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. You can find out more in our op amps guide.

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.

Op Amp Applications

• 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