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I have an AD9833 signal generator (sorry I mislabeled it in the diagram as an AD9388) whose output is fed into a unity gain buffer, see picture below. The output is then passed into various materials to see how they react to signals.

What I'm confused about is the GNDac connection. Does this need buffering as well?

enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ It all depends on what your experiment is about. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 13:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm passing the signal through a number of different substrates & sampling said substrates at various points to see how the signal has been altered \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 13:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ Well, you might want to invert the output signal and drive the material with a signal and its antiphase value. That might be important to you. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 13:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ Nothing to elaborate - if you want to drive a signal and use a ground return then you don't need to buffer ground. It's entirely down to getting the best results from your experiment and, given that I don't know anything about it, it's totally down to you. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 13:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why would sending the anti-phase & the signal beneficial? If you have to ask that then this doesn't apply to you. In general, GND.. is not a signal and does not need buffering. It just needs to be connected to the GND of the circuit where the signal (of signal out) is going to, in your case that is the GND of the buffer you use for the signal. I suggest that you look at other schematics using the AD9833 (or similar DDSs) and see how it is done. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 21, 2021 at 14:52

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Buffer is an active element that amplifies the signal power. GND is a sink element and if you want to transfer power as lossless as possible what you can do is to provide a low resistance GND connection to your test elements. I don't believe there is another way of "buffering" GND.

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