What is the most important to study analog IC desigh?

i am a rookie in analog ic desigh.what is the key to learn it?
someone said amp desigh is the core,really?

i'm also new. but i think to "play" a circuit in a simulator could be a good starting point, since it's much more interesting than reading a book and it will also give you a rough idea what and why those books are talking about.

frankly speaking, in my first 3-year studying on electronics, i had no idea about why opamp's gain is as high as possible, why current mirrors, why feedback etc... when you simulate it, then you may know at least why you need to use those ugly formulas...

if you are keen to read books, look for one book written by the big guy: Razavi

first u go through analog devices and circuits specially opamp.because this is the key element in analog design.u go throgth semiconductor in details.
the books r rizzoni,razavi etc r present in edaboard .com

Hi

If you want to begin with IC, you must study about transistor physics. All integrated circuits carry some aditional specs, that you have to know. Other interesting topic, is related with built-IC and fabrication, e.g: what is a silice wafer?, what is a substrate?, how to avoid parasitics currents ?

I think the AMmp as start is very good, it will give u very good backgroung about most fundamentals of analog cts, and u will find it good

for references try to check Ravazi, Meyer and Johns&martin these are the Best -I think

good luck

Gray and Mayer is also a good textbook
(though it's focus on BJT)
and you can find it in ED@boa...
for "play" issue
try download some example
**broken link removed**
mixer
for simulation and play!

build a comparator. build one with hysteresis.

build an amp. now build a folded amp. do both p and n type versions so you understand the performance differences when the "archetecture" is the same.

now build a bandgap. good temp performance is key. add thermal shutdown. add undervoltage lockout. make the bandgap stable over line, and small loads (say 100uA step load to simulate on-chip noise)

use the comparators to build an oscillator.

now put the amp and bandgap together to make a simple LDO, put the bandgap and comparator (or 16 of them) together to build a simple ADC. probably time for a simple DAC as well, r-2r or current steering is your best bet..

now go looking for a small chip that interests you. try to duplicate it using your own circuits. i suggest starting with 8 or fewer pins at the early stages. once you can beat all the original specs of a few small chips, you have reached the limit of what can be done "pre-design". should be easy to get a job though, if you take your work to the interview.

now the hard part - make it work in silicon!

For circuit side, begin with amplifier as others already said, and have a bit knowledge of process will also help in really chip production.

Try some small project, it is the fastest way to learn new concept.

i think the most important blocks in analog design are as below

1. Opamp ( all type of opamp- cascade, folded cascode, wide swing opamp, pmos and noms input opamp)

2. Bangap- a very stable bandgap across temperature.

3. VCO


With these 3 basic blocks, you can build a lot of other analog circuit by using negative feedback. For example, ADC, DAC, PLL...DC-DC. Of course must have strong basic analog knowledge ( current mirror...

Suria