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Common Collector Ampli er

Common Collector Ampli ers produce an output voltage across its emitter load which is in-phase with the
input signal

The Common Collector Ampli er is another type of bipolar junction transistor, (BJT) con guration where the
input signal is applied to the base terminal and the output signal taken from the emitter terminal. Thus the
collector terminal is common to both the input and output circuits. This type of con guration is called Common
Collector, (CC) because the collector terminal is effectively “grounded” or “earthed” through the power supply.

In many ways the common collector (CC) con guration is the opposite of the common emitter (CE) con guration,
as the connected load resistor is moved from the usual collector terminal, labelled RC, to the emitter terminal
where its is labelled RE.

The common collector or grounded collector con guration is generally used where a high impedance input
source needs to be connected to a low impedance output load requiring a high current gain. Consider the
common collector ampli er circuit below.

Common Collector Ampli er using an NPN Transistor

Resistors R1 and R2 form a simple voltage divider network used to bias the NPN transistor into conduction.
Since this voltage divider lightly loads the transistor, the base voltage, VB can be easily calculated by using the
simple voltage divider formula as shown.

Voltage Divider Network

With the collector terminal of the transistor connected
directly to VCC and no collector resistance, (RC = 0) any
collector current will generate a voltage drop across the
emitter resistor RE.

However, in the common collector ampli er circuit, the same

voltage drop, VE also represents the output voltage, VOUT.

Ideally we would want the DC voltage drop across RE to be

equal to half the supply voltage, VCC to make the transistors quiescent output voltage sit somewhere in the
middle of the characteristics curves allowing for a maximum unclipped output signal. Thus the choice of RE
depends greatly on IB and the transistors current gain Beta, β.

As the base-emitter pn-junction is forward biased, base current ows through the junction to the emitter
encouraging transistor action causing a much larger collector current, IC to ow. Thus the emitter current is a
combination of base current and collector current as: IE = IB + IC. However, as the base current is extremely small
compared to the collector current, the emitter current is therefore approximately equal to the collector current.
Thus IE ≈ IC

As with the common emitter (CE) ampli er con guration, the input signal is applied to the transistors base
terminal, and as we said previously, the ampli ers output signal is taken from the emitter emitter terminal.
However, as there is only one forward biased pn-junction between the transistors base and its emitter terminal,
any input signal applied to the base passes directly through the junction to the emitter. Therefore the output
signal present at the emitter is in-phase with the applied input signal at the base.
As the ampli ers output signal is taken from across the emitter load this type of transistor con guration is also
known as an Emitter Follower circuit as the emitter output “follows” or tracks any voltage changes to the base
input signal, except that it remains about 0.7 volts (VBE) below the base voltage. Thus VIN and VOUT are in-phase
producing zero phase difference between the input and output signals.

Having said that, the emitters pn-junction effectively acts as a forward biased diode and for small AC input
signals this emitter diode junction has a resistance given by: r’e = 25mV/Ie where the 25mV is the thermal
voltage of the junction at room temperature (25oC) and Ie is the emitter current. So as the emitter current
increases, the emitter resistance decreases by a proportional amount.

The base current which ows through this internal base-emitter junction resistance also ows out and through
the externally connected emitter resistor, RE. These two resistances are series connected thus acting as a
potential divider network creating a voltage drop. Since the value of r’e is very small, and RE is much larger,
usually in the kilohms (kΩ) range, the magnitude of the ampli ers output voltage is therefore less than its input
voltage.

However, in reality the magnitude of the output voltage (peak-to-peak) is generally in the 98 to 99% value of the
input voltage which is close enough in most cases to be considered as unity gain.

We can calculate the voltage gain, VA of the common collector ampli er by using the voltage divider formula as
shown assuming that the base voltage, VB is actually the input voltage, VIN.

Common Collector Ampli er Voltage Gain

So the common collector ampli er cannot provide voltage ampli cation and another expression used to
describe the common collector ampli er circuit is as a Voltage Follower Circuit for obvious reasons. Thus since the
output signal closely follows the input and is in-phase with the input the common collector circuit is therefore a
non-inverting unity voltage gain ampli er.
Common Collector Ampli er Example No1
A common collector ampli er is constructed using an NPN bipolar transistor and a voltage divider biasing
network. If R1 = 5k6Ω, R2 = 6k8Ω and the supply voltage is 12 volts. Calculate the values of: VB, VC and VE, the
emitter current IE, the internal emitter resistance r’e and the ampli ers voltage gain AV when a load resistance of
4k7Ω is used. Also draw the nal circuit and corresponding characteristics curve with load line.

1. Base biasing voltage, VB

2. Collector voltage, VC. As there is no collector load resistance, the transistors collector terminal is connected
directly to the DC supply rail, so VC = VCC = 12 volts.

