Bogatin’s Practical Guide to Prototype Breadboard and PCB Design
Eric Bogatin
Eric Bogatin claims that his “Practical Guide to Prototype Breadboard and PCB Design” ‘is for the casual user, not the power user.’ His 521-page, 25-chapter opus to electronic subsystem development is definitely more than an introduction, however. It is practical as claimed, but provides tremendous depth and detail on both the general practices involved in designing the printed circuit board (PCB) and the electrical system intended to function on it. He begins with high level discussions on PCB architecture and electrical design topics, then moves to detailed discussions of a variety of PCB challenges including entire chapters on topics like ‘Design for Bring Up.’ In addition, PCB topics like trace routing and current handling, Bogatin devotes a significant portion to good component selection and system design processes. Throughout the book, the reader has the impression of having a conversation with a very experienced and eagerly helpful colleague that has seen it all before.
This is a valuable resource for the PCB designers among Microwave Journal’s readership (almost all of us), but there are two important limitations. First is that the book is so expansive it can be difficult to absorb the information in a timely manner. There are many great tips, but it wasn’t clear how to extract them without reading through the entire book. Second, it is targeted primarily toward analog or high frequency system designers. The theory is couched in the terms of signal integrity and analog design rather than more familiar microwave terms (e.g. rise time degradation rather than lowpass filtering). For the most part this is a helpful perspective rather than distracting. If you have space for one book on PCB design on your shelf, “Practical Guide to Prototype Breadboard and PCB Design” is recommended.
Reviewed by: Doug Jorgesen
ISBN 13: 9781630819620
Hardcover: $139
Digital download and online: $119
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