Chapter 3
Working with Op-Amps
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting familiar with op-amps
Exploring how feedback circuits work with op-amps
Looking at summing amplifiers and comparators
Exploring several popular op-amp packages
Did you ever play Operation, the game in which you had to use electrified tweezers to remove plastic body parts from little holes in a body? The edges of the holes were metal conductors, so if you touched the edge of the hole with the tweezers while trying to remove the plastic piece inside, a buzzer would sound, and the patient’s nose (which was a red light bulb) would light up.
I was never very good at it, because it required nerves of steel and precise control of the tweezers. The slightest jiggle of the tweezers was amplified into a flashing light, a loud buzzer, and the mocking laughter of my brother, who was a much better Operation surgeon than I was.
An operational amplifier (op-amp for short) is kind of like the game Operation. Well, actually, it isn’t really, except for the part about the slightest variations in the input (your hand holding the tweezers) being ...
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