Wideband Amplifiers

There are many books discussing electronic circuit design which include a chapter or two dedicated to wideband and high-speed circuits and instrumentation. In most of those books the way of achieving a high bandwidth relies almost exclusively on the selection of semiconductor devices fast enough to do the job. Only a few of them go deep enough into specific details useful for starting the high-speed circuit design from scratch; fewer still dedicate enough space to identify the causes for bandwidth limitation, let alone the remedies and solutions possible with careful and systematic consideration of active and passive component interactions and specific circuit topology selections. There are also many books discussing circuit analysis, modeling and performance optimization strategies; almost none, however, offers also the complete introduction to mathematical procedures required for a successful design, particularly if time-domain or transient performance is of prime importance. Wideband Amplifiers attempts to cover both of these requirements, starting from the basics of mathematical procedures and circuit analysis but also offering the more advanced topics of system optimization and synthesis, along with the complete mathematical apparatus required. We have tried to show the circuit examples in such a way that the main principles for achieving high bandwidth are clearly exposed, independently of the actual device technology used in the circuit realization. At the same time we were striving not to loose sight of the everyday needs of a circuit design engineer, so we have intentionally limited the contents of mathematics to the necessary minimum. While some of the derivations require a degree of previous mathematical knowledge, we have taken care to include the trivial steps in order to help a less experienced reader to follow the subject easily. For those who want answers more immediately, the computer routines on the accompaining CD will be of help. In this way we hope that Wideband Amplifiers will have a more lasting value, both as a learning guide and as a reference design manual.