Pay attention to good layout practice. Keep traces short and, when possible, use a printed-circuit board (PCB) ground plane with surface-mount components placed as close to the device pins as possible. Place a 0.1-µF capacitor close to the supply pins. These guidelines must be applied throughout the analog circuit to improve performance, and provide benefits such as reducing the electromagnetic interference (EMI) susceptibility.

For lowest offset voltage and precision performance, optimize circuit layout and mechanical conditions. Avoid temperature gradients that create thermoelectric (Seebeck) effects in the thermocouple junctions formed from connecting dissimilar conductors. Cancel these thermally-generated potentials by making sure that the potentials are equal on both input pins. Other layout and design considerations include:

• Use low thermoelectric-coefficient conditions (avoid dissimilar metals).
• Thermally isolate components from power supplies or other heat sources.
• Shield operational amplifier and input circuitry from air currents, such as cooling fans.

Follow these guidelines to reduce the likelihood of junctions being at different temperatures, which can cause thermoelectric voltage drift of 0.1 µV/°C or higher depending on materials used.