RF Resource Library
Everything worth reading in RF, in the order worth reading it.
A working engineer’s reading list for RF and microwave engineering — lecture courses, vendor notes, textbooks, a MATLAB path and the free solvers that will run on your own laptop. Each entry says who published it and why it is here.
Start Here
Electromagnetics from the top down — what the field is for, before the algebra arrives.
- VideoRF
Motivation for EM Engineers(opens in a new tab)
What electromagnetics actually built, and why the subject is worth the effort it asks for.
YouTube
- WebsiteRFAntenna
Maxwell's Equations(opens in a new tab)
The four equations underneath all of this, one page each, in integral and differential form.
maxwells-equations.com
- WebsiteElectronics
Electronics Tutorials(opens in a new tab)
Circuit and EM fundamentals explained plainly. The place to go when a term in a lecture went past you.
Electronics Tutorials
- VideoRF
Introduction to RF Power Amplifiers(opens in a new tab)
Prof. Ali Hajimiri on what a power amplifier has to do and which of its specifications fight each other.
Ali Hajimiri · YouTube
- Website
TED Talks(opens in a new tab)
Wider-angle talks on science and engineering, for the weeks when the problem set wins.
TED
Online Study Resources
Courses, lecture series and working references that go deeper than any one programme can.
- CoursePCBEMI/EMCRF
SIJ University(opens in a new tab)
Signal Integrity Journal's structured learning library — signal integrity and RF, taught by the people who publish on it.
Signal Integrity Journal
- WebsiteElectronicsSemiconductor
Intuitions for Analog Circuits(opens in a new tab)
Prof. Ali Sheikholeslami's conceptual explanations. Builds the intuition that the formulae are shorthand for.
University of Toronto
- WebsiteAntenna
Antenna Theory(opens in a new tab)
A complete working reference on antenna parameters, types and measurement. Worth a bookmark.
antenna-theory.com
- CoursePCB
MIT PCB Design Class(opens in a new tab)
MIT's intensive PCB design class, materials in the open — the art and the engineering of a board.
MIT
- VideoAntennaSimulation
Design of Dielectric Metasurfaces(opens in a new tab)
A research talk on metasurface design and optimisation.
Microsoft Research
- PlaylistRF
FMCW Radar — Full Playlist(opens in a new tab)
Radar fundamentals worked through end to end, with the weight on FMCW systems.
YouTube
- VideoRF
What Is a Mixer?(opens in a new tab)
How a mixer works and what its specification sheet is really telling you.
YouTube
Reference Notes & Application Notes
The vendor notes and articles worth reading in full, linked to the publisher's copy — which is the one that stays current.
- Application NoteRF
AN1275: Impedance Matching Network Architectures(opens in a new tab)
Two-element L, three-element Pi and T, and four-element wideband networks, with worked numerical examples. The clearest free treatment of matching topologies there is.
Silicon Labs
- Application NoteRFElectronics
MT-086: Fundamentals of Phase-Locked Loops(opens in a new tab)
Walt Kester's PLL tutorial: phase detector, charge pump, loop filter, VCO and divider as one feedback system, then phase noise and the loop-bandwidth trade.
Analog Devices
- Application NoteRF
Mixer Basics Primer(opens in a new tab)
Where a diode mixer's conversion loss actually goes, and why double-balanced beats triple-balanced on it.
Marki Microwave
- ArticleRF
Understanding Mixers and Their Parameters(opens in a new tab)
The same ground as a magazine feature: conversion loss, isolation, compression and what the numbers mean when you are choosing a part.
Microwaves & RF
YouTube Channels Worth Following
Channels that teach rather than demonstrate — subscribe to these and the feed starts working for you.
- ChannelSimulationRF
EMPossible(opens in a new tab)
Full computational electromagnetics lecture courses. Rigorous, visual, and free.
YouTube
- ChannelRFElectronics
Electrical Engineering Solutions(opens in a new tab)
Electromagnetics and RF worked problem by problem, at every level.
YouTube
- ChannelRF
Marshall Bruner(opens in a new tab)
Radar and RF concepts animated. The fastest route to intuition about radar systems.
YouTube
- ChannelRFElectronics
w2aew(opens in a new tab)
RF devices and measurements on a real bench, with a real scope. Practical throughout.
YouTube
- ChannelAntennaSimulation
Prof. Halim Boutayeb(opens in a new tab)
RF devices, antenna simulation and CST Studio Suite, taught step by step.
YouTube
Recommended reading
The textbooks worth owning
Linked to the publisher, not copied here. A scanned textbook on someone's website is both an infringement and a stale edition — and these are books worth having properly.
- RF4th edition
Microwave Engineering(opens in a new tab)
David M. Pozar
The standard text, and the one most courses are built around. Transmission lines, network analysis, matching, filters, amplifiers and mixers in one volume.
- Antenna4th edition
Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design(opens in a new tab)
Constantine A. Balanis
The reference for antenna analysis. Dipoles, loops, arrays, apertures, horns, microstrip and reflectors, each derived rather than asserted.
- RFAntenna2nd edition
Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics(opens in a new tab)
Constantine A. Balanis
Where to go when the undergraduate treatment runs out: boundary value problems, waveguides, scattering and asymptotic methods.
- RFSemiconductor2nd edition
RF Microelectronics(opens in a new tab)
Behzad Razavi
RF integrated circuit design, taught with Razavi's habit of showing why the obvious topology fails before showing the one that works.
