Introduction to the Amplifier Tutorial
In "Electronics", signal amplifiers are commonly used devices as they have the ability to amplify a relatively small input signal, for example from a Sensor such as a photo-device, into a much larger output signal to drive a Relay, lamp or loudspeaker for example. There are many forms of electronic circuits classed as amplifiers, from Operational Amplifiers and Small Signal Amplifiers up to Large Signal and Power Amplifiers. Amplifiers can be thought of as a simple box or block containing the amplifying device, such as a Transistor, Field Effect Transistor or Op-amp, which has two input terminals and two output terminals (ground being common) with the output signal being much greater than that of the input signal as it has been "Amplified".
An ideal signal amplifier has three main properties, Input Resistance or ( Rin ), Output Resistanceor ( Rout ) and of course amplification known commonly as Gain or ( A ). No matter how complicated an amplifier circuit is, a general amplifier model can still be used to show the relationship of these three properties.
Ideal Amplifier Model
The difference between the input and output signals is known as the Gain of the amplifier and is basically a measure of how much an amplifier "amplifies" the input signal. For example, if we have an input signal of 1 volt and an output of 50 volts, then the gain of the amplifier would be "50". In other words, the input signal has been increased by a factor of 50. This increase is called Gain. Gain is the ratio of output÷input, it has no units but in Electronics it is commonly given the symbol "A", for Amplification. Then the gain of an amplifier is simply calculated as the "output signal divided by the input signal".
Amplifier Gain
The introduction to the amplifier gain can be said to be the relationship that exists between the signal measured at the output with the signal measured at the input. There are three different kinds of amplifier gain which can be measured and these are: Voltage Gain ( Av ), Current Gain ( Ai ) and Power Gain ( Ap ) depending upon the quantity being measured with examples of these different types of gains are given below.
Amplifier Gain of the Input Signal
Voltage Amplifier Gain
Current Amplifier Gain
Power Amplifier Gain
Note that for the Power Gain you can also divide the power obtained at the output with the power obtained at the input. Also when calculating the gain of an amplifier, the subscripts v, i and p are used to denote the type of signal gain being used.
The power Gain or power level of the amplifier can also be expressed in Decibels, (dB). The Bel is a logarithmic unit (base 10) of measurement that has no units. Since the Bel is too large a unit of measure, it is prefixed with deci making it Decibels instead with one decibel being one tenth (1/10th) of a Bel. To calculate the gain of the amplifier in Decibels or dB, we can use the following expressions.
- Voltage Gain in dB: av = 20 log Av
- Current Gain in dB: ai = 20 log Ai
- Power Gain in dB: ap = 10 log Ap
Note that the DC power gain of an amplifier is equal to ten times the common log of the output to input ratio, where as voltage and current gains are 20 times the common log of the ratio. Note however, that 20dB is not twice as much power as 10dB because of the log scale. Also, a positive value of dB represents a Gain and a negative value of dB represents a Loss within the amplifier. For example, an amplifier gain of +3dB indicates that the amplifiers output signal has "doubled", (x2) while an amplifier gain of -3dB indicates that the signal has "halved", (x0.5) or in other words a loss.
The -3dB point of an amplifier is called the half-power point which is -3dB down from maximum, taking 0dB as the maximum output value.
Example No1
Determine the Voltage, Current and Power Gain of an amplifier that has an input signal of 1mA at 10mV and a corresponding output signal of 10mA at 1V. Also, express all three gains in decibels, (dB).
Amplifier Gain.
Generally, amplifiers can be divide into two distinct types depending upon their power or voltage gain,Small Signal Amplifiers such as pre-amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers etc, which are designed to amplify very small signal voltage levels of only a few micro-volts (μV) from sensors or audio signals andLarge Signal Amplifiers such as audio power amplifiers or switching amplifiers, which are designed to amplify large input voltage signals or switch heavy load currents.
Power Amplifiers
The Small Signal Amplifier is generally referred to as a "Voltage" amplifier because they usually convert a small input voltage into a much larger output voltage. Sometimes an amplifier circuit is required to drive a motor or feed a loudspeaker and for these types of applications where high switching currents are needed Power Amplifiers are required.
As their name suggests, the main job of a "Power Amplifier" (also known as a large signal amplifier), is to deliver power to the load, and as we know from above, is the product of the voltage and current applied to the load with the output signal power being greater than the input signal power. In other words, a power amplifier amplifies the power of the input signal which is why these types of amplifier circuits are used in audio amplifier output stages to drive loudspeakers.
The power amplifier works on the basic principle of converting the DC power drawn from the power supply into an AC voltage signal delivered to the load. Although the amplification is high the efficiency of the conversion from the DC power supply input to the AC voltage signal output is usually poor. The perfect or ideal amplifier would give us an efficiency rating of 100% or at least the power "IN" would be equal to the power "OUT". However, in reality this can never happen as some of the power is lost in the form of heat and also, the amplifier itself consumes power during the amplification process. Then the efficiency of an amplifier is given as:
Amplifier Efficiency
Ideal Amplifier
We can know specify the characteristics for an ideal amplifier from our discussion above with regards to its Gain, meaning voltage gain:
- The amplifiers gain, ( A ) should remain constant for varying values of input signal.
- Gain is not be affected by frequency. Signals of all frequencies must be amplified by exactly the same amount.
- The amplifiers gain must not add noise to the output signal. It should remove any noise that is already exists in the input signal.
- The amplifiers gain should not be affected by changes in temperature giving good temperature stability.
- The gain of the amplifier must remain stable over long periods of time.
Amplifier Classes
The classification of an amplifier as either a voltage or a power amplifier is made by comparing the characteristics of the input and output signals by measuring the amount of time in relation to the input signal that the current flows in the output circuit. We saw in the Common Emitter transistor tutorial that for the transistor to operate within its "Active Region" some form of "Base Biasing" was required. This small Base Bias voltage added to the input signal allowed the transistor to reproduce the full input waveform at its output with no loss of signal.
However, by altering the position of this Base bias voltage, it is possible to operate an amplifier in an amplification mode other than that for full waveform reproduction. With the introduction to the amplifier of a Base bias voltage, different operating ranges and modes of operation can be obtained which are categorized according to their classification. These various mode of operation are better known as Amplifier Class.
Audio power amplifiers are classified in an alphabetical order according to their circuit configurations and mode of operation. Amplifiers are designated by different classes of operation such as class "A", class "B", class "C", class "AB", etc. These different classes of operation range from a near linear output but with low efficiency to a non-linear output but with a high efficiency. No one class of operation is "better" or "worse" than any other class with the type of operation being determined by the use of the amplifying circuit. There are typical maximum efficiencies for the various types or class of amplifier, with the most commonly used being:
- Class A - has low efficiency of less than 40% but good signal reproduction and linearity.
- Class B - is twice as efficient as class A amplifiers with a maximum theoretical efficiency of about 70% because the amplifying device only conducts (and uses power) for half of the input signal.
- Class AB - has an efficiency rating between that of Class A and Class B but poorer signal reproduction than class A amplifiers.
- Class C - is the most efficient amplifier class as only a very small portion of the input signal is amplified therefore the output signal bears very little resemblance to the input signal. Class C amplifiers have the worst signal reproduction.
Class A Operation
Class A Amplifier operation is where the entire input signal waveform is faithfully reproduced at the amplifiers output as the transistor is perfectly biased within its active region, thereby never reaching either of its Cut-off or Saturation regions. This then results in the AC input signal being perfectly "centred" between the amplifiers upper and lower signal limits as shown below.
Class A Output Waveform
In this configuration, the Class A amplifier uses the same transistor for both halves of the output waveform and due to its biasing arrangement the output transistor always has current flowing through it, even if there is no input signal. In other words the output transistors never turns "OFF". This results in the class A type of operation being very inefficient as its conversion of the DC supply power to the AC signal power delivered to the load is usually very low.
