The Inverting Configuration

19ECE212 – Linear Integrated Circuits

Lecture 5,6,7 & 8

Mrs. Bhavana. V
Assistant Professor
Dept. of ECE
Amrita School of Engineering
Bengaluru.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 1

ECE
 The Inverting Configuration
• Consists of one op amp and two resistors R1 and R2.
• Resistor R2 is connected from the output terminal of the op amp, terminal 3, back to the inverting
or negative input terminal, terminal 1. R2 is applied as a negative feedback.
• If R2 is connected between terminals 3 and 2 , then it is called as positive feedback.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 2

ECE
 The Inverting Configuration
• Note that R2 closes the loop around the op amp.
• In addition to adding R2, we have grounded terminal 2 and connected a resistor R1 between
terminal 1 and an input signal source with a voltage vI.
• The output of the overall circuit is taken at terminal 3 (i.e., between terminal 3 and ground).
• Terminal 3 is, of course, a convenient point from which to take the output, since the impedance
level there is ideally zero.
• The voltage vo will not depend on the value of the current that might be supplied to a
load
impedance connected between terminal 3 and ground.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 3

ECE
 The Closed – Loop Gain
Analyze the circuit to determine the closed-loop gain G, defined as

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 4

ECE
 The Closed – Loop Gain
Assume the op-amp to be ideal with infinite open-loop gain
A. From the figure,

ie,

A virtual short circuit exists between the two input terminals.

Virtual short-circuit – Not physically shorting terminals 1 and 2 together while analyzing a circuit.

A virtual short circuit means that whatever voltage is at 2 will automatically appear at 1 because of
the infinite gain A. But terminal 2 happens to be connected to ground; thus v2  0 and v1  0.
Terminal 1 being a virtual ground-that is, having zero voltage but not physically connected to
ground.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 5

ECE
 The Closed – Loop Gain
Apply Ohm’s law and find the current i1 through R1;

i1 cannot go into the op amp, since the ideal op amp has an infinite input impedance and hence draws
zero current.
It follows that i1 will have to flow through R2 to the low-impedance terminal
3. Apply Ohm’s law to R2 and determine vo;

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 6

ECE
 The Closed – Loop Gain
The closed-loop gain is simply the ratio of the two resistances R2 and R1.
The minus sign means that the closed-loop amplifier provides signal inversion.
Thus if R2/R1= 10 and we apply at the input (vI) a sine-wave signal of 1 V peak-to-peak, then the
output vo will be a sine wave of 10 V peak-to-peak and phase-shifted 180 with respect to the input
sine wave.
Because of the minus sign associated with the closed-loop gain, this configuration is called the
inverting configuration.
The fact that the closed-loop gain depends entirely on external passive components (resistors R1
and
R2) is very significant.
We can make the closed-loop gain as accurate as we want by selecting passive components of
appropriate accuracy.
Also means that the closed-loop gain is (ideally) independent of the op-amp gain.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 7

ECE
 Effect of Finite Open– Loop
Gain
Assume the op-amp to be ideal with a finite open-loop gain
A.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 8

ECE
 Effect of Finite Open– Loop
The current i through R ;
Gain
1 1

The infinite input impedance of the op-amp forces the current i1 to flow entirely through R2.
The output voltage vo can be determined from

The closed-loop gain G is found

as

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 9

ECE
 Effect of Finite Open– Loop
Gain
Note that as A approaches , G approaches the ideal value of R /R .2 1

As A approaches , the voltage at the inverting input terminal approaches zero.

This is the virtual-ground assumption used in earlier analysis when the op amp was assumed to
be ideal.
To minimize the dependence of the closed-loop gain G on the value of the open-loop gain A,
we should make

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 10

ECE
 Input and Output Resistances
Assuming an ideal op amp with infinite open-loop gain, the input resistance of the closed-
loop inverting amplifier of Fig is simply equal to R1.

The amplifier input resistance forms a voltage divider with the resistance of the source that feeds the
amplifier. Thus, to avoid the loss of signal strength, voltage amplifiers are required to have high
input resistance.
In the case of the inverting op-amp configuration, to make Ri high we should select a high value for
R 1.
However, if the required gain is also high, then R2 could become impractically large (e.g., greater
than a few megohms).
Thus, the inverting configuration suffers from a low input resistance.
Since the output of the inverting configuration is taken at the terminals of the ideal voltage source
A(v2  v1) , it follows that the output resistance of the closed-loop amplifier is zero.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 11

ECE
 An Important Application –
The Weighted Summer
A very important application of the inverting configuration is the weighted-summer circuit shown in
Fig. Here we have a resistance Rf in the negative-feedback path (as before); but we have a number of
input signals v1, v2, . . . , vn each applied to a corresponding resistor R1, R2, . . . , Rn, which are
connected to the inverting terminal of the op-amp.
The ideal op amp will have a virtual ground appearing at its negative input
terminal. By applying Ohm’s law, the currents i1, i2, . . . , in are given by

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 12

ECE
 An Important Application –
The Weighted Summer
All these currents sum together to produce the current i; that is,

will be forced to flow through Rf (since no current flows into the input terminals of an ideal op-amp).
The output voltage vo may now be determined by another application of Ohm’s law,

Thus,

The output voltage is a weighted sum of the input signals v1, v2, . . . , vn. This circuit is therefore
called a weighted summer.
Note that each summing coefficient may be independently adjusted by adjusting the
corresponding “feed-in” resistor (R1 to Rn).
In the weighted summer of Fig, all the summing coefficients must be of the same sign.
Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 13
ECE
 Weighted Summer with summing
coefficients of both signs
Summing signals with opposite signs can be implemented using two op-amps as shown in
Fig. Assuming ideal op amps, it can be easily shown that the output voltage is given by

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 14

ECE
 Numerical 1
Assuming the op-amp to be ideal, derive an expression for the closed-loop gain vo/vI
of the circuit shown in Figure. Use this circuit to design an inverting amplifier with
a gain of 100 and an input resistance of 1MΩ. Assume that for practical reasons it is
required not to use resistors greater than 1MΩ. Compare your design with that
based on the inverting configuration.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 15

ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 16

ECE
Solution Cont…

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 17

ECE
Solution Cont…

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 18

ECE
 Numerical 2
Design an inverting amplifier having a gain of -10V/V and an input resistance of
100kΩ.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 19

ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 20

ECE
 Numerical 3
The circuit shown in Figure (a) can be used to implement a transresistance amplifier.
Find the value of the input resistance Ri, the transresistance Rm, and the output
resistance Ro of the transresistance amplifier. If the signal source shown in Figure
(b) is connected to the input of the transresistance amplifier, find its output voltage.

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ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 22

ECE
 Numerical 4
For the circuit in Figure, determine the value of v1, i1, i2, vo, iL and io.
Also, determine the voltage gain vo/vI, current gain iL/iI and power gain PL/PI.

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ECE
Solution

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ECE
Solution Cont…

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 25

ECE
 Numerical 5
Design an inverting op-amp circuit to form the weighted sum vo of two
inputs v1 and v2. It is required that vo = - (v1 + 5v2). Choose values for
R1, R2, and Rf so that for a maximum output voltage of 10 V the current
in the feedback resistor will not exceed 1 mA.

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 26

ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 27

ECE
 Numerical 6

Using the idea of the circuit in Fig.1, design a weighted summer that
provides vo = 2v1 + v2 – 4v3.

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ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 29

ECE
Solution

Ms. Bhavana. V, Dept of 30

ECE