The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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How to design valve guitar amplifiers! The AC-Coupled Cathode Follower

The AC-coupled cathode follower is normally used as a means of coupling a high output impedance to a low input impedance with minimal "insertion loss" (i.e., not much loss of signal amplitude). The cathode follower has very low input capacitance and a very high input impedance so it will not load down the previous stage, and very low output impedance so very little signal is lost even when driving a fairly low input impedance. The cathode follower is an excellent buffer stage for driving a tone stack or effects loop, or any circuit which would otherwise present a heavy load to a "normal" stage. In addition, the DC-Coupled cathode follower can also be used to produce a unique compressive quality, and is to be found in most of the classic amp designs. The AC-coupled version is not so useful for this, since the input couling cap prevents the flow of quiescent grid current. The AC-coupled version is therefore used as a tonally transparent stage, usually. The output signal is taken off the cathode and is in-phase with, or 'follows' the input; hence the name. The signal could also be taken off the junction of Rb, Rl and Rg, it does really matter which. The load resistor is placed in the cathode circuit and results in 100% negative internal feedback taking place, giving very low non-linear distortion and a very linear response from very low to very high frequencies, making it especially suited to hifi applications. The only significant drawback is that the high level of internal feedback also limits the maximum voltage gain to slightly less than unity. Because the cathode follower cannot provide a voltage gain greater than 1, it can be regarded purely as a current amplifier. In this sense it has an advantage over transformer

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The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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coupling, which cannot step up current without stepping down voltage. It makes sense then, to use a medium to high current valve that will provide plenty of drive. The ECC83 (12AX7) is poorly suited to this task due to its low current handling and limited output swing into low loads, but it is still acceptable for guitar purposes, although less desirable. Pentodes can perform even better as cathode followers, but in a guitar amp triodes are perfectly adequate and require fewer components. Designing a cathode follower is even more simple than designing a normal gain stage, since it doesn't really have to DO anything except isolate one circuit from the next! For the following example we will design a cathode follower to act as a buffer for an effects loop. The ECC82 (12AU7) is particularly suited to this job as we do not require significant gain, has good current drive and is capable of maintaining large signal swings into low impedance loads. The second triode in the ECC82 could be used to amplify the returning effects signal. The output impedance can be closely approximated as: Zout = ra/mu = 1/gm Using values from the data sheet we can immediatly see that our expected output impedance will be in the region of 410R. You can of course use values from your actual load line to get a more accurate answer. For most valves it will be less than a kilo-ohm which is very low indeed. Choosing the load: Although the load is applied to the cathode and not anode, a load line can still be drawn in the normal way. Generally we would like the load resistor (Rl) to be less than the value of exturnal load impedance. If it isn't, then the output signal swing will be more restricted when driving low impedance circuits. It is therefore desirable to use as low a value for Rl as possible, as low as we dare without taxing the power supply too much. (Of course, if we never expect to drive a really heavy load, less than 50k say, then this is not such a great concern.) In this case a value of 18k is chosen, which is low enough to maintain a reasonable swing into loads as low as, say, 10k. In this example the HT is 280V.

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The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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The gain can now be calculated: If mu is large compared to 1 (as it usually is), the gain can be approximated to: Av = mu / (mu + 1) Av = 19 / (19 + 1) = 0.95 Biasing: Since we are only desining a clean buffer we probably want maximum headroom, and for maximum headroom we need to centre-bias the stage bias. In this case a bias of about -8V would acheive this. On the other hand, if we don't expect to drive really low loads then we are probably more interested in very low output impedance for noise rejection (such as when driving long exturnal cables), in which case we want to maximise gm by hot-biasing. In this case a bias of about -3.4V is chosen, giving about 50Vpk before clipping, into easy loads. Remembering that the quiescent voltage shown on the load line actually indicates the anode to cathode voltage, the actual quiescent voltage on the cathode is therefore equal to the HT - Vak. An easy way to read off the true cathode voltage quickly is to add a reversed voltage scale to the graph, whose '0V' point corresponds to the HT.

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The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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In this case the load line indicates that the voltage across the valve is 140V. The cathode voltage must therefore be HT-Vak = 280-140 = 140V. The grid voltage must be 140+(-3.4) = 136.6V The necessary grid voltage can be set by using a fixed potential divider from HT. This method has the advantage of correctly setting the bias even with variations in HT / valve characteristics. The disadvantage is low input impedance, which will be equal to the two divider resistors in parallel, and also the grid voltage will rise faster than the cathode voltage at switch-on, which poses the risk of grid-cathode arcing, and HT noise could also be coupled directly to the grid. The cathode-biased version has the advantage of increased input impedance. To set the grid voltage using this method we need only tap off a voltage from the load resistor and apply it to the grid through the grid leak resistor, and this is done simply by adding a bias resistor in the same way as for a normal grounded cathode gain stage. In this case we require a Vgk of about -3.4V at a current of about 8mA. Use Ohm's law to find the bias resistor: 3.4 / 0.008 = 425R The nearest standard is 470R and that will do fine. Grid leak and input impedance: We can now apply the voltage at the bottom of the bias resistor to the grid, via a grid-leak resistor. This can be chosen in the normal way, but it can also be made much smaller than usual, without causing undue signal loss. Using smaller value resistors is always desirable as it reduces noise. Unlike a normal grounded cathode stage, the input impedance is not equal to the grid-leak resistor; it is in fact many times higher due to the following: The AC signal taken from the cathode is identical in phase, and only fractionally lower in amplitude than the input signal. Obviously, the same signal also then appears at the junction of Rb and Rl, albeit slightly attenuated due to the potential divider formed by Rb and Rl. Since Rl will normally be much larger than Rb, the degree of attenuation will only be small. What this means is that at the bottom of the grid-leak resistor there is an AC signal, identical in phase, and only slightly lower in amplitude to the input signal which is at the top of the grid-leak resistor. Therefore the difference in voltage between the top and bottom of the grid-leak resistor is very small, much smaller than if it were connected directly to ground. This effect is known as 'bootstrapping', and results in negligible signal current being lost through the grid-leak resistor, it increases the input impedance of the stage hugely, making it

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The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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equal to: Zin = Rg / (1 - Av * (Rl / Rl + Rb)) The ECC82 data sheet quotes the maximum grid leak for cathode bias as 1Meg. To be on the safe side though, 470k is more appropriate. According to the formula, input impedance will be: Zin = 470000 / (1 - 0.93 * (18000 / 18000 + 470)) = 5Meg In practice it may be slightly lower than this, but it will still be several meg-ohms which is so high it can be ignored for most purposes! Input coupling capacitor: Because the grid is now at a high DC potential it will require a coupling capacitor to block the DC from upsetting previous stages (remember, it will need to be a high-voltage capacitor). Since the input impedance is so high, the capacitor can be chosen soley based on the desired "node impedance" (a node is simply a single point in a circuit, such as the reactance of the capacitor alone). We don't want the capacitor to have a very high reactance as it could induce noise. Instead we will choose an arbitrary reactance of 1Meg at a nice low frequency of 5Hz and calculate the value in the normal way: Cin = 1 / (2 * pi * f * Xc) Cin = 1 / (2* pi * 5 * 1000000) = 32nF 33nF is the nearest standard, although the more common value of 22nF or even 10nF would probably be fine too. Input capacitance: Because in a cathode follower the anode remains at constant potential the Miller effect is eliminated, and due to internal feedback the grid-to-cathode capacitance (Cgk) is actually divided by the open-loop gain of the stage (Ao). Ao is the gain before feedback and can be taken directly from the load line, in this case it is about 15. The inter-electrode capacitances given on the data sheet for the ECC82 are: Cga = 1.5pF Cgk = 1.4pF Cdyn = Cga + (Cgk / Ao)

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The Valve Wizard -Cathode Follower

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Cdyn = 1.5 + (1.4 / 15) = 1.6pF In audio circuits then, the input capacitance of a cathode follower is so small that it can usually be ignored, and large grid stoppers can be used without worry. Heater elevation: It is very important not to exceed the maximum heater-to-cathode voltage. Since the cathode is at a high voltage it is often necessary to elevate the heater supply to ensure safe operation and long valve life. Vhk(max) for the ECC82 is 180V. In this case we are operating quite close to this limit so we should elevate the heater by 30V say, or more. The output coupling capacitor will also need to be a high-voltage type, and can be chosen based on whatever you happen to be plugging the cathode follower into. Adding a resistor (around 1k) in series with the output will ensure stability, although it is rarely a problem. The output signal could also be taken from the junction of Rb, Rl and Rg. The signal will be slightly attenuated, but stability is ensured since Rb is then in series with the output impedance. Using the other half of the ECC82 as a recovery stage with a gain of around 16, a whole buffered serial effects loop can be made with only one valve.

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