CONTENTS

PROBLEM 1 3
Exercise A 3
Exercise D* 4
Exercise B 4
Exercise D* 5
Exercise C 5
Exercise D* 7
Exercise E 7
Exercise F 9
PROBLEM 2 10
REFERENCES 13

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PROBLEM 1

Problem 1 requires investigation of parameters of inverting amplifier. The simulations which were
performed are based on two different models of operational amplifier – ideal and real. Figure 1 shows the
common circuitry of an inverting amplifier.

R 2

R 1
V in O P A M P
-
V o u t
O U T

Fig.1 Inverting Amplifier Circuit

 Exercise A

Task: Using a model of ideal operational amplifier, choose R1 and R2 so that you get a gain of 10.
Perform a transient simulation with an input sinusoidal source (f = 1kHz, Amplitude = 1V).
It is known from analogue circuits’ theory [1] that the output voltage of an inverting amplifier (as shown
on picture 1) is defined by the equation:

R2 R2
Vout = − Vin , for A0 >> (1)
R1 R1

In (1) A0 is the gain of the operational amplifier (OPA) in open loop operation for DC signals.
Therefore, for gain of 10 the ratio between R2 and R1 must be 10.
The simulation circuit for task 1 is shown on figure 2. The values of R1 and R2 are selected to be
1kOhm and 10kOhm respectively for easy calculation and discussions. The transient response of simulated
circuit is plotted on figure 3a.

R 2

1 0 k
V

R 1
V in O P A M P
-
1 k V o u t
O U T
V 1
V O F F = 0 V V
V A M P L = 1 V +
F R E Q = 1 k H z U 1

Fig.2 Simulation Circuit of Ideal Inverting Amplifier with Gain 10

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 a b
Fig.3 Transient Response of Ideal (a) and Real (b) Inverting Amplifiers

 Exercise D*

Task: Repeat Exercise A using a model of the real OPA uA741.

*Note: Exercise D consists of exactly the same tasks as exercises A, B and C. Therefore, for easier representation of the
results, after each one of the mentioned above, simulation and results are included for exercise D, as well.

Figure 4 shows the circuit used for the simulation. For model of the real uA741 is used a Spice model of
LM741 from National Semiconductor Inc. The real model requires power supply, which for the task is set at
±15V.

R 2

1 0 k

V 2
V

1 5 V d c
R 1 L M 7 441
V -
V

V i n 2 1
- O S 1
1 k V o u t
6
O U T V 3
V 1
V O F F = V 0 3 5 R 3 1 5 V d c 0
V A M P L = 1 V + 7 O S 2
V + 1 0 k
F R E Q = 1 k H z U 1

Fig.4 Simulation Circuit of Ideal Inverting Amplifier with Gain 10

The results of the transient analysis shown on figure 3b are not different than those for the ideal model.
The reason for that is that A0 (open loop gain) of LM741 is about 60dB [2] for 1kHz, which allows equation (1)
to be accurate. Furthermore, the output voltage has amplitude of ±10V, which is bellow the supply
voltage, and hence is not limited.

 Exercise B

Task: Using a model of ideal operational amplifier, perform a parametric sweep of R2 and repeat the
transient simulation. Explain what happens above a certain value of R2. What can be done to solve the problem?
On figure 5, R2 is set as parameter, which is swept from 1kOhm to 20kOhm, with a step of 1kOhm.
During the investigation simulations it was observed that for values greater than 15kOhm, which for the
circuit on figure 5 sets the output at ±15V, the simulator reaches a point with convergence problem and cannot
continue further. An ideal OPA is expected to amplify the input signal without having to limit the output signal.
However, the observed problem suggested that there are limitations of the output voltage.
That was proven after review of the model of OPAMP, which is a simple model denoted by the line:

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 E^@REFDES %OUT 0 VALUE {LIMIT(V(%+,%-)*@GAIN,@VNEG,@VPOS)} ^@REFDES %+ %-
1G\n

PARAMETERS: R 2
R E S _ V A L U E = 1 k

{ R E S _ V A L U E }

V
R 1
V i n O P A M P
-
1 k V o u t
O U T
V 1
V O F F = 0 V V
V A M P L = 1 V +
F R E Q = 1 k H z U 1

