have all the properties required for nearly ideal DC amplification and are therefore used extensively in signal conditioning, filtering or to perform mathematical operations such as add, subtract, integration and differentiation • An Operational Amplifier, or op-amp for short, is fundamentally a voltage amplifying device designed to be used with external feedback components such as resistors and capacitors between its output and input terminals. • These feedback components determine the resulting function or “operation” of the amplifier and by virtue of the different feedback configurations whether resistive, capacitive or both, the amplifier can perform a variety of different operations, giving rise to its name of “Operational Amplifier”. Op-Amp Introduction • Op-amps (amplifiers/buffers in general) are drawn as a triangle in a circuit schematic • There are two inputs – inverting and non-inverting • And one output • Also power connections (note no explicit ground) Equivalent Circuit of an Ideal Operational Amplifier An ideal op amp has the following characteristics: • Infinite open-loop voltage gain AV ≈ ∞. • Infinite input resistance, Ri ≈ ∞. • Zero output resistance, Ro ≈ 0. • Infinite CMRR,ρ =∞ • The output voltage Vo=0; when Vd = V2-V1 = 0 • Change of output with respect to input, slew rate = ∞ • Change in out put voltage with Temp., ∂Vo/∂Vi=0 Inverting Operational Amplifier • The negative sign in the equation indicates an inversion of the output signal with respect to the input as it is 180o out of phase. • This is due to the feedback being negative in value. Non-inverting Operational Amplifier • An amplifier which amplifies the input without producing any phase shift between input and output is called Non inverting Amplifier. • The input is applied to the noninverting input terminal of the op-amp comparison of the ideal inverting and noninverting amplifier op-amp Analog to Digital Signals Successive Approximation type ADC • Successive Approximation type ADC is the most widely used and popular ADC method. • The conversion time is maintained constant in successive approximation type ADC, and is proportional to the number of bits in the digitaloutput, unlike the counter and continuous type A/D converters. • The basic principle of this type of A/D converter is that the unknown analog input voltage is approximated against an n-bit digital value by trying one bit at a time, beginning with the MSB. • The principle of successive approximation process for a 4-bit conversion is explained here. This type of ADC operates by successively dividing the voltage range by half, as explained in the following steps. The Staircase Ramp Type • The basic principle is that the in put signal Vi is compared with an internal staircase voltage, Vc generated by a series circuit consisti ng of a pulse generator (clock), a counter counting the pulses and a digital to analog converter, converting the counter output into a dc signal. • As soon as Vc is equal to Vi, the input comparator closes a gate between the clock and the counter, the counter stops and its output is shown on the display. Digital to Analog Converter