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UNIT – 5

OP-AMP (OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER)

Introduction

 An operational amplifier is a multistage amplifier and consists of a differential amplifier stage, a high-gain CE
amplifier stage and class B push-pull emitter follower.
 An operational amplifier (OP-Amp) is an integrated circuit (IC) and is widely used in computers, as video and
audio amplifiers in communication electronics.
 (All the components of an OP-Amp (e.g., transistors, resistors etc.) are fabricated on a small chip called
integrated circuit.)
 It can perform such mathematical operations as addition, subtraction, integration and differentiation.
 OP-Amp is a multistage amplifier. The three stages are : differential amplifier input stage followed by a high-
gain CE amplifier and finally the output stage

Block Diagram of OPAMP

i. The input stage of an OP-Amp is a differential amplifier (DA) and the output stage is typically a class B push-
pull emitter follower
ii. The internal stages of an OP-Amp are direct-coupled i.e., no coupling capacitors are used. The direct
coupling allows the OP-Amp to amplify d.c. as well as a.c. signals.
iii. An OP-Amp has very high input impedance (ideally infinite) and very low output impedance (ideally zero).
The effect of high input impedance is that the amplifier will draw a very small current (ideally zero) from
the signal source. The effect of very low output impedance is that the amplifier will provide a constant
output voltage independent of current drawn from the source
iv. operated with negative feedback

Schematic symbol of OPAMP

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i. It has five terminals: two terminals for supply voltages +V and –V; two input terminals (inverting input and
noninverting input) and one output terminal

ii. input terminals are marked + and –. These are not polarity signs. The – sign indicates the inverting input while
the + sign indicates the noninverting input. A signal applied to plus terminal will appear in the same phase at
the output as at the input. A signal applied to the minus terminal will be shifted in phase 180° at the output

Characteristics of OPAMP / Parameters

1. Open loop voltage gain

2. Output offset voltage
3. Common Mode Rejection Ratio
4. Slew Rate

1. Open loop voltage gain

The open loop voltage gain of an op-amp is its differential gain without any feedback path.

2. Output offset voltage

The voltage present at the output of an op-amp when its differential input voltage is zero is called as output offset
voltage.

3. Common Mode Rejection Ratio

defined as the ratio of the differential gain, Ad and the common mode gain, Ac

Differential Gain - The differential-mode signals are equal in amplitude but 180° out of phase.

Common Mode Gain - The common-mode signals are equal in magnitude and have the same phase.

4. Slew Rate

defined as the maximum rate of change of the output voltage due to a step input voltage.

Where, V0 is the output voltage. In general, slew rate is measured in either V/μSec or V/mSec

 slew rate of an OP-amp is a measure of how fast the output voltage can change and is measured in volts
per microsecond (V/µs). If the slew rate of an OP-amp is 0.5V/µs, it means that the output from the
amplifier can change by 0.5 V every μs.
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Types of OPAMP

1. Ideal Opamp 2. Practical OPamp

1. Ideal Opamp
It is only in theory, and does not exist practically.

Properties –

 Input impedance Zi=∞Ω  zero input current.

 Output impedance Z0=0Ω  means the output voltage
does not depend on the value of load connected
 Open loop voltage gain Av=∞
 Bandwidth is infinity. It means, an ideal op-amp will
amplify the signals of any frequency
 Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) is infinity.
 Slew Rate (SR) is infinity. It means, the ideal op-amp will
produce a change in the output instantly in response to
an input step voltage

2. Practical OPamp

Properties –

 very high voltage gain

 very high input impedance
 very low output impedance
 voltage gain is very high, an extremely small input voltage
(vin) will produce a large output voltage (vout)
 input impedance (Zin) is very high, a practical OP-amp has
very small input current.
 output impedance (Zout) of a practical OP-amp is very low,
it means that output voltage is practically independent of
the value of load connected

Bandwidth of OPamp

 All electronic devices work only over a limited range of frequencies. This range of frequencies is called
bandwidth.
 Every OP-amp has a bandwidth i.e., the range of frequencies over which it will work properly. The bandwidth of
an OP-amp depends upon the closed-loop gain of the OP-amp circuit.

