I. INTRODUCTION provide more insight into the uses and limitations of operational amplifiers than a more rigorous approach.
The operational amplifier is a basic building block in analog work, much the' same way as a NAND gate can be a basic building block in a digital com-puter. An operational amplifier (op amp) together with other components such as resistors and capacitors, can be used to perform addition, subtrac-tion, integrasubtrac-tion, and many other functions. Op amps can be used to make oscillators, active filters, and even digital circuits such as Schmitt triggers, gates, and flip-flops. When used with AI D and DI A converters in data proc-essing work, op amps perform such functions as scale changing, offsetting, and isolation between source and load.
II. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
An operational amplifier can be considered a 3 terminal device, plus a
Op amps are characterized by high DC gain, high input impedance, low output impedance, and a gain that decreases with increasing frequency. Op amps used without feedback would be· operating open loop, a rare situation; but with feedback the operation would be closed loop. The use of properly applied negative feedback stabilizes the operation of the composite circuit against changes in the amplifier, and provides its versatility and usefullness.
When an op amp is working in the linear region, two approximations can be
resistors as forming a tapped divider network.
III. SPECIFICATIONS
Settling time. This is the time it takes the output to get within and stay within a certain amount of is" final value, after the input has received a step input, see Fig. 4. This parameter is important when an ,amplifier is used in front of an AID converter, since the A/O should not begin its conversion until the amplifier has settled.
Overload recovery. It takes an overload recovery time for the output to without noticeable distortion. In many ways this is real frequency limitation of an op amp, since up to this frequency there are no other restrictions on the amplitude of the input signal.
Frequency for unity gain. The open loop gain of an amplifier is equal to one at this frequency. But "the input signal must be restricted in amplitude such that the maximum rate of change of output (slew rate) is not exceeded.
UsualJy only millivolt signals may be processed at this frequency, therefore the full amplifier bandwidth is not usable for normal data processing systems.
Impedance. The input impedance is simply the resistance between the two inputs. The common mode impedance is the highest resistance attainable with feedback. to ground. For an inverting amplifier, the output error due to the input voltage offset is equal to the offset times the closed loop gain plus one. With an input offset of 3 mv, and a gain of I, the output error would be 6 mv.
Fortunately, initial voltage offset can be trimmed with a potentiometer at the right place in the circuit.
Current offset. Current offset (or bias current) multiplied by the feedback resistor (Fig. 2) produces an output error. This eff~ct can be minimized by using the differential offset (the difference in offset currents for the two inputs) when the resistance seen from both inputs to ground are equal. For Fig. 2, the Plus Input should than be returned to ground through a resistor equal to the parallel combination of R, and RF.
Output ratings. The output voltage and current ratings imply a minimum value for the load resistor. 10 volts and 5 ma would correspond to a load resistor of 2 K. In an inverting amplifier, the feedback re~istor is a load for the output, and the current through this resistor must be subtracted from
the amount of curre11t still available at the output. All really useful operational amplifiers can be shorted to ground without damage, but shorting to a
volt-age will usually destroy some of the circuitry. '
IV. APPLICATIONS com-mon mode voltage ratings should not be exceeded. The inverter configuration, Fig. 7, ,is very versatile and does not have a common mode voltage prob-lem, since both inputs are near ground. Large input voltages can be handled if t1'Ie input resistor is made appropriately large. One disadvantage of the inverting configuration is that the input impedance is relatively low,
essen-ti~lIy equal to the input resistor. When a gain trim potentiometer is used, the gain accuracy by itself becomes irrelevant. What is important is gain resolution (mostly determined by the potentiometer), and the gain stability (mostly qetermined by the temperature coefficients of the input and feedback reSistors). The ratio of the closed I,oop gain to the open loop gain gives the suitability of an amplifier as far as static accuracy is concerned. With a closed loop gain of 5, and an open loop gain of 10,000, an amplifier could be used in a system with an allowable error of 1 part in 2,000.
The possibility of oscillation must always be considered when feedback ampli-fiers are used. Usually the more feedback used, the greater is the tendency to oscillate. Oscillations can always be attributed to phase shift. Therefore, stabilization of operational amplifiers involves phase shifting to oppose oscil-lation. In Fig. 7, the feedback capacitor allows high frequency signals to be fed back to the inverting input (degenerative feedback) with a phase lead.
In the inverting configuration, the output will be 1800 out of phase with the input at low frequencies, and the feedback Signal will oppose the input signal.
At high frequencies, there are additional phase lags in the amplifier and feedback circuitry. If the feedback s~nal has a total phase shift (lag) of 3600 with a gain through the amplifier and feedback network of greater than I, the amplifier will oscillate, since the input and output are in phase.
