James Bryant
Consultant Engineer - Analog Electronics
Consulting

For almost 30 years I was Head of European Applications at Analog Devices and before that was the Applications Manager at Plessey Semiconductors. I have wide experience in the design and, especially, troubleshooting of precision analog and RF circuitry. I find that my degree in Philosophy and Physics is an aid in both heuristics (problem-solving) and in appreciating the mechanisms involved in analog measurements. Understanding the physical mechanisms and the logical operations involved in sensors and precision circuitry is of great assistance in trouble-shooting them.

I have always maintained that a valid restatement of Murphy's Law1 is that the laws of physics always work, whether you are expecting them to or not. Writing Analog Devices' "Rarely Asked Questions" column has brought me many interesting letters from my readers sending me examples of situations where this is abundantly true - and this vicarious experience has increased my ability to determine the unexpected causes of arcane problems.

Please contact me if you have problems with precision analog and sensor circuitry which you would like me to investigate, or if you require advice on how to tackle a project in high-performance analog electronics.

1 "What can go wrong - will go wrong."

For a clearer view of the diagram on the left visit the XKCD website