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Low Level Measurements Handbook

Low Level Measurements Handbook

Low Level Measurements Handbook

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1.5 Circuit Design BasicsCircuits used in the design of many low level measuring instruments,whether a voltmeter, ammeter, ohmmeter, or coulombmeter, generally usecircuits that can be understood as operational amplifiers. Figure 1-7 showsa basic operational amplifier. The output voltage is given by:V O = A (V 1 – V 2 )FIGURE 1-7: Basic Operational AmplifierV 1+–V 2AV OCOMMONV O = A (V 1 – V 2 )The gain (A) of the amplifier is very large, a minimum of 10 4 to 10 5 , andoften 10 6 . The amplifier has a power supply (not shown) referenced to thecommon lead.Current into the op amp inputs is ideally zero. The effect of feedbackproperly applied is to reduce the input voltage difference (V 1 – V 2 ) to zero.1.5.1 Voltmeter CircuitsElectrometer VoltmeterThe operational amplifier becomes a voltage amplifier when connected asshown in Figure 1-8. The offset current is low, so the current flowingthrough R A and R B is the same. Assuming the gain (A) is very high, the voltagegain of the circuit is defined as:V O = V 2 (1 + R A /R B )Thus, the output voltage (V O ) is determined both by the input voltage(V 2 ), and amplifier gain set by resistors R A and R B . Given that V 2 is appliedto the amplifier input lead, the high input resistance of the operationalamplifier is the only load on V 2 , and the only current drawn from the sourceis the very low input offset current of the operational amplifier. In manyelectrometer voltmeters, R A is shorted and R B is open, resulting inunity gain.1-16 SECTION 1

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