What does signal source offset mean?

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,734
hi k,
Assume the desired input signal is say a 1kHz sine wave, centred about zero volts.
The equipment/circuit generating the sine wave may produce a 1kHz sine wave which is not quite centred about zero volts,,,ie: it has a DC component,above or below zero volts.

The circuit that is processing/using the sine wave as an input voltage may give erroneous outputs due to this DC component on its input.
So a capacitor is used, in series with sine input source, this will block the DC offset component being seen by the following circuits.

E
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,050
Signal source offset is the difference in voltage between the two inputs of the op-amp. This is multiplied by the gain of the amp and offsets the output voltage.
If an AC signal connected to one input of an op-amp has a different DC component to the other input a capacitor is usually used to block the DC offset so that the output is not biased into cutoff.
 
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