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What you need to know about CMRR - the operational amplifier (Part 1)
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I think about common-mode rejection (CMRR) often, even outside of work! I am an avid college football fan and when watching games on Saturday at my house I am often interrupted
by the common noise of my wife or daughter asking me to do various other things such as chores. I use my ability to reject this noise and only focus on the signal that matters the
game. How much of their signal comes through and interrupts the game is analogous to amplifiers CMRR.
You cant really talk about CMRR without first discussing common-mode voltage. For amplifiers in a non-inverting configuration, the input signal is the common-mode signal. Inverting
configurations always have a fixed common-mode voltage independent of the input signal. The amplifiers common-mode voltage range depends on the design and the user needs to
make sure it is within the specified operating range.
Figure 1: Shows the common-mode voltage for the inverting and non-inverting op amp configuration
So then what is CMRR? The technical definition is the ratio of differential gain to common mode gain, but this doesnt tell us much for a practical application. The common-mode input
voltage affects the bias point of the input differential pair. Because of the inherent mismatches in the input circuitry, changing the bias point changes the input offset voltage (VOS),
which, in turn, changes the output voltage. In other words, as you change your common-mode voltage you will see a change in input offset voltage. CMRR tells you how much that
change will be.
CMRR is measured by changing the common-mode voltage and measuring the variation in offset voltage. Figure 2 shows a simple representation of the additive input offset voltage
seen from changing the common-mode voltage. There are also offset errors associated with changing the supply voltage and the other external factors such as temperature and
electromagnetic interference.
CMRR also degrades with frequency, so how much error you see will be dependent on the frequency of your common-mode signal. Figure 3 shows an example of the CMRR vs.
Frequency curve for 3 typical amplifiers, the OPA171, the UA741 and the OPA188.
Matthew Pickett
Oct 14, 2013
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