A comment on the heuristic approach to electrical circuit design : Through the example of ripple reduction in pulse width modulation DAC

Unlike the systematic/algorithmic approach, the heuristic approach to the professional design of technical systems is based on experience, intuition and the exploitation of readily available information. The main value of readily available information is precisely that it is "readily available" - it does not have to be reliable or applicable. When the systematic approach is not satisfactory for some reason, the heuristic approach is certainly useful, but with significant caution and indispensable experience of the designer. Unfortunately, the flood of information on the Internet has brought a false self-confidence to various profiles of inexperienced designers and their managers, which has led to the fact that the amateur and non-professional approach to design is often viewed as a professional heuristic approach. In the academic community the same effect led to a loss of understanding of the need for fundamental scientific and technical disciplines. In this paper, basic pros and cons of the algorithmic and heuristic approach are discussed, following by an illustrative example in which is described how an existing heuristic design can be approached by the use of fundamental undergraduate knowledge.