Generally, the output transistor of a Class A amplifier gets very hot even when there is no input signal present so some form of heat sinking is required. The DC current flowing through the output transistor (Ic) when there is no output signal will be equal to the current flowing through the load. Then a pure Class A amplifier is very inefficient as most of the DC power is converted to heat.
Class B Operation
Unlike the Class A amplifier mode of operation above that uses a single transistor for its output power stage, the Class B Amplifier uses two complimentary transistors (an NPN and a PNP) for each half of the output waveform. One transistor conducts for one-half of the signal waveform while the other conducts for the other or opposite half of the signal waveform. This means that each transistor spends half of its time in the active region and half its time in the cut-off region thereby amplifying only 50% of the input signal.
Class B operation has no direct DC bias voltage like the class A amplifier, but instead the transistor only conducts when the input signal is greater than the base-emitter voltage and for silicon devices is about 0.7v. Therefore, at zero input there is zero output. This then results in only half the input signal being presented at the amplifiers output giving a greater amount of amplifier efficiency as shown below.
Class B Output Waveform
In a class B amplifier, no DC current is used to bias the transistors, so for the output transistors to start to conduct each half of the waveform, both positive and negative, they need the base-emitter voltageVbe to be greater than the 0.7v required for a bipolar transistor to start conducting. Then the lower part of the output waveform which is below this 0.7v window will not be reproduced accurately resulting in a distorted area of the output waveform as one transistor turns "OFF" waiting for the other to turn back "ON". The result is that there is a small part of the output waveform at the zero voltage cross over point which will be distorted. This type of distortion is called Crossover Distortion and is looked at later on in this section.
Class AB Operation
The Class AB Amplifier is a compromise between the Class A and the Class B configurations above. While Class AB operation still uses two complementary transistors in its output stage a very small biasing voltage is applied to the Base of the transistor to bias it close to the Cut-off region when no input signal is present.
An input signal will cause the transistor to operate as normal in its Active region thereby eliminating any crossover distortion which is present in class B configurations. A small Collector current will flow when there is no input signal but it is much less than that for the Class A amplifier configuration. This means then that the transistor will be "ON" for more than half a cycle of the waveform. This type of amplifier configuration improves both the efficiency and linearity of the amplifier circuit compared to a pure Class A configuration.
Class AB Output Waveform
The class of operation for an amplifier is very important and is based on the amount of transistor bias required for operation as well as the amplitude required for the input signal. Amplifier classification takes into account the portion of the input signal in which the transistor conducts as well as determining both the efficiency and the amount of power that the switching transistor both consumes and dissipates in the form of wasted heat. Then we can make a comparison between the most common types of amplifier classifications in the following table.
Power Amplifier Classes
| Class | A | B | C | AB |
| Conduction Angle | 360o | 180o | Less than 90o | 180 to 360o |
| Position of the Q-point | Centre Point of the Load Line | Exactly on the X-axis | Below the X-axis | In between the X-axis and the Centre Load Line |
| Overall Efficiency | Poor, 25 to 30% | Better, 70 to 80% | Higher than 80% | Better than A but less than B 50 to 70% |
| Signal Distortion | None if Correctly Biased | At the X-axis Crossover Point | Large Amounts | Small Amounts |
Badly designed amplifiers especially the Class "A" types may also require larger power transistors, more expensive heat sinks, cooling fans, or even an increase in the size of the power supply required to deliver the extra power required by the amplifier. Power converted into heat from transistors, resistors or any other component for that matter, makes any electronic circuit inefficient and will result in the premature failure of the device.
So why use a Class A amplifier if its efficiency is less than 40% compared to a Class B amplifier that has a higher efficiency rating of over 70%. Basically, a Class A amplifier gives a much more linear output meaning that it has, Linearity over a larger frequency response even if it does consume large amounts of DC power.
In this Introduction to the Amplifier tutorial, we have seen that there are different types of amplifier circuit each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In the next tutorial about Amplifiers we will look at the most commonly connected type of transistor amplifier circuit, the Common Emitter Amplifier. Most transistor amplifiers are of the Common Emitter or CE type circuit due to their large gains in voltage, current and power as well as their excellent input/output characteristics.
The single stage common emitter amplifier circuit shown above uses what is commonly called "Voltage Divider Biasing". This type of biasing arrangement uses two resistors as a potential divider network across the supply with their center point supplying the required Base bias volatge to the transistor. Voltage divider biasing is commonly used in the design of bipolar transistor amplifier circuits. This method of biasing the transistor greatly reduces the effects of varying
Using points N and M as an example, the instantaneous values of Collector current and corresponding values of Collector-emitter voltage can be projected from the load line. It can be seen that the Collector-emitter voltage is in anti-phase (-180o) with the collector current. As the Base current Ib changes in a positive direction from 50μA to 80μA, the Collector-emitter voltage, which is also the output voltage decreases from its steady state value of 5.8v to 2.0v.These points, N and M can be anywhere along the load line that we choose as long as they are equally spaced from Q. This then gives us a theoretical maximum input signal to the Base terminal of 60μA peak-to-peak, (30μA peak) without producing any distortion to the output signal. Any input signal giving a Base current greater than this value will drive the transistor to go beyond pointN and into its Cut-off region or beyond point M and into its Saturation region thereby resulting in distortion to the output signal in the form of "clipping".
Since the N-Channel JFET is a depletion mode device and is normally "ON", a negative gate voltage with respect to the source is required to modulate or control the drain current. This negative voltage can be provided by biasing from a separate power supply voltage or by a self biasing arrangement as long as a steady current flows through the JFET even when there is no input signal present and Vgmaintains a reverse bias of the gate-source pn junction. In this example the biasing is provided from a potential divider network allowing the input signal to produce a voltage fall at the gate as well as voltage rise at the gate with a sinusoidal signal. Any suitable pair of resistor values in the correct proportions would produce the correct biasing voltage so the DC gate biasing voltage Vg is given as:
MOSFETs or Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET's have much higher input impedances and low channel resistances compared to the equivalent JFET. Also the biasing arrangements for MOSFETs are different and unless we bias them positively for N-channel devices and negatively for P-channel devices no drain current will flow, then we have in effect a fail safe transistor.One of the main disadvantages of using Depletion-mode JFET is that they need to be negatively biased. Should this bias fail for any reason the gate-source voltage may rise and become positive causing an increase in drain current resulting in failure of the drain voltage, Vd. Also the high channel resistance, Rds(on) of the junction FET, coupled with high quiescent steady state drain current makes these devices run hot so additional heatsink is required. However, most of the problems associated with using JFET's can be greatly reduced by using enhancement-mode MOSFET devices instead.
Distortion of the output signal waveform may take place because:
This is the simplest type of Class A power amplifier circuit. It uses a single-ended transistor for its output stage with the resistive load connected directly to the Collector terminal. When the transistor switches "ON" it sinks the output current through the Collector resulting in an inevitable voltage drop across the Emitter resistance thereby limiting the negative output capability. The efficiency of this type of circuit is very low (less than 30%) and delivers small power outputs for a large drain on the DC power supply. A Class A amplifier stage passes the same load current even when no input signal is applied so large heatsinks are needed for the output transistors.
The overall current gain Beta (β) or hfe value of a Darlington device is the product of the two individual gains of the transistors multiplied together and very high β values along with high Collector currents are possible compared to a single transistor circuit.
The type of "Class" or classification that an amplifier is given really depends upon the conduction angle, the portion of the 360o of the input waveform cycle, in which the transistor is conducting. In the Class A amplifier the conduction angle is a full 360o or 100% of the input signal while in other amplifier classes the transistor conducts during a lesser conduction angle.While the transformer improves the efficiency of the amplifier by matching the impedance of the load with that of the amplifiers output impedance, using the turns ratio of an output signal transformer, efficiencies reaching 40% are possible with most commercially available Class-A type power amplifiers being of this type of configuration, but the use of inductive components is best avoided. Also one big disadvantage of this type of circuit is the additional cost and size of the audio transformer required.
