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Module-4

Power Amplifier

The amplifiers in multistage amplifier near the load end in almost all-electronic system employ
large signal amplifiers (Power amplifiers) and the purpose of these amplifiers is to obtain
power again.

Consider the case of radio receiver, the purpose of a radio receiver is to produce the transmitted
programmes with sufficient loudness. Since the radio signal received at the receiver output
is of very low power, therefore, power amplifiers are used to put sufficient power into the
signal. But these amplifier need large voltage input.

Therefore, it is necessary to amplify the magnitude of input signal by means of small

amplifiers to a level that is sufficient to drive the power amplifier stages.

In multistage amplifier, the emphasis is on power gain in amplifier near the load. In these
amplifies, the collector currents are much larger because the load resistances are small (i.e
impedence of loud speaker is 3.2 ohm).

A power amplifier draws a large amount of dc power form dc source and convert it into signal
power. Thus, a power amplifier does not truly amplify the signal power but converts the dc
power into signal power.

DC and AC load lines:

Consider a CE amplifier as shown in fig. 1.

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Fig. 1

The dc equivalent circuit gives the dc load line as shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Q is the operative point. ICQ and V CEQ are quiescent current and voltage. The ac equivalent
circuit is shown in fig. 3.

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Fig. 3

This circuit produces ac load line. When no signal is present, the transistor operates at the Q
point shown in fig. 4.

Fig. 4

When a signal is present, operating point swings along the ac load line rather than dc load line.
The saturation and cut off points on the ac load line are different from those on the dc load
line.

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During the positive half cycle of ac source, voltage, the collector voltage swing from the Q-
point towards saturation. On the negative cycle, the collector voltage swings from Q-point
towards cutoff. For a large signal clipping can occur on either side or both sides.

The maximum positive swing from the Q-point is

V CEQ + ICQ rC � VCEQ = I CQ r C.

The maximum negative swing from the Q-point is

0 � V CEQ = - V CEQ.

The ac output compliance (maximum peak to peak unclipped voltage) is given by the smaller
of these two approximate values:

PP = 2 I CQ rC

or PP = 2 V CEQ.

Class A operation:

In a class �A' operation transistor operates in active region at all times. This implies that
collector current flows for 360° of the ac cycle.

Voltage gain of loaded amplifier

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Current gain

ac input power to the base Pin = V in i b

ac output power point = - V out * i C. ( Negative sign is due to phase inversion.)

The variation of PL with VPP is shown in fig. 5. Maximum ac load power is obtained when the
output unclipped voltage equals ac output compliance PP.

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Fig. 5

When no signal drives the amplifier, the power dissipation of the transistor equals the product
of d. voltage and current

P DQ = V CEQ * I CQ

When there is no input signal, PD is maximum as shown in fig. 6.

Fig. 6

It decreases when the peak to peak load voltage increases. The power dissipation must be less
than the rating of transistor, otherwise temperature increases and transistor may damage. To
reduce the temperature, heat sinks are used that dissipates the heat produced. When Q-point
is at the center of ac load line then peak swing above and below Q-point is equal.

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Class A current drain:

In a class A amplifier shown in fig.1, the dc source VCC must supply direct current to the
voltage divider and the collector circuit.

Fig. 1

Assuming a stiff voltage divider circuit, the dc current drain of the voltage divider circuit is

I 1 = V CC / (R 1 +R 2 )

In the collector circuit, the dc current drain is

I 2 = I CQ

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In a class A amplifier, the sinusoidal variations in collector current averages to zero. Therefore,
whether the ac signal is present or not, the dc source must supply an average current of

I S = I 1 + I 2.

This is the total dc current drain. The dc source voltage multiplied by the dc current drain gives
the ac power supplied to an amplifier.

P S = V CC IS

Therefore, efficiency of the amplifier,  = (P L (max) / P S ) * 100 %

Where,, P L (max) = maximum ac load line power. In class A amplifier, there is a wastage of
power in resistor R C and R E i.e. ICQ 2 * (R C + R E ).

To reduce this wastage of power R C and R E should be made zero. R E cannot be made zero
because this will give rise to bias stability problem. R C can also not be made zero because
effective load resistance gets shorted. This results in more current and no power transfer to
the load R L. The R C resistance can, however, be replaced by an inductance whose dc
resistance is zero and there is no dc voltage drop across the choke as shown in fig. 1.

