A design paradigm using sequential geometric programming is presented to accurately design CMOS op amps with BSIM3. It is based on new adaptive modeling of transistor parameters through the operating point simulation. This has low modeling cost as well as great simplicity and high accuracy. The short-channel dc, high-frequency small-signal, and short-channel noise models are used to characterize the physical behavior of submicron devices. For low-power and low-voltage design, this paradigm is extended to op amps operating in the subthreshold region. Since the biasing and modeling errors are less than 0.25%, the characteristics of the op amps well match simulation results. In addition, small dependency of design results on initial values indicates that a designed op amp may be close to the global optimum. Finally, the design paradigm is illustrated by optimizing CMOS op amps with accurate transfer function.