Introduction to the Amplifier

An amplifier is an electronic device or circuit which is used to increase the magnitude of

the signal applied to its input

Amplifier is the generic term used to describe a circuit which produces and increased
version of its input signal. However, not all amplifier circuits are the same as they are
classified according to their circuit configurations and modes of operation.
There are many forms of electronic circuits classed as amplifiers, from Operational
Amplifiers and Small Signal Amplifiers up to Large Signal and Power Amplifiers. The
classification of an amplifier depends upon the size of the signal, large or small, its
physical configuration and how it processes the input signal, that is the relationship
between input signal and current flowing in the load.
The type or classification of an Amplifier is given in the following table.

Classification of Signal Amplifier

Type of Frequency of
Type of Signal Classification
Configuration Operation

Small Signal Common Emitter Class A Amplifier Direct Current (DC)

Large Signal Common Base Class B Amplifier Audio Frequencies (AF)

Class AB
Common Collector Radio Frequencies (RF)
Amplifier

VHF, UHF and SHF

Class C Amplifier
Frequencies
 Amplifiers can be thought of as a simple box or block containing the amplifying
device, such as a Bipolar Transistor, Field Effect Transistor or Operational Amplifier,
which has two input terminals and two output terminals (ground being common) with the
output signal being much greater than that of the input signal as it has been “Amplified”.
An ideal signal amplifier will have three main properties: Input Resistance or
(RIN), Output Resistance or (ROUT) and of course amplification known commonly
as Gain or (A). No matter how complicated an amplifier circuit is, a general amplifier
model can still be used to show the relationship of these three properties.

Ideal Amplifier Model

The amplified difference between the input and output signals is known as the Gain of
the amplifier. Gain is basically a measure of how much an amplifier “amplifies” the input
signal. For example, if we have an input signal of 1 volt and an output of 50 volts, then
the gain of the amplifier would be “50”. In other words, the input signal has been
increased by a factor of 50. This increase is called Gain.
Amplifier gain is simply the ratio of the output divided-by the input. Gain has no units as
its a ratio, but in Electronics it is commonly given the symbol “A”, for Amplification. Then
the gain of an amplifier is simply calculated as the “output signal divided by the input
signal”.

Amplifier Gain
The introduction to the amplifier gain can be said to be the relationship that exists
between the signal measured at the output with the signal measured at the input. There
are three different kinds of amplifier gain which can be measured and these
are: Voltage Gain ( Av ), Current Gain ( Ai ) and Power Gain ( Ap ) depending upon the
quantity being measured with examples of these different types of gains are given
below.

Amplifier Gain of the Input Signal

 Voltage Amplifier Gain

Current Amplifier Gain

Power Amplifier Gain

Note that for the Power Gain you can also divide the power obtained at the output with
the power obtained at the input. Also when calculating the gain of an amplifier, the
subscripts v, i and p are used to denote the type of signal gain being used.
The power gain (Ap) or power level of the amplifier can also be expressed in Decibels,
(dB). The Bel (B) is a logarithmic unit (base 10) of measurement that has no units.
Since the Bel is too large a unit of measure, it is prefixed with deci making
it Decibels instead with one decibel being one tenth (1/10th) of a Bel. To calculate the
gain of the amplifier in Decibels or dB, we can use the following expressions.
 Voltage Gain in dB: av = 20*log(Av)
 Current Gain in dB: ai = 20*log(Ai)
 Power Gain in dB: ap = 10*log(Ap)
Note that the DC power gain of an amplifier is equal to ten times the common log of the
output to input ratio, where as voltage and current gains are 20 times the common log
of the ratio. Note however, that 20dB is not twice as much power as 10dB because of
the log scale.
Also, a positive value of dB represents a Gain and a negative value of dB represents
a Loss within the amplifier. For example, an amplifier gain of +3dB indicates that the
amplifiers output signal has “doubled”, (x2) while an amplifier gain of -3dB indicates that
the signal has “halved”, (x0.5) or in other words a loss.
The -3dB point of an amplifier is called the half-power point which is -3dB down from
maximum, taking 0dB as the maximum output value.

