[sdiy] IC design books as a source of discrete OTA schematics?

[Magnus Danielson]

On 09/16/2012 02:56 PM, Justin Owen wrote:
> I've recently been looking at discrete OTA designs. I was wondering if there might be some good IC design books - preferably with lots of schematics and explanations - that might at least have a chapter on OTAs?.
>
> I'm not about to go into the IC fab business so I am looking for things I can translate into my own discrete designs rather than things that are specific to ICs.
>
> Other suggestions for books, sites, etc. welcome if they'll help with OTA designs - and I'm also up for material on discrete op-amps.

They Gray & Meyer book is a classic:

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Design-Analog-Integrated-Circuits/dp/0470245999

A good warm-up is for instance this article:
http://www.idea2ic.com/LM13600/UsingOTAs2.pdf

Essentially, you have a diff-pair and 4 current mirrors. You can then 
learn more on current mirrors and how good various variants performs. 
Current mirrors is a design which re-occurs over and over again in IC 
design, so it's well covered in the Gray & Meyer book. It also covers 
linearization and Gilbert cells.

It can be a good exercise to get and read datasheets for the classics, 
and see how their topology changes over time.

Cheers,
Magnus