New Zero-Drift, Nanopower Amplifier from TI
The new LPV821 combines the highest DC precision with 60% less power consumption
Texas Instruments has released the first operational amplifier to combine ultra-high precision with the industry’s lowest supply current. With exceptional power-to-precision performance, the LPV821 zero-drift, nanopower op amp enables engineers to attain the highest DC precision, while consuming 60 percent less power than competitive zero-drift devices. The LPV821 is designed for use in precision applications such as wireless sensing nodes, home and factory automation equipment, and portable electronics.

The LPV821 op amp is the newest device in TI’s low-power amplifier portfolio, which enables engineers to design lighter, smaller and more portable applications with lower-capacity batteries and longer system lifetimes.
Features of the LPV821 Op-Amp include:
- Exceptional power-to-precision performance: Consuming only nanoamps of supply current, while providing the high-precision benefits of optimized offset, drift and 1/f noise (flicker noise), the LPV821 is extremely beneficial for applications where both precision and low power are essential system needs, including industrial gas detectors, field transmitters and battery packs.
- Sixty percent lower power consumption: With best-in-class supply current of 650 nA, the LPV821 extends battery lifetimes and enables lower power budgets in precision systems than competitive zero-drift devices.
- High DC precision: TI’s zero-drift technology delivers a low initial offset of 10 µV and an offset drift of 0.02 µV/°C, eliminating temperature drift and flicker noise, and enabling engineers to attain the highest DC precision and dynamic error correction. Additionally, self-calibration technology helps engineers save system development cost and speed time to market.
- No duty cycling: Nanopower consumption enables always-on applications such as continuous and blood glucose monitoring, and other electrochemical cell applications. Additionally, the low supply current decreases the external circuitry required to turn the amplifier on and off.
- High-impedance sensor operation: An input bias current of 7 pA and low flicker noise at 3.9 µVp-p enables operation with high-impedance sensors, delivering more accurate measurements in precision systems.
Engineers can pair the LPV821 op amp with the TLV3691 nanopower comparator or ADS7142 nanopower analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to program a threshold that will automatically wake up a microcontroller (MCU) such as the CC1310 SimpleLink™ Sub-1 GHz MCU, further reducing system power consumption.
Technical Specifications of the LPV821 Nanopower Amplifier
- Quiescent Current: 650 nA
- Low Offset Voltage: ±10 µV (Maximum)
- Offset Voltage Drift: ±0.096 µV/°C (Maximum)
- 0.1-Hz to 10-Hz Noise: 3.9 µVPP
- Input Bias Current: ±7 pA
- Gain Bandwidth: 8 kHz
- Supply Voltage: 1.7 V to 3.6 V
- Rail-to-Rail Input/Output
- Industry Standard Package - 5-pin SOT-23
- EMI Hardened
More information on the LPV821 Precision Zero-Drift Op-Amp, can be found on the TI website at TI LPV821 product page
The Texas Instruments website address is www.ti.com
[Reprinted with kind permission from Texas Instruments - Release Date, 6th December, 2017]