Operational amplifier is one of the most common electronic building

blocks used by engineers. It has two input terminals: V+ and V-,

and one output terminal Y. It provides a gain A, which is usually
very high – around 100,000 x at low frequency. It has very high
input impedance – > 10MΩ. It has a low output impedance. In
other words, op-amp behaves almost like an ideal amplifier.
We can model an op amp as shown here:

D is the voltage difference = (V+ - V-).

The output Y is D x A, where A is the gain. Since A is very large, D

is generally very small. For example, if the output voltage Y is
+5V, A is 105, D is only 50µV. The scope you have been using in
the laboratory cannot even measure down to this voltage level!
An op-amp is actually very complex inside. However, as a user of
op amp, and if you use it properly, you can simply ignore its
internal complexity and treat it more or less like a perfect
differential amplifier (i.e amplifying the difference voltage).
Opamps belong to a type of electronic components known as
integrated circuits (ICs). The packaging is as shown here where
pin 1 is always on the left of the notch in the package and/or
indicated with a dot.
Before we consider how to build an amplifier with an op-amp, let us Opamp requires power supply for it to work. For the sake of
consider the concept of negative feedback. Simply put, when an simplicity, we assume that the op-amp uses dual voltage supply
event causes something to change, the change itself will counteract with a +ve and a –ve voltage source as shown here. We will relax
the original event. this assumption later.
Shown here is the op-amp using negative feedback. The output Y To conduct analysis on opamp circuits, we have to make some
is connect to the V- input of the op amp. If output Y falls (the assumptions as shown here.
event), it will cause V- to fall (the change). However, V- falling will
increase the difference voltage (V+ - V-). This causes Y to rise,
thus counteracting the initial fall in Y.
The calculation shown here demonstrate that provided A is large,
Y = X. Connecting Y to the V- input ensure that this is always true
with this circuit.
Note the golden rule: by feeding the output back to the NEGATIVE
input of the op-amp which has very large gain, the circuit makes
sure that (V+ - V-) approaches zero!
Shown here is one of the most commonly used op-amp circuit to There is a special case for the non-inverting op-amp circuit. If you
provide non-inverting amplification. make R2 = 0, and remove R1, then the gain is 1. In fact even if
We check through the steps considered in the previous slide. This R2 is larger than zero (say 1k), the ratio R2/R1 is still zero since R1
circuit has negative feedback. Input voltage X is connected to V+. is infinite.
Therefore the voltage at V- is also X. This circuit is known as voltage follower, or voltage buffer – output
Input current is zero. Therefore X is the voltage divider of Y as Y always follow input X.
shown here. This circuit may first appear pointless – Y is the same as X, why not
For such non-inverting op-amp circuit, Gain is always given by: just use X in the first place?
The reason why this circuit is useful is because it ISOLATES the
Y R output from the input by presenting a high impedance to the
Gain = = (1+ 2 )
X R1 source (Rin is high) and low impedance to the load, hence behaving
like an ideal amplifier, but with gain of 1.
For the circuit shown here, the gain is +4. Let us consider the example here. The source voltage U has a
resistance of 99kΩ. If we connect this directly to a 1Ω load, the
output Y = 0.01U (voltage divider principle). The drop of voltage is
due to the loading effect of the 1k resistor on the source.
When you put the voltage follow between U and the 1k load
resistor, the source U sees the very high input impedance of the
op-amp (>10MΩ), therefore the input X is effective U. The output
resistance of the op amp is low. The negative feedback also helps.
If the loading effect of the 1k resistor causes Y to drop, this will
cause V- input to drop, and raising Y, thus correcting the loading
effect.
This is the circuit for an inverting amplifier using an op-amp. With inverting amplifier, since the V- node is virtually zero, you can
Applying KCL at the V- node gives the following equation: connect multiple sources to this node via a resistor and produce a
summing amplifier.
Y R Apply KCL at V- node and you see the summing effect immediately.
Gain = =− ( 2)
X R1 Each voltage is weighted by the ratio of the feedback resistor RF
and the feeding resistor Ri (i.e. the weighting is - RF/Ri ).
Since the V- node is at the same voltage potential of the V+ node, The fact that the V- node is held at a fixed voltage (in this case 0v,
which is ground (or earthed), we call V- node in this circuit the but it could have been a different voltage, as we will see later), the
virtual earth or virtual ground. effect of input sources X1, X2 etc is isolated from each other.
Unlike the non-inverting amplifier case, which MUST have a gain
≥1, inverting amplifier like this can have any gain, larger or smaller
than 1.
We can combine the structure of the inverting AND non-inverting So far, we assume that the op-amp behaves like an ideal amplifier
amplifier together to form this differential amplifier. The best way with infinite gain A, infinite input resistance Ri, and zero output
to understand this is to apply the principle of superposition. impedance RO.
Consider the effect of X on output Z with Y set to zero. The output These assumptions only hold if the resistors we use to construct
due to X alone is: R2 the circuit are sensible. So how do we choose these resistor
ZX = − X
R1 values?
Consider the effect of Y on output Z with X set to zero. The output If we use too low a resistor value, the output current required is
due to Y alone is more complicated. Firstly, Y is reduced by the too much – no good.
voltage divider before reaching the V+ input. If we use too high a resistor value, the input current into the op-
R4 amp is no longer negligible. Then the gain equation we derived
V+ = Y using KCL at the input node is no longer valid.
R3 + R4
In general, we use resistor values in kΩ to 100kΩ region.
This is amplified according to the non-inverting amplifier gain:
In the next slide, we will consider the assumption of infinite gain A.
R R4
ZY = (1+ 2 ) × ( )Y
R1 R3 + R4
Now assume that R2 = R4 = 3k, and R1 = R3 = 1k.
R R2 R
ZY = (1+ 2 ) × ( )Y = 2 Y
R1 R1 + R2 R1
Therefore
R2
Z = Z X + ZY = ( ) × (Y − X) = 3× (Y − X)
R1
For a practical op-amp, the gain is only very high at low frequency. The detail analysis of the impact of this falling gain on bandwidth
Shown here is the Gain vs Frequency characteristic of a 741 op- when we use negative feedback is beyond the scope of this module.
amp, one of the most popular op-amp in the history of electronics. However, it is worth stating the following observation:
The gain is over 100,000 at frequency below 10Hz. However, the
characteristic is similar to the of an RC low pass filter. The corner
frequency is only 10Hz. It then falls off at -20dB (or x 0.1) / Due to negative feedback, the produce of the overall circuit gain
decade. The gain at 1MHz becomes around 1 (i.e. it stop behaving and the effective bandwidth (i.e maximum frequency for this to
as an amplifier). behave like an amplifier) is a constant. This product:

Gain x Bandwidth = gain-bandwidth product = constant.

For MCP6002, the product is around 1MHz, or 106.

The result of this is shown in the plot here.