Course: ES 10 105 A Electronic System design

Errors and Error Budget

Analysis in Instrumentation
Amplifier Applications

Faculty: Anoop Mathew, HoD ECE

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Instrumentation amplifiers
Used

in low speed precision applications

Focus on dc errors such as offset voltage,
bias current and low frequency noise
(primarily at harmonics of the line
frequency of either 50 Hz or 60 Hz).
Specification of errors
Referred To the Input (RTI)
Referred To the Output (RTO).
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Error Sources in Discrete and Integrated

Instrumentation Amplifiers

Parts per MillionPPM

ppm is a popular way of specifying errors that are
quite small.

Input Offset Error (ppm) = (VOS/VIN FULL SCALE) x106

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Error sources of an In-Amp

(a)

Offset Voltage

(b)

Offset and Bias Currents

(c)

Common-Mode Rejection

(d)

AC and DC Common-Mode Rejection

(e)

Noise

(f)

Linearity

(g)

Gain Error
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(a) Offset Voltage

Offset

voltage results from a mismatch

between transistor VBEs in an amplifiers
input stage.
Modeling of offset voltage V OSIN in the
figure.
In multistage amplifiers, i/p stage of the
output amp also contributes offset voltage.

Total Offset Error (RTI) = VOS_IN + VOS_OUT/Gain

effect

of output offset voltage decreases as

the instrumentation amps programmed
gain increases.
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(b) Offset and Bias Currents

Bias currents flow into or out of the in amps inputs
Bias currents generate error voltages when they flow through source impedances.

x SOURCE = VOS(IN)
If both inputs are same generate a small common-mode input voltage
can be suppressed by common mode rejection device.
i/p offset voltage +

BIAS

(c) Common-Mode Rejection

Common-mode component is often the primary function of an instrumentation

amplifier in an application.

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(d) AC and DC Common-Mode Rejection

Poor common-mode rejection at dc will result in a dc offset at the
output.
poor common-mode rejection of ac signals is much more
troublesome at 50 or 60 Hz.
Poor CMR will reduce resolution.
To improve CMR is filtering provided operating frequency is less
than 50Hz.

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(e) Noise
Noise sources will degrade the resolution of a circuit.
Two noise sources in most amplifiers:
- voltage noise
- current noise
Voltage Noise Spectral Density of a Typical Instrumentation Amplifier.
-the noise spectral density increases
as the frequency approaches dc.
-RTI rms noise = noise spectral density x
bandwidth of the amp.
-LF noise generally can be neglected in HF
applications.

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(f) Linearity
In-Amps

using op-amps experience

nonlinearity issues.
Generally, opamp data sheets do not
mention about nonlinearities of opamps.
DC sweep circuit has to be wired and
measure the nolinearity.
Nonlinearity (ppm) = (Maximum deviation
of output voltage from ideal/gain/full-scale
input) x 106
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(g) Gain Error

2

components of gain error are:

- internal gain error
- error due to the tolerance of the external gain
setting resistor.
Difficult to achieve exactly the desired gain (e.g.,
10 or 100) when using standard resistor sizes.
Solution: a precision external gain resistor will
prevent the overall gain from degrading .
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REFERENCES
1. Analog-Digital Conversion Handbook, Third
Edition, pp 550553, by the Engineering Staff of
Analog Devices, Inc., edited by Daniel H. Sheingold,
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.
2. AD623 Single Supply, Rail-to-Rail, Low Cost
Instrumentation Amplifier, data sheet, p 15.

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Questions/ Clarifications/
More details???
anoopmathew@ieee.org
Mobile: 0091 9567398001
Web: www.anoopmathew.110mb.com

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