ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

PRE-LAB IV
OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS
NAME___Sekar Prasetya________ LAB MEETING TIME_______8AM-10:50AM_______

OBJECTIVES
To use function generator, oscilloscope, and OpAmp; to investigate the OpAmp characteristic and to
build inverting amplifier circuit and rain sensor based on voltage comparator circuit

DECIBEL SCALE

1. Bode plots are a tool engineers use to describe frequency response of a circuit. They are defined
for sinusoidal inputs to a circuit. The x-axis of a Bode plot represents frequency of the sinusoidal
wave that is being fed into the circuit and the y-axis shows gain (in dB) and phase shift (in deg or
rad) between the output and input signals.

System gain / Decibel scale

The gain is often displayed in decibels (dB), which represent:
(Eq.1)

Thus, a gain of 0 represents the output being equal to the input and a gain of 20 represents a ratio
of output and input signals of 10. All negative values represent the output being smaller than the
input.

 Calculate gain of a system for which:

a) vo = 10 vi, b) vo = 104 vi, c) vo = 0.1 vi

ga = ___20______
gb = ___80______
gc = ___-20______

The gain may be calculated using ratio of output and input powers (not voltages):
(Eq.2)

 Calculate ratios of output and input powers (eq.2) and voltages (Eq.1) in a circuit whose gain is:
d) g = 3 dB e) g = -3 dB

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

d) Po/Pi = _1.99__ vo/vi = __1.41_

e) Po/Pi = _0.501_ vo/vi = _0.708_
Bode plots:
The following Bode plot is from the datasheet of the op-amp chip you will be using in this lab.

 What do you notice happens to the gain as the frequency increases?

The gain looks like it is decreasing linearly but because the frequency is in base 10 then it is a
logarithmic relationship.

 What do you expect this will mean for the output of your inverter circuit as you increase the
frequency of its input? --- The gain will increase

OPAMP PARAMETERS

2. Find the non-ideal characteristics of OP37 OpAmp in its technical datasheet and compare it to an
ideal OpAmp.
OP37 Datasheet link: http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-
sheets/OP37.pdf (use model: OP37A/E; Assume Typical condition (Typ), Vs = ±15V, RL ≥ 2kΩ,
and Temp = 25C.)

Parameter Ideal Opamp OP37 (typical at 25C) Unit

Open Loop Gain 114 126 dB
Gain Bandwidth Product 45 63 MHz
Output Voltage Swing -12.0 to 12.0 -13.8 to 13.8 V
Input Voltage Offset 25 u 10 u V
Input Bias Current ±40 u ±10 u A
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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

Use any resource to find the meaning of each parameter and summarize them in a sentence:

 Open Loop Gain: The gain of an op-amp without feedback

 Gain Bandwidth Product: The max gain that can be found. It is the gain measured over a bandwidth
 Output Voltage Swing: The range that allows linear operations of the output
 Input Voltage Offset: The voltage applied between two input terminals of an op-amp
 Input Bias Current: Average currents into the two input terminals with a specified output
OPAMP APPLICATIONS

3. a) For the inverting amplifier shown below, find the closed-loop gain ACL=v0/vin, assuming the
Op Amp is ideal. Show your work here:

200 kΩ

+5V
20 kΩ
-
vo
vin
+
-5V

b) Plot v0 vs. vin for -1 ≤ vin ≤ 1 V using MATLAB.

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

LAB IV
OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS
NAME_____Sekar Prasetya_________ LAB MEETING TIME___8 AM-10:50 AM_________

OBJECTIVES
To use function generator, oscilloscope, and OpAmp; to investigate the OpAmp characteristic and to
build inverting amplifier circuit and rain sensor based on voltage comparator circuit

In these experiments, you will be using the same OpAmp as previous lab, OP37.

There are five connections you need to make:

1. V- : -5 voltage power supply
2. V+ : +5 voltage power supply
3. -IN : negative input
4. +IN : positive input
5. OUT : output

Vos TRIM is being used for OpAmp performance tuning for high accuracy application, you do not
need this for now. NC stands for No Connection.

