Contents

50 W a.f. amplifier
uses only
one IC

Although audio en-

thusiasts come in
many sizes and
colours, not many of
them are prepared to
spend a lot of money,
time and effort to
build an a.f. amplifier
using up to 40 tran-
sistors to improve the
a t i on V (50 W into 08 kΩΩ)
distortion by a frac- c ific 1.3 1

tion of a per cent.

The Type TDA7294 IC from Spe sit iv it y : 16 H z – 100 –1
kHz
s
SGS-Thomson is an inte-
n p ut sen ance: 10 V µ )
I THD
imped
grated a.f. amplifier in-
Therefore, the ampli- tended for use in all sorts Input th: 8 Ω (0.1% D)
wid into 0.1%
TH
fier described here of hi-fi application. Its cir- Band : 50 W 4Ω( Ω)
into / 8
cuit diagram is shown in le w rate 82 W B a ( 1W
should appeal to S er : 105 d z)
Figure 1. Its most promi- t p u t pow 2 % (1 kH
O u 0. 00 z)
those enthusiasts. It nent feature is the much 0 kH
o is e ratio: Ω : 0 H z–2
higher power output than l-to-n 8 2
into 4% (
is compact, presents is usual with this kind of Signa with 40 W < 0.0
N
integrated amplifier. Ac- THD+ specifying
no problems and yet cording to the manufac- output power. More-
has properties that turer ’s data sheets, the over, with peak supply voltages
special DMOS output stage of ±40 V and a load impedance of 4 Ω,
make it fully suitable of the 15-pin chip can de- the maximum dissipation of the IC will
for all but the most liver outputs of up to 100 watt. Con-
sidering other properties, such as low
easily be exceeded. For these reasons,
the supply in the present amplifier has
demanding audio ap- noise, low distortion and reliable short- been kept down to a safe ±30 V. At
circuit and thermal protection circuits these voltages, the chip delivers, with-
plications. In short, an as well, the chip is indeed an interest- out any difficulty, 50 W into an 8 Ω
amplifier that is ing one. load and 80 W into a 4 Ω load. These
Having said that, power output are still very respectable figures, par-
geared to the practi- specifications are often rather opti- ticularly in view of the reasonable price
mistic. In this instance, the 100 W ap- of the chip.
cal audio buff. pears to refer to the IEC norm for music
power with 10 per cent distortion, CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
which, as far as hi-fi applications are The circuit diagram of the amplifier in
Source: SGS Thomson concerned, is not the correct way of Figure 2 shows that the IC needs only

44 Elektor Electronics 11/96

 Contents

a small number of external compo-

nents. To keep the harmonic distortion
low, the amplifier has a large feedback
1
ratio and its closed-loop gain has been
restricted to only 24 dB.
The input signal is applied to pin 3
via capacitor C1 and low-pass filter
R6-C10. The filter improves the pulse
response and flattens the frequency re-
sponse. For minimum output offset,
the values of R1 and R3 should be
equal, so that the input impedance is
10 kΩ. The roll-off frequencies of R1-C1
and R2-C2 determine the lower band-
width limit of the amplifier: with val-
ues a specified, this is about 16 Hz. The
upper –3 dB point is at about 100 kHz.
The amplifier is muted by a rele-
vant input to pin 10 and placed in the
stand-by mode by a relevant signal at Figure 1. The TDA7294
pin 9. Muting should always take place has standard thermal
before the stand-by mode is selected. and short-circuit pro-
Connecting the mute and standby tection circuits. The
pins permanently to the supply mute function pre- suitable heat sink, a
line ensures that the amplifier cludes annoying on continuous output of
comes on immediately the and off switching 50 W into 8 Ω was as-
power is switched on. Any noises. sumed. The selected
switch-on clicks may be heat sink is also all
eliminated by increasing right for music outputs
time constants R3-C4 of 80 W into 4 Ω. Problems caused by
and R5-C5. high temperatures are very unlikely,
If large-value elec- since the IC has internal thermal
trolytic capacitors are protection that causes the mute to
used in the power sup- come into operation at 145 °C and
ply, switching off will be switches the amplifier to stand by at
rather slow. If that is con- 150 °C.
sidered a nuisance, an ex- Provision for connecting the power
ternal mains detection lines to the board is by three PCB ter-
network may be added. minal blocks (clamping-screw type).
This can consist of, say, These ensure loss-free passage of the
two diodes and two small supply current.
smoothing capacitors for rec- The symmetrical power supply is
tifying the secondary voltage of the
mains transformer. The board has pro-
vision for this in the form of additional
soldering pins adjacent to the mute
and stand-by inputs: an earth pin in
case use is made of an external pro-
2 TDA7294
30V