The circuit above shows a standard Class B Amplifier circuit that uses a balanced centre-tapped input transformer, which splits the incoming waveform signal into two equal halves and which are 180o out of phase with each other. Another centre-tapped transformer on the output is used to recombined the two signals providing the increased power to the load. The transistors used for this type of transformer push-pull amplifier circuit are both NPN transistors with their emitter terminals connected together.
This means that the part of the output waveform which falls below this 0.7 volt window will not be reproduced accurately as the transition between the two transistors (when they are switching over from one transistor to the other), the transistors do not stop or start conducting exactly at the zero crossover point even if they are specially matched pairs. The output transistors for each half of the waveform (positive and negative) will each have a 0.7 volt area in which they are not conducting. The resuslt is that both transistors are turned "OFF" at exactly the same time.Hopefully we remember from our tutorials about Transistors that it takes approximately 0.7 volts (measured from base to emitter) to get a bipolar transistor to start conducting. In a pure class B amplifier, the output transistors are not "pre-biased" to an "ON" state of operation.
The Common Emitter Amplifier Circuit
In the Bipolar Transistor tutorial, we saw that the most common circuit configuration for an NPN transistor is that of the Common Emitter Amplifier circuit and that a family of curves known commonly as the Output Characteristic Curves, relate the transistors Collector current ( Ic ), to the output or Collector voltage ( Vce ), for different values of Base current ( Ib ).
All types of transistor amplifiers operate using AC signal inputs which alternate between a positive value and a negative value so some way of "presetting" the amplifier circuit to operate between these two maximum or peak values is required. This is achieved using a process known as Biasing. Biasing is very important in amplifier design as it establishes the correct operating point of the transistor amplifier ready to receive signals, thereby reducing any distortion to the output signal.
We also saw that a static or DC load line can be drawn onto these output characteristics curves to show all the possible operating points of the transistor from fully "ON" to fully "OFF", and to which the quiescent operating point or Q-point of the amplifier can be found. The aim of any small signal amplifier is to amplify all of the input signal with the minimum amount of distortion possible to the output signal, in other words, the output signal must be an exact reproduction of the input signal but only bigger (amplified).
To obtain low distortion when used as an amplifier the operating quiescent point needs to be correctly selected. This is in fact the DC operating point of the amplifier and its position may be established at any point along the load line by a suitable biasing arrangement. The best possible position for this Q-point is as close to the centre position of the load line as reasonably possible, thereby producing a Class A type amplifier operation, ie. Vce = 1/2Vcc. Consider the Common Emitter Amplifier circuit shown below.
The Common Emitter Amplifier Circuit
The single stage common emitter amplifier circuit shown above uses what is commonly called "Voltage Divider Biasing". This type of biasing arrangement uses two resistors as a potential divider network across the supply with their center point supplying the required Base bias volatge to the transistor. Voltage divider biasing is commonly used in the design of bipolar transistor amplifier circuits. This method of biasing the transistor greatly reduces the effects of varying
Beta, ( β ) by holding the Base bias at a constant steady voltage level allowing for best stability. The quiescent Base voltage (Vb) is determined by the potential divider network formed by the two resistors, R1, R2 and the power supply voltage Vcc as shown with the current flowing through both resistors.
Then the total resistance RT will be equal to R1 + R2 giving the current as i = Vcc/RT. The voltage level generated at the junction of resistors R1 and R2 holds the Base voltage (Vb) constant at a value below the supply voltage. Then the potential divider network used in the common emitter amplifier circuit divides the input signal in proportion to the resistance. This bias reference voltage can be easily calculated using the simple voltage divider formula below:
The same supply voltage, (Vcc) also determines the maximum Collector current, Ic when the transistor is switched fully "ON" (saturation), Vce = 0. The Base current Ib for the transistor is found from the Collector current, Ic and the DC current gain Beta, β of the transistor.
Beta is sometimes referred to as hFE which is the transistors forward current gain in the common emitter configuration. Beta has no units as it is a fixed ratio of the two currents, Ic and Ib so a small change in the Base current will cause a large change in the Collector current. One final point about Beta. Transistors of the same type and part number will have large variations in their Beta value for example, the BC107 NPN Bipolar transistor has a DC current gain Beta value of between 110 and 450 (data sheet value) this is because Beta is a characteristic of their construction and not their operation.
As the Base/Emitter junction is forward-biased, the Emitter voltage, Ve will be one junction voltage drop different to the Base voltage. If the voltage across the Emitter resistor is known then the Emitter current,Ie can be easily calculated using Ohm's Law. The Collector current, Ic can be approximated, since it is almost the same value as the Emitter current.
Example No1
A common emitter amplifier circuit has a load resistance, RL of 1.2kΩs and a supply voltage of 12v. Calculate the maximum Collector current (Ic) flowing through the load resistor when the transistor is switched fully "ON" (saturation), assume Vce = 0. Also find the value of the Emitter resistor, RE with a voltage drop of 1v across it. Calculate the values of all the other circuit resistors assuming an NPN silicon transistor.
This then establishes point "A" on the Collector current vertical axis of the characteristics curves and occurs when Vce = 0. When the transistor is switched fully "OFF", their is no voltage drop across either resistor RE or RL as no current is flowing through them. Then the voltage drop across the transistor,Vce is equal to the supply voltage, Vcc. This then establishes point "B" on the horizontal axis of the characteristics curves. Generally, the quiescent Q-point of the amplifier is with zero input signal applied to the Base, so the Collector sits half-way along the load line between zero volts and the supply voltage, (Vcc/2). Therefore, the Collector current at the Q-point of the amplifier will be given as:
This static DC load line produces a straight line equation whose slope is given as: -1/(RL + RE) and that it crosses the vertical Ic axis at a point equal to Vcc/(RL + RE). The actual position of the Q-point on the DC load line is determined by the mean value of Ib.
As the Collector current, Ic of the transistor is also equal to the DC gain of the transistor (Beta), times the Base current (β x Ib), if we assume a Beta (β) value for the transistor of say 100, (one hundred is a reasonable average value for low power signal transistors) the Base current Ib flowing into the transistor will be given as:
Instead of using a separate Base bias supply, it is usual to provide the Base Bias Voltage from the main supply rail (Vcc) through a dropping resistor, R1. Resistors, R1 and R2 can now be chosen to give a suitable quiescent Base current of 45.8μA or 46μA rounded off. The current flowing through the potential divider circuit has to be large compared to the actual Base current, Ib, so that the voltage divider network is not loaded by the Base current flow. A general rule of thumb is a value of at least 10 times Ib flowing through the resistor R2. Transistor Base/Emitter voltage, Vbe is fixed at 0.7V (silicon transistor) then this gives the value of R2 as:
If the current flowing through resistor R2 is 10 times the value of the Base current, then the current flowing through resistor R1 in the divider network must be 11 times the value of the Base current. The voltage across resistor R1 is equal to Vcc - 1.7v (VRE + 0.7 for silicon transistor) which is equal to 10.3V, therefore R1 can be calculated as:
The value of the Emitter resistor, RE can be easily calculated using Ohm's Law. The current flowing through RE is a combination of the Base current, Ib and the Collector current Ic and is given as:
Resistor, RE is connected between the Emitter and ground and we said previously that it has a voltage of 1 volt across it. Then the value of RE is given as:
So, for our example above, the preferred values of the resistors chosen to give a tolerance of 5% (E24) are:
Then, our original Common Emitter Amplifier circuit above can be rewritten to include the values of the components that we have just calculated above.
Completed Common Emitter Circuit
Coupling Capacitors
In Common Emitter Amplifier circuits, capacitors C1 and C2 are used as Coupling Capacitors to separate the AC signals from the DC biasing voltage. This ensures that the bias condition set up for the circuit to operate correctly is not effected by any additional amplifier stages, as the capacitors will only pass AC signals and block any DC component. The output AC signal is then superimposed on the biasing of the following stages. Also a bypass capacitor, CE is included in the Emitter leg circuit.
