Microwave Journal
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The Book End

November 1, 1998

The Book End

The RF and Microwave Circuit Design Cookbook

Stephen A. Maas
Artech House Inc.
267 pages; $65, £52

With the vast majority of engineers challenged to produce effective hardware designs in record time, it is refreshing to pick up a book that is aimed at these individuals and their need for efficient practical knowledge. This text is designed as a cookbook for newly trained design engineers who are unfamiliar with many practical design techniques.

Chapters 1 and 2 present the basic theory of microwave circuits and circuit elements, and solid-state devices. The remaining chapters cover various microwave circuits and structures and follow a similar outline: The first section covers basic circuit theory, followed by sections describing the design of individual circuits. Each circuit description is of a single-device version and contains subsections on circuit characteristics, properties, description, design, variations and cautions. The design procedure is of a specific circuit, the variation subsection presents useful modifications of the circuit and the cautions subsection covers the pitfalls in the design process or circuit implementation.

Chapter 3 describes diode mixers. Details are given for single-balanced 180° rat race and single-balanced 90° mixers, and double-balanced ring, horseshoe balun and star mixers. Monolithic mixers are also described. Chapter 4 deals with diode frequency multipliers, describing single- and double-balanced doubler circuits and varactor and step-recovery diode multipliers. Chapter 5 discusses other diode circuits, such as detectors and modulators.

Chapter 6 presents active mixers using both bipolar transistors and FETs. Chapter 7 describes FET resistive mixers, which are designed primarily for low distortion applications. The final chapter discusses active frequency multipliers.

It seems strange to describe a book as efficient. However, in this text, each subject is presented with just enough theory to allow the reader to understand its operation, and easy-to-grasp circuit examples are offered that serve as practical examples from which to build.

To order this book, contact:
Artech House Inc.,
685 Canton St.,
Norwood, MA 02062
(781) 769-9750, ext. 4002; or

Portland House,
Stag Place, London
SW1E 5XA, UK
+44 (0) 171 973 8077.