Since in most application the load is loudspeaker, therefore power amplifier drives the
loudspeaker, and the maximum power transfer takes place only when load impedence is
equal to the source impedence. If it is not, the loud speaker gets less power. The impedence
matching is done with the help of transformer, as shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 2
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The ratio of number of turns is so selected that the impedence referred to primary side can be
matched with the output impedence of the amplifier.

Class B amplifier:

The efficiency (  ) of class A amplifier is poor. The reason is that these circuits draw
considerable current from the supply even in the absence of input signals.

In class B operation the transistor collector current flows for only 180° of the ac cycle. This
implies that the Q-point is located approximately at cutoff on both dc and ac load lines. The
advantages of class B operation are

Lower transistor power dissipation

Reduced current drain.
Eficiency is given by

Value is around 70%

Push pull circuit:

When a transistor operates in class B, it

clips off a half cycle. To avoid the
resulting distortion, two transistors are
used in push pull arrangement. This
Fig. 3
means that one transistor conducts
during positive half cycle and other

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transistor conducts during negative half

cycle. The distortion is low, load power
is large and efficiency () is
more. fig. 3, shows how a npn and pnp
transistor emitter followers are
connected in push pull arrangement.

The dc & ac equivalent circuit are shown

in fig. 4 & fig. 5. The biasing resistors
are selected so that Q-point is set at
cutoff. This biases the emitter diode of
each transistor between 0.6V and 0.7V

i.e. I CQ = 0.

Because the biasing resistors are equal

each emitter diode is biased with the
same voltage. As a result half the
supply voltage is dropped across each
transistor.

VCEQ = VCC / 2.

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

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Since there is no dc resistance in the collector or emitter circuits, the dc saturation current is
infinite. The dc load line is vertical as shown in fig. 6. The most difficult thing is setting up
a stable Q-point at cut off. Any significant increase in V BE with temperature can move the
Q-point up the dc load line to dangerously high currents. Ac load line is given by

I C(sat) = I CQ + (V CEQ / r E )

V CE (cut off) = V CEQ + I CQ r E

I CQ = 0; V CEQ = V CC / 2

i.e. I C(sat) = V CC / 2RL ( i.e. rE = R L )

V CE (cut off) = V CC / 2.

Fig. 6

When either transistor is conducting, that transistor's operating point swings along the ac load
line and the operating point of the other transistor remains at cut off. The voltage swing of
the conducting transistor can go from cut off to saturation. In the next half cycle, the other
transistor does the same thing.

Therefore, PP = VCC

Voltage gain of loaded amplifier:

AV= R L / (R L + r'e )

Z in (base)  (RL + r'e )

Z out = r'e + (r B ) /

A P =A V * Ai

Without signal the capacitor charges up to VCC / 2 relative to ground.

In the positive half cycle of input voltage, the upper transistor conducts and the lower one cut
off. The upper transistor acts like an ordinary emitter follower, so that the output voltage

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approximately equals the input voltage. The current flow through RL is such as direct as to
make output positive.

In the negative half cycle of input voltage, the upper transistor cuts off and the lower transistor
conducts. The lower transistor acts like an ordinary emitter follower and produces a load
voltage approximately equal to the input voltage (i.e. negative output. Since Q, is off, no
current can flow from VCC through Q, but capacitor acts like a battery source and
discharges).

During either half cycle, the source sees a high input impedence looking into either base and
the load sees a low output impedence.

Cross over distortion:

Fig. 1 shows the ac equivalent circuit of a class B push pull amplifier. Suppose that no bias is
applied to the emitter diodes. Then the incoming voltage has to rise to about 0.7 V to
overcome the barrier potential. Because of this no current flows through Q, when the signal
is less than 0.7 V. The action is similar on the other half cycle no current flows in Q 2 until ac
voltage is more negative the � 0.7 V. If no bias is applied the output of class B amplifier
looks like as shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 1

The signal output is distorted. Because of clipping action between half cycles, it no longer is a
sine wave. Since the clipping occurs between the time one transistor cuts off and the time
the other comes on, it is called cross over distortion. To eliminate cross over distortion, the
slight forward bias must be applied to each emitter diode. This means locating the Q-point

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slightly above cut off as shown in fig. 2. In fact, this is class AB operation. This means that
collector current flows for more than 180 degrees but less than 360°.

