Future of analog electronics

[goldcoin]

Will there be jobs for analog circuit designers for the next, say, 10+ years or will there be only jobs to repair old analog circuits ? Will digital electronics take over all information processing in the near future as processors become more powerful and cheap ? Is analog electronics still worth learning ? What is the demand for analog specialists compared to that of digital designers (in your country) ?

[MosherIV]

Will there be jobs for analog circuit designers for the next, say, 10+ years

YES

If anything, the digital designers are having to learn all about high freq analogue behavior.

There are still lots of sub fields of electronics that are purely analogue eg PSUs (both linear and switch mode), RF to name but 2.

There will be fewer design jobs and they will/are becoming more specialised but then what electronics design job is not specialised. 

[ebclr]

While humans and nature are still on analog space, the jobs will be there

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

Digital is just a small subset of analog.

To quote Bob Widlar, analog guru, 'Any fool can count to one'.

I might be biased.

Jay_Diddy_B

[rx8pilot]

I thought I was learning digital electronics until I dealt with high speed digital and switch-mode power supplies. All digital electronics are analog, some more than others.

[CatalinaWOW]

If you are asking if there will be a need for people to design Sallen-Key filters, then yes, that part of the analog design world is going away.  Same story for stereo amps, though that won't ever go away completely.  Leaves an awful lot of room which isn't going away.  And remember that no matter how much magic there is in the digital black box, there will always be power in and a gazinta and a gazouta.  Those will forever be analog.

[PartialDischarge]

Id say that while there will be always need for analog, power , rf designers , what is really gaining traction is software. Just like electronics made mechanics less and less important(far reaching) , software is doing the same to electronics( look for example at SDR boards)

[Brumby]

I thought I was learning digital electronics until I dealt with high speed digital and switch-mode power supplies. All digital electronics are analog, some more than others.

Made me laugh...!


Digital is just a special case of analogue.

[D3f1ant]

RF is another special version of Analog

[Richard Crowley]

Analog is dying. 
At least that was my thought when I saw that some of my favorite chips (LM3914-15-16) are EOL (Lifetime Buy). I guess you can use a tiny 8-pin microcontroller and a few serial LED driver chips these days to implement the same function.

[Galenbo]

Will there be jobs for analog circuit designers for the next, say, 10+ years...

No. Being a circuit designer will require knowledge of a switched power source and a pwm driven output for an antenna motor.
The designer must also be able to include an rs232 port and the connections for a 2x16 LCD screen for his analog circuit.

[mrpackethead]

Yes, and it will pay exception ally well.

[b_force]

Analogue isn't dying at all. I am sorry, but than you don't get all circuits and parts that are needed to make digital circuits work. Things like filters, power supplies, interfaces, preamplifiers.
Our world is analogue, so you'll always need sensors, ADCs, DACs + the circuits to get a proper signal.
On top of that, switching is NOT equal to digital.
This myth is especially difficult in audio (Class D isn't digital!)
The definition of digital is only about a true or false state (1 or 0). PWM for example is also not a digital signal, but an analogue signal! (similar like AM and FM)

The repair industrie will get to a minimum I think. Fortunate in my opinion. I persoanlly don't see the point of fixing super cheap components with labour costs which are  1000 more than the price of the components. (I mean on a regular basis like a job, like televisions, not the quick fixes on expensive stuff) On the other hand I also feel like it's not a good thing to just waste everything. So at some point we need to find a solution to recycle or something.

[Zero999]

If you are asking if there will be a need for people to design Sallen-Key filters, then yes, that part of the analog design world is going away.

Analogue filtering is still often needed before the ADC, for example to prevent aliasing and to prevent large low frequency signals from swamping the signal of interest.

  Same story for stereo amps, though that won't ever go away completely.  Leaves an awful lot of room which isn't going away.  And remember that no matter how much magic there is in the digital black box, there will always be power in and a gazinta and a gazouta.  Those will forever be analog.
[/quote]

Analog is dying. 
At least that was my thought when I saw that some of my favorite chips (LM3914-15-16) are EOL (Lifetime Buy).

The same could be said about many digital ICs from the same era as the LM391x, such as many in the 74 series, so perhaps digital is also dying?

I guess you can use a tiny 8-pin microcontroller and a few serial LED driver chips these days to implement the same function.

I think what's more the case is ICs designed to perform a specific function are being replaced with programmable ICs.

It's certainly true that analogue information processing is dying but that's been the case since the start of digital computing.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

...
On top of that, switching is NOT equal to digital.
This myth is especially difficult in audio (Class D isn't digital!)
The definition of digital is only about a true or false state (1 or 0). PWM for example is also not a digital signal, but an analogue signal! (similar like AM and FM)
...

