On 11/7/2014 1:17 PM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 11/7/2014 1:02 PM, rickman wrote:
On 11/7/2014 10:49 AM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 11/6/2014 11:45 AM, rickman wrote:
On 11/6/2014 10:04 AM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 11/5/2014 1:29 PM, rickman wrote:
On 11/4/2014 9:42 PM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 11/4/2014 6:29 PM, rickman wrote:
I am working on a project for receiving a very narrow bandwidth
signal
at 60 kHz. One of the design goals is to keep the power
consumption to
an absolute minimum. I'm trying to figure out how to run a
pre-amplifier on less than 100 uW. So far I have found nothing.
Any
suggestions?
I agree with Jim. We need many more specifics to provide a
meaningful
answer. There are a lot of micropower opamps out there now, but the
devil is in the details.
I've only found one detail that is giving me the devil. That is the
bandwidth. The signal is 60 kHz. I can't think of any other issues I
would have with any amp capable of amplifying this signal with a low
power level. What more info do you feel is needed? Can you ask
questions? Better yet, just point me to any amp that will meet my two
stated requirements!
The other posts you made had the info - things like impedance and gain
are important, as is frequency of operation (but we already know that).
A couple of things to consider, however. The higher the impedance, the
more susceptible it will be to ambient noise pickup. You're starting
with a very small signal and may need to add shielding to limit
external
noise.
The other problem is you're asking for low impedance output. Low
impedance limits noise pickup, but increases current drain. So how low
of an impedance do you want?
I don't follow on this. How does a low output impedance drive the
current drain?
There are op amps with very high (in the gigaohm range) input impedance
and pretty low quiescent current drain. How much it draws during use
will be greatly dependent on the output current required, which
obviously depends on output voltage and impedance.
Consider the current used only by the amp, not the load.
I don't have time right now, but later today I'll look through some of
my data sheets on op amps to see what I can find.
Thanks.
Total current is not just dependent on output current; it also is
affected by the design of the chip. Op amps are not just single
transistor devices; a lower output impedance also means more current to
drive the output stage, which affects other components. So even if you
have a high impedance load, the lower the output impedance of the op amp
(i.e. the more current it can source/sink at a specific supply voltage),
the more overall current the op amp will draw.
With that said, I did some looking around (sorry for not getting back to
you quicker - yesterday was pretty busy). Depending on your needs,
there are hundreds you can choose from. I might recommend you check out
http://www.mouser.com/Semiconductors...mps/_/N-6j73m/
. You can pick and choose the parameters you want. Another one I've
used is http://www.newark.com/operational-amplifiers.
Between the two I found several hundred possibilities, but you know the
details of what you want better than I do, so rather than guess at what
you might want, I think this would be better. It should give you a
start.
I have done this before and found nothing. But I did it again at both
Mouser and Digikey and found several. One listed by Mouser looked
especially good only to find rather than 0.75 uA of supply current, it
had 0.75 mA of supply current. lol
But then the next part, same thing... another one... and another... one
part I'm not sure what to make of it. The selection table shows supply
current of 0.034 mA and the data sheet shows 25 A! Yes, that's right,
the data sheet shows between 25 and 300 Amps for typical supply
current!!! I would contact TI about this obvious typo, but this part is
not suitable because of the GBW which is also incorrect in the selection
table.
Same thing at Digikey, everything in the selection table that meets
these two requirements is a mistake.
A couple of things.
First of all, I've found minor errors in the listings at Mouser (I don't
use Digikey much), but never real glaring errors. And this is th first
time I've seen a TI datasheet that far off. Looks like someone dropped
a decimal point 
. However, I've found Mouser is interested in
correcting errors; they are input by humans, after all, at some point in
time, and errors do creep in.
Yes, when you list millions of parts there will be errors. I have
written digikey many times about listing errors and they always thank
me. I'm sure Mouser is no different.
Secondly, the current shown is going to be max current, which will
depend on the output impedance (and the amount that has to be
sourced/sunk). It's not going to pull this all the time; I would expect
your actual current draw to be much less since you're 1) going into a
high impedance load and 2) not going from rail to rail.
I find the opposite. The current listed is under specified conditions
which usually *do not* include output drive. In fact, it usually listed
as a quiescent current.
Also, if you use a bipolar supply, then current drain should be less
because you'll be operating near ground, instead of the midpoint of a
single supply voltage (where the output would be at 1/2 Vcc). Some of
these are quite low voltage, and I would think a couple of the larger
lithium coin batteries should last quite a while.
Not sure how the ground level would affect the bias currents. When the
supply voltage is lowered the GBW lowers as well.
--
Rick