Module 3: Electronics

Lab and Project Manual

2020 – 2021 (v3)

January 2021

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 2
ORGANIZATION OF THE LABS .................................................................................................................. 5
LAB 1: ANTENNA SWITCH ...................................................................................................................... 6
LAB 2. COMMON-EMITTER AMPLIFIER ................................................................................................... 12
LAB 3. MEASUREMENT OF SMALL-SIGNAL PARAMETERS............................................................................. 15
ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECTS ......................................................................................................... 18
PROJECT I: AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER .................................................................................................... 19
PROJECT II: WIRELESS AUDIO LINK ........................................................................................................ 21
SOME RANDOM POINTERS ................................................................................................................... 23

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Introduction
The Project/Lab work of Module 3 can be divided in three parts:

• Labs: during the first 3 weeks – covering topics and skills required for the projects
These are graded “fail”, “pass”, “good”.
The grade received for your work should be “pass”or “good”

• Project I: design and realization of an audio amplifier

This is graded in multiple ways: your work is graded, the peer review given by
you is graded. Peer group evaluations are taken into account for this.
Mandatory items without explicit grading include the pitch training, pitching,
peer feedback on pitching.

• Project II: design and realization of an FM transmitter; combined with a receiver

and the amplifier (Project part I) this creates a wireless audio link.
This is graded in multiple ways: your work is graded, the peer review given by
you is graded. Peer group evaluations are taken into account for this.
Mandatory items without explicit grading include the pitch training, pitching,
peer feedback on pitching.

During the introductory labs you do a number of assignments following a prescribed path, dictated
by a number of sub-assignments. These labs are meant to introduce some skills you need for the
project (e.g. simulation skills) and to get hands on experience with some essentials of electronics
(e.g. modeling, equivalents circuits, small signal properties, …). All these skills are required for the
projects.

The subject of the project in this module is the design of your own wireless audio link, including an
FM-transmitter, a (COTS) FM-receiver in some form and an audio power amplifier. Part I of the
project focusses on the design of an audio power amplifier whereas part II of the project dealt with
the FM transmitter (and receiver built around a COTS module).

All Project/Lab work in module 3 will be carried out in groups of (max) 3 students. Around the first day
of the module the supervisors will form groups.

Purpose – end terms

After finishing the labs/project, you

• can translate electronic circuits to large signal and small signal equivalent models
and analyse and simulate their behaviour.
• know and recognize the limits of simulations and models in practical situations.
• can recognize and solve the problems encountered in building and measuring these circuits.
• can critically compare calculations with simulations and measurements, without being asked
explicitly. Obviously, you will search for consistency between models and reality.
• can keep a journal of your efforts, which shows and explains why certain things were done
and what the result of that action was.

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 • designed, built and measured electronic circuits.

Keep a journal!
Each group needs to keep a journal during the labs and during the project. In this module, the journal
must contain everything you did, in order to be able to show what you did. If any supervisor asks
anything you’ve done during or after a lab or project part, you should be able to show it using your
journal. If it is not in your journal, you did not do it. The journal is preferably hand-written. In case you
forgot from M1 and M2, read the General Lab Manual on how to keep a journal.

In addition to the journal, you have to write 2 papers, review a number of your peer’s papers and give
pitches (possibly including demos). See the relevant sections later on.

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The table below summarizes all project/lab work of the module.

Module
#sessions Subject Location
Week

1 2 sessions Lab 1: Antenna switch At home

2 2 sessions Lab 2: Common-emitter amplifier At home

3 2 sessions Lab 3: Measurement of small-signal parameters At home

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11 sessions Project I: Audio power amplifier At home
5
8
9 14 sessions Project II: FM radio transmitter At home
10

This year, everything is off-site. This means that you can and should be able to execute all labs and
project parts from home. All supervision is on-line via Discord.

For the first project, an exception might be the demonstration/full performance measurement of the
audio power amplifier. For this, you might want to do this in the W-zaal to use a power supply that can
deliver sufficient power. Alternatively, you can use “any” suitable power supply at home e.g. a COTS
12V-1A adapter you may have laying around.

There is no on-site supervision scheduled in the W-zaal, the maximum load is about 25 students due
to COVID19-regulations and the minimum load is 2 for safety reasons. We will think about a sign-up
list to be allowed in the W-zaal during the module.

For the 2nd project, you need to measure and characterize components and the system at ˜100 MHz
for which you can borrow equipment to be used at home (e.g. a miniVNA and an ADALM-Pluto).

