Simulation and Analysis of the Common-Emitter Circuit

in Analog Electronics Teaching

Xiao-Hong Wu1,*, Bin Wu2, Jun Sun1, and Zhen-Yu Wang1

1
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University,
Zhenjiang 212013, P.R. China
wxh419@ujs.edu.cn
2
Department of Information Engineering, ChuZhou Vocational Technology College,
ChuZhou 239000, P.R. China

Abstract. Common-emitter (CE) circuits are the basic and important amplifiers
in analog electronics. Theoretical analysis of the CE circuit is carried out to
calculate the Q-point, the voltage gain, the input impedance and the output
impedance. The CE circuit is simulated to make the analysis of DC operating
point analysis, DC sweep analysis, AC analysis and amplitude of output
voltage. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical calculation. It
is concluded that a virtual simulation on electronic circuits with Multisim 10
can be easily built and test without the restriction of hardware devices. Multisim
10 provides students with a good experimental platform, and makes them
convenient to do experiments, demonstrate and analyze circuits in the process
of analog electronics teaching.

Keywords: Analog electronics, Common-emitter circuits, Quiescent point,

Electronics design automation, AC analysis.

1 Introduction
Electronics design automation (EDA) is a powerful technology in the field of modern
Electronics technology. It provides a bran-new design of electrocircuit system for
electronic designer. It not only has strong design capabilities, but also has the testing,
analysis and management capabilities. According to the EDA service objects, EDA
software is classified into four kinds: the circuit design and analysis, such as Pspice
and Multisim 10; the digital circuit design, such as Quartus II; the radio frequency
circuit design, such as advanced design system (ADS); the printed circuit board
(PCB) design, such as Protel. Multisim 10 produced by American National
Instruments is a simulation software for electronic circuits [1]. It contains many kinds
of components, which can be chosen to use in experiments, in the component
database. At the same time, the new components can be designed to expand the
component database. It provides all kinds of virtual instruments that include universal
instruments (multimeter, function generator, wattmeter and oscilloscope) and special
instruments (bode plotter, word generator, logic analyzer, distortion analyzer and
*
Corresponding author.

D. Jin and S. Lin (Eds.): Advances in EECM Vol.2, LNEE 140, pp. 537–542.
Springerlink.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
538 X.-H. Wu et al.

spectrum analyzer etc) [2,3]. The powerful function of circuit analysis, such as DC
operating point analysis, AC analysis, transient analysis, Fourier analysis and noise
analysis etc, can help designer to analyze the performance of circuits. Multisim 10 is
used to design, test and demonstrate various electronic circuits including analog
circuits, digital circuits, interface circuits and RF circuits etc. The virtual simulation
laboratory can be established with Multisim 10 on the computers [4]. In this
laboratory, the designer can design circuits and conduct the experiments at the same
time; the parameters of circuits can be easily tested and analyzed; the designer can
directly print the experimental data, test parameters, curve and circuit figures.
Common-emitter (CE) circuits play an important role in analog electronics [5,6].
Quiescent point (abbreviated Q-point) will affect the output waveform and the voltage
gain of CE circuits. We calculate the Q-point theoretically and test the Q-point with
Multisim 10. The value of bias resistor is adjusted to change the position of Q-point.
If the Q-point is an improper operating point, bipolar junction transistor (BJT) will
operate in the cutoff or saturation region. On the other hand, if the Q-point is a proper
operating point, BJT will operate in linear region and can amplify the signal without
distortion. The temperature also influences the Q-point [7]. With temperature sweep
analysis of Multisim 10, the temperature in the CE circuit is changed to see the
influence of temperature on the Q-point. So Multisim 10 provides students with an
excellent experimental platform for simulating the performances of various electronic
circuits. It makes students master the content of analog electronics easily and it
inspires the innovative abilities of students.

2 Theoretical Analysis of CE Circuit

The voltage-divider bias amplifier is shown in Fig. 1. It is a common-emitter circuit
used to stabilize the Q-point. The bias circuit is a voltage-divided circuit composed of
Rb1 and Rb2. At the emitter of transistor Q1, Re is connected to stabilize the Q-point.
At the frequency of operation, the reactance of the capacitor C3 is so small compared
to Re that it is treated as a short circuit across Re. When the input signal ui is put at
the input side, the output side will obtain a phase-reversed and amplitude-amplified
output signal uo. That is to say, the input voltage is amplified.
When the values of the DC currents across the Rb1 and Rb2 far exceeds that of
base current IB of transistor. The Q-point is calculated as follows:

Rb2 10k
UB ≈ Vcc= 12 = 3V (1)
Rb2+Rb1 10k+30k
In above equation, UB is the base DC potential of transistor, and the rheostat Rb2 is
set to 10k
.

U B -U BE 3-0.7
IE = = = 2.3mA (2)
Re 1k

U CE ≈ Vcc-IC (Rc+Re)=5.1V (3)