Operational Amplifiers

• Operational Amplifiers:

Ideal Op Amp Characteristics:

1) Infinite open loop gain, A

2) Infinite input impedance

and zero input bias current

3) Zero input offset voltage

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

4) Infinite output voltage
range

5) Infinite bandwidth, and

Operational Amplifier Equivalent Circuit* slew rate

6) Zero o/p impedance

2

*adapted from: Electronics Hub – Operational Amplifier Basics. https://www.electronicshub.org

/operational-amplifier-basics/; [accessed on: 12th August 2020]
• Practical operational amplifier characteristic specifications and
comparison - µA 741C; TL 084C; OP 07C

Parameter µA 741C

Open loop voltage gain 𝐴𝑣 200V/mV

Input Resistance 𝑅𝑖 2 MΩ

Output Resistance 𝑅𝑜 75Ω

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

Input Offset Voltage 𝑉𝑖𝑜 1 to 6mV

Common Mode Rejection 70dB

Ratio (CMRR)
Input Bias Current 𝐼𝑖𝐵 80nA

Unity Gain Bandwidth 1MHz

Slew Rate 0.5V/µs

3
Power Dissipation 𝑃𝐷𝑚𝑎𝑥 85mW
• Example Industrial Application: Current Charger

• Typically the load would be in the

drain circuit and (say) ranges from 1
ohms to 10 ohms.
• The gate drive operates the MOS in
PWM mode for establishing the
required value of current (rms)
• The current can thus range between
20A to 200 A !

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

• Considering that the PWM has to
regulate the current, to given value.
• Vsense, across R2, for I estimate –
10mv to 100mV (0.5mV/A)

• Require high speed low offset voltage wide operating voltage

amplifiers. 4
• Wide bandwidth and gain requirement.
• Example Biomedical Application:

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

• Require very low noise precision amplifiers.
• Low offset voltage requirement considering signal level, large
amplification and possible saturation. 5
• Subject isolation active amplification circuit
• Practical operational amplifier characteristic specifications and
comparison - µA 741C; TL 084C; OP 07C

Parameter µA 741C TL 084C OP 07C

Open loop voltage gain 𝐴𝑣 200V/mV 200V/mV 400V/mV

Input Resistance 𝑅𝑖 2 MΩ 1GΩ 33MΩ

Output Resistance 𝑅𝑜 75Ω - 60Ω

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

Input Offset Voltage 𝑉𝑖𝑜 1 to 6mV 3 to 15mV 60µV

Common Mode Rejection 70dB 86dB 120dB

Ratio (CMRR)
Input Bias Current 𝐼𝑖𝐵 80nA 30pA 1.8nA

Unity Gain Bandwidth 1MHz 3MHz 0.6MHz

Slew Rate 0.5V/µs 13V/µs 0.3V/µs

6
Power Dissipation 𝑃𝐷𝑚𝑎𝑥 85mW 680mW 80mW
• Operational Amplifier Circuits in Instrumentation:
• Voltage follower – Unity Gain Buffer !

𝐴𝑣 = 1
𝑉𝑜 = 𝑉𝑖𝑛

Characteristics:
• Isolates i/p and o/p
• Accords unity voltage gain to
signal

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

• Large input impedance, greater
than few mega ohms
• Small output impedance, smaller
than few hundreds of ohms.
• Current gain and output current
limit decided by specific opamp.
• LTSpice example

7

• Inverting Amplifier:
Above analysis assumes:
• Av in few hundred thousand
tpically >= 200,000;
• Rin of the order of few Mega
Ohms, typically > 2Mohms;
• And Rout lesser than few tens
of ohms, typically less than 80
ohms
Gain with feedback:
Considering near ideal condition and
virtual ground we have…
𝑖1 + 𝑖2 = 0
𝑖1 = 𝑉𝑖𝑛 /𝑅1 & 𝑖2 = 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 /𝑅2
thus re-arranging we have…
Robotics & IA - Sem VIII
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 /𝑉𝑖𝑛 = − 𝑅2 /𝑅1
i.e 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = − 𝑉𝑖𝑛 (𝑅2 /𝑅1 )
• Thus magnitude of gain is decided
largely by ratio of resistors.
• Negative sign indicates phase
inversion.
• Too large gain results in output 8
saturation, ±𝑉𝑠𝑎𝑡 for smallest change
in input.
• LTSpice example
• Non – Inverting Amplifier

Gain expression:
0 − 𝑉𝑖𝑛 𝑉𝑖𝑛 − 𝑉𝑜
=
𝑅1 𝑅2

𝑉𝑜 𝑅2
Thus 𝐴𝑣 = = 1+
𝑉𝑖𝑛 𝑅1

• Thus magnitude of gain is decided

largely by ratio of resistors.

