Opamp integrator circuit diagram.

Equation for the instantaneous output voltage of the opamp integrator can be
derived as follows.

Applying Kirchoffs current (KCL) at node V2 we get

i1= iF + iB

Since the input resistance of an opamp is very high (in the range of Mega ohms)
iB will be very small at it can be neglected.

Therefore i1 = iF

The relation between the current through a capacitor and voltage across it is iC =
C dv/dt.

Therefore iF = Cf X d (V2 Vo ) / dt

Also i1 = (Vin V2) / R1.

Therefore the equation i1 = iF can be rewritten as (Vin V2) / R1 = Cf X d(V2

Vo) / dt.(1)
Since the non-inverting input is connected to ground, V1 can be taken as 0.
Since the open loop gain of the present circuit is near infinity V2 can be
assumed to be zero.

So the equation (1) becomes; Vin / R1 = Cf X d (-Vo) / dt

Integrating the both sides of the above equation with respect to time, we get

Rearranging the equation we

get : C is the integration

constant and it has a proportional relationship with the output voltage at time t =
0.From equation (2) it is clear that the output voltage has an inverse relation with
the R1 Cf (time constant) and a directly proportional relation with the negative
integral of the input voltage.

In the DC condition Cf offers infinite resistance and so the integrator circuit will be
like an inverting opamp amplifier with infinite feedback resistance (Rf = ). The
equation for the voltage gain (A) of an opamp amplifier in inverting mode is A = -
(Rf/R1). Substituting Rf= in the present scenario we get A=. Therefore the
small input offset voltage will get amplified by this factor and there will be an error
voltage at the output. This problem can be solved by adding a feedback resistor
Rf parallel to Cf as shown in fig 4 shown below.
 Practical opamp integrator circuit

The addition of Rf will fix the low frequency gain (A) of the circuit to a fixed small
value and so the input offset voltage will have practically no effect on the output
offset voltage and variations in the output voltage is prevented.

Integrating a square wave will result in a triangle waveform and integrating a sine
wave will result in a Cosine waveform. It is shown in the figures shown below.

Integrating square wave

Integrating sine wave waveform
Op-amp Differentiator Circuit

The input signal to the differentiator is applied to the capacitor. The capacitor
blocks any DC content so there is no current flow to the amplifier summing
point, X resulting in zero output voltage. The capacitor only allows AC type input
voltage changes to pass through and whose frequency is dependant on the rate
of change of the input signal.

At low frequencies the reactance of the capacitor is High resulting in a low gain
( R/Xc ) and low output voltage from the op-amp. At higher frequencies the
reactance of the capacitor is much lower resulting in a higher gain and higher
output voltage from the differentiator amplifier.

However, at high frequencies an op-amp differentiator circuit becomes unstable

and will start to oscillate. This is due mainly to the first-order effect, which
determines the frequency response of the op-amp circuit causing a second-order
response which, at high frequencies gives an output voltage far higher than what
would be expected. To avoid this the high frequency gain of the circuit needs to
be reduced by adding an additional small value capacitor across the feedback
resistor R.

Ok, some maths to explain whats going on!. Since the node voltage of the
operational amplifier at its inverting input terminal is zero, the current, i flowing
through the capacitor will be given as:

The charge on the capacitor equals Capacitance x Voltage across the capacitor

The rate of change of this charge is:

but dQ/dt is the capacitor current,i

from which we have an ideal voltage output for the op-amp differentiator is given
as:

Therefore, the output voltage Vout is a constant -R.C times the derivative of the
input voltage Vin with respect to time. The minus sign indicates a 180o phase
shift because the input signal is connected to the inverting input terminal of the
operational amplifier.

One final point to mention, the Op-amp Differentiator circuit in its basic form has
two main disadvantages compared to the previous operational amplifier
integrator circuit. One is that it suffers from instability at high frequencies as
mentioned above, and the other is that the capacitive input makes it very
susceptible to random noise signals and any noise or harmonics present in the
source circuit will be amplified more than the input signal itself. This is because
the output is proportional to the slope of the input voltage so some means of
limiting the bandwidth in order to achieve closed-loop stability is required.

Related Products: Comparator | OP Amp

Op-amp Differentiator Waveforms

If we apply a constantly changing signal such as a Square-wave, Triangular or

Sine-wave type signal to the input of a differentiator amplifier circuit the resultant
output signal will be changed and whose final shape is dependant upon
the RC time constant of the Resistor/Capacitor combination.
Improved Op-amp Differentiator Amplifier

The basic single resistor and single capacitor op-amp differentiator circuit is not
widely used to reform the mathematical function of Differentiation because of
the two inherent faults mentioned above, Instability and Noise. So in order to
reduce the overall closed-loop gain of the circuit at high frequencies, an extra
resistor, Rin is added to the input as shown below.