Fig. 2

Class A amplifier introduces non-linear distortion in input wave means elongates one half
cycle and compresses one half cycle. This can be reduced by swamping. In this case it can
be further reduced because both half cycles are identical in shape, is given by non-linear
distortion is much less than class A.

Load power is given by

Since the ac output compliance equals the peak-to-peak voltage, the maximum load power is

Where, I1 = current through biasing resistance. When no signal is present I 2 = ICQ and the
current drain is small. But when a signal is present, the current drain increase because the
upper collector current becomes large.

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If the entire ac load line is used, then the upper transistor has a half sine wave of current
through it with a peak value of

IC(sat) = VCEQ / RL

The average value of half sine wave is given by

The dc power is supplied to the circuit is PS = VCC is under no signal conditions, the dc power
is small because the current drain is minimum. But when a signal uses the entire ac load
line, the dc power supplied to the circuit reaches a maximum.

Biasing a class B amplifier:

In class B amplifier, two complement any transistors are required. Because of the series
connection, each transistor drops half the supply voltage. To avoid cross over distortion, the
Q-point slightly above cut off, with the correct VBE somewhere between 0.6 and 0.7.

If there is an increase in V BE by few mV it produces 10 times as much emitter current. Because

of this it is difficult to find standard resistors that can produce the correct V BE and it needs
an adjustable resistor.

The biasing does not solve thermal instability problem. Because for a given collector current,
VBE requirement decreases by 2 mV per degree rise in temperature. The voltage divider
produces a stiff drive for each diode. Therefore as the temperature increases, the fixed
voltage on each emitter diode forces the collector current to increase and this gives rise to
thermal run away. When the temperature increases collector current increases, and this is
equivalent to Q-point moving up along the vertical dc load line. As the Q-point moves
toward higher collector currents, the temperature of the transistor increases further reducing
the required V BE .

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Fig. 3

One way to avoid thermal run away is to use diode bias. It is based on the concept of current
mirror as shown in fig. 3, the base current is much smaller than the current through the
resistor and diode. For this reason, I 1 and I2 are approximately equal. If the diode curve is
identical to the VBE curve of the transistor (VBE , IE ). The diode current equals the emitter
and also collector current. Therefore I1 is nearly equal to IC.

I1 = I C .

The collector current is set by controlling the resistor current. This is called a current mirror.

Similarly, pnp transistor can be used as a current mirror. If the VBE curve of the transistor
matches the diode curve, the collector equals the resistor current.

Diode bias of class B push pull emitter follower relies on two current mirrors as shown in fig.
4.

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Fig. 4

The upper half is an npn current mirror, and the lower half is a pnp current mirror as shown
in fig. 4. For diode bias to be immune to changes in temperature, the diode curve must
match the VBE curves of the transistor over a wide temperature range. This is easily done in
ICs .

Power Calculations for Class B Push-Pull Amplifier

The power delivered by the ac source is split between the transistor and the resistors in the bias
circuitry. The ac signal source adds an insignificant additional amunt of power since base
currents are small relative to collector currents. Part of the power to the transistor goes to
load, and the other part is dissipated by the transistor itself. The following equations specify
the various power relationships in the circuit.

The average power supplied by the dc source is

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iCC(t) is the total current and is composed of two components: the dc current through the base
bias resistor and diode combination, and the ac collector current through transistor, Q 1.
Under quiescent conditions (i.e. zero input) Q1 is in cutoff mode. Collector current flows
during the positive half of the output signal waveform. Therefore we only need to integrate
this component of the power supply signal over the first half cycle.

The maximum values of collector current and power delivered to the transistor are

The ac output power, assuming a sinusoidal input, is

The maximum ac output power is found by substituting I Cmax for IC1max to get

The total power supplied to the stage is the sum of the power to the transistor and the power to
the bias and compensation circuitry.

If we subtract the power to the load from the power supplied to the transistors, we find the
power being dissipated in the transistors the power dissipated by a single transistor is one
half of this value. Thus,

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we are assuming that the base current is negligible.

The efficiency of the Class B push-pull amplifier is the ratio of the output power to the
power delivered to the transistor. Thus we neglect the power dissipated by the bias circuitry.

This amplifier is more efficient than a Class A amplifier. It is often used in output circuits
where efficiency important design requirement.

