A PRACTICAL REVIEW OF Common Mode and Instrumentation Amplifiers:Instrumentation amplifiers (in-amps) amplify the difference between two signals. These differential signals typically emanate from sensors such as resistive bridges or thermocouples. Figure 1 shows a typical in-amp application where the differential voltage from a resistive bridge is amplified by the AD620, a low-power, low-cost, integrated in-amp. In thermocouple and bridge applications, the differential voltage is generally fairly small (a few millivolts to tens of millivolts). However, the two voltages from the bridge are equal to about 2.5 V when each is referred to ground. This voltage, which is common to both inputs, is called the common mode voltage of the differential signal. This voltage contains no useful information about the measurement. So ideally, the in-amp should amplify only the difference between the signals at its two inputs. Any common mode component should be ignored by the in-amp. Indeed, removing the common mode component is often the sole reason for using an in-amp. In practice, common mode signals will never be completely rejected by the in-amp; some remnant of the signal always appears at the output. The specification of common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) is a measure of the extent to which common mode signals are rejected by an amplifier. CMRR is defined by: