EE230: Experiment 1

Non-idealities in Op-amps
Anurag Kumar, 18D070006
January 23, 2020

1 Overview of the experiment

1.1 Aim of the experiment
Operational Amplifiers are one of the most commonly used devices in design-
ing electrical circuits. However, like most of the devices, these op-amps too
exhibit non-ideal behaviour. The basic aim of the experiment is to deal with
various non-idealities in operational amplifiers and measure offset voltage,
bias currents and open loop gain.

1.2 Methods
• When we use an op-amp in a circuit, the bias currents IB+ and IB− as
well as the input offset voltage VOS would generally affect the output
voltage. In order to measure these quantities, we need circuits which
enhance the contributions of one of these parameters(by using appro-
priate resistors) while keeping the other two contributions small. This
is the basic technique used in measuring offset voltages and bias cur-
rents.

• The measurement of open loop gain too isn’t straight forward due to
certain limitations.The basic idea to use the op-amp such that its input
voltage remains small enough to keep it in the linear region. Open loop
gain measurement requires an op-amp with proper values of resistors.

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2 Design of Op-amp 741

Figure 1: Design and internal circuitry of Op-amp 741

• Current Mirrors are used to ”mirror” the current in one part on

another part. Irrespective of the voltages, the currents are replicated,
and this could be used for time-varying currents as well.

• Gain Stage is basically the part of the internal circuitry which con-
tributes to the majority of the gain of the amplifier.

• Differential Amplifiers are the systems having two inputs and a

single output. The output is a magnified form of the difference between
the inputs, i.e., Vout = A(Vin1 − Vin2 )

• Voltage Level Shifter is basically a common collector amplifier, which

shifts the level by 0.7V. If this shift is not sufficient, the output may
be taken at the junction of two resistors in the emitter leg.

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 • Output Stage is basically the part of the internal circuitry which leads
to final output terminal of the op-amp.

3 Experimental results
3.1 Input offset voltage measurement

10K

10ohm
−
Vo
+ OpAmp741

Figure 2: Circuit used for calculation of VOS .

• The figure drawn above shows the circuit used for the measurement of
offset voltage (VOS ). Using super-position, we can prove that: Vo =
VOS (1 + R 2
R1
) + R2 IB− .

• For V ≈ 5mV and IB− ≈ 100nA, the contributions from the two terms
for R1 = 10Ω and R2 = 10kΩ are about 5V and 1 mV, respectively.
Clearly, IB− has a negligible effect on the output voltage, and we can
write: VOS = VoR2 ≈Vo R 1
R2
(1+ R )
1

• In the experiment, the value of V o came out to be 3.42V.

10Ω
• Thus, using the formula given above, VOS =(3.42V ) 10kΩ = (3.42mV )

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3.2 DC open-loop gain measurement

Figure 3: Circuit used for calculation of AOL .

• The circuit drawn above was used for calculating open-loop gain of the
op-amp. We made a closed-loop circuit of this opamp and then used
current loop expressions to derive the relationship between closed loop
gain and open loop gain.

• The expression relating closed loop gain with open loop gain is given
as : Vo /Vin = 1+(1/A1+(R 2 /R1 )
v )∗(1+(R2 /R1 ))
.

• The values of R1 and R2 used are 10.02M Ω and 9.74KΩ such that their
ratio was roughly equal to 1000.

• The gain obtained from this circuit was recorded to be 1023. Feeding
this value of gain along with the ratio of resistances the Open-loop
Gain Av came out to be around 1.5 ∗ 105 .

• During the execution of the experiment , we did face some challenges.

At times, it was difficult to adjust the switch and take precise measure-
ments. Inability to take precise measurements did affect the calcula-
tions further.

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3.3 Bias Currents Measurement

10M

−
Vo
+ OpAmp741

Figure 4: Circuit used for calculation of IB− .

• The circuit used for calculating IB− is shown above.Since, the op-amp
in the circuit is ideal, V ] = V+ = VOS and the output voltage is: V o =
V + IB− R = VOS + IB− R

• As an example, let VOS = 5mV and IB− = 100nA. With R = 10M Ω,

the second term is 1V which is much larger than VOS , and therefore we
get: IB− = VRo

• From the experiment, Vo came out to be 0.317V.

