Feedback Desired: What Application first Comes To Mind from the Term "High Voltage Op Amps"?

That's a very nice amplifier. Up to 100MHz it's really good - bit iffy from there upwards where you'd have to be very careful of what was being driven. Not one for people who like using autorouters, though, is it?

I just wish someone would invent a package where the thermal pad extended a little way from the ends (like larger SMD power transistors do) - that way you could just solder them with a big iron and not have all the bother of the SMD stuff and whether or not the pad had soldered properly (I think I'm getting to be a bit of a dinosaur now).

TI seem to be describing +/-15V devices as "High Voltage" now,

This is what their op-amp product page says (>6V!)

Analog Devices aim a bit higher with 12V

Instead of the 6V parts being 'low voltage', it looks like they're becoming the new normal and everything else is high voltage.

Here's a nice High(ish) voltage amplifier:

THS3491 900-MHz, High Power Output, Current Feedback Amplifier | TI.com

TI seem to be describing +/-15V devices as "High Voltage" now, this device is pretty amazing in that it can deliver +/-10V at serious current at 100MHz.

The example application on the first page of the data sheet would suit Shabaz' DDS signal generator quite well.

MK

I wasn't serious about the "off topic" comment - all the best stuff is off topic

Op amps don't have to be monolithic in my book.

MK

Yes, it's an interesting app note - I read it through before saying anything. My comment was meant as a serious question of definition that I thought snidhi might like to consider.

The output can only drive positive and the negative slew is defined entirely by the output capacitor discharging through the load, as is the case with most power supplies. The claimed bandwidth is something like 50Hz, which also seems to place it with power supplies.

The Apex parts that Doug refers to above are hybrid circuits (not surprising for amplifiers that can handle 1000 or 2000 volts). Would they also be off topic? Does it have to be monolithic to be an 'op amp'?

yea, right. It is quite fun to read though

No, but it's off topic since it doesn't actually use a high voltage op amp . It comes form a rather nifty National Semiconductors app note (now TI of course , at http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snoa600b/snoa600b.pdf ).

The LM3524 is a switcher regulator and the complete design is claimed to manage 1000V at 300mA.

It's a fun app note which I would never have spotted without s nidhi's quote of it, so thanks.

MK

Isn't that a power supply?

1000V  Son of Godzilla Booster

My thoughts are division of power through isolation. Two or more sides with different power requirements but have ability to pass signals.

The high voltage part triggers visions of levels only seen with vacuum tubes. Since I lived in the first era of tubes and been physically shocked by the levels, I tend to smile when I see 5KV isolation across the gap. Yeah, I've seen that! No it wasn't 5KV that work me up, only 350VDC.

Sean 

Good Question... Most of the designs I do are 24V and below (and of that, mostly 5V and below) , yet I would consider +-15V rail op-amps as fairly standard in circuits of old.

So applications for high voltage optical circuits or relatively high impedance ceramic resonators for imaging in medical research (high voltage, mainly low current applications) would be the only place where I would have used more esoteric/unusual devices in my career - and that was into the hundreds of volts at the most rather than over the 1kV in the case of the optical switches...