Wide-Input Op Amps Deliver Precision Signal Conditioning

High-accuracy op amps are hot. The rising demand for these fundamental building blocks is being driven by the needs of sensor signal processing, current-detection circuits, motor-driver control, and power-supply monitoring systems. When it comes to industrial automation, precision op amps are playing a central role in analog front ends (AFEs), where they amplify sensor outputs to support stable control and accurate monitoring. In these situations, even small reductions in signal error and latency can make a difference in system performance.

STMicroelectronics is trying to stay on top of the trend with the new TSB192, a dual op amp designed primarily for precision signal conditioning. It combines high accuracy and low noise for applications requiring a wide operating-voltage range.

The device leverages a zero-drift architecture to deliver very high accuracy and linearity, according to the company. It features a maximum input offset voltage of 20 µV and a temperature drift of 100 nV/°C, resulting in a maximum offset of 30 µV over the full operating temperature range.

ST said the high accuracy and low noise reduce the need for compensation in signal-conditioning networks used in industrial, automotive, and medical devices. The op amps save power by consuming only up to 1.9 mA per channel.

While op amps with comparable offset voltage usually require a low-voltage supply, ST said the new devices can operate over a wide input voltage range of 4 to 36 V as well as over a wide temperature range of −40 to 125°C.

New Op Amps Dial Up Bandwidth and Dial Down Noise

The CMOS op amps belong to ST’s broader family of TSB1 devices. They’re designed to be used for sensor amplification in industrial automation, enabling accurate and stable signal conditioning, as well as medical devices such as ECG and EEG equipment.

The op amps can also be embedded in electric-vehicle (EV) battery-management systems (BMS) to accurately capture voltage and current signals used to estimate state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) of the cells. In many EV batteries, a common method to sense current uses a resistor (R_SENSE), which detects the voltage drop that occurs as current runs through it. In many cases, a high-precision op amp is used in the circuit to amplify the current-sense signal.

High-accuracy op amps are critical because the BMS must be able to detect what’s happening inside the cells despite the electrically noisy and often hot environment within the battery pack and under the hood of the EV. These op amps can also be deployed in other automotive power supplies, which usually require knowledge of the switching current, often sensed on the primary side, to support voltage regulation, current protection, and power monitoring.

Though it’s based on the same zero-drift architecture as its TSB18 series, ST said the TSB192 pushes the performance further with higher bandwidth, faster speeds, and lower noise, which all play into the demands of high-resolution analog signal chains. The op amps come with a wide bandwidth of 8 MHz and a slew rate of 10 V/μs, enabling fast frequency response. They also feature input noise of 12 nV/√Hz at 1 kHz, reducing distortion that can dampen its ability to amplify small input signals and reproduce larger ones.

In addition, the TSB192 features rail-to-rail outputs to maximize available dynamic range. Op amps with rail-to-rail outputs are capable of driving the output voltage very close to the supply voltage without impacting performance or increasing noise. In general, rail-to-rail op amps guarantee the output can remain within millivolts of the supply rail. This gives them the wide dynamic range required by current-sensing circuits in a BMS or signal-conditioning circuits connected to a precision ADC.

The industrial-grade TSB192 family comes in compact SO-8 or MiniSO-8 packages. The op amps are currently in production with pricing from $1.06 for orders of 1,000 units. ST said it plans to put out automotive-grade components later in 2026.