Fig.5 Circuit for Parametric Sweep of the Gain of Ideal Inverting Amplifier

In the model description the properties VNEG and VPOS define the limits of the output voltage, and
after setting them to values higher then the expected output, the convergence problem was solved. This confirms
that OPAMP does not have a model of exactly ideal OPA, however it is easy to be modified depending no the
requirements of the analysis.
After adjustment of VNEG and VPOS of OPAMP the parametric sweep can cover values of R2 bigger
than 15kOhm. On figure 6a the waveforms of the output voltage are visualized depending on different values of
R2. Apparently, the circuit performs as an ideal amplifier, with no limitation of the output voltage.

a b
Fig.6 Transient Response of Ideal (a) and Real (b) Inverting Amplifiers with R2 swept from 1k to 20kOhm, with a step of
1kOhm
 Exercise D*

Task: Repeat Exercise B using a model of the real OPA uA741.

The circuit which was used for parametric analysis of inverting amplifier with real model of uA741 (not
shown in this paper) is analogous to the one shown on figure 4. However, it has power supply circuitry of
±15V.
The result of the parametric analysis of real amplifier is shown on figure 6b. As
expected for the performance of a real OPA, the output voltage is limited by the supply
voltage at ±15V. By contrast to the convergence problems with ideal OPA, such were not
observed, because LM741 is has more accurate model.

 Exercise C

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 Task: Using a model of ideal operational amplifier and for suitable values of R2/R1, what are the input
currents into the amplifier? What is the voltage across the negative and positive terminal of the operational
amplifier? Explain their values.
The schematic on figure 7 is used for measurement of the input current of the ideal OPA. Because there
is no voltage drop between the positive and negative input of ideal OPA, the value of the potentials of these
input are to be equal. Therefore, since the positive input is grounded, the negative is equal to zero. For that
reason, if the current is of the input is measured directly, what is measured is:

Vin 1V
I input = = = 1mA
R1 1kOhm

V+
V-
R 2

1 0 k

I(R2)
V-
V+
R 1
V in O P A M P
-
1 k V o u t
I ( i n p u t ) O U T
V 1 I ( R 1 )
V O F F = 0 V
V A M P L = 1 V + U 1
F R E Q = 1 k H z

Fig.7 Measurement of Input Current of Ideal Inverting Amplifier

According to Kirchhoff's Current Law:

I input = I R1 + I R 2

(V IN − V− ) (VOUT − V− )
I input = + (2)
R1 R2
Figure 8a shows the shape of the input current achieved by equation (2). The actual value of the current
is very small in the range of fA. Using the same simulation circuit (fig.7) the voltage across the positive and
negative inputs of the ideal OPA is probed. Its amplitude is 10uV.

a b
Fig.8 Input Current (a) and Voltage at the Inverting Input (b) of Ideal Inverting Amplifier

The reason for these measured values of currents and voltages at the input of ideal OPA is similar to the
finding in exercise B. In this case the model of OPAMP has set gain, which is 1e+6. It is set by the property of
the component Gain and included in the script shown already:

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 E^@REFDES %OUT 0 VALUE {LIMIT(V(%+,%-)*@GAIN,@VNEG,@VPOS)} ^@REFDES %+ %-
1G\n

Having the open loop gain set to limited value, although very high, the following model [3] represents
OPA’s characteristics. In figure 9, the output voltage depends in the Vin multiplied by the open loop gain. Thus,
the fixed value of the gain defines the output voltage and vice versa.

+
Vin + Ro
-
A*Vin
-

Fig.9 Model of OPA Represented as a Dependent Source

This is the reason for measuring 10uV at the input of OPA, which is exactly 1 000 000 times smaller
than the 10V at the output. However, it is obvious that the gain is not frequency dependent. For the same reason
it was measured input current other than 0A.

 Exercise D*

Task: Repeat Exercise C using a model of the real OPA uA741.

Using the circuit from figure 4 and the measurement method described in exercise C, the input current of
real model of uA741 is defined. Its waveform is shown on figure 10a. It has a DC component which is the bias
input current of the OPA. The value for uA741 derived from [2, page 8, figure 4] for 25degC is very similar to
the value measured from this simulation – 80nA.

a b
Fig.10 Input Current (a) and Voltage at the Inverting Input (b) of Real uA741Amplifier

The voltage across the positive and negative inputs of uA741 is shown on figure 10b. The amplitude of
this voltage is 10mA, which is 1000 time smaller that the output voltage. This justifies the model shown on
figure 9. Referring to [2, page 9, figure 8] confirms that the real value of the open loop gain of uA741 is close
1000 for 1kHz, which was measured from the simulation results.

