# Electronic – Circuit to “zoom in” on mV fluctuations of a DC signal

amplifiercircuit-designoperational-amplifiersignal processing

I have a signal that is roughly 0.2V + noise fluctuations of order 0.1-2 mV. Ideally I want to amplify this signal such that the mV fluctuations become about 1V. In other words I want to amplify the signal by about 1000x.

However, if I flat out amplify the signal, the total signal becomes 200V + 1V fluctuations, which I can't reasonably read on some bench top DAQ (0-10V range).

Is there some combination of circuit elements that can take my input 0.2V + 1mV signal and spit out only the amplified fluctuations (i.e. 0V + 1V fluctuations)?

I should say that these fluctuations are controlled by me physically squeezing a pressure gauge, so they aren't necessarily high frequency. Basically the signal rises to 0.202V when I squeeze, and 0.200V when I let go. I want to see that excess 0.002V blown up to 1V, but I may be squeezing and letting go slowly in general.

Capacitors block DC and pass AC.

You can use a series capacitor into an opamp with whatever gain you need.

Even better might be a simple RC high-pass filter...One capacitor (series) and one resistor (to ground) in front of your amplifier.

Like this:

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

R2 and R3 set your gain. C1 and R1 set your low frequency cut-off. The formula you use to find the cutoff is:

$$F\text{(Hz)} = \frac{1}{2 \pi R C}$$