SIGNALS

Using auto-zero op amps

in signal-conditioning apps
By Kevin Tretter
Product Marketing Manager
Analog & Interface Products Division
Microchip Technology Inc.

At first glance, the term “auto-

zero” op amp may appear to be
something new, but in reality this
architectural concept has been
around for decades. This article
explores the history behind auto-
zero op amps and provides a
high-level overview of the archi-
tecture. Additionally, the article
explores the inherent benefits of
this architecture for signal-con-
ditioning applications. Finally, an
example application is analyzed
to further compare the auto-zero
architecture to that of traditional
op amps.

Brief history
Chopper amplifiers have been
around for decades, dating back
close to 60 years. The chopper
amplifier was invented to address
the need for an ultralow-offset,
low-drift op amp—something
that was superior to the bipolar
op amps available at the time. In
the original chopper amplifier, the
amplifier’s input and output are
switched (or chopped), causing
the input signal to be modulated,
corrected for offset error and then
unmodulated at the output. This
technique allowed for low offset
voltage and low drift, but also
had limitations. Since the input
to the amplifier is being sampled,
the input-signal frequency had to
be limited to less than half of the
chopping frequency to prevent
aliasing. In addition to the band-
width limitation, the act of chop-
ping causes significant glitches
to appear, requiring filtering on
the output to smooth out the
resulting ripples.
The next generation of self-
correcting amplifiers improved
on the chopper amplifier by
creating a chopper-stabilized
Figure 1: Shown is a simplified chopper-stabilized functional diagram.
op amp. This architecture uses
two amplifiers: a “main” amplifier
and a “null” amplifier, as shown
in Figure 1. The null amplifier
corrects its own offset error by
shorting the inputs and applying
a correction factor to its own null
pin, after which it monitors and
corrects the offset of the main
amplifier. This architecture has
a big advantage over the older
chopper amplifiers, as the main
amplifier is always connected to
the input and output of the IC.
Thus, the bandwidth of the main
amplifier determines the input-
signal bandwidth. Therefore, the
input bandwidth is no longer
dependent on the chopping
frequency. Charge injection from
the switching action is still an is-
sue, which can cause transients
and can couple with the input
signal, causing intermodulation
distortion.
The auto-zero architecture
is similar in concept to that of a
chopper-stabilized amplifier in
that there is a nulling amplifier
and a main amplifier. However,
significant improvements have
been made over the years to
minimize noise, charge injection
and other performance issues as-
sociated with chopper-stabilized
op amps. Various manufacturers
use different terms to define this
architecture, such as “auto-zero,”
“autocorrelating zeroing” and
“zero-drift.” Regardless of the ter-
minology, the basic underlying
architecture is the same.
Advantages
As described, the auto-zero archi-
tecture continually self corrects
for the offset-voltage error of the
amplifier. This results in several
distinct advantages over tradi-
tional op amps.
Low offset voltage—The nulling
amplifier continually cancels its
own offset voltage and then ap-
plies a correction factor to the
main amplifier. The frequency
of this correction varies depend-
ing upon the actual design, but
typically occurs thousands of
times per second. For example,
the MCP6V01 auto-zero amplifier
from Microchip Technology cor-
rects the main amplifier every
100µs, or 10,000 times each sec-
ond. This continual correction al-
lows for ultra-low offset voltages
that are much lower than tradi-
tional op amps. Additionally, the
process of correcting the offset
voltage also corrects other DC
specifications, such as power-
supply rejection and common-
mode rejection. Therefore,
auto-zero amplifiers are able to
achieve superior rejection to
that of traditional amplifiers.

