National Semiconductor Breaks Low-Voltage Barrier

National Semiconductor Corporation today expanded its high-performance low voltage and low-power portfolio with the industry's highest-bandwidth, 1V, rail-to-rail input and output (RRIO) CMOS operational amplifier.

The LMV951's combination of bandwidth and low power make it well-suited for cell phones, handheld devices, portable medical equipment and low-power instrumentation.

National's LMV951 is the only 1V operational amplifier capable of delivering 2.7 MHz unity-gain bandwidth and maintaining its stability when driving a 500 pF capacitive load. It features low voltage noise of 25 nV/sqrtHz across a temperature range from -40 degrees C to 125 degrees C. These features, coupled with a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 80 dB and a power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) of 80 dB, make the op amp suitable for applications requiring higher gain and performance. The high CMRR also works well for non-inverting configurations.

The LMV951 operates from a supply voltage of 1V to 3V with RRIO. The op amp's rail-to-rail output maintains its dynamic range at low voltages. The LMV951's output is buffered, making it independent of resistive loads which enable better gain linearity and lower distortion. Its rail-to-rail input also allows it to be used in low-voltage applications requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For power-sensitive applications, the amp has a separate shutdown pin that reduces the supply current to 5 uA.

Built on National's proprietary VIP50 BiCMOS process technology, LMV951 joins a family of 15 precision and low-voltage, low-power amplifiers introduced in the past year to dramatically improve accuracy, power consumption and voltage noise.

By National Semiconductor