This capacitor is an open circuit component for DC bias meaning that the biasing currents and voltages are not affected by the addition of the capacitor maintaining a good Q-point stability. However, this bypass capacitor short circuits the Emitter resistor at high frequency signals and only RL plus a very small internal resistance acts as the transistors load increasing the voltage gain to its maximum. Generally, the value of the bypass capacitor, CE is chosen to provide a reactance of at most, 1/10th the value of RE at the lowest operating signal frequency.
Output Characteristics Curves
Ok, so far so good. We can now construct a series of curves that show the Collector current, Ic against the Collector/Emitter voltage, Vce with different values of Base current, Ib for our simple common emitter amplifier circuit. These curves are known as the "Output Characteristic Curves" and are used to show how the transistor will operate over its dynamic range. A static or DC load line is drawn onto the curves for the load resistor RL of 1.2kΩ to show all the transistors possible operating points.
When the transistor is switched "OFF", Vce equals the supply voltage Vcc and this is point B on the line. Likewise when the transistor is fully "ON" and saturated the Collector current is determined by the load resistor, RL and this is point A on the line. We calculated before from the DC gain of the transistor that the Base current required for the mean position of the transistor was 45.8μA and this is marked as point Q on the load line which represents the Quiescent point or Q-point of the amplifier. We could quite easily make life easy for ourselves and round off this value to 50μA exactly, without any effect to the operating point.
Output Characteristics Curves
Point Q on the load line gives us the Base current Q-point of Ib = 45.8μA or 46μA. We need to find the maximum and minimum peak swings of Base current that will result in a proportional change to the Collector current, Ic without any distortion to the output signal. As the load line cuts through the different Base current values on the DC characteristics curves we can find the peak swings of Base current that are equally spaced along the load line. These values are marked as points N and M on the line, giving a minimum and a maximum Base current of 20μA and 80μA respectively.
Using points N and M as an example, the instantaneous values of Collector current and corresponding values of Collector-emitter voltage can be projected from the load line. It can be seen that the Collector-emitter voltage is in anti-phase (-180o) with the collector current. As the Base current Ib changes in a positive direction from 50μA to 80μA, the Collector-emitter voltage, which is also the output voltage decreases from its steady state value of 5.8v to 2.0v.These points, N and M can be anywhere along the load line that we choose as long as they are equally spaced from Q. This then gives us a theoretical maximum input signal to the Base terminal of 60μA peak-to-peak, (30μA peak) without producing any distortion to the output signal. Any input signal giving a Base current greater than this value will drive the transistor to go beyond pointN and into its Cut-off region or beyond point M and into its Saturation region thereby resulting in distortion to the output signal in the form of "clipping".
Then a single stage Common Emitter Amplifier is also an "Inverting Amplifier" as an increase in Base voltage causes a decrease in Vout and a decrease in Base voltage produces an increase in Vout. In other words the output signal is 180o out-of-phase with the input signal.
Voltage Gain
The Voltage Gain of the common emitter amplifier is equal to the ratio of the change in the input voltage to the change in the amplifiers output voltage. Then ΔVL is Vout and ΔVB is Vin. But voltage gain is also equal to the ratio of the signal resistance in the Collector to the signal resistance in the Emitter and is given as:
We mentioned earlier that as the signal frequency increases the bypass capacitor, CE starts to short out the Emitter resistor.
Then at high frequencies RE = 0, making the gain infinite. However, bipolar transistors have a small internal resistance built into their Emitter region called Re. The transistors semiconductor material offers an internal resistance to the flow of current through it and is generally represented by a small resistor symbol shown inside the main transistor symbol.
Transistor data sheets tell us that for a small signal bipolar transistors this internal resistance is the product of 25mV ÷ Ie (25mV being the internal volt drop across the Base/Emitter junction depletion layer), then for our common Emitter amplifier circuit above this resistance value will be equal to:
Transistor data sheets tell us that for a small signal bipolar transistors this internal resistance is the product of 25mV ÷ Ie (25mV being the internal volt drop across the Base/Emitter junction depletion layer), then for our common Emitter amplifier circuit above this resistance value will be equal to:
This internal Emitter leg resistance will be in series with the external Emitter resistor, RE, then the equation for the transistors actual gain will be modified to include this internal resistance and is given as:
At low frequency signals the total resistance in the Emitter leg is equal to RE + Re. At high frequency, the bypass capacitor shorts out the Emitter resistor leaving only the internal resistance Re in the Emitter leg resulting in a high gain. Then for our common emitter amplifier circuit above, the gain of the circuit at both low and high signal frequencies is given as:
At Low Frequencies
At High Frequencies
One final point, the voltage gain is dependent only on the values of the Collector resistor, RL and the Emitter resistance, (RE + Re) it is not affected by the current gain Beta, β (hFE) of the transistor.
So, for our simple example above we can now summarise all the values we have calculated for our common emitter amplifier circuit and these are:
| Minimum | Mean | Maximum | |
| Base Current | 20μA | 50μA | 80μA |
| Collector Current | 2.0mA | 4.8mA | 7.7mA |
| Output Voltage Swing | 2.0V | 5.8V | 9.3V |
| Amplifier Gain | -5.32 | -218 |
Common Emitter Amplifier Summary
Then to summarize. The Common Emitter Amplifier circuit has a resistor in its Collector circuit. The current flowing through this resistor produces the voltage output of the amplifier. The value of this resistor is chosen so that at the amplifiers quiescent operating point, Q-point this output voltage lies half way along the transistors load line.
The Base of the transistor used in a common emitter amplifier is biased using two resistors as a potential divider network. This type of biasing arrangement is commonly used in the design of bipolar transistor amplifier circuits and greatly reduces the effects of varying Beta, ( β ) by holding the Base bias at a constant steady voltage. This type of biasing produces the greatest stability.
A resistor can be included in the emitter leg in which case the voltage gain becomes -RL/RE. If there is no external Emitter resistance, the voltage gain of the amplifier is not infinite as there is a very small internal resistance, Re in the Emitter leg. The value of this internal resistance is equal to 25mV/IE
In the next tutorial about Amplifiers we will look at the Junction Field Effect Amplifier commonly called the JFET Amplifier. Like the transistor, the JFET is used in a single stage amplifier circuit making it easier to understand. There are several different kinds of field effect transistor that we could use but the easiest to understand is the junction field effect transistor, or JFET which has a very high input impedance making it ideal for amplifier circuits.
The Common Source JFET Amplifier
So far we have looked at the bipolar type transistor amplifier and especially the common emitter amplifier, but small signal amplifiers can also be made using Field Effect Transistors or FET's for short. These devices have the advantage over bipolar transistors of having an extremely high input impedance along with a low noise output making them ideal for use in amplifier circuits that have very small input signals.
The design of an amplifier circuit based around a junction field effect transistor or "JFET", (N-channel FET for this tutorial) or even a metal oxide silicon FET or "MOSFET" is exactly the same principle as that for the bipolar transistor circuit used for a Class A amplifier circuit we looked at in the previous tutorial.
Firstly, a suitable quiescent point or "Q-point" needs to be found for the correct biasing of the JFET amplifier circuit with single amplifier configurations of Common-source (CS), Common-drain (CD) or Source-follower (SF) and the Common-gate (CG) available for most FET devices. These three JFET amplifier configurations correspond to the common-emitter, emitter-follower and the common-base configurations using bipolar transistors. In this tutorial about FET amplifiers we will look at the popularCommon Source JFET Amplifier as this is the most widely used JFET amplifier design.
Consider the Common Source JFET Amplifier circuit configuration below.
Common Source JFET Amplifier
The amplifier circuit consists of an N-channel JFET, but the device could also be an equivalent N-channel depletion-mode MOSFET as the circuit diagram would be the same just a change in the FET, connected in a common source configuration. The JFET gate voltage Vg is biased through the potential divider network set up by resistors R1 and R2 and is biased to operate within its saturation region which is equivalent to the active region of the bipolar junction transistor. Unlike a bipolar transistor circuit, the junction FET takes virtually no input gate current allowing the gate to be treated as an open circuit. Then no input characteristics curves are required. We can compare the JFET to the bipolar junction transistor (BJT) in the following table.
