EE/CE3111

ElectronicCircuitsLaboratory

Spring2015

Lab 7: Operational Amplifiers Part I

Objectives
The objective of this lab is to study operational amplifier (op amp) and its applications. We will be
simulating and building some basic opamp circuits, including the four most common types, i.e., the
inverting,noninverting,differencing,andsummingamplifiers.

Introduction
Operational amplifier is one fundamental building block of analog circuits. When used properly in
negativefeedbackconfigurations,theoverallclosedlooptransfercharacteristiccanbepreciselysetby
stablepassivecomponentssuchasresistors,capacitors,anddiodes,regardlessofthepotentialvariation
ofopenloopparameters.Negativefeedbackamplifierwithopampoperatingatitscoreprovideskeyto
highlyreliableandstableanalogfunctions.
In this lab, we will be simulating four basic configurations using the A741 op amp. You can get the
A741partfromthelibrarycalledEVAL.Notethattheamplifierhastwoterminalslabeledos1andos2
besidestheregularpins,andyoucanleavethesetwopinsunconnected.(Incaseyouarecurious,these
pinsareusedforoffsetadjustmentfortheopamp.)

Figure71:Invertingamplifierconfiguration
1. Invertingamplifier
AninvertingamplifierisshowninFig.71.Theprincipalfeaturesofthisconfigurationare

Theamplifierisinvertingwiththefeedbackloopclosed.

TheclosedloopgainissolelydeterminedbythefeedbackresistorsRfandRiassumingthatthe
loopgaindefinedastheproductoftheopenloopgainoftheopampandthefeedbackfactor
ofthecircuitisverylarge.

The positive input terminal is always grounded in this configuration. As a result, the negative

ProfessorY.Chiu

EE/CE3111

ElectronicCircuitsLaboratory

Spring2015

inputmustfollowthepotentialofthepositiveonewithfeedbackloopclosedduetothelarge
loopgaindevelopedbytheopamp.Thisisoftenreferredtoasthevirtualgroundpropertyof
feedbackopamps.

Theclosedloopgainofthisamplifieris

(71)

Figure72:Noninvertingamplifierconfiguration
2. Noninvertingamplifier
AnoninvertingamplifierisshowninFig.72.Theprincipalfeaturesofthisconfigurationare

Theamplifierisnoninvertingwiththefeedbackloopclosed.

TheclosedloopgainissolelydeterminedbythefeedbackresistorsRfandRiassumingthatthe
loopgainofthecircuitisverylarge.

The positive input terminal now is connected to the input voltage source. The feedback path,
however,isstillconnectedaroundtheoutputterminalandthenegativeinputterminal.

Theclosedloopgainofthisamplifieris
1

(72)

Theinputresistanceofthisconfigurationisverylarge.

3. Differencingamplifier
AdifferencingamplifierisshowninFig.73.Theprincipalfeaturesofthisconfigurationare

Theamplifiercancombinetwoinputsandobtainthedifferencewiththefeedbackloopclosed.

The closedloop gain is solely determined by the feedback resistors Rf, Ri, R1 and R2. In this
circuit,wesetRf=R1andRi=R2.Thus,theoutputis

ProfessorY.Chiu

(73)
2

EE/CE3111

ElectronicCircuitsLaboratory

Spring2015

ThegainsforthepositiveandnegativeinputscanbesetdifferentlybychoosingdifferentR1and
R2valuesfromabove.

Figure73:Differencingamplifierconfiguration

Figure74:Summingamplifierconfiguration
4. Summingamplifier
AsummingamplifierisshowninFig.74.Theprincipalfeaturesofthisconfigurationare

Theamplifierisinvertingforallinputswiththefeedbackloopclosed.

Thesummingisperformedatthenegativeinputterminalincurrentdomainduetothevirtual
groundproperty(notethatthepositiveinputisgrounded).Thenegativeinputterminalthusis

ProfessorY.Chiu

EE/CE3111

ElectronicCircuitsLaboratory

Spring2015

oftenreferredtoasthesummingnodeinsuchcontext.Theweightforeachparallelinputis
solely determined by the resistor connecting this input to the summing node. The output
voltageisalinearcombinationofalltheinputvoltages.

Preparation
1. PerformhandcalculationtodeterminethefeedbackfactoroftheopampforallfourcircuitsinFigs.
14.Tabulateyourresults.
2. EntertheschematicsinFig.71intoPSpice
a. Performbiasanalysistofindallterminalvoltagesoftheopamp.
b. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgain.
3. EntertheschematicsinFig.72intoPSpice
a. Performbiasanalysistofindallterminalvoltagesoftheopamp.
b. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgain.
4. EntertheschematicsinFig.73intoPSpice
a. Performbiasanalysistofindallterminalvoltagesoftheopamp.
b. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgainintermsofV3
c. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgainintermsofV4
5. DetermineanexpressionfortheoutputvoltageoftheamplifierinFig.74.
6. EntertheschematicsinFig.74fortwoinputs(V3andV4inFig.74)intoPSpice
a. Performbiasanalysistofindallterminalvoltagesoftheopamp.
b. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgainintermsofV3
c. DeviseaDCorACsimulationtodeterminetheclosedloopgainintermsofV4

Procedure
1. AssemblethefourcircuitsshowninFigs.14andmeasuretheoutputvoltageandtheinputterminal
voltagesofyouropamp.Tabulateyourmeasurementresults.
2. VaryV3slightlyby50100mVandrecordthechangein theoutputvoltageforallfourcircuitsand
determinetheclosedloopgainfromV3toVout.Tabulateyourresults.

Analysis
1. WhatistheamplifierinputresistanceseenbytheinputsourceV3inFigs.14?
2. Rederivetheoutputvoltageof(73)whenRf=R1andRi=R2donotholdingeneral.
3. DetermineananalyticalexpressionfortheclosedloopgainseenbyV3inallfourcircuitsinFigs.14
whentheopampexhibitsafinitegainAinsteadofinfinity.YourresultsshouldbeafunctionofA
andsomeresistorvaluesofthecircuit.
4. Canyoureliablydeterminetheopenloopgainofyouropampinthefouramplifierconfigurations
from the measurement results? Why or why not? In case for yes, please tabulate the gains you
determined.

ProfessorY.Chiu

EE/CE3111

ElectronicCircuitsLaboratory

Spring2015

Lab 7 Report Instructions

Besides the general guidelines, report the following for this lab:

The lab report should be segmented into 4 parts:

o Inverting amplifier
o Non-inverting amplifier
o Differencing amplifier
o Summing amplifier

Each part should be comprised of

o the circuit design with PSpice Capture and the simulated voltages at each node as well as the
closed-loop gain,
o the analytical equation for each amplifier and the calculated output voltage and gain,
o the experimental voltage readout with a description of the experimental procedure ,
o a table of all three values for the op-amp terminal voltages: from simulation, theory, and
experiment,
o a table of all three values for the closed-loop op-amp gain seen by V3: from simulation, theory,
and experiment,
o and your explanation of the variations between the three values of the last two steps.

Answer the questions in the Analysis section.

ProfessorY.Chiu