California State University, Long Beach

Department of Electrical Engineering

EE 430 Analog Electric Circuits

Professor Robert Teng

741 Op Amp Design Circuit
Tuan Vo
Maxwell Nguyen
December 8, 2014

Objective
Students are to model and build a circuit resembling the LM741 Operation Amplifier using simple parts
such as transistors, resistors and capacitors. By conducting an AC small-signal analysis on both the
LM741 Op-Amp chip and design circuit, students are expected to receive similar results in voltage gain.
Introduction
Operational amplifiers are among the most widely and commonly used component used in electronic
devices today. It is considered the backbone of electronics for circuit design. An operational amplifier is
a DC-coupled circuit used to receive and input signal and output a signal with a higher voltage gain.
Depending on the configuration of the circuit, the op-amp can produce different outputs, including an
inverting signal and even a signal with lower gain. The architecture of all operational amplifiers consist
of four different gain stages within the internal circuitry. These include the differential amplifier, bias
generator, gain stage, and output stage. Descriptions and explanations of these four gain stage can be
found below. The internal circuitry of the LM741 Op-Amp consists of several PNP transistors, NPN
transistors, resistors, and capacitors. Therefore, the op-amp can be made using the same basic
components and theoretically will produce similar results to the IC chip.

Figure 1 - Circuit Design

Differential Amplifier
The input stage is a transconductance amplifier, which consists of a cascaded differential amplifier
followed by a current-mirror active load. This transconductance amplifier turns a differential voltage
signal at the bases of Q2 and Q1 into a current signal for the base of Q15. Both Q2 and Q1 create a NPN
emitter follower pair that provides a high input impedance. Below the NPN emitter follower is Q3 and
Q4, a PNP common-base pair that eliminates the increase in input capacitance. Both the PNP
transistors drive and active load Q7 and a matched pair Q5 and Q6. The active load is implemented as a
Wilson current mirror in order to convert the input current signal to a single-ended signal, thus creating
a small-signal differential current in Q3 and Q5 feeding into the base of Q15.
Voltage Amplifier
The voltage gain stage is a class-A gain stage consisting of two NPN transistors (Q15 and Q19) utilizes the
output of the current mirror from Q12 and Q13 as a collector load to achieve its high voltage gain. The
common collectors of Q15 and Q19 drives the base of Q20 while Q16 drives the base of Q14. The
transistor Q22 controls the current, preventing excess current to pass into Q20.
Output Amplifier
The output stage consists of transistors Q14 and Q20. It is a class AB emitter follower amplifier. It
provides an output drive with a low impedance of 50 Ohms. Transistor Q16 provides current for the
output transistors while Q17 provides output current limiting.
PSPICE Simulation
The following image (Fig 1) is the PSPICE model of the circuit design that represents the 741 Op-Amp IC
chip. It is wired with a inverting amplifier circuit where Rf is 10k ohms and R1 is 3.33k ohms. This
configuration creates an output with a gain of -3.

Figure 2 - PSPICE Circuit Design

The following figure (Fig 3) represents the bias analysis of the circuit representing the 741 Op-Amp. The
PSPICE model allows the user to view the current and voltage at each point in the circuit. As seen
below, the current are marked with red tags while the voltages are marked with the voilet tags. By
providing currents and voltages at each point in the circuit, the user can further analyze and confirm the
inner workings of the op-amp circuit.

Figure 3 - Circuit DC Analysis

The following figure (Fig 4) is the PSPICE simulation of the output signal versus the input signal. Since
the circuit is designed to provide an inverting gain of 3, we expect the output signal to be greater and
opposite in magnitude as compared to the input signal. The input signal was 3 Vp-p at 5 kHz in
frequency whereas the output signal is inverted 9Vp-p at 5 kHz frequency.

