Applied Introductory Circuit Analysis for Electrical and Computer Engineers

This ground breaking text offers an alternative to the standard scheme to teaching circuit theory, for introductory, circuit courses taught to all engineering majors. Using a top-down approach and focusing on a single system application, it motivates the reader to see circuit theory as more than a dry, abstract set of ideas. In answering the application theme, “what limits the speed of a digital system,” the reader sees the relationship between a set of basic physical principles and their application to a system they are familiar with (i.e., a personal computer).

Table of Contents:
Preface. Introduction. 1. Fundamental Electrical Concepts. Introduction. Conventions. Charge, Current and Voltage. Power. Circuits, Nodes and Branches. Branch and Node Voltages. Kirchhoff's Voltage and Current Laws. Circuit Elements. Combining Circuit Elements. Voltage- and Current-Divider Circuits. Resistive-Circuit Examples. Power and Energy Relationships. Summary. 2. Gate Delay and RC Circuits. Introduction: Delays in Logic Circuits. Transition Times in CMOS. Inside the CMOS Inverter. Solving First Order RC Circuits. RC Delays in Integrated Circuits. Significance of the Time Constant. Maximum-Inverter Pair Switching Speed. Algebraic Analysis of Inverter Pair Switching Speed. Energy and Power Dissipation in Digital Systems. Other First-Order RC Circuits. Summary. 3. Interconnects and RC Ladder Circuits. Introduction. Resistance and Capacitance of Interconnects. Interconnect Models. Single-RC-Lump Approximation of an Interconnect. Two-RC-Lump Interconnect Approximation. Analysis of the Two-Section-RC Ladder Circuit. Natural Frequencies and Higher Order Circuits. Timing Delays Using the Two-Lump Model. Timing Delays Using Higher-Order Interconnect Models. Summary. 4. Fanout and Capacitive Coupling. Introduction. Fanout. Fanout and Interconnects. Capacitive Coupling and Crosstalk. Capacitive Coupling to a Grounded Adjacent Line. Capacitive Coupling to a Floating Adjacent Line. Capacitive Coupling to an Adjacent Active Line. The Capacitance Matrix. Summary. 5. Package Inductance and RLC Circuit Analysis. Introduction. Modelling the Effects of Package Inductance. First-Order RL Circuits. RLC Circuit Model of Coupled Inverter Gates. dc Steady-State Response of RLC Circuits. Series RLC Circuit Differential Equations. Natural Frequencies of the Series RLC Circuit. Series RLC Circuit Responses. Application to the Digital-System Switching Speed. Gate Conductance and RLGC Circuits. Neglecting Unimportant Components in Circuit Analysis. Summary. 6. Printed Circuit Interconnects an Lossless Transmission Lines. . Introduction. n-lump Transmission Line Model. Analysis of the Lossless Transmission-Line Model. Interpretation of the Wave Solutions. Reflections on Transmission Lines. Transmission-Line Models. Solving Circuits with Transmission Lines. Capacitively Loaded Transmission Line. Summary. 7. Clock Skew and Signal Representation. Introduction. Clock Skew in Synchronous Logic Circuits. Periodic Signals. Time-Domain Analysis of Clock Skew. The Big Picture. Fourier Series Signal Representation. Superposition. Complex Form of the Fourier Series. Summary. 8. Clock Degradation and ac Steady State Analysis. Introduction. Sinusoids and Phasors. Impedance and Admittance. Clock-Signal Analysis Using ac Steady-State Theory. Transfer Functions. RLC Circuits in the Frequency Domain. ac Steady-State Analysis Using Complex Fourier Series. Summary. 9. Other Circuit Analysis Concepts. Introduction. Thevenin and Norton Equivalent Models. Controlled Sources. Root-Mean-Square Values. Nodal Analysis. Summary. Selected Answers. Index.