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TOPIC: THE DFFERENTINAL

AMPLIFIER

î  î 
M/s.
Lovely Institute of
Technology 


Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road (NH-1), Phagwara, Punjab (INDIA) - 144402. TEL:

+91-1824-404404 Toll Free: 1800 102 4431 info@lpu.co.in

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åith regards I would like to thanks my Lect. M/s. ««««« who helped me in
completing my Term Paper on the topic ³  ! "
c"!!.´. Of subject ³´. Due to his proper guidance and under the
shower of his eternal knowledge I was able to complete my Term Paper
comfortably which might not be possible without his efforts.
I must say thanks to my friend who helped me in the completion of my Term
paper. I must say sorry for the errors if I have committed in my Term Paper.

        #####$$
Date: -11-2010


















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A differential amplifier is a type
of electronic amplifier that multiplies the
difference between two inputs by some
constant factor (the differential gain).
 of a differential amplifier, a single-ended
Many electronic devices use differential
amplifiers internally. The output of an ideal
differential amplifier is given by:
åhere and are the input voltages
and ad is the differential gain.
In practice, however, the gain is not quite
equal for the two inputs. This means, for
instance, that if and are equal, the
output will not be zero, as it would be in the
ideal case. A more realistic expression for
the output of a differential amplifier thus
includes a second term.
ac is called the common-mode gain of the
amplifier.
As differential amplifiers are often used
when it is desired to null out noise or bias-
voltages that appear at both inputs, a low
common-mode gain is usually considered
good.
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The common-mode rejection ratio,
usually defined as the ratio between
differential-mode gain and common-mode
gain, indicates the ability of the amplifier to
accurately cancel voltages that are common
to both inputs. Common-mode rejection
ratio (CMRR):
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In a perfectly symmetrical differential
amplifier, ac is zero and the CMRR is
infinite. Note that a differential amplifier is a
more general form of amplifier than one
with a single input; by grounding one input
amplifier results. An operational amplifier,
or op-amp, is a differential amplifier with
very high differential-mode gain, very high
input impedances, and a low output
impedance. Some kinds of differential
amplifier usually include several simpler
differential amplifiers. For example,
an instrumentation amplifier, a fully
differential amplifier, an instrument
amplifier, or an isolation amplifier are often
built from several op-amps.
Differential amplifiers are found in many
systems that utilise negative feedback,
where one input is used for the input signal,
the other for the feedback signal. A common
application is for the control of
motors or servos, as well as for signal
amplification applications. In
discrete electronics, a common arrangement
for implementing a differential amplifier is
the long-tailed pair, which is also usually
found as the differential element in most op-
amp integrated circuits. A differential
amplifier is used as the input stage emitter
coupled logic gates.
EXAMPLE
LONG ± TAILED PAIR

CIRCUIT
 


 resulting in IC1 = IC2. åith RC1 = RC2,
equal voltages develop at VC1 and VC2.

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Now suppose a differential signal is applied

to the inputs. This will incrementally
increase and decrease the base voltages to

´
6´ and ´ 6´

Because Q1 conducts a little more and Q2 a

little less, IE now splits unevenly creating


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This, in turn, forces the voltage at VC1 to

decrease and VC2 to increase. The result: a
voltage change at each output due to a
differential input.
BJT_DIFFAMP1.CIR Download
the SPICE file
  
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Look under the hood of most op amps,
comparators or audio amplifiers, and you'll Now suppose a common-mode input signal
discover this powerful front-end circuit - the is applied. åe incrementally increase both
differential amplifier. A simple circuit able inputs to
to amplify small signals applied between its
two inputs, yet reject noise signals common
to both inputs. This circuit has a unique
topology: two inputs and two outputs.
Although you can tap the signal from one
output only, taking the difference between
both outputs delivers twice the gain! And it
improves Common-Mode Rejection (CMR),
´
6´ and ´ 6´
Because the conduction level of neither
transistors has changed (both bases and
emitters moved by the same amount), the
collector currents did not change.
an essential function when the common- 
§ 

mode signal is a noise source or DC bias

from a previous stage. Subsequently, the voltages at VC1 and VC2
remain the same! Therefore, the circuit has
rejected a signal common to both inputs.
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åell, the last statement is lmosttrue.
How does this amplifier amplify differential
Actually, a change in emitter voltage had a
signals and reject common ones? The bias
small ill effect. It changed the bias current
condition assumes equal voltages at VB1
IE set by RE. And this directly
and VB2, forcing the bias current IE (set by
impacted 
=  §  slightly shifting
RE) to split equally between the transistors
the levels at VC1, VC2. As you can see the
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rejection is not perfect. However, it can still Finally, we easily calculate m
ma 
be effective at removing a large part of noise m´
a ´. The single-ended gain
or a DC bias common to both inputs. becomes

