Electronic Circuits and Applications

Designed for students who have no previous background in circuit theory or electronics, this text provides a sufficiently broad and thorough exposure to practical electronics to permit the immediate application of electronic circuits and instruments to laboratory and research work. Because these applications involve increasingly sophisticated concepts in signal processing, this book includes practical introductions to network theory, linear system theory, modulation and detection, noise, guarding and shielding, and analog and digital instrumentation. Thus, this book can be used as a textbook for an introductory first course in electrical engineering, as a textbook for one-semester "Electronics for Scientists and Engineers" survey course, or as a self-study primer for the professional scientist or engineer who needs additional background in the theory and practice of electronics.

The book is written for M.I.T. physicists and other scientists who need to design their own test equipment. Thus it is not a cookbook, but it is very practical and goal-oriented. It discusses many standard circuits and describes exactly how and why they work, jumping right into methods used to analyze them (KVL, KCL, Norton and Thevenin equivalences). As an example of the clear approach to circuit analysis, it starts with circuits that use op-amps because they are easy to understand (i.e., as black boxes). (It also includes their real-world limitations and manufacturer's specifications.) Only later does it describe (and analyze) transistor circuits. Of course, many more circuits (e.g., CMOS, digital) are described (and analyzed), but the important point is it gives you the tools to analyze correctly the circuits for yourself. If you like being able to understand precisely what is going on, and don't want to be babied, THIS IS THE BOOK.