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

Above analysis assumes:
• Av in few hundred thousand
tpically >= 200,000;
• Rin of the order of few Mega
Ohms, typically > 2Mohms;
• And Rout lesser than few tens
of ohms, typically less than 80
ohms
• Output is in phase with respect to
input
• Input resistance seen by signal
source is magnified by open loop
voltage gain times feedback factor
• Output impedance is low
• Too large gain results in output
saturation, ±𝑉𝑠𝑎𝑡 for smallest change
in input.
9
• LTSpice example
• Difference Amplifier: Combination of inverting and non-inverting
amplifier input combination
Gain Expression can be obtained by
applying super-position:
With 𝑉2 grounded
𝑅2
𝑉01 = − 𝑉1
𝑅1

With 𝑉1 grounded

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

𝑅2 𝑅2
𝑉02 = 𝑉2 1+
𝑅1 + 𝑅2 𝑅1
• Circuit voltage output
proportional to difference of 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑉01 + 𝑉02
two inputs however…
𝑅2
• Resistors have to be 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑅1
𝑉2 − 𝑉1
matched for difference
expression to be true
• Input resistance seen by 10
two inputs is less and
differs for both the inputs
• A sensor outputs a voltage ranging from -2.4 to - 1.1 V. For interface
to an analog-to-digital converter, this needs to be 0 to 2.5 V.
Develop the required signal conditioning.

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

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• Modified difference amplifier – Instrumentation Amplifier
• Difference amplifier preceded
by unity gain follower helps in
improving input impedance
and provide isolation.
• Circuit gain decided by ratio
resistor, required to be
matched carefully.
• Offset voltage required to be
nulled for individual amplifiers.

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

𝑅2 • A practically modified circuit
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑉2 − 𝑉1 that allows gain variation by
𝑅1
changing only one resistor is
generally used.
• Advantages…. ( single package
IA – AD 620

2𝑅1 𝑅3
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 1 + 𝑉2 − 𝑉1 12
𝑅𝐺 𝑅2

• Amplify 0.5mV signal !!

• Op Amp – Current (I) to Voltage (V) converter

• Expression for basic circuit for I to V

conversion

𝑉𝑂𝑈𝑇 = 𝐼𝐼𝑁 ∗ 𝑅1

• Practically the same is used for detecting

small currents in photo devices – photo
diodes, photo voltaic cells etc.

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

𝑉𝑂𝑈𝑇 = 𝐼𝐷 ∗ 𝑅1

• Photodiode D1, operated in reverse bias

mode.
• Characterised by very low (µA) light
current.
• Reverse biased mode light current
amplified by op-amp using I to V
conversion. 13
• Voltage to current converter ( V to I conversion)
• Within range of voltage compliance
decided by load resistor R3, the
circuit generates load current
decided by input voltage.
• Considering very large open loop
voltage gain and input impedance,
load current can be given as

𝑉𝑖𝑛
𝐼𝑐 =

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

𝑅1

• C C Sink
• V To I Conversion

14
• Op amp Integrator:
Assuming large input
impedance

𝐼𝑅 + 𝐼𝐶 = 0

𝑉𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
hence =−𝐶
𝑅 𝑑𝑡

1
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = − ‫𝑡𝑑 𝑛𝑖𝑉 ׬‬
𝑅𝐶

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

1
𝑓𝑐 = as cutoff
2𝜋𝑅𝐶
frequency

For minimum offset error due

to input bias current, practically
an equal value resistor R is also
used between non-inv. input 15
and gnd.
• Op Amp Differentiator: • Voltage expression for
output
𝐼1 + 𝐼2 = 0
𝑑𝑉𝑖𝑛 𝑉𝑜
hence 𝐶 + =0
𝑑𝑡 𝑅
𝑑𝑉
𝑉𝑜 = −R𝐶 𝑖𝑛
𝑑𝑡
• The ideal differentiator is
susceptible to high

Robotics & IA - Sem VIII

frequency noise and
instability and is
modified practically by
adding feedback
capacitor as well as input
resistor.
• Resistor at non-inv input
is added to minimise
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input offset error due to
bias current.