ABSTRACT
The operational amplifier, or op-amp, is a fundamental building block for many electronic circuits. Although the op-amp itself is composed of numerous transistors, it is usually treated as a single circuit element known as the ideal operational amplifier. The ability to treat the op-amp as an ideal circuit element simplifies its use in circuits such as amplifiers, buffers, filters, and data converters. With such varied uses, the op-amp has been implemented in many different forms. Nevertheless, the behavior of each of these different forms can still be characterized as an ideal op-amp.
