3.1 Introduction = cater @ public address system (P.A.) or amplifying system as shown in the Power ampiifier Loud speaker Microphone. (Human speaker) Number of stages the load like loudspeaker, servomotor, handling the 1 Amplifier or Power Amplifier, ower amplifiers find their applications in the oun, ‘ aiken driving servomotor in industrial control Sai ee address systems, radio cathode ray tubes etc. ‘stems, tape players, T.V. receivers, (230)3.1 Features of a Power Amplifier As stated earlier, a power amplifier is the last stage of a multistage amplifier, The revious stages develop sufficient gain and the input signal level or amplitude of ower amplifier is large of the order of few volts, ‘The h-parameter analysis is applicable to small signal amplifiers and not valid for power amplifiers as power amplifiers are large signal amplifiers, Hence the analysis of power amplifier is carried out graphically by drawing a load line on the output characteristics of the transistors, used in it. The power amplifiers have to feed the loads like loud speakers, having low impedance values. For maximum power transfer to the load, the impedance matching is an important criteria in the power amplifiers. For impedance matching, the output impedance of the power amplifiers must be small. Hence common collector or emitter follower circuit is very common in power amplifiers, which has very low output impedance. The common emitter circuit with step down transformer for impedance matching, is also commonly used in the power amplifiers, The power amplifiers develop an a.c. power of the order of few watts. Similarly large power gets dissipated in the form of heat, at the junctions of the transistors used in the power amplifiers. Hence the transistors used in the power amplifiers are of large size, having large power dissipation rating, called power transistors. Such transistors have heat sinks. A heat sink is a metal cap having bigger surface area, press fit on the body of a transistor, to get more surface area, in order to dissipate the heat to the surroundings. In general, the power amplifiers have bulky components. A faithful reproduction of the signal, after the conversion, is important. Due to nonlinear nature of the transistor characteristics, there exists a harmonic distortion in the signal. Ideally signal should not be distorted. Hence the analysis of signal distortion in case of the power amplifiers is important. The power amplifiers developing power at audio frequency range are called audio frequency (A.F.) power amplifiers. This chapter explains in detail the analysis of A.F. power amplifiers including classes of operation, efficiency and power calculations, direct or transformer coupled loads for impedance matching, distortion calculations, dissipation ratings of transistors and the thermal calculations. 3.2 Classification of Power Amplifiers For an amplifier, a quiescent operating point (Q point) is fixed by selecting the Proper d.c, biasing to the transistors used. The quiescent operating point is shown on the load line, which is plotted on the output characteristics of the transistor. The Position of the quiescent point on the load line decides the class of operation of the Power amplifier. The various classes of the power amplifiers are : i) Class A ii) Class B_ iii) Class C and iv) Class AB ?232 Large Signal Am, Bae i a Before ing the Position of quiescent point on the load line, for te various classes, let us revise in brgg concept of load line. Consider a common emitter circu; shown in the Fig. 3.2. The transistor is biased with v,. ,, obtain the required values of Io, 1, ang Vee: Applying Kirchhoff's voltage law 1, it ag Fig. 3.2 Common emitter circuit the output circuit ie. collector citcuit, we get Veo-TeRo-Vee = 0 Voc = leRe+Vee where Re = Load resistance 1 Vou ean [x Vos + Ro -- G1) Comparing this equation with an equation of a straight line, y = mxte We can draw a straight line on a graph of Ic versus Veg: i.e. output characteristics, The slope of this straight line is ~ z= and its Y-intercept is YC ¢ From the above equation 3.1, we can write i) When Vacs ii) When Vee = 0, These two points can be located to draw a Straight line on the output characteristics. Such a line having slope as _ the teciprocal of the load resistance, drawn on the output characteristics is called a Joad line. Such a load line is shown in the Fig. 3.3. Fig. 3.3 Output characteristics with a load line