Introduction to CMOS OP-AMPs and Comparators

PREFACE

Operational amplifiers (op-amps) and comparators are two of the most intricate, and in many ways the most important, building blocks of an analog circuit. These components are used in such devices as switched-capacitor filters, analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, amplifiers, modulators, rectifiers, peak detectors, and so on. The performance of op-amps and comparators usually limits the high-frequency application and dynamic range of the overall circuit. Without a thorough understanding of the operation and basic limitation of these components, the circuit designer cannot determine or even predict the actual response of the overall system. Hence this book gives a fairly detailed explanation of the overall configurations and performance limitations of op-amps and comparators exclusively in CMOS technology. While the scaling properties of the very large scale integration (VLSI) processes have resulted in denser and higher-performance digital circuits, they have also changed the design techniques used for CMOS analog circuits. Therefore, the main purpose of these discussions is to illustrate the most important principles underlying the specific circuits and design procedures. Nevertheless, the treatment is detailed enough to enable the reader to design high-performance CMOS op-amps and comparators suitable for most analog circuit applications.

The main emphasis of this book is on physical operation and design process. It has been written as a unified ...