Therefore,

In choosing a transistor, it is important that the power rating is equal to or exceeds the
maximum power Pmax.

Class C amplifier:

A class C amplifier can produce more power than a class B amplifier.

Consider the case of a radio transmitter in which the audio signals are raised in their frequency
to the medium or short wave band to that they can be easily transmitted. The high frequency
introduced is in radio frequency range and it serves as the carrier of the audio signal. The
process of raising the audio signal to radio frequency called modulation.

The modulated wave has a relatively narrow band of frequencies centered around the carrier
frequencies. At any instant, there are several transmitter transmitting programmes
simultaneously. The radio receiver selects the signals of desired frequencies to which it is
tuned, amplifies it and converts it back to audio range. Therefore, tuned voltage amplifiers
are used. In short, the tuned voltage amplifiers selects the desired radio frequency signal out
of a number of RF signals present at that instant and then amplifies the selected RF signal to
the desired level as shown in fig. 1.

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Fig. 1

Class C operation means that the collector current flows for less than 180° of the ac cycle. This
implies that the collector current of a class C amplifier is highly non-sinusoidal because
current flows in pulses. To avoid distortion, class C amplifier makes use of a resonant tank
circuit. This results in a sinusoidal output voltage.

The resonant tank circuit is tuned to the frequency of the input signal. When the circuit has a
high quality factor (Q) parallel resonance occurs at approximately

At the resonance frequency, the impedence of the parallel resonant circuit is very high as
shown in fig. 2 and is purely resistive. When the circuit is tuned to the resonant frequency,
the voltage across RL is maximum and sinusoidal. The higher the Q of the circuit, the faster
the gain drops off on either side of resonance

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Fig. 2

Fig. 3

The dc equivalent circuit is shown fig. 3. No bias is applied to the transistor. Therefore, its Q-
point is at cut off on the dc load line VBE= 0.7V. Therefore no IL current flows until input is
more than 0.7 V. Also dc resistance is RS (the resistance of inductor) which is very small
and therefore dc load line is almost vertical. There is no danger of thermal runway because
there is no current other than from leakage.

The IC(sat) current is given by

where rC is the collector resistance.

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The voltage VCE(sate) is given by

when ICQ = 0, VCEQ = VCC

When the Q of a resonant circuit is greater than 10. One can use the approximate ac equivalent
circuit. The series resistance of the inductor is lumped into the collector resistance. At
resonance, the peak-to-peak load voltage reaches a maximum. The bandwidth of a resonant
circuit is given by

Band width (BW) = f 2 � f 1

f 1 = Lower cut off frequency.
f 2 = Upper cut off frequency

The bandwidth is related to the resonant frequency and the circuit Q as below:

BW = f r / Q

This means a large Q produces small BW equivalent to sharp tuning. These amplifiers have Q
greater than 10. This means that the BW is less than 10% of the resonant frequencies. These
amplifiers are also called narrow band amplifier.

When the tank circuit is resonant the ac load impedence seen by the collector current source is
purely resistive and the collector current is minimum. Above and below resonance, the ac
load impedence decreases and the collector current decreases. Any coil or inductor has some
series resistance RS as shown in fig. 4.

The Q of all coil is given by.

QL=XL/RL

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Fig. 4

The series resistance can be replaced by parallel resistance R P . This equivalent resistance is
given by

R P = Q L RL

Now all the losses in the coil are now being represented by the parallel resistance R P and series
resistance RS no longer exists XC cancels XL at resonance. Leaving only RP in parallel with
RL.

Therefore,

RC = RP || RL

Q of the overall circuit = rC / XL

At the resonance frequency, the impedence of the parallel resonant circuit is very high as
shown in fig. 2 and is purely resistive. When the circuit is tuned to the resonant frequency,
the voltage across RL is maximum and sinusoidal. The higher the Q of the circuit, the faster
the gain drops off on either side of resonance

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Fig. 2

Fig. 3

The dc equivalent circuit is shown fig. 3. No bias is applied to the transistor. Therefore, its Q-
point is at cut off on the dc load line VBE= 0.7V. Therefore no IL current flows until input is
more than 0.7 V. Also dc resistance is RS (the resistance of inductor) which is very small
and therefore dc load line is almost vertical. There is no danger of thermal runway because
there is no current other than from leakage.