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Organization of the labs
The introductory labs are executed in groups of max 3 students, although most of the assignments can
be done individually. In fact, we like to encourage that you do the assignments individually, but try to
help each other whenever necessary. In this way all members of your group will obtain the skills
needed for the projects later on in the module.
For the labs you do need to use your own notebook, AnalogDiscovery2 and protobox components.
Additional components might be made available, but you probably can get them easily on-line as well
for almost no cost. We encourage you to do the assignments in advance. This allows you to learn as
much as possible, and you can use the regular lab timeslots to get assistance (via Discord) if you’d
require any. As shown in the flowchart on Canvas: in case you have any questions you should be able
to show what you (already) did and you have to be able to exactly pinpoint where you’re stuck. If you
have not yet tried to find the answer yourself the TAs will not (be of much) help.

There are 6 lab sessions spanning 3 topics. During the lab sessions you are supposed to keep track of
your actions and progress in a lab journal, and you are supposed to motivate all your answers. This will
help you to work in a structured and scientific way. In module 3 we assume that you already know how
to work with a journal from the previous modules and you do not need to hand the journal in for
grading.

Deliverables and assessment

Each group is required to hand in a short report (at most 3 pages including figures, if you really need
more pages, keep the highlights and most important stuff in the report and add one or two short
appendices with the other material) at the end of each of the 3 topics. Upload the report and all
relevant additional files (e.g. LTspice .asc files) in your workspace on Canvas. Upload both the original
file (e.g. the Word document) and a pdf version of the report.
If the last session per topic is on Thursday, please upload your report before 22:00 on that Thursday
onto your group workspace/Canvas file exchange. If the last session is scheduled on Friday, then your
should upload before 22:00 on that Friday. All results/answers should be motivated. Handwritten text
(readable) can be scanned and pasted into the document. If your (handwritten) journal by itself is
readable and contains all information, you may upload that one as “report” or as supporting material.
If the information in this report is insufficient/unclear we will ask for your lab journals to try to see
whether the missing information is described there. If the journal does not contain that (or other)
information, it is assumed that you did not work on it.
The 3 introductory lab assignments are graded as “fail”, “pass” and “good”. To pass the module, every
assignment should have a “pass” or “good” grading result. In case of a “fail” the total assignment must
be redone (max 1 retake!). Feedback and pointers on what’s wrong, what can be improved and what’s
perfect can be provided by the supervisors, on request.

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Lab 1: Antenna switch
This assignment has a double purpose. On the one hand it is about using a diode as non-linear element
in a circuit. One important aspect of this lab is how to model the behavior of the diode so that you can
still apply the linear systems theory from Module 2: Electric Circuits. Another important skill required
for e.g. the projects is doing circuit simulations, using LT-Spice. This includes learning how to work with
this simulator and to correctly interpret the results. Last but not least, for bonus points, you will build
the circuit and perform measurements to see if the theoretical model, the simulation model, and the
real circuit agree with each other.

As circuit simulator we will use LT-Spice (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) from
Linear Technology, which can be downloaded from the internet.

Figure 1 shows the schematic of an antenna switch. It operates as a switch between the input signal
and the load resistance RL. In a real antenna switch, the input signal would be an RF (Radio Frequency)
signal; however the AnalogDiscovery2 (AD2) cannot generate high-frequency signals. Therefore, in this
assignment the input signal will be an AC voltage of 1 Vrms and a frequency of 1 kHz. The voltage VDC
can be either +5 V (or higher) or -5V (or lower) and defines if the switch is on or off. Please note that
the output current from the AD2 is limited as is the input voltage range. RL and Rs represent typical RF
load and source impedances. Note: if you use a function generator as signal source instead of the AD2,
note that there is (typically) already a 50W output resistance in that generator. Please take this into
account. The AD2 output does not include a series resistor and hence you have to add this RS to your
measurement setup. Whenever you calculate numerical values, always derive a symbolic expression
first and then insert the values of Rs, Rx, RL, etc.

Figure 1: Antenna switch circuit

Assignment 1.1. The diode is used as non-linear component. We can model the diode using an
extremely simple model: as short-circuit when the diode is operated in the forward direction and a
current is flowing, and as an open-circuit in the reverse direction. The current through the diode is
dependent on the value of VDC.

Draw the circuit of Figure 1 for both values of VDC using the corresponding (ideal) model for the diode.
Give expressions and numerical values for the DC voltages that you expect at the various nodes for
both values of VDC.

