OP-AMPS

I. PRACTICAL OP-AMP

An operational amplifier, or op-amp, is an electronic device having very high gain differential amplifier, A, high input impedance, zin, and low output impedance, zout. Typical uses of op-amp are to provide voltage amplitude changes (amplitude and polarity), oscillators, filter circuits, and many types of instrumentation circuits. Figure below shows a schematic diagram and a symbol of an op-amp.
+VCC

The op-amp operates using two power supplies, +VCC and VEE, (some opamps can operates using a single supply). The op-amp input, vin, to the differential amplifier is the difference between two input voltages: the non-inverting input and the inverting input. The op-amp has a single-ended output. It also has an input impedance, zin, and an output impedance, zout, as shown in the schematic diagram above. The op-amp has a voltage gain of A. The output voltage of the op-amp can be express in term of the input voltage and the gain of the amplifier as: vo=Avin A typical op-amp has very high gain, very high input impedance (zin is in the range of M) and very low output impedance (zout is less than 100). Below is a simple block diagram of an op-amp. The differential amplifier takes two inputs and amplifies the difference, the gain stage contains many amplification stages to achieve high gain of the op-amp and the output stage (class B amplifier) provides high current gain with low output impedance.

Noninverting input

+ zout vin Zin Avin

vin

DIFF. AMPLIFIER

GAIN STAGE

CLASS B PUSH-PULL AMPLIFIER

vout

Inverting input

_
-VEE

OP-AMP

1. Input characteristics of an op-amp 1. Input bias current

Figure a: Op-amp schematic diagram

+ vin _

vout

Figure b: Symbol of an op-amp Figure 17-13: Different base current

Since the DC of each transistor in the first stage is slightly different, the base currents in the differential amplifier above are slightly different. The input bias current is defined as the average of the DC base currents: I +I I in ( base) = B1 B2 2

3. Input offset voltage More errors caused by the imperfect match of the differential amplifier stage are collector resistances (RC1 RC2) and base-emitter voltages (VBE1VBE2) as shown in figure below.

The bias current is typical in nanoamperes (BJT) or picoampares (FET) and will flows through the resistances between the bases and ground. These resistances may be discrete resistances or they may be the Thevenin resistances of the input sources. 2. Input offset current The input offset current is defined as the difference of the DC base currents: Iin(off) = IB1 IB2 This difference in the base currents indicates how closely the transistors are matched. If the transistors are identical, the input offset current is zero because both base currents will be equal, but almost always, the two transistors are slightly different and the two base currents are not equal. Data sheet of an op-amp lists Iin(base) and Iin(off), the base current through each transistor can be calculated using two equations above. The base currents can cause output voltage error in precision applications. A compensate resistor may be use to eliminate the effect of the input offset current.

The input offset voltage is defined as the input voltage that would produce the same output error voltage in a perfect differential amplifier. V Vin (off ) = error A

Figure 17-14: a) Base resistor produces unwanted input voltage; b) equal base on other side reduces error voltage
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Figure 17-16: Output of diff amp includes desired signal and error voltage
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Total error: DC error inputs: Vin = v1 v2 Vout = A(v1 v2) V1err = (RB1 - RB2)Iin(bias) V2err= (RB1 + RB2)Iin(off)/2 V3err = Vin(off) Verr = A (V1err + V2err + V3err) Table 3: Sources of Output error Voltage Description Input bias current Input offset current Input offset voltage 2. The 741 op-amp Cause Solution Voltage across a single RB Use equal RB on other side Unequal current gains Data sheet nulling methods Unequal RC and VBE Data sheet nulling methods

Some noticeable characteristics on this industry standard op-amp are useful to design op-amp application circuits:
a. The final stage

The quiescent output is ideally 0V when the input voltage is zero (assuming an equal positive and negative supply voltages). Any deviation from 0V is called the output error voltage. The output swing is within 1 to 2V of each supply voltage because of voltage drops inside the op-amp.
b. Frequency compensation

The capacitor CC is a compensating capacitor. Miller effect causes this capacitor become a large input capacitance of: where A is the gain of Q5 and Q6. Cin = (A+1)CC

This capacitor generates a cutoff frequency of 10Hz and the op-amp has an ideal Bode plot as shown in the figure below.
AOL 100dB

freq. 10Hz 1MHz

c. Bias and offsets

e. Maximum peak-to-peak output

Figure below shows the compensation and nulling used with 741C op-amp. The resistor RB neutralizes the effect of input bias current (80nA). The 10K potentiometer is used to null or zero the output voltage with no input signal present. This eliminates the effect of an input offset current of 20nA and an input offset voltage of 2mV.