Amplifier Example No1

Determine the Voltage, Current and Power Gain of an amplifier that has an input signal
of 1mA at 10mV and a corresponding output signal of 10mA at 1V. Also, express all
three gains in decibels, (dB).
The Various Amplifier Gains:

Amplifier Gains given in Decibels (dB):

Then the amplifier has a Voltage Gain, (Av) of 100, a Current Gain, (Ai) of 10 and a
Power Gain, (Ap) of 1,000
Generally, amplifiers can be sub-divided into two distinct types depending upon their
power or voltage gain. One type is called the Small Signal Amplifier which include pre-
amplifiers, instrumentation amplifiers etc. Small signal amplifies are designed to amplify
very small signal voltage levels of only a few micro-volts (μV) from sensors or audio
signals.
The other type are called Large Signal Amplifiers such as audio power amplifiers or
power switching amplifiers. Large signal amplifiers are designed to amplify large input
voltage signals or switch heavy load currents as you would find driving loudspeakers.

Power Amplifiers
 The Small Signal Amplifier is generally referred to as a “Voltage” amplifier because
they usually convert a small input voltage into a much larger output voltage. Sometimes
an amplifier circuit is required to drive a motor or feed a loudspeaker and for these types
of applications where high switching currents are needed Power Amplifiers are
required.
As their name suggests, the main job of a “Power Amplifier” (also known as a large
signal amplifier), is to deliver power to the load, and as we know from above, is the
product of the voltage and current applied to the load with the output signal power being
greater than the input signal power. In other words, a power amplifier amplifies the
power of the input signal which is why these types of amplifier circuits are used in audio
amplifier output stages to drive loudspeakers.
The power amplifier works on the basic principle of converting the DC power drawn
from the power supply into an AC voltage signal delivered to the load. Although the
amplification is high the efficiency of the conversion from the DC power supply input to
the AC voltage signal output is usually poor.
The perfect or ideal amplifier would give us an efficiency rating of 100% or at least the
power “IN” would be equal to the power “OUT”. However, in reality this can never
happen as some of the power is lost in the form of heat and also, the amplifier itself
consumes power during the amplification process. Then the efficiency of an amplifier is
given as:

Amplifier Efficiency

Ideal Amplifier
We can know specify the characteristics for an ideal amplifier from our discussion above
with regards to its Gain, meaning voltage gain:
 The amplifiers gain, ( A ) should remain constant for varying values of input signal.
 Gain is not be affected by frequency. Signals of all frequencies must be amplified by
exactly the same amount.
 The amplifiers gain must not add noise to the output signal. It should remove any
noise that is already exists in the input signal.
 The amplifiers gain should not be affected by changes in temperature giving good
temperature stability.
 The gain of the amplifier must remain stable over long periods of time.

Electronic Amplifier Classes

 The classification of an amplifier as either a voltage or a power amplifier is made by
comparing the characteristics of the input and output signals by measuring the amount
of time in relation to the input signal that the current flows in the output circuit.
In the Common Emitter Transistor, for the transistor to operate within its “Active Region”
some form of “Base Biasing” was required. This small Base Bias voltage added to the
input signal allowed the transistor to reproduce the full input waveform at its output with
no loss of signal.
However, by altering the position of this Base bias voltage, it is possible to operate an
amplifier in an amplification mode other than that for full waveform reproduction. With
the introduction to the amplifier of a Base bias voltage, different operating ranges and
modes of operation can be obtained which are categorized according to their
classification. These various mode of operation are better known as Amplifier Class.
Audio power amplifiers are classified in an alphabetical order according to their circuit
configurations and mode of operation. Amplifiers are designated by different classes of
operation such as class “A”, class “B”, class “C”, class “AB”, etc. These different
amplifier classes range from a near linear output but with low efficiency to a non-linear
output but with a high efficiency.
No one class of operation is “better” or “worse” than any other class with the type of
operation being determined by the use of the amplifying circuit. There are typical
maximum conversion efficiencies for the various types or class of amplifier, with the
most commonly used being:
 Class A Amplifier – has low efficiency of less than 40% but good signal reproduction
and linearity.
 Class B Amplifier – is twice as efficient as class A amplifiers with a maximum
theoretical efficiency of about 70% because the amplifying device only conducts (and
uses power) for half of the input signal.
 Class AB Amplifier – has an efficiency rating between that of Class A and Class B but
poorer signal reproduction than Class A amplifiers.
 Class C Amplifier – is the most efficient amplifier class but distortion is very high as
only a small portion of the input signal is amplified therefore the output signal bears
very little resemblance to the input signal. Class C amplifiers have the worst signal
reproduction.
 OSCILLATORS
An oscillator generates output without any ac input signal. An electronic oscillator is a
circuit which converts dc energy into ac at a very high frequency. An amplifier with a
positive feedback can be understood as an oscillator.

