Page 8 - Troubleshooting Analog Circuits

Foreword

“Your idea is so good that, if you give me 20 minutes, I’ll be sure that I was the first
one to think of it.” Although I pass out that accolade sparingly, if I were to do what
the compliment implies, I’d surely claim credit for the idea of publishing Bob Pease’s
series on “Troubleshooting Analog Circuits” in EDN Magazine Edition. The fact is,
though, that the idea came from Jon Titus, W, Editorial Director, and Chief Editor of
EDN magazine and from Tarlton Fleming, then an EDN Associate Editor and now
Manager of Applications Engineering at Maxim Integrated Products Corporation.
In early 1988, Jon and those EDN technical editors who work at the publication’s
(and Cahners Publishing Company’s) Newton, Massachusetts, headquarters were
brainstorming ideas for articles we could solicit from contributors in industry. Jon
ventured that because EDN readers always look to the magazine to provide practical
ideas on how to do their jobs better, and because trouble is ubiquitous, articles on
how to troubleshoot more effectively should be a natural for us.
Tarlton, who edited EDN’s popular Design Ideas section, worked with Bob on a
regular basis, as Bob reviews the analog design ideas submitted by EDN readers.
Tarlton recalled Bob’s mentioning a book he and his colleagues at National
Semiconductor were planning to write on power-supply design. Tarlton said he
thought Bob had already put together some material on troubleshooting. We needed
to find out whether National would grant EDN the rights to publish a portion of the
book. Tarlton would open the discussions.
Shortly afterward, a good-sized package arrived at EDN’s offices. In it was the text
of what would eventually become the first three installments of Bob’s series. By
then, Tarlton had left the East Coast to seek fame and fortune in Silicon Valley, so
the task of reviewing Bob’s material fell to me. I skimmed through it quickly and
became quite intrigued.
I am a contemporary of Bob’s; actually, I am a few years older. Though we did
not know each other at the time, I was a graduate student in EE at MIT while Bob
was an undergraduate there. I first became aware of Bob when he was working for
his previous employer, George A. Philbrick Researches, now a part of Teledyne
Components in Dedham, Massachusetts. Even in those days-the sixties and early
seventies-Bob was a prolific writer. He shared his musings and technical insights
with Philbrick customers and other analog engineers who read the firm’s house organ,
“The Lightning Empiricist,” and with readers of trade magazines, such as EDN.
Those earlier writings did a lot to burnish Bob’s image as a technical expert, but
they had a secondary effect as well: They made his sense of humor and his passion
for puns something of a legend. As a form of humor, plays on words are denigrated
by all too many people. However, at least a few openly admit to enjoying puns, and
that pup includes Bob and myself. Many years ago, when I first read material Bob
had written, I suspected that if I ever met him, I’d probably like him. When I started
to read what he had just submitted to EDN, the experience was a bit like a chance
encounter with an old friend after not meeting up with him for a long time.
The material was somewhat out of the ordinary for EDN. It was technical, yes . . .
but it was lighter than most of what we publish. There were few equations and no

vii