Gateways Into Electronics

PREFACE

Gateways into Electronics is addressed to students in engineering and in the experimental sciences—let us say juniors—who already possess a fair degree of sophistication in mathematics and physics and are therefore positioned to move quickly toward a quantitative understanding of electronics in its many facets. Gateways takes motivation for granted, but in return it makes efficient use of invested effort by carrying out a compact plan based on the following premises:

• That calculations are essential in developing insight.
• That in a short time it is possible to remove the mystery from electronics and develop the capacity to design simple instruments with elegance and assurance.
• That command of a few basic methods is sufficient to analyze the great majority of electronic circuits. The approach that follows from this premise remains vivid in the mind of the reader and promotes decisiveness in the presence of unknown circuits even if encounters are only occasional.
• That the reader should be offered the equipment to tackle the literature rather than a review of the state of the art, which is invariably well provided by industrial sources: electronics evolves quickly, and it is pointless to dwell on current examples unless principles of lasting value are involved. Concepts and points of view are therefore given precedence over a material completeness that can be found elsewhere, notably in The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill (1989).
• That the argument that modern electronics ...