Integrator

An integrator in measurement and control applications is an element whose output signal is the time integral of its input signal. It accumulates the input quantity over a defined time to produce a representative output.

For the business function, see systems integrator.

Integration is an important part of many engineering and scientific applications. Mechanical integrators are the oldest type and are still used for metering water flow or electrical power. Electronic analogue integrators are the basis of analog computers and charge amplifiers. Integration can also be performed by algorithms in digital computers.

For input (f = 0), the capacitive reactance X_c is infinite. Because of this, the op amp gets effectively in an open loop configuration, which has infinite open-loop gain (for an ideal op amp, or simply very large for real op amps). Hence, any small input offset voltages are also amplified and appears at output as a large error. This is referred as false triggering and must be avoided.

DC

Integrating circuits are most commonly used in , ramp generators, and also in wave shaping applications.

analog-to-digital converters

Op-amp integrating amplifiers are used to perform operations in analog computers.

calculus

A totalizer in the industrial instrumentation trade integrates a signal representing water flow, producing a signal representing the total quantity of water that has passed by the flow meter.

Integrators may also be software components.

In some computer simulations, such as numerical weather prediction, molecular dynamics, flight simulators, reservoir simulation, noise barrier design, architectural acoustics, and electronic circuit simulation, an integrator is a numerical method for integrating trajectories from forces (and thereby accelerations) that are only calculated at discrete time steps.

computational physics

Differentiator

Digital differential analyzer

Fractional-order integrator

Integrating ADC

Low-pass filter

Operational amplifier

Signal processing

Wolfram Online Integrator

Calc.Matthen Online Integrator, can do definite integrals

Keng C. Wu (2002). . Springer. pp. 85–87. ISBN 978-1-4020-7261-1.