The LM741 is a single-channel, internally compensated operational amplifier in an 8-pin package. Because one amplifier occupies the whole package, two pins are free for a function that its dual and quad relatives physically cannot offer: offset null. Pins 1 and 5 connect to trim points in the input stage and let you cancel the input offset voltage with an external potentiometer. That pair of pins is the most practical reason the LM741 is still specified on schematics that could otherwise use an LM358.
| Pin | Name | I/O | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OFFSET NULL | I | Offset trim point; used with pin 5 to null the input offset voltage |
| 2 | INVERTING INPUT | I | Inverting signal input (IN−) |
| 3 | NONINVERTING INPUT | I | Noninverting signal input (IN+) |
| 4 | V− | I | Negative supply |
| 5 | OFFSET NULL | I | Offset trim point; used with pin 1 |
| 6 | OUTPUT | O | Amplified signal output |
| 7 | V+ | I | Positive supply |
| 8 | NC | — | No connect; leave floating |
The same pin map applies across all three datasheet packages — TO-99 metal can, CDIP, and PDIP. Pin 8 is a no-connect; leave it floating rather than tied to a rail.
LM741 CAD Layout
TI ships the LM741 only in through-hole packages, so the PCB footprint is a drill pattern, not an SMD land pattern: two rows of four holes on a 2.54 mm (100 mil) pitch, 7.62 mm (300 mil) between rows, with the PDIP body measuring a nominal 9.81 × 6.35 mm. Pads of 1.5–1.6 mm over 0.8 mm drills are a safe default for hand or wave soldering.
The datasheet’s layout guidance is brief and worth following literally: place the body of any feedback resistor close to the input pin it serves, which minimizes pickup on the high-impedance node and pushes the feedback pole as high as possible, and decouple each supply pin with a 0.1 µF capacitor placed as close to pins 4 and 7 as the layout allows.
If your BOM calls for a surface-mount single 741, note that the footprint problem moves to a different manufacturer entirely — TI removed the SO-8 (M suffix) package from this datasheet, while STMicroelectronics still offers its UA741 in SO8. More on that under comparable parts.
LM741 Datasheet PDF Download
The current TI document is SNOSC25D, first issued May 1998 and last revised October 2015. Download it directly from TI: LM741 datasheet (PDF). The symlink address always resolves to the latest revision, so the link does not go stale. Revision D is the one that added the application, layout, and ESD sections and deleted the obsolete SO-8 package — if you are holding an older SNOSC25B/C printout, those sections simply are not in it.
LM741 Overview and Analysis
The 741 architecture predates the LM741 part number. Fairchild introduced the original µA741 in 1968; National Semiconductor’s LM741 was its version of the same design, and the National linear catalog passed to Texas Instruments with the 2011 acquisition. What made the 741 the default op amp of its era was internal frequency compensation: a single on-chip capacitor makes the amplifier unity-gain stable with no external compensation network, which its predecessors — the LM709 and the LM748 — required. The datasheet still frames the LM741 as a direct plug-in replacement for the 709C, LM201, MC1439, and 748.
The family has three grades. LM741A and LM741 are specified from −55°C to +125°C; LM741C covers 0°C to +70°C. TI’s description says the LM741C is “identical” to the other two except for temperature range, but the electrical tables are looser on the C grade in more than temperature: input offset voltage is 6 mV max against the LM741’s 5 mV, minimum large-signal gain drops from 50 V/mV to 20 V/mV, and minimum CMRR drops from 80 dB to 70 dB. If a design note simply says “LM741,” the C-grade limits are the ones a commercial PDIP part actually guarantees.