C7 C6
tection circuit and a plus pin if such
protection is not foreseen. 1000µ 40V 100n

R3
CONSTRUCTION 1 15 10k
It is best to build the amplifier on the
printed-circuit board shown in Fig- C1
7 13
R6
ure 3. The illustration proves what a 150Ω
3
IN+
+VS +PWVS
R1 2
compact unit this amplifier is. In view 1µ5 C10 IN–
10k

IC1 14
of the scarcity of components, popu- OUT
2n7 C3
lating the board is very simple. 4
IN+MUTE
The back surface of the IC is linked R4 TDA7294 22µ
10 6
internally to the negative supply rail. mute 10k MUTE BOOTSTRAP
63V
LS1

Consequently, to preclude electrical R5

9
standby 22k STBY
contact between the heat sink and the R2
STBYGND –VS –PWVS

enclosure, the heat sink 1 8 15

680Ω

is mounted on the Figure 2. In the final

board. Insulating mate- design of the ampli- C4 C5 C2

rial between the heat fier, supply voltages of 10µ 10µ 22µ
63V 63V 63V
sink and the IC is, there- ±30 V were decided
fore, not needed, al- upon; these are more C9 C8
though the use of some than sufficient for a
1000µ 40V 100n
heat conducting paste power output of 50 W
is advisable. into 8 Ω. 954044 - 11 30V

In the selection of a

Elektor Electronics 11/96 45

 Contents

IC1
C8 C10
C6

R1 +
T R5
R6 C3 R4 +
R2
C2
R3 C5 T C4
C1 standby mute
1-970069 960079-1
960079-1 -
C9 T C7
- +

Figure 3. The printed-

circuit board is very
best constructed from a compact and even output, the amplifier is trum analyser. The measurements
toroidal mains trans- houses the requisite in principle usable in were carried out at an output power
former, a 25 A bridge heat sink. virtually any hi-fi set- of 40 W into 8 Ω and a bandwidth of
rectifier and two up. Owing to its com- 80 kHz. As usual, the characteristic
10,000 µF, 50 V elec- pactness, it is particu- slopes upward at higher frequencies,
trolytic capacitors. larly suitable for use in combination but the distortion does not exceed 0.04
with a preamplifier as an integrated per cent. In a large part of the a.f.
F I N A L LY amplifier or as part of an active loud- range (up to about 1 kHz), the total-
As mentioned before, thanks to its speaker system where space is almost harmonic-distortion-plus-noise (THD+N)
good performance and high power always at a premium. does not even rise above 0.02 per cent.
For those who would like some This sort of performance is excellent
proof of the figures given in the spec- for all but the most demanding appli-
Parts list ification table, Figure 4 shows the dis- cations. [960079]
tortion characteristic of the amplifier
Resistors: obtained with a spec-
R1, R3, R4 = 10 kΩ Figure 4. The distor-
R2 = 680 Ω tion characteristic,
R5 = 22 kΩ measured with an out-
R6 = 150 Ω put power of 40 W into
8 Ω, is excellent for
Capacitors: this type of amplifier.
C1 = 1.5 µF, 63 V*
C2, C3 = 22 µF, 63 V, radial
C4, C5 = 10 µF, 63 V, radial 4
C6, C8 = 100 nF Elektor DEFAULT THD+N(%) vs FREQ(Hz)
C7, C9 = 1000 µF, 40 V, radial 1
C10 = 2.7 nF*, pitch 5 mm
* metallized polyester

Integrated circuits:
IC1 = TDA7294V
0.1
Miscellaneous:
3 off PCB terminal block with clamp-
ing screws
1 off heat sink, 2.5 K W–1 (e.g. Fis-
cher Type SK100, available from
Dau – telephone 01243 553031)) 0.010
for power supply:
1 off mains transformer, 2×22 V,
80 VA
2 off electrolytic capacitor, 10,000 µF,
50 V
1 off 25 A bridge rectifier
PCB Order no 960079-1 (see Read- 0.001
ers’ Services towards the end of
.0005
this issue)
20 100 1k 10k 20k

Elektor Electronics 11/96 47