Page 108 - Analog Circuit Design Art, Science, and Personalities

Rad Russell

11. The Process of Analog Design
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I’m not going to draw schematics for you. They have been done and. in terms of
doing or designing the next circuit. are not very interesting. I’m not going to
expound on all the pitfalls that are out there-I trust that they are addressed by
others. This is going to be about, if you will, the philosophy of design.

Design-A Process

Thc process is my focus. Not the wafer-fabrication-process (which, for an integrated
circuit designer, is just as important as the engine in the race car is to the driver), but
the process of “designing“-how one goes about filling the emptiness with a new
and, it IS hoped, useful something. The “something” can be an integrated circuit. a
methodology, a machine, a process for putting up wallpaper, or whatever. The “somc-
thing” is not the focus here-the “creating” of something that didn’t exist beforc is.

The Quest

The reasons that you have for starting into a design are excuses for allowing your-
self to do it. They arc many and varied. In almost every case you will wind up
driving yourself or feeling that the “design” is driving you. or both. It is, in some
sense. d “quest.“
There arc many possible ways to come up with a “quest.” Deliberately seeking
to lake advantage of a rccent breakthrough or significant work (yours or not. in your
field or not) is an obvious possibility. Maybe you simply find yourself inspircd.
Whdtekcr the impetus, there are some things we think we know in the beginning
and a ”goal.” The question then is “now what‘?”

Not Much Known

Much is considered to be known and very little actually is. When one puts one‘s
foot on the path that. one hopes, leads to creating something new, the worst thing
in the world is to “come from the place” (have the mind set) where cverything is
known already and all things have already been done. This is the cxact opposite of‘
what I:, needed-seeing thc world as if for thc first time.

Chaos! Confusion! That is thc cauldron that you must hurl yourself into. You rnay
have a goal, however vague. and wme resources (i.c.. probably the means 10 imple-

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