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Low drift over temperature,
time—All amplifiers, regardless of
process technology and architec-
ture, have an offset voltage that
changes over temperature and
time. Most op amps specify this
offset drift over temperature in
terms of volts per degree Celsius.
This drift can vary substantially
from amplifier to amplifier, but
for a traditional amplifier it is
typically on the order of several
micro-volts to tens of micro-volts
per degree Celsius. This offset
drift can be very problematic in
high-precision applications; un-
like initial offset errors, this drift
cannot be accounted for with a
one-time system calibration.
In addition to drifting over
temperature, an amplifier’s offset
voltage tends to change over time
as well. For traditional op amps,
this drift over time (sometimes
called aging) typically isn’t speci-
fied in the datasheet, but it can
create significant errors over the
life of the device.
The auto-zero architecture
inherently minimizes both the
drift over temperature and time
by continually self correcting
the offset voltage. In this way, an
auto-zero amplifier can achieve
significantly better drift perfor-
mance over traditional op amps.
For example, the MCP6V01 op
amp mentioned previously has
a maximum temperature drift of
only 50nV/°C.
Eliminates 1/f noise—Flicker noise,
or 1/f noise, is a low-frequency
phenomenon caused by irregu-
larities in the conduction path
and noise due to the bias currents
within the transistors. At higher
frequencies, 1/f noise is negligi-
ble as the white noise from other
sources begins to dominate. This
low-frequency noise can be very
problematic if the input signal
is near DC, such as the outputs
from strain gauges, pressure sen-
sors, thermocouples etc.
In an auto-zero based amplifier,
the 1/f noise is removed as part
of the offset-correction process.
This noise source appears at the
input and is relatively slow mov-
ing. Hence, it appears to be a part
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Figure 2: Here’s a simplified application circuit diagram.
of the amplifier’s offset and gets
compensated accordingly.
Low bias current—Bias current
is the amount of current flow
into the inputs of the amplifier
to bias the input transistors. The
magnitude of this current can
vary from microamperes down to
picoamperes and is strongly de-
pendent upon the architecture of
the amplifier-input circuitry. This
parameter becomes extremely
important when connecting a
high-impedance sensor to the
input of an amplifier. As the
bias current flows through this
high impedance, a voltage drop
occurs across the impedance,
resulting in a voltage error. For
these applications, a low bias cur-
rent is required.
Virtually all auto-zero amplifiers
on the market today implement a
CMOS input stage, which results
in very low bias currents. However,
the charge injection from the
internal switching can result in
slightly higher bias currents then
that of a more traditional, CMOS-
input op amp.
Quiescent current—For battery-
powered applications, quiescent
current is a critical parameter.
Because of the nulling amplifiers
and other circuitry required to
support the self-correcting auto-
zero architecture, auto-zero am-
plifiers typically consume more
quiescent current for a given
bandwidth and slew rate, relative
to traditional amplifiers. However,
significant improvements have
been made to increase the effi-
ciency of this architecture. Some
op amps, such as Microchip
Technology’s MCP6V03, offer a
Chip Select or shutdown pin to
minimize quiescent current when
the device is not active.
Application example
The previous section identified
several parameters in which the
auto-zero architecture helps to
increase amplifier performance.
This section explores an example
application using a strain gauge,
which highlights some of the
advantages of an auto-zero
amplifier.
Portable weigh scales are pop-
ular devices for weighing small
items such as precious metals,
jewelry and medications. These
devices are battery-powered and
typically require accuracy down
to a tenth of a gram, if not bet-
ter. Thus, this application requires
high-precision, low-power signal
conditioning for the strain gauges
used to measure the weight.
A strain gauge uses electrical
resistance to quantify the amount
of strain caused by an external
force. There are several different
types of strain gauges, the most
common of which is a metallic
strain gauge. This type of strain
gauge is composed of a wire or
small piece of metal foil. When
a force is applied, the strain on
the gauge is altered (either posi-
tively or negatively), resulting in a
change in the strain gauge’s elec-
trical resistance. This change in
resistance can then be measured
and the magnitude of the applied
force quantified. Typically, one or
more strain gauges are arranged
in a Wheatstone-bridge configu-
ration, due to the excellent sen-
sitivity that this circuit offers. The
change in the resistance value is
small, so the overall voltage out-
put of such a Wheatstone-bridge
circuit is small. For this example,
we will assume a 10mV full-scale
output.
Figure 2 is a simplified circuit
analyzed for this application.
Please note that this circuitry is
not intended to be a complete
representation, but is simplified to
show the benefits of the auto-zero
architecture. For example, the out-
puts of the Wheatstone-bridge
circuit should be buffered to
provide a high-impedance input,
which is not shown in the circuit
diagram. In this circuit, the ampli-
fier is configured for a differential
gain of 500, so a full-scale output
from the Wheatstone bridge will
ideally produce a 5V output from
the amplifier.
Due to the high amount of
gain required in this application,
the offset voltage of the ampli-
fier becomes critical. Any voltage
offset due to the amplifier will
be multiplied by the gain. For
example, the MCP606 is a CMOS
op amp that implements non-
volatile memory to trim the input
offset voltage, resulting in a maxi-
mum offset of 250µV (at room
temperature). In this application,
the maximum offset error of the
MCP606 can result in 125mV of
error at the output of the ampli-
fier, or 2.5 percent of the full-scale
range. Let’s compare this to the
MCP6V01 auto-zero amplifier,
which has a maximum offset of
only 2µV (at room temperature).
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This offset will result in a maxi-
mum error of 1mV at the output
of the amplifier, which is only 0.02
percent of the full-scale output.
Another advantage of the
auto-zero architecture is its low
drift over time and temperature.
For this example, let’s assume
that the portable weigh scale is
specified from 0°C to 50°C. The
temperature drift of the MCP606
is specified to be 1.8µV/°C. The
error due to drift across this tem-
perature range could be as much
as 90µV, which again would be
multiplied by the gain of the
circuit, causing an additional
45mV of error at the output of the
amplifier. The MCP6V01, on the
other hand, specifies a maximum
drift of only 50nV/°C. Hence, the
drift error for this application
is only 1.25mV at the output of
the amplifier circuitry, which is
over 30 times better than the
performance with the MCP606
amplifier.
As stated earlier, 1/f noise can
be a limiting factor for low-fre-
quency applications, such as the
weigh-scale example used here.
For weigh-scale applications, the
output of the load cell is a very
slow-moving signal, so 1/f noise
can be a critical factor.
Today’s auto-zero architecture
can date its roots back to the early
days of chopper amplifiers, but
has improved significantly since
that time. The old chopper ampli-
fiers have many shortcomings that
made system-level design quite
troublesome. The new auto-zero
architecture is much more user-
friendly and provides substantially
better performance. As shown
in the application example, the
auto-zero architecture can offer
much better performance over a
traditional op amp in high-preci-
sion applications.