3. Emitter biasing voltage, VE

4. Emitter Current, IE

5. AC Emitter Resistance, r’e

6. Voltage gain, AV

Common Collector Ampli er Circuit with Load Line

Common Collector Input Impedance
Although the common collector ampli er is not very good at being a voltage ampli er, because as we have seen,
its small signal voltage gain is approximately equal to one (AV ≅ 1), it does however make a very good voltage
buffer circuit due to its high input (ZIN) and low output (ZOUT) impedances, providing isolation between an input
signal source from a load impedance load.

Another useful feature of the common collector ampli er is that it provides current gain (Ai) as long as it is
conducting. That is it can pass a large current owing from the collector to the emitter, in response to a small
change to its base current, IB. Remember that this DC current only sees RE as there is no RC. Then the DC
current is simply: VCC/RE which can be large if RE is small.

Consider the basic common collector ampli er or emitter follower con guration below:

Common Collector Ampli er Con guration

For AC analysis of the circuit, the capacitors are shorted and VCC is shorted (zero impedance). Thus the
equivalent circuit is given as shown with the biasing currents and voltages given as:

 
The Input Impedance, ZIN of the common collector con guration looking into the base is given as:
But as Beta, β is generally much greater than 1 (usually above 100), the expression of: β + 1 can be reduced to
just Beta, β as multiplication by 100 is virtually the same as multiplying by 101. Thus:

Common Collector Ampli er Base Impedance

Where: β is the transistors current gain, Re is the equivalent emitter resistance, and r’e is the ac resistance of the
emitter-base diode. Note that since the combined value of Re is generally much greater than the diodes
equivalent resistance, r’e (kilo-ohms compared to a few ohms) the transistors base impedance can be given as
simply: β*Re.

An interesting point to notice here is that the the transistors input base impedance, ZIN(base) can be controlled by
the value of either the emitter leg resistor, RE or the load resistor RL as they are parallel connected.

While the equation above gives us the input impedance looking into the base of the transistor, it does not give us
the true input impedance that the source signal would see looking into the complete ampli er circuit. For that
we need to consider the two resistors which make up the voltage divider biasing network. Thus:

Common Collector Ampli er Input Impedance

Common Collector Example No2
Using the previous common collector ampli er circuit above, calculate the input impedances of the transistors
base and ampli er stage if the load resistance, RL is 10kΩ and the NPN transistors current gain is 100.

1. AC Emitter Resistance, r’e

2. Equivalent Load Resistance, Re

3. Transistors Base Impedance, ZBASE

2. Ampli er Input Impedance, ZIN(STAGE)

As the transistors base impedance of 322kΩ is much higher than the ampli ers input impedance of only 2.8kΩ,
thus the input impedance of the common collector ampli er is determined by the ratio of the two biasing
resistors, R1 and R2.

Common Collector Output Impedance

To determine the CC ampli ers output impedance ZOUT looking from the load back into the ampli ers emitter
terminal, we must rst remove the load as we want to see the effective resistance of the ampli er that is driving
the load. Thus the AC equivalent circuit looking into the ampli ers output is given as:

From above, the input impedance of the base circuit is given

as:RB = R1||R2. The current gain of the transistor is given as: β. Thus the
output equation is given as:

We can see then that the emitter resistor, RE is effectively in parallel with
the whole impedance of the transistor looking back into its emitter
terminal.

If we calculate the output impedance of our common emitter ampli er circuit using the component values from
above, it would give an output impedance ZOUT of less than 50Ω (49.5Ω) which is much smaller than the higher
input impedance, ZIN(BASE) calculated previously.

Thus we can see then that the Common Collector Ampli er con guration has, from calculation, a very high input
impedance and a very low output impedance allowing it to drive a low impedance load. In fact due to the CC
ampli ers relatively high input impedance and very low output impedance it is commonly used as a unity gain
buffer ampli er.

Having determined that the output impedance, ZOUT of our example ampli er above is approximately 50Ω by
calculation, if we now connect the 10kΩ load resistor back into the circuit, the resulting output impedance will
be:

Although the load resistance is 10kΩ, the equivalent output resistance is still low at 49.3Ω. This is because RL is
large compared with ZOUT, thus for maximum power transfer, RL must equal ZOUT. As the voltage gain of the
common collector ampli er is considered to be unity (1), the ampli ers power gain must be equal to its current
gain, as P = V*I.

Since the common collector current gain is de ned as the ratio of the emitter current to the base current,
γ = IE/IB = β + 1, it therefore follows that the ampli ers current gain must be approximately equal to Beta (β) as
β + 1 is virtually the same as Beta.