V. REFERENCES
1. "An Operational Amplifier Application Manual"
Analog Devices, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
2. "Handbook of Operational Amplifier Applications"
Burr-Brown Research Corp., Tucson, Arizona 3. "Linear Integrated Circuits Applications Handbook"
Fairchild Semiconductor, Mountain View, California 4. "Applications Manual for Operational Amplifiers"
Philbrickl Nexus Research, Dedham, Mass.
160
MINUS INPUT (OR INVERTING
INPUT)
0 - - - 1 +
+ /'
PLUS INPUTI
(OR NON-INVERTINGvp INPUT)
> - - - 0 OUTPUT
1+
VOUT
\ I
Oo--~--~---l·~---O
"OUT • A (vp-"N)' WHERE A IS THE AMPLIFIER GAIN
Fig. 1, Basic Operational Amplifier Symbol
>-... --oVOUT
ASSUME: vS.oO THEN i l · iF is .. 0 "IN vOUT
R;- - R;"
"OUT RF
V;;--R;-Fig. 2, Inverting Amplifier
ASSUME:
THEN
Vs - "IN is - 0 it - i2 Vs VOUT- VS
At -
R2Fig. 3, Non-Inverting Amplifier
INPlJcT~
: t/\~]._~===:AV.i r,
h\ --,.1
.L IN - - - -FINAL VALUEOUTPUT
J -: ,
(S)
VIN p
VIN tK
I
~tS----.t SETTLING TIME
Fig. 4, Settling Time
p F:
VOUT V
~-+,
vlN
RIN - ReOM MODE
Fig. 5, Voltage Follower
1()pf
VOUT
-- --,
1K VIN
VOUT V
Fig. 6, Inverter 162
YOUT P v
YOUT YIN = -
R,
RIN
=
R,GAIN STABILITY DEPENDS ON THE INPUT AND FEEDBACK RESISTOR, AND GAIN TRIM POTENTIOMETER.
Rp R, RF
SELECT Rp
=
FORR,
+
RFCURRENT DRIFT COMPENSATION.
TYP VALUES Rt 1K TO 10K RF lK TO lOOK Rp 500n TO 5K
THE USE OF CF REDUCES THE TENDENCY OF THE OP AMP TO OSCILLATE
Fig. 7, Adjustable Gain and Current Compensation
YOUT
YOFF
'---y----/
OFFSET '"
Fig. 8, Offsetting
V2
..
VOUT
NON-INV GAIN
R3 ~ RF+ ~ RF ·
=
v2 ( - - - } ( - - - ) - v, ( - )R2+R3 R, R,
'--y-I '-y/
ATTENUATION INV GAIN FACTOR
Fig. 9, Differential Gain
164
2D and Resolution
#
OFBITS RESOLUTION
2n n
(%) PPM
1 0 100.0 1,000,000
2 1 50.0 500,00
4 2 25.0 250,000
8 3 12.5 125,000
16 4 6.25 62,500
32 5 3.125 31,250
64 6 1.563 15,625_
128 7 0.781 7,812
256 8 0.391 3,906
512 9 0.195 1,953
1 024 10 0.0977 977
2 048 11 0.0488 488
4096 12 0.0244 244
8 192 13 0.0122 122
16 384 14 0.00610 61
32 768 15 0.00305 31
65 536 16 0.00153 15
131 072 17 0.000763 8
DIGITAL CODES FOR
AI
D'S, 01 A'S AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMSOFFSET BINARY (BIPOLAR)
+ FULL SCALE -1 LSB ... 11111.1111111 + 3/4 FULL SCALE ... 111000000000 + 1/2 FU I I SCALE ... . . . . 110000000000 ZERO ... 100000000000 - 1/2 FU Ll SCALE ... ~ . . . .. 010000000000 - 3/4 FULL SCALE ... 001000000000 - FUll SCALE +1 lSB ... -... 000000000001 - FUll SCALE ... 000000000000
STRAIGHT BINARY (UNIPOLAR)
+ FULL SCALE -1 LSB ... 111111111111 + 3/4 FULL SCALE ... 110000000000 + 1/2 FULL SCALE ... 100000000000 ZERO +1 LSB .. . . .. 000000000001 ZERO ... 000000000000
TWO'S COMPLEMENT (BIPOLAR)
+ FULL. SCALE -1 LSB ... 011111111111 + 3/4 FUll SCALE " . . . .. 011000000000 + 1/2 FULL SCALE ... 010000000000 ZERO ... 000000000000 - 1/2 FULL SCALE ... 110000000000 - 3/4 FUll SCALE ... 101000000000 - FULL SCALE +1 lSB . . . 100000000001 - FUll SCALE ... 100000000000
BINARY CODED DECIMAL (UNIPOLAR)
+ FUll SCALE -1 lSD ... . . .. 1001 1001 1001 + 3/4 FULL SCALE ... .. ... 0111 0101 0000 + 1/2 FUll SCALE ... 0101 0000 0000 ZERO + lSD ... 0000 0000 0001 ZERO ... 0000 0000 0000
166