A new textbook written by Sundaram Natarajan pulls together his almost 40 years' experience in teaching to successfully lead engineering students through the microelectronics design process.

Primarily targeted to Electrical and Computer Engineering students, the textbook, Microelectronics: Analysis and Design (Tata McGraw-Hill, 2005), goes beyond the theory of analysis and design.

"Two distinguishing characteristics of the text are its extensive design discussions and the state-of-the-art content," says P.K. Rajan, chairperson of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "This book will serve the needs of Electrical Engineering students and practitioners for many years to come."

Reviewers used words including "realistic, less complicated, ingenious and unique" to describe Natarajan's approach to the instruction of microelectronics, the branch of electronics that deals with miniature components and the understanding of design concepts and circuits. He says the biggest challenges in teaching the subject is that texts do not provide enough design problems.

"New ABET2000 requirements emphasize design," says Natarajan. "Therefore, I decided to emphasize the design aspects in my book."

With the text, Natarajan provides students with the information they need to design a system, component or process to meet the desired goals. The textbook includes worked out examples and exercise problems and answers within the text, plus addresses another challenge, the integration of PSPICE, a powerful simulation program for examining the performance of all parts of a circuit.

Natarajan, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been teaching in the areas of electrical circuits, electronics, and analog signal processing for more than 37 years. He has conducted research in electronics, active filters and signal processing and has authored more than 50 research publications in various journals and conferences. Natarajan has authored a previous textbook, Theory and Design of Linear Active Networks, published by McGraw-Hill. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Madras, a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a doctorate from Concordia University in Montreal.

A visual walkthrough of a chapter in his recent book is available at highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070590966/information_center_view0/visual_walkthrough.html.