This book provides readers with the necessary background information and advanced concepts in the field of circuits, at the crossroads between physics, mathematics and system theory. It covers various engineering subfields, such as electrical devices and circuits, and their electronic counterparts. Based on the idea that a modern university course should provide students with conceptual tools to understand the behavior of both linear and nonlinear circuits, to approach current problems posed by new, cutting-edge devices and to address future developments and challenges, the book places equal emphasis on linear and nonlinear, two-terminal and multi-terminal, as well as active and passive circuit components. The theory is developed systematically, starting with the simplest circuits (linear, time-invariant and resistive) and providing food for thought on nonlinear circuits, potential functions, linear algebra and geometrical interpretations of selected results. Contents are organizedinto a set of first-level and a set of advanced-level topics. The book is rich in examples and includes numerous solved problems. Further topics, such as signal processing and modeling of non-electric physical phenomena (e.g., hysteresis or biological oscillators) will be discussed in volume 2.

Autorentext

Mauro Parodi was appointed full professor of Basic Circuit Theory by the Engineering Faculty at the University of Genoa, Italy, in 1985. His scientific and teaching activity has been focusing on nonlinear circuits and systems theory, nonlinear modeling, and mathematical methods for treatment of experimental data. He is currently affiliated with the Department of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications Engineering and Naval Architecture at the University of Genoa, where he is teaching Mathematical Methods for Engineers and Applied Mathematical Modeling. Marco Storace received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 1998. He was appointed full professor by the same university in 2011 and is currently affiliated with the Department of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications Engineering and Naval Architecture. He was visiting professor at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. His main research focus is on nonlinear circuit theory and applications, with an emphasis on: circuit models of nonlinear systems such as systems with hysteresis and biological neurons; methods for piecewise linear approximation (and resulting circuit synthesis) of nonlinear systems; bifurcation analysis and nonlinear dynamics. He is currently teaching Basic Circuit Theory, Analog and Digital Filters, and Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Genoa. From 2008 to 2009 he served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS II, and is currently a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (TC-NCAS).