30Operational Amplifiers: A Brief Introduction
30.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we will do a brief explanation about operational amplifiers.
30.2 Operational Amplifiers
An operational amplifier or an op‐amp is a high‐gain voltage amplifier with a differential input and, generally, a single output. In this configuration, an op‐amp produces an output voltage that is commonly hundreds of thousands of times larger than the difference voltage between its input terminals.
Figure 30.1 shows the symbol for the operational amplifier.
Figure 30.1 Operational amplifier.
30.3 How Op‐Amp Works
An op‐amp is basically a voltage amplifier to be used with external feedback components like resistors and capacitors between its inputs and output terminals. These components will determine the operation to be performed by the amplifier, for example, sum, subtraction, integration, differentiation, etc., which is the reason why it is called operational amplifier.
Op‐amps have two inputs, a non‐inverting input and an inverting input. These inputs are called differential inputs.
Internally they are as shown in Figure 30.2.
Figure 30.2 Operational amplifier (internal ...
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