BMEN 3120 Operational Amplifiers

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

Lab 6

Ami Shah
11/3/2015

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BMEN 3120 Operational Amplifiers

INTRODUCTION

In this lab, the purpose was to see the different types of op- amps and how they work.
These different types of circuits including inverting, noninverting, summing, and
difference amplifier op amps were built. In addition to these a few other useful circuits
including the voltage follower and comparators were seen.

THEORY

Op amps have very small currents that enter either the inverting or non-inverting
amplifier. For this reason the currents entering are assumed as zero, but the output
current doesn’t necessarily have to be the same. If the op amp is in the linear region, the
voltage is negligibly small. The product of the difference and the open loop gain is the
output voltage.
Inverting, non- inverting, and summing amplifiers

The inverting amplifier amplifies the input signal, which can be seen through the ration
of the resistors. Calculating the amplification is done by – (Rf/Ri)*Vi. Through the
exercises it is seen that the load has an effect on output voltage, but it’s minor.

Figure 1: Inverting amplifier

A non- inverting amplifier calculates the output by (1+(Rf/Ri))*Vi. This can be seen in
the image below:

Figure 2: Non- inverting amplifier

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A summing amplifier is when there are multiple inputs going into the negative terminal.
The output voltage is calculated by -(V1+V2+V3) if the resistors are equal and –
(R4/R1(V1) + R4/R2 (V2) + R4/R3 (V3)) if the resistors aren’t equal.

Figure 3: Summing Amplifier

The difference amplifier outputs the difference between the two amplifiers (Vb-Va) if the
resistors are in parallel. If they are not in parallel, the ration (Ra/Rb) = (Rc/Rd) is
maintained and the output voltage is Rb/Ra(Vb-Va). If the ratios aren’t maintained an
equation with all the resistors is used.

Figure 4: Difference Amplifier

A voltage follower is a circuit that has a gain of 1 and no amplification is applied, but
the output voltage follows the input voltage. For this, the input voltage is also equal to
the output voltage.

Figure 5: Voltage Follower

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METHODS
 Construct an inverting and non- inverting amplifier using an op amp and a few
resistors
 After that, two inputs are added in order to create a summing amplifier. One signal
is from the benchtop function generator, while the other one is from the ELVIS
board function generator
 Keep the circuit from part one and create a difference amplifier by adding on
another op amp and having four equal resistors.
 Simultaneously display both the summing and difference amplifiers
 A voltage divider and voltage follower are built according to the figure shown in
the lab
 A load resistor is then connected between the output and the ground
 Lastly an op amp circuit is built without a negative feedback loop
 A comparator ladder is built by having the first three resistors as equal values and
connected to 3 volts, which is not supposed to light up because Vp > Vn.
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
 Elvis Board
 Benchtop function generator, DC power supply
 Op amp MCP601 - 2
 Resistors 1000Ω - 4
 Resistor 1.2 kΩ – 2
 Resistor 1M, 110k, 11k, 1.1k, 110, 82, 51 – 1 of each
 Resistor 150Ω – 2
 LED light - 2
 Elvis oscilloscope
 Elvis function generator
 Wires – as needed
RESULTS & ANALYSIS
Exercise 1 shows the behavior of an inverting and non-inverting amplifier. Figure 1 below
shows the oscilloscope measurement of the inverting amplifier. As seen, the output signal
in yellow is inverted. The gain calculated for the inverting amplifier using an Rf value of
2kohm and Ri value of 1kohm was -2. For this reason, the peak-to-peak output voltage
for the inverting amplifier was 3.94V, double the peak-to-peak input voltage of 2.05V,
and the gain measured from the oscilloscope was -1.92, close to the calculated gain.

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Figure 1: Oscilloscope Measurement for Inverting Amplifier

According to Figure 2 below, it shows the oscilloscope measurement of a non-inverting

amplifier. As seen, the output signal in yellow is not inverted like it was in Figure 1. The
gain calculated for the non-inverting amplifier was done by using an Rf value of 2kohm
and Ri value of 1kohm was 3. Thus, the peak-to-peak output voltage for the non- inverting
amplifier was 6.07V, triple the peak-to-peak input voltage of 2.13V, and the gain
measured from the oscilloscope was 2.85, close to the calculated gain.

Figure 2: Oscilloscope measurement for Non-inverting Amplifier

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In Exercise 2, signals were summed and subtracted using the summing and difference
amplifiers. Figure 3 below displays the result of the summing amplifier, where the signal
in green (Vs) is the summed sine and triangle wave and the signal in yellow (V1) is the
sine wave. Figure 4 below displays the summed signal in green and the triangle wave
(V2) in yellow.

Figure 3: Vs and V1

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Figure 4: Vs and V2

By using the difference amplifier, the triangle wave signal was subtracted from the
summed signal through the summing amplifier. Figure 5 below shows the original
triangle wave signal from the summing amplifier (V2) in yellow and the sine wave signal
in green (V1) after the triangle wave was subtracted.

Figure 5: V2 and V1

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The triangle wave signal was then replaced with a DC source, V2 = 0.5V. The DC wave
was then subtracted from the output of the summing amplifier, effectively displaying
only the sine wave signal. Figure 6 below displays the output, Vout = Vs – V2.

Figure 6: Vout = Vs – V2

In Exercise 3, the robustness of a voltage divider was compared with and without a
voltage follower to demonstrate the utility of the op amp’s high input and low output
resistance. Table 1 below displays the voltage values of the simple voltage divider and
the voltage divider with the voltage follower as the load resistor varied. As the load
resistance decreased, the output voltage from the voltage divider also decreased. This is
because the lower the resistance, the greater the output current. Due to the inverse
relationship between voltage and current, this also means the lower the voltage. A
voltage follower follows the input voltage, which is evident from the stable voltage
values from the voltage divider.

RL (ohms) Voltage across RL

Simple Voltage Divider Voltage Divider with
Voltage Follower
Open circuit 1.465V 1.411V
1M 1.491V 1.420V
110K 1.483V 1.397V
11K 1.414V 1.375V
1.1K 0.965V 1.375V

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110 0.232V 1.342V

82 0.180V 1.288V
51 0.117V 1.105V
Table 1: Output voltage with and without voltage follower

In Exercise 4, a comparator was built and the input voltage values for which each LED lit
up were recorded. The voltage across R3 was 1V, the voltage across R2 was 2V, and the
voltage across R3 was 3V. Therefore the input voltage for LED 2 to light up had to be
greater than 1V and greater than 2V for LED 1 to light up. These values were, in fact,
obtained from comparator circuit. A comparator was then designed such that LED 1
turned on for Vin > 1V and LED 2 turned on for Vin > 4.5V. For such a comparator, the
resistor values had to be changed so that appropriate the appropriate voltage across the
resistors caused the LEDs to light up. R3 was was 1kohm R2 was 3.5kohm, and R1 was
1.5kohm.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Operational amplifiers are commonly used to amplify signals due to their large gain or
eliminate noise from signals. A common example seen is an ECG signal, which is typically
low in amplitude and distorted by noise sources. A low signal level is difficult to detect
and high noise level masks useful clinical information. Therefore, an amplifier is used to
boost the raw ECG signal without boosting the noise itself.

CONCLUSION
Overall, this lab allowed the understanding of operational amplifiers and investigate the
properties of inverting, non-inverting, summing, difference, voltage following, and
comparator amplifiers. It was analyzed that op amps have high gains and allow for low
amplitude signals to be amplified.

REFERENCES
 Lab 4: Transistor Circuits
 Electric Circuits, 9/E, James W. Nilsson, Susan Riedel
 [Link]
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 [Link]

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