In electronics, direct coupling (also called direct wired contact and conductive charging) is a way of interconnecting two circuits such that, in addition to transferring the AC signal (or information), the first stage also provides DC bias

DC bias

When describing a periodic function in the frequency domain, the DC bias, DC component, DC offset, or DC coefficient is the mean value of the waveform...

 to the next. Thus, there is no need for a DC blocking capacitor

Capacitive coupling

In electronics, capacitive coupling is the transfer of energy within an electrical network by means of the capacitance between circuit nodes. This coupling can have an intentional or accidental effect...

 to be used in order to interconnect the circuits, and this method is also known as DC coupling.

DC bias

The provision of DC bias only occurs in a group of circuits that forms a single unit, such as an op-amp

Operational amplifier

An operational amplifier is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and, usually, a single-ended output...

. Here the internal units or portions of the op-amp (like the input stage, voltage gain stage, and output stage) will be direct coupled and will also be used to set up the bias conditions inside the op-amp (the input stage will also supply the input bias to the voltage gain stage, for example). However when two op-amps are directly coupled the first op-amp will not supply any bias to the next - any DC at its output will form the input for the next. The resulting output of the second op-amp now represents an offset error if it is not the intended one.

Uses

This technique is used by default in circuits like IC

Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

 op-amp

Operational amplifier

An operational amplifier is a DC-coupled high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and, usually, a single-ended output...

s, since large coupling capacitor

Capacitor

A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...

s cannot be fabricated on-chip. That said, some discrete circuits (such as power amplifiers) also employ direct coupling to cut cost and improve low frequency performance.

Offset error

One advantage or disadvantage (depending on application) of direct coupling is that any DC at the input appears as a valid signal to the system, and so it will be transferred from the input to the output (or between two directly coupled circuits). If this is not a desired result, then the term used for the output signal is output offset error, and the corresponding input signal is known as input offset error.

Error correction

Temperature drift and device mismatches are the major causes of offset errors, and circuits employing direct coupling often integrate offset nulling mechanisms. Some circuits (like power amplifiers) even use coupling capacitors—except that these are present only at the input (and/or output) of the whole system but not between the individual circuit units inside the system.

Advantages

The advantage of direct coupling is very good low frequency response, often from DC (if the input/output coupling capacitors are not used) to the highest operating frequency that the system will allow. Most industrial applications that require monitoring of slowly changing signals (such as those from thermistors, thermocouples, etc.) must have a very good DC amplification with minimum offset errors and hence they have to be directly coupled throughout by default, and have offset correction or trimming incorporated into them.