The book is a review of essential skills that an entry-level or experienced engineer must be able to demonstrate on a job interview and perform when hired. It will help engineers prepare for interviews by demonstrating application of basic principles to practical problems. Hiring managers will find the book useful because it defines a common ground between the student's academic background and the company's product or technology-specific needs, thereby allowing managers to minimize their risk when making hiring decisions.

Ten Essential Skills contains a series of "How to" chapters. Each chapter realizes a goal, such as designing an active filter or designing a discrete servo. The primary value of these chapters, however, is that they apply engineering fundamentals to practical problems. The book is a handy reference for engineers in their first years on the job.

• Enables recent graduates in engineering to succeed in challenging technical interviews
• Written in an intuitive, easy-to-follow style for the benefit of busy students and employers
• Book focuses on the intersection between company-specific knowledge and engineering fundamentals
• Companion website includes interview practice problems and advanced material

Foreword by fred harris

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Reviewers

Note to Instructors

Chapter 1       How to Design Resistive Circuits

1.1              Design of a Resistive Thevenin Source

1.2              Design of a Coupling Circuit

1.3              Design of a Pi Attenuator

Problems

References

Chapter 2       How to Prevent a Power Transistor from Overheating

2.1       Electrical Model for Heat Transfer

2.2       Using Manufacturer’s Data for Thermal Analysis

2.3       Forced-Air Cooling

2.4       Dynamic Response of a Thermal System

Problems

References

Chapter 3       How to Analyze a Circuit

3.1       Frequency Response of a Transfer Function

3.2       Frequency Response and Impedance of Simple Circuits

3.3       Frequency Response for Ladder Networks

3.4       Generalized Technique for Determining Frequency Response 

Problems

References

Chapter 4       How to Use Statistics to Ensure a Manufacturable Design

4.1       Independent Component Failures

4.2       Using the Gaussian Distribution

4.3       Setting a Manufacturing Test Limit

4.4       Procuring a Custom Component

Problems

References

Chapter 5       How to Design a Feedback Control System

5.1       Intuitive Description of a Control System

5.2       Review of Control System Operation

5.3       Performance of Control Systems

5.4       First Order Control System Design

5.5       Second Order Control System Design

5.6       Circuit Realization of a Second-Order Control System

5.7       First-Order Discrete Control System

Problems

References

Chapter 6       How to Work with Op-Amp Circuits

6.1       The Ideal Op-Amp

6.2       Practical Op-Amps

6.2.1    Effect of Input Offset Voltage

6.2.2    Noise Contribution from Op-Amp Circuits

6.2.3    Dynamic Characteristics of Op-Amp Circuits

6.2.4    Effect of Capacitive Loading

6.2.5    A Nagging Issue

Problems

References

Chapter 7       How to Design Analog Filters

7.1       Passive vs. Active Filters

7.2       The Lowpass RC Filter

7.3       Filter Response Characteristics

7.4       Specification of Filter Type

7.5       Generalized Filter Design Procedure

7.6       Design of Active Lowpass Filters

7.7       Design of Passive RF Filters

Problems

References

Chapter 8       How to Design Digital Filters

8.1       Review of Sampling

8.2       Using the Z-Transform to Determine the Transfer Function and Frequency Response of Digital Filters

8.3       FIR and IIR Digital Filters

8.3.1    FIR Filters

8.3.2    IIR Filters

8.3.3    Comparisons between FIR and IIR Filters

8.4       Design of Simple and Practical Digital Filters

8.4.1    Averaging Lowpass FIR Filter

8.4.2    Lowpass FIR/IIR Filter

Problems

References

Chapter 9       How to Work with RF Signals

9.1       Energy Transfer

9.2       Signal Reflections

9.3       Effect of Signal Reflections on Digital Signals

9.4       Effect of Signal Reflections on Narrowband Signals

9.5       The Smith Chart

9.6       Using the Smith Chart to Display Impedance vs. Frequency

9.7       Final Comments Regarding the Smith Chart

Problems

References

Chapter 10     Getting a Job – Keeping a Job – Enjoying Your Work

10.1     Getting a Job

10.1.1  Getting an Interview

10.1.2  Preparing for an Interview

10.1.3  The Interview

10.1.4  Selecting the Right Offer

10.2     Keeping a Job

10.2.1  The First Year

10.2.2  After the First Year

10.3     Enjoying Your Work

Afterword

Index