Application Note 302 is intended to help individuals who are not power amplifier experts understand the basic parameters necessary to properly select one for use in testing and experimentation. A wide range of scientific disciplines, from mechanical engineering to biology and chemistry, use amplifiers in research and test. Amplifiers simply increase the size of a signal by some factor greater than one and are necessary when a signal source does not produce an output level sufficient for the task at hand. To select the right amplifier, it is important to understand some of the different parameters and how they affect the performance. The most important parameters to understand are:
Gain
Bandwidth (BW)
Slew Rate (SR)
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
Input Impedance
Current Limit
Reviewing these parameters and developing a general understanding of their importance will aid in the amplifier selection process.
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