500

Part 5 SPICE circuit applications

(d) The load on the amplier should be kept small to avoid excessive power dissipation and hence increased bias current and drift.
(e) Components must be very carefully placed to minimize coupling and capacity, and the feedback resistor must be rigidly xed in position minute movement produces changes in the output signal.

Feedback resistor model

The assumption has implicitly been made that the feedback resistor R3 can be represented as a simple resistor with a parallel capacitor C3. More complex representations have been considered (Kendall and Zabielski 1970) which treat it rather like
a transmission line. It would be expected that at higher frequencies the feedback
current would ow through C3 rather than R3 (Z(C3)R3 at 167 Hz for our standard values). C3 must of course include the stray amplier feedback capacity as
well as any due to R3. Such small capacities are dicult to measure in practical
circumstances. Simulation results demonstrate that at a frequency of 100 Hz, i(R3)
only just reaches the input current. This would suggest that any model of R3 as a
sequence of low-pass RC sections would be largely immaterial in determining the
high frequency response. Simulations have been run with up to 10 RC sections
which demonstrate that this view is essentially correct. It is dicult to know what
values to ascribe to C3 or to the distributed capacity from the bodylength of R3 to
common. If we can treat R3 as a conductor above a ground plane, then we may use
the formula for microstrip transmission lines (Millman and Taub 1965, p. 85). For
a diameter d 5 mm and a height h5 mm above the plane (0 r, where 0 
(36
109)1 F m1 and r 1 for air):
C

2 

4h
ln
d

40 pF m1

(5.12.32)

and for a resistor of length 3 cm we get a capacity of about 1 pF.

If C3 is the dominant part of the feedback impedance Z3 then we must determine which factor sets the overall bandwidth of the system. The expression for the
risetime r (Eq. (5.12.27)) shows that the ratio CU /T is the arbiter. Table 5.12.1
shows the relevant characteristics of a range of ampliers with the requisite low
bias current. The OPA128 has been used for simulation as an excellent representative of the lowest bias current types. If a 1 pA bias current is acceptable then the
OPA637 appears to be a good choice. Note that the OPA637 model does not
include an input capacitor and the OPA637E model includes both an input capacitor and two common mode capacitors, all of 1 pF (see Biagi et al. 1995).We have
used the OPA637 model and included Cin in C2.