chopper amplifier

A chopper amplifier is a DC voltage amplifier. In the chopper amplifier, the DC voltage is first chopped, then the chopped DC voltage is transformed, amplified in an AC amplifier and then rectified again.

The operation of the chopper amplifier corresponds to that of DC/DC converters. The conversion of the DC voltage to be amplified into an AC voltage or a square wave voltage is necessary, since a DC voltage cannot be transformed. In addition, such amplifier circuits can be better designed against interference voltages than pure DC amplifiers, are more temperature-independent, operate more stably and with better reproducibility.

Chopper amplifiers can amplify the smallest DC voltages in the micro-, nano- and picovolt range and are therefore mainly used in measurement technology.