AP Lab

Inverting Amplifier

Name: Kenzie WALIPI

ID No.: 20600257
C/Code : BSAP-4
Lab Instructor: Mr Matthew Waimbo

OCTOBER 21, 2023

AP Final year lab
Applied Physics Department
Inverting Amplifier

INTRODUCTION

Operational Amplifier, or op-amp for short, is fundamentally a voltage amplifying device

designed to be used with external feedback components such as resistors and capacitors between
its output and input terminals. It is a three-terminal device, which consist of two high impedance
inputs. One of the inputs is called the Inverting input, marked with a negative sign, (-) and the
other input is called the non-inverting input, marked with positive sign (+).

The third terminal represents the operational amplifier output port. In a linear operational
amplifier, the output signal is the amplification factor, known as the amplification gain (A)
multiplied by the value of the input signal and depending on the nature of these input and output
signals, there can be four different classifications of operational amplifier gain.

• Voltage – Voltage “in” and voltage “out”

➢ Current – Current “in” and Current “out”

➢ Trans-conductance – Voltage “in” and Voltage “out”

➢ Trans-resistance – Current “in” and Current “out”

Since most of the circuits dealing with operational amplifiers are voltage amplifiers, we limit the
discussion to voltage amplifiers only, (Vin and Vout). The output voltage signal from an
Operational Amplifier is the difference between the signals being applied to its two individual
inputs. In other words, an op-amps output signal is the difference between the two input signals
(inverting and non-inverting) therefore, it is in fact a differential amplifier.

The circuit shows a generalized form of a differential amplifier with two inputs marked V 1 and V2.
The two identical transistors TR1 and TR2 are both biased at the same operating point with their
emitters connected together and returned to the common rail, - VEE by way of resistor RE.

The circuit operates from a dual supply VCC and –VEE, which ensures a
constant supply. The voltage that appears at the output, Vout of the
amplifier is the difference between the two input signals as the two
base inputs are in anti-phase with each other. So as the forward bias of
transistor, TR1 is increased, the forward bias of transistor TR2 is
reduced and vice versa. Then the two transistors are matched
perfectly, the current flowing through the common emitter resistor, RE
will remain constant.

Like the input signal, the output signal is also balanced and since the collector voltages either
swing in opposite directions (anti-phase) or in the same direction (in-phase) the output voltage
signal, taken from between the two collectors is, assuming a perfectly balanced circuit the zero

1
difference between the two collector voltages. This is known as Common Mode of Operation
with the common mode gain of the amplifier being the output gain when the input is zero.

However, in real amplifiers, there are always some variations and ratio of the change to the output
voltage with regards to the change in the common mode input voltage is called Common Mode
Rejection Ratio or CMRR for short.
Operational Amplifiers on their own have a very high open loop DC gain and by applying some
form of negative feedback we can produce an operational amplifier circuit that has a very precise
gain characteristic that is dependent only on the feedback used. Note that the term “open loop”
means there are no feedback components used around the amplifier so the feedback path or the
loop is open. An operational amplifier only responds to the different between the voltages on its
two input terminals, known commonly as the “Differential Input Voltage” and not to their
common potential. Then if the same voltage potential is applied to both terminals, the resultant
output will be zero. An operational amplifiers gain is commonly known as the Open Loop
Differential Gain, and is given the symbol (Ao). The main function of an operational amplifier is
to amplify the input signal and the more open loop gain it has the better. Open-loop gain is the
gain of the o-amp without positive or negative feedback and for such an amplifier, the gain will
be infinite but typical real values range from about 20,000 to 200,000.

The Voltage Gain (Av) of a Practical Operational Amplifier can be found as, Av=Vout/Vin and in
Decibels or (dB) the gain is expressed as: Av = 20log (Av) = 20log Vout/Vin dB

THEORY
The Inverting-Amplifier circuit is built by grounding the positive input (non-inverting input) of
the operational amplifier and connecting resistor R1 and R2, between the inverting input and the
signal source and the amplifier output node. With the background knowledge that the feedback is
negligibly small, I calculated the output voltage gain Av by changing the input voltage on the
CRO to see the gain in the output
The 741 OP-AMP Diagram and Connections

Figure 1 The 741 IC

2
Figure2 The Inverting Amplifier Configuration of an op-amp.
Ideal characteristics

Figure 3: Shows the Ideal op-amp input-output characteristic.

Figure 4: Shows the input and output waveforms of in inverting amplifier-using op-amp. The
graph is drawn assuming that the gain (Av) of the amplifier is 2 and the input signal is sine wave.

It is clear from the graph that the output is twice in magnitude when compared to the input
voltage (Vout = Av × Vin) and phase is opposite to the input.

