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This updated version of its internationally popular predecessor provides and introductory problem-solved text for understanding fundamental concepts of electronic devices, their design, and their circuitry. Providing an interface with Pspice, the most widely used program in electronics, new key features include a new chapter presenting the basics of switched mode power supplies, thirty-one new examples, and twenty-three PS solved problems.
help for the hardest transitional subject for undergrad EE students
| Customer Rating:  | For both physics and electrical engineering undergraduates alike, the one to two semester courses you take in electronics shall probably be a difficult transition regardless of how well you did in your circuit analysis course. This is largely due to the fact that nobody tells you WHY this subject is important (to produce nonlinear transfer functions & to perform power amplification- neither which can be accomplished with RLC circuits), or bothers to show you sufficient examples so that you can perform designs of your own. This Schaum's outline is an excellent companion to all of those electronics textbooks that are failing miserably. Other reviewers are right- as a practicing engineer you will probably never be called upon to bias a transistor to get a specified gain, or several other of the basic tasks that this outline goes over in detail. However, you won't be able to graduate until you master these techniques. As an example of its usefulness, I got a B in my first semester of electronics years ago, and for years I could not have told you the first thing about what went on in that class. It seemed that the students that really did well were part magician and part TV repairman. I bought this outline to learn what I should have mastered back in 1979, and the book made me understand the circuit design techniques involved plus brought me up-to-date in design and analysis techniques.
The outline does not talk about the semiconductor physics of electronic devices. Instead it concentrates on design techniques for circuits that incorporate the diode, BJT, FET, and operational amplifier, which are crafts you must master. Included in this outline is how to define an electronic circuit in PSPICE and the last chapter incorporates all you have learned throughout the book into the analysis and design of a switched mode power supply. I highly recommend this book as a supplement to undergraduate electronics textbooks. |
not too bad
| Customer Rating:  | | Concisely written, clear in presentation and all derivations. The solved problems are most of the time not horribly illustrative, but for the price of the book, I think the author did a very decent job |
Could have been better
| Customer Rating: | | ELECTRONIC DEVICES & CIRCUITS, SECOND EDITION - CATHEY It's always interesting to see how authors attempts to fill those niches between basic DC/AC circuit analysis with passive components and analog (linear) circuit design/analysis with active electronic circuit devices. Discounting the fact that this is, after all, an outline on the subject written as a supplement to your text, I'd give it a C+. About 75% of the book is dedicated to diodes and transistor (all types) amplifier circuits. This is basic resistor biasing, find a load line, and establish the Q-point, kind of stuff. If you're studying to become an analog circuit designer, it is unlikely that ever, in your life, will you be called upon to design such a discrete transistor amplifier; however, this is a "row you'll have to hoe". So if you find yourself in the middle of a blizzard of transistor symbols, parameters, models, characteristics & configurations, this may be of some help; it's no silver bullet. It would have been nice to have seen some introduction to 1) semiconductor physics, 2) current source biasing, 3) oscillators, 4) basic power supplies, 5) data conversion and 6) integrated circuits and etc. Best help will be found in 1) DC and small signal examples of BJT and FET transistor design, 2) transistor modeling, 3) better than average SPICE examples, 4) and working with semiconductor parameters. There's a brief introduction to OP Amps and Switching Regulator power supplies. I didn't see a lot of errors and, with most Schaum's Outlines, there are plenty of practice problems. If you are still looking for help, try looking at some of the books written by Thomas L. Floyd. One hardback - "Fundamentals of Linear Circuits" - now ten or more years old, can be picked up on the used book shelves for about what you will pay for this outline. His books that I've seen are more for the ET than the EE, however if you're looking for another down to earth view of basic analog circuits, I suggest you check it out. |
Schaum's Outlines - Electronic Devices and Circuits
| Customer Rating: | | I have read the material through chapter 6, and believe it to be well-presented - concise yet thorough. I am troubled that some of the solved problems seem to have glaring errors. If I am wrong, I hope someone will correct me (If I were an expert in this field, there would be no point in buying the publication). On page 84, material is presented that indicates that for an n-channel MOSFET to be active, vgs must be greater than or equal to Vt. Solved problems 4.10 and 4.11 have solutions showing the MOSFET active with vgs < Vt. Solved problem 4.12 appears to have a similar error. I am sympathetic to the difficulties of putting together such a publication and ensuring that it's void of errors. To me the solution is to post an errata sheet on the internet. I have contacted the publisher seeking an errata sheet for another book. Their response was basically, "thank you for bringing the errors to our attention, but no, we can't make the errata sheet available." It seems to me that posting of errata sheets on the net would enhance the value of McGraw-Hill's products. An alternative may be to sponsor a forum or chat-room for each book, so that users could compare thoughts. On the whole, I rate this publication a B- or C+. I have found this and other Schaum's Outlines to be helpful when used to augment other materials. |
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