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How do we calculate the differential voltage
gain? You can think of Q1 and Q2 as current
sources controlled by their base voltages.
RC1 and RC2 then convert the currents back
into voltages. First, the small signal collector
current
´ ´
CIRCUIT INSIGHT Run a simulation of
BJT_DIFFAMP1.CIR. For VS = 10 mV
peak, do you see about 200 mV peak at
V(3)? Check out the signal at V(4). Is it
equal and opposite to V(3)? To double the
3CmB gain, remove traces V(3) and V(4) and plot
the difference between the two outputs:
where the transconductance gm (A / V) is V(3)-V(4) or V(3,4).
set by the DC collector current 
m ´ m´ at room HANDS-ON DESIGN How can you
temperature. Then, RC transforms 3c back to adjust the gain? Notice, that RE sets Ic,
a voltage which determines gm, which directly sets
the gain. So to decrease the gain by a factor
CC · mB
Getting the input VS into the picture, notice
it divides equally across each base-emitter
junction, but with opposite polarities.
Putting it all together you get a single-ended
output for each transistor
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of 2 or 3, for example, just increase RE by a
factor of 2 or 3. Looking at the output
equation, how else can you adjust gain? Try
adjusting the values of RC1 and RC2 to vary
the gain.
   

C1C1 · m´  CIRCUIT INSIGHT To see the CMR in

action, zero the signal source by setting VS
C2C2 · m´  to 0MVPEAK. Then turn up VCM to
something like 100MVPEAK. Run a new
Subtracting the two outputs gets you simulation. åhat happens at both
a differential output of V(3) and V(4)? Notice the output voltages
are very small! And to boot, they move in
C1C2 C · m´ the same direction. This can work in our
favor if we're able to take the difference
åhat about the bias current? RE sets the between outputs, V(3,4). Thisa3 t3l
bias at Ie = (-0.6V - VDD) / RE = (-0.6 V - output further improves the CMR! Now, try
(-15 V)) / 7.2 k = 2 mA which divides mismatching the RCs by a percent or two
equally between Q1 and Q2 giving and watch what happens at V(3,4).


 
ma In practice, how do you take the difference?

Simply follow a differential amplifier with
another differential amplifier. Or, like in op

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amp circuits, subtract the collector currents
directly using additional transistors to mirror
current from one collector to another. ( A
future design topic to be sure.)
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HANDS-ON DESIGN How big can VS
be before the output becomes distorted.
Restore VS back to 10MVPEAK and set
VCM to 0MVPEAK. Rerun the diff amp
simulation and plot V(3,4). Okay, it looks
pretty normal. Now, turn VS up to
something like 20, 50 or 100 mV. åhat's
happening to the natural beauty of the output
sinewave?
åant a better view of the input / output
transfer curve? You're not limited to
plotting time on the X-axis. In fact, you can
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change it to a different variable. ( Most
simulators let do this by clicking on the X-
Axis or via a pull-down menu item.) Try
plotting V(3,4) on the Y-Axis and V(1) on
the X-Axis. How much of this input / output
curve is actually a straight line?
 voltage will be higher, the gain should
If you're interested, SPICE can calculate the
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). For
example, including the statement
.FOUR 10KHZ V(3,4)
asks SPICE to calculate the percentage of
higher harmonics to the 10 kHz fundamental
sinewave in the waveform at V(3,4). If its all
10 kHz fundamental and no harmonics,
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you've got pure sinewave dancing at the
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output. However, as is typical in most
amplifiers, the larger signal, the more
distorted it gets.
Run a few simulations while increasing VS
beyond 10 mV. Checkout the THD results
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appearing in the in the output text file,
BJT_DIFFAMP1.OUT.
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The differential amplifier makes a handy
Voltage-Controlled Amplifier (VCA). All
you need to do is vary the emitter bias
current ( which of course varies the
transistor's transconductance.) How? One
way is to replace the -15 VDC supply with a
voltage source that varies. For example, use
a PåL statement to linearly ramp VDD
slowly (say over 1000us ) from -5 V to -15
V. Does the output at V(3,4) increase over
time? Remember to increase the total time
for the transient analysis as needed.
"
The current-source nature of the transistor's
output provides a big benefit. You can shift
the output to different voltage levels. If the
next stage needs a voltage biased around 25
V, for example, simply change VCC to a
higher voltage. Although the output DC bias
remain basically the same.
You can also shift the output to a negative
rail! Just flip the entire circuit upside down
and swap the NPN transistors for PNPs.
Many op amps and audio amps shift the
output to the negative rail, delivering the
signal to the next stage, the Miller
Integrator.

