The OPA698 is a wideband, unity-gain stable voltage-feedback op amp that offers bipolar output voltage limiting. Two buffered limiting voltages take control of the output when it attempts to drive beyond these limits. This new output limiting architecture holds the limiter offset error to ±10mV. The op amp operates linearly to within 20mV of the output limit voltages.

The combination of a narrow nonlinear range and the low limiting offset allows the limiting voltages to be set within 100mV of the desired linear output range. A fast 1ns recovery from limiting ensures that overdrive signals will be transparent to the signal channel. Implementing the limiting function at the output, as opposed to the input, gives the specified limiting accuracy for any gain, and allows the OPA698 to be used in all standard op amp applications.