The IC(sat) current is given by

where rC is the collector resistance.

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The voltage VCE(sate) is given by

when ICQ = 0, VCEQ = VCC

When the Q of a resonant circuit is greater than 10. One can use the approximate ac equivalent
circuit. The series resistance of the inductor is lumped into the collector resistance. At
resonance, the peak-to-peak load voltage reaches a maximum. The bandwidth of a resonant
circuit is given by

Band width (BW) = f 2 � f 1

f 1 = Lower cut off frequency.
f 2 = Upper cut off frequency

The bandwidth is related to the resonant frequency and the circuit Q as below:

BW = f r / Q

This means a large Q produces small BW equivalent to sharp tuning. These amplifiers have Q
greater than 10. This means that the BW is less than 10% of the resonant frequencies. These
amplifiers are also called narrow band amplifier.

When the tank circuit is resonant the ac load impedence seen by the collector current source is
purely resistive and the collector current is minimum. Above and below resonance, the ac
load impedence decreases and the collector current decreases. Any coil or inductor has some
series resistance RS as shown in fig. 4.

The Q of all coil is given by.

QL=XL/RL

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Fig. 4

The series resistance can be replaced by parallel resistance R P . This equivalent resistance is
given by

R P = Q L RL

Now all the losses in the coil are now being represented by the parallel resistance R P and series
resistance RS no longer exists XC cancels XL at resonance. Leaving only RP in parallel with
RL.

Therefore,

RC = RP || RL

Q of the overall circuit = rC / XL

Current Sources

There are different methods of simulating a dc current source for integrated circuit amplifier
biasing. One type of current source used to provide a fixed current is the fixed bias transistor
circuit. The problem with this type of current source is that it requires too many resistors to
be practically implemented on IC. The resistors in the following circuits are small and easy
to fabricate on IC chips. When the current source is used to replace a large resistor the
Thevenin resistance of the current source is the equivalent resistance value.

A simple current source

The simple two transistor current source shown in fig. 1 is commonly used in ICs.

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Fig. 1

A reference current is the input to a transistor connected as a diode. The voltage across this
transistor drives the second transistor, where RE = 0. Since the circuit has only one resistor,
it can be easily fabricated on an IC chip.

The disadvantage of this circuit is that the reference current is approximately equal to the
current source. In this circuit, Q2 is in linear mode, since the collector voltage (output) is
higher than the base voltage. The transistor Q1 and Q2 are identical devices fabricated on the
same IC chip. The emitter currents are equal since the transistors are matched and emitters
and bases are in parallel. If we sum the currents of Q2, we obtain.

IB + IC =IE

So

Summing currents at the collector of Q1 we obtain

If β is large, the current gain is approximately unity and the current mirror has reproduced the
input current. One disadvantage of this current source is that its Thevenin resistance (R TH) is
limited by the r o (1 / hoe) of the transistor. That is

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Widlar Current Source

Large resistors are often required to maintain small currents of the order of few �A and these
large resistors occupy correspondingly large areas on the IC chip. It is therefore, desirable to
replace these large resistors with current sources. One such device is the Widlar current
source as shown in fig. 2.

The two transistors are assumed perfectly matched. For

the base circuit,

(E-4)

For a forward biased base-emitter junction diode, the

emitter current is given by

Since iE ≈ iC = IC and n = 1

Fig. 2
and (E-5)

Substituting VBE1 and VBE2 from (E-5) to (E-4), we get

(E-6)

We have assumed that both the transistors are matched so that I CO, β and VT are the same for
both the transistors. Thus

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Hence, (E-7)

where, (E-8)

For design purposes, IC1 is usually known since it is used as the reference for all current
sources on the entire chip and IC2 is t he desired output current. The Widlar circuit can also
be used to simulate a high resistance.

Example-1

Design a Widlar current source to provide a constant current source of 3 �A with VCC = 12V,
R1 = 50 kO, β =100 and VBE = 0.7V

Solution:

The circuit is given in fig.2 . Applying KVL to the Q1 transistor we get,

Using the equation (E-7) we can calculate R2

or R2 = 36 kΩ

Wilson Current Source

Another current source transistor configuration that provides a very large parallel resistance is
the Wilson current source which uses three transistors and provides this capability an the
output is almost independent of the internal transistor characteristics. The Wilson current
source as shown in fig. 3, uses the negative feedback provided by Q3 to raise the output
impedance

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Fig. 3

The difference between the reference current and I C1 is the base current of Q2.

IE2 =(β + 1) IB2 = IC3 (E-9)

Since the base of Q1 is connected to the base of Q3, the currents in Q1 are approximately
independent of the voltage of the collector of Q2. As such, the collector current of
Q2 remains almost constant providing high output impedance.

Let us now see that IC2 is approximately equal to IREF. Applying Kirchhoff's current law at the
emitter of Q2 yields

IE2 = IC3 + IB3 + IB1 (E-10)

Using the relationship between collector and base currents

(E-11)

Since all three transistors are matched, VBE1= VBE2 = VBE3 and β1 = β2 = β3

With identical transistors, current in the feedback path splits equally between the bases of
Q1 and Q3 leading so that IB1 = IB3 and therefore IC1 = IC3. Thus, the emitter current of
Q2 becomes

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(E-12)

The collector current of Q2 is

(E-13)

Solving for IC3 yields

(E-14)

Summing currents at the base of Q2,

(E-15)

(E-16)

Since IC1 = IC3, we substitute IC3 to obtain

(E-17)

and solving for IC2

(E-18)

Equation (E-10) shows that β has little effect upon IC2 since, for reasonable values of β.

(E-19)

Therefore, IC2 = IREF

Multiple Current sources Using Current Mirrors

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A number of current sources can be obtained from a single reference voltage. If the current is
approximately the same as the reference voltage, the simple current source can be used as
shown in fig. 4 for Q2 and Q3.

Fig. 4

Notice that Q4 has an emitter resistance, which makes the current source a Widlar current
source. Thus the amount of current delivered by this source can be determined by the size of
the emitter resistor. This type of circuit is useful in integrated circuit chips as the one
reference circuit can be used to develop current sources throughout the chip. When using the
Widlar circuit, the currents can be different from the reference current.

The errors in base current, however, do accumulate when multiple outputs are used and the
current gain tends to deviate from unity. In these types of circuits, lateral transistors can be
used since it is not important that b be large. Lateral transistors usually have a β of
approximately 20 which is more than adequate for current sources.

Example -2:

For the circuit shown in fig. 5, determine the emitter current in transistor Q3. Given that β =
100, VBE = 0.715V.

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Fig. 5

Solution:

Since all transistor are identical, there VBE voltage drop will be same.

Let IB be the base current of each transistor and I C be the collector current of Q1 and Q2.

Therefore,

Example - 1

Determine the current and voltage gains for the two-stage capacitor-coupled amplifier shown
in fig. 1.

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Fig. 1

Solution:

We develop the hybrid equivalent circuit for the multistage amplifier. This equivalent is shown
in fig. 2. Primed variables denote output stage quantities and unprimed variables denote
input stage quantities.

Fig. 2

Calculations for the output stages are as follows

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For the input stage,

The input resistance is determined as:

The current gain, Ai, can be found by applying the equations derived earlier, where the first
stage requires using the correct value for R load derived form the value of Rin to the next
stage.

Alternatively, we analyze fig. 2 by extracting four current dividers as shown in fig. 3.

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Fig. 3

The current division of the input stage is

The output of the first stage is coupled to the input of he second stage in fig. 3(b). The input
resistance of the second stage is

The current in R'in is iload and is given by

Again, i load is current-divided at the input to the second stage. Thus,

The output current is found from fig. 3(c):

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The current gain is then

Ai =927

Now using the gain impedance formula, we find the voltage gain:

Impedance Coupling:

At higher frequency impedance coupling is used. The collector resistance is replaced by an

inductor as shown in fig. 4. As the frequency increases, XL approaches infinity and each
inductor appears open. In other words, inductors pass dc but block ac. When used in this
way, the inductors are called RFchokes.

Fig. 4

The advantage is that no signal power is wasted in collector resistors. These RF chokes are
relatively expensive and their impedance drops off at lower frequencies. It is suitable at
radio frequency above 20 KHz.

Transformer Coupling:

In this case a transformer is used to transfer the ac output voltage of the first stage to the input
of the second stage. Fig. 5, the resistors RC is replaced by the primary winding of the

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transformer. The secondary winding is used to give input to next stage. There is no coupling
capacitor. The dc isolation between the two stages provided by the transformer itself. There
is no power loss in primary winding because of low resistance.

