Op-amp varieties hit from all sides

-- EDN, 5/25/2000

Atrio of companies is offering specialized, improved op amps for your design needs. Texas Instruments offers a family of ultra-low-power, rail-to-rail units consuming less that 1 µA/channel for cell-phone, personal-digital-assistant, and handheld-instrumentation needs. The TLV240x series comprises single, dual, and quad devices and operates from 2.5 to 16V rails. Input ranges from 0.1V below ground to 5V above the positive rail. You can choose from among a variety of package options, including SOT-23, SOIC, and plastic DIP, with prices of $1.03 to $2.17 (1000).

From Elantec, you can now get 30-MHz rail-to-rail input/output op amps in dual or quad configurations. The EL5210C and EL5410C, respectively, require 2.5 mA per channel and are well-suited to applications such as thin-film-transistor-LCD buffering, converter interfacing, and video applications. These op amps cost $1.50 (10,000) for the dual units and $1.75 for the quads and are available in a variety of packages, including SOICs, MSOPs, and TSSOPs.

Moving up the bandwidth ladder, Linear Technology's LT1469 dual 90-MHz, 22V/µsec op amp provides 16-bit-class performance. Maximum input offset voltage for this device is 125 µV with 900-nsec settling time to 150-µV at a gain of 21 for a 10V step. Distortion for this $4.95 (1000) op amp is 296.5 dBc for a 10V p-p, 100-kHz output signal.

Texas Instruments Inc, www.ti.com.

Elantec Semiconductor Inc, www.elantec.com.

Linear Technology Corp, www.linear-tech.com.

—by Bill Schweber