Instead of fixing the error, TI deleted the entire document!
As well they should have! Here is a
link to the original application note, which must have been created shortly after TI absorbed Burr-Brown on June 21, 2000.
I had not seen this TI application note until I went looking for it as a result of @Audoguru's response to my query. While reading the entire note, I got an uncomfortable feeling about it. There are several typographical errors as well as the circuit error discovered by the Audio Guru. Closer reading might even reveal more circuit errors. What I found most peculiar was the writing style. It just didn't "feel" right.
I suspect management in TI marketing decided that, now that Burr-Brown was a part of TI, someone should write a TI branded application note about how to use op-amps with single-source power supplies. Unfortunately, it does not appear that TI bothered to ask anyone at Burr-Brown for help with this, assigning the project instead to a lower-level, recently hired, TI engineer/tech writer/application engineer. This engineer then attempted to gather a hodge-podge of information from previously published Burr-Brown literature and assemble it into a "vague and hard-hitting" application note entirely useless as a guide to actual real designs. Marketing guys are good at this sort of obfuscation, but the author, Bruce Carter, only stayed with TI for six years. It could have been written by a disgruntled Burr-Brown employee, acquired as part of the merger, who was on the way out the door after the merger, a kind of "busy work" project until all the details of the merger were worked out and duplicated job positions in the two companies were eliminated.
Whatever the history behind it, I am sure it was a huge embarrassment to Texas Instruments. It may still be, because thirteen years later TI SLOA058 was still causing problems, as
this thread from the TI E2E™ Community illustrates. Scroll to near the end, where Bruce Trump, a long time TI employee (now retired) and a Community Member with a Guru rating stated, at 4:26 AM on March 8, 2013: "
I suggest that you not try to use SLOA058 document. It contains too many errors." Emphasis mine.
During most of the 20th Century, Burr-Brown (and a few others) was the the "go to" source for high-performance op-amps and instrumentation amplifiers. Integrated circuits, and laser trimming during production, turned a niche market into a highly competitive international market as op-amp applications exploded. Burr-Brown managed to stay abreast of most of the changes, but it had nowhere near the financial and marketing clout of Texas Instruments, so a merger was probably in the best interests of both companies at the time. Most analog designers (including yours truly) had an extensive collection of Burr-Brown application notes that were invaluable for practical circuit design. In case you missed it, most (maybe all) of these notes are now available for download as
zip files here.
Lest anyone think Burr-Brown was the analog giant in shining armor who helped wrestle TI into the analog market, be aware that TI was already making "pretty good" integrated circuit op-amps and other hybrid analog/digital products such as integrated circuit DACs and ADCs when the merger occurred. The two merged companies had plenty of competition from the likes of Analog Devices, Linear Technology, Microchip and Motorola, just to name a few.