JFET to BJT Comparison
| JFET | BJT |
| Gate, (G) | Base, (B) |
| Drain, (D) | Collector, (C) |
| Source, (S) | Emitter, (E) |
| Gate Supply, (VG) | Base Supply, (VB) |
| Drain Supply, (VDD) | Collector Supply, (VCC) |
| Drain Current, (iD) | Collector Current, (iC) |
Since the N-Channel JFET is a depletion mode device and is normally "ON", a negative gate voltage with respect to the source is required to modulate or control the drain current. This negative voltage can be provided by biasing from a separate power supply voltage or by a self biasing arrangement as long as a steady current flows through the JFET even when there is no input signal present and Vgmaintains a reverse bias of the gate-source pn junction. In this example the biasing is provided from a potential divider network allowing the input signal to produce a voltage fall at the gate as well as voltage rise at the gate with a sinusoidal signal. Any suitable pair of resistor values in the correct proportions would produce the correct biasing voltage so the DC gate biasing voltage Vg is given as:
Note that this equation only determines the ratio of the resistors R1 and R2, but in order to take advantage of the very high input impedance of the JFET as well as reducing the power dissipation within the circuit, we need to make these resistor values as high as possible, with values in the order of 1 to 10MΩ being common.
The input signal, (Vin) of the common source JFET amplifier is applied between the Gate terminal and the zero volts rail, (0v). With a constant value of gate voltage Vg applied the JFET operates within its "Ohmic region" acting like a linear resistive device. The drain circuit contains the load resistor, Rd. The output voltage, Vout is developed across this load resistance. The efficiency of the common source JFET amplifier can be improved by the addition of a resistor, Rs included in the source lead with the same drain current flowing through this resistor. Resistor, Rs is also used to set the JFET amplifiers "Q-point".
When the JFET is switched fully "ON" a voltage drop equal to Rs x Id is developed across this resistor raising the potential of the source terminal above 0v or ground level. This voltage drop across Rs due to the drain current provides the necessary reverse biasing condition across the gate resistor, R2effectively generating negative feedback. In order to keep the gate-source junction reverse biased, the source voltage, Vs needs to be higher than the gate voltage, Vg. This source voltage is therefore given as:
Then the Drain current, Id is also equal to the Source current, Is as "No Current" enters the Gate terminal and this can be given as:
This potential divider biasing circuit improves the stability of the common source JFET amplifier circuit when being fed from a single DC supply compared to that of a fixed voltage biasing circuit. Both resistor,Rs and the source by-pass capacitor, Cs serve basically the same function as the emitter resistor and capacitor in the common emitter bipolar transistor amplifier circuit, namely to provide good stability and prevent a reduction in the loss of the voltage gain. However, the price paid for a stabilized quiescent gate voltage is that more of the supply voltage is dropped across Rs.
The the value in farads of the source by-pass capacitor is generally fairly high above 100uF and will be polarized. This gives the capacitor an impedance value much smaller, less than 10% of the transconductance, gm (the transfer coefficient representing gain) value of the device. At high frequencies the by-pass capacitor acts essentially as a short-circuit and the source will be effectively connected directly to ground.
The basic circuit and characteristics of a Common Source JFET Amplifier are very similar to that of the common emitter amplifier. A DC load line is constructed by joining the two points relating to the drain current, Id and the supply voltage, Vdd remembering that when Id = 0: ( Vdd = Vds ) and when Vds = 0: ( Id = Vdd/RL ). The load line is therefore the intersection of the curves at the Q-point as follows.
Common Source JFET Amplifier Characteristics Curves
As with the common emitter bipolar circuit, the DC load line for the common source JFET amplifier produces a straight line equation whose gradient is given as: -1/(Rd + Rs) and that it crosses the vertical Id axis at point A equal to Vdd/(Rd + Rs). The other end of the load line crosses the horizontal axis at point B which is equal to the supply voltage, Vdd. The actual position of the Q-point on the DC load line is generally positioned at the mid centre point of the load line (for class-A operation) and is determined by the mean value of Vg which is biased negatively as the JFET is a depletion-mode device. Like the bipolar common emitter amplifier the output of the Common Source JFET Amplifier is 180o out of phase with the input signal.
MOSFETs or Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET's have much higher input impedances and low channel resistances compared to the equivalent JFET. Also the biasing arrangements for MOSFETs are different and unless we bias them positively for N-channel devices and negatively for P-channel devices no drain current will flow, then we have in effect a fail safe transistor.One of the main disadvantages of using Depletion-mode JFET is that they need to be negatively biased. Should this bias fail for any reason the gate-source voltage may rise and become positive causing an increase in drain current resulting in failure of the drain voltage, Vd. Also the high channel resistance, Rds(on) of the junction FET, coupled with high quiescent steady state drain current makes these devices run hot so additional heatsink is required. However, most of the problems associated with using JFET's can be greatly reduced by using enhancement-mode MOSFET devices instead.
JFET Amplifier Current and Power Gains
We said previously that the input current, Ig of a common source JFET amplifier is very small because of the extremely high gate impedance, Rg. A common source JFET amplifier therefore has a very good ratio between its input and output impedances and for any amount of output current, Io the JFET amplifier will have very high current gain Ai. Because of this common source JFET amplifiers are extremely valuable as impedance matching circuits or are used as voltage amplifiers. Likewise, because power = current × voltage, and output voltages are usually several millivolts or even volts, the power gain, Ap is also very high.
In the next tutorial we will look at how the incorrect biasing of the transistor amplifier can causeDistortion to the output signal in the form of amplitude distortion due to clipping and as well as the effect of phase and frequency distortion.
Amplifier Distortion
From the previous tutorials we learnt that for a signal amplifier to operate correctly without any distortion to the output signal, it requires some form of DC Bias on its Base or Gate terminal so that it can amplify the input signal over its entire cycle with the bias "Q-point" set as near to the middle of the load line as possible. This then gave us a "Class-A" type amplification configuration with the most common arrangement being the "Common Emitter" for Bipolar transistors and the "Common Source" for unipolar FET transistors.
We also learnt that the Power, Voltage or Current Gain, (amplification) provided by the amplifier is the ratio of the peak output value to its peak input value (Output ÷ Input). However, if we incorrectly design our amplifier circuit and set the biasing Q-point at the wrong position on the load line or apply too large an input signal to the amplifier, the resultant output signal may not be an exact reproduction of the original input signal waveform. In other words the amplifier will suffer from distortion. Consider the common emitter amplifier circuit below.
Common Emitter Amplifier
Distortion of the output signal waveform may take place because:
- 1. Amplification may not be taking place over the whole signal cycle due to incorrect biasing.
- 2. The input signal may be too large, causing the amplifier to be limited by the supply voltage.
- 3. The amplification may not be linear over the entire frequency range of inputs.
This means then that during the amplification process of the signal waveform, some form of Amplifier Distortion has occurred.
Amplifiers are basically designed to amplify small voltage input signals into much larger output signals and this means that the output signal is constantly changing by some factor or valu, called gain, multiplied by the input signal for all input frequencies. We saw previously that this multiplication factor is called the Beta, β value of the transistor.
Common emitter or even common source type transistor circuits work fine for small AC input signals but suffer from one major disadvantage, the bias Q-point of a bipolar amplifier depends on the same Beta value which may vary from transistors of the same type, ie. the Q-point for one transistor is not necessarily the same as the Q-point for another transistor of the same type due to the inherent manufacturing tolerances. If this occurs the amplifier may not be linear and Amplitude Distortion will result but careful choice of the transistor and biasing components can minimise the effect of amplifier distortion.
Amplitude Distortion
Amplitude distortion occurs when the peak values of the frequency waveform are attenuated causing distortion due to a shift in the Q-point and amplification may not take place over the whole signal cycle. This non-linearity of the output waveform is shown below.
