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The operational amplifier is responsible for a dramatic and continuing revolution in our approach to analog system design. The availability of high performance, inexpensive devices influences the entire spectrum of circuits and systems, ranging from simple, mass-produced circuits to highly sophisticated equipment designed for complex data collection or processing operations. At one end of this spectrum, modern operational amplifiers have lowered cost and improved performance; at the other end, they allow us to design and implement systems that were previously too complex for consideration.

An appreciation of the importance of this component, gained primarily through research rather than academic experience, prompted me in 1969 to start a course at M.I.T. focusing on the operational amplifier. Initially the course, structured as part of an elective sequence in active devices, concentrated on the circuit techniques needed to realize operational amplifiers and on the application of these versatile elements.

As the course evolved, it became apparent that the operational amplifier had a value beyond that of a circuit component; it was also an excellent instructional vehicle. This device supplied a reason for studying a collection of analytic and design techniques that were necessary for a thorough understanding of operational amplifiers and were also important to the general area of active-circuit design. For example, if we study direct-coupled amplifiers in detail, with proper attention given to transistor-parameter variation with temperature, to loading, and to passive-component peculiarities, we can improve our approach to the design of a large class of circuits dependent on these concepts and also better appreciate operational amplifiers. Similarly, the use of an active load to increase dramatically the voltage gain of a stage is a design technique that has widespread applicability. The integrated-circuit fabrication and design methods responsible for the economical realization of modern operational amplifiers are the same as those used for other linear integrated circuits and also influence the design of many modern discrete-component circuits.

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