Bachelor degree in electronics

[zhaniko93]

Hi everyone, I am first-year undergraduate student in Georgia. I have decided to continue learning on electronic engineering faculty abroad for Masters degree, but for now, I have to spend 4 years here to earn bachelors degree. In my university, electronic engineering faculty is new and very badly organized, wit non-professional teachers. So I decided to continue learning on Programming faculty, which is better organized, Also I study Physics and math on high level.
And now, Can please anyone tell me which books should I read to know electronics as one knows with bachelors degree in US? I know that there are different programs in different universities, but I am planning to continue learning in Caltech or MIT or somewhere like that, so what should I read? Thanks in advance

 

[cowboybob]

Gosh. Where to start.

Any chance you can give us a little background on what you have studied in electrical and /or electronic theory so far.

It would help us know where to start with ideas about educational materials.

 

[neutrino flux capacitor]

The best EE text I have seen for undergrad Physics is still the same one we used:
The Art of Electronics
by Horowitz and Hill (a Harvard Physics prof and Hill is an oceanographic research instrumentation EE )
Also get the lab workbook if possible (it is a 2nd volume)
Horowitz & Hill give a great intro to EE concepts, theory, applications-and most importantly, their real-world use in actual working circuits(and examples of Doing It Wrong!)

Another practical guide by a master to study:
Analog Troubleshooting
by R. Pease (R&D EE from National Semiconductor)
mucho info in this book about components behavior/misbehavior, debugging your circuit designs, and more about real world electronics as opposed to standard theory.

Then go get a breadboard and power supply(there's just No Substitute for hands-on experimenting in the learning process) an assortment of R,C, L components plus some transistors and ICs - start with op amps, V reg, analog/linear, then add things like 555 timers and logic as you go...
Or, do what we did as undergrads- rescue an old Tektronix oscilloscope from a dumpster, grab your roommates' Marshall amp, take it all apart and Rock out to waveforms of overdrive clipping etc...
just Geek Out and have fun with it is the best way to start(Beware that High Voltage if you start messing with vacuum tube amps though!)

cheers from us US and A. physics phreaks

 

[zhaniko93]

Thanks very much for books. In electronics I know things I learned in physics (like capacitor, resistor, induction, ohm and kirchoff laws) + digital electronics learned from tutorials & wikipedia + PIC assembly and such very simple stuff, but I know advanced physics and math and I think it will be easy to learn electronics. Also, nobody throws old oscilloscopes in dumpster in my country, so I think I will have to do without them

 

[cowboybob]

"Principles of Electronic Instrumentation" by A. James Diefenderfer.

Not cheap, and don't let the title put you off: it is about theory and practical application.

It is available on-line at:

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Electronic-Instrumentation-James-Diefenderfer/dp/0030747090

And other sites, as well.

Used while a EE student at Purdue University.

 

[neutrino flux capacitor]

Also for reference an electronics dictionary is useful; I had a good one, by Rudolf Graf I think.
You already have a solid foundation re. theory/math so besides the reference books, the best investment you can make is in a decent DMM and a good dual-trace oscilloscope, which you can get off ebay for $50-100 US...best deals for the $/euro are old Tektronix scopes, they are still the best analog scopes out there...very reliable, esp models like the 465 (100Mhz); some of these even have built-in multi-meters e.g., DM44 option.
I even have a vacuum tube Tek scope that was built over 50 yrs ago and still works perfectly. I also have a 7844 400Mhz dual-beam scope that has spectrum analyzer plug-ins, but the 7xxx series are quite large and intended for laboratory use. The advantage is they are mainframes that can use any of dozens of types of plug-ins such as vertical amps (including differential and comparators),time bases, curve tracers etc. All sorts of highly accurate Tek plug-in meters, signal generators etc. can be had cheap with the benchtop power rack. I've seen the whole 3 or 4 unit rack complete with plug-ins sell for less than $100 in working order. Not bad, considering we used these same instruments at the university labs, who bought them new for $2500 to $5000, or upwards of $20K for scopes like the 7844.

The old CRT scopes especially the HV vacuum tube types are like small particle accelerators. There is much to know in electronics that can only be learned by doing/building/troubleshooting physical circuits hence the scopes and 'Art of...' Think of it as an area of experimental physics and you will go far.

 

[Bloodninja]

Hello,

These two books were written by Robert L. Boylestad and they are incredible:

- Introductory Circuit Analysis
- Electronic Devices and Circuit theory

If you managed to finish these two books in the above order then you will have strong knowledge in electronics thats sufficient for the first 2 years of university.

This is my experience.

Good luck

 

[cr0sh]

Depending on your current level of understanding, Grob's "Basic Electronics" is an excellent book...

 

[transistor495]

Deleted Off Topic: Moderation.

