Op Amps, short for Operational Amplifiers, are semiconductor devices commonly used in analogue electronic circuits. They work by receiving an input signal and amplifying it into a stronger output signal. Op Amps offer a very high voltage gain amplifiers.



How do Op Amps work?

Op Amps provide mathematical operations such as addition, multiplication, differentiation, and integration. They are voltage amplifiers which usually have a differential input and a single-ended output.

There are two inputs into an Operational Amplifier which are called inverting (-) and non-inverting (+) inputs. If you were to increase the voltage to the inverting input, the output voltage decreases. Alternatively, if you increase the voltage to the non-inverting input, the output voltage increases. If an equal voltage is supplied to both inputs, the output will not change.



What is a differential amplifier?

Op Amps are often referred to as differential amplifiers. This is because the output of an Op-Amp is relative to the difference between the input voltages.



Where are Op Amps used?

Operational amplifiers have a wide variety of uses in electronic circuits. Here are some examples of how they are used:



Crystal oscillators and waveform generators

Audio- and video-frequency pre-amplifiers and buffers

Integrators

Comparators

Analogue-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analogue (DAC) converters

Voltage Clamps

Analogue Calculators

Filters

Differentiators

Precision rectifiers

Linear voltage regulators

Current regulators

Precision rectifiers

Precision peak to peak detectors

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