
Re: offset error adjustment circuit
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:26:54 -0400, John Popelish <jpopelish@rica.net>
wrote:
>sperelat@hanmail.net wrote:
>
>> Here is part of the schematic
>>
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2007-8/1272856/schem.JPG>
>I think this circuit is pretty simple to describe. Lets
>assume the PA85 amplifier has a 10 mV offset. If its +
>input were grounded, that offset would be forced to appear
>at the - input, and when the input voltage at the left were
>exactly zero, there would be 10 mV across the input voltage
>to current converting input resistance (made up of the total
>of R32, 35 and 37). That voltage would produce a current
>through those resistors that would ramp the integrating
>capacitor around the PA85 at a steady rate.
>
>The additional opamp (with an assumed offset that is a tiny
>fraction of that of the PA85) which according to this data
>sheet:
>http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/opa277.pdf
>has a maximum of about 0.165 mV.
>
>Any offset voltage appearing at the - input of the PA85 is
>integrated (and inverted) by the OPA277 and that integrated
>output is connected as the reference for the PA85
>integrator, in stead of ground. This shifts the - input
>voltage toward zero and the OPA277 integration slows to a
>crawl as the voltage approaches the much lower offset of the
>OPA277. Equilibrium is reached when the voltage at the -
>input of the PA85 is the offset voltage of the OPA277, and
>the voltage of the + input of the PA85 is the negative of
>its offset plus the offset of the OPA277. The gain of the
>PA85 keeps its - input voltage very stable, in spite of any
>input voltages from the HV boost input, so the OPA277
>essentially ignores the actual input signal and responds
>only to offset.
The jfets-as-diodes trick looks a bit extreme, given that this is a
pretty low-impedance circuit.
I've seen a variant, where the precision opamp is in the forward gain
loop, not just off to the side. There was an Apex appnote for
improving both the DC and the noise behavior of one of their all-CMOS
opamps that was very bad in both respects.
John