Computer Electronics: Electronic Components and Analog Electronic Devices (KPI, 2011)
A 308-page lecture text covering semiconductor device physics, discrete analog stages, operational amplifiers, filters, oscillators, rectifiers, and regulators. Its circuit mechanisms remain useful, while device selection and performance limits require current manufacturer documentation.
A. O. Novatskyi's first computer-electronics volume moves from device physics to complete analog functions. Its strongest contribution is causal continuity: carrier motion explains a device characteristic; the characteristic constrains bias and small-signal behavior; feedback and frequency dependence then determine what a practical circuit can reproduce.
Coverage #
| Lecture | Printed pages | Durable subject |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11–61 | Semiconductor bands, intrinsic and doped material, the p–n junction, rectification, breakdown, temperature and capacitance, diode families |
| 2 | 62–96 | BJT action, connection modes, output characteristics, load lines, JFET and insulated-gate FET behavior |
| 3 | 97–135 | Thyristors, TRIACs, emitters and photodetectors, optocouplers, integrated-circuit construction, lasers |
| 4 | 136–212 | Amplifier metrics, feedback topologies, biasing, common-emitter/source stages, followers, differential stages |
| 5 | 213–254 | Op-amp parameters and inverting, non-inverting, summing, differential, integrating and differentiating configurations; power output stages |
| 6 | 255–305 | Active filters, sinusoidal oscillators, rectifiers, smoothing filters, and voltage stabilization |
The text is especially good at connecting static curves to circuit operation. A load line is not decorative: it is the simultaneous solution of the nonlinear device and the linear external circuit. Bias establishes the quiescent point so an input can move in both directions without clipping. Negative feedback trades raw gain for controlled closed-loop gain, bandwidth, and lower distortion, while also creating a stability problem once phase lag accumulates.
What GTK preserves #
GTK retains the device-to-circuit reasoning, the distinction between large-signal switching and small-signal amplification, the four feedback connection families, op-amp building blocks, and the energy path through rectifier, reservoir, regulator, and load. The course's named Soviet-era parts are not retained as recommended components. Modern entries use datasheet quantities such as safe operating area, gain-bandwidth product, phase margin, slew rate, common-mode range, output swing, thermal resistance, and reverse-recovery behavior.
Limits #
- The semiconductor physics is qualitative and sometimes uses legacy terminology. It is sufficient for circuit intuition, not process design or modern device simulation.
- Frequency, noise, distortion, thermal, layout, and protection constraints receive less attention than they require in current hardware.
- Component examples and claims about prevailing integration technologies reflect 2011.
- The filter treatment is classical low-order analog design; switched-capacitor, fully differential, and integrated continuous-time implementations are outside its scope.
Visual audit #
All 308 pages were reviewed as rendered pages. The information-bearing figures fall into four groups: energy-band and junction-field drawings; device symbols and families of I–V curves; transistor load lines and amplifier schematics; and op-amp/filter/power-supply signal paths. The scans are legible but dense, use symbol conventions tied to the source, and often place several related curves across multiple pages.
GTK therefore redraws the load-bearing abstractions as theme-aware Mermaid or SVG diagrams: junction equilibrium versus bias, device operating regions, bias-to-small-signal flow, feedback loop, op-amp nonideal model, filter pole/zero behavior, and rectifier–reservoir–regulator energy path. The original figures are not copied because clean redraws preserve the topology and causal relationship more clearly at article width. Catalogue-like symbol sheets, laser construction variants, and historical IC cross-sections are omitted where they add no reusable design rule. Every retained topology, polarity, terminal name, and curve direction was checked against the adjacent source explanation and current manufacturer tutorials.