The maximum peak-to-peak voltage produced by 741 op-amp depends on the load resistance connected to its output as shown in curve (b).
f. Short circuit current

The maximum short circuit current at the output which the 741 op-amp can withstand is 25mA. This is also the maximum current can be produced by the opamp.
g. Frequency response

Curve (c) shows the actual frequency response of the 741 op-amp with a unity frequency of 1MHz. This op-amp is considered worthless for higher frequency applications. Other high frequency op-amps are available.
h. Slew rate d. CMRR

The CMMR is 90dB at low frequency but degrades at higher frequency according to the curve (a) below.

The compensation capacitor, CC, prevents oscillations (negative feedback) that would interfere with the desired signal. However, this capacitor also creates a speed limit on how fast the output of the op-amp can change. This relates to the slew rate of the op-amp which is defined as: v SR = out t

where SR is the slew rate and equals to the change in output voltage divided by the change in time.

The slew rate represents the fastest response that an op-amp can have. The 741C has a slew rate of 0.5V/s. This means that the output of a 741C can change no faster than 0.5V in a microsecond (figure (c) above). Slew arte also affects the response of sinusoidal signal as shown in the figure below.

II.

IDEAL OP-AMP

To analyze circuits using op-amps, the ideal op-amps are used to simplify the process. Some characteristics of the ideal op-amp are:

+VCC

I+=0 zin= va=0 zout=0 Avin

. Gain A . zin= . zout=0 . input currents I+=0 . input current I_=0 . va=v+ - v-=0

Slew rate limits the large-signal response of an op-amp and this quantity always specifies in the data sheet. The initial slope of a large sinusoidal signal, can be derived as: SS = 2fVp To avoid slew-rate distortion, SS has to be less than or equal to SR of the opamp. The maximum frequency at which the signal is on the verge of slew-rate distortion can be found as:
SR = SS = 2fVp S f max = R 2Vp This frequency is sometimes called the power bandwidth or large-signal bandwidth of the op-amp. Therefore, there are two bandwidth to be considered when analyzing the operation of an op-amp circuit: the small-signal bandwidth determined by the first order response of the op-amp (by compensation capacitor) and the largesignal or power bandwidth determined by the slew rate. Example : 18-1 to 18-4 (page 628).

because vo=Ava, va=vo/A=vo/ . Operation depends on external connection

I_=0
-VEE

1. INVERTING AMPLIFIER:

The inverting amplifier is an important op-amp circuit. The inverting amplifier uses negative feedback to stabilize the overall voltage gain of the amplifier because the gain of the op-am are too high and unstable to be used without some forms of feedback. The circuit is analyzed as below using the ideal op-amp characteristics.

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Because of I+=I_=0, va=0:

2. NON-INVERTING AMPLIFIER:

R1

va = 0

i in =

v in R2 i R1 = i in = R1 R2 v in R2

This feedback amplifier provides an output voltage in phase with the input voltage. The analysis of this circuit also uses the ideal op-amp. v i R 2 = in R2 I = 0 i R1 = i R 2 v v o = v in + i R 2 R1 = v in + in R1 R2 R1 ) v o = v in (1 + R2 R2 Gain : A (CL) = 1 + R1

R2 iin
in

_ va +

iR2 vo RL

I+ = I _ = 0

~v

v o = i R1R1 = v in v o = v in R1 R2

va=0

~v

+ _ R1

vo

in

Gain : A (CL ) = z in (CL ) = R 2 f 2(CL ) = f unity A CL

R1 R2

iR2

R2

The plot of the inverting amplifier gain versus frequency is shown below. The op-amp has an open loop gain, A(OL), and an open loop cutoff frequency f2(OL). For the feedback configuration, the amplifier has a close loop gain, A(CL), and a close loop frequency f2(CL). When the gain is 0dB (i.e., gain=1=unity), the amplifier has a frequency of f(unity).
Gain A(dB)

Example: 18.10 3. SUMMING AMPLIFIER:

A(OL)

v1

_ + vo

v o = (

R3 R3 v1 + v 2) R1 R2

~ v2
A(CL)

Example: 18-12
f2(OL) f2(CL) funity frequency

Problem: 18-22, 18-26

Try: 18-9, 18-11,18-13,18-21,18-23,18-27

4. INTEGRATOR

6. INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIER

The output of the integrator is proportional to the integral over time of its input signal (example, a constant input vi yields a ramp output).
C
+ _

_ +

vo

1 vo = vi dt RC

va

Rb Rb Rb vb
_ +

Rc

Rd

~v

+ _

A=

( 2R b + R a ) R d RaRc

Rc

Rd

5. DIFFERENTIATOR

The output of the integrator is proportional to the differnetial over time of its input signal (example, a ramp input vi yields a constant output).
R

_ +

vo

~v

dv vo = RC i dt

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