Applications of Opamp

Inverting & Non-Inverting Amplifier

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Inverting Amplifier

 An input signal vin is applied through input resistor Ri to

the minus input (inverting input)
 The output is fed back to the same minus input through
feedback resistor Rf. The plus input (noninverting input)
is grounded.
 Note that the resistor Rf provides the negative feedback.
Since the input signal is applied to the inverting input (–),
the output will be inverted (i.e. 180° out of phase) as
compared to the input. Hence the name inverting
amplifier

Non-Inverting Amplifier

 if we want to have an output signal of the same polarity as

the input signal, OP-amp is connected as noninverting
amplifier
 The input signal is applied to the noninverting input (+). The
output is applied back to the input through the feedback
circuit formed by feedback resistor Rf and input resistance Ri
 Since the input signal is applied to the noninverting input (+),
the output signal will be non-inverted i.e., the output signal
will be in phase with the input signal. Hence, the name non-
inverting amplifier.

Summer / Summing Amplifier

 A summing amplifier is an inverted OP-amp that can accept two or more inputs
 The output voltage of a summing amplifier is proportional to the negative of the algebraic sum of its input
voltages. Hence the name summing amplifier.
 Three voltages V1, V2 and V3 are applied to the inputs and produce currents I1, I2 and I3
 the three input currents I1, I2 and I3 combine at the summing point A and form the total current (If) which
goes through Rf
 If = I1 + I2 + I3
 When all the three inputs are applied, the output voltage is-
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Thus the output voltage is proportional to the algebraic sum of the input voltages (of course neglecting negative
sign).

If, Rf = R1 = R2 = R3 and output voltage is

Vout = – (V1 + V2 + V3)

Opamp Integrator & Differentiator

 A circuit that performs the mathematical integration of input signal is called an integrator. The output of an
integrator is proportional to the area of the input waveform over a period of time.
 A circuit that performs the mathematical differentiation of input signal is called a differentiator. The output
of a differentiator is proportional to the rate of change of its input signal

 the two circuits are nearly identical in terms of their construction. Each contains a single OP-amp and an RC
circuit.
 the difference in resistor/capacitor placement in the two circuits causes them to have input/output
relationships that are exact opposites.
 For example, if the input to the integrator is a square wave, the output will be a triangular wave
 differentiator will convert a triangular wave into square wave

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Schmitt Trigger

 A Schmitt Trigger is a comparator circuit with hysteresis implemented by applying positive feedback to the
noninverting input of a comparator or differential amplifier.
 A Schmitt Trigger uses two input different threshold voltage level to avoid noise in the input signal. The
action from this dual-threshold is known as hysteresis
 The Schmitt trigger gives proper results even if the input signal is noisy. It uses two threshold voltages; one
is the upper threshold voltage (VUT) and the second is lower threshold voltage (VLT).
 The output of the Schmitt trigger remains low until the input signal crosses VUT. Once the input signal cross
this limit VUT, the output signal of the Schmitt trigger remains high until the input signal is below the level
of VLT.

In waveform diagram –

 The output signal of the Schmitt trigger remains low until point A. At point A, the input signal crosses above
the level of the upper threshold (VUT) and it makes a high output signal.
 The output signal remains high until point B. At point B, the input signal crosses below the lower threshold.
And this makes the output signal low.
 In this condition, we can see that the input signal is noisy. But the noise is not affected in the output signal.

555 Timer IC

 The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit primarily used for timing and generating precise
oscillations or pulses in electronic circuits.
 It comprises various components like comparators, a flip-flop, and resistors/capacitors that can be
configured in different modes to perform tasks such as generating clock signals, creating precise
timing delays, or producing square wave oscillations
 555 Timer IC got its name from the three 5KΩ resistors

Pin Diagram

8 pins
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Block Diagram