Amplitude Distortion due to Incorrect Biasing
If the bias is correct the output waveform should look like that of the input waveform only bigger, (amplified). If there is insufficient bias the output waveform will look like the one on the right with the negative part of the output waveform "cut-off". If there is too much bias the output waveform will look like the one on the left with the positive part "cut-off".
When the bias voltage is too small, during the negative part of the cycle the transistor does not conduct fully so the output is set by the supply voltage. When the bias is too great the positive part of the cycle saturates the transistor and the output drops almost to zero.
Even with the correct biasing voltage level set, it is still possible for the output waveform to become distorted due to a large input signal being amplified by the circuits gain. The output voltage signal becomes clipped in both the positive and negative parts of the waveform an no longer resembles a sine wave, even when the bias is correct. This type of amplitude distortion is called Clipping and is the result of "Over-driving" the input of the amplifier.
When the input amplitude becomes too large, the clipping becomes substantial and forces the output waveform signal to exceed the power supply voltage rails with the peak (+ve half) and the trough (-ve half) parts of the waveform signal becoming flattened or "Clipped-off". To avoid this the maximum value of the input signal must be limited to a level that will prevent this clipping effect as shown above.
Amplitude Distortion due to Clipping
Amplitude Distortion greatly reduces the efficiency of an amplifier circuit. These "flat tops" of the distorted output waveform either due to incorrect biasing or over driving the input do not contribute anything to the strength of the output signal at the desired frequency. Having said all that, some well known guitarist and rock bands actually prefer that their distinctive sound is highly distorted or "overdriven" by heavily clipping the output waveform to both the +ve and -ve power supply rails. Also, excessive amounts of clipping can also produce an output which resembles a "square wave" shape which can then be used in electronic or digital circuits.
We have seen that with a DC signal the level of gain of the amplifier can vary with signal amplitude, but as well as Amplitude Distortion, other types of distortion can occur with AC signals in amplifier circuits, such as Frequency Distortion and Phase Distortion.
Frequency Distortion
Frequency Distortion occurs in a transistor amplifier when the level of amplification varies with frequency. Many of the input signals that a practical amplifier will amplify consist of the required signal waveform called the "Fundamental Frequency" plus a number of different frequencies called "Harmonics" superimposed onto it. Normally, the amplitude of these harmonics are a fraction of the fundamental amplitude and therefore have very little or no effect on the output waveform. However, the output waveform can become distorted if these harmonic frequencies increase in amplitude with regards to the fundamental frequency. For example, consider the waveform below:
Frequency Distortion due to Harmonics
In the example above, the input waveform consists a the fundamental frequency plus a second harmonic signal. The resultant output waveform is shown on the right hand side. The frequency distortion occurs when the fundamental frequency combines with the second harmonic to distort the output signal. Harmonics are therefore multiples of the fundamental frequency and in our simple example a second harmonic was used. Therefore, the frequency of the harmonic is 2 times the fundamental, 2 x ƒ or 2ƒ. Then a third harmonic would be 3ƒ, a fourth, 4ƒ, and so on. Frequency distortion due to harmonics is always a possibility in amplifier circuits containing reactive elements such as capacitance or inductance.
Phase Distortion
Phase Distortion or Delay Distortion occurs in a non-linear transistor amplifier when there is a time delay between the input signal and its appearance at the output. If we call the phase change between the input and the output zero at the fundamental frequency, the resultant phase angle delay will be the difference between the harmonic and the fundamental. This time delay will depend on the construction of the amplifier and will increase progressively with frequency within the bandwidth of the amplifier. For example, consider the waveform below:
Phase Distortion due to Delay
Any practical amplifier will have a combination of both "Frequency" and "Phase" distortion together with amplitude distortion but in most applications such as in audio amplifiers or power amplifiers, unless the distortion is excessive or severe it will not generally affect the operation of the system.
In the next tutorial about Amplifiers we will look at the Class A Amplifier. Class A amplifiers are the most common type of amplifier output stage making them ideal for use in audio power amplifiers.
Class A Amplifier
Common emitter amplifiers are the most commonly used type of amplifier as they have a large voltage gain. They are designed to produce a large output voltage swing from a relatively small input signal voltage of only a few millivolt's and are used mainly as "small signal amplifiers" as we saw in the previous tutorials. However, sometimes an amplifier is required to drive large resistive loads such as a loudspeaker or to drive a motor in a robot and for these types of applications where high switching currents are needed Power Amplifiers are required.
The main function of the power amplifier, which are also known as a "large signal amplifier" is to deliver power, which is the product of voltage and current to the load. Basically a power amplifier is also a voltage amplifier the difference being that the load resistance connected to the output is relatively low, for example a loudspeaker of 4 or 8Ωs resulting in high currents flowing through the collector of the transistor. Because of these high load currents the output transistor(s) used for power amplifier output stages such as the 2N3055 need to have higher voltage and power ratings than the general ones used for small signal amplifiers such as the BC107.
Since we are interested in delivering maximum AC power to the load, while consuming the minimum DC power possible from the supply we are mostly concerned with the "conversion efficiency" of the amplifier. However, one of the main disadvantage of power amplifiers and especially the Class A amplifier is that their overall conversion efficiency is very low as large currents mean that a considerable amount of power is lost in the form of heat. Percentage efficiency in amplifiers is defined as the r.m.s. output power dissipated in the load divided by the total DC power taken from the supply source as shown below.
Power Amplifier Efficiency
 |
 |
- Where:
- η% - is the efficiency of the amplifier.
- Pout - is the amplifiers output power delivered to the load.
- Pdc - is the DC power taken from the supply.
For a power amplifier it is very important that the amplifiers power supply is well designed to provide the maximum available continuous power to the output signal.
Class A Amplifier
The most commonly used type of power amplifier configuration is the Class A Amplifier. The Class A amplifier is the most common and simplest form of power amplifier that uses the switching transistor in the standard common emitter circuit configuration as seen previously. The transistor is always biased "ON" so that it conducts during one complete cycle of the input signal waveform producing minimum distortion and maximum amplitude to the output.
This means then that the Class A Amplifier configuration is the ideal operating mode, because there can be no crossover or switch-off distortion to the output waveform even during the negative half of the cycle. Class A power amplifier output stages may use a single power transistor or pairs of transistors connected together to share the high load current. Consider the Class A amplifier circuit below.
Single Stage Amplifier Circuit
This is the simplest type of Class A power amplifier circuit. It uses a single-ended transistor for its output stage with the resistive load connected directly to the Collector terminal. When the transistor switches "ON" it sinks the output current through the Collector resulting in an inevitable voltage drop across the Emitter resistance thereby limiting the negative output capability. The efficiency of this type of circuit is very low (less than 30%) and delivers small power outputs for a large drain on the DC power supply. A Class A amplifier stage passes the same load current even when no input signal is applied so large heatsinks are needed for the output transistors.
However, another simple way to increase the current handling capacity of the circuit while at the same time obtain a greater power gain is to replace the single output transistor with a Darlington Transistor. These types of devices are basically two transistors within a single package, one small "pilot" transistor and another larger "switching" transistor. The big advantage of these devices are that the input impedance is suitably large while the output impedance is relatively low, thereby reducing the power loss and therefore the heat within the switching device.
Darlington Transistor Configurations
The overall current gain Beta (β) or hfe value of a Darlington device is the product of the two individual gains of the transistors multiplied together and very high β values along with high Collector currents are possible compared to a single transistor circuit.
To improve the full power efficiency of the Class A amplifier it is possible to design the circuit with a transformer connected directly in the Collector circuit to form a circuit called a Transformer Coupled Amplifier. The transformer improves the efficiency of the amplifier by matching the impedance of the load with that of the amplifiers output using the turns ratio ( n ) of the transformer and an example of this is given below.
