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Power Amplifiers
A/Prof. Daniel
W. OHagan
18 20 May 2015
Contents
Amplifier Basics
AMPLIFIER BASICS
Power Amplifiers
CLASS A
POWER AMPLIFIERS
Class A Amplifiers
An amplifier biased such that it always operates in the linear region where the
output signal is an amplified replica of the input signal, is a Class A amplifier.
Class A power amplifiers are large-signal amplifiers with the objective of
providing power (rather than voltage) to a load.
Basic Class A amplifier operation. Output is shown 180 out of phase with the
input (inverted).
Note: Linear mode is when a power transistor is operated partially on rather
than fully on or fully off.
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Revision
What does the Q-Point mean?
A transistor must be properly biased with a DC voltage in order to operate as
a linear amplifier.
A DC operating point must be set so that signal variations at the input terminal
are amplified and accurately reproduced at the output terminal.
When you bias a transistor, you establish the DC voltage and current values.
This means, for example, that at the DC operating point, IC and VCE have
specified values.
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Revision
What is DC load line?
The DC load line is the line that represents every possible value of collector
current IC and the voltage across the collector and emitter, VCE.
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The collector-to-emitter voltage can only swing down to its saturation value
and an equal amount above VCEQ.
This situation is illustrated in Figure (a).
If the amplifier is driven any further, it will clip at saturation, as shown in
Figure (b).
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where AP is the power gain, PL is signal power delivered to the load, and Pin
is signal power delivered to the amplifier.
The power gain can be computed by any of several formulas, depending on
what is known. Frequently, the easiest way to obtain power gain is from input
resistance, load resistance, and voltage gain.
Recall that power can be expressed in terms of voltage and resistance as
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The maximum unclipped AC signal occurs when the Q-point is centred on the
AC load line.
For a CE amplifier with a centred Q-point, the maximum peak voltage swing is
To find the maximum signal power output, use the rms values of maximum
current and voltage.
The maximum power out from a Class A amplifier is
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The efficiency of any amplifier is the ratio of the output signal power supplied
to a load to the total power from the DC supply.
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Recap
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You can get more output power for a given amount of input power.
A disadvantage of Class B or Class AB is that it is more difficult to implement
the circuit to get a linear reproduction of the input waveform.
The term push-pull refers to a common type of Class B or Class AB amplifier
circuit in which two transistors are used on alternating half-cycles to reproduce
the input waveform at the output.
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The previous circuit only conducts for the positive half of the cycle.
To amplify the entire cycle, it is necessary to add a second Class B amplifier
that operates on the negative half of the cycle.
The combination of two Class B amplifiers working together is called pushpull operation.
One technique for achieving pus-pull operation is called complementary
transistor symmetry.
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Transistor Q1 conducts during the positive half of the input cycle, and Q2
conducts during the negative half.
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This current mirror produces the desired Class AB operation and eliminates
crossover distortion.
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IT
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IT
1 2
1 + 2
20 0.7 0.7
470 +470
IT
1 = 1 = 20 19.8
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IT
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Recap
Class B and Class AB amplifiers are more efficient than Class A amplifiers.
Class B amplifiers are about 79% efficient (Class AB slightly less).
Basic Class B amplifiers conduct over 180 of input.
To conduct over the full input cycle, the Class B utilises complementary
transistor symmetry in a push-pull arrangement where the npn transistor
conducts over the positive input cycle and the pnp over the negative input
cycle.
Class B amplifiers suffer from cross-over distortion resulting from the time
interval between the positive and negative alternations of the input when
neither transistor is conducting.
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CLASS C
POWER AMPLIFIERS
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The short pulse of collector current on each cycle of the input initiates and
sustains the oscillation of the tank circuit so that an output sinusoidal voltage
is produced
The tank circuit has high impedance only near the resonant frequency, so the
gain is large only at this frequency.
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APPLICATIONS
Amplifier Technology
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Peralex
Pentek
GaGe
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Thank you!
Daniel W. OHagan
daniel.ohagan@uct.ac.za
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