How Can I Improve My Analog Design Skills for ADCs, Filters, PLLs, and Analog Front Ends?

What is the best way to be better in analog design? I don’t have any problem with digital design at all. I know my gates and verilog very well but when it comes to analog design, boy o boy... I just can’t seem to get my head around it.
Looks to me like digital design is way easier compared to digital. The word “analog” has now become a scare word and seeing the back cover of an analog design book gives me chills.
Help me please. I want to work as a digital IC design engineer but I want to know analog too. Adc, filters, PLLs, analog front ends, that’s stuff. I want to understand those too.
I believe it’ll make me a better digital engineer. I can’t survive as an analog designer though. Not good for my health.

Jake,I understand your sentiments. Digital design is way easier than analog. Unfortunately as clock speeds increase, analog considerations are finding their way more and more into digital design so your desire to understand analog is good.
You don't say how much you know already so I'll start you off with this tutorials website. These are good for getting an understanding of the basics and/or refreshing what you may have learned in school.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/One thing that will help your understanding is a good simulator. My favorite is LTSpice. This is a free download and is good enough that it is used extensively by the engineers where I work.
https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.htmlI would be remiss if I didn't point out that there is no substitute for hands-on experimentation but the tutorials and simulation should help you get started.

Let us know if you have more questions.

Good digital design isn't that easy, bad analog design is.There is a lot more in the analog domain to cover, as Elizabeth said, with digital working in the 10s of GHz, you are dealing with RF design, which is a major subset of the analog world. All of the ICs working in the digital domain were designed by analog engineers.A young engineer at a business I worked at avoided analog design at University, most of the work he did was in the digital domain. Alas, there came a time when he had to add sensors and sensor processing to his digital systems. He used LT Spice to simulate his design, but it failed to work in real life.I looked over the schematics, and found he had not allowed for variations in transistor Beta, and had put capacitors directly across the output of op amps. He went back and did a part time one year course at Univesity which was being offered to graduates who wanted to learn about and hone their analog skills.There are plenty of books, you tube tutorials, and the like that will help. It depends on what you are wanting to acheive. If you have something specific in mind in can help to narrow your focus, but expect to have to learn some of the basics along the way, whatever you want to do. An ability with maths helps. The topics you mention are often covered in application notes and tutorials by the manufacturers of the parts, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments come to mind.The topic has come up previously in this forum as well, the ARRL handook and The Art of Electonics are two books that have featured in the replies.I wish you well in your endeavours,cheers,Richard

In reading recent technical press, I conclude: Tech now means mostly software development. Digital hardware is an expansion of skills. Analog hardware is exotic. Radio and electromagnetics are magic.I recommend you build some simple analog projects. Heathkit offers an AM radio kit. Build one and figure out why they did what they did. Think about the analog-ness of your digital work: Why are bypass capacitors put where they are put and their values are what they are? Why is an open CMOS input a logical "sometimes"? What are reflections on PCB traces?Do you have a particular analog project you'd like to build? Study it until you understand, even if this takes a while, then build it. Come back to us with questions. I learned analog design from The Radio Amateur's Handbook (predecessor to ARRL Handbook), datasheets, application notes, and building projects alone, without any classes. You can too.
 

The correct question is: why is digital electronics so simple? In ancient times, when digital electronics did not exist but only analog electronics, the designers had to calculate all the working points of the components by hand. There were no simulators. And therefore the design of an electrical circuit was very complicated. Today, with electronic simulators, design has become much simpler. Analog electronics is complicated precisely by the infinite number of electrical voltages that a component can assume. With digital electronics this does not happen because, as you know, there are only two voltage levels.CheersGiovanni

Digital is an abstraction. You dont need to know how the transistors work. You dont need currents or voltages. Just 0's and 1's.Analog is about currents, voltages and frequencies. And these three alone, combined with the non linear characteristics of a real transistor is enough learning material for a decade. MobdroAnalog is a beast and it's beautiful. Well worth the time spent learning. VidMate