At 09:36 PM 1/6/2006 -0500, you wrote:

>   I feel like the op amp is sort of the holy grail of analog design -- I use
>them all the time but never *really* knew how they worked outside of the old
>Diff Pair, VAS, Output Stage.  So I figured the best way to get a good
>handle on the beast was to build one, with the added bonus that I could then
>use that op-amp in all my artsy-fartsy designs from here on out.

There are some detailed op-amp circuits (and descriptions of the building-
blocks you need) in _Analog Design for CMOS VLSI Systems_ by Maloberti (Klower)
It's pretty much all CMOS, as the title suggests, although there are some
interesting applications of the parasitic well BJTs. The building blocks are
similar in function in bipolar and CMOS, just slightly different 
implementation.

My ancient university text _Modern Electronic Circuit Design_ by Comer has a
bunch on bipolar building blocks and op-amps, but it's not as well organized
as Maloberti.


>And I'd love to make that animal monolithic, but until I learn VHDL I'm
>afraid solder is the way I've got to go.

I don't think VHDL will help you much, but Spice might. There is a certain
amount of math behind such things as compensation, and once you've
synthesized the design, Spice will help you wring it out (such as changes
with ambient temperature etc.). Of course it's only as good as the device
models you use, and being mathematical in nature it will give silly results
such as 0V output for a gain of 4,000,000 amplifier with the inputs shorted,
when in reality we know that the output will most likely be sitting at one
PS rail or the other.

>Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
->> Inexpensive test equipment & parts http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZspeff


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