about op amp

Thread Starter

blue6x

Joined Apr 6, 2005
38
Good day to everyone....

As an electronics student, I was fascinated by the numerous application of an op amp. I've been trying to study this particular active device for quite sometime now, looking at their configuration. (there were lots of them though). I was just wondering why in cases that it is being applied in acircuit, being its primary purpose is amplification, tends not to do that amplification at all. Take the case of a unity-gain op-amp. How could i possibly know that this op amp is actually functioning as a unity gain op-amp by looking at its configuration alone. How about integrators, comparators, differentiators and inverting ang non-inverting op amp. This could be a long topic, but if you could share your thought most especially on the above configurations, I would appreciate your help.


The most important is, of course how could you easily identify the purpose of the op-amp in a particular schematic diagram by just looking on their configuration. please share your thoughts by stating your knowledge. Thank you very much to everyone...

This could be of great help to everyone who would read this....
 

hgmjr

Joined Jan 28, 2005
9,027
The website link that pebe provided is a terrific place to begin your exploration of opamps.

You will also find some good basic information on opamps in the tutorial section of this website.

You asked how you can look at the circuit and determine what opamp topology or configuration it is. That is just a skill that you will have to develop with experience.

I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the basic characteristics of an opamp.

For example:

- high input impedance looking into its positive and negative input terminals
- low impedance at its output terminal
- high open loop gain

These are a few of the major characteristics. There are several more but these are a good place to start.

Also you will need to acquire a basic understanding of feedback theory since many if not all opamp topologies use feedback techniques to stabilize their operation.

In summary, opamps are fundamental elements in analog circuit design and a strong grasp of how they operate is an important tool to be included in any aspiring electronic engineer's tool box.

hgmjr
 

Thread Starter

blue6x

Joined Apr 6, 2005
38
thanks, I asked this topic mainly because though I really have studied op-amp characteristics even before, unfortunately, there were some configurations that when I try looking at books, it says that the configurations is like would say inverting op amp, or non inverting op amp. so what follows is I study their characteristics as inverting or non-inverting but to some dissapointment, the actual circuit is acting not like that.....
 

mozikluv

Joined Jan 22, 2004
1,435
hi

just to add a few things. study the basic feedback topology and you will readily understand how the op-amp is used for a certain function. there are only 4 basic feedback topology, 1. shunt-shunt, 2. shunt-series, 3. series-shunt 4. series-series :D

likewise study feedback stability. :p
 

Dave

Joined Nov 17, 2003
6,969
Hi,

You should look at Microelectronic Circuits (Sedra and Smith) Chapter 8, for a detailed analysis of feedback. It starts looking at generalised feedback structures, the 4 basic topologies mozikluz mentioned above, moving onto more advanced topics such as feedback stability and feedback analysed in terms of poles/zeros and Bode plots.

Some of this may be a little to "indepth", but its worth learning the basic feedback theory, not just for analysing op amps, but also in broader areas such as Control Theory (of which op amps play a significant part).

Can I also point you to the section here on All About Circuits dedicated to op amps and feedback: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_8/index.html

Hope this helps a little.
 

mozikluv

Joined Jan 22, 2004
1,435
hi blue6x,

this is just an addendum to what i have posted about feedbacks.

1. a series-shunt feedback topology is what we usually call a voltage amplifier

2. a shunt-series feedback topology is a current amplifier

3. a series-series feedback topology is a transconductance amplifier

4. a shunt-shunt feedback topology is a tranresistance amplifier

am posting here the series shunt circuit diagram, its equivalent circuit and bjt equivalent.

of course there are other aspects but this will suffice for now.
 
Top