Book Review: The Art of Electronics

This article reviews the book

The Art Of Electronics

Second edition

Written by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill

Published by Cambridge University Press

ISBN 0 521 37095 7

This book is a unique book because it actually teaches the principles of design via both good circuit ideas and bad circuit ideas.

The section on capacitors introduces the theory of capacitors and includes a table showing the advantages and disadvantages of different types of capacitors.

The book covers topics like unintentional capacitive coupling. The section on diodes has a table showing the characteristics of different types of diodes.

The section on transistors gives the advantages and disadvantages of many practical transistor circuits. The book focuses on the practical while explaining some of the theory. One long table lists the specifications of over 320 op amps. The book gives more details about some of the most popular op amps.

In the digital logic section, the book explains switch bounce and how to avoid it. For multivibrators, the book includes a section on bizarre behavior of bipolar and CMOS multivibrators. Through out the book, the reader will find tables of component specifications along with good and bad circuit designs.

In some places the formulas are easy to find and in other places the formulas are embedded in the paragraphs. The book focuses more on applications than on mathematical theory.

The appendixes cover the operation of oscilloscopes as well as cautions about grounding. It also covers math, resistor code, precision resistors, drawing schematic diagrams, load lines, transistor saturation, butterworth filters, electronics magazines and journals, IC prefixes, date codes and data sheets for specific components.

This book is an excellent companion for the circuit designer and for the hobbyist. It's practical explanations include many problems I have encountered while troubleshooting circuit designs. In one case, small glitches had just enough amplitude to trigger a D type flip flop. In another case, a 555 timer did not have an RC network attached and produced glitches of various amplitude and width. In another case, a multiwafer switch was causing problems because of the finite time difference between the connecting of the contacts on the wafer closest to the switch handle and the wafer furthest from the switch handle. Although the time difference was measured in nanoseconds, it produced problems with the circuit operation.

If the reader is looking for a book that will help with circuit design issues, this book is a must-buy!