CPE-231 Electronic Devices and Circuits

LAB # 11:
To Construct the Class A Power Amplifier and Compute its
Efficiency Using Hardware and Software tools

Name Usama Dilawer Butt

Registration Number FA18-BCE-104

Class FA18-BCE-B

Instructor’s Name Syed Junaid Akhter

Objectives:
 To construct the series fed class A power amplifier and measure DC and AC voltages
using oscilloscope, function generator and circuit simulator

 To compute the efficiency of series fed class A power amplifier using digital
oscilloscope, function generator and circuit simulator

 To construct the class A power amplifier with capacitor –coupled load and measure DC
and AC voltages using digital oscilloscope, function generator and circuit simulator

 To compute the efficiency of the class A power amplifier with capacitor –coupled load
using digital oscilloscope, function generator and circuit simulator

INTRODUCTION:
Power Amplifiers:

The amplifiers which amplify voltage as well as current are called power amplifiers. A typical
example is a common-emitter amplifier with any biasing configuration. Since the power
amplifiers are aimed to deliver a large amount of power to the load, they must be able to
withstand ambient effects to avoid melting, burning or damaging. For this purpose, power
transistors with a high power rating are used. They contain a large surface area and a metal case.
In addition to this, care resistors power rating must be taken into account.

Power amplifiers operate under large-signal conditions. By large-signal condition we mean that
the amplifier may operate in nonlinear region that is IC = βIB is no longer valid.

η = average signal power delivered to the load / average power drawn from dc source

It is notable that power gain and efficiency are two separate performance measurement. As
apparent from (1), the efficiency is measured with respect to the power drawn from dc source,
but not ac source. Since the power transistors themselves dissipate considerable power, it is also
important to know, how much of the power is dissipated in the collector. Therefore, the
performance of the power amplifier is also expressed in form of collector efficiency given by:

ηC = average signal power delivered to the load / average power dissipated at collector

Power amplifiers are classified as Class A, B, C, D, E. Class A, Class B and Class C comprise of
BJTs while Class D and E use FETs. We will limit our lab work to Class A and Class B power
amplifiers only. They are classified on the basis of output waveform as compared to sinusoidal
input waveform.
LAB TASKS:
Lab Task 1: To measure the efficiency of a series-fed class A Power Amplifier

Table:

Efficiency of Series-Fed Class A Power Amplifier

Sr. No Quantity Measured Value Calculated Value

1 VQ 3.8 v Not required

2 IQ 3.73 A 35.4 A

3 VL 6.43 v Not required

4 ɳ Not required 25

5 HC Not required 48

Maximum Efficiency of Series-Fed Class A Power Amplifier

Sr. No Quantity Measured Value Calculated Value

1 VQ 5.12 v Not required

2 IQ 38.4 A 36.9 A

3 VL 6.07 v Not required

4 ɳmax Not required 21

5 Hmax Not required 39

Lab Task 2: To measure the efficiency of a Capacitors-coupled class A Power
Amplifier

Table:

Efficiency of Capacitor-Coupled Class A Power Amplifier

Sr. No Quantity Measured Value Calculated Value

1 VQ 5.56 v Not required

2 IQ 37.8 A 3.07

3 VL 8.12 v Not required

4 ɳ Not required 10%

5 Hc Not required 20%

Efficiency of Capacitor-Coupled Class A Power Amplifier For Optimum Point

Sr. No Quantity Measured Value Calculated Value

1 VQ = IQRL Not Required 48.4

2 IQ 4.83

3 VL 4.06 Not Required

4 Hmax Not Required 0.5

Maximum Efficiency of Capacitor-Coupled Class A Power Amplifier For Maximum

Power Transfer Case
 Sr. No Quantity Calculated Value Calculated Value

1 RL=RC/2 1100 Not Required

2 IQ 4.84 4.04 mA

3 VL 48.6 Not Required

4 Hmax Not Required 0.6

CONCLUSION:
efficiency of a class A power amplifier is less than 20%.In fact, the maximum efficiency of a
class A circuit, occurring for the longest output voltage and current swing is only 25% with a
direct or series-fed load connection. the efficiency of class A power amplifier is relatively low.
Thus, standard class A amplifiers are normally not used when signal powers greater than
approximately 1 W are required.