ECE 2100 Spring 2020

Lab 3. Operational Amplifiers

ECE 2100
Goals:
1. Characterize basic open-loop op-amp behavior.
2. Design and build a differential amplifier
Preparation:
 Carefully review this, and complete the designs in the pre-lab
 Be sure to understand the analysis of the circuits to be built
 Review lecture notes on Op-amps and differential amplifiers.
 Whenever you read “741” replace that with AD711

1) Op Amp's Open Loop Response.

a. Get Parts & Built Test Circuit. Obtain an Op Amp from the parts bin: The
pin out is given below in Fig. 1. LTSpice: Go to Components-> Op-amps and
select the AD711, near the beginning of the list of available op-amps)

Figure 1: Pin-out of UA741CP op-amp

Using a proto-board, assemble the open loop Op Amp test circuit shown below in Fig.
2 with the UA741CP. The Op Amp package (8 pin DIP package) must be placed on
the proto-board such that 4 pins are inserted on either side of the channel running
down the center of the proto-board giving access to each of the 8 pins. Get help from
the TAs if needed. Attach the SMUs as shown on the input and output terminals.
Power the chip using the dual DC power supply. Using the +20 and -20 V outputs,
turn the “tracking ratio” nob to “fixed” (so that the two voltages are automatically
equal and opposite) and adjust them to be +6 and -6V by turning the +/-20V nob
until the display shows 6V. The “Common” output is the ground, which should be
attached to the proto-board as shown in Fig. 2. This ground serves as the reference
for the SMUs as well. Confirm that the +20 and -20 outputs are in fact +6V and -6V
with the DMM LTSpice. Put the circuit together as shown below. You need to create
2 voltage sources to act as power supplies, one with 6V output, one with -6V output.
In place of SMU 1, use a swept voltage source. For SMU2 place a 20k resistor
between the output of the op-amp and ground, and then just measure the voltage
across that resistor using a “probe” in Spice.

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Figure 2: open loop test-setup

Figure 3. Power supply arrangement to generate ±6V: connect Black to ground on your board

b. Setup SMUs & Test. Run the Keithley program for controlling the SMUs. Start  All
ProgramsKeithley InstrumentsLabtracer 2.0.
With one sweep of the SMU you are going to determine
i. Voltage gain of the 741
ii. Input impedance of the 741
iii. Input offset voltage for your particular 741
iv. Input bias current for the 741
Program SMU1 to sweep voltage from -0.1 mV to +0.1mv in 101 steps.
Sweep the input voltage on your voltage source over this range.

Energize and test the circuit: apply the DC power and then perform the SMU
sweep.
a) Examine the voltage transfer function: using LabTracer, plot Vout versus
Vin for this circuit. The slope will equal the gain of the amplifier.
b) The input voltage where the output is 0V is the input offset voltage, VIO
c) The input current at Vin=0 is the input bias current.
d) Plot the input current versus input voltage. The slope is the inverse of the
input resistance.
e) Identify the minimum and maximum output voltages, and compare to the
power supply voltages.
Save the raw data for analysis and plotting in your report - make sure SMU1 current and
voltage are in the data as well as the SMU2 voltage.

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2) Design and Build a simple inverting amplifier. Build a simple inverting amplifier with
the UA741CP. This circuit will be tested with the SMUs in the same fashion as above.
a. Choose resistor values to provide an inverting amplifier, with an input resistance of
1kΩ and gain of approximately -20.
b. Get parts and construct circuit. Obtain R1 and R2 from the parts bins. Measure the
DC resistance of each resistor using the DMM. Record these values. Now with a
proto-board assemble the inverting amplifier circuit shown below in Fig. 4. We will
observe and measure the gain using a signal generator and the oscilloscope. Use a
voltage source to serve as the signal generator. Set your signal generator source to
operate at 1kHz with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.1 V. Click on the input source, go
to “Advanced”. Under Function select SINE, Enter 0.1 for amplitude and 1000 for
frequency. The other boxes can be left blank, or set to zero. Attach the output of the
signal generator to Vin of the circuit (and remember to connect the ground of the
signal generator to the ground terminal).
c.

Figure 4. Inverting amplifier circuit.

Remember to connect the 6 volt power supplies even though they are not shown in the
schematic of Fig. 4.
d. Attach the two channels of the scope (i.e probes in LTSpice) to the input and output
of the amplifier circuit, again using the ground as the reference point for the scope
probes. Observe the magnitude and the input and output, and the relative phase
between them. (Do you see why this is called an inverting amp?). Based on signal
magnitudes, determine the gain of the amplifier. Record the scope trace using the
software tool “Tek Open Choice”. Start that program, click on “Select Instrument”
and choose the line that starts with USB. Then take a scan of the scope face and store
the output.
e. Adjust the amplitude of the signal generator, and find the range of input voltages
where the amplifier is said to be linear (i.e. Vout = GVin where G is constant), and not
in saturation near one of the rail voltages. Also record the output voltage for each
saturated regime.

