chopamp caution

Jan 13, 2010 1 Replies

Chopper opamp specs look fabulous... microvolt offsets, nanovolts per degree C, pA bias currents, no 1/f noise. But we have found some strange behaviors.



Some seem to have some sort of front-end charge injection that makes offset a function of the impedances seen by the input pins. This acts like an input bias current but actually isn't.



One one board we're working on, we couldn't get consistant calibrations. Turns out that one chopper amp is showing offsets that drift around 10s of microvolts. It's on a floating analog channel, and there's a bit of dc/dc inverter feedthrough on the channel common, and we're in a high EMI environment, so one of those is probably the problem. Finger-prods in the neighborhood of the amp will change the offset.



We replaced the offending AD8628 with an OPA376 and the problems disappeared. The datasheet doesn't suggest what technology the '376 uses, but it's a stunning part.



John



Have you tried another AD8628 in case of a single unit fault? ...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

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