New book project

Hi, All,

I've been in touch with Wiley about a new book proposal. It's provisionally titled "Designing Electro-Optical Systems: Figuring It All Out". The editor likes it, so it's gone out for peer review. We'll see what the reviewers say.

I've been having trouble with the subtitle, so it'll probably change--what I want to say is that the book is about the rhythm of the design process, but I haven't found a short way of saying that that doesn't sound pretentious.

It'll be based on about 30 extended examples, loosely modelled on projects I've worked on or consulted for. (I have all these photon budget documents gathering dust, you see.) The idea is to go through the process of gathering rough requirements, generating design ideas, doing photon budgets and first-order optical designs, and choosing between different approaches so as to get the best performance, lowest cost, or some optimal combination thereof.

The other book has several extended examples, but due to its lore-book structure, they've had to be split up across several chapters each, so it's a bit harder to see them as a whole. This one will go through them longitudinally, with references to other sections of the book and to BEOS, to get across the rhythm, rules of thumb, and so on.

The provisional topics are:

Passive systems: photoreceivers, cotton spark detectors, laser noise canceller;

Simple active systems: Cotton velocity sensor, egg blood spot detector, extinction particle detection system, LED plus shadow mask head tracker system

Interferometric systems: original In-Situ Coherent LIDAR (ISICL), with its 10 layers of belt and suspenders; the Mach 9 ISICL including photoreceiver alignment; crossed-beam heterodyne particle counter; phase-sensitive liquid particle detection system; interferometric confocal microscope with deconvolution for another factor of 2 in resolution.

Ultrasensitive measurements: revisit In Situ Coherent Lidar (ISICL, original version) and Mach 9 ISICL (2015 version), extinction particle detection system, Batchelder-Taubenblatt liquid particle detection system;

Electro-opto-mechanical systems: interferometric readout scanning atomic force microscope, magnetic force microscope (including phase tracking)

Systems with a lot of background light: Navy optical link, coherent lidar for vehicles (also interferometric), diffuse light sensors;

Control systems: R-T laser locking, active rejection of spurious reflections;

Spectroscopy: multimode fiber spectrometer, transcutaneous blood glucose sensor, light bulb spectrometer;

Sensors for process control: closed loop lithography linewidth control using diffraction; improved alignment system for wafer steppers, colorimetric sensors for process water in semiconductors and pharmaceuticals; tin droplet detection in EUV light sources for lithography

Simple imaging systems: Footprints $10 thermal IR focal plane array and readout;

Scanning systems: vehicle lidar, compound raster scanning for higher speed;

Colorimetric systems: differential spectroscopic sensor for detecting blood spots in hens' eggs, Ru:BPY sensor for total metals in semiconductor process water using movable Brewster prisms; multipass cell using multiple scatter off the walls of a white painted tube;

Signal processing systems: Modulation generated carrier interrogation of fiber interferometers, ISICL back-wall rejection system using RF modulation of the diode laser

Physical optics imaging systems: optical coherence tomography system, v(z) system, Corle phase sensitive microscope

Mixed technology systems: particle focusing, Fabry-Perot gravity meter, Ru:BPY colorimeter using a moving Brewster prism, all-passive self-aligning solar concentrator;

Advanced interferometric systems: solar heterodyne detection of HF plumes from clandestine uranium enrichment plants

These are all things I've actually designed or worked on, so it's all real-world stuff with real-world track records: some successes, some failures, some never actually built. (I'll need to get permission to publish some of it--suitably adapted to protect client IP--so the roster may change a bit by the time it's done.)

There's quite a bit of background material required, but it's mostly quite specific, and so takes up a lot less space than a general treatise such as BEOS, and of course I can always refer to stuff there where needed.

Since I have most of the hard parts done already, I'm hoping to have it finished by mid-2018, God willing.

Suggestions and comments welcome.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs
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I'm not sure exactly what you want, but "Art" describes the character of your writing to me. "Lessons from the Art of Optics" but that doesn't work...

OK I'm going to suggest trashing your title and putting 'Art' in there. This book sounds different than your other design book.

Or steal "Experiences and Examples" from JV. Jones.

Reply to
George Herold

Let me suggest, "Designing Electro-Optical Systems: 30 Design Eexamples" or "Electro-Optical Systems: 30 Design Examples"

That'll make clear its value to the reader.

--
 Thanks, 
    - Win
Reply to
Winfield Hill

Making it Through the Maze?

Electrons and Photons?

The Ultimate Wideband Challenge?