LM741 Technical Specifications
Absolute maximum ratings, per grade:
| Rating | LM741A / LM741 | LM741C |
|---|---|---|
| Supply voltage | ±22 V | ±18 V |
| Power dissipation | 500 mW | 500 mW |
| Differential input voltage | ±30 V | ±30 V |
| Input voltage | ±15 V | ±15 V |
| Output short-circuit duration | Continuous | Continuous |
| Junction temperature | 150°C | 100°C |
| Storage temperature | −65°C to +150°C | −65°C to +150°C |
Recommended operating supply is ±10 V to ±22 V (±18 V for the C grade), with ±15 V as the nominal design point. Key electrical characteristics at TA = 25°C, VS = ±15 V:
| Parameter | LM741 | LM741A | LM741C | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input offset voltage, typ/max | 1 / 5 | 0.8 / 3 | 2 / 6 | mV |
| Offset voltage adjustment range | ±15 | ±10 | ±15 | mV |
| Input offset current, typ/max | 20 / 200 | 3 / 30 | 20 / 200 | nA |
| Input bias current, typ/max | 80 / 500 | 30 / 80 | 80 / 500 | nA |
| Input resistance, min/typ | 0.3 / 2 | 1 / 6 | 0.3 / 2 | MΩ |
| Large-signal voltage gain, min/typ | 50 / 200 | 50 / — | 20 / 200 | V/mV |
| Output voltage swing (RL ≥ 10 kΩ), typ | ±14 | — | ±14 | V |
| Output short-circuit current | 25 | 10–35 | 25 | mA |
| CMRR, min/typ | 80 / 95 | 80 / 95 | 70 / 90 | dB |
| Slew rate, typ | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | V/µs |
| Supply current | 1.7 / 2.8 | — | 1.7 / 2.8 | mA |
Two lines in this datasheet deserve more attention than they get. First, bandwidth: the plain LM741 has no gain-bandwidth specification at all. Only the LM741A table carries a bandwidth line — 1.5 MHz typical, and it is a calculated value (0.35 divided by rise time), not a measured GBW. The “1 MHz” figure quoted everywhere for the 741 is shorthand, not a datasheet limit. Second, ESD: the rating is ±400 V HBM, an order of magnitude below what modern op amps tolerate, and TI explicitly warns that the device has limited built-in ESD protection and should be stored with leads shorted or in conductive foam. Handle loose 741s like the 1960s silicon they are.
LM741 Comparable Parts
| LM741 | UA741 (ST) | LM358 | LM324 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amplifiers per package | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Offset null pins | Yes (1, 5) | Yes (1, 5) | No | No |
| Native supply style | Dual, ±10 V to ±22 V | Dual | Single-supply friendly | Single-supply friendly |
| Current packages | TO-99, CDIP, PDIP | DIP8, SO8 | Full range incl. SMD | Full range incl. SMD |
The UA741 is the closest thing to a same-part alternative. It is the same 741 core with the same pinout, carried forward from the Fairchild naming lineage and manufactured today by STMicroelectronics — its own datasheet describes the same internal compensation network at 6 dB/octave (UA741 datasheet, ST). Two silicon lineages, two manufacturers, two distinct orderable part numbers. Electrically, one drops into the other in most non-critical circuits; on a BOM, they are different line items, and the substitution is a purchasing and qualification decision, not an automatic equivalence. ST’s SO8 option also matters here: with TI’s SO-8 gone, it is the only surface-mount single 741 from either of the two major manufacturers.
The datasheet’s own list of plug-in replacements — 709C, LM201, MC1439, 748 — is historical context rather than sourcing advice: those are the parts the 741 replaced, and the LM748 in particular is essentially a 741 without the internal compensation capacitor.
Against the LM358 and LM324, the trade is structural. The dual and quad have no spare pins, so no offset null; their input stages work down to the negative rail, which makes them the natural choice on single-supply boards; and they are stocked in every package style. The LM741 answers with the one thing they cannot do — hardware offset trimming on the part itself — and with a symmetric dual-supply output stage centered on ground.
LM741 Circuitry
Internally the LM741 is the textbook three-stage bipolar op amp — literally: this is the schematic most analog courses teach from.
