You are on page 1of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

GENERALIZED AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT MODEL


Amplifier System

What is the best way to model the amplifier?


Input stage
Ideally, the amplifier should have no effect on the source of the input signal. In other words,
it should not draw any input current. This is, however, impossible. In actual fact, a small
amount of current flows into the input terminals of the amplifier. This can be modelled as an
input impedance.

Output stage
Ideally, the voltage amplifier should be able to supply an infinite amount of current to the
load connected to it. In other words, it should be an ideal voltage source. Since this is not
possible the output stage is generally modelled as a Thevinin equivalent source which
includes an ideal controlled voltage source of the appropriate value in series with a
Thevinin equivalent resistance, Ro.

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 1 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

Complete Amplifier Circuit Model

Resistive input
Thvenin equivalent output circuit
Thvinin voltage is a "dependent" voltage source the magnitude of which depends
upon the input voltage

Amplifier System Model

Text:- Examples 14.1 14.3 for problems related to this topic

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 2 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

Operational Amplifiers

Circuit Symbol

Properties
An 'ideal' operational amplifier has:
infinite voltage gain
zero output impedance
infinite input impedance
infinite bandwidth
Its normal implementation is in the form of an integrated circuit.
'Real' operational amplifiers have a
voltage gain of around 50,000
input impedance of megohms or hundreds of megohms
output impedance of hundreds of ohms
open-loop 3 dB bandwidth is around 50 Hz, a far cry from the
ideal value of infinity.
Negative feedback is often used to make the characteristics of real operational
amplifier circuits closer to those of the ideal operational amplifier.
Note
The circuit symbol for an operational amplifier normally does not show the
connections to the dc power supplies required to make the amplifier operate.

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 3 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

IDEAL vs REAL OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS


The 741 operational amplifier is the most common and the one which will be used in this
course. See text Sect. 16.5 to 16.5.9 for a discussion on real 741 characteristics summarized
in the table below.
Characteristic
Voltage Gain
Input Impedance
Output Impedance
3 dB Bandwidth
Cost

Ideal Voltage
Amplifier
Infinite
Infinite
Zero
Infinite
Zero

Real 741 Operational Amplifier


106 dB (2 x 105)
80 Mto 1012
75to 2k
Tens of Hertz
$0.50

Most of the "real" operational amplifier characteristics become closer to the "ideal"
amplifier characteristics if negative feedback is used.
741 OP-AMP OPEN-LOOP FREQUENCY RESPONSE

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 4 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3


EXAMPLE OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
Op-amp inverting amplifier

Redrawn, the circuit is

For this circuit make the following assumptions:


1. The forward gain A is very large (for the 741 it is 50,000)
2. No current is drawn by the input of the amplifier (ie the input impedance of the
op-amp is very large)
3. The feedback circuit does not affect the output voltage Vo (the output impedance
of the op-amp is very small)
The result of these assumptions is the following two rules:

Rule (1): the difference in voltage between the two input terminals of the op-amp is very
small and can be neglected

Rule (2): the signal current that flows into the op-amp terminals is very small and can be
considered to be equal to zero.

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 5 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK (continued)

INVERTING AMPLIFIER
(also called parallel voltage feedback).
The currents through Z1 and Z2 are i1 and i2 , respectively, and V+ = 0.
Rule 1 gives V- = 0.
Rule 2 gives i1 + i2 = 0, because the signal currents into the amplifier terminals are
negligible. Thus,
(Vi - V-)/Z2 + (Vo - V-)/Z1 = 0 from Kirchoff's current law or
(Vi - 0)/Z2 + (Vo - 0)/Z1 = 0
The circuit gain with feedback (Vo/Vi) is then,
A = -Z1 /Z2.
The circuit input impedance (defined as Vi /i1) is equal to Z2. The circuit output impedance is
approximately (ZoZ1)/(AolZ2),
where
Zo is the amplifier output impedance without feedback.
Aol is the open-loop gain of the amplifier, and
(Z2/Z1) is the feedback factor
(This result is not obvious. However, there is a table in the Week 5 notes giving formulae
for the input and output impedances of inverting and non-inverting amplifiers.).

Inverting Amplifier

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 6 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3


NON-INVERTING AMPLIFIER
(also called series voltage feedback)

Rule 1 gives V- = Vi , i2 = (0 - Vi)/Z2 and i1 = (Vo - Vi)/Z1 by Ohm's law


Rule 2 again gives i1 + i2 = 0.
Thus,
A = V0/Vi = (Z1 + Z2)/Z2 = (1 +Z1/Z2)

Non-inverting Amplifier
The input impedance of this circuit is of the order of one hundred megohms and the output
impedance is reduced by the factor (1 + Aol) to Z0/(1+ a), where = Z2/Z1.and a = openloop gain of the amplifier

UNITY GAIN or BUFFER AMPLIFIER


An important special case of the non-inverting amplifier circuit is the unity-gain follower,
when Z1 = 0 and therefore A = 1. A "unity follower" has constant voltage gain (equal to
unity), and negligible phase shift, over a wide range of frequencies. In addition, it has very
high input impedance and very low output impedance. It is used as an impedance
transformer and buffer amplifier.

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 7 of 8

ELEC 310 -- Week 3

SUMMING AMPLIFIER
In general, there can be any number of inputs.
Rule 1 gives V- = 0.
Rule 2 gives the algebraic sum of all the currents at the inverting input = 0.
Thus, we have the result that V1/ R1 +V2/ R2 +..+Vx/Rx +V0/ RF = 0.
The output voltage is then given by the weighted sum of the inputs, with weighting factors
given by the ratio of the feedback resistor to the appropriate input resistor.
-V0 = (RF / R1)V1 + (RF / R2)V2 + ..... + (RF / Rx)Vx
Or
V0 = -RF.[(V1/R1) + (V2/R2) + ..... + (Vx/Rx)]

Summing Amplifier.
[Note that the notation is different to that in the course text. However, the circuit is a more
general circuit, and the equations are valid. The summing amplifier is seen later in the
course, when data acquisition circuits are studied Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC or
D/A), and Analogue-to-Digital Converters (ADC or A/D)]

ELEC 310 Week 3

Pg. 8 of 8

You might also like