What is opamp?

Answer 1

An operational amplifier, which is often called an op-amp, is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and, usually, a single-ended output.[1] An op-amp produces an output voltage that is typically millions of times larger than the voltage difference between its input terminals.

Typically the op-amp's very large gain is controlled by negative feedback, which largely determines the magnitude of its output ("closed-loop") voltage gain in amplifier applications, or the transfer function required (in analog computers). Without negative feedback, and perhaps with positive feedback for regeneration, an op-amp essentially acts as a comparator. High input impedance at the input terminals (ideally infinite) and low output impedance at the output terminal(s) (ideally zero) are important typical characteristics.

Op-amps are among the most widely used electronic devices today, being used in a vast array of consumer, industrial, and scientific devices. Many standard IC op-amps cost only a few cents in moderate production volume; however some integrated or hybrid operational amplifiers with special performance specifications may cost over $100 US in small quantities. Op-amps sometimes come in the form of macroscopic components, (see photo) or as integrated circuit cells; patterns that can be reprinted several times on one chip as part of a more complex device.

The op-amp is one type of differential amplifier. Other types of differential amplifier include the fully differential amplifier (similar to the op-amp, but with two outputs), the instrumentation amplifier (usually built from three op-amps), the isolation amplifier (similar to the instrumentation amplifier, but which works fine with common-mode voltages that would destroy an ordinary op-amp), and negative feedback amplifier (usually built from one or more op-amps and a resistive feedback network).

Answer 2

The full name is "operational amplifier". They are called this because they were originally designed for use in electronic analog computers to implement mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logarithms, integration, differentiation, roots, etc.).

However the properties that make them useful for this purpose in analog computers (very high input impedance, very low output impedance, very high gain, wide bandwidth, etc.) also make them very useful in a wide variety of other analog circuit designs.