'The Art of Electronics' by Horowitz and Hill is getting old now, at least in terms of the some of the ICs it references, but is still a cracking reference book.
You might check out some of Doug Self's amplifier design books - his analysis of discrete component circuitry is exceptionally good, even if you aren't actually designing amplifiers.
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
ok thanks for the recommendations. Will probably pick up the Sedra and Smith book.
I assume these are all good comprehensive fundamentals books... beyond these, I assume the majority of books published start focussing on specific technologies? Where would I go further after reading through Sedra/Smith for instance?
A search on Amazon will seem to bring up a wild array of books focussing on the same topics...
Also seems that company websites offer some great material on their own about specific technologies.
analog is an extremely wide field... if you can be more specific as to what you're trying to learn, we can be more specific as to our suggestions. Sedra & Smith was the book we used during my university days, Horowitz & Hill was a great reference starting out when you needed to know a little bit about everything (but understood you wouldn't get an in-depth about anything).
S&S is a good text - from how I remember it was heavy on the theory and less on the practical but if you understand the theory then it makes dealing with the practical so much easier! I'm not even sure where my copy is any more - probably on someone's shelf where I used to work: I should definitely have kept better track of who borrowed things! Oh well, hopefully it has found a good home.
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
Another old one I like is Applications of Analog Integrated Circuits by Soclof. The first chapter is dedicated to op-amps, and shows just about every mathematical function you can make with an op-amp.
It also covers
Voltage Regulators
Power Amps
Video Amps
Modulators, Demodulators, and Phase Detectors
VCOs
PLLs
Multipliers, Dividers, Logs
Transducers
A/Ds, D/As, Sample and holds
CCDs
Noise
Optoelectronics
(and they bound the cover on my copy upside down so it really confuses people when they see me reading it!)
Thanks for the additional recs... Any books here that focus on example circuits, preferably practical ones with explained applications and break them down?
Are you looking for a good overview of a lot of general analogue stuff or something really focussed on, say, filter design or instrumentation design? If the former is the case then Art of Electronics is full of example circuits and practical stuff.
Anything by Bob Pease is likely to be educational, be it a book or article. Some of his stuff is on line.
Have a look in a university bookshop - you'll find at least a few of the books mentioned above on the shelf so you can have a look.
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
I'm currently reading "Design with operational Amplifiers and integrated circuits" by Sergio Franco and it's one of the best I've ever experienced. It has very in depth study of loop theory and op amp design. Very useful for today's electrical (system) engineers.
