Inside the Instrument

Amplifiers, Feedback, Noise and Embedded Control in 10 chapters — from “Transmission lines, grounding and the bench” to “Microcontrollers and programmable logic for measurement”.

Chapters

  1. Transmission lines, grounding and the bench
    • The wave equation on a line
    • The telegrapher's equations
    • Line loss and skin effect
    • Terminated-line impedance and reflectometry
    • Magnetic pickup and common-mode current
    • Grounding by frequency and shielding effectiveness
    • Spectrum analyser and network analyser
    • Problems
  2. The differential pair and the current mirror
    • Differential signals and the 741
    • The long-tailed pair
    • The half-circuit
    • Tail impedance and common-mode gain
    • The current mirror
    • Improved current sources
    • The active load
    • Offset and drift, and the MOS pair
    • Problems
  3. Multistage amplifiers, the Miller effect and output stages
    • The gain stage
    • The high-frequency transistor model
    • The Miller effect
    • Open-circuit time constants and the two-pole amplifier
    • Cascode bandwidth
    • Class A follower and class B push-pull
    • Class AB bias
    • Problems
  4. Loop gain in real feedback circuits
    • Block-model limits in real circuits
    • The return ratio
    • Asymptotic gain and feedforward
    • Feedback topologies and Blackman's formula
    • Desensitivity and distortion reduction
    • Closed-loop poles
    • Loop-gain measurement by injection
    • Limits of the return ratio
    • Problems
  5. Stability and compensation
    • The encirclement count
    • The Nyquist criterion
    • The Bode margin test and overshoot
    • Dominant-pole compensation and noise gain
    • Miller compensation and pole splitting
    • The right-half-plane zero
    • The slew-rate limit
    • Capacitive-load and input-capacitance instability
    • Limits of the Nyquist criterion
    • Problems
  6. References, regulators and switching converters
    • What the series-pass regulator left open
    • The bandgap reference
    • The regulator loop at every frequency
    • LDO stability and the output capacitor
    • The mains side
    • Boost and flyback converters
    • Current-mode control and input filters
    • High-voltage supplies for photomultipliers
    • Limits of the regulator loop
    • Problems
  7. Filters, crystal oscillators and phase-locked loops
    • Filter approximations and group delay
    • The state-variable biquad and switched capacitors
    • The crystal resonator
    • The Pierce oscillator and the 555
    • Phase noise and jitter
    • The PLL linear model
    • Acquisition and frequency synthesis
    • Problems
  8. Noise sources and amplifier noise
    • Autocorrelation and spectral density
    • Johnson and kB​T/C noise
    • Shot noise and Campbell's theorem
    • 1/f noise and excess noise
    • Transistor noise
    • The amplifier noise model
    • Feedback-network noise and the Friis formula
    • Problems
  9. Low-noise front ends and noise measurement
    • Cross-correlation and the cross-spectrum
    • The photodiode transimpedance amplifier
    • Noise matching of low-resistance sources
    • Modulation and chopping
    • Lock-in noise bandwidth and harmonics
    • Y-factor and cross-correlation measurement
    • Interference and drift in the front-end noise budget
    • Problems
  10. Microcontrollers and programmable logic for measurement
    • The memory map and clock tree
    • Double buffering and continuity
    • Interrupt priority and response time
    • The programmable-logic fabric
    • Timing closure and clock-domain crossing
    • Time-to-digital converters and the digital lock-in
    • Mixed-signal layout and testable firmware
    • The complete front-end noise budget
    • Problems