much of the material in this book would “fit right in” in the corresponding chapters of the third edition. In fact, each chapter of this book begins by repeating the summary at the end of the corresponding chapter of The Art of Electronics.

Part of the back cover of the book “The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters”

The book “The Art of Circuit Design: A Collection of X Chapters” includes topics familiar to us from the third edition of “The Art of Circuit Design”. This book closes all the questions raised earlier. In addition to the materials of the topics outlined in the third edition of “The Art of Circuit Design”, this book contains quite detailed materials on a wide range of electronics topics that are the most relevant, important, exotic and simply intriguing. You will be able to find here methods and schemes that you will not find anywhere else!
Among the rich contents of this book you can find materials on the topics listed below.
Real components. Examples: capacitors (losses, equivalent series resistance) [ЭПС]dielectrics, frequency dependence, …); resistors (instantaneous power, excess “noise”, nonlinearity, equivalent series inductance [ЭПИ]methods for increasing the speed, …); wires (skin effect, twisted pair, shielding, …); inductors (magnetic materials, core losses, gaps, …); diodes (losses, reverse recovery, sharp recovery, …).
Special tables of high-speed operational amplifiers (OPA) with voltage feedback (VFFB) and current feedback (CFB), gate driver ICs and bridge power supplies, high-power switches and current sensor ICs, and other electronic components.
High-voltage current sources with low capacity; current mirrors with bipolar supply.
High-precision high-voltage amplifiers.
High voltage pulse energy, high voltage power supply with variable output polarity, high voltage three-state pulse generator, devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor devices.
Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) with a pn junction: a closer look.
MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) FETs for power supply circuits as linear elements with numerous examples.
Silicon photomultiplier and high frequency pulse generator for generating light pulses from light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Transfer Impedance Amplifiers: Bandwidth, Stability and Seven Decades, Linear Transfer Impedance Amplifier.
Op-amp with output signal swing equal to supply voltage. (Gremlins usually hide!)
Revealing the secret of current feedback amplifiers.
Ultra-isolated, low-noise power supply.
The Anatomy of a Fake iPhone Charger.
Bipolar Transistor (BT) Amplifier Distortion: A Deeper Look.
Transfer of power using a beam of light.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for DC Motor Control: A Myth Debunked.
Protection against transient voltage and thermal effects of transients.

The X-Chapter Collection can be thought of as a collection of the missing material from The Art of Circuit Design. This book can be used in two ways: as a supplement to The Art of Circuit Design and as a direct source for studying the most exciting, not particularly advertised topics, a more advanced level of electronic design. This invaluable storehouse of wisdom, knowledge and experience in the field of electronics will be an excellent acquisition for any personal library. It does not matter whether it is the library of a student, a researcher, a practicing engineer, even if any of them had a passing interest in the design and analysis of electronic circuits or devices.

While I'll be covering the main points of each chapter (very briefly), keep one thing in mind. This book reads a little differently than the third edition of The Art of Circuits! It is more of an engineering reference than a textbook. The preface makes that clear. The sequential narrative form of the previous Art of Circuits books has been replaced by a modular system of specific topics. This is great if you are even a newbie designer who needs advanced experience in a specific topic. But it may not be as useful for beginners (more on that later).

Chapter 1x. The Real World of Passive Components

This chapter examines the behavior of components in the real world, starting with the common wire. Wires, cables, and connectors are examined for the non-ideal behavior they exhibit. Similarly, real resistors of various types are discussed, including digital potentiometers. Capacitors and inductors receive special attention, as they have many imperfections that can harm them. Section 1x.6 is particularly interesting. It covers mechanical switches and relays, components whose non-ideal characteristics we sometimes forget about. This is certainly worth reading if you are using these components for anything unusual. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the various types of diodes, including exotic ones, and their practical drawbacks.

But there is more to this book than just the practical part! For example, a whole section of several pages is devoted to the topic of tunnel diodes. This mysterious section has rather a nostalgic meaning for the authors. They do not try to simplify the material by giving only the theory, and move on to the practical part, offering to consider the volt-ampere characteristics of tunnel diodes. Having conducted my own experimentshere I can only attest to the care and thoroughness with which this topic was presented in the “Collection of X-chapters”. It turned out in the spirit of the “Hackaday” portal. If this material had not already been contained in the book, it would have been suitable for a single article on the portal. As we will see further, much of this can be found in the following chapters.

This is not the only “joke” of the authors. The title of this article is a modification of the author's note, referring us to the once popular series “The X-Files”.

