Analyzing Operational Amplifiers in Chaotic Circuits
Christopher Huss · ScholarWorks (Central Washington University) · 2014
A number of studies have investigated a class of simple chaotic circuits first identified by J.C. Sprott. Typically, these circuits rely on operational amplifiers (op-amps). For this project, we experimentally investigated the behavior of chaotic circuits assembled using op-amps with significantly contrasting parameters. In particular, we compared the behavior of a single circuit assembled using 741 op-amps and another assembled using LME49740 op-amps. The 741 is a general purpose op-amp while the LME49740 is optimized for high performance and high fidelity applications with ultra-low distortion, low noise and high slew rate. We selected a particular chaotic circuit, primarily for its simplicity, from the paper “Simple chaotic systems and circuits” by J.C. Sprott in the American Journal of Physics. Next, we verified the form of the third-order ordinary differential equation that models the circuit behavior. We then assembled the circuit, and qualitatively examined its behavior with an oscilloscope. We also modeled its behavior with Mathematica. We will report our findings for the relative behavior of these two circuits.