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Students are to model and build a circuit resembling the LM741 Operation Amplifier using
simple parts such as transistors, resistors and capacitors. By conducting an AC small-signal
analysis on both the LM741 Op-Amp chip and design circuit, students are expected to receive
similar results in voltage gain.
Introduction
Operational amplifiers are among the most widely and commonly used component used in
electronic devices today. It is considered the backbone of electronics for circuit design. An
operational amplifier is a DC-coupled circuit used to receive and input signal and output a signal
with a higher voltage gain. Depending on the configuration of the circuit, the op-amp can
produce different outputs, including an inverting signal and even a signal with lower gain. The
architecture of all operational amplifiers consist of four different gain stages within the internal
circuitry. These include the differential amplifier, bias generator, gain stage, and output stage.
Descriptions and explanations of these four gain stage can be found below. The internal
circuitry of the LM741 Op-Amp consists of several PNP transistors, NPN transistors, resistors,
and capacitors. Therefore, the op-amp can be made using the same basic components and
theoretically will produce similar results to the IC chip.
Figure 1
Differential Amplifier
Figure 2
The following figure (Fig 3) represents the bias analysis of the circuit representing the 741 OpAmp. The PSPICE model allows the user to view the current and voltage at each point in the
circuit. As seen below, the current are marked with red tags while the voltages are marked with
the voilet tags. By providing currents and voltages at each point in the circuit, the user can
further analyze and confirm the inner workings of the op-amp circuit.
Figure 3
The following figure (Fig 4) is the PSPICE simulation of the output signal versus the input signal.
Since the circuit is designed to provide an inverting gain of 3, we expect the output signal to be
greater and opposite in magnitude as compared to the input signal. The input signal was 3 Vp-p
at 5 kHz in frequency whereas the output signal is inverted 9Vp-p at 5 kHz frequency.
Figure 4
Frequency Analysis
In order to observe how differences in frequency affect the gain of the amplifier, a frequency
sweep is conducted. High frequencies will affect the gain, causing it to stray from the theoretical
gain. In addition, the effect frequency has on the gain should be more apparent in the circuit
created using transistors as compared to the actual 741 Op-Amp chip. By conducting a
frequency sweep on both the circuit design and the 741 IC chip, the following data in figure 5 is
collected.
For the circuit using the 3904 transistors,the output gain begins to break down at 35~40 kHz in
frequency. However, the 741 IC begins to break down at around 60~70 kHz. As expected, the
breakdown frequency of the 741 IC chip is much larger compared to the 3904 transistor circuit
design. At 100 kHz, the gain drops from 3 to roughly 1.6 volts in the 3904 circuit design while
the 741 IC chip only drops down to 2.7. The 3904 circuit breaks down much more rapidly and is
less stable at higher frequencies whereas the 741 IC chip is much more stable and is more
resilient to frequency breakdown. This is expected since the 741 IC chip is manufactured to
provide a steady and stable gain whereas the 3904 circuit design consists of many transistors in
an attempt to replicate the functionality of the 741 IC chip.
Figure 5
Graphical Data
The following figures (figures 6-10) are graphs of the input signal vs the output signal on the
same graph. These graphs include signals of the 3904 design circuit and 741 IC chip at different
frequencies.