Page 76 - Analog Circuit Design Art, Science, and Personalities

Part Three

The Making of

an Analog Engineer

If we accept the premise that analog engineers are made rather than born, then how
do we go about making a good one? The contributors to this book are certainly
“good ones,” and here they explore some of the influences that shaped themselves
and others.
Tom Hornak started down the analog path as a boy when he tried to figure out the
difference between voltage and amperage. As part of this effort, he learned how to
“visualize” the operation of circuits. In his contribution, Tom shows the utility of
visualization and howl others can learn to do it.
Bob Pease was fortunate to spend his early years as an engineer under the wing
of George Philbrick. Perhaps the best way to learn analog design is to do it. The
next best way is to watch and mentor under some master analog engineers. In
Chapter 9, Bob tells what he learned watching and participating in the development
of the P7 and P2 operational amplifier modules.
James K. Koberge is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
the alma mater of several of this book’s contributors. Here, James describes how
M.I.T. attempts to train the next generation of analog wizards through a hefty diet
of problem solving and design tasks to supplement the theoretical coursework.
There’s a certain philosophy of analog design that analog designers need to leam.
Rod Russell describes that philosophy and the elements composing it, showing that
success in analog design often depends as much on how you approach a task as
what you know.
Experience, even of a negative sort, is a big factor in the making (or breaking!) of
an analog designer. Milton Wilcox relates what he learned about the importancc of
adhering to detail while designing analog integrated circuits. The “three out of
three” rule Milton develops in his contribution may be not the sort of thing that‘s
casily expressed mathcmatically or as an elegant theory, but it does manifest itself
in such eminently objective forms as “the bottom line.”
Are there any shortcuts to mastery of the analog art? Is it possible to buy a com-
puter-aided design software package, load it on a workstation. input the desired
parameters, “point and click” with a mouse: and come up with a working analog
design a few minutes later‘? Some people say so. Jim Williams disagrees, and in the
final chapter of this section he makes an eloquent case why breadboards and finger-
tips will still be part of the analog designer’s arsenal for the foreseeable future.

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