 Exercise E

Task: From suitable simulations derive the DC open loop gain, offset voltage, input resistance and
output resistance of the operational amplifier. Compare your results with values from the 741 datasheet.

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 - Offset voltage
The offset voltage of an OPA is defined as the voltage between the inputs, when the circuit is biased, but
no input voltage is applied. It is resulted from the imperfections of the input differetional amplifier.
The schematic on figure 11 was used for measuring in offset voltage. With 0VDC voltage at the input of
the inverting amplifier, the output voltage is the amplified offset voltage. The output voltage Vout was measured
to be 9.915mV. Hence, having a gain of 100 the offset voltage was calculated to be:

Vout 9.915 mV
Voffset = = = 99 .15uV
R2 100 (3)
−
R1
R 2

1 0 0 k

R 1 L M 7 441 V 2
V -

V
V in 2 1 1 5 V d c
- O S 1
1 k 6 V o u t
O U T
0 V d cV 1 3 5
+ 7 O S 2 V 3
U 5 V + R 3 1 5 V d c 0
2 k

Fig.11 Schematic for Measurement of Offset Voltage of Real uA741Amplifier

The calculated offset is about 10 times smaller that the specified typical value of 1mV in the datasheet
[2].

- DC Open loop gain

The DC open loop gain can be easily derived as a ratio between applied input voltage and the measured
output voltage [4]. For correct interpretation of the results the offset voltage must be considered, because its
value is bigger than the value of Vin which does not saturate the output.
The set parameters resulted Vout to be measured with value of -212.7mV. Therefore the DC open loop
gain is 212700, which is equal to 106dB. This value is similar to the values in the datasheet [2].

R 1 V 1 7 L M 7 4 41 V 1 4
V i n 2 V - 1 1 5 V d c
- O S 1
1 k 6 V o u t
9 9 . 1 5 u V d c O U T
3 5
1 u V dV c 1 2 + 7 O S 2 V 1 5
U 4 V + R 5 1 5 V d c 0
2 k

Fig.12 Schematic for Measurement of DC open loop gain

- Input resistance
The input resistance of an OPA is calculated from the DC values of the probed input current and the
applied DC voltage. The schematic that was used is on figure 12. The value is:

VDCsource 1V
Rin = = = 6.24 MOhm
Iinput 160 nA

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 - Output resistance
In order to measure the output resistance a DC analysis was made to the schematic of figure 12.
The results of the analysis are shown on figure 13. The output resistance is then calculated according to
the equation referenced from “Techniques for Simulation and Measurement of Op Amps” [4]:

Vout 1
Rout = Rload * ( −1) (4)
Vout 2

Fig.13 DC Analysis Results. V12 is swept in the range of 0.1uV to1uV

In (4) Vout1 and Vout2 are measured from the plot on figure 13 to be -3.5162V and 3.4976V.
Substituting those values in (4) and having Rload = 2kOhm the output resistance is calculated to be 10Ohm. This
value is in the range of the specified typical values in the datasheet [2].

 Exercise F

Task: Investigate the frequency response of the closed loop amplifier. What are the open loop -3dB
corner frequency, the unity gain frequency and the closed loop -3dB frequencies for different closed loop gain
values? Again, compare your results with the datasheet.
The schematic of the inverting amplifier used for AC parametric sweep is shown on figure 14, while
figure 15 visualizes the frequency response of the circuit.

R 2

PARAMETERS: { R E S _ V A L U E }
R E S _ V A L U E = 1 0 k

L M 7 4 1
R 1 V 2
4

2 1 1 5 V d c
- O S 1
V-

1 0 k 6 V o u t
O U T
V

V i n 3 5
+ 7 O S 2 V 3
V 1 U 1 V + R 1 11 5 V d c 0
0 . 1 V a c 1 0 k
0 V d c

Fig.14 Parametric AC Analysis of Inverting Amplifier

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 Bellow in table 1 are the results for the corner frequencies (-3dB) of 5 different values of the gain:

Gain, dB Frequency, kHz

6 641
15 181
24 64
30 32
40 9.9
Table 1

The frequency at which the gain of the amplifier reaches a value of 1 (0dB) is about 1MHz. This is the
value specified in the datasheet of uA741.