3
APPARATUS & SET UP
1Function Generator
2. CRO
3. IC Regulator Power Supply
4. Resistors
5. 741 IC
6. Connecting Wires
7. Breadboard
8. Digital Multimeter

Voltage follower is one of the simplest uses of an operational amplifier, where the output
voltage is exactly same as the input voltage applied to the circuit. In other words, the gain of
a voltage follower circuit is unity.

The output of the op-amp is directly connected to the inverting input terminal, and the input
voltage is applied at the non-inverting input terminal. The voltage follower, like a
noninverting amplifier, has very high input impedance and very low output impedance. The
circuit diagram of a voltage follower is shown in the figure below.

Lab Component specifications

The Inverting Amplifier circuit design was implemented on the Virtual breadboard using the
following:
• Power supply: +12v and -12
➢ Function Generator: I selected the Sine Wave with the following specification;
Frequency = 1.05 KHz Amplitude: Varied to see the output.
➢ Resistor R1: 1K
➢ Resistor R2: 10K
➢ Resistor R3: 10K

PROCEDURE
1) Firstly, the required instrument and components were brought in.

2) Then the circuit as show in the circuit diagram above was connected.

4
3) The input signal as specified were given varying from 0.2V to 0.7V

4) After that, the output from the CRO was noted and we also took into consideration the
necessary Time Division Scale calculations.

5) We then measured the output voltage with a digital multimeter and the readings were recorded.

6) Finally, we carried out Necessary Voltage gain Calculation to observe the relation between the
inputs and the output voltages.

Results
Below is the result obtained from the non-inverting Amplification.it shows the result is 0ut
of phase because of inverting. The graph is not drawn to scale because of errors
encountered due to the malfunction of instruments. In this Inverting Amplifier circuit, the
operational amplifier relates to feedback to produce a closed loop operation. When dealing
with operational amplifiers there are two very important rules to remember about inverting
amplifiers, these are: “No current flows into the input terminal” and that “V1 always equals
V2”. However, in real world op-amp circuits both rules are slightly broken.

This is because the junction of the input and feedback signal ( X ) is at the same potential as
the positive ( + ) input which is at zero volts or ground then, the junction is a “Virtual Earth”.
Because of this virtual earth node the input resistance of the amplifier is equal to the value
of the input resistor, Rin and the closed loop gain of the inverting amplifier can be set by the
ratio of the two external resistors.

When output waveform from the CRO was critically monitored, an inverted and amplified
waveform was observed. The input and the output voltage from the input and output
waveforms in the CRO was measured. The output waveform of the inverting amplifier circuit
was observed using different input waveforms.

5
 The equation for the output voltage Vout also shows that the circuit is linear in nature for a
fixed amplifier gain as Vout = Vin x Gain. This property can be very useful for converting a
smaller sensor signal to a much larger voltage. Calculated experimentally and observed the
voltage gain Av using observed Vo and Vin from CRO.
Voltage Gain of Inverting Operational Amplifier
GAIN(Av)= - Rf/R1
= Vout /Vin
= 0.092V/0.92V=10
The negative sign implies that the output signal is negated.
Negative Feedback is the process of “feeding back” a fraction of the output signal back to
the input, but to make the feedback negative, we must feed it back to the negative or
“inverting input” terminal of the op-amp using an external Feedback Resistor called Rƒ. This
feedback connection between the output and the inverting input terminal forces the
differential input voltage towards zero.

This effect produces a closed loop circuit to the amplifier resulting in the gain of the
amplifier now being called its Closed-loop Gain. Then a closed-loop inverting amplifier uses
negative feedback to accurately control the overall gain of the amplifier, but at a cost in the
reduction of the amplifiers gain.

This negative feedback results in the inverting input terminal having a different signal on it
than the actual input voltage as it will be the sum of the input voltage plus the negative
feedback voltage giving it the label or term of a Summing Point. We must therefore separate
the real input signal from the inverting input by using an Input Resistor, Rin.

As we are not using the positive non-inverting input this is connected to a common ground
or zero voltage terminal as shown below, but the effect of this closed loop feedback circuit
results in the voltage potential at the inverting input being equal to that at the non-inverting
input producing a Virtual Earth summing point because it will be at the same potential as
the grounded reference input. In other words, the op-amp becomes a “differential
amplifier”.

6
Conclusion
The feedback is used that helps to provide the controllable gain of the amplifier. The graph
gained is out of phase depend on the nature of the amplification.
Operational Amplifiers have a high open loop gain. The achieved gained of the non-inverting
amplifier is positive thus it provides non-inverted in nature.

Errors
• The errors came from different sources but mostly its because of the use of
malfunction/partly function instruments.
• Also, error comes from human; not connecting the wires properly.

References
• Physics Lab Book Manuel

7
 AP Lab
Papua New Guinea University of Technology
The Department of Applied Physics

Name: LARSEN TUMU

ID#: 19600230
C/Code: BSAP-4
Lab instructor: Mr. METHEW WAIMBO
Date: 04/09/2023

AP Final year lab