As Razavi frequently states in his legendary YouTube lectures (which serve as an excellent companion to the text), "If you cannot explain the frequency response of a simple common-source stage, you have no business designing a GHz transceiver."
Most introductory textbooks present circuits as static, textbook-perfect entities. Razavi, however, introduces the concept of non-idealities from the very first page of his advanced chapters. In Electronics 2, the student moves from the first course’s focus on DC biasing and small-signal models to the gritty reality of: behzad razavi electronics 2
Always state the operating assumption before writing an equation. Is the transistor in saturation? Is the signal swing small enough that gm is constant? Write "Assumption: M1 in saturation" at the top of every problem. As Razavi frequently states in his legendary YouTube
And when a young intern once asked her, “What’s the best way to learn analog design?” Sara smiled and handed her the dark-covered book. Is the transistor in saturation
: Using the "half-circuit" concept to simplify symmetric differential pairs into manageable single-ended circuits. 2. Frequency Response
In a cramped dorm room lit by the cold blue glow of a simulation screen, third-year electrical engineering student Sara groaned. On her desk lay a beast she had been wrestling for three days: a multi-stage CMOS amplifier. It oscillated, distorted, and hissed like an angry cat. Her professor’s slides offered only tidy equations and cheerful assumptions. Reality was not tidy.