3) Design and build a differential, variable-gain instrumentation amplifier with

maximum CMRR.

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The goal here is to build an amplifier to boost a small signal differential signal (anywhere
between 5mVpp and 50mVpp) from a large source resistance (~100kΩ) up to at least
1Vpp, while suppressing a much stronger (~500mVpp) common-mode signal to <20%
the amplitude of the output from the differential input. To do this your amplifier should
have the following properties:
High input impedance: Zin>>100kΩ

High gain: The required gain will deliver Vout>1Vpp for 5mV<|Vin|. This means
differential gain should be at least 200.

High common mode rejection: be sure you can suppress the common mode to be less
than 20% the differential output. In words, this means common mode gain should less
than 0.2.

a) Design your amplifier: There is not one op-amp configuration that will achieve
all these goals, so you must built a two-stage amplifier. Consider the two circuits
below. One has extremely high input resistance, and can have high gain, but the
output is a superposition of the two inputs. The other is a differential amplifier
with good CMRR when the resistors are chosen correctly, but it has input
resistance equal to R1.
b) Design the amplifier on paper, choosing the locations of the resistors, and
nominal value of the various resistors. Decide on the gain distribution between
the stages, noting that the overall gain is simply the product of the individual
gains.
i. Choose specific resistor values, and write out the differential and common
mode gain as a function of every resistor value.

Figure 5. Combine these two amplifiers to make a composite amplifier that meets the
specs of high impedance, high gain, and low common mode gain

b). Build the amplifier. (Clearly this means do it in Spice) Some tips:
1. Build modularly: If you have multiple stages, build and test each stage
separately, with decent space between them, then connect them together
using a wire, once each stage operates as expected.

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2. Test as you go: To test common-mode gain short your inputs together and
drive them with the same signal. For differential gain, ground one input
and drive the other.
3. Color code your wires for easier debugging: For example: red=VCC+,
black=GND, blue=VCC-, green=Vin+, orange=Vin-, and purple=out. Use
these wires to connect to your resistive network. The extra 5 minutes you
spend on neat wiring will save you 2 hours of debugging.

c). Characterize your circuit:

1. Use the signal generator to create a 5mVpp sine wave at 1 KHz. For a
differential input of 5mVpp at 1kHz, confirm your gain creates a 1Vpp output.
Capture both input and output on the oscilloscope for your report. What is the
gain?

2. Now, unground the one input, and connect the two differential inputs together.
This is a common mode signal. Adjust the signal generator to input a 0.5Vpp
input. Record input and output. This is the common mode gain.

3. Characterize the input impedance of the amplifier by connecting one input to

ground and driving the other with an SMU, swept from -1V +1V in 101 steps
and plotting current vs voltage.

Wind down: Clean up around your bench and return the 741components back to their storage
bins. The resistors should be thrown away, or you can keep them as souvenirs. Be sure
all data is collected and placed on your own storage media. Delete all files on your
desktop or at least organize them in a folder. ECE makes no guarantee that these files left
on your desktop will remain over time.
Analysis
1) Open Loop Op Amp Response. Plot the open loop voltage transfer characteristics (Vout
vs. Vin on linear scales) of the AD711 and determine the open loop gain. Compare
results with the spec sheet.
2) Op Amp's Input Current and Input Resistance. Plot the input current versus input voltage,
and from this estimate the input resistance and nominal value of input bias current for the
741. Compare results with the spec sheet.
3) Op Amp's Input Voltage Offset and Voltage Margins. (Unless you really saw an oiffset,
don’t worry about this part, you simulated op-amp likely has no offset) From your
measured open loop response, determine the input voltage offset for the Op Amp and
compare with the spec sheet. For the ±6.0 volts power supplies, determine the maximum
and minimum output voltages for each amplifier.
4) Inverting Amplifier Transfer Characteristic. Plot the output of your inverting amplifier,
and compute the gain as derived from the data on the scope. Compare the measured gain
with the value you would predict from the resistors you used.
5) Sketch out the schematic of your differential amplifier, labeled with resistor values.

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6) How does your amplifier’s performance compare to the desired specs? Make a table of
the specs, your calculated values, and your measured values, for differential gain,
common mode gain, and input resistance.