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nstrumentation amplifiers find wide use in real-world data In practice, the op amp’s closed-loop gain amplifies the sig-
I
acquisition. However, designers often incorrectly apply them. nal, and the common-mode voltage receives only unity gain.
Specifically, although modern in amps have excellent CMR This difference in gain does provide some reduction in common-
(common-mode rejection), designers must limit the total mode voltage, as a percentage of signal voltage. However, the
common-mode voltage, plus the signal voltage, to avoid sat- common-mode voltage still appears at the output, and its pres-
urating the amplifier’s internal input buffers. Unfortunately, ence reduces the amplifier’s available output swing. For many
they often overlook this requirement. reasons, any common-mode dc or ac signal appearing at the op
Other common application problems result from driving the amp’s output is highly undesirable.
in-amp reference terminal with a high-impedance source, oper- Figure 3 shows the common three-op-amp in-amp circuit. A
ating low-supply-voltage in-amp circuits at gains that are much modern IC instrumentation amplifier, such as Analog Devices’
too high, ac coupling in-amp inputs without providing a dc AD8221, normally includes all of these components. As with
return path to ground, and using mismatched RC-input-cou- an op amp, the input buffers of an in-amp circuit, A1 and A2,
pling components. amplify the signal voltage, and the common-mode voltage
receives only unity gain. But now, each buffer’s output drives a
A QUICK IN-AMP PRIMER
An in amp is a closed-loop-gain block with a differential input VSUPPLY
and a single-ended output. In amps also typically have a refer- VCM
ence input that allows the user to level-shift the output volt-
BRIDGE
age up or down. You use one or more internal or external resis- SENSOR
_ VOUT
tors to set gain. VIN IN AMP
+
Figure 1 shows a bridge-preamplifier circuit, a typical in-amp
application. When sensing a signal, the bridge-resistor values
VCM
change, unbalancing the bridge and causing a change in dif-
INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL
ferential voltage across it. The signal output is this differential GAIN RESISTOR
voltage, which connects directly to the in amp’s inputs. In addi-
tion, under zero-signal conditions, a constant dc voltage is also Figure 1 Designers can use instrumentation amplifiers in classic
present on both lines. This dc voltage is the same, or common bridge circuits. Here, the dc common-mode voltage can easily be
mode, on both input lines. a large percentage of the supply voltage.
In its primary function, the in amp normally rejects the com-
mon-mode dc voltage or any other voltage common to both
lines, such as noise and hum, and amplifies the differential-sig- VSUPPLY
that the expected input signal (⫺IN⫺(IN)) is ⫹1V to ⫺2V. VREF (TYPICALLY, VS/2)
Under these conditions, the in amp’s input buffers need to swing
both positive and negative with respect to VCM. Therefore, you Figure 10 An ac-coupled, single-supply in-amp circuit normally
must raise VCM above ground for this scenario to happen. requires a dc common-mode voltage, VCM, applied to both inputs.
Assume that the in amp is operating at unity gain. Setting VCM
to 2V or a bit higher allows 2V of headroom in the minus direc-
tion. The trade-off is that there is now 2V less swing in the pos- as small as possible, select capacitors of 0.1 F or less. Gener-
itive direction. If the in amp is operating with gain, tailor VCM ally, the lower the capacitor value, the less costly and smaller
to allow the buffer outputs to swing fully without clipping. the capacitor is. The voltage rating of the input coupling capac-
Output centering is simi- itor needs to be high enough to avoid breakdown from any high-
VS
lar: Estimate the amount voltage input transients that might occur. One final word of cau-
and direction of the in amp’s tion: Avoid high-K (high-dielectric-constant) ceramic capac-
C1 output swing—in most itors, which can introduce harmonic distortion.
ⳮIN _
cases, VIN⫻gain⫹VCM— When ac coupling, any mismatch between the two dc return
IN AMP VOUT and then apply a reference resistors causes an input offset imbalance (IB1⫺IB2), which cre-
+IN + voltage at VREF that is in the ates an input offset-voltage error (Figure 9). Table 1 gives R
C2 center of that range. and C cookbook component values for various circuit band-
The choice of dc-return- widths and the VOS error for two levels of input-bias current.EDN
ⳮVS resistor value for ac-coupled
circuits is a trade-off be- REFERENCE
Figure 8 An incorrect procedure tween offset errors and the 1 Kitchin, Charles and Lewis Counts, A Designer’s Guide to
results in this nonfunctional, ac- physical and electrical size of Instrumentation Amplifiers, Second Edition, available free
coupled in-amp circuit. the input coupling capaci- from Analog Devices at www.analog.com/analog_root/static/
tors. The larger the value of technology/amplifiersLinear/InstrumentationAmplifiers/
the input resistor, the small- designersGuide.html.
er the required input coupling capacitor. This approach saves both
money and pc-board space. However, the trade-off is that high- AU T H O R S ’ B I O G R A P H I E S
value input resistors increase the offset-voltage error due to input Charles Kitchin is a hardware applications engineer for Analog
offset currents. Offset-voltage drift and resistor noise also increase. Devices (Wilmington, MA). His main responsibilities include writ-
With lower resistor values, higher value input capacitors for ing technical publications and developing applications circuits. He has
C1 and C2 are necessary to provide the same ⫺3-dB corner fre- published more than 80 technical articles and design ideas, three
quency. That is: F⫺3 dB⫽(1/(2R1C1)), where R1⫽R2 and C1⫽C2. books, and numerous application notes.
Unless a large enough dc voltage is present on either side of
the ac coupling capacitor, use nonpolarized capacitors. Some Lew Counts is the vice president of the Advanced Linear Products
capacitors, such as electrolytics, function as diodes if you do not Division of Analog Devices and was promoted to division fellow, one
properly dc-bias them. In the interest of keeping components of Analog Devices’ highest awards, in 1984.