Transformer-coupled Amplifier Circuit
As the Collector current, Ic is reduced to below the quiescent Q-point set up by the base bias voltage, due to variations in the base current, the magnetic flux in the transformer core collapses causing an induced emf in the transformer primary windings. This causes an instantaneous collector voltage to rise to a value of twice the supply voltage 2Vcc giving a maximum collector current of twice Ic when the Collector voltage is at its minimum. Then the efficiency of this type of Class A amplifier configuration can be calculated as follows.
The r.m.s. Collector voltage is given as:
The r.m.s. Collector current is given as:
The r.m.s. Power delivered to the load (Pac) is therefore given as:
The average power drawn from the supply (Pdc) is given by:
and therefore the efficiency of a Transformer-coupled Class A amplifier is given as:
The type of "Class" or classification that an amplifier is given really depends upon the conduction angle, the portion of the 360o of the input waveform cycle, in which the transistor is conducting. In the Class A amplifier the conduction angle is a full 360o or 100% of the input signal while in other amplifier classes the transistor conducts during a lesser conduction angle.While the transformer improves the efficiency of the amplifier by matching the impedance of the load with that of the amplifiers output impedance, using the turns ratio of an output signal transformer, efficiencies reaching 40% are possible with most commercially available Class-A type power amplifiers being of this type of configuration, but the use of inductive components is best avoided. Also one big disadvantage of this type of circuit is the additional cost and size of the audio transformer required.
It is possible to obtain greater power output and efficiency than that of theClass A amplifier by using two complementary transistors in the output stage with one transistor being an NPN or N-channel type while the other transistor is a PNP or P-channel (the complement) type connected in what is called a "push-pull" configuration. This type of configuration is generally called a Class B Amplifier and is another type of audio amplifier circuit that we will look at in the next tutorial.
The Class B Amplifier
To improve the full power efficiency of the previous Class A amplifier by reducing the wasted power in the form of heat, it is possible to design the power amplifier circuit with two transistors in its output stage producing what is commonly termed as a Class B Amplifier also known as a push-pull amplifierconfiguration.
Push-pull amplifiers use two "complementary" or matching transistors, one being an NPN-type and the other being a PNP-type with both power transistors receiving the same input signal together that is equal in magnitude, but in opposite phase to each other. This results in one transistor only amplifying one half or 180o of the input waveform cycle while the other transistor amplifies the other half or remaining 180o of the input waveform cycle with the resulting "two-halves" being put back together again at the output terminal.
Then the conduction angle for this type of amplifier circuit is only 180o or 50% of the input signal. This pushing and pulling effect of the alternating half cycles by the transistors gives this type of circuit its amusing "push-pull" name, but are more generally known as the Class B Amplifier as shown below.
Class B Push-pull Transformer Amplifier Circuit
The circuit above shows a standard Class B Amplifier circuit that uses a balanced centre-tapped input transformer, which splits the incoming waveform signal into two equal halves and which are 180o out of phase with each other. Another centre-tapped transformer on the output is used to recombined the two signals providing the increased power to the load. The transistors used for this type of transformer push-pull amplifier circuit are both NPN transistors with their emitter terminals connected together.
Here, the load current is shared between the two power transistor devices as it decreases in one device and increases in the other throughout the signal cycle reducing the output voltage and current to zero. The result is that both halves of the output waveform now swings from zero to twice the quiescent current thereby reducing dissipation. This has the effect of almost doubling the efficiency of the amplifier to around 70%.
Assuming that no input signal is present, then each transistor carries the normal quiescent collector current, the value of which is determined by the base bias which is at the cut-off point. If the transformer is accurately centre tapped, then the two collector currents will flow in opposite directions (ideal condition) and there will be no magnetization of the transformer core, thus minimizing the possibility of distortion.
When an input signal is present across the secondary of the driver transformer T1, the transistor base inputs are in "anti-phase" to each other as shown, thus if TR1 base goes positive driving the transistor into heavy conduction, its collector current will increase but at the same time the base current of TR2 will go negative further into cut-off and the collector current of this transistor decreases by an equal amount and vice versa. Hence negative halves are amplified by one transistor and positive halves by the other transistor giving this push-pull effect.
Unlike the DC condition, these AC currents are ADDITIVE resulting in the two output half-cycles being combined to reform the sine-wave in the output transformers primary winding which then appears across the load.
Class B Amplifier operation has zero DC bias as the transistors are biased at the cut-off, so each transistor only conducts when the input signal is greater than the base-emitter voltage. Therefore, at zero input there is zero output and no power is being consumed. This then means that the actual Q-point of a Class B amplifier is on the Vce part of the load line as shown below.
Class B Output Characteristics Curves
The Class B Amplifier has the big advantage over their Class A amplifier cousins in that no current flows through the transistors when they are in their quiescent state (ie, with no input signal), therefore no power is dissipated in the output transistors or transformer when there is no signal present unlike Class A amplifier stages that require significant base bias thereby dissipating lots of heat - even with no input signal present. So the overall conversion efficiency ( η ) of the amplifier is greater than that of the equivalent Class A with efficiencies reaching as high as 70% possible resulting in nearly all modern types of push-pull amplifiers operated in this Class B mode.
Transformerless Class B Push-Pull Amplifier
One of the main disadvantages of the Class B amplifier circuit above is that it uses balanced centre-tapped transformers in its design, making it expensive to construct. However, there is another type of Class B amplifier called a Complementary-Symmetry Class B Amplifier that does not use transformers in its design therefore, it is transformerless using instead complementary or matching pairs of power transistors. As transformers are not needed this makes the amplifier circuit much smaller for the same amount of output, also there are no stray magnetic effects or transformer distortion to effect the quality of the output signal. An example of a "transformerless" Class B amplifier circuit is given below.
Class B Transformerless Output Stage
The Class B amplifier circuit above uses complimentary transistors for each half of the waveform and while Class B amplifiers have a much high gain than the Class A types, one of the main disadvantages of class B type push-pull amplifiers is that they suffer from an effect known commonly as Crossover Distortion.
This means that the part of the output waveform which falls below this 0.7 volt window will not be reproduced accurately as the transition between the two transistors (when they are switching over from one transistor to the other), the transistors do not stop or start conducting exactly at the zero crossover point even if they are specially matched pairs. The output transistors for each half of the waveform (positive and negative) will each have a 0.7 volt area in which they are not conducting. The resuslt is that both transistors are turned "OFF" at exactly the same time.Hopefully we remember from our tutorials about Transistors that it takes approximately 0.7 volts (measured from base to emitter) to get a bipolar transistor to start conducting. In a pure class B amplifier, the output transistors are not "pre-biased" to an "ON" state of operation.
A simple way to eliminate crossover distortion in a Class B amplifier is to add two small voltage sources to the circuit to bias both the transistors at a point slightly above their cut-off point. This then would give us what is commonly called an Class AB Amplifier circuit. However, it is impractical to add additional voltage sources to the amplifier circuit so pn-junctions are used to provide the additional bias in the form of silicon diodes.
The Class AB Amplifier
We know that we need the base-emitter voltage to be greater than 0.7v for a silicon bipolar transistor to start conducting, so if we were to replace the two voltage divider biasing resistors connected to the base terminals of the transistors with two silicon Diodes, the biasing voltage applied to the transistors would now be equal to the forward voltage drop of the diode. These two diodes are generally called Biasing Diodes or Compensating Diodes and are chosen to match the characteristics of the matching transistors. The circuit below shows diode biasing.
Class AB Amplifier
The Class AB Amplifier circuit is a compromise between the Class A and the Class B configurations. This very small diode biasing voltage causes both transistors to slightly conduct even when no input signal is present. An input signal waveform will cause the transistors to operate as normal in their active region thereby eliminating any crossover distortion present in pure Class B amplifier designs.
A small collector current will flow when there is no input signal but it is much less than that for the Class A amplifier configuration. This means then that the transistor will be "ON" for more than half a cycle of the waveform but much less than a full cycle giving a conduction angle of between 180 to 360o or 50 to 100% of the input signal depending upon the amount of additional biasing used. The amount of diode biasing voltage present at the base terminal of the transistor can be increased in multiples by adding additional diodes in series.
