INTRODUCTION TO

OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS

INSTRUCTED BY: Mr. A. Kulasekara

NAME: Manawadu U.E.

COURSE: B.Sc.(Eng)
INDEX NO: 080298N
DATE OF PER : 08 NOV 2010
DATE OF SUB : 29 NOV 2010
Importance of Op-Amps in circuit design

Operational amplifiers find their position among the most widely used electronic devices. It is much
popular due to the ability of setting the parameters, like gain, by using external components, having
less effect on impedance due to the changes in temperature and manufacturing standards.
Having the characteristics of very large gain, low cost, compact design, availability op amps are
widely occupied in circuit design.

Op-amps are well known in the electronic industry as an important building block in circuit design.
Their applications can be identified as follows.

 Inverting amplifiers
An inverting amplifier uses negative feedback to invert and amplify a voltage

 Non-inverting amplifiers
Amplifies a voltage having a gain greater than 1

 Voltage comparators
Compares two voltages and switches its output to indicate which voltage is larger.

 Differential amplifiers
Used for finding the difference of two voltages each multiplied by s constant 

 PID controllers
Proportional, integral and derivative controllers

 Voltage follower
Used as a buffer amplifier to eliminate loading effects

 Integrator and differentiator

Simulates mathematical integration and differentiation

 Switching device
Performs as a switch when operating in open loop mode

 Analog to digital converters

 Digital to analog converters
 Voltage and current regulators
 Oscillators and waveform generators
& many more.
Ideal Op-amp and real Op-amp

Ideal op-amps are said to have the below mentioned characteristics for all input voltages.

 Infinite open loop gain

 Infinite input impedance
 Zero output impedance
 Infinite common mode rejection ratio (CMRR)
 Infinite bandwidth
 Zero noise

It is easy to identify the operations of op-amps if ideal frame is considered. But the real op-amp defers
from the ideal one from these characteristics.

These characteristics of real op-amps are also referred as their limitations.

 Finite open loop gain.

Typical devices exhibit open-loop DC gain ranging from 100,000 to over 1 million. So long as
the loop gain is very large, the circuit gain will be determined entirely by the amount of
negative feedback.

 Finite input impedance

In the ideal op amp, it was assumed that no current flow to the device. But in the real case the
input impedance cannot be assumed as infinity. Due to this reason the amplified output may
distort slightly from input signal.

 Non zero output impedance

Low output impedance is important for low-impedance loads, for these loads, the voltage drop
across the output impedance of the amplifier will be significant. Hence, the output impedance
of the amplifier limits the maximum power that can be provided.

 Temperature effects
All parameters change with temperature. Temperature drift of the input offset voltage is
especially important.

 Noise
Amplifiers generate random voltage at the output even when there is no signal applied. This
can be due to thermal noise and flicker noise of the devices. For applications with high gain or
high bandwidth, noise becomes a very important consideration.

 Drift
 Real op-amp parameters are subject to slow change over time and with changes in temperature,
input conditions, etc.

The output voltage of an op amp is limited to a value much closer to its supply voltages. Waveform
distortions occur when the amplified voltage is above or below the maximum or minimum supply
voltage respectively. It is very important to control the gain of the amplifier according to the
application for which it is used. This phenomenon is called saturation.

Slewing is another cause for distortion which occurs when the amplifier's output voltage reaches its
maximum rate of change. Measured as the slew rate, it is usually specified in volts per microsecond.
When slewing occurs, further increases in the input signal have no effect on the rate of change of the
output. Slewing is usually caused by internal capacitances in the amplifier, especially those used to
implement its frequency compensation.

The output voltage may not be accurately proportional to the difference between the input voltages. It
is commonly called distortion when the input signal is a waveform. This effect will be very small in a
practical circuit if substantial negative feedback is used.