Operational Amplifier Basics

Operational Amplifier Basics

Operational Amplifiers, or Op-amps as they are more commonly called, are one of the basic
building blocks of Analogue Electronic Circuits.

Operational amplifiers are linear devices that have all the properties required for nearly ideal DC
amplification and are therefore used extensively in signal conditioning, filtering or to perform
mathematical operations such as add, subtract, integration and differentiation.

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”.

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. In a linear operational amplifier, the output signal is the
amplification factor, known as the amplifiers gain ( A ) multiplied by the value of the input
signal and depending on the nature of these input and output signals, there can be four different
classifications of operational amplifier gain.

 Voltage – Voltage “in” and Voltage “out”

 Current – Current “in” and Current “out”
 Transconductance – Voltage “in” and Current “out”
 Transresistance – Current “in” and Voltage “out”
Since most of the circuits dealing with operational amplifiers are voltage amplifiers, we will
limit the tutorials in this section to voltage amplifiers only, (Vin and Vout).

The output voltage signal from an Operational Amplifier is the difference between the signals
being applied to its two individual inputs. In other words, an op-amps output signal is the
difference between the two input signals as the input stage of an Operational Amplifier is in fact
a differential amplifier as shown below.

Differential Amplifier

The circuit below shows a generalized form of a differential amplifier with two inputs marked
V1 and V2. The two identical transistors TR1 and TR2 are both biased at the same operating
point with their emitters connected together and returned to the common rail, -Vee by way of
resistor Re.

Differential Amplifier

The circuit operates from a dual supply +Vcc and -Vee which ensures a constant supply. The
voltage that appears at the output, Vout of the amplifier is the difference between the two input
signals as the two base inputs are in anti-phase with each other.

So as the forward bias of transistor, TR1 is increased, the forward bias of transistor TR2 is
reduced and vice versa. Then if the two transistors are perfectly matched, the current flowing
through the common emitter resistor, Re will remain constant.

Like the input signal, the output signal is also balanced and since the collector voltages either
swing in opposite directions (anti-phase) or in the same direction (in-phase) the output voltage
signal, taken from between the two collectors is, assuming a perfectly balanced circuit the zero
difference between the two collector voltages.
This is known as the Common Mode of Operation with the common mode gain of the amplifier
being the output gain when the input is zero.

Operational Amplifiers also have one output (although there are ones with an additional
differential output) of low impedance that is referenced to a common ground terminal and it
should ignore any common mode signals that is, if an identical signal is applied to both the
inverting and non-inverting inputs there should no change to the output.

However, in real amplifiers there is always some variation and the ratio of the change to the
output voltage with regards to the change in the common mode input voltage is called the
Common Mode Rejection Ratio or CMRR for short.

Operational Amplifiers on their own have a very high open loop DC gain and by applying some
form of Negative Feedback we can produce an operational amplifier circuit that has a very
precise gain characteristic that is dependant only on the feedback used. Note that the term “open
loop” means that there are no feedback components used around the amplifier so the feedback
path or loop is open.

An operational amplifier only responds to the difference between the voltages on its two input
terminals, known commonly as the “Differential Input Voltage” and not to their common
potential. Then if the same voltage potential is applied to both terminals the resultant output will
be zero. An Operational Amplifiers gain is commonly known as the Open Loop Differential
Gain, and is given the symbol (Ao).

Equivalent Circuit of an Ideal Operational Amplifier

Op-amp Parameter and Idealised Characteristic

 Open Loop Gain, (Avo)
o Infinite – The main function of an operational amplifier is to amplify the input
signal and the more open loop gain it has the better. Open-loop gain is the gain of
 the op-amp without positive or negative feedback and for such an amplifier the
gain will be infinite but typical real values range from about 20,000 to 200,000.
 Input impedance, (ZIN)
o Infinite – Input impedance is the ratio of input voltage to input current and is
assumed to be infinite to prevent any current flowing from the source supply into
the amplifiers input circuitry ( IIN = 0 ). Real op-amps have input leakage currents
from a few pico-amps to a few milli-amps.
 Output impedance, (ZOUT)
o Zero – The output impedance of the ideal operational amplifier is assumed to be
zero acting as a perfect internal voltage source with no internal resistance so that
it can supply as much current as necessary to the load. This internal resistance is
effectively in series with the load thereby reducing the output voltage available to
the load. Real op-amps have output impedances in the 100-20kΩ range.
 Bandwidth, (BW)
o Infinite – An ideal operational amplifier has an infinite frequency response and
can amplify any frequency signal from DC to the highest AC frequencies so it is
therefore assumed to have an infinite bandwidth. With real op-amps, the
bandwidth is limited by the Gain-Bandwidth product (GB), which is equal to the
frequency where the amplifiers gain becomes unity.
 Offset Voltage, (VIO)
o Zero – The amplifiers output will be zero when the voltage difference between
the inverting and the non-inverting inputs is zero, the same or when both inputs
are grounded. Real op-amps have some amount of output offset voltage.

