RF Microelectronics

Rating:
Summary: Finally, the Bible is born...
Review: A comphrehensive and easy-to-understand reference book for all levels of RF engineers.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to read
Review: As a hardware design engineer, I am currently pursuing an 'economy' 900 MHz frequency hopped data modem design. I have limited experience with >200 MHz designs and found this book very useful in conveying techniques used at these higher freqs. Straight.. to the point discussions.. in which every sentence actually says something and instills insight. I esp found the sections on freq synthesis and oscillators to be informative. It's also a good reference to break out for descriptions of all the modulation techniques. However, I am still searching for that one text that performs in-depth analysis on the ever present / nebulous 'carrier recovery' and 'bit recovery' blocks.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to read
Review: As a hardware design engineer, I am currently pursuing an 'economy' 900 MHz frequency hopped data modem design. I have limited experience with >200 MHz designs and found this book very useful in conveying techniques used at these higher freqs. Straight.. to the point discussions.. in which every sentence actually says something and instills insight. I esp found the sections on freq synthesis and oscillators to be informative. It's also a good reference to break out for descriptions of all the modulation techniques. However, I am still searching for that one text that performs in-depth analysis on the ever present / nebulous 'carrier recovery' and 'bit recovery' blocks.

Rating:
Summary: My impressions of RF Microelectronics by Behzad Razavi
Review: I have read large sections of this book and have been pleasantly surprised by the care and attention to detail taken with the description of RF design concepts as well as the mathematics used to clarify the issues.

The mathematics in particular seems to be free from errors, used only when necessary and does not contain such large jumps that the reader has to spend much effort trying to follow. All in all it is one of the best texts I have ever come across in this field of engineering

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I have read razavi's other books and those are really good (and he is a great teacher himself), however, i ended up disappointed picking this book up.

I have read many rf books and I need to say that rf is a hard subject to write on, but occasionally, there is a few good books. There are books that try to blast you with a lot of circuits, then try to explain what is going on without the math. However, they end up confusing the readers because everything seem so "magical" without explaining the concepts behind it. And there are books that give you a lot of hard-to-follow proves, and bore the readers with them. In the end, the readers do not learn much practical.

This book is leaning towards the former catagory.

Maybe I am new to the subject, but I found Modern communication circuits by smith useful. Instead of telling you all kinds of mixer for example, it gives you a few and explain them in details how and why they work with detailed math. And it is about just right, not to bore you too much

One more thing: don't take these review too seriously. Different people have different opinions about books. You should sit down in the library (I got it from library) and read a chapter or two before you buy it.




Rating:
Summary: OK book, but buyer beware
Review: This book covers a good deal of material in a very hot area. However, coverage is uneven with occasional mistakes. The book seems to be collected in a hurry some lecture notes. For example, the formula for the relationship between jitter and phase noise given at the beginning of the book is wrong (even units do not make sense) and is not the same for the expression given in the PLL chapter (it makes more sense).

I believe a good book on the field is yet to be written.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent RF circuit design book.
Review: This book will help analog circuit designers who always wanted to learn what is going on the RF front. Most of the books on RF circuits are outdated and uses only discrete solutions. Author has done a wonderful job of providing a systematic approach to RF design. The key thing I like about this book is what to watch for in RF designs compared to conventional analog designs

Rating:
Summary: Excellent RF circuit design book.
Review: This book will help analog circuit designers who always wanted to learn what is going on the RF front. Most of the books on RF circuits are outdated and uses only discrete solutions. Author has done a wonderful job of providing a systematic approach to RF design. The key thing I like about this book is what to watch for in RF designs compared to conventional analog designs

Rating:
Summary: Good introductory book (leaning over to the system side)
Review: This is a good introductory book for people who want to know more about RF. The layout of the book reminds me of a 20-year-old microwave engineering handbook, mixed with a standard digital wireless communications textbook.

This book is leaning over to the system side of RF design, not heavily covering practical circuit design topics. The chapters on LNA and mixer are surprisingly out-dated. The PLL chapter is fairly impressive, however, as I said, few practical circuit examples are included.

This book is almost 6 years old upon the writing of this review -- A second edition should be highly expected if the author is not too busy with other things.

Overall, will recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Content seemed great, but not explained in detail
Review: When I first bought this book, I was very hopeful. The book seemed to cover a lot of relevant material, in a concise fashion. When I tried to read it however, I found it a little bit too much on the concise side. I have read very complicated books with a lot of math before, and I could follow them easier than this "easy" writing style. Almost every subject is covered in other books in more detail and better. Sometimes it's nice to have a simpler book which is an introduction, and that is what I was hoping for, but this just didn't do it for me.I donated the book to the library,as I felt I would never really get too much out of it. This didn't stop me from buying Mr. Razavi's "Design of Analog CMOS ICs " and I liked his tutorial in the IEEE Phase Lock Loop book he edited.I know he can do a better job.