Page 71 - The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design

Thoughts on Becoming and Being an Analog Circuit Designer

Figure 5-5.
The pride of Mars,
PA, with her spouse
alignment unit
(SAU),

but I hear a baseball bat or cast-iron skillet works just as well. The SAU
comes in handy, for example, when you're hosting a large dinner party,
all the guests have arrived and are waiting for their meal, and your analog
circuit designer has said he'll join the party "in just a minute" for the past
two hours. In this situation you should quietly hide the SAU up your
sleeve, excuse yourself while flashing a charming smile at your guests,
waltz into the lab, yank the plug on the soldering iron and strike a threat-
ening pose with the SAU.
It's kind of like training a dog with a rolled-up newspaper—you only
have to use it once. After that, the sight of the unit or the threat that
you're in the mood to do some baking will yield the desired response.

Conclusion

I hope this chapter has given you some sense of what you need to learn
and obtain to become an analog circuit designer, as well as some of the
emotional challenges in store for you. It would be great if you considered
it as an alternative to the digital- or software-based engineering drudgery
that you are statistically likely to end up doing. There may yet be some
burnt resistors and oscillations in your future!

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