Experiment 6

Operational Amplifiers and their applications

Objective:
To study operational amplifiers in voltage follower, inverting and non-inverting circuit
configurations.

Apparatus:
1. Operational amplifier
2. DC power supply
3. Digital storage oscilloscope
4. Function generator
5. Breadboard
6. Resistors
7. Connecting wires

Theory:

An operational amplifier is a device commonly used to amplify the input signal in

inverting and non-inverting modes and it has a lot of other applications. It can be
used to construct voltage follower, adder, subtractor, differentiator, integrator,
analog to dc converter and many other circuits.
LM741 is the most common and customary op-amp. The same is used in this
experiment to study the three basic circuits.
Voltage follower:
The op-amp is used in this configuration to isolate two circuits while
maintaining the same potential at the two ends.

Snapshot of breadboard with components connected as in Fig. 1 in manual

Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the function generator

Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output
 Snapshot of breadboard with 100 Ω resistor across function generator

Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across 100 Ω resistor

Measurement across Voltage (V)

Function generator 2.00

Op-Amp 2.24

100 Ω resistor 1.44

Inverting Amplifier:
The op-amp is used in this configuration to obtain an inverted
and amplified output of the input signal. The voltage gain is
𝑅𝑓
given by the formula 𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = − 𝑅
𝑖𝑛

Snapshot of the breadboard with components connected as per Fig. 2 in the manual
 Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output

Repeated experiment at 40 kHz:

 Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output

Repeated experiment at 4 kHz:

 Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output

Repeated experiment with 𝑅𝑓 = 47 𝑘𝛺:

Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output

Snapshot of the breadboard with 47 kΩ resistor

 Observation Table:

𝑅1 = 0.98 kΩ

Input Voltage Freq (kHz) 𝑹𝒇 (kΩ) Output Voltage Theoretical 𝑽𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 Experimental 𝑽𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏
(V) (V)

2.4 1 9.90 (10) -20.0 9.90 20.0

− = −𝟏𝟎. 𝟏𝟎 − = −𝟏𝟎. 𝟎𝟎
0.98 2.0

2.4 4 9.90 (10) -22.0 9.90 22.0

− = −𝟏𝟎. 𝟏𝟎 − = −𝟏𝟏. 𝟎𝟎
0.98 2.0

2.5 40 9.90 (10) - - -

0.2 1 46.03 (47) -9.04 46.03 9.04

− = −𝟒𝟔. 𝟗𝟔 − = −𝟒𝟓. 𝟐𝟎
0.98 0.2

Non-inverting amplifier:
The op-amp is used in this configuration to obtain an amplified output
in phase with the input. The voltage gain is given by the formula
𝑅2
𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 1 + .
𝑅1
Snapshot of the breadboard with components connected as per Fig. 3 in the manual
 Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output

Repeated experiment with 𝑅2 = 47𝑘𝛺:

 Snapshot of the breadboard with 47 kΩ resistor

Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output
Repeated experiment at 4 kHz:

Snapshot of the breadboard with components connected as per Fig. 3 in the manual
Snapshot of the DSO screen with waveform across the Op-Amp output
 Observation Table:

𝑉𝑖 = 0.2 𝑉
𝑅1 = 0.98 𝛺

Freq (kHz) 𝑅2 (kΩ) Output Voltage (V) Theoretical 𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 Experimental 𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛

1 9.90 (10) 2.32 9.90 2.32

1+ = 𝟏𝟏. 𝟏𝟎 = 𝟏𝟏. 𝟔𝟎
0.98 0.2

1 46.03 (47) 9.60 46.03 9.60

1+ = 𝟒𝟕. 𝟗𝟔 = 𝟒𝟖. 𝟎𝟎
0.98 0.2

4 9.90 (10) 2.28 9.90 2.28

1+ = 𝟏𝟏. 𝟏𝟎 = 𝟏𝟏. 𝟒𝟎
0.98 0.2

Concluding Remarks:

In the voltage follower configuration, we observed how op-amps can

be used to isolate two circuits while maintaining same potential
difference without any direct current flow between two nodes of
each circuit. We connected the input of op-amp to function
generator supplying sine wave and observed that the output of op-
amp is the almost same as the input. The voltage at output is limited
by the voltage supplied to the op-amp i.e., 2𝑉𝑐𝑐 .
In inverting amplifier circuit, we verified that the voltage gain
𝑅𝑓
follows the equation 𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = − 𝑅 . We did the experiment with two
𝑖
different feedback resistances (10kΩ and 47kΩ) and three input
frequencies (1kHz, 4kHz & 40kHz). At 40kHz, the rate of change of
output voltage crosses the slew rate and hence we see that the
output is distorted. We also observed that as the input frequency
crosses 4 kHz, the output starts distorting so the slew rate is
approximately 2𝜋(4000)(20) = 5.03 𝑉/𝜇𝑠 and we find in the
LM741 datasheet that the slew rate is 5 𝑉/𝜇𝑠 which is quite close.
Under the limit, it is observed that the voltage gain does not depend
on the frequency of input.

In the non-inverting amplifier configuration also, we verified that the

𝑅
voltage gain follows the formula 𝑉𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 1 + 𝑅2. The experiment
1
was done at two different frequencies (1kHz & 4kHz) and with two
different resistances (10kΩ & 47kΩ) to obtain voltage gains of 11
and 48 respectively. Here also, we observe that the voltage gain
does not depend on the frequency of input voltage.

Measurements: