TABLE OF CONTENTS In this chapter, the design of electronic systems will be introduced by looking at the different parts (subsystems) that are brought together to form the overall system. However, before considering any design three points should always be noted:
Always use common sense. If something does not seem right, then it probably isn't.
Never leave anything to chance. What can go wrong will go wrong.
There is almost always more than one way to solve a problem. The choice for the designer is to determine the most appropriate solution. The first solution developed might not necessarily be the best.
Within the context of this book, the interest lies in the ability to design electronic circuits and systems that can have a wide range of required functions, be practical and useful, and will ultimately use analogue, digital, or mixed-signal circuits. The advantage of each type of circuitry is:
Analogue circuits manipulate electrical signals (voltages and/or currents) that will vary continuously in amplitude between lower and upper limits. Theoretically, the analogue signal is capable of changing by infinitesimally small amounts. Examples of analogue circuits include operational amplifiers, (voltage, current, audio, and power), and analogue filters (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, band-reject).
Digital circuits manipulate signals that are quantized that is, using signals that will vary at discrete values between lower and upper limits. Binary (two-level logic, 0 and 1) is most commonly used and is the basis of the majority of computing applications today. Examples of digital circuits include...