Class B amplifiers are greatly preferred over Class A designs for high-power applications such as audio power amplifiers and PA systems. Like the Class A Amplifier circuit, one way to greatly boost the current gain ( Ai ) of a Class B push-pull amplifier is to use Darlington transistors pairs instead of single transistors in its output circuitry.
In the next tutorial about Amplifiers we will look more closely at the effects of Crossover Distortion in Class B amplifier circuits and ways to reduce its effect.
Crossover Distortion
We have seen that one of the main disadvantages of a Class A Amplifier is its low full power efficiency rating. But we also know that we can improve the amplifier and almost double its efficiency simply by changing the output stage of the amplifier to a Class B push-pull type configuration. However, this is great from an efficiency point of view, but most modern Class B amplifiers are transformerless or complementary types with two transistors in their output stage.
This results in one main fundamental problem with push-pull amplifiers in that the two transistors do not combine together fully at the output both halves of the waveform due to their unique zero cut-off biasing arrangement. As this problem occurs when the signal changes or "crosses-over" from one transistor to the other at the zero voltage point it produces an amount of "distortion" to the output wave shape. This results in a condition that is commonly called Crossover Distortion.
Crossover Distortion produces a zero voltage "flat spot" or "deadband" on the output wave shape as it crosses over from one half of the waveform to the other. The reason for this is that the transition period when the transistors are switching over from one to the other, does not stop or start exactly at the zero crossover point thus causing a small delay between the first transistor turning "OFF" and the second transistor turning "ON". This delay results in both transistors being switched "OFF" at the same instant in time producing an output wave shape as shown below.
Crossover Distortion Waveform
In order that there should be no distortion of the output waveform we must assume that each transistor starts conducting when its base to emitter voltage rises just above zero, but we know that this is not true because for silicon bipolar transistors the base voltage must reach at least 0.7v before the transistor starts to conduct thereby producing this flat spot. This crossover distortion effect also reduces the overall peak to peak value of the output waveform causing the maximum power output to be reduced as shown below.
Non-Linear Transfer Characteristics
This effect is less pronounced for large input signals as the input voltage is usually quite large but for smaller input signals it can be more severe causing audio distortion to the amplifier.
Pre-biasing the Output
The problem of Crossover Distortion can be reduced considerably by applying a slight forward base bias voltage to the bases of the two transistors via the centre-tap of the input transformer, thus the transistors are no longer biased at the zero cut-off point but instead are "Pre-biased" at a level determined by this new biasing voltage.
Push-pull Amplifier with Pre-biasing
This type of resistor pre-biasing causes one transistor to turn "ON" exactly at the same time as the other transistor turns "OFF" as both transistors are now biased slightly above their original cut-off point. However, to achieve this the bias voltage must be at least twice that of the normal base to emitter voltage to turn "ON" the transistors. This pre-biasing can also be implemented in transformerless amplifiers that use complementary transistors by simply replacing the two potential divider resistors with Biasing Diodes as shown below.
Pre-biasing with Diodes
This pre-biasing voltage either for a transformer or transformerless amplifier circuit, has the effect of moving the amplifiers Q-point past the original cut-off point thus allowing each transistor to operate within its active region for slightly more than half or 180o of each half cycle. In other words 180o + Bias. The amount of diode biasing voltage present at the base terminal of the transistor can be increased in multiples by adding additional diodes in series. This then produces an amplifier circuit commonly called a Class AB Amplifier and its biasing arrangement is given below.
Class AB Output Characteristics
Crossover Distortion Summary
Then to summarise, Crossover Distortion occurs in Class B amplifiers because the amplifier is biased at its cut-off point. This then results in BOTH transistors being switched "OFF" at the same instant in time as the waveform crosses the zero axis. By applying a small base bias voltage either by using a resistive potential divider circuit or diode biasing this crossover distortion can be greatly reduced or even eliminated completely by bringing the transistors to the point of being just switched "ON".
The application of a biasing voltage produces another type or class of amplifier circuit commonly called a Class AB Amplifier. Then the difference between a pure Class B amplifier and an improved Class AB amplifier is in the biasing level applied to the output transistors. One major advantage of using diodes over resistors is that the pn-junctions compensate for variations in the temperature of the transistors. Therefore, we can say the a Class AB amplifier is a Class B amplifier with "Bias" and we can summarise as:
- Class A Amplifiers – No Crossover Distortion as they are biased in the centre of the load line.
- Class B Amplifiers – Large amounts of Crossover Distortion due to biasing at the cut-off point.
- Class AB Amplifiers – Some Crossover Distortion if the biasing level is set too low.
Amplifiers Tutorial Summary
Amplifiers are used extensively in electronic circuits to make an electronic signal bigger without affecting it in any other way. Generally we think of Amplifiers as audio amplifiers in the radios, CD players and stereo's we use around the home. In this amplifier tutorial section we looked at the amplifier which is based on a single bipolar transistor as shown below, but there are several different kinds of transistor amplifier circuits that we could use.
Typical Single Stage Amplifier Circuit
Small Signal Amplifiers
- Small Signal Amplifiers are also known as Voltage Amplifiers.
- Voltage Amplifiers have 3 main properties, Input Resistance, Output Resistance and Gain.
- The Gain of a small signal amplifier is the amount by which the amplifier "Amplifies" the input signal.
- Gain is a ratio of input divided by output, therefore it has no units but is given the symbol (A) with the most common types being, Voltage Gain (Av), Current Gain (Ai) and Power Gain (Ap)
- The power Gain of the amplifier can also be expressed in Decibels or simply dB.
- In order to amplify all of the input signal distortion free in a Class A type amplifier, DC Base Biasing is required.
- DC Bias sets the Q-point of the amplifier half way along the load line.
- This DC Base biasing means that the amplifier consumes power even if there is no input signal present.
- The transistor amplifier is non-linear and an incorrect bias setting will produce large amounts of distortion to the output waveform.
- Too large an input signal will produce large amounts of distortion due to clipping, which is also a form of amplitude distortion.
- Incorrect positioning of the Q-point on the load line will produce either Saturation Clipping orCut-off Clipping.
- The Common Emitter Amplifier configuration is the most common form of all the general purpose voltage amplifier circuit using a Bipolar Junction Transistor.
- The Common Source Amplifier configuration is the most common form of all the general purpose voltage amplifier circuit using a Junction Field Effect Transistor.
BJT Amplifier to JFET Amplifier Comparison
| Parameter | Common Emitter Amplifier | Common Source Amplifier |
| Voltage Gain, (AV) | Medium/High | Medium/High |
| Current Gain, (Ai) | High | Very High |
| Power Gain, (AP) | High | Very High |
| Input Resistance, (Ri) | Medium | Very High |
| Output Resistance, (Ro) | Medium/High | Medium/High |
| Phase Shift | 180o | 180o |
Large Signal Amplifiers
- Large Signal Amplifiers are also known as Power Amplifiers.
- Power Amplifiers can be sub-divided into different Classes, for example Class A Amplifiers, where the output device conducts for all of the input cycle, Class B Amplifiers, where the output device conducts for only 50% of the input cycle and Class AB Amplifiers, where the output device conducts for more than 50% but less than 100% of the input cycle.
- An ideal Power Amplifier would deliver 100% of the available DC power to the load.
- Class A amplifiers are the most common form of power amplifier but only have an efficiency rating of less than 40%.
- Class B amplifiers are more efficient than Class A amplifiers at around 70% but produce high amounts of distortion.
- Class B amplifiers consume very little power when there is no input signal present.
- By using the "Push-pull" output stage configuration, distortion can be greatly reduced.
- However, simple push-pull Class B Power amplifiers can produce high levels of Crossover Distortion due to their cut-off point biasing.
- Pre-biasing resistors or diodes will help eliminate this crossover distortion.
- Class B Power Amplifiers can be made using Transformers or Complementary Transistors in its output stage.
