SY éy Mote Hamsos Slow ateisthomaximumrateofehange ‘of output vltage with raspct to tae, ‘sully specified in vols per microsec- ‘ond, For example, 2 0.5 V/ps slew ate ‘means thatthe output rises a fas no fastor than 0.8 V every microsecond, ‘Slew rateisalsosemotimes specified in- Voltage follower large signa pulve ro areca sppcton < 2 RaTE-weat'©* What Cousos Stow Rate? Slew rate is caused by curent limiting and saturation of an op amp intr ‘Stage. That limited current ete imum eurront availabe to charge the ‘compensation capacitance network. vw nev Your our ov + * aay. i roy anv om THe, Figure 2 ena, ‘The voltage cross the capacitor rises a ‘ec ‘This capacitor charging eats tl attheoutputandeauses low fate tii Ing. Slow rt na stages. Remember that for smal signls-e, when the op ap is operated In it linear region, the step sponte ofthe op amp ie an exponen of time constant re hore fois the close top band ‘width ofthe cre Now Doas Siow Rats Attact ‘Applications? Ina simple application using 9 uA741 2s a comparator (Figure 1), the output ‘wil go to about-14V and then to 24 {2ch time the input signal crosses zero volts. TheyA 741 hasa tyeastow rate 010.7 V/ps, determinedtunderelecteal "specications or caleultad trom the lope of tho eutput curve In Figure 2 ‘Therefor, the wA7AT ouput wil go to S14 fom 14 in 2av o7Vie 4098 '1ahe fll 28 V output swing iedesirad, the input signal must havent least Os bbetwuen zero erastings. That i, the ‘maximum input signal frequency should be 1/12. 40 ys) or 12.8 tH assuming ‘50% duty eyo. Evenat that requency, ‘he outpt is trlangularinstoader square wave. For higher raquencies ora mare square wave output, an ap amp with or sow ate is needed, As another éxample of th affect of slow consider the simple amplifier with 8 gain of two in Figure 3. Again, tho A7S1 is used.” Is open loop vltage ‘tin as a fanciion of frequency curve (Figure 4) indizates that the amplifier ret will operata wlth gain of two Up to about 80 kts, ‘Now, whats the maximum np signa voltage thet may be used up to BOW? tthe outputs tobe an untried sing wave, A sinot. than the rate of change ofthe output i And the maximum rte of change Output ie ACD The minimum slow rte the operational amp, therefore, ‘must be equal Aca, Thus, witha = 27 (80 x 10) = 503000 and the slow tof the YATE picaly 0.7 Vive,the maximum output swing Aof the sine wave without distortion is slew rate 0.7 V/us_ @ "503000" '4 Vox x soe t oF 28Vpxpk ‘The maximum input signal should, there- fore, be less than 2.8/2 Vpk.p4. The maximum output swing can‘also be easily read from the output voltage swing as a function of frequency curve ‘on the data sheet (Figure 5). From this ‘curve, the maximum output swing with: out distortion can be determined for different frequencies, To Sum Up |i applications where square wave out- puts (comparators, oscillators, limiters, etc.) are expected, it is important to re- member that the op amp output takes ‘some time to change from one value to another. That time, which usually limits the maximum frequency of operation, is determined by the change of output voltage divided by the slew rate. {In applications where the output should be free of distortion, the slew rate de- termines the maximum frequency of operation for a desired output swing. The required slew rate can be deter- mined by a simple formula. For a de- Sired undistorted output voltage swing Vpk ata maximum frequency fax. 2 Op ‘amp is needed with a slew rate given by slew rate > 2 7 fmax Vpk Figure 6 gives the slew rate required for different output swings at different frequencies. Another easy way to choose the right op amp is to check the data sheet curves of output voltage swing as ‘ function of frequency (Figure 5). Remember, however, that these curves are typical and slew rate varies as @ function of supply. Slew rates at differ. tent supply voltages are usually shown on, the data sheet, In some applications such as D/A or A/D, slew rate is not the only criterion {or fast response. The settling time is another parameter to consider. High slew rate op amps sometimes have associated overshoot and ringing which ‘may cause the output to reach a steady state after a longer period of time than maybe a slower slew rate op amp, ‘OPEN LOOP VOLTAGE GAIN PEAK-TO-PEAK OUTPUT SWING SINE WAVE — Vpx-pk ~ 5 REE SS 10 36 28 24 20 16 2 YOO 1K 10K 100K 1M. 10M FREQUENCY — He Figure 4 {00 tk 10k 100k 1M. FREQUENCY — He Figure 8 SLEW RATE — V/ys Figure 6 229