
OPT211
7
APPLICATIONS INFORMATION
Figure 1 shows the basic connections required to operate the
OPT211. Applications with high impedance power supplies
may require decoupling capacitors located close to the
device pins as shown in Figure 1.
R
F
(
)
C
F
(pF)
Bandwidth
(kHz)
330k
1M
10M
100M
5.6
3
1
(1)
0.3
(1)
86
50
16
5
NOTE: (1) Feedback resistor has approximately 1pF stray
capacitance. C
<1pF requires series-connected feedback
resistors. See text.
stray capacitance to a few tenths of a picofarad. With
experimentation, circuit board traces can be used to produce
the necessary stray capacitance for proper compensation and
widest possible bandwidth.
The circuit in Figure 1 can drive capacitive loads up to
250pF. To drive load capacitance up to 1nF, connect R
1
and
the feedback components as shown in Figure 2.
DARK ERRORS
Dark error specifications include all error sources and are
tested with the circuit shown in Figure 1 using R
F
=1M
.
The dominate dark error source is the input offset voltage of
the internal op amp. The combination of photodiode dark
current and op amp input bias current is approximately
1.5pA at 25
°
C. Even with very large feedback resistors, this
contributes virtually no offset error. Dark current and input
bias current increase with temperature, doubling (approxi-
mately) for each 10
°
C increase. At 70
°
C, dark current is
approximately 35pA. This would produce 3.5mV offset with
a 100M
feedback resistor.
Circuit board leakage currents can increase dark error. Use
clean assembly procedures to avoid contamination, particu-
larly around the sensitive inverting input node (pin 2). Errors
due to leakage current from the V+ supply (pin 1) can be
eliminated by encircling the trace connecting to pin 2 with
a guard trace connected to ground.
IMPROVING BANDWIDTH
Bandwidth of the OPT211 can be increased with the feed-
back buffer circuits shown in Figure 3. Driving the anode of
the photodiode (pin 7) in this manner reduces the effect of
the photodiode’s capacitance on signal bandwidth. This
“bootstrap drive” circuit boosts bandwidth by approximately
3x. Bandwidth achieved with various R
F
values is shown in
Figure 2. When using a bootstrap buffer, R
F
must be greater
or equal to 1M
for stable operation.
R
F
≥
330k
C
F
V+
+15V
1
3
0.1μF
0.1μF
V–
–15V
OPT211
7
8
5
V
OUT
2
λ
I
D
Output is zero volts with no light and increases with increas-
ing illumination. Photodiode current is proportional to the
radiant power (watts) falling in the photodiode. At 650nm
wavelength (visible red) the photodiode
responsivity
is ap-
proximately 0.45A/W. Responsivity at other wavelengths is
shown in the typical performance curve “Responsivity vs
Wavelength.”
The OPT211’s output voltage is the product of the photo-
diode current and feedback resistor, (I
D
R
F
). The feedback
resistor must be greater than 330k
for proper stability. A
feedback capacitor, C
F
, must be connected as shown. Rec-
ommended values are shown in Figure 1. Capacitor values
for other feedback resistances can be interpolated.
The OPT211 provides excellent performance with very high
feedback resistor values. To achieve maximum bandwidth
with R
F
≥
10M
, good circuit layout is required. With
careful circuit board layout and a 10M
feedback resistor,
stray capacitance will provide approximately the correct
parallel capacitance for stable operation and widest band-
width. For larger feedback resistor values, two resistors
connected in series and laid-out end-to-end will reduce the
FIGURE 1. Basic Circuit Connections.
FIGURE 2. Increasing C-Load Drive.
R
F
C
F
V+
1
3
0.1μF
0.1μF
V–
OPT211
7
8
5
V
OUT
2
λ
C
L
≤
1nF
R
1
175