From these “idealized” characteristics above, we can see that the input resistance is infinite, so
no current flows into either input terminal (the “current rule”) and that the differential input
offset voltage is zero (the “voltage rule”). It is important to remember these two properties as
they will help us understand the workings of the Operational Amplifier with regards to the
analysis and design of op-amp circuits.

However, real Operational Amplifiers such as the commonly available uA741, for example do
not have infinite gain or bandwidth but have a typical “Open Loop Gain” which is defined as the
amplifiers output amplification without any external feedback signals connected to it and for a
typical operational amplifier is about 100dB at DC (zero Hz). This output gain decreases linearly
with frequency down to “Unity Gain” or 1, at about 1MHz and this is shown in the following
open loop gain response curve.

Open-loop Frequency Response Curve

From this frequency response curve we can see that the product of the gain against frequency is
constant at any point along the curve. Also that the unity gain (0dB) frequency also determines
the gain of the amplifier at any point along the curve. This constant is generally known as the
Gain Bandwidth Product or GBP. Therefore:

GBP = Gain x Bandwidth = A x BW

For example, from the graph above the gain of the amplifier at 100kHz is given as 20dB or 10,
then the gain bandwidth product is calculated as:

GBP = A x BW = 10 x 100,000Hz = 1,000,000.

Similarly, the operational amplifiers gain at 1kHz = 60dB or 1000, therefore the GBP is given as:

GBP = A x BW = 1,000 x 1,000Hz = 1,000,000. The same!.

The Voltage Gain (AV) of the operational amplifier can be found using the following formula:

and in Decibels or (dB) is given as:

An Operational Amplifiers Bandwidth
The operational amplifiers bandwidth is the frequency range over which the voltage gain of the
amplifier is above 70.7% or -3dB (where 0dB is the maximum) of its maximum output value as
shown below.

Here we have used the 40dB line as an example. The -3dB or 70.7% of Vmax down point from
the frequency response curve is given as 37dB. Taking a line across until it intersects with the
main GBP curve gives us a frequency point just above the 10kHz line at about 12 to 15kHz. We
can now calculate this more accurately as we already know the GBP of the amplifier, in this
particular case 1MHz.

Operational Amplifier Example No1.

Using the formula 20 log (A), we can calculate the bandwidth of the amplifier as:

37 = 20 log (A) therefore, A = anti-log (37 ÷ 20) = 70.8

GBP ÷ A = Bandwidth, therefore, 1,000,000 ÷ 70.8 = 14,124Hz, or 14kHz

Then the bandwidth of the amplifier at a gain of 40dB is given as 14kHz as previously predicted
from the graph.

Operational Amplifier Example No2.

If the gain of the operational amplifier was reduced by half to say 20dB in the above frequency
response curve, the -3dB point would now be at 17dB. This would then give the operational
amplifier an overall gain of 7.08, therefore A = 7.08.

If we use the same formula as above, this new gain would give us a bandwidth of approximately
141.2kHz, ten times more than the frequency given at the 40dB point. It can therefore be seen
that by reducing the overall “open loop gain” of an operational amplifier its bandwidth is
increased and visa versa.

In other words, an operational amplifiers bandwidth is inversely proportional to its gain,

( A 1/∞ BW ). Also, this -3dB corner frequency point is generally known as the “half power
point”, as the output power of the amplifier is at half its maximum value as shown:

Operational Amplifiers Summary

We know now that an Operational amplifiers is a very high gain DC differential amplifier that
uses one or more external feedback networks to control its response and characteristics. We can
connect external resistors or capacitors to the op-amp in a number of different ways to form basic
“building Block” circuits such as, Inverting, Non-Inverting, Voltage Follower, Summing,
Differential, Integrator and Differentiator type amplifiers.

Op-amp Symbol
An “ideal” or perfect operational amplifier is a device with certain special characteristics such as
infinite open-loop gain AO, infinite input resistance RIN, zero output resistance ROUT, infinite
bandwidth 0 to ∞ and zero offset (the output is exactly zero when the input is zero).

There are a very large number of operational amplifier IC’s available to suit every possible
application from standard bipolar, precision, high-speed, low-noise, high-voltage, etc, in either
standard configuration or with internal Junction FET transistors.

Operational amplifiers are available in IC packages of either single, dual or quad op-amps within
one single device. The most commonly available and used of all operational amplifiers in basic
electronic kits and projects is the industry standard μA-741.

In the next tutorial about Operational Amplifiers, we will use negative feedback connected
around the op-amp to produce a standard closed-loop amplifier circuit called an Inverting
Amplifier circuit that produces an output signal which is 180o “out-of-phase” with the input.