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.
