1

Power Amplifiers
Power Amplifiers are used in the transmitter
There are different classes for the power
amplifier
Class A, Class B, Class AB, Class C, Class D
and Class E
Those amplifier differs in their angle of
conduction, efficiency, linearity and the in the
amount of distortion they introduce to the
system
2
Power Amplifiers
Class A
The amplifier conducts through the full
360 of the input. The Q-point is set near
the middle of the load line.

Class B
The amplifier conducts through 180 of the
input. The Q-point is set at the cutoff point.

3
Power Amplifiers
Class AB
This is a compromise between the class A
and B amplifiers. The amplifier conducts
somewhere between 180 and 360 . The Q-
point is located between the mid-point and
cutoff.
Class C
The amplifier conducts less than 180 of the
input. The Q-point is located below the cutoff
level.
4
Power Amplifiers
Class D
This is an amplifier that is biased especially
for digital signals.

5
Class C power amplifiers
Class C amplifier is obtained if the output
current conduction angle is less than 180
Class C have a greater efficiency than both
class A and class B
Class C also have larger distortion compared
with the A and B
Class C amplifier is used when there is no
variation in signal amplitude and the output
circuit contains a tuned circuit to filter out the
harmonics
Class C amplifier is used for applications
similar to FM Modulation
6
Class C power amplifiers
The output of the class C conducts for less
than 180 of the AC cycle
The Q-point is below cutoff as shown below
7
Power Amplifiers Class C
8
Class C power amplifier
The circuit
shown to the left
will be
considered in
analysis of the
class C amplifier
9
Class C power amplifier
The amplifier efficiency can be computed from
the following equation


The output power is the AC power flowing in
the load resistance
The input power is the supply power which can
be determined from the multiplication of the
supply voltage and the average collector current
The main step in the analysis is to compute the
average collector current which is explained in
the next slide
DC
AC
i
o
P
P
P
P
= = q
10
Class C power amplifier
According to the
figure shown to
the left, the
collector current is
given by


Where I
D
is given
by
11
Class C power amplifier
The direct collector current is determined by its
average value which is given by


It is desired to find the current as a function of
the angles
1
and
2
rather than t
1
and t
2

This can be achieved by using the following
mapping and
}
=
2
1
) sin (
1
t
t
D p Cav
dt I t I
T
I e
e
u
1
1
= t
e
u
2
2
= t
12
Class C power amplifier
The average collector current can be rewritten as


By evaluating this equation we may have the
following expression


To simplify the notation, the conduction angle
will be defined as
}
=
e
u
e
u
e
2
1
) sin (
1
dt I t I
T
I
D p Cav
I
Cav
13
Class C power amplifier
By substituting the conduction angle expression
into the average collector current equation we
get

Now the supplied input power can be written as


If the output RLC circuit is a narrow band filter
tuned to the fundamental frequency of the
current pulses, then the output power will be

) cos (sin u u u
t
= =
p
CC
Cav CC i
I
V
I V P
) cos (sin u u u
t
=
p
Cav
I
I
14
Class C power amplifier
Where I
1
is the amplitude of the fundamental
current components which is determined by the
trigonometric Fourier series as shown below


By solving the previous equation we may have


The output power now can be written as
) 2 sin 2 (
4
1 2
1
2
1 2
1
u u
t
= = =
p CC
CC O
I V
I V RL I P
15
Class C power amplifier
The efficiency of the amplifier can be written as


A plot of the efficiency as a a function of the
conduction angle is shown below
) cos (sin 4
2 sin 2
1 2
1
u u u
u u
q

= = =
Cav CC
CC
i
O
I V
I V
P
P
16
Class C power amplifier design
There are four important design parameters
are of great importance for PA design in
general
These parameters are
The output power
Transistor power dissipation
Maximum collector to emitter voltage V
CEmax

The maximum transistor output current I
p
17
Class C power amplifier design
The maximum collector current is given by

Since
The collector current can be rewritten as

The maximum current in terms of the output
current can be written as


Note that the value of the collector voltage
V
CC
can be written as
18
Class C power amplifier design
Now the maximum collector current can be
rewritten as

A normalized peak collector current is
defined as
19
Class C power amplifier design
A plot of the normalized peak current versus
the conduction angle is shown below
20
Class C power amplifier design
The power dissipated in the transistor is given
by

Note the value of I
p
can be expressed as


From we can conclude that


If the value of I
p
is substituted in the P
T

equation then
2
) cos (
1
I V
Sin
I V
P P P
CC P CC
O i T
= = u u u
t
u cos 1
=
M
p
I
I
u u
t
2 sin 2
2
1

=
I
I
p
21
Class C power amplifier design
The power dissipated in the transistor is given
by

Or P
T
can be rewritten as


2
)
2 sin 2
cos sin
( 2
1
1
I V
I V P
CC
CC T

=
u u
u u u
22
Class C power amplifier design
A normalized plot of P
T
/P
O
versus theta is
shown below



23
Class C power amplifier design
example
Example: Design a class C amplifier that will
deliver 5-W average power to a 50 load at a
frequency of 1 MHz using a transistor with a
safe power dissipation rating of 0.5 W
Solution:
The average output power is given by


Or



V P R VCC
O L
4 . 22 5 50 2 2 = = =
24
Class C power amplifier design
example
Solution:
Since the allowable power dissipation is

The maximum conduction angle can be found
from the graph shown in slide 19 or by
solving the P
T
/P
O
equation
The value of the normalized current corresponds
to this angle is refer to the figure in
slide 16
The peak collector current is given by
5 . 57 = u
25
Class C power amplifier design
An alternate design procedure for class C
amplifiers is
Select the power supply
Select the transistor
Determine the maximum output power without
exceeding the transistor ratings
The transistor then can be driven to its maximum
allowed value of output current
Determine the value of the load resistance that twill
result in the maximum current according to
26
Class C power amplifier design
Now the transistor power equation can be
modified as


The normalized transistor power dissipation
is given by

Where
u
u u u u u
u
cos 1
) 2 sin 2 ( ) cos (sin 4
) (

= f
27
Class C power amplifier design

28
Class C power amplifier design
example 2
Example 2: Determine the maximum output
power and the conduction angle of a class C
amplifier using a transistor with maximum
power dissipation rating of 4 W and a
maximum output current of 1.5 A. The supply
voltage is 48 V
Solution:
The normalized maximum transistor dissipation
is given by
29
Class C power amplifier design
example 2
Solution:
The conduction angle for maximum normalized
transistor power P
T
is found to be as
If we refer back (P
T
/P
O
vs ) plot we find that the
value of P
T
/P
O
which corresponds to this
angle is
The output power now can be found as

30
Class C power amplifier design
example 2
Solution:
Finally the value of the load resistance that
results in this output power is given by