Amplifier vs. Oscillator

An amplifier increases the signal strength of the input signal applied, whereas
an oscillator generates a signal without that input signal, but it requires dc for its
operation. This is the main difference between an amplifier and an oscillator.
Take a look at the following illustration. It clearly shows how an amplifier takes energy
from d.c. power source and converts it into a.c. energy at signal frequency. An
oscillator produces an oscillating a.c. signal on its own.

The frequency, waveform, and magnitude of a.c. power generated by an amplifier, is

controlled by the a.c. signal voltage applied at the input, whereas those for an oscillator
are controlled by the components in the circuit itself, which means no external
controlling voltage is required.

Alternator vs. Oscillator

An alternator is a mechanical device that produces sinusoidal waves without any

input. This a.c. generating machine is used to generate frequencies up to 1000Hz. The
output frequency depends on the number of poles and the speed of rotation of the
armature.
The following points highlight the differences between an alternator and an oscillator −
 An alternator converts mechanical energy to a.c. energy, whereas the oscillator
converts d.c. energy into a.c. energy.
 An oscillator can produce higher frequencies of several MHz whereas an
alternator cannot.
 An alternator has rotating parts, whereas an electronic oscillator doesn’t.
  It is easy to change the frequency of oscillations in an oscillator than in an
alternator.
Oscillators can also be considered as opposite to rectifiers that convert a.c. to d.c. as
these convert d.c. to a.c.

Classification of Oscillators

Electronic oscillators are classified mainly into the following two categories −
 Sinusoidal Oscillators − The oscillators that produce an output having a sine
waveform are called sinusoidal or harmonic oscillators. Such oscillators can
provide output at frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 1 GHz.
 Non-sinusoidal Oscillators − The oscillators that produce an output having a
square, rectangular or saw-tooth waveform are called non-
sinusoidal or relaxation oscillators. Such oscillators can provide output at
frequencies ranging from 0 Hz to 20 MHz.
We will discuss only about Sinusoidal Oscillators here.

Sinusoidal Oscillators

Sinusoidal oscillators can be classified in the following categories −

 Tuned Circuit Oscillators − These oscillators use a tuned-circuit consisting of
inductors (L) and capacitors (C) and are used to generate high-frequency
signals. Thus they are also known as radio frequency R.F. oscillators. Such
oscillators are Hartley, Colpitts, Clapp-oscillators etc.
 RC Oscillators − There oscillators use resistors and capacitors and are used to
generate low or audio-frequency signals. Thus they are also known as audio-
frequency (A.F.) oscillators. Such oscillators are Phase –shift and Wein-bridge
oscillators.
 Crystal Oscillators − These oscillators use quartz crystals and are used to
generate highly stabilized output signal with frequencies up to 10 MHz. The
Piezo oscillator is an example of a crystal oscillator.
 Negative-resistance Oscillator − These oscillators use negative-resistance
characteristic of the devices such as tunnel devices. A tuned diode oscillator is
an example of a negative-resistance oscillator.

Nature of Sinusoidal Oscillations

The nature of oscillations in a sinusoidal wave are generally of two types. They
are damped and undamped oscillations.

Damped Oscillations
The electrical oscillations whose amplitude goes on decreasing with time are called
as Damped Oscillations. The frequency of the damped oscillations may remain
constant depending upon the circuit parameters.

Damped oscillations are generally produced by the oscillatory circuits that produce
power losses and doesn’t compensate if required.

Undamped Oscillations

The electrical oscillations whose amplitude remains constant with time are called
as Undamped Oscillations. The frequency of the Undamped oscillations remains
constant.

Undamped oscillations are generally produced by the oscillatory circuits that produce
no power losses and follow compensation techniques if any power losses occur.