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*
* SIGNAL SOURCE VS 1 2
AC 1 SIN(0 10MVPEAK 10KHZ)
VCM 2 0 SIN(0
0MVPEAK 5KHZ)
 


 good for amplifying a single voltage signal
* POåER SUPPLIES input. åith a little ingenuity, however, we
VCC 11 0 DC +15V can construct an op-amp circuit maintaining
VDD 12 0 DC -15V both voltage inputs, yet with a controlled
* gain set by external resistors.
Q1 31 5 Q2N2222
Q2 42 5 Q2N2222
RC1 11 3 1000
RC2 11 4 1000
RE 5 12 7.2K
*
*
.model Q2N2222 NPN(Is=3.108f Xti=3
Eg=1.11 Vaf=131.5 Bf=217.5 Ne=1.541
+ Ise=190.7f Ikf=1.296 Xtb=1.5
Br=6.18 Nc=2 Isc=0 Ikr=0 Rc=1
+ Cjc=14.57p Vjc=.75 Mjc=.3333
Fc=.5 Cje=26.08p Vje=.75
+ Mje=.3333 Tr=51.35n Tf=451p
Itf=.1 Vtf=10 Xtf=2 Rb=10)
* If all the resistor values are equal,
* this amplifier will have a differential voltage
* CHECK DISTORTION åITH FOURIER gain of 1. The analysis of this circuit is
SERIES ANALYSIS essentially the same as that of an
.FOUR 10KHZ V(3,4) inverting amplifier, except
* that the noninverting input (+) of the op-amp
* ANALYSIS is at a voltage equal to a fraction of V2,
.TRAN 5US 200US rather than being connected directly to
.AC DEC 5 1K 100MEG ground. As would stand to reason,
* VIEå RESULTS V2 functions as the noninverting input and
.PRINT TRAN V(3) V1 functions as the inverting input
.PRINT AC V(3) of the final amplifier circuit. Therefore:
.PROBE
.END

()*)


An op-amp with no feedback is already
a differential amplifier,
amplifying the voltage difference
between the two inputs. However, its gain
cannot be controlled, and it is generally too
high to be of any practical use. So far, our
application of negative feedback to op-amps
has resulting in the practical loss of one
of the inputs, the resulting amplifier only
If we wanted to provide a differential gain of
anything other than 1, we would have to
adjust the resistances in |oth upper and
lower voltage dividers, necessitating
multiple resistor changes and balancing
between the two dividers for symmetrical
operation. This is not always practical, for
obvious reasons.
Another limitation of this amplifier design
is the fact that its input impedances are

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rather low compared to that of
some other op-amp configurations,
most notably the noninverting
(single-ended input) amplifier.
Each input voltage source has to
drive current through a resistance,
which constitutes far less
impedance than the bare input of an
op-amp alone. The solution to this
problem, fortunately, is quite
simple. All we need to do is
"buffer" each input voltage signal
through a voltage follower like this:
Now the V1 and V2 input lines are connected
straight to the inputs of two voltage-follower
op-amps, giving very high
impedance. The two op-amps on theleft now
handle the driving of current
through the resistors instead of
letting the input voltage sources (whatever
they may be) do it. The increased
complexity to our circuit is minimal for a
substantial benefit.
The instrumentation amplifier
As suggested before, it is beneficial to be
able to adjust the gain of the amplifier
circuit without having to change more than
one resistor value, as is necessary with the
previous design of differential amplifier.
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The so-called 3stumtt3o builds on the
last version of differential amplifier to give
us that capability:
This intimidating circuit is constructed
from a buffered differential amplifier stage
with three new resistors linking the two
buffer circuits together. Consider all
resistors to be of equal value except for
Rgain. The negative feedback of the upper-
left op-amp causes the voltage at point 1
(top of Rgain) to be equal to V1. Likewise,
the voltage at point 2 (bottom of Rgain) is
held to a value equal to V2. This establishes
a voltage drop across Rgain equal to the
voltage difference between V1 and V2. That
voltage drop causes a current through Rgain,
and since the feedback loops of the two
input op-amps draw no current, that same
amount of current through Rgain must be
going through the two "R" resistors above
and below it. This produces a voltage drop
between points 3 and 4 equal to:
The regular differential amplifier on the
right-hand side of the circuit then takes this
voltage drop between points 3 and 4, and
amplifies it by a gain of 1 (assuming again
that all "R" resistors are of equal value).
 


Though this looks like a cumbersome way to
build a differential amplifier, it has the
distinct advantages of possessing extremely
high input impedances on the V1 and
V2 inputs (because they connect straight into
the noninverting inputs of their respective
op-amps), and adjustable gain that can be set
by a single resistor. Manipulating the above
formula a bit, we have a general expression
for overall voltage gain in the
instrumentation amplifier:

Though it may not be obvious by looking at

the schematic, we can change the
differential gain of the instrumentation
amplifier simply by changing the value of
one resistor: Rgain. Yes, we could still
change the overall gain by changing the
values of some of the other resistors, but this
would necessitate |laresistor value
changes for the circuit to remain
symmetrical. Please note that the lowest
gain possible with the above circuit is
obtained with Rgaincompletely open (infinite
resistance), and that gain value is 1.

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An 3stumtt3ompl3 3 is a
differential op-amp circuit providing
high input impedances with ease of gain
adjustment through the variation of a
single resistor.

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