Electronic – How to use a comparator in a circuit

amplifiercircuit-designcomparatoroperational-amplifier

I am learning about how to use Operational Amplifiers as comparators. I understand that comparators are used to compare an input signal to a reference voltage. However, I am having a hard time visualizing this.

Say that I wanted a comparator with a reference voltage of 0 V (therefore, the output will be either positive or negative depending on whether the input signal is positive or negative, respectively). How could I draw a circuit like this?

I hope my question is clear.

Best Answer

Electronics Tutorials actually has a very good diagram of this.

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Henceforth, when you're talking about reference voltages, it can depend on the structure of the reference voltage itself and it can be determined by Kirchhoff's Laws, i.e. Kirchhoff's Current Law.

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If you have any more questions, I invite you to check out that hyperlink I put at the beginning of my answer.