and Applications
David Báez-López, Franz Sol Sánchez, and Guillermo Espinosa Flores Verdad*
Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica
Universidad de las Américas-Puebla
Cholula, Puebla 72820
*Coordinación de Electrónica
Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica
Tonantzintla, Puebla
MEXICO
e-mail: d.baez@ieee.org
Abstract - This paper presents a multimedia tutorial to 1) It is multimedia based incorporating audio and video
learn operational amplifier fundamentals. This tutorial is within the tutorial.
aimed at the practicing engineer who needs to recall the 2) It is bilingual having a choice of either English or
theory for a quick op-amp circuit design and at the student Spanish
which has never studied op-amps and needs a quick 3) It contains oral explanations of the topics
introduction to the topic. The tutorial is multimedia
displaying pictures and circuit diagrams including oral II. Operational Amplifiers
explanations to speed up the learning procedure. This
tutorial package is written in Visual Basic 3.0. The authors One of the most used electronic devices nowadays in linear
have found student response very satisfactory, especially in and nonlinear signal processing applications is the
those students with little or no prior knowledge of the operational amplifier [1-4]. There are several reasons that
topic. account for this fact, among which we can mention a low
cost, simple rules for design, and availability as an off-the-
I. Introduction shelf component. In addition, design engineers can build
quite sophisticated designs without paying attention to the
Operational Amplifiers (Op-amps) are a basic building block internal working of the operational amplifier. Operational
in many linear and non linear signal processing operations. amplifiers (op-amps) were developed first by George
Therefore, electrical engineers must know the basics of Philbrick when he was an employee for the National Defense
them, going from circuits based on op-amps modelled Research Council (NDRC) in the early 1940's. He later
ideally to circuits with op-amps using more realistic non founded his own company and developed the first op-amp
ideal models. Unfortunately, many electrical engineering using vacuum tubes. At the time the name operational
undergraduate curricula do not have a full course devoted to referred to the mathematical operations that were performed
teaching op-amp circuits. There are many reasons that with op-amp based circuits, such as summation, integration,
account for this fact. The number of topics to teach at the solution of simultaneous equations, etc. Analog computers
undergraduate level has increased considerably during the were based almost completely in op-amps. The advent of the
last several years. Thus, educators have to squeeze or leave digital computer did not affect the applications of op-amp
out some topics. This is the case with op-amps, which are circuits in almost any area of analog linear and non-linear
now taught within the linear electronics course. This means electronics. It is in 1962 that Burr-Brown Corp and
that no more than four weeks ( or 12 hour classes) within the Philbrick Research Inc. develop separately the first integrated
course and within the curriculum are dedicated to op-amps. op-amps, and from this year on, there is available in the
Thus, a need arises to have some other ways to learn op-amp market a great deal of IC op-amps with different
theory and circuit applications, such as self learning or characteristics. Nowadays, the IC op-amp is considered a
conference tutorials. This paper presents a computer based "workhorse" of linear systems. The first IC op-amp
tutorial on op-amps whose main goal is to provide users commercially available was the µA702 produced by
with the basics on op-amps as well as on circuits using op- Fairchild Semiconductor in 1963. In spite several
amps. The tutorial is bilingual using either English or disadvantages, it was the best op-amp of its time. The
Spanish depending upon user requests. The tutorial has the following development was the µA709 introduced by
following features: Fairchild in 1965. This circuit was the first to use a dual
power supply, if had a low input current and a larger dc gain.
The first internally compensated op-amp was introduced by
Fairchild in 1968 with the µA741 [2]. These IC op-amps amps. Interested and more advance readers can consult some
revolutionized some areas in electronics due to their reduced of the references. The tutorial was designed using tools to
design time, because instead of designing amplifiers from have a multimedia environment. The tools used were the
dozens of components, circuit designers developed their following:
circuits around a few standard, commercially available
prepackaged operational amplifiers. - Visual Basic Helpwriter. To produce hypertext documents
for windows. (version 1.9.2)
Feedback techniques are used to suppress non ideal
properties of op-amps so that individual variations in - Paintbrush. To produce the pictures and circuit drawings.
particular amplifiers have negligible effect on final circuit
performance. Hence, circuit designs based on op-amps - Microsoft Visual Basic. To create easily multimedia
usually have highly predictable performance. Moreover, presentations with good quality.
today's op-amps are highly reliable, and circuit designers can
expect that production copies of their final systems will - Sound'Le. To insert audio in the tutorial (.WAV format)
closely emulate the performance of the prototype and will
require a minimum of initial debugging and little long-term - Ware Studio and Ensemble CD. Tools to digitize audio.
maintenance. Currently, areas where op-amps are used The tutorial can be accessed either in English or in Spanish
include; instrumentation, control systems, audio, interfaces, depending upon user's choice.
A/D and D/A converters, signal processing, power
electronics, industrial electronics, bioelectronics, The tutorial starts by showing a welcome window as shown
telecommunications, and so on. in Fig. 1. This window has a bar for exit, help, language,
sound, and monitors (to select the appropriate display).
III. Tutorial
The C icon shows the menu with the topics in the tutorial.
The tutorial covers the main topics on op-amps. These main The S icon shows a summary of the most important topics
topics covers only some applications of op-amps. This is so in the tutorial.
because there is a great deal of applications available for op-
Fig. 1 Main window for the tutorial
In this window, students can choose the language for the In this chapter, it is mentioned G. Philbrich as the inventor
tutorial. The two buttons "C" and "S" have been described of the first op-amp. Also, the work of Burr-Brown Research
before. Corp. is described. The first IC op-amps are mentioned as
well as a description of their characteristics is given.
When the C button is clicked, a subwindow is displayed at Advantages and disadvantages of op-amps are described.
the right-hand upper corner in the screen ( see Fig. 2). This
window displays all the chapters available in the tutorial.
The chapters are:
1. Op-amp history
2. How to identify an op-amp
3. Circuit connection with op-amps
4. Op-amp terminals
5. Basic configurations
6. Op-amp applications
7. Op-amp characteristics
8. Linear applications
9. Non linear applications
1. Op-Amp History
difference amplifier are shown in some detail here. These
circuits are shown in Fig 6. A detailed analysis of them is
given. Any student can follow the analysis presented. An
improved version of the difference amplifier is shown in Fig.
7.
Fig. 5 Pin description for general and for the 741 op-amp.
8. Linear applications
Some linear applications of op-amps are described here.
These applications include the integrator amplifier, the
differentiator amplifier, instrumentation amplifier, active
filters, a history of filter realizations, types of filters and
several topologies for active filters are shown.
V. Conclusions