Fig. 5

At low frequency the size and cost of the transformer increases. Transformer coupling is still
used in RF amplifiers. In AM radio receivers, RF signal have frequencies 550 to 1600 KHz.
In TV receivers, the frequencies are 54 to 216 MHz. At these frequency the size and cost of
the transformer reduces. CS capacitor is used to make other point of transformer grounded,
so that ac signal is applied between base and ground.

Tuned Transformer Coupling:

In this case a capacitor is shunted across primary winding to get resonance as shown in fig. 6.
At this frequency the gain is maximum and at other frequencies the gain reduces very much.
This allows us to filter out all frequencies except the resonant frequency and those near it.
This is the principle behind tuning in a radio station or TV channel.

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Fig. 6

Example - 2

Design a transformer-coupled amplifier as shown in fig. 7 for a current gain of Ai = 80. Find
the power supplied to the load and the power required from the supply.

Fig. 7

Solution:

We first use the design equation to find the location of the Q-point for maximum output swing.

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Since the problem statement requires a current gain of 80, the amplifier must have a current
gain of 10 because the transformer provides an additional gain of 8. We use the equations
from Chapter 5 to find the base resistance RB,

We note that re is sufficiently small to be neglected. Then, solving for RB yields

Now solving for the bias resistors,

The design is now complete. The power delivered by the source is given by

The power dissipated in the load is

We have restricted operation to the linear region by eliminating 5% of the maximum swing
near cutoff and saturation. The efficiency is the ratio of the load to source power.

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Oscillators

Objectives:
– To understand
• The basic operation of an Oscillator • the working of low frequency oscillators
– RC phase shift oscillator – Wien bridge Oscillator
• the working of tuned oscillator – Colpitt‟s Oscillator, Hartley Oscillator – Crystal
Oscillator
• the working of UJT Oscillator

Basic operation of an Oscillator

An amplifier with positive feedback results in oscillations if the following

conditions are satisfied:

– The loop gain ( product of the gain of the amplifier and the gain of the
feedback network) is unity

– The total phase shift in the loop is 0

• If the output signal is sinusoidal, such a circuit is referred to as sinusoidal oscillator.

When the switch at the amplifier input is open, there are no oscillations. Imagine that a voltage
Vi is fed to the circuit and the switch is closed. This results in V

When the switch at the amplifier input is open, there are no oscillations. Imagine that a voltage
Vi is fed to the circuit and the switch is closed. This results in and
is fed back to the circuit. If we make Vf = V then even if we remove the input
voltage to the circuit, the output continues to exist.
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then from the above equation, it is clear that,  A =1V

Thus in the above block diagram, by closing the switch and removing the input, we are
able to get the oscillations at the output if  AV =1, where  A is called theLoop gain.
Positive feedback refers to the fact that the fed back signal is in phase with the input signal.
This means that the signal experiences 0 phase shift while traveling in the loop. The
above condition along with the unity loop gain needs to be satisfied to get the sustained
oscillations. These conditions are referred to as „Barkhausen criterion‟. Another way of
seeing how the feedback circuit provides operation as an oscillator is obtained by noting the
denominator in the basic equation
Af = A / (1+A).
When A = -1 or magnitude 1 at a phase angle of 180, the denominator becomes 0 and
the gain with feedback Af becomes infinite.Thus, an infinitesimal signal ( noise voltage) can
provide a measurable output voltage, and the circuit acts as an oscillator even without an
input signal.
Phase shift oscillator

• The phase
shift oscillator utilizes three RC circuits to provide 180º phase shift that when coupled with
the 180º of the op-amp itself provides the necessary feedback to sustain oscillations.
• The gain must be at least 29 to maintain the oscillations. The frequency of resonance for the
this type is similar to any RC circuit oscillator:

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• The amplifier stage is self biased with a capacitor bypassed source resistor Rs and a drain
bias resistor Rd . The FET device parameters of interest are gm and rd.

• At the operating frequency, we can assume that the input impedance of the
amplifier is infinite .
• This is a valid approximation provided, the oscillator operating frequency is low enough so
that FET capacitive impedances can be neglected.
• The output impedance of the amplifier stage given by R should also be small compared to
the impedance seen looking into the feedback network so that no attenuation due to loading
occurs.

