Physics 427 - Advanced Electronics - Fall 2010

On reserve in the Physical Science Library: 

An introduction to modern electronics, by William L. Faissler
(This is similar to our textbook in content and level.)

The art of electronics, 2nd ed., by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill
(This is more advanced, and too concise for beginners.)

Microelectronic circuits, by Adel S. Sedra, Kenneth C. Smith
(A standard textbook used in EE departments.)

Comments on some texts: 

    Horowitz and Hill, Art of Electronics, is available in the Physical Sciences library in Currens Hall, in first and second edition.  I do not recommend buying this for this course since it is too advanced, but you may want to buy it in the future if you do much work in electronics.  It is a good reference for the times you need to learn something quickly and throw together a lab project (as a grad student, for example).  A new edition is planned (but the date has been repeatedly postponed) so you might hold off and get the new edition when it comes out. There is a web site for this book. 

    Nilsson and Riedel, Electric Circuits, 7th ed. is a standard first-year text for EE majors, and covers circuits in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail.  The older editions are just fine for reference, since this is all standard material (like first year Physics books, any one will do for reference once you know a little).  Check the lab for another copy.  There are similar, lower level books by Floyd, Electric Circuits Fundamentals (Malpass library) and Grob, Basic electronics (Malpass library). 

    Sedra and Smith, Microelectronic Circuits, 5th ed. is a standard second-year text for EE majors, and covers a huge amount of material.  This might be useful to learn details about a particular area.  (I put the 4th ed. on reserve, it is basically the same as the 5th ed.)  Check the lab for another copy.

    The design of circuits is often supplemented by the simulation of circuits by computer.  PSpice is a version of SPICE, a simulation program for circuits.  A free demonstration version of PSpice is available, and will run circuits with a limited number of components, like many of those in our homework problems.  SPICE has been around for a long time.  I recall seeing the engineers use an IBM 360 mainframe to run SPICE simulations in the summer of 1974 when I was a summer intern at Tektronix.