INVERTING AMPLIFIER

1) Construct the circuit below:

200 kΩ

+5V
20 kΩ
vn -
vo
vin
+
-5V

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

2) Comparing input and output voltages of the OpAmp:

Use the waveform’s voltage DC source for different value of vin from -1 V to +1 V and measure
20 equally spaced points.

vin [V] vo [V] vin [V] vo [V] vin [V] vo [V] vin [V] vo [V]
-1.0 4.371 -0.5 4.374 0.1 -0.989 0.6 -4.227
-0.9 4.373 -0.4 3.727 0.2 -1.985 0.7 -4.227
-0.8 4.374 -0.3 2.977 0.3 -2.976 0.8 -4.227
-0.7 4.374 -0.2 1.987 0.4 -3.971 0.9 -4.227
-0.6 4.374 -0.1 0.990 0.5 -4.229 1.0 -4.227

Plot and attach experimental values of vo versus vin using MATLAB.

This input voltage range should put the Op Amp into saturation part of the time. Explain why
output reaches saturation.

The output reaches saturation because the Op Amp can only output a voltage that is smaller than
the max and greater than the smallest value that it is being inputted through the Op Amp
(compared to the rest of the circuit which has a voltage input which is separate to the Op Amp)

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

3) In the space below, compare your measured data to the predictions of the PreLab homework. Use
the slope of your measured curve to obtain measured value of the closed loop gain ACL.

ACL (theory) = ______-10______ ACL (measured) = ___-9.2722_________

vo,Min (theory) = ______-5______ vo,Min (measured) = ____-4.227________

vo,Max (theory) = ______5______ vo,Max (measured) = ____4.374________

4) Comparing voltages of two input terminals:

Measure 20 equally distributed points for vin from -1 V to +1 V.

vin [V] vn [V] vin [V] vn [V] vin [V] vn [V] vin [V] vn [V]
-1.0 -0.499 -0.5 -0.060 0.1 -0.007 0.6 0.99
-0.9 -0.414 -0.4 -0.032 0.2 -0.008 0.7 0.105
-0.8 -0.325 -0.3 -0.009 0.3 -0.008 0.8 0.110
-0.7 -0.236 -0.2 -0.009 0.4 -0.008 0.9 0.113
-0.6 -0.147 -0.1 -0.009 0.5 -0.55 1.0 0.117

Plot and attach experimental values of vn versus vin using MATLAB.

5) In the analysis of the inverting amplifier circuit that you did in the PreLab homework, you
assumed that vn = 0. However, your measurements show that it is not always zero. Explain this
discrepancy from the ideal OpAmp model in five or more sentences.

There is a discrepancy of the vn that is assumed in the Prelab because it is not an ideal OpAmp that
we are using. The ideal OpAmp is only a guide to how the real OpAmp will behave. The values are
also different because of the resistors that are used. Resistors are also not exact in value and that is
why there is room for error on the circuit as a whole to have Vn not equal to zero. What the graph
shows is that it is close to zero but not zero completely.

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

6) Changing the magnitude of the AC input signal:

Apply a 1000 Hz sine wave to the input at vin and observe the voltage waveforms vin(t) and vo(t)
on the oscilloscope. Capture several cycles of vin(t) and vo(t) for two cases:

 vin = 0.3 V (peak-to-peak), f = 1 kHz

 vin = 3 V (peak-to-peak), f = 1 kHz

Include printout of measurement results in your lab report. Include both vin and vo on the same
graph.

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ECE 202 – Experiment 4 – Lab Report

7) Explain the shape of vo(t) for each case.

vo(t) is a sinusoidal in the first case but then when the frequency changed the vo(t) looks more like
a square wave as the output. For the second graph there are points where there is more data
centered/overlapped looking and that is because the output is essentially “freaking out” because
of the varying output at that time.

DEPENDENCE OF THE CIRCUIT AND BODE PLOTS

Set magnitude of the AC input signal vin to 1 V (Vpp = 2 V). Increase frequency of the sine wave input
from 1Hz to 10 MHz and observe magnitude of vout.
 Record all eight points of frequency in logarithmic scale.

f [Hz] vout [V] f [Hz] vout [V]

1Hz 3.865 10kHz 0.652
10Hz 3.865 100kHz 0.171
100Hz 3.863 1Mhz 0.545
1kHz 3.733 10Mhz 0.059

 Use MATLAB to graph your measurements. If possible, try graphing log-normal curve (using
semilogx function), where 2 is on the vertical axis and frequency in log scale is on
the horizontal.

 Is this the general trend you expected from the frequency information in the pre-lab or the
OpAmp technical datasheet?
This is the general trend that was expected from the information provided from the pre-lab.

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