The differential input stage converts the voltage difference between pins 2 and 3 into a current; the offset null pins tap into this stage’s emitter network, which is why a potentiometer across pins 1 and 5 can rebalance the front end. The second stage provides nearly all the voltage gain, and across it sits the 30 pF Miller capacitor shown in the datasheet’s internal schematic. That capacitor sets a dominant pole low enough that gain falls below unity before phase margin runs out — the internal compensation that makes the part stable at any closed-loop gain, including a voltage follower. The class-AB output stage carries the two protection features the datasheet leads with: continuous short-circuit protection, limiting output current to roughly 25 mA, and overload protection on both input and output. A third feature, freedom from latch-up when the common-mode range is exceeded, addressed a real failure mode of the 709 generation.
LM741 Characteristics
The datasheet numbers translate into hard application boundaries.
The 0.5 V/µs slew rate is the binding constraint. Full-power bandwidth is SR/(2πVp): at 10 V peak output on ±15 V rails, the LM741 can reproduce a clean sine wave only up to about 8 kHz. Run it at 20 kHz and the maximum undistorted peak drops to roughly 4 V. Small signals pass fine; full-swing audio does not.
The output stage swings to ±14 V typical into 10 kΩ on ±15 V supplies — one to two volts short of each rail — and the input common-mode range stops at ±13 V. Nothing about the part is rail-to-rail, and the recommended supply floor of ±10 V (20 V total) puts every 5 V and 3.3 V single-supply board outside its operating region by design, not by margin.
Input bias current of 80 nA typical is ordinary for a bipolar input stage and rules the part out for high-impedance sources; 80 nA through a 1 MΩ sensor is 80 mV of error before the offset voltage is even counted.
Read together, the numbers explain the part’s market position. No new design at this price point has a reason to pick an LM741 over a modern general-purpose op amp. It stays in production anyway because its demand is not design-in demand: it is coursework, bench teaching, repair of legacy industrial and audio equipment, and replenishment against BOMs frozen decades ago. That is a repair-and-replenish demand curve, and it has kept the part orderable for over fifty years.
LM741 Applications
The datasheet’s application list is short and honest: comparators, multivibrators, DC amplifiers, summing amplifiers, integrators and differentiators, active filters.
DC and summing amplifiers
With 200 V/mV typical open-loop gain, closed-loop gain accuracy is set by the resistor network, not the amplifier. Summing happens at the inverting node in the usual way. This is where the offset null pins earn their keep: in a DC-coupled chain, a few millivolts of input offset multiplied by the noise gain becomes a real output error, and the 741 lets you trim it to zero on the part itself.
Integrators and differentiators
Internal compensation keeps these configurations stable without external networks. The practical limits are the input currents: 80 nA of bias current flowing into the integration capacitor produces a steady output ramp unless the source path is DC-balanced, which is why long-time-constant integrators moved to FET-input op amps.
Active filters
Sallen-Key and multiple-feedback stages work directly. Keep the passband and a comfortable margin above it inside the amplifier’s usable bandwidth; with the slew and bandwidth figures above, the LM741 belongs in filters operating below roughly 10 kHz.
Multivibrators and waveform generators
An RC network around the amplifier produces astable square-wave generators and one-shots. Edge rates are slew-limited to 0.5 V/µs, which for a square wave crossing 20 V takes 40 µs — acceptable for low-frequency timing, visible on anything fast.
Comparators
Open-loop, the LM741 behaves as a comparator: with the inverting input held at a reference, the output drives toward one rail or the other depending on the sign of the difference. It works for slow, non-critical thresholds, but it has no hysteresis, recovers slowly from saturation, and its output levels are op-amp swings rather than logic levels. Purpose-built comparators such as the LM311 or LM393 do this job properly; the 741 does it as a favor.
LM741 Application Circuit
The offset nulling circuit is the one application unique to this part among its relatives, and the datasheet dedicates a typical-application figure to it.
