CIRCUITS, DEVICES, NETWORKS AND
MICROELECTRONICS
No frills. Just the essentials.
Raymond S. Winton
Mississippi State University
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Preface
No subject area of study has been subject to such a content turnover as that of electronics.
Since electronics is the exposition and deployment of electrons, it is at the whim of every
technology advance involving electrons that has appeared on the horizon. The technology is
under continual evolution and that of yesteryear was, at one time, 10 years ago. But, with the
technology evolution machine running at breakneck pace, yesteryear may now be 2 year ago –
or even less.. And maybe only remnants exist of the technologies that once defined the
information and signal conditioning environment.
As a result textbooks try to include it all and are massive. Most tip the scale at 800 to 1500
pages. And that count is just fo the non-linear side of electronics. Add another 1000 pages for
a textbook on linear electronics. The bound copy of information and knowledge then becomes
overwhelming to the acolyte. It is easy to get lost in the pages. And many pages are never
even visited. In the university environment the backpacks become large, and young (and old)
backs suffer strain.
The traditional intention of the textbook is and has always been two-fold. It is to serve as (1) a
reference for a course of instruction and (2) as a reference resource for the professional later in
life. Unfortunately for the subject area of electronics, time is not on the side of the textbook or
the professional. Even under the best of circumstances obsolescence begins before the
textbook is conceived. And authors are not usually cognizant with every aspect of every
technology. And as a collateral requirement, vested technologies are the ones that need to be
in the textbook picture frame, not the ones that may evaporate overnight.
But obsolescence isn’t what it used to be, not with a world that is wired and wireless and online.
All that is necessary is to adapt. And the adaptive capability exists for the textbook world
through the use of the internet as a resource.
So this textbook has been crafted to address the present, past, and the future. It is designed to
exist and serve in the three resource environments (bound copy, softcopy, and on-line) with
heavy emphasis on URLs for (1) reference extensions and (2) ‘homework’ exercises. And
therefore it should continue to serve the charter of supporting both the learning environment and
the resource environment.
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As a point of emphasis the content does not include any homework exercises, either in
hardcopy or softcopy. All homework is online. Each subject subdivision or chapter has its URL
for homework exercises and anyone may upload or download to the site for the chapter
homework. The content which is provided by this textbook is explanations and examples only.
Some of the examples may look like the stuff of homework. Examples and exercises are of
signature importance and value since most people learn as much, if not more, by exercise than
they do by any explanations and expositions. In the classroom setting, where progress
evaluations are part of the picture, homework may be assigned and ‘graded’, and the online
environment is good and appropriate for this usage and process.
Even so, homework may not be as much a necessity for the MOOC (massive open online
course) environment. It is believed that this textbook may be closer to serving the MOOC
audience than that of the conventional environment even though it is devised in terms of the
conventional setting. As indicated by the title page, the author is a university professor.
The reason the textbook was developed in the first place was for local needs. With the
Mississippi State University ECE program the electronics subject area is a core requirement of
the undergraduate curriculum and it takes three semesters to do it. The three subdivisions are
(1) the basics, (2) semiconductor devices, and (3) applications. Sometimes two textbooks are
used, sometimes three. Instructors do not necessarily know what was covered in the previous
semester, nor have the time or the fortitude to find and review the textbooks of the previous
semesters.
So that has been the charter of this book. As cited on the title page – keep electronics simple
and keep it short. And accomplish this charter any way that it can be done.
As an exponent of this philosophy, most chapters have a portfolio and summary at the end, of at
most 3 pages. If all one wants are the facts and essentials, this may be sufficient.
Under this approach, undoubtedly someone’s favorite topic area or application may be missing.
Or maybe explanations of a particular concept or idea may need more help. And that is why
this textbook also exists as open-source. Other instructors may have better explanations or
have a particular interest that they would like inserted. And they may use this generalized
resource as a platform for a next-generation deployment.
Open source is under in the URL identified in chapter 1: Enjoy. Use it to publish your own
textbook without the necessity of starting from scratch. All I would ask that you give this author
some recognition in the author list.
Ray Winton
Mississippi State University
August 2014
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