The idea is to apply a temperature-dependent voltage to the input of A1 to counter the observed drift. Thus, if A1 is observed to have an input drift of say 1 µV/ºC we can, for example, apply an equal drift to the opposite input.
The temperature dependent voltage source can easily be made by connecting a diode from ground to VCC or VEE through a large resistor. The temperature dependence of the voltage across the diode can be measured and suitably attenuated down to be fed into an input of A1. Remember, the dependence of the diode voltage on the temperature is dependent on the current flowing through the diode, so this must be kept constant, i.e. do not change the current through the diode once the voltage dependence has been measured. The attenuation methods are shown below in Figs. 9(a) and 9(b).
Calculation of the resistor values can easily be done and leads to the results:
For corrections applied to the inverting input: If the output of A1 requires a correction of
Vcorr /ºC, and Vdiode is the voltage change of the diode/ºC, then Rc =Vdiode*Rf/ Vcorr, where Rf is the feedback resistance.
Once Rc is selected, Rt will have to be changed to restore the original current through the diode, since some current will flow through Rc, and this has to be accounted for. If V0 was the voltage on the diode before Rc was connected, and Ic is the current through Rc, Rt should be changed to Rt1, where Rt1 is given by the formula Rt1 = I0 x Rt/(Ic+I0), where Ic=V0/Rc and I0=(Vcc-V0)/Rt
If the correction is applied to the non-inverting input, then Rc=Rin x Vdiode/Vcorr, where Vcorr is the correction needed at the input of A1. The value of Rt will have to be changed here as well to account for Ic. The same correction formula for Rt used in the last paragraph can be applied here as well. It is not exact, but the differences from the exact correction formula are negligible.
These formulas are approximate, but far more accurate than needed. They introduce less error than the likely component variation. |