Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
Introduction
• Power amplifiers are used to deliver a relatively high amount of
power, usually to a low resistance load.
• Typical load values range from 300W (for transmission antennas)
to 8W (for audio speaker).
• Although these load values do not cover every possibility, they
do illustrate the fact that power amplifiers usually drive low-
resistance loads.
• Typical output power rating of a power amplifier will be 1W or
higher.
• Ideal power amplifier will deliver 100% of the power it draws
from the supply to load. In practice, this can never occur.
• The reason for this is the fact that the components in the
amplifier will all dissipate some of the power that is being
drawn form the supply.
2
Amplifier Power Dissipation
VCC
The total amount of power I CC
being dissipated by the
amplifier, Ptot , is
Ptot = P1 + P2 + PC + PT + PE I1
I CQ
P1 = I12R1 R1 RC PC = I2CQR C
The difference between this
total value and the total power
being drawn from the supply is PT = I2TQ R T
the power that actually goes to
the load – i.e. output power. I EQ
P2 = I22R2 R2 RE PE = I2EQ R E
Amplifier Efficiency h I2
3
Amplifier Efficiency h
• A figure of merit for the power amplifier is its efficiency, h .
• Efficiency ( h ) of an amplifier is defined as the ratio of ac
output power (power delivered to load) to dc input power .
• By formula :
ac output power Po (ac)
h 100% 100%
dc input power Pi (dc)
• As we will see, certain amplifier configurations have much
higher efficiency ratings than others.
• This is primary consideration when deciding which type of
power amplifier to use for a specific application.
• Amplifier Classifications
4
Amplifier Classifications
• Power amplifiers are classified according to the percent of
time that collector current is nonzero.
• The amount the output signal varies over one cycle of
operation for a full cycle of input signal.
6
Class A Amplifier
vin Av vout
7
Basic Operation
Common-emitter (voltage-divider) configuration (RC-coupled amplifier)
+VCC
I CC
I CQ RC
I1
R1
RL
v in R2
RE
8
Typical Characteristic Curves
for Class-A Operation
9
Typical Characteristic
10
DC Input Power +VCC
Pi (dc) VCC I CC RL
I CC I CQ I 1
v in R2
I CC I CQ ( I CQ I 1 ) RE
Pi (dc) VCC I CQ
Note that this equation is valid for most amplifier power analyses.
We can rewrite for the above equation for the ideal amplifier as
Pi (dc) 2VCEQ I CQ
11
AC Output Power
AC output (or load) power, Po(ac) ic
2 vo
vo ( rms )
Po (ac) ic ( rms ) vo ( rms )
RL vin vce
rC RC//RL
VCE VCE
VCE
13
Limitation
14
Example +VCC = 20V
Po ( ac)
I C2 ( peak)
RC
250 10 A)
3 2
(20) 0.625W
2 2
Pi ( dc) VCC I CQ (20V )(0.48 A) 9.6W
Po ( ac)
h 100% 6.5%
Pi ( dc)
15
Transformer-Coupled Class-A Amplifier
+VCC
A transformer-coupled class-A amplifier
uses a transformer to couple the output N1:N2
signal from the amplifier to the load. RL
Z1
R1
The relationship between the primary
Z2 = RL
and secondary values of voltage, current
and impedance are summarized as:
N 1 V1 I 2
N 2 V2 I 1 Input R2
N1
2
RE
Z Z
1 1
N2 Z 2 RL
+ +
10V 10V 10V 10V
- -
- +
18
DC Operating Characteristics
The dc biasing of a transformer-coupled class-A amplifier is very similar to any
other class-A amplifier with one important exception :
the value of VCEQ is designed to be as close as possible to VCC.
+VCC
The dc load line is very close to being a vertical line N1:N2
20
DC Load Line
When IC=50mA
VCEQ=10V-(50mA)(22Ω)
VCEQ=8.9V
When IC=200mA
VCEQ=10V-(200mA)(22 Ω)
VCEQ=5.6
21
AC Operating Characteristics
+VCC
1. Determine the maximum possible change in VCE
N1:N2
DC load line
•IC(max) = ICQ + ic
4. Locate the two points where the load line passes Q-point
through the lies representing the minimum and
ac load line
maximum values of IB. These two points are then
used to find the maximum and minimum values of IB = 0mA
VCE
IC and VCE ~ VCEQ ~ VCC ~ 2VCC
22
+VCC
N1:N2
Z1 RL
R1
IC
Z2 = RL
IC(max) = ??
DC load line
Input R2
RE
ICQ Q-point
ac load line
ic
IB = 0mA
VCE
Z1 vo ~ VCEQ ~ VCC ~ 2VCC
vin vce
R1//R2
23
Find the A.C load Line of Problem1
24
At Point A
VCE(min)=1.5 when
IC=200mA
At Point B
VCE(max)=16.5V when
IC=5mA
25
When the circuit is operating at Point A , value of IC is
approximately 200mA. With 200mA through RE, VE is equal to
2.4V and value of VCE(min) is 1.5V , so there is a total of 3.9V
from the collector of the transistor to the ground , leaving 6.1
across the primary of transformer
26
When the circuit is operating at Point B, value of IB and IC drops
to minimum , 6.1V is still across primary , but voltage polarity is
reversed , this means bottom side of the transformer is 6.1V
more positive than VCC . Thus , the voltage from the transistor
collector to ground is 16.1 close to 16.5 derived from ac load
line
27
Maximum load power and efficiency
28
There are several reasons for the
difference between the practical and
theoretical efficiency ratings for the
amplifier :
1. The derivation of the h = 50% value assumes
that VCEQ = VCC . In practice, VCEQ will
always be some value that is less the VCC .
2. The transformer is subject to various power
losses. Among these losses are couple loss
and hysteresis loss. These transformer power
losses are not considered in the derivation of
the h = 50% value.
29
• One of the primary advantages of using the
transformer-coupled class-A amplifier is the
increased efficiency over the RC-coupled class-A
circuit.
• Another advantage is the fact that the
transformer-coupled amplifier is easily converted
into a type of amplifier that is used extensively in
communications :- the tuned amplifier.
• A tuned amplifier is a circuit that is designed to
have a specific value of power gain over a specific
range of frequency.
30
Determine ideal efficiency of transformer
coupled class A amplifier
The power delivered to the load from a Class
A amplifier is
PL(a.c)=VCEQ ICQ/2
Here VCEQ=VCC then
PL(a.c)=VCCICQ/2
Power drawn from the supply is
P(d.c)= VCCICQ
η= PL(a.c)/ P(d.c)=50%
31
Determine efficiency of previous amplifier
32
33