A Tale of Two Cities? Well, maybe not that one.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

First off it's "Instruments and Experiences" by Jones. (Duh, head-slap) and that's my suggestion for a subtitle.

(you can also give a little plug to Jones in the acknowledgements or wherever that goes.)

Wow! dat's a lot of stuff! (Would two books make any sense?) I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad to hear it includes various design choices and mistakes. To me, design is a bit like finding a path through the woods, there are a whole bunch of choices, and sometimes you have to back up and try another route. That's much easier to do early rather than late. And if you need another reviewer for the simpler stuff sign me up! I'd be happy to read the more complicated things too, but I'm afraid I'd have lotsa questions before I found a real error.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

Work "Reflections" in there somewhere. That's a good word.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Are you planning on an engineer's view, a hands-on project book, or a mix?

I really enjoyed the Prutchi book "Exploring Quantum Physics Through Hands-On Projects". I've been wanting to do more projects based on that book with the kids. I just need more time and money...

- John

Reply to
John Sutter

Hi, All,

I've been in touch with Wiley about a new book proposal. It's provisionally titled "Designing Electro-Optical Systems: Figuring It All Out". The editor likes it, so it's gone out for peer review. We'll see what the reviewers say.

I've been having trouble with the subtitle, so it'll probably change--what I want to say is that the book is about the rhythm of the design process, but I haven't found a short way of saying that that doesn't sound pretentious. ===========================================================

How about "Designing Electro-Optical Systems: From First Photon to Last Electron" or "Designing Electro-Optical Systems: From First Idea to Last Photon"

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

Reply to
Carl Ijames

Thanks. I'd happily do homage to RV Jones, who is one of my technical heroe s, but stealing the title of his _magnum_opus_ would be a bit too cheeky fo r me. (Anything with "Art" in it might also be misunderstood.) ;)

I like Win's idea of truth-in-advertising--that might get the message acros s as well as anything.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I like this general direction.

"Electro-Optical Design: From Photons to Applications" "Adventures in Electro-Optical Design" "Electro-Optical Design: Incidents and Reflections"

OK, the last one may be a bit goofy...

-- john, KE5FX

Reply to
John Miles, KE5FX

Arguably the most important messages would be - a clear idea of why you are writing the book, and what your audience should get if they invest some of their remaining lives in reading it - being clear and simple, rather than "cute" and "tricky"

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I mostly agree, but that's a pretty tall order for a mere subtitle. ;)

Have you read the other one?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

You need to add some energy and enthusiasm, there should be an app that gen erates titles by now. Some phraseology that comes to mind is "case studies" and "high performance," so something like ":30 Case Studies of High Perfor mance Design," or more descriptive ":30 Detailed Case Studies of Successful High Performance Designs."

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

Depends on the subtitle's length :) or

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More importantly, a poor subtitle could easily put me off.

Unfortunately not. My the length remaining life is too much of a consideration :(

I've heard tales of someone younger than me that decided to stop buying any more books on the principle that his previously purchased unread books were more than sufficient for his lifetime.

That rates 50% sympathy from me :)

Reply to
Tom Gardner

It's primarily for working engineers and scientists, but with a sideline in graduate students. Most students don't have the chance to design stuff really from scratch. It's not a projects book, though doing one of those sometime might be fun. (Vannevar Bush and John Early Jackson spent part of their retirement improving a Shortt pendulum clock out of all recognition--some years after it had been superseded by crystal oscillators.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Fun. That "which he never meant to be published on any account" bit is a cautionary tale to any author. ;)

Yup. That's why I'm struggling with it a bit. Maybe I'll leave it till I have the manuscript in some sort of shape, and see what it actually says.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Designing Electro-Optical Systems: 30 Design Philosophy's

Designing Electro-Optical Systems: System Design Philosophy

Designing Electro-Optical Systems: Yet Another design cookbook ;)

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Or maybe 3O lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, an senserit electram sed...

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

You know that will look great!

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

I strongly believe you should include the word "lore" even if you have to justify it in the foreword. The whole point of the book is the unquantifia ble mindset of good design they don't teach in schools, right? Say that.

(great big snip)

Wow. That's a lot of good stuff, a nice general overview of (the part of) the field (that you've worked in).

Even if a reader fails to grasp why they should respect the lore as well as the science, they'll get good ideas just thinking about your examples. M ight want to point out which examples are patented and which are public dom ain (assuming you get the permissions you mention elsethread).

If they do grasp it, they might find the mindset useful in other fields t oo. Just beware starting a religion. ;>)

Mark L. Fergerson

Reply to
Alien8752

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