Op amps increasingly swing rail-to-rail

摘要

The migration to lower supply voltages, along with the strong desire among OEMs for a universal operational amplifier, has led to a rash of new op amps with rail-to-rail I/O capabilities. Analog Devices Inc., Intersil Corp.'s Elantec Product Group, Linear Technology Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc.'s Burr-Brown product line are among the op amp makers releasing rail-to-rail devices. While conventional op amps minimize distortion with conservative designs that keep signals well within a device's voltage range, rail-to-rail models allow signals to swing within millivolts of either supply rail. With the number of low-voltage applications growing steadily, the need becomes even greater for devices that can use their full voltage range on output, input or both.