 

[zhaniko93]

Thanks. I started The Art of Electronics, seems good, will it be better to read Introductory Circuit Analysis first? I want one where most formulas will be derived and not just given directly, as I am used to such style and find it interesting

 

[neutrino flux capacitor]

Highly recommended absolutely FREE stuff:
for good tutorials re. formulas, derivations and circuit examples your best bet is the internet-
I have so many links to sites by knowledgeable, creative EE types that I've lost count at this point. A good start is to Google up some of the many educational sites created by and for Amateur Radio operators (called 'Ham radio' in N America), and another rich source of info is the ARRL Handbook, published yearly. As an example, I recently stumbled across a radio club site from New Jersey that had a really good free online oscilloscope seminar they call 'scopes for Dopes', but they are no dopes and it is taught by a Tektronix engineer, who gives several examples of circuit and signal behavior.

Ham radio clubs and members are also a great resource for all sorts of electronic components and test equipment; this is a worldwide resource: some of these guys have more gear than an electronics supply store, and they love to swap stuff with others. They are also a generous community and are known to sometimes give away useful items to schools and interested students. Around here there are 'hamfests' every few months; you could walk into one of these with $100 in your pocket and walk out with everything you need to set up your own test lab and run it for 4 yrs of college EE studies.

YouTube is another vast educational resource(though much of it is more like a Vast Wasteland) just search by topic, e.g., 'inductance', 'impedance', 'Klystron tube' etc.
Find channels; example: 'Afrotech' has a channel with dozens of EE intro videos and demonstrations.

(see 'sticky' on this forum) Free MIT 6.002 1st year EE course with downloads for lectures, labs, quizzes...EXCELLENT prof/presentation; wide-ranging topics.
Open Courseware site: MIT, Berkeley(U of Cal) etc. Free full undergrad courses in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics

Free circuit simulation/CAD
LT SPICE (Linear Technology website) VERY good self-edu tool: comes with demo schematics and tutorials on LT site, easy to use, 'virtual' scopes/meter displays
Yenka: Free for home use- very cool, even has 3D PCB creator module; hundreds of models/topics/demos in EE, Physics, Chem

Cadence- OrCAD Free downloads, parts libraries, SPICE sim/ models: full-blown professional EE software pkg for CAD/EDA schematics, PCBs etc

 

[neutrino flux capacitor]

Lest I forget:
The Tuva Project at Microsoft Research
a set of 6 lectures with rich background study material
by Richard Feynman, the late, great Cal Tech professor (1965 Nobel for Quantum Electrodynamics)
a great teacher, explainer of difficult concepts, unraveler of mysteries and a Curious Character

Every undergrad EE/Physics student MUST watch the above...

 

[zhaniko93]

Thanks for responces, I also do have bookmarked good educational web pages, I have no more problem in books or tutorials, but in georgia you can't buy oscilloscope with less than 2000$, I've been searching if anyone was selling old one with good price, but I couldn't find. P.S. I live in country Georgia, not state of U.S. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)), which is not well developed in that subject, and that's the problem. Thanks everyone I don't need any more resources, as I have to read 2 books, then watch MIT courses and then will bother you again for materials maybe )

 

[WTP Pepper]

Thanks. I started The Art of Electronics, seems good, will it be better to read Introductory Circuit Analysis first? I want one where most formulas will be derived and not just given directly, as I am used to such style and find it interesting

If you like your derivations and formulas then Electronic Devices & Circuit Theory by Boylestad & Nashelsky was recommended to me back in 1982 and is a good book now I understand most of it.
However I agree with others, The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill is still considered the Bible and some of the oldest and wisest engineers in my company have a copy on their shelf.
If you prefer RF electronics then the VHF/UHF Manual is a very good start.

 

[Jugurtha]

Hello there,

As other people recommended several books I would recommend,

There is also a good website that references multiple books and talks about them, so you can actually have an idea about what they are talking about. The writer also points out for things like "If you are a beginner, this book is a better to start than that other book, because x y z"..

What is good about this site too is that it has links to Application Notes and tutorials, etc .. (Linear Technology, Texas Instruments, etc..) Magnificent content..

http://www.wisewarthog.com/

Also Lessons in Electric Circuits.. Not "deep" but gets you going..

Like others said, Horowitz.. A page here, another there...


I am in Electronics Engineering, with a specialty of Instrumentation .. Although I will probably work more in industrial environments (think SCADA, PLCs, DCS and that kind of stuff).

The system might be a bit different, I am from the old system Engineer.. It's a 5 years course .. Here's the Cursus, maybe it will you give you keywords to search for stuff...

