The Circuit Designer's Companion
The Circuit Designers Companion, Third Edition, provides the essential information that every circuit designer needs to produce a working circuit, as well as information on how to make a design that is robust, tolerant to noise and temperature, and able to operate in the system for which it is intended. It looks at best practices, design guidelines, and engineering knowledge gained from years of experience, and includes practical, real-world considerations for components and printed circuit boards (PCBs) as well as their manufacturability, reliability, and cost.
Organized into nine chapters, the book begins with a discussion of grounding and wiring of electronic or electrical circuits, when to consider grounding, and the main factors that must be taken into account when designing a new PCB. It then introduces the reader to passive components such as resistors and capacitors, potentiometers and inductors, and crystals and resonators, as well as active components like diodes, thyristors and triacs, bipolar transistors, junction field-effect transistors, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). It also describes high-speed digital circuit design and analog integrated circuits, including operational amplifiers and comparators, and power supplies such as batteries. The final two chapters focus on electromagnetic compatibility and the latest advances in electronics, along with safety considerations in the design of electronic equipment.
This book is an invaluable resource for circuit designers and practicing electronics engineers, electronic engineering students, and professors.
- An invaluable companion for circuit designers and practicing electronics engineers – gives best practices, design guidelines and engineering knowledge gleaned from years of experience
- Includes practical, real-world considerations for components, PCBs, manufacturability, reliability and cost, enabling engineers to design and troubleshoot faster, cheaper and more effectively
- Contains new material on design tools and communication devices, high-speed digital circuit design, simulation methods and testing
Why Read This Book
You will get concise, experience-driven guidance on how to turn a schematic into a reliable, manufacturable PCB that behaves in real systems. The book emphasizes practical rules for grounding, layout, noise control, component selection and thermal/reliability issues that directly reduce debug time and field failures.
Who Will Benefit
Embedded and hardware engineers, PCB designers, and firmware engineers who need to understand layout, EMC, and manufacturability to deliver robust products.
Level: Intermediate — Prerequisites: Basic circuit theory and familiarity with electronic components and schematics; some prior exposure to PCB layouts is helpful but not strictly required.
Key Takeaways
- Design effective grounding and wiring schemes to minimise noise and ground loops
- Choose components and packages with reliability, temperature and lifespan in mind
- Lay out PCBs to control EMI/EMC, signal integrity, and thermal behavior
- Specify board stackups, clearances and footprints for manufacturability and testing
- Apply practical techniques for power supply decoupling, filtering and grounding
- Plan design-for-manufacture and reliability checks to reduce cost and field failures
Topics Covered
- Grounding and Wiring Principles
- Signals, Noise and Signal Integrity Basics
- Components: Selection, Packaging and Reliability
- Power Supplies, Decoupling and Filtering
- Printed Circuit Board Layout and Stackups
- EMC/EMI: Mitigation and Design Practices
- Thermal Design and Mechanical Considerations
- Manufacturing, Assembly and Testability
- Design for Reliability, Cost and Documentation
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
More focused on practical PCB rules and manufacturability than The Art of Electronics (which covers broad circuit theory and design); complements EMC-focused texts like Henry Ott's book by combining EMC with general layout and component guidance.
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