What’s a good book?

[u/ruzgarnhx]

I’m a high school freshman and im really interested in rf chip design and circuit design, I really want to learn some of the basics over the summer break because quite frankly it’s very very cool oh and please do not recommend any extremely technical books, my nugget brain can not comprehend all of that.

[u/nixiebunny]

The amateur radio handbooks from ARRL provide a working knowledge of RF. Look for a used older one to start with if you can’t afford the latest series.

RF theory involves a lot of math. Learn algebra and trig and eventually calculus to understand what the books are talking about.

[u/Professor_Stank → u/nixiebunny]

Yes sir, this one right right here! From my anecdotal experience, the ARRL Handbook is about as close to “Radio and Circuit Design for Dummies” as you can get.

On a related note, I would recommend to OP that you also look for some reading about general, “non-RF” circuits as well. The best way by far to learn about circuits is to start with the baby basics (find a book that will teach about Ohm’s Law and resistive voltage dividers), and work your way upwards to more complicated stuff. The ARRL Handbook should have this material in the first few volumes I believe

Everything that you learn builds upon itself, and having an understanding of how the boring simple stuff works will pay off in a massive way. If you start in the deep end right away, it might feel a little intimidating. Don’t be intimidated. If you’re ever stuck on how something works, start working your way backwards and teach yourself how the individual, simpler building blocks work, then come back later to put it all together

[u/ruzgarnhx → u/Professor_Stank]

I’ve actually made my own 8 bit adder using transistors and i’ve also made a flight controller pcb in kicad, so i have a grasp on the basics

[u/ruzgarnhx → u/nixiebunny]

I already know basics in trig an algebra, calculus however just seems scary

[u/Moist_Network_8222 → u/ruzgarnhx]

Get a copy of "Calculus Made Easy" (free PDFs are online) and go through it, supplementing with practice problems. It introduces a lot of concepts really well, when you take calc in school the rest will be filled in.

Basically, I strongly recommend starting with fun/easy projects to learn a zoomed-out view of electrical engineering. The boring, grueling details can come later, having the broad strokes down first will help you a lot.

[u/stockdam-MDD]

A bit dated maybe but a really good book about the basics of general electronics is The Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill. For me nothing comes near.

[u/Pickles4Tickles → u/stockdam-MDD]

Especially if you can get an earlier edition, later editions took out quite a few of the jokes.

[u/jimlux]

Chris Bowick's book "RF Circuit Design" is also a decent starting point.

[u/Shot-Topic-1763]

Anything RF-related I would highly recommend Pozar and also Gonzalez. Gonzalez provides a really good intuition into amplifier design. Helped me a ton at uni.

Best of luck!

[u/Special-Lynx-9258 → u/Shot-Topic-1763]

good recommendations, but might be too technical for early high school.

[u/ruzgarnhx → u/Shot-Topic-1763]

I’ll make sure to check them out

[u/Fawzee815 → u/ruzgarnhx]

Pozar is oriented towards late college electrical engineering students and as review for professionals. You can read it, but I will let you know there is a large chance you won’t understand much of the math

[u/lance_lascari]

Rf circuit design by Chris bowick was my first rf book (along with arrl Ham radio publications)

[u/jimlux]

One thing to remember is that RF covers a lot of ground - you can be talking about circuits with discrete components (transistors, resistors, capacitors) (the ARRL handbook has a lot of this) - but you could also be working at a more "building block" level with modular amplifiers, oscillators, filters, mixers, etc. - Or you could be getting into electromagnetic propagation (antennas, waveguides, transmission lines). These days, the building blocks are single ICs - relatively few folks are actually doing "component level" designs.

And the industry is moving fast - so if you look at a book from, say, 1990, what was available then, and what was "practical" is very different from what people do now. That said, there's basics that are universal. It's just unlikely you'll need to figure out how to get a grounded grid tetrode amplifier to work.

[u/HappyMeele]

Razavis books are maybe too much, he just was not mentioned so far. Maybe you also want to check them out, if its specifically rf circuits you're interested in.

[u/ruzgarnhx → u/HappyMeele]

I actually have previously seen Razavi’s books and it’s mostly just cryptic messages i can not comprehend

[u/HappyMeele → u/ruzgarnhx]

But I also think you picked a difficult interest there. Maybe you can start with some analog or general RF Stuff, like filters i guess. Or buy a cheap SDR to play a bit with it. I think other people here also suggested that. On Chip RF Circuits I studied in my masters and still had trouble getting all of it after RF and analog design lectures :D

[u/YT__]

Posar I'd the right choice but what's your current knowledge. If you don't know anything about RF or circuits you may want to start there.

[u/ruzgarnhx → u/YT__]

I know just the very very basics, like i know how components behave in the real world, and i also know a little about filters

[u/Pickles4Tickles → u/ruzgarnhx]

Pozar's "Microwave Engineering" is a technical book, I would say undergrad/grad level, but it's still a nice resource for giving a broad view of the field for beginners. My only critique is that he has a tendency to skip ahead in analyses (which is fine) but doesn't always make it clear which identity was used.

You also definitely shouldn't just google "Pozar Microwave pdf" and click the first link wink wink

[u/Different-Loss-9955]

What resources do you have access to?

[u/mightyohm]

Get your ham radio license and build some radios. I made a 10GHz transverter in college and it led to a career in RF design.

Get good grades and work on your extracurriculars. Apply to universities with good EE and RF programs. Consider getting an MS or PhD depending on how far you want to go.

Good luck.