Connect a 10 kΩ potentiometer between pins 1 and 5 with the wiper tied to V−. To trim: ground both inputs through the circuit’s real source resistances, power the amplifier at its operating supplies, and adjust the pot until the output reads 0 V. The adjustment range is ±15 mV (±10 mV on the A grade), specified at VS = ±20 V, and comfortably wider than any grade’s worst-case offset. Trim at the temperature the circuit will actually run at — nulling cancels the offset, not its drift, and only the LM741A even specifies drift (15 µV/°C average).
The datasheet’s typical application is a noninverting amplifier, reproduced here as designed:
The input drives pin 3; R1 runs from pin 2 to ground and R2 from pin 2 to the output, giving a gain of 1 + R2/R1. With both resistors at 4.7 kΩ, theoretical gain is 2 — 1.992 once 5% tolerance is counted, and TI’s own bench measurement of the circuit came in at 1.83, which is the datasheet’s quiet argument for using 1% resistors when gain accuracy matters. Decouple both supply pins with 0.1 µF directly at the package.
The inverting configuration follows the same parts: input through R1 into pin 2, pin 3 grounded, gain of −R2/R1, with input impedance equal to R1.
LM741 Functional Design
The datasheet describes two functional modes. Open-loop, the full 200 V/mV gain acts on the raw input difference, so a few tens of microvolts drive the output to a rail — comparator behavior, with the limitations noted above. Closed-loop, negative feedback returns a fraction of the output to the inverting input, and the circuit’s gain and frequency response are set by the feedback network rather than the amplifier; the amplifier’s job reduces to having enough excess gain for the feedback equation to hold.
On supplies, the LM741 can run from a single supply as well as the native dual rails, but nothing inside the part helps you do it: inputs and output need external biasing to mid-supply, the common-mode range still keeps the inputs away from both rails, and the total voltage must still land inside the recommended supply window — 20 V minimum, up to 44 V on the LM741/LM741A and 36 V on the LM741C. Single-supply operation is a workaround on this part, not a feature.
LM741 Manufacturer Information
Texas Instruments builds the LM741 as inheritor of the National Semiconductor linear catalog. The orderable addendum attached to the current datasheet (dated November 2025) shows what production has narrowed to: active commercial parts are the LM741CN/NOPB and LM741CN/NOPBG4 — C-grade, PDIP-8, lead-free — plus wafer-sale die. The military-temperature versions live under a separate TI part, the LM741-MIL, with its own datasheet. The SO-8 is gone from the TI catalog entirely.
STMicroelectronics manufactures the UA741 in DIP8 and SO8 and is the second active source for the 741 function. For purchasing, the practical summary: through-hole single 741 from either manufacturer, surface-mount only from ST, military temperature range only through the LM741-MIL channel, and every one of those is a distinct part number on a BOM.
FAQ
Are the LM741 and UA741 interchangeable?
Functionally, yes in most circuits — same pinout, same internal compensation approach, closely matched specifications. As parts, no: they are different silicon from different manufacturers under different part numbers, and a BOM that specifies one is not automatically satisfied by the other. Treat the swap as a qualified substitution, not an equivalence.
What is the gain-bandwidth product of the LM741?
TI’s datasheet does not specify one for the plain LM741 or LM741C. The only bandwidth figure in SNOSC25D belongs to the LM741A — 1.5 MHz typical — and it is calculated from rise time (0.35/tr), not measured as GBW. The “1 MHz” quoted across the internet is a working assumption inherited from the 741’s history, not a guaranteed parameter.
Is the LM741 obsolete?
No. TI’s November 2025 orderable addendum lists the PDIP parts in active production, and ST’s UA741 remains active alongside it. But the trajectory is visible: TI has already dropped the SO-8, the part survives on education and legacy-repair demand rather than new designs, and the sensible planning assumption for a long-life product is that package options will keep narrowing.
Can I run an LM741 from a single 5 V supply?
No — the recommended supply range starts at ±10 V, or 20 V total, and 5 V is far outside it. The two-9 V-battery arrangement common in hobby builds (±9 V) already sits slightly below the recommended minimum. For 5 V or 3.3 V single-supply systems, use a part designed for it, such as the LM358 family.