Operational Amplifier Study Notes for

RRB JE & SSC JE!

The exam for RRB JE and SSC JE Exams will be taking place soon. As there is not much
time left, you need to buck up and catch up in your preparations for these exams. To
help you in this we have come up with study notes on the topic of Linear Integrated
Circuits. This article on Linear Integrated Circuits Study Notes for SSC JE & RRB JE will
provide you detailed notes on different stages of Operational Amplifier. Go through this
Study Notes on linear Integrated Circuits and prepare for your trade to ace in the ace.
You can also download the free PDF to refer the Study notes on Linear Integrated
Circuits.

Operational Amplifier
An Operational Amplifier is an amplifier with high gain and high input impedance
(usually with external feedback), used especially in circuits for performing mathematical
operations on an input voltage. Before we proceed further, let us just have a brief
overview of basic definition and application of an operational amplifier.

Basic Definition Points:

• Direct coupled
• High gain
• Amplify Both AC & DC
• Originally was used for Mathematical Operations

Applications of Operational Amplifier: Operational Amplifiers can be used in various

ways. Some of them are highlighted below.

1. Linear Applications:

• Adders
• Subtractors
• Multipliers
• Integrators
• Differentiators
• I to V converter
• V to I converter

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2. Non - Linear Applications:

• Active Filters
• Oscillators
• Comparators
• Regulators

3. Timers

• 555 Monostable Multivibrator Timer IC

• 555 Astable Multivibrator

4. Phase Locked Loops

5. Voltage Regulators

Block Diagram Representation of Operational Amplifier

• Direct coupling is used between all the stages

• This enables the amplification of both AC and DC signals.

Let us now talk about the different stages of an Operational Amplifier.

1. Input Stage (Dual Input Balanced Output Differential Amplifier)

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 • Provides most of the voltage gain
• Provides High input resistance to op-amp
• Provides high CMRR
• +VCC & - VEE Supply are due to this stage

2. Intermediate Stage (Dual Input Unbalanced output)

• Provides gain to achieve overall high gain for op-amp

3) Level Shifter stage

• Because of direct coupling, output of Intermediate stage has DC voltage above ground
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 • Function of level shifting stage is to shift the dc level at the output of the intermediate
stage down to zero.
• Emitter follower in common collector configuration is used for BJT.
• Source follower or common drain is case of FET/MOSEFT.

4) Output stage (Complementary Symmetry Class B Push – Pull amplifier)

• High voltage swing

• High current supply capacity
• Short circuit protection

Characteristics of Op-Amp
1. Input Offset Voltage (Vio)

• When both the terminals are grounded, output voltage Vo should be zero.
• Input offset voltage is the voltage that must be applied between the two input terminals
to null the output voltage.
• Should be small
• Can be positive or negative

2. Input Offset Current

• The Algebraic difference between the currents into the inverting & non-inverting
terminals is referred as Input offset current

Iio=|IB1-IB2|

• Offset current is the base current that is flowing in the differential amplifier.

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3. Input Bias Current (IB)

IB is the average of the currents that flow into the inverting & non-inverting terminal of
the op-amp

4. Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR)

• Ability to reject common mode signal

• Defined as

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5. Output Offset Voltage (VDD)

• Output voltage caused by mismatching between two input terminal is the Output
Offset Voltage VOO
• Occurs due to mismatch between the two transistors of the differential amplifier
• Output Offset Voltage is the DC voltage it may be positive or negative
• Input offset voltage, Input Bias current are responsible for Output Offset Voltage.

To nullify the output offset voltage due to input bias current, compensation resistor is
used at non-inverting terminal of the amplifier

5.a) Without Compensation Resistor

Vout = - IB2Rb

5.b) With Compensation Resistor Rc

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To Remember:

• Rc at non-Inverting terminal is used to reduce output offset voltage.

• Optimized value of Rc is given by Rc = R1||Rf
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6. Supply Voltage Rejection Ration (SVRR) Or Power Supply Rejection Ratio
(PSRR)

7. Output voltage swing

• The output voltage swing is between +VCC and -VEE

• That is between the maximum and minimum values of the supply voltage

8. Slew Rate (SR)

• Maximum rate of change of output voltage per unit of time

• Units: volts/microseconds

•
• Specifies how rapidly the output of an op-amp can change in response to input
frequency
• Expressed at unity voltage gain
• Puts limitation on the maximum frequency of that can be applied at the input terminals
of the op-amp.

Ideal and Practical Op-Amp Comparison:

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 Ideal Op Practical Op-
S.No. Parameter
Amp Amp

1) Open loop gain (A0L) ∞ 100 dB (105)

Input Impedance
2) ∞ 2 MΩ
(Zin)

Output Impedance
3) 0 75 Ω
(Zout)

4) Input offset voltage 0 1 mV

5) Input bias current 0 80 mA

6) Bandwidth ∞ 0 to 10 Hz

7) CMRR ∞ 90 dB

Ques 1 In the non-inverting op-amp circuit shown in the figure, the

resistance R2 is choses as R1||Rf to:

a) Increase CMRR

b) Increase gain

c) Reduce offset voltage

d) Reduce offset current

Ans: c Solution: Same as given above

Ques 2. An Analog signal has slew rate of 100 V/μ second for a frequency of
10 mHz, the maximum (peak) value of the sine wave output voltage will be

a) 100 V

b) 500/π

c) 10 V

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d) 5/π

Ans: d Solution:

Ques 3. Find the maximum frequency in kHz of an Input sine wave which
can be produced at an amplitude of 1.5 V. Of the slew rate of op-amp is
0.5V/μ sec

a) 50

b) 53

c) 59

d) 63

Ans. b Solution:

SR = 2π fmax × Vmax Remember This Formula) = 0.5×103 kHz 2π×1.5 = 53 kHz

Ques 4. A differential Amplifier has differential gain of 20,000, CMRR = 80
dB. The common mode gain is:

a) 0

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b) 1

c) 0.5

d) 2

Ans. D Solution:

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