• Hence, using the required formula: IB− ≈ 31.7nA.

−
Vo
10M
+ OpAmp 741

Figure 5: Circuit used for calculation of IB+ .

• The circuit used for calculating IB+ is shown above. Since,the input
current for the ideal op-amp is zero, the current IB+ must go through
R, causing, V+ = VOS − IB+ R.

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 • Hence, Vo = V− = V+ = VOS − IB+ R.

• For typical values of IB+ and VOS , with R =10M Ω, the first term
dominates, giving IB+ = VRo .

• From the experiment, the measured value of Vo came out to be -0.287V.

• So, from the required formula, IB+ ≈ 28.7nA.

4 Questions for reflection

1. If the method for null-adjustment is as simple as the one you performed
in lab, why isn’t the 741 op-amp sold with the offset voltage internally cali-
brated?
Ans. Non-ideal behavior of various transistors involved in internal
circuitry of op-amp lead to VOS .In fact, the contribution of various
transistors are different. Moreover, behaviour is also affected by
temperature. So, even if we fix one resistor and somehow achieve
null-adjustment, it won’t be permanent. Still, there would be some
off-set voltage. Hence, 741 op-amp isn’t internally calibrated for
null-adjustment.

2. If the temperature in the lab were different from what it was when you
performed the experiment, do you expect the pot value you ended up with
will still give you offset nullification? Explain your answer. Hint: Look at the
internal circuit diagram and figure out what parameters may change when
the temperature changes.
Ans. No, initial pot value won’t give offset nullification. The be-
havior of transistors is dependent on temperature. off-set voltage
basically results due to nominal dissimilarities in supposedly iden-
tical transistors. Their behaviors will be affected by temperature
and thus, we would need to adjust pot again. In short, bias cur-
rents and off-set voltages are dependent on temperature.

3. What is the slew-rate of an op-amp? Read up the definition and explain

it in your own words here. Could you suggest an experiment to measure
slew-rate of op-amp 741?
Ans. Slew-rate of an op-amp is the maximum rate at which output

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of an op-amp can rise or fall. It is measured as a voltage change in
a given time - typically V/µs or V/ms. A typical general purpose
device may have a slew rate of 10 V/µs.If the signal frequency is
too high, the op-amp practically can’t keep up with input due to
slew-rate limitation and we will get a distorted output.

• We can measure the slew-rate of op-amp 741 using the approach given
below:
In case of a sine wave input and assuming a sinusoidal
output for linear op amp the rate of change of the output
voltage with time will be: dV /dt = wVm coswt where Vm is the
amplitude of the output sine wave. The maximum value of
dV/dt will be equal to wVm since the maximum value for the
cosine is one. If wVm gets larger than the slew rate, the output
sine wave will be distorted and it tends to be triangular and
the rate of rise of the output voltage will never exceed the
slew rate. Under this condition the rate of rise of the output
voltage at the zero crossings will be equal to the slew rate.
This will be the basis of the experiment.

Figure 6: Input Sinusoidal Signal

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 Figure 7: Observed Distortion

We will measure the conditions when the output starts

getting distorted and accordingly perform the calculations:
SlewRate = 2πf V where, slew rate is measured in volts / sec-
ond, although actual measurements are often given in V/µs, f
= the highest signal frequency (in Hz) and V = the maximum
peak voltage of the signal.
4. What is the role of capacitor C in the circuit you used in the second part
of the lab (i.e. in figure 8 of the hand-out)? (Hint: there is a statement in
the hand-out mentioning why C is connected; could you explain why that
statement is true?)
Ans. It was stated in the handout that: ”The capacitor pre-
vents the circuit from oscillating.” Capacitor serves a very impor-
tant purpose. The voltage across a capacitor can’t change instan-
taneously and thus it helps in reduction of noise in the output
waveform. In fact, due to its tendency to block DC current, the
capacitor blocks any DC current from going into the output of the
auxiliary op-amp from the source.

References
[1] EE230:LAB MANUAL
[2] http : //www.ti.com/lit/ml/sloa083/sloa083.pdf