Programmable piece-wise linear function synthesizers using operational transconductance amplifiers

The appropriateness of the operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) as the fundamental active element to obtain basic building blocks for the design of programmable piece-wise linear continuous time networks is presented. The main purpose of this work is to show that the OTA can be efficiently used as the fundamental building block in circuits for piece-wise linear function synthesis. A test circuit has been integrated using a 3 μm p-well CMOS process. The flexibility of the design approach is discussed and experimental results are presented