Electronic – Confusion in precision rectifier

diodesoperational-amplifierprecision-rectifier

I just started reading about operational amplifier from the book Fundamentals of Microelectronics by Behzad Razavi.

I want a to get a better understanding of precision amplifiers and their design.
The book this diagram as an example of a precision amplifier:

enter image description here

The book says that "when v(input)=0 op amp raises Vy such that it barely turns on the diode."

I don't understand how this is possible because we know an ideal non-inverting amplifier has finite closed loop gain and if the input is zero then the output should also be zero (0×finite gain.)

  1. How to justify that statement intuitively? (Better would be mathematically.)

  2. If we remove R1 (in the figure) and replace it by a short circuit (figure below) what will be its output?

Best Answer

You are confusing the output of circuit with output of opamp, they are not the same thing.

  1. An ideal opamp output does whatever it needs in order to keep opamp input voltages equal via feedback.

So in this case the circuit Vout is same as opamp inverting input, and circuit Vin is opamp noninverting input. Thus Vout equal Vin, and opamp output is Vout+Vd.

  1. It would be invalid circuit to short the resistance to ground. Inverting input and Vout would be ground because of the short. For any positive voltage Vin, the opamp output cannot set the inverting input no matter what, not even with infinite output current via diode to the ground shorted node.