Contrary to many who focus on the algebraic developments without guiding the reader through the actual physical meaning of these developments, this book contributes to the establishment of a clear and solid mental image. I especially appreciated the treatment of inductance in chapter 6, as well as the use of field-solver images throughout the book, which help a great deal in visualizing the electromagnetic effects.

Even though it tackles an admitedly difficult subject, the book is actually very easy to read. It explains modern design practices with great clarity. In all honesty, I read it from cover to cover like a good novel! and, I might add, there are more than a few things that it finally helped me fully understand.


A book that closes the loop between theory and practice   October 15, 2003
charles grasso (Louisville, CO United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I was very pleased with this book. Not only does it cover a very useful area of design, it is very well written and very clear its approach to complex engineering. Although there are other books that cover similar material, I found this book to have a clear consise and pleasing delivery. I especially enjoyed that the author focused first on the basis of the problem - I liked the chapter on Inductance - and then folded the concepts into transmission lines. All the "controversial" elements are addessed from partial inductance to differential signalling. I have read many books on this subject and this one fits a nice niche between the heavy theoretical ( such as Clayton Pauls Tranmission Line)
to the very basic.

Overall - a very nice addition to anyones shelf!


Excellent book for establishing fundamentals of SI   December 6, 2006
Obaid Haqqi (Odenton, MD USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have read Black Magic by Johnson and believe that Bogatin's book is superior. I bought this book as a beginner hardware engineer and this book does a wonderful job of explaining and integrating different concepts I learned as an undergrad. Universities don't stress SI enough (even at my school, electromagnetics was optional), and Bogatin's book does an great job of integrating and enhancing what one is taught at the unversity level.
The reason I prefer this book over Black Magic is that it puts more effort into explaining the fundamentals of Signal Integrity (what causes it, how to fix, etc) rather than going in depth into the mathematical theory and calculations behind the phenomena. As engineers, we have computer programs that do much of this calculating for us and we need to understand "rules of thumb" that will help us design/test better in the future.
I believe this book is an excellent addition into any hardware engineer's library, as well as for students intersted in hardware design/test as a career.


Practical advice with just enough theory   November 3, 2006
Experienced circuit designer (Bellevue, WA United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I had the excellent book High-Speed Digital Design A Handbook of Black Magic by Johnson and Graham but went ahead and bought this book. I'm glad I did. The two books cover the same subject quite differently and I think they are complementary.
Signal Integrity Simplified has many great layout/note tidbits mentioned by other reviewers but the one thing I really liked is that below each formula is an explaination of each variable in the formula, even if you should already know what the variable is from previous formulas and text. This makes it a good reference that doesn't have to be read linearly. In addition, the author gives an example of when each esoteric formula applies and I found myself saying over and over, "Oh, I do have that case in my design." In other words, the examples were exactly what layout or frequency range I was dealing with.
"Everyone" knows there are 3 basic circuit elements: resistors, capacitors, and inductors. But this book refers to the fourth, the transmission line. Much of the book is dedicated to this element, as it should be for a signal integrity book.
This book focuses on 100 Mhz to 4 Ghz designs. Any modern digital signal has rising/falling edge frequency components in that range. If you are doing board design, don't let the price scare you away, you need this or one of the other signal integrity books.
Geez, I sound like one of those glowing fake reviews but I can assure you I've no interest in the sales of this book and have been doing real circuit design for 25 years.