In RF Circuit Design, 2nd ed., John Blyler and Cheryl Ajluni have updated Chris Bowick’s 1982 edition to accommodate changes that have occurred over the last 26 years. Part handbook and part textbook, the book introduces basic concepts but quickly relates them to real-world components like thin-film resistors, chip and ceramic capacitors, chip inductors, and toroidal core inductors. Sample data sheets throughout the book keep the theory grounded in real-world engineering concerns. Topics covered include resonant circuits, filters, impedance matching, small-signal and power-amplifier design, and RF front-end design.

A significant addition to the second edition is a chapter on RF design tools that covers schematic capture, place and route, simulation, and verification. The chapter describes various flavors of hardware description languages, including VHDL-RF/MW—the HDL extension that supports RF and microwave designs with extensions that support finite-element modeling (FEM), frequency-domain modeling, nonlumped circuit elements, and parasitics.

The RF design tools chapter provides design examples using tools like the Mathworks’ Matlab/RF Toolbox, Agilent Technologies’ Advanced Design System (ADS), Mentor Graphics’ Board Station RE placement-and-routing tool and Eldo RF simulator, Cadence Design Systems’ RF Design Methodology kit, FTL Systems’ Auriga modeling and verification tool, and Applied Wave Research’s Visual System Simulator (VSS). In addition, the chapter describes the RF design flow at foundry UMC, presents RFIC simulation examples involving a WLAN receiver and a downconverter, and presents a case study of a system-level transceiver design.

One thing this new edition doesn’t cover is the last 26 years’ worth of innovations in the RF and microwave instrumentation that you’ll need to take advantage of to make sure your RF designs work. For that, you’ll need to maintain your subscription to Test & Measurement World. (Disclosure: The book’s publisher is owned by T&MW’s parent company.)