- RF2nd edition
Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design
Guillermo Gonzalez
Amplifier design done entirely in S-parameters — gain and noise circles, stability, and the compromise between a noise match and a power match.
Search by title and author — this one has no stable publisher page to link.
- RF2nd edition
RF Power Amplifiers for Wireless Communications(opens in a new tab)
Steve C. Cripps
The practitioner's PA book: load-pull, class AB through switching modes, efficiency enhancement and linearisation.
- PCBEMI/EMC3rd edition
Signal and Power Integrity — Simplified(opens in a new tab)
Eric Bogatin
Board-level high-speed design explained from physical intuition first. Read it before you route anything fast.
- EMI/EMCPCB2nd edition
Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility
Clayton R. Paul
EMI and EMC from first principles through to the regulatory limits a product actually has to pass.
Search by title and author — this one has no stable publisher page to link.
- RF2nd edition
Radar RF Circuit Design(opens in a new tab)
Nickolas Kingsley and Joseph R. Guerci
The bridge between a radar system specification and the RF components that have to meet it, including packaging and T/R module integration.
- RFSemiconductor
LNA-ESD Co-Design for Fully Integrated CMOS Wireless Receivers(opens in a new tab)
Paul Leroux and Michiel Steyaert
A narrow, excellent monograph: what ESD protection does to a low-noise amplifier's noise figure, and how to design the two together.
MATLAB Academy · MathWorks
Self-Paced MATLAB Path
Sixteen MathWorks courses in the order that builds on itself — from the Onramp to writing code fast enough for a parameter sweep you can actually wait for.
Free, self-paced and run in the browser. A MathWorks account is needed, and a few courses offer a shareable certificate on completion.
MATLAB Onramp(opens in a new tab)
The two-hour standing start: the language, the desktop and the command line.
Make Your Functions User-Friendly(opens in a new tab)
Arguments, defaults and validation — how to write a function you will still trust next month.
Working with Tables(opens in a new tab)
The table type, and why measurement data belongs in one rather than in six parallel arrays.
Import Irregular Data(opens in a new tab)
Reading the files instruments actually produce, headers and all.
Clean and Prepare Data for Analysis(opens in a new tab)
Missing values, outliers and units, handled before they reach a plot.
Calculations on Grouped Data(opens in a new tab)
Group-wise operations — the shape most sweep and sensitivity analysis takes.
Explore Data with MATLAB Plots(opens in a new tab)
Choosing the plot that answers the question, and reading what it shows.
How MATLAB Graphics Work(opens in a new tab)
The graphics object model, which is what makes a figure publishable instead of nearly right.
Calculations with Vectors and Matrices(opens in a new tab)
Vectorised operations — the difference between code that runs and code that finishes.
Statistics Onramp(opens in a new tab)
Distributions, summary statistics and hypothesis testing on engineering data.
Common Data Analysis Techniques(opens in a new tab)
Smoothing, resampling and correlation, applied rather than defined.
Curve Fitting Onramp(opens in a new tab)
Fitting a model to measured response, and judging whether the fit means anything.
Introduction to Linear Algebra with MATLAB(opens in a new tab)
The matrix algebra that beamforming, MIMO and every method-of-moments solver runs on.
Optimization Onramp(opens in a new tab)
Posing a design problem as an objective with constraints, then solving it.
MATLAB Coding Practices for Efficiency and Performance(opens in a new tab)
Timing, the profiler, preallocation and vectorisation — finding the bottleneck before guessing at it.
App Building Onramp(opens in a new tab)
App Designer, for turning a working script into something a colleague can run.
Open source
Simulation that costs nothing to run
HFSS and ADS are what the industry uses, and neither is free. These are the open-source solvers capable enough to learn on and, in several cases, to publish with.
EM solver
OpenEMS(opens in a new tab)
FDTD solver scripted from MATLAB or Python. The usual free route into 3D EM simulation.
MEEP(opens in a new tab)
FDTD from MIT, driven in Python, Scheme or C++. Strong on photonics and antennas.
Elmer FEM(opens in a new tab)
Multiphysics finite-element solver with a GUI — couples EM to thermal problems.
FreeFEM(opens in a new tab)
Finite-element solver for PDEs you write yourself. For custom EM formulations.
FEniCS(opens in a new tab)
Research-grade finite-element platform in Python and C++.
NEC(opens in a new tab)
The method-of-moments code wire-antenna work has been built on for decades.
Puma-EM(opens in a new tab)
Surface method-of-moments solver using the multilevel fast multipole method.
PSSFSS(opens in a new tab)
Frequency-selective surfaces and polarisation selective structures, in Julia.
Traceon(opens in a new tab)
Electron optics by boundary elements and particle tracing.
Circuit & RF
scikit-rf(opens in a new tab)
S-parameters, Touchstone files, de-embedding and network algebra in Python.
QucsStudio(opens in a new tab)
Circuit and 2D EM simulation — quick for S-parameter and filter work.
Numerical computing
GNU Octave(opens in a new tab)
Runs most MATLAB code unchanged. The free answer to a licence you do not have.
Scilab(opens in a new tab)
Numerical computing and signal processing, with its own Simulink-like modeller.
PCB & layout
KiCad(opens in a new tab)
A full PCB design suite with SPICE built in, and genuinely professional.
Looking for a calculator rather than a solver?
The filter designer, antenna calculator, microstrip designer and Smith chart lab run in your browser, need no account and compute on your own device.
Know something that belongs here?
This list is curated, not crowdsourced — but it grows on suggestions. Send a paper, a lecture series or a tool that earned its place, and say what it taught you.