One of the most
popular sections of
Electronic Design in
both print and on the
Web over the years
has been Ideas for
Design (IFDs). We’d
like to celebrate this
department by dedicating this entire issue to IFDs,
including insightful commentary from our editors
and contributors alike.
First, we’ve asked some of the industry’s top
engineers, who we like to call design gurus, to reflect
and write about the circuits they’ve created over the
years. Second, we’ve asked our editors to write about
a myriad of design topics, such as reference designs
and state machines. Of course, we haven’t lost the
IFD spirit. You’ll find several new circuits as well
as timeless IFDs, along with the backstories behind
those classic designs right from their authors.
MASTERS OF DESIGN
Contributing Editor and analog guru Bob Pease
starts off the issue with his take on the current
state of analog design. In his inimitable style, he
asks, “What’s All This Analog Engineering Stuff,
Anyhow?” Despite the rise of digital technology,
Bob makes the case for the continued importance of
analog engineering and argues that the analog guys
are still critical members of any design team.
For this issue, Analog Editor Don Tuite interviewed
Bob Dobkin, Linear Technology’s CEO and
an IFD contributor. Bob has an interesting take on
IFDs. He breaks them down functionally into those
that provide a basic framework for inexperienced
designers to follow and those that go beyond some
component’s intended function to provide a novel
solution. Bob also explains why he likes both types.
And maybe more importantly, you’ll also find out
what he doesn’t like about IFDs.
The parade continues with Walt Jung, who takes a
look back at 40 years of Ideas for Design. Walt’s first
IFD, “Gated Amplifier Uses FET in Feedback Loop,”
was published in our Jan. 4, 1968 issue. Now, Walt
asks if how a design was done in the 1970s or 1980s
matters compared to today’s approaches. Eloquently,
he says, “Yes! First, there is the adage of being ignorant
of history’s mistakes, thus condemning one to
repeat them. But what is so useful about a historical
review of designs lies in extracting the optimization
and evolution towards maturity.” He also states that
some IFDs have a timeless quality about them, so
they’re still relevant to today’s designs.
Design guru W. Stephen Woodward’s piece is a
call to action to designers to get their ideas published,
with two key incentives. Not only do you get to see
your name in print, IFDs also enable you to present
and develop new circuit design ideas and themes
to the engineering community. Stephen specifically
references three of his circuit ideas—the “take back
half” approach to high-performance temperature control,
thermal anemometry, and the self-compensating
charge pump. He also cites several of his circuits that
apply to each idea, which can be found in our archive.
Guru Rick Zarr points out in his piece how power
requirements have changed over the years, from a
carte blanche attitude for ac powered devices years
ago to an expectation of power efficiency in all
designs today. Systems not only need to provide their
function, they also must do it with the fewest joules
possible, he says.
THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB
Besides the traditional IFDs, we tasked our editors
with writing about different aspects of designing electronic
circuits today. Specifically, they take a look at
some of the tools you need to get the job done.
Contributing Editor Rich Quinnell explains how
reference designs are typically used. He says the complexity
of today’s designs along with the fast pace of
many markets has forced some reference designs to
evolve beyond educational tools into manufacturing
documentation for fully defined end products. Part of
the reason is that some of today’s chips are so complex
that no one outside of the company making the
chips can understand them as well.
Embedded/Systems/Software Editor Bill Wong
focuses on digital design, specifically with complex
programmable logic devices (CPLDs) and FPGAs.
He explains how improvements in FPGA integrated
development environments (IDEs) have simplified
the development process. Unlike working with discrete
devices, rewiring an FPGA is a matter of
dragging a logical wire in an integrated development
environment (IDE), recompiling a design, and downloading
it to the device. This shows pointedly how
times have changed when it comes to some aspects
of digital logic design.
Components Editor Mat Dirjish, who tackles
motors and motion control, describes how vendors
are creating powerful tools to ease design chores
and making them available at no extra charge in
some cases. One of the products he cites takes users
through a complete cycle from design to analysis and
through optimization.
GREATEST HITS
We’ve printed classic IFDs before, typically with
additional commentary as one of our editors explains
why he picked that particular IFD as a classic. For
this issue, we looked at the most popular IFDs on our
Web site and asked some of those authors to tell us
how the design evolved and how they might design
the same circuit today. We think this “backstory” in
their own words makes for interesting reading, and
we hope you will agree.
And, we haven’t forgotten about what got us here,
with this issue’s expanded IFD department. Featuring
fresh submissions from some of the industry’s top
companies, these designs are ready and waiting for
your workbench. Why not give them a try?
We hope this special issue will become a fixture on
our editorial calendar for years to come. We certainly
welcome your feedback, which you can send to me at
joe.desposito@penton.com.