Teaching of Transistor Circuit Design Using a Digital Computer

The availability of rapid on-line computational facilities has forced a major revision of our course on multistage transistor amplifiers. Approximate methods of analysis are now no longer helpful: the exact gain and bandwidth can be readily calculated on a computer. However, previously derived approximate relations for bandwidth can be inverted to provide excellent first-order design equations. The resulting first-cut design can then be checked on a computer and modified, if necessary, to more closely meet the design specifications. By using a time-shared computer facility (APL) 1 we have been able for the first time to involve the students in a meaningful and exciting way in the design of sophisticated multistage transistor amplifiers.