Not sure why Class D isn't digital nor why PWM isn't digital. Is it because of the filtering afterwards?
I was taught if you quantise the signal level it becomes a digital signal and if you have a signal that changes at regular intervals it is discrete.

[Brumby]

Here's a challenge that I'll put - and then run for cover......


Define "Digital"

[LordNobady]

Here's a challenge that I'll put - and then run for cover......


Define "Digital"

I have learned ( and agree with to a level ) that any signal with has a limited number of states is a digital signal.

This also means that the output of a PWM generator with a smith trigger hex inverter is analog while the PWM from a micro is digital.

This means that the output of a DAC is still digital. I will admit that this is from a signal and not schematic point of view.

runs for the closed safe place.  ( is still running for the rest of his life  )

[chris_leyson]

Define "Digital"

A set of sampled values rather than a continuous signal

[SimonR]

Not sure why Class D isn't digital nor why PWM isn't digital. Is it because of the filtering afterwards?

Because a Class D amplifier can be created using ONLY analogue componets.

Yes its output is either ON or OFF because it uses PWM but the anlogue output level is directly proportional to the width of the pulse. If that pulse width is controlled by an analogue input signal then its reolution is infinite, ie still analogue, which means the whole circuit is analogue.

If on the other hand you use a microprocessor to drive the input then the resolution of the pulse width becomes finte as the micro can only controll it in steps so the circuit becomes digital. But only to a point its still mostly analogue components because its now become a Digital to Analogue converter. 

[b_force]

...
On top of that, switching is NOT equal to digital.
This myth is especially difficult in audio (Class D isn't digital!)
The definition of digital is only about a true or false state (1 or 0). PWM for example is also not a digital signal, but an analogue signal! (similar like AM and FM)
...

Not sure why Class D isn't digital nor why PWM isn't digital. Is it because of the filtering afterwards?
I was taught if you quantise the signal level it becomes a digital signal and if you have a signal that changes at regular intervals it is discrete.

As far as I know and can find (via google and encyclopedia) is the definition of digital means a logical statement with only true or false.
Therefore it is also impossible to amplify a digital signal, because a true will not be a bigger true when amplified.
You can even work digitally with pen and paper, no electronics needed.
Digital also means that the signal has discrete components. The with of PWM can be a sinewave (music) and therefore is not discrete!

A practical explanation is that otherwise you can even call a switch, digital, which isn't true.
PWM is just a modulation technique. You could even make a PWM out of sine-waves or triangles, although very impractical.
PWM is analogue by definition. You can amplify it, correct the phase etc etc etc. At the end you will have a different signal than you started with.

I have no idea why, but for some reason a lot of people think that everything that looks like a square wave is equal of being digital.

[b_force]

Not sure why Class D isn't digital nor why PWM isn't digital. Is it because of the filtering afterwards?

Because a Class D amplifier can be created using ONLY analogue componets.

Yes its output is either ON or OFF because it uses PWM but the anlogue output level is directly proportional to the width of the pulse. If that pulse width is controlled by an analogue input signal then its reolution is infinite, ie still analogue, which means the whole circuit is analogue.

If on the other hand you use a microprocessor to drive the input then the resolution of the pulse width becomes finte as the micro can only controll it in steps so the circuit becomes digital. But only to a point its still mostly analogue components because its now become a Digital to Analogue converter.

Well, you can make a Class-D amplifier with digital components as well (to some extend).
The components don't say anything about the fact when something is analogue or digital.
The heart of every digital circuit are analogue components.
You can even build a digital circuit with only magnets and coils!

The best conclusion could be indeed that some signals are more digital than others, because of the discrete character.
Although a 24bit sine wave looks (and sounds!) much more analogue than digital to me.
A 2bit sine wave is far from that!

[alanb]

Is anyone working on Analogue computers other than for amusement?

[madires]

There's no digital world without the analog one, it's an abstraction layer which allows to solve some problems more easily and/or more efficiently, sometimes resulting in amazing performance (SDR for example). To be able to write proper code for a DSP you need to understand analog signals. Of course, you can simply copy stuff from others, but the outcome will be limited. It think the jobs are going to be specialized analog plus some basic digital stuff or specialized digital plus some basic analog stuff.

[SimonR]

Is anyone working on Analogue computers other than for amusement?

I'd like to know the answer to this as well.

I did hear of a project that went back to analogue computers as a solution, but I can't remember where I saw it now.

[MosherIV]

Is anyone working on Analogue computers other than for amusement?

I'd like to know the answer to this as well.

I do not know of any. I suspect not, since modern digital computers as so powerful and more flexible than analogue computers.

If any of you do not know what an Analogue Computer looks like :
http://www.tnmoc.org/explore/analogue-computing

alanb and SimonR, I see both of you are UK based, why not come along and have a look at them.