Chapter 2x. Advanced Topics on Bipolar Transistors (BT)

As noted, you won't find an introductory material on BTs here. Instead, you'll find a collection of short notes on specific topics. For example, the authors create tables for the leakage currents of a number of BTs and discuss this in comparison to FETs. Then they add sections on BT bandwidth and crossover frequency. The authors go into detail about SPICE modeling of several BT amplifier examples and determine harmonic distortion. Then they describe current mirrors and some very interesting bipolar-fed circuits.

Other little-known topics are also touched upon. For example, the two-terminal negative resistance circuitcollected on BT, and other topics close to my heart.

Chapter 3x. Advanced Topics in PT

In the third chapter of the X-Chapters Collection, you will find some interesting information on choosing FETs for your practical purposes. The chapter covers FET transconductance, the frequency range of FET circuits (compared to BT circuits), the historical development and modern MOSFETs for power supply circuits, and a section on MOSFETs with integrated gate drive. Practical circuits for measuring the charge of a MOSFET and the transconductance of a FET are also provided, with tabulated results for different FET types.

Again, there are a number of practical applications of FETs that allow one to appreciate the advantages of FETs. For example, controlling a piezoelectric transducer, generating high-frequency pulses for LEDs, quickly damping the high-energy magnetic field of inductors, and generating a high-frequency sawtooth voltage with an amplitude of 1.5 kV.

Chapter 4x. Advanced Topics in OU

The fourth chapter accordingly begins with a description of a rare op-amp based on a tube. The rest of the chapter is mainly devoted to the intricacies of designing on a modern element base. Here is a deep discussion of the stability of the feedback, and a detailed examination of amplifiers with a transfer resistance (for example, for use with photodiodes), and coverage of the topic of repeaters (repeaters) with examples of their use, and two sections on high-speed op-amps (with voltage feedback and with current feedback). The chapter also includes some unusual circuits on op-amps with capacitive feedback, logarithmic amplifiers, circuits for controlling a capacitive load, and a number of other small topics.

Of the exotic, there is a section on silicon photomultipliers. As a practical example, a “Lorenz attractor” circuit is given, which draws chaotic intricate figures on the oscilloscope screen.

Chapter 9x: Advanced Power Management Topics

Here you will find discussions of reverse polarity protection circuits for batteries (based on diodes and MOSFETs), protection circuits for lithium-ion batteries, implementation of feedback current limiting, motor control using PWM, load-side current tracking, and various other topics on power supply design. A genuine and a fake iPhone charger are dissected and compared. There is a good section on measuring the temperature in power supply circuits using a regular probe and thermal imagers.

On the unusual side, there's a whole page devoted to low-voltage step-up pulse converters for alternative power sources. A simple circuit is presented that starts working at 20 mV and continues working until the voltage drops below 10 mV. There's also a section on power rail converters. For example, bidirectional DC-DC converters that convert one supply voltage to another (say, 12 V to 5 V) and work in the opposite direction at the same time. Very interesting stuff!

Conclusion

It is clear that in this short review I could not cover the entire book. It is quite possible that I have missed something that is important for you. However, I hope that what I have said above is enough for you to draw your own conclusions.

Like other books in the Art of Circuit Design series, this one also has tables for selecting various electronic components. Need a high-speed op amp? How about a gate driver IC for a MOSFET? Just look for the appropriate table. But don't confuse these tables with the parameter selection function available on the official websites of electronic component manufacturers and sellers. This is certainly a useful feature, but it can't compare to the tables carefully compiled by designers that contain the electronic components relevant to their work.

One of the most interesting features of the book is the index for the element base mentioned in the book. For example, if you suddenly wanted to know all the information available in the book on the 2N3904 transistor, the index will give you the numbers of the 22 pages where it is mentioned. This is a very good idea for such books. It contains all the possible information that you may not find in a regular datasheet.

On whether you should buy this book

Let's start from the beginning. I don't think any of the books in the “Art of Circuits” series are suitable as a first book for absolute beginners. Of course, if you have studied other engineering disciplines, you could pick up a copy of the book and start working with it. If you are a true beginner and have no engineering experience, then you most likely need something different and should turn to “Art of Circuits” for in-depth study of the questions that arise. Please, if possible, share in the comments to this article recommendations for books for beginners!

However, if you are already successfully using any of the three editions of The Art of Circuit Design, I would recommend that you also get the X-Chapter Collection. Having spent some time with this book, I am inclined to believe that the third edition of The Art of Circuit Design looks incomplete without it. This does not mean that I considered The Art of Circuit Design insufficient before this new book came out. It is just that together they look comprehensive. Does it make sense to buy this book without also purchasing the third edition of The Art of Circuit Design? Of course it does, because it covers all the topics stated! But the X-Chapter Collection itself looks incomplete without the third edition. Personally, I cannot imagine my bookshelf without these two books standing side by side.

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