2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

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The Voltage Follower

The voltage follower has a open-circuit voltage gain Avo = 1 with the result that

vout = vin !

ideal
vin

vout = vin

Q: Pfft! The output voltage is

equal to the input voltage?!

Why even bother?

A:
To see why the voltage follower is important, consider the following
example.
Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

2/7

What a great amp

Say you have toiled for hours to design and build the following audio amplifier:
+15V

+15V

Avo = -200 (midband)

3.7K

Rout = 1 K
Ri = 370

1K

0.1 f

vout
vin
0.1 f

2.3K

1K

0.1 f

Q: Avo = 200 !With this much gain

well be shakin the windowsright?

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

3/7

or, maybe not

A: Actually, if we connected this amplifier directly to a speaker, nothing would
happensilence!
Q: ???

A: The reason for this is that the resistance of most speakers is very small (4
-8 ).

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

4/7

Whats the problem then?

We can use the linear equivalent circuit model of the audio amplifier to analyze
the result:

1K

vin
+

vin
-

370

+
-

200vin

vout

= 0.8 vin
+
4
1000

vout = 200 vin

The output of this amplifier is even smaller than its input!

The problem, of course, is not that the open-circuit voltage gain is too small
after all, its 200!

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

5/7

The output resistance is just too large!

The problem is that the amplifier output resistance (Rout = 377) is much larger
than the load resistance RL= 4 .
Therefore, we have tremendous loss due to the resulting voltage divider:
4
0.004
4 + 1000
+15V

There is a solution to this

problemuse a voltage follower!

3.7K

+15V

1K

0.1 f

+
4

vin
0.1 f

2.3K

Jim Stiles

vout
-

1K

The Univ. of Kansas

0.1 f

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

6/7

The voltage follower to the rescue!

Lets again use the linear equivalent model to analyze this circuit and find the
output voltage vout.

vin

1K
+

vin
-

370

+
-

200 v i

vi1
-

+
-

1vi

vout

4
1
= 200 vin
1000 + 0 + 4

vout = 200 vin

Weve got back our gain!

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS

2/18/2011

The Voltage Follower lecture

7/7

The voltage follower: a useful buffer

Note:
1. Instead of 4, the audio amp sees a load of , the input resistance
of the voltage followerthis is ideal!

2. Instead of 377, the speaker sees a source resistance of 0, the

output resistance of the voltage followerthis too is ideal!

Remember, there are three characterizing parameters of an amplifieropen

circuit voltage gain is just one of those three!
The input and output impedance of the voltage follower make it an excellent
buffer between two circuits!

Jim Stiles

The Univ. of Kansas

Dept. of EECS