Figure 4 - PSPICE Simulation

Frequency Analysis
In order to observe how differences in frequency affect the gain of the amplifier, a frequency sweep is
conducted. High frequencies will affect the gain, causing it to stray from the theoretical gain. In
addition, the effect frequency has on the gain should be more apparent in the circuit created using
transistors as compared to the actual 741 Op-Amp chip. By conducting a frequency sweep on both the
circuit design and the 741 IC chip, the following data in figure 5 is collected.
For the circuit using the 3904 transistors,the output gain begins to break down at 35~40 kHz in
frequency. However, the 741 IC begins to break down at around 60~70 kHz. As expected, the
breakdown frequency of the 741 IC chip is much larger compared to the 3904 transistor circuit design.
At 100 kHz, the gain drops from 3 to roughly 1.6 volts in the 3904 circuit design while the 741 IC chip
only drops down to 2.7. The 3904 circuit breaks down much more rapidly and is less stable at higher
frequencies whereas the 741 IC chip is much more stable and is more resilient to frequency breakdown.
This is expected since the 741 IC chip is manufactured to provide a steady and stable gain whereas the
3904 circuit design consists of many transistors in an attempt to replicate the functionality of the 741 IC
chip.

Figure 5 - Frequency Analysis Data

Graphical Data
The following figures (figures 6-10) are graphs of the input signal vs the output signal on the same graph.
These graphs include signals of the 3904 design circuit and 741 IC chip at different frequencies.

Figure 6 - 3904 Circuit Design at 1kHz.

Figure 7 - 3904 Circuit Design at 100kHz.

Figure 8 - 741 IC Chip at 1kHz.

Figure 8 - 741 IC Chip at 100kHz.

Figure 8 - Voltage Follower Bode Plot (Magnitude)

The figure above represents the Bode magnitude plot of the voltage follower circuit. By analyzing the
graph, one can see that the magnitude begins to drop as the magnitude increases. This observation is
consistent with the data that has been collected as well. As the frequency increases, the magnitude gain
begins to falter and drop. From the graph, the magnitude gain in dB begins to drop at the frequency
30kHz. As compared to the data table of the 3904 circuit design (figure 5), the voltage gain also begins
to drop at 30kHz.
Offset Null

Figure 9 - Voltage Offset without Potentiometer

Figure 10 - Voltage Offset with Potentiometer

The offset null portion of the circuit is connected to a potentiometer resistor, allowing for small voltage
adjustments. The original design circuit without any offset null has a leaking voltage of 2.77 mV as seen
above in figure 9. With no input voltage, it is desired to have an output voltage as close to zero as
possible. Thus, a potentiometer resistor is used to adjust the voltage output. By having the
potentiometer set to 7k ohms, the voltage offset was brought down to 55.1 uV.
Part List
JK Electronics: Varied Resistors
JK Electronics: Varied Capacitors
2N3904 NPN Bipolar Transistor
2N3906 PNP Bipolar Transistor
10k Potentiometer Resistor
Equipment
DC Power Supply HY3002-3
Rigol DG1022 Function Waveform Generator
GW Instek GDS-2202 Digital Oscilloscope

Gain Analysis
An inverting amplifier can be configured by attaching a resistor, R from the output of the to the output
of the amplifier. This negative feedback results in the inverting input terminal having a different signal
on it than the actual input voltage as it will be the sum of the input voltage plus the negative feedback
voltage. The ratio between the resistors R and Rin determine the voltage gain of the circuit.

Figure 11

By setting R to 10k ohms and Rin to 3.33k ohms, voltage gain of -3 can be achieved.

Conclusion
By using the 2N3904 and 2N3906 transistors, a circuit can be made that replicates the functions of the
741 Op-Amp IC. When comparing the design circuit with the 741 IC chip, the gain functions appear to
have the same results. However, when conducting a frequency response, the 741 IC chip is more
tolerable to higher frequencies. At 30kHz in frequency, the voltage gain of the design circuit begins to
break down. In contrast, the 741 IC chip begins to break down at 60kHz. The voltage gain of the design
circuit drops more rapidly and is much more sensitive to changes in frequency. This is due to the use of
individual transistors where the 741 IC uses different micro transistors within the chip. It is expected
and confirmed that the design circuit and the 741 IC chip operates similarly at low frequencies while the
741 IC chips functionality surpasses the design circuit at higher frequencies.