7

Compensation, slew-rate, and stability

Frequency compensation in general

The compensation of an amplifier is the tailoring of its open-loop gain and phase characteristics so that is dependably stable when the global feedback loop is closed.

It must be said straight away that compensation is a thoroughly misleading word to describe the subject of this chapter. It implies that one problematic influence is being balanced out by another opposing force, when in fact it means the process of tailoring the open-loop gain and phase of an amplifier so that it is satisfactorily stable when the global feedback loop is closed. The derivation of the word is historical, going back to the days when all servomechanisms were mechanical, and usually included ...

Get Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.