BJT AMPLIFIERS

ANALOG SIGNALS AND LINEAR AMPLIFIERS

we will be considering signals, analog circuits, and amplifiers. A signal contains some type of
information. For example, sound waves produced by a speaking human contain the information the
person is conveying to another person. A sound wave is an analog signal. The magnitude of an
analog signal can take on any value, within limits, and may vary continuously with time. Electronic
circuits that process analog signals are called analog circuits. One example of an analog circuit is a
linear amplifier. A linear amplifier magnifies an input signal and produces an output signal whose
magnitude is larger and directly proportional to the input signal.
THE BIPOLAR LINEAR AMPLIFIER
 Mathematical model of linear amplifier
We need to develop a mathematical method or model for determining the
relationships between the sinusoidal variations in currents and voltages in
the circuit. As already mentioned, a linear amplifier implies that
superposition applies so that the dc and ac analyses can be performed
separately. To obtain a linear amplifier, the time-varying or ac currents and
voltages must be small enough to ensure a linear relation between the ac
signals. To meet this objective, the time-varying signals are assumed to
besmall signals,which means that the amplitudes of the ac signals are
small enough to yield linear relations. The concept of “small enough,”
or small signal, will be discussed further as we develop the small-signal
equivalent circuits.
 Total Harmonic Distortion
• If an input sinusoidal signal becomes too large, the output signal may no longer be a
pure sinusoidal signal because of nonlinear effects. A nonsinusoidal output signal
may be expanded into a Fourier series and written in the form
AC EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT
Alternatively we
could have
Small Signal Voltage gain
amp gain

input impedance

output impedance

bandwidth

stability
Example 1
Read how to interpreter Datasheets in textbook
BASIC TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER CONFIGURATIONS
• If there is need to design a circuit to carry out amplification from source
to load we have
COMMON-EMITTER AMPLIFIERS
 Circuit with Emitter resistor
• The circuit in Figure 6.26 is not very practical. The voltage across
R2provides the base–emitter voltage to bias the transistor in the forward-
active region. However, a slight variation in the resistor value or a slight
variation in the transistor characteristics may cause the transistor to be
biased in cutoff or saturation. The next section discusses an improved
circuit configuration.
Example 1
Circuit with Emitter Bypass Capacitor
Example 2
Investigate how Gain changes with circuit and device component values!! Ina graph
Common-Emitter Amplifier with Active Loads
AC LOAD LINE ANALYSIS
Example 3
Example 4
COMMON-COLLECTOR (EMITTER-FOLLOWER) AMPLIFIER
Input and Output Impedance
COMMON-BASE AMPLIFIER
Input and Output Impedance
THE THREE BASIC AMPLIFIERS: SUMMARY AND COMPARISON

The basic small-signal characteristics of the three single-stage amplifier

configurations are summarized in Table 6.4. For the common-emitter
circuit, the voltage and current gains are generally greater than 1. For the
emitter-follower, the voltage gain is slightly less than 1, while
the current gain is greater than 1. For the common-base circuit, the
voltage gain is greater than 1, while the current gain is less than 1.
• The input resistance looking into the base terminal of a common-emitter circuit
• may be in the low kilohm range; in an emitter follower, it is generally in the 50 to
• 100 krange. The input resistance looking into the emitter of a common-base
circuit
• is generally on the order of tens of ohms.
• The overall input resistance of both the common-emitter and emitter-follower
• circuits can be greatly affected by the bias circuitry.
• The output resistance of the emitter follower is generally in the range of a few
• ohms to tens of ohms. In contrast, the output resistance looking into the
collector terminal of the common-emitter and common-base circuits is very
high. In addition, the
• output resistance looking back into the output terminal of the common-emitter
and
• common-base circuits is a strong function of the collector resistance. For these
circuits, the output resistance can easily drop to a few kilohms.
MULTISTAGE AMPLIFIERS
• The characteristics of these single-stage amplifiers will be used in the
design of multistage amplifiers.
 Multistage Analysis: Cascade Configuration
• In Figure 6.66, the circuit is a cascade configuration of two common-emitter
circuits. The dc analysis of this circuit, done in Example 5.19 of Chapter 5,
showed that both transistors are biased in the forward-active mode. Figure
6.67 shows the small-signal
Similarly, the output resistance looking back into
the output terminals is Ro=RC2
 Darlington Pair Configuration
• In some applications, it would be desirable to have a bipolar transistor
with a much larger current gain than can normally be obtained. Figure
6.70(a) shows a multi transistor configuration, called a Darlington pair or a
Darlington configuration, that provides increased current gain.
• The small-signal equivalent in which the input signal is assumed to be a
current source, is shown in Figure 6.70(b). We will use the input current
source to determine the current gain of the circuit. To determine the
small-signal current gain Ai =Io/Ii we see that
POWER CONSIDERATIONS
 DESIGN APPLICATION: AUDIO AMPLIFIER
• An audio amplifier is to deliver an average power of 0.1 W to an 8ohms
speaker from a microphone that produces a 10 mV peak sinusoidal
signal and has a source resistance of 10 k
• A direct, perhaps brute force, approach will be taken in this design. The
generalized multistage amplifier configuration that will be designed is
shown in Figure 6.76. An input buffer stage, which will be an emitter-
follower circuit, is to be used to reduce the loading effect of the 10k
source resistance.
• The output stage will also be an emitter-follower circuit to provide the
necessary output current and output signal power. The gain stage will
actually be composed of a 2-stage common-emitter amplifier that will
provide the necessary voltage gain. We will assume that the entire
amplifier system is biased with a 12 volt power supply .
Input buffer stage
Output Stage
 GAIN STAGE
• The gain stage, which will actually be a two-stage common-emitter
amplifier, is shown in Figure 6.79. We will assume that the buffer stage is
capacitively coupled to the input of the amplifier, the two stages of the
amplifier are capacitively coupled, and the output of this amplifier is
directly coupled to the output stage
Comment: We may note that, as with any design, there is no unique
solution. In addition, to actually build this circuit with discrete components,
we would need to use standard values for resistors, which means the
quiescent current and voltage values will change, and the overall voltage gain
will probably change from the designed value. Also, the current gains of the
actual transistors used will probably not be exactly equal to the assumed
values. Therefore some slight modifications will likely need to be made in the
final design
Discussion: We implicitly assumed that we were designing an audio
amplifier, but we have not discussed the frequency response. For example,
the coupling capacitors in the design must be large enough to pass audio
signal frequencies. The frequency response of amplifiers will be discussed in
detail in