+First year:

1-Analysis(Taylor, Cauchy, first order intergals, etc)
2-Algebra
3-Statistics and Probability
4-Physics(kinetics, kinematics, dynamics,,,electricity)
5-Chemistry (more of Bohr, Schrödinger, spectroscopy than actually "chemistry"... But also chemical equilibrium, ionic solutions, thermodynamics, chemical kinetics)
6-Industrial/Technical Drawing
7-Programming (Pascal)

+ Lab assignments for physics and chemistry

Second Year:



1-Differential equations/Calculus (Ricatti, Lagrange. Nth order differential equations, 1st,2nd and 3rd order integrals (Ostrogradsky, Stokes, Green, Gauss)
2-Numerical Analysis (Newton/Raphson, Gauss-Seidel, Jacobi, etc...Polynomial interpolation, extrapolation, etc)
3-Materials Resistance(Hook, Young, etc)
4-Rational Mechanics
5-Atomic & Nuclear Physics
6-Vibrations, Waves and Propagations(Lagrange formalism, mechanical/electrical analogies to study systems, and then acoustic vibrations and electromagnetism (Maxwell, etc))
7-Organic chemistry
8-Mineral chemistry


Lab assignemnts for Mineral Chemistry, Organic chemistry and Vibrations&Waves

Third Year : Students who have completed the two years chose a specialty (mechanical, electrical, etc...)
Four the third, fourth and fifth year: Lab assignments for all modules (i.e 6 modules + 6 lab assignements .. Lab assignments take 12 hours a week)

Third and fourth year, you do an internship in some corporation where you get to see how things happen..(Airline company in the control, telecom company, electronics appliances manufacturer, industrial environment, oil,etc)


1-Digital electronics
2-General Electronics (solid physics, rectifiers, amplifiers (push pull, differential), power sources
3-Measurment (techniques for measuring physical quantities, principles of instruments and equations)
4-General Electricity (electrical networks, Kennelly, Millman, Thevenin/Norton, machines (motors, generators, asynchronous/synchronous, continuous current/alternative current machines, transformers, etc..)
5-Control Theory (Laplace transform, stability, Ruth-Hurwitz, Bode, Black/Nichols abacus, correctors, state space.. Continuous control basically)
6-Programming (C)

Fourth year (Specialty chosing for electronics student, either Instrumentation, Control or Telecom .. All have 5 modules in common, and each has 2 modules of specialty.. So they only differ in 2 modules.

I have studied the specialty year of Control and then I'm studying Instrumentation:

Common modules:

-Signal processing (Fourier series and transform, Wiener-Kintchin, Parseval/Rayleigh, linear systems, z trasform, sampling, Nyquist/Shannon, stability, etc..

-Processor Architecture (Intel x86 + Assembly)
-Board manufacturing and physics of components.
-Electronic functions (multivibrators (with op-amps, logic gates(cmos, ttl), transistors and NE 555), sinusoïdal oscillators (Hartley, Colpitts) Wien and phasor network, modulation (am, angular (fm, etc)), conversion (Digital to Analog and vice-versa), impulsion techniques

Specialty modules for Instrumentation:
-Sensors technology (physics of sensors, types, gage constraints, piezoelectrical, etc,,,)
-Microelectronics (CMOS schematics, polysilicium, die, circuits optimisation) basically integrated circuits manufacturing.

Specialty modules for Control systems:
-Discrete control (z-transform, stability, Ruth-Hurwitz, Jury, Evans, Pontryagin, Ackermann, state space in z, controlability, obesrvability, correctors with several methods (RST, pole placement, etc)...
-Power Electronics:Rectifying mainly, thyristors, etc .. Machines..



I'm in 4th year. After that it's 5th year 7 several modules and final year project.

 

[zhaniko93]

Thanks for such a big post ) As I already mentioned, I know algebra, analysis, Statistics, physics and programming pretty good, so I need books for whole third year. P.S. I started "electronic devices and circuit theory" by boylestad, but transistors are explained too badly there, as I didn't understand most part of it ( Now I'm reading "introduction to transistors" part 3rd times (

 

[audioguru]

I am sorry to go off topic when I see Selena Gomez here as an avatar. I like to look at her ... never mind.
I first heard about her in this forum then saw her hosting many music awards TV shows.

 

[bountyhunter]

Thanks for such a big post ) As I already mentioned, I know algebra, analysis, Statistics, physics and programming pretty good, so I need books for whole third year. P.S. I started "electronic devices and circuit theory" by boylestad, but transistors are explained too badly there, as I didn't understand most part of it ( Now I'm reading "introduction to transistors" part 3rd times (

Earning a BSEE at my university involved:

three semesters of calculus
three semesters of chemistry
three semesters of physics
advanced differential equations
rotational dynamics
fluid mechanics
statics
mechanics of materials
acoustics, wave propogation
mechanical design

And probably another two dozen I can't remember because it's been 33 years...

 

[zhaniko93]

I didn't understand "transistors" part of that book I have read tutorials about transistors on **broken link removed** and allaboutcircuits.com and there was written pretty good, I understood that and in this book, there are some stupid graphs and very badly organized texts, which I don't understand at all ( I have attached a book, so please take a look at "transistors" part (especially from 126 page)

 

[zhaniko93]

decided to leaarn that part from electronics-tutorials.ws......