Hans Camenzind's Book, Designing Analog Chips

Unpublished indeed... most of my designs are. But the chips were manufactured. When I was 24, I was green, believed in absolute faith to my employer, keep everything a secret, don't publish, all that rot. It hit me in late 70, I quit (actually laid myself off), and now keep everything to MYSELF ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

The Signetics chips certainly had more impact, widespread use, second sources, etc., and can still be easily obtained today from multiple sources.

That's two things. Anyway, the correct dates must be much earlier. I remember standing with Bob Widlar and his constant side-kick, Bob Dobkin (who strove to look the same as Widlar, with his beard, etc.), outside a lecture hall at the Philadelphia ISSC (Widlar wasn't one to sit listening to papers being delivered), talking about bandgap references, and Widlar teased me with the assertion that one could make a bandgap from two transistors rather than the original circuit requiring three, but he wouldn't tell me how. Bandgaps were already mature by that time - the year had to be 1968 or the Spring of 1969. After the conference we met again at the airport, going down the same isle, except I was going to Boston and he was alone headed to Mexico.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Than frequency synthesizers? That's where Ron and I were working. That's the PLL work that resulted in digital tuning in radio and TV and the cell phone industry.

Tone detectors are for weenies ;-)

I figure I had a bandgap around 1966. I'm pouring thru my files for a schematic.

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

What ever happened to Signetics?

John

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Sounds like another vote for that book you've mentioned writing once or twice.

Robert

Apparently Philips bought them in '75 and killed off the name around '92.

Hello Jim,

He write in the text next to it: "These currents may be small (pA), but..." When I read that I got some goose pimples. I hope there is nothing like this in the engine controllers of our cars.

Regards, Joerg

You'd be surprised how many instances I know of. I just fixed one this past week.

It's particularly common amongst those users of HSpice-derived simulators (HSpice, SmartSpice, Cadence, Mentor...). Those simulators will find a solution without regard to how the currents got started OR NOT (algorithms based on CMOS _logic_, NOT _analog_).

You'll know you've been "Thompsonized" if I ask, "How does it start up" ?:-)

There are also those "designers" who rely on the rising edge-rate of the power supply voltage to start such loops or operate POR's (as we've discussed here this past week).

It keeps business coming in.

There's nothing sweeter than the voice of a COO/CEO begging, "Can you _please_ fix it this week?" ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
     It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

Hello Jim,

Considering the rather excellent book I was surprised Hans even suggested it.

The thing is they have to find you. I had come across many instances where a design could have been saved but they had no clue whom to call. There simply is no suitable consultants database anywhere. The ones there are such as the IEEE database aren't advertised and none of the engineers I asked had ever heard of it.

The most sad story was a client that never became one. They wanted me and one of my networking peers for something and then probably decided we would be too expensive. Tried it on their own. Later I met the former owner and talked shop over dinner. They had a huge mechanical/analog issue, or at least it seemed huge to them. Together with an ME I could have fixed it but by then the company hand been gone. Too late. Man, this guy could have retired and bought an island or something.

Regards, Joerg

[snip] [snip]

Yep. Word-of-mouth has its pros and cons :-(

I also run into a lot of "Cadence snobbery". Since I don't have Cadence tools they often just walk away. Too bad. I've seen some who got dumped by their boards/investors for failure to deliver.

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | It's what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

Hello Jim,

Thing is, the word has to find its way. The only path would be the occasional dinner talk between big shots about some problem, and one of them scratching his head and digging through his address book.

You can also see that in HW design. Not so much with respect to CAD tools but lab equipment. Once a guy said that my HP3577 is kind of old, ain't it? Turns out I had to schlepp it down there because their fancy new one couldn't do it. Then there was the 20+ year old Rhode&Schwarz UVM analog RF meter. The minute something modulated all their newfangled stuff went beserk but not my UVM.

The best was a top of the line spectrum analyzer that had cost a client the equivalent of a new Lexus. I hung up on it and came back with my comm receiver, also top of the line but these things are under $3k. Started at 9:00am, earned lots of frowns, found the noise source at

9:10am, determined a fix by 9:15am. They had set up a 10:00am meeting to discuss the strategy to chase that problem. So I went to the boss and told him we could still hold that meeting but there wasn't much to say about noise anymore, other than where it comes from and what we did to fix it. Dropped his jaw.

Regards, Joerg