Operational amplifiers

Types of operational amplifiers

(bioelectric amplifiers have different gain values)
• Low-gain amplifiers (x1 to x10)
– Used for buffering and impedance transformation between signal
source and readout device
– Applications are measurement of action potentials and other high-
amplitude bioelectric events

• Medium-gain amplifiers (x10 to x1000)

– Recording of ECG waveforms, muscle potentials etc.

• High-gain amplifiers (x1000 up to x106 )

– Sensitive measurements, like recording EEG (brain potentials)
 Operational amplifiers

Circuit symbol of the operational amplifier Vout=Aol(Vin(+)-Vin(-))

 Operational amplifiers

Behavior of op-amps
• Output voltage can be in range from negative to positive supply voltage
- Rail-to-rail ops allow widest voltage range (nearly up to supply voltage)
- Normal op-amps have lower output voltage range

• The (-) input produce an output signal that is 180º out of phase with the
input signal
• The (+) input produce an output signal that is in phase with the input signal

• No current flows in to either input terminal of the op amp (infinity Input

impedance )

• Op amp with negative feedback works as an amplifier (the two input

terminals are at the same voltage)
• Op amp with positive or no feedback works as a comparator
 Operational amplifiers

Attributes of ideal op-amps

• Open-loop Gain is infinite

• No offset voltage

• Input impedance is infinite (acts as an idea voltmeter)

- bioelectric amp must have very high input impedance because all the
bioelectric signal source exhibit a high source impedance

• Output impedance is zero (acts as an idea voltage source)

• Zero noise contribution

• Bandwidth is infinite (no frequency-response limitations, no phase shift)

 Basic amplifier configurations

Basic amplifier configurations

• Inverting amplifier or follower

• Non-inverting amplifier or follower

• Summing amplifier

• Differential amplifier

• Transimpedance amplifier (amplifies and converts input current to output

voltage)
 Inverting amplifier or follower

•
 Inverting amplifier or follower

• The input-output plot of an inverting amplifier (fig)

• Linearity over a limited range of Vin
• The op amp is saturated at ±13V (further increase in Vin no change in
Vout)
Inverting amplifier
 Error sources - Inverting amplifier

Fig. 7-4 shows detailled circuit of an inverting amplifier

• Bias currents Ib- and Ib+ and output load current Io
• Three types of internal resistance and capacitance
– (1) Common-mode Rcm and Ccm, referring to internal ground Vee
– (2) Differential Rdiff and Cdiff between positive and negative input
– (3) output Ro
• Internal ground reference Vee as middle of positive and negative supply
Errors through external components
• Rs creates a 0.5% gain error (from the ideal -1V/V), Rs becomes part of a
voltage divider with R1 at the input.
-This small error can sum up in multiple staged amplifiers
• Ro creates another gain error through voltage divider behavior with the load
resistance of the following stage
- In this case Rl is large enough, so the influence from Ro isn’t strong
enough
 Error sources - Inverting amplifier

Errors through internal components

• Rcm (is parallel with R1) causes small errors, as it is usually > 1000MΩ

• Through Ccm (< 5pF) higher gain errors will be produced in higher
frequencies (Rc=1/jωc)
-Example: at 1 Mhz Ccm reactance is at 32kΩ, which shunts the external
resistance, therefore creating a higher gain error

Other errors

• Bias current Ib- (nA-fA) creates a voltage at the feedback resistor which
shows up at the output
-In values: Ib- = 10nA, therefore 0.1 mV across R2, with Eout = 10V that
means an error of 0.001%; therefore the error is rather small in this case
 Non-inverting amplifier or follower

• Unity gain non-inverting amp is used as a Buffer

• And for impedance matching between a high source impedance and a low-impedance input circuit
 Non-inverting amplifier or follower

• Input - Output characteristic of a non-inverting amplifier

Non-inverting amplifier
 Non-inverting amplifier
and errors
Details in circuit displayed in fig 7-8
• Input signal drives very high internal impedance (Rcm, Rdiff etc.).Therefore
very little gain error is induced
• Small gain error is produced by the voltage divider consisting of Ro and RL
• Furthermore additional gain errors are created through the bias currents
flowing through the feedback resistances (Ib- and Ib+)

Bias currents correlate to ambient

temperature
• Fig 7-10 provides an overview
concerning the influence from
ambient temperature to bias
current
 Non-inverting amplifier Example

• ph probe amplifier
 Summing amplifier

•
 Summing amplifier

• It is used to remove undesirable dc voltage from a signal.

Vo=0 Æ if=0Æ ij+ib=0

 Differential amplifier

• Produces an output voltage proportional to the difference between the

voltage applied to the two input terminals
• The voltage gain is the same as for inverting followers when the ratio of
feedback resistor to input resistor is equal at both terminals.
• Unity gain when all four resistor are equal
• Removes common-mode noise and amplifying the differential signal.

U3

U4

One op-amp differential amplifier

 Differential amplifier

• The input resistance of one op amp differential amplifier is to low for

high-resistance source. Satisfactory for low-resistance source such as
Wheatstone bridge
• Solution: add two non-inverting gain followers of high input resistance
• Instrumentation amp has also higher gain
One op-amp differential
amplifier
Differential Gain of the two
non-inverting combined followers:

Three op-amp differential amp or Instrumentation amplifier

Instrumentation Amplifier
Sensors and Op-amp Examples
 Transimpedance amplifier

• current to voltage converter

• A positive input current pulse produces a negative output voltage
• The If is almost equal to Iin since Ib is small
• Example (fig): 10nA input gives 0.1V output
• Most common bioelectric amp is the photodiode amplifier
 Integrator - a low pass filter

• Gives as an output the integral of an input

• When a voltage is applied to the integrator, a current I2 begins to charge
C1.

• It is function as a low-pass filter with frequency response:

• The gain decreases as f (f=2πf) increases
 Differentiator - a high pass filter

• Gives as an output the differential of an input

• It is function as a high-pass filter with frequency response:

• The gain increases as f (f=2πf) increases

Input Output
Active filters
Frequency Response:
 Comparators

• Compares the input voltage with some reference voltage and gives in
the output positive or negative saturation limits of the op-amp
Comparators
Schmitt Trigger Comparator