BOAZ UNIVERSITY ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

EE338-ELECTRONICS LABORATORY 8 - LAB REPORT

Number of The Experiment: Title of The Experiment:

8 Current Sources, Current Mirrors and Output Stages

Name of the Student: e-mail: Name of the Partner(s): Name of the Lab. Assistant:

Fatih Yaar Koca........................................................ fatih.koca@boun.edu.tr Yusuf Ouz Atasoy

Deadline for the Submission of the Report Date of the Submmission of the Report: Delay

21.05.2008 21.05.2008

Grading
General Data Discussion Answers Total Delay SCORE /20 /30 /20 /30 /100 /100

Equipment List:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. CRT Oscilloscope DMM Electronic AC/DC Voltmeter DC power supply Function generator Breadboard

Component List:
1. 2. 3. 4. Resistors (20, 51, 82, 100, 150, 1k2, 3k6, 4k3,5k1, 7k5, 10k, 1k and 100k) Two 2N2222 NPN BJT One 2N2907 Two 1N914 diodes

Theory
Objective
The main objective of this experiment is to calculate and measure DC voltages in current source and current mirror circuits, and study basic BJT based output stage topologies. Another aim of this experiment is to study the terminal characteristics of Class-A, Class-B and Class-AB type of output stages.

2. Experimental Setup

Figure 1.a (Current Source) The above figure shows a current source circuit. If we neglect the base current the base voltage is given by,
VE R1 (V EE ) R1 + R2

The emitter voltage can be found as,

V E V B 0.7V

and the emitter current can be found V V EE IE = E I RL RE

As the above formula suggests a desired current at the output can be established using the current source scheme in the Figure 1.a. The following figure shows a current mirror which is used to duplicate an established current in a branch in another branch using transistors.

Figure 1.b (Current Mirror) The current through the resistor R x is approximately equal to the current through the load if we neglect the base currents. The current through R x , hence the current through the load is given by the following equation.
Ix = VCC V BE I RL Rx

Class A amplifiers introduce less distortion in the output; however, they are considerably inefficient as their biasing scheme dissipates a great deal of energy. On the other hand, Class B amplifiers are efficient from the perspective of power consumed in the biasing circuit; however, they introduce a considerable degree of distortion at the output.

The circuits for Class A and Class B type amplifiers are shown in the following figures.

Figure 2.a Class A BJT follower output stage

Figure 2.b Class-B complementary BJT follower output stage Class AB amplifiers are optimized between the need for high power efficiency and the need for the noise-free outputs. This type of circuit shows a compromise between the Class A and Class B amplifiers which can also be noticed from the following figure. In the following circuit the resistors R5 and R6 serve to moderate the current depending on the relative diode and transistor drops. Resistors R3 and R4 provide a means by which to conveniently monitor device currents.

The diodes in the base are used to stabilize the bias and in order to place the transistor on the verge of cut-off and reverse-bias points. The following figure shows an example of the Class AB type amplifier circuit.

Figure 3 Diode biased Class-AB output stage

Data
Measured Values
1.
RL V E (V)
VC (V)

I RE (mA) I RL (mA)

3.6k -6,52 7.51 1.26 0.87

4.3k -6.58 6.67 1.26 1.05

5.1k -6.67 5.63 1.27 1.27

7.5k -6.61 2.47 1.28 1.27

4. The small signal voltages are measured peak to peak.

v s = 0.19V vi = 0.20V v h = 0.18V

5. The meared values are peak voltages.

vi + = 5.6V vi = 5.6V v h + = 4.3V v h = .2V 4

Analysis and Discussion

The main objective of this experiment was to study several circuits to implement current sources, current mirrors and output stages. Current sources, current mirrors and Class AB type amplifiers are implemented in the laboratory. The first part of the experiment consisted of implementing a current source. The current source can be implemented via a resistor at the collector of a BJT transistor. As long as the BJT operates in its reverse biased region the current in the collector stays nearly constant. The value of the current in the collector changes slightly with the changing load resistance as the BJT has a finite output resistance. In the second part of the experiment a current mirror was implemented with two BJT transistors. We connect the reference BJT transistor as a diode connection, in order to set the base voltage of the succeeding BJT transistor stages to the same base voltage as the reference transistor. As the succeeding transistors have the same base voltage as the reference transistor, they provide the same amount of current, e.g. they mirror the current in the reference branch. We can set the current value by changing the value of the resistor in the collector of the reference network. In practice; however, the current replicated shows a slight deviation from the base current as a BJT has a nonzero base current. Therefore, the current replicated is somewhat smaller than the reference current. In the last part of the experiment, the biasing and the small signal characteristics of a Class AB type transistor was examined. Class AB type amplifier are a compromise between the Class A and Class B type amplifiers. It is more power efficient than the Class A amplifier and it causes less distortion in the output than the Class B type amplifiers. The circuit that was implemented in the lab used a biasing scheme of diodes. The diodes are biased by a means of resistor network and the diodes stabilized the base voltages of the transistor so as to retain the transistors on the verge of cut-off and reverse biased operation. If a slightly positive input is applied the first transistor immediately turns on and the second one turns off; in that way, the output waveform is approximately a noise-free amplified version of the input. As usual for an amplifier the Class AB type amplifier also has a saturation region which s intended to be symmetric. However, due to mismatches in the circuit there may be an offset voltage which is added to the input. In conclusion, the experimental results were in general in accordance with the theoretical expectations. Throughout the experiment we observed a high correlation between the theoretical calculations and the experimental results, which can also be clearly seen in the data section.

Questions 1.
Class AB output stages show a compromise between Class A and Class B output stages. Class AB output stages provide less distortion than Class B amplifiers and have more efficiency than the Class A amplifiers. The operation of a Class AB type amplifier can be explained using the circuit diagram in Figure 3. The two diodes in the base serve mainly to bias the transistors at a fixed current irrespective of the changes in the power supply rail. The quiescent current can be calculated as follows:
Vdiode RE When there is no load this current will be flowing through the emitter. In comparison to the Class A amplifiers this quiescent current is smaller; hence, Class AB configuration is more power efficient. IQ =

For small output signals that require the output currents in the range of 2 I Q < I Load < 2 I Q both transistors will conduct and the transistors will act as in a Class A arrangement. Therefore, the distortion will be much smaller than the Class B configuration. For larger signals, one signal will become non-conducting and the other will supply the current requires by the load. Because of this type of behavior this type of configuration is called Class AB configuration. The resistors in the emitter allows us to vary the quiescent current and adjust the maximum power output as follows. Smaller values of emitter resistance is desired as this increases the efficiency.
Vrms = 2Vdiode R L RE

The resistors in the base are required to set a current through the diodes. This is required since large amounts of output currents require larger base currents which should be supplied through the diodes. Therefore the current through the diodes should be chosen larger than the base current. Larger values of transistor beta values are desired, because it increases both the gain and the power efficiency by decreasing the emitter output resistance. As a last point the resistors in the collector are used mainly to prevent larger currents flowing through the transistors. For larger collector currents the transistor enters the saturation and the output current is prevented from increasing.