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• If a transistor is used as the active element of the amplifier stage, the output of thfeedback
network is loaded appreciably by the relatively low input resistance ( h ie) of the transistor.
• An emitter – follower input stage followed by a common emitter amplifier stage
could be used.If a single transistor stage is desired, the use of voltage – shunt feedback is more
suitable. Here, the feedback signal is coupled through the feedback resistor R‟ in series with
the amplifier stage input resistance ( R i).

Problem:
It is desired to design a phase shift oscillator using an FET having g = 5000S rd= 40 k ,
and a feedback circuit value of R = 10 k. Select the value of C for oscillator operation at 5
kHz and RD for A > 29 to ensure oscillator action.

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Wien bridge oscillator

A Wien bridge oscillator is a type of electronic oscillator that generates sine waves. It can
generate a large range of frequencies. The circuit is based on an electrical network originally
developed by Max Wien in 1891. The bridge comprises four resistors and two capacitors. It
can also be viewed as a positive feedback system combined with a bandpass filter. Wien did
not have a means of developing electronic gain so a workable oscillator could not be realized.

The modern circuit is derived from William Hewlett's 1939 Stanford University master's
degree thesis. Hewlett, along with David Packard co-founded Hewlett-Packard. Their first
product was the HP 200A, a precision sine wave oscillator based on the Wien bridge. The
200A was one of the first instruments to produce such low distortion.

The frequency of oscillation is given by:

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Analysis

Input admittance analysis

If a voltage source is applied directly to the input of an ideal amplifier with feedback, the input
current will be:

Where vin is the input voltage, vout is the output voltage, and Zf is the feedback impedance. If
the voltage gain of the amplifier is defined as:

And the input admittance is defined as:

Input admittance can be rewritten as:

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For the Wien bridge, Zf is given by:

If Av is greater than 1, the input admittance is a negative resistance in parallel with an

inductance. The inductance is:

If a capacitor with the same value of C is placed in parallel with the input, the circuit has a
natural resonance at:

Substituting and solving for inductance yields:

If Av is chosen to be 3:

Lin = R2C

Substituting this value yields:

Or:
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Similarly, the input resistance at the frequency above is:

For Av = 3:

Rin = − R

If a resistor is placed in parallel with the amplifier input, it will cancel some of the negative
resistance. If the net resistance is negative, amplitude will grow until clipping occurs.
Similarly, if the net resistance is positive, oscillation amplitude will decay. If a resistance is
added in parallel with exactly the value of R, the net resistance will be infinite and the circuit
can sustain stable oscillation at any amplitude allowed by the amplifier.

Notice that increasing the gain makes the net resistance more negative, which increases
amplitude. If gain is reduced to exactly 3 when a suitable amplitude is reached, stable, low
distortion oscillations will result. Amplitude stabilization circuits typically increase gain until a
suitable output amplitude is reached. As long as R, C, and the amplifier are linear, distortion
will be minimal.

Crystal oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating
crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency.
This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches), to provide
a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio
transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz
crystal, so oscillator circuits designed around them were called "crystal oscillators".

Quartz crystals are manufactured for frequencies from a few tens of kilohertz to tens of
megahertz. More than two billion (2×109) crystals are manufactured annually. Most are small
devices for consumer devices such as wristwatches, clocks, radios, computers, and cellphones.
Quartz crystals are also found inside test and measurement equipment, such as counters, signal
generators, and oscilloscopes

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A quartz crystal can be modeled as an electrical network with a low impedance (series) and a
high impedance (parallel) resonance point spaced closely together. Mathematically (using the
Laplace transform) the impedance of this network can be written as:

or,

where s is the complex frequency (s = jω), ωs is the series resonant frequency in radians per
second and ωp is the parallel resonant frequency in radians per second.

Adding additional capacitance across a crystal will cause the parallel resonance to shift
downward. This can be used to adjust the frequency at which a crystal oscillator oscillates.
Crystal manufacturers normally cut and trim their crystals to have a specified resonance
frequency with a known 'load' capacitance added to the crystal. For example, a 6 pF 32 kHz
crystal has a parallel resonance frequency of 32,768 Hz when a 6.0 pF capacitor is placed
across the crystal. Without this capacitance, the resonance frequency is higher than 32,768 Hz.

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