Common Collector Summary

 y
We have seen in this tutorial about the Common Collector Ampli er that it gets its name because the collector
terminal of the BJT is common to both the input and output circuits as there is no collector resistance, RC.

The voltage gain of the common collector ampli er is approximately equal to unity (Av ≅ 1) and that its current
gain, Ai is approximately equal to Beta, (Ai≅β) which depending on the value of the particular transistors Beta
value can be quiet high.

We have also seen through calculation, that the input impedance, ZIN is high while its output impedance, ZOUT is
low making it useful for impedance matching (or resistance-matching) purposes or as a buffer circuit between a
voltage source and a low impedance load.

As the the common collector (CC) ampli er receives its input signal to the base with the output voltage taken
from across the emitter load, the input and output voltages are “in-phase” (0o phase difference) thus the
common collector con guration goes by the secondary name of Emitter Follower as the output voltage (emitter
voltage) follows the input base voltage.

22 Comments

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Ndungu mwangi
Very educative. Thanks a lot.

Posted on March 22nd 2021 | 4:11 pm

 Reply

Matlabiahsan
Thank you sir . It can help me so much.

Posted on March 01st 2021 | 2:42 pm

 Reply

AURTHER GORA
THANK YOU ,I JUST LEARNT VERY MUCH ABOUT COLLECTER EMMITERS

Posted on January 17th 2021 | 11:42 am

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Salahi brahim
Pour le signial dentre’et de sortie il traverse le collecteur et lalimentation et je dis que limpedance
alternative entre’et la jonction entre base et collecteur et laZS et entre emeteur collecteur qui pare ala
masse et non pas base etmetteur sa cet pour resistance dentre’DC

Posted on January 13th 2021 | 9:44 am

 Reply
Harry De Souza
Excellent model on which to try on software to understand how the transistor works. Can’t wait to
con gure the circuit to see the output for different con gurations

Posted on July 18th 2020 | 5:11 pm

 Reply

Cyrus Chady
Thank you for refreshing my memory.

Posted on July 08th 2020 | 2:55 am

 Reply

Shazia Andleeb
Determine the state of the transistor for a collector resistor Rc = 8k ohm

Posted on June 08th 2020 | 5:33 am

 Reply

Fahmi Jabbar
what if there’s a resistor on the collector, how is the equation

Posted on March 24th 2020 | 12:02 pm

 Reply

Wayne Storr
Then its not a true Common Collector con guration, maybe a Phase Splitter

Posted on March 25th 2020 | 7:07 am

 Reply
 Fahmi Jabbar
another thing, the value of the resistance at collector. is it having impact on base
voltage or current ?
I’m having trouble nding that

Posted on March 25th 2020 | 10:00 am

 Reply

Fahmi Jabbar
well, thank you sir!

Posted on March 25th 2020 | 7:37 am

 Reply

Ezekiel shedrack
Thanks for providing experience on solving electronics questions

Posted on January 02nd 2020 | 2:54 pm

 Reply

M.Hamza Arshad
i need comprehensive notes of cc,ce,cb con guration plz anyone send as soon as possible

Posted on November 17th 2019 | 4:22 pm

 Reply

Wayne Storr
Then please read the tutorials about cc,ce,cb con guration

Posted on November 18th 2019 | 7:25 am

 Reply
SOLAIMAN
Thanks

Posted on October 22nd 2019 | 5:23 am

 Reply

Antaine O Conghaile
Good Lesson, could i ask what you use to draw the diagrams and circuits?

Posted on October 07th 2019 | 1:05 pm

 Reply

Solomon
Hi, could you explain what “however, as there is only one forward biased pn-junction between the
transistors base and its emitter terminal, any input signal applied to the base passes directly through the
junction to the emitter. ” means?

What is the link between the base and emitter being forward biased, and the signal applied to the base
being passed directly to the emitter? What do you mean by “pass” too?

Thank you.

Posted on September 28th 2019 | 10:58 am

 Reply

Wayne Storr
The Bipolar Junction Transistor has a single pn-junction between its Base terminal and its
Emitter terminal. Forward biasing the Base terminal with a voltage 0.7 volts higher than the
Emitter allows current to ow through the junction.

Posted on September 28th 2019 | 8:45 pm

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Henry Theorem
I’m so interest that.

Posted on September 13th 2019 | 12:24 pm

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Jun
On example no. 1 step 4, there’s a typo error on the IE formula. It should be: IE = VE/RE

Posted on April 09th 2019 | 6:35 am

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Wayne Storr
Thanks

Posted on April 09th 2019 | 6:49 am

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Shady
I am thankfull to these helpfull lessons!!!

Posted on March 20th 2019 | 7:30 pm

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