Fig.15 Bode Diagram of the Frequency Response of Inverting Amplifier for Different Gains

PROBLEM 2

Task: Analyze, design and characterize a Sallen and Key 2 nd order Butterworth filter with a cut-off
frequency of fc=1.5kHz.

C 2

R 1 R 2
V i n L M 7 4 1
-
V o u t
O U T

+
R 4
C 1

R 3

Fig.16 Circuit of Salen-Key Low-Pass Filter Architecture

Figure 16 shows the schematic of Salen-Key filter which was used to design a low-pass filter with cut-
off frequency of 1.5kHz. In “Analysis of the Sallen-Key Architecture” [8], James Karki derives the basic
equations to characterize the Salen-Key topology.

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 According to [8] the transfer function of this filter is defined as:
Vout K
= 2 (5)
Vin s ( R1.R 2.C1.C 2) + s ( R1.C1 + R 2.C1 + R1.C 2.(1 − K )) +1

R4
In (5) K = 1 + is the gain of the non-inverting amplifier, and s = j 2πf .
R3

For normalized Butterworth low-pass filter the coefficients of the polynomial in (5) need to have the
values (6, page 18):

a1 = ωC ( R1.C1 + R 2.C 2 + R1.C 2.(1 − K )) = 1

b1 = ωC R1.R 2.C1.C 2 =1.4142
ωC = 2πf C

For the current design K=1. This simplifies the analysis and maintains a gain of 1, which is often used in
filter circuits. Therefore, a unity gain voltage follower is formed. With this simplification the components of the
filter can be easily calculated [6]. For that reason C1 has to be selected. Provided that the following condition is
4b1
respected C 2 ≥ C1 2 , R1 and R2 are defined by:
a1
2
a1C 2 − a1 C 2 2 − 4b1C1C 2
R1 = (6)
4πf c C1C 2

2
a1C 2 − a1 C 2 2 − 4b1C1C 2
R1 = (7)
4πf c C1C 2

The transfer function was simulated in Matlab, after the calculation of R1, R2, C1, C2. The components
were calculated to have the following theoretical values:
R1 = 543 ,5Ohm
R 2 = 6,277 kOhm
C1 = 22 nF
C 2 =150 nF
The values of the capacitors were selected to respect the requirement, mentioned above.

Fig.17Bode Diagram of the Transfer Function of the Calculated Theoretical Butterworth Filter

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 The designed filter (figure 18) was simulated with PSpice. The values of the resistors are slightly
different than the theoretical, because they were adjusted to have standard E96 values. The AC response of the
filter is shown on figure 19.
C 2

1 5 0 n

R 1 R 2
U 1

7
3 5 V 1 4
+ O S 2

V+
I N 1 5 V d c
5 4 6 6 . 3 4 k 6 O U T
O U T
2 1
- O S 1

4
u A 7 4 1 V 1 5

V-
V 1 6 C 1 R 1 11 5 V d c
1 V a c 2 2 n 1 0 k
0 V d c
0

Fig.18 Simulation Schematic of the Designed Sale-Key Butterworth Filter

On figure 19a, the off-grid lines show are measurement cursor which is set at -3dB. The -3dB cut-off
frequency measured with the probe is 1.49kHz, which is almost the desired frequency. Even more, in real
application the cut-off frequency is dependant on different imperfections, such as components’ tolerances, and
further precautions are required.

b
Fig.19 Frequency Response of The Designed Filter

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REFERENCES

[1] A. Barna, D. I. Porat, Operational Amplifiers 2nd Edition, A Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1988
[2] uA741, uA741Y GENERAL-PURPOSE OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS, Texas Instroments, Sep 2000
[3] M. Kraft, Operational Amplifiers Application, ELEC6021 Research Methods
[4] Rajni, S. Dhull, “Techniques for Simulation and Measurement of Op Amps”, Guru Jumbheshwar University of Science and
technology, Hisar
[5] B. Carter, Th. R. Brown, “Handbook of Operational Amplifiers”, Application Report, Texas Instruments, Oct 2001
[6] Th. Kugeltsdl, “Chapter 16: Active Filter Design Techniques”, Op Amps Everywhere, Texas Instruments, Sep 2001
[7] M. Kraft, Electrical Filters, ELEC6021 Research Methods
[8] J. Karki, “Analysis of the Salen-Key Architecture”, Mixed Signal Products, Texas Instruments, July 1999

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