Electronic – Gain problem of inverting opamp

differentialgaininverteroperational-amplifier

I'm implementing the circuit in the schematic on the breadboard.

  • Difference of inputs V1 and V2 is about 5mV.
  • Differential opamp has gain of 17,4
  • Inverting opamp has gain of 26

Circuit schematic

  1. First problem: I implemented the circuit without 1uF capacitor the I get these;
    After the differential opamp, osilloscope shows the output voltage is about -90mV (5 * 17,4 = 87). But after passing the inverting opamp the output voltage is about 1500mV which should be 90*26 = 2230mV according to my gain calculations.
  2. Second problem: Then I put 1uF capacitor between opamps, oscilloscope shows the output is about -70mV which should be close to before.

What should I do to get close to the theoretical calculation?

Best Answer

The LM358 has an input offset voltage error of typically 2 mV. Given that the input is only 5 mV, 2 mV represents a large error signal. On this basis alone, if I needed DC accuracy I would be choosing an op-amp with a significantly better input offset voltage.

Input offset currents are also likely to add to errors.

Adding the capacitor means that the DC gain of the 2nd stage is zero and no further amplification of offset voltages is produced. This may be the effect you are seeing. Try bypassing C1, shorting the two inputs and looking at the offset voltages on the output you get in this scenario.