Book excerpt: As the frequency of communication systems increases and the dimensions of transistors are reduced, more and more stringent performance requirements are placed on analog circuits. This is a trend that is bound to continue for the foreseeable future and while it does, understanding performance trade-offs will constitute a vital part of the analog design process. It is the insight and intuition obtained from a fundamental understanding of performance conflicts and trade-offs, that ultimately provides the designer with the basic tools necessary for effective and creative analog design. Trade-offs in Analog Circuit Design, which is devoted to the understanding of trade-offs in analog design, is quite unique in that it draws together fundamental material from, and identifies interrelationships within, a number of key analog circuits. The book covers ten subject areas: Design methodology, Technology, General Performance, Filters, Switched Circuits, Oscillators, Data Converters, Transceivers, Neural Processing, and Analog CAD. Within these subject areas it deals with a wide diversity of trade-offs ranging from frequency-dynamic range and power, gain-bandwidth, speed-dynamic range and phase noise, to tradeoffs in design for manufacture and IC layout. The book has by far transcended its original scope and has become both a designer's companion as well as a graduate textbook. An important feature of this book is that it promotes an intuitive approach to understanding analog circuits by explaining fundamental relationships and, in many cases, providing practical illustrative examples to demonstrate the inherent basic interrelationships and trade-offs. Trade-offs in Analog Circuit Design draws together 34 contributions from some of the world's most eminent analog circuits-and-systems designers to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive text devoted to a very important and timely approach to analog circuit design.