INVERTING / NON-INVERTING AMPLIFIER

POWERED BY A SINGLE SUPPLY VOLTAGE

Operational Amplifier
An Operational Amplifier is basically a three-terminal device which consists of two high
impedance inputs. One of the inputs is called the Inverting Input, marked with a negative or
“minus” sign, ( – ). The other input is called the Non-inverting Input, marked with a positive or
“plus” sign ( + ). A third terminal represents the operational amplifiers Output port which can both
sink and source either a voltage or a current.

An 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. These feedback components determine the resulting
function or “operation” of the amplifier and by virtue of the different feedback configurations
whether resistive, capacitive or both, the amplifier can perform a variety of different operations,
giving rise to its name of “Operational Amplifier”.

Characteristics of an ideal Op-Amp

• Open Loop gain: Ideally op-amp should have an infinite open-loop gain (practically it is
hundreds of thousands of times larger than the potential difference between its input
terminals).
• Input impedance or resistance: Ideally op-amp should have infinite input resistance
(practically it should be very high).
• Output impedance or resistance: Ideally op-amp should have zero output resistance
(practically it should be very low).
• Bandwidth: Ideally op-amp should have infinite bandwidth (practically it is limited).
• CMRR: Ideally op-amp should have infinite CMRR, Common Mode Rejection Ratio so
that common noise voltage in the output becomes zero.
• Slew Rate: Ideally op-amp should have infinite SR, slew rate so that any change in the
input voltage simultaneously changes the output voltage.
Inverting Amplifier

A type of op-amp that is designed to generate a signal at the output which is 180° out of
phase with the applied input is known as an inverting amplifier. This implies that if the phase of
the applied input signal is positive then the amplified signal will be in a negative phase. In a similar
way for a signal with a negative phase, the phase of the output will be positive.

It is regarded as one of the simplest and widely used configurations of the op-amp. The figure
below represents the circuit of inverting amplifier:

Here from the above figure, it is clear that the feedback is provided to the op-amp so as to have
the closed-loop operation of the circuit. To have the accurate operation of the circuit, negative
feedback is provided to it. Thus, to have a closed-loop circuit, the input, as well as the feedback
signal from the output, is provided at the inverting terminal of the op-amp.

For, the above-given network, the gain is given as:

Waveform

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Non-Inverting Amplifier

An amplifier that produces an amplified signal at the output, having a similar phase as that
of the applied input is known as the non-inverting amplifier. This simply means that for an input
signal with a positive phase, the output will also be positive. Also, the same goes for input with
the negative phase.

The figure below represents the circuit of the non-inverting amplifier:

In this case, to have an output of the same phase as input, the input signal is applied at the non-
inverting terminal of the amplifier. But here also negative feedback is to be provided, thus, the
fed-back signal is provided to the inverting terminal of the op-amp. The closed-loop gain of the
non-inverting amplifier is given as:

It is to be noted here that an amplifier with an inverting configuration can be converted into a
non-inverting one, just be altering the provided input connections.

Waveform

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Inverting and Non-Inverting Amplifiers Powered by a Single Power Supply
Up to this point, all of the example circuits have used a bipolar power supply, usually ±15V.
Sometimes this is not practical. For example, a small amount of analog circuitry may be used along
with a predominantly digital circuit that runs off a unipolar supply. It may not be economical to
create an entire negative supply just to run one or two op amps. Although it is possible to buy op
amps that have been specially designed to work with unipolar supplies1, the addition of simple
bias circuitry will allow almost any op amp to run from a unipolar supply. This supply can be up
to twice as large as the bipolar counterpart. In other words, a circuit that normally runs off a ±15V
supply can be configured to run off of a +30V unipolar supply, producing similar performance.
We will look at examples using both the noninverting and inverting voltage amplifiers.

The idea is to bias the input at one-half of the total supply potential. This can be done with
a simple voltage divider. A coupling capacitor may be used to isolate this DC potential from the
driving stage. For proper operation, the op amp's output should also be sitting at one-half of the
supply. This fact implies that the circuit gain must be unity. This may appear to be a very limiting
factor, but in reality, it isn't. The thing to remember is that the gain need only be unity for DC.
The AC gain can be just about any gain you'd like.

Non-Inverting Amplifier

Figure 4.3.1: Single-supply bias in a noninverting amplifier

An example using the non-inverting voltage amplifier is shown in Figure 4.3.1 In order to
set DC gain to unity without affecting the AC gain, capacitor C3 is placed in series with Ri, R1
and R2 establish the 50% bias point. Their parallel combination sets the input impedance too.
Resistors R3 and R4 are used to prevent destructive discharge of the coupling

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capacitors C1 and C2 into the op amp. They may not be required, but if present, typically run
around 1 kΩ and 100 Ω respectively.

The inclusion of the capacitors produces three lead networks. A standard frequency analysis
and circuit simplification shows that the approximate critical frequencies are

The input bias network can be improved by using the circuit of Figure 4.3.2 This reduces the hum
and noise transmitted from the power supply into the op amp's input. It does so by creating a low
impedance at node A. This, of course, does not affect the DC potential. 𝑅5 now sets the input
impedance of the circuit.

Figure 4.3.2: Improved bias for the circuit in Figure 4.3.1

The important points to remember here are that voltage gain is still 1+Rf/Ri in the midband, Zin is
now set by the biasing resistors R1 and R2, or R5 (if used), and that frequency response is no
longer flat down to zero Hertz.

Inverting Amplifier
A single-supply version of the inverting voltage amplifier is shown in Figure 4.3.3 It uses
the same basic techniques as the noninverting form. The bias setup uses the optimized low-noise
form. Note that there is no change in input impedance, it is still set by Ri. The approximate lead
network critical frequencies are found through
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Note the general similarity between the circuits of Figures 4.3.3 and 4.3.1 A simple redirection
of the input signal creates one form from the other.

Figure 4.3.3: Single-supply inverting amplifier

SINGLE-SUPPLY AMPLIFIERS

Single Supply Offers:

• Lower Power
• Battery Operated Portable Equipment
• Simplifies Power Supply Requirements

But,
• Signal-swings limited, therefore more sensitive to errors caused by offset voltage, bias
current, finite open-loop gain, noise, etc.
• More likely to have noisy power supply because of sharing with digital circuits
• DC coupled; multi-stage single-supply circuits can get very tricky!

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Op Amp Applications

Op Amp as adder Op Amp as Integrator

Op Amp as Subtractor Logarithmic Amplifier

Op Amp as Comparator Voltage Follower

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