The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Nonlinear Circuits and Systems

Most engineering education focusses on linear phenomena and linear methods of analysis. Many practical systems, such as power converters, inherently exploit nonlinearity; others, such as data converters, suffer degraded performance due to nonlinearities. As electronics technology is pushed to its physical limits, the need to appreciate how to use and how to mitigate nonlinearity is growing. This talk will explain basic concepts in nonlinear circuits and systems and show how an appreciation of nonlinearity can lead to insights and ultimately innovative circuits and systems solutions in an increasing range of application domains.