Assignment 1.2. For good operation as a switch, in the “on” situation of the diode the attenuation of
the input signal should be sufficiently small. In the “off” situation the signal should be attenuated as
much as possible.

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Calculate the signal transfer H(jω)=vout(jω)/vin(jω) for both situations and write the transfer function in
a standard form, derive an expression for the -3dB frequency. If you don’t remember the standard
forms, see chapter 0 of the book. Also draw the corresponding Bode plots (only the magnitude, no
need to draw the phase).

Assignment 1.3. Does the value of Cin have a lower boundary or an upper boundary in order for the
circuit to operate correctly? Explain your answer; you might want to derive an equation to
unequivocally prove your answer.

Simulating electronic circuits

Three different phases can be identified in designing an electric circuit:

1. First, the first-order operation of the circuit is verified using simple calculations.
2. Then, using computer simulations we can check the performance further.
3. Eventually, the circuit has to perform in real life; hence doing measurements on a real circuit
is inevitable.
Simulations are the means to verify calculations and predict the performance of the real circuit,
including all kinds of non-idealities that are too complex to include in calculations. Still, even the most
sophisticated simulations will not be perfect, so the results always have to be interpreted with care,
keeping in mind the limitations of the circuit models.

In the end we have three types of results that need to be compared:

1. The results of the manual calculations based on simple models

2. The results of computer simulations
3. The measurement results
To be able to draw a conclusion these results need to be compared and any differences need to be
understood. This is an important aspect of working in a structured and scientific way. Putting a lot of
simulation results in a report can be tempting, however always take into account that such results are
useless when not placed in context. That is, always discuss how well these results correspond to your
expectations and what causes the deviations compared to measurements.

The most important computer simulations using LTspice are (so-called “dot commands” because they
start with a period):

• .OP analysis: Finds the DC operating point.

This command calculates the DC operating point solution with capacitances open circuited
and inductances short circuited. Usually this is done as part of another analysis in order to
find the operating point, but you can also do the analysis separately.
• .DC analysis: Performs a DC source sweep analysis.
This command is similar to the .OP analysis in that it ignores any time dependence of signals.
The difference with the .OP analysis is that it calculates the operating point for a range of DC
source values.
• .AC analysis: Performs a small-signal AC analysis linearized around the DC operating point.
The AC-analysis linearizes the circuit around the DC operating point (that is, all non-linear
elements are replaced by a combination of linear elements giving approximately the same

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 behavior) and then performs an analysis of the frequency-dependent behavior using
harmonic (sinusoidal) signals. For this analysis, the circuit should contain at least one AC
source. Due to the linearization the analysis is only valid for small signal amplitudes, so be
careful when interpreting the results. The result of the analysis is presented in a Bode-plot.
LTspice allows sources having both a DC and an AC value, however this may give strange
results and it is better to use two separate sources.
• .TRAN analysis: Performs a nonlinear transient analysis.
A transient analysis simulates the behavior of a circuit in the time domain. For every time
step within a given period, all voltages and currents are calculated. The result is the same as
you would see on an oscilloscope. For a transient analysis you need to have time-dependent
voltage or current sources in the circuit.

Using LTspice
If you do not yet have LTspice you can download it from Canvas or from the site of Linear Technology,
http://www.linear.com/. We will now guide you through some first simulations of the antenna switch
circuit. Links to documentation on LTSpice can be found in Canvas.

Starting the simulator

Start LTspice and select ‘New schematic’ (using a button or the file-menu). All functions in LTspice are
available through the menu. Most functions also have a corresponding button and a shortcut key.

Placing components
Now, you can start placing components using the ‘Edit’ menu, the corresponding buttons or the
shortcut keys. All basic components have direct buttons. Other components have to be imported
through the menu (F2). The menu allows you to browse through all available components. While
placing components, they can be rotated or mirrored using the shortcut keys CTRL+R and CTRL+E. To
build the antenna switch circuit from Figure 1, we place components of the types ‘voltage’, ‘res’, ‘cap’
and ‘diode’. Furthermore, we need to add a ground symbol (shortcut key: G) to indicate the node that
LTspice will use as reference, i.e. all voltages are given with respect to this node.

Connecting components and editing the circuit

Next, you need to connect the components by drawing wires. Select ‘Draw wires’ from the ‘Edit’-menu
or use the corresponding button or shortcut key F3. Now you can draw the wires. If you want to change
the position of a component, you can use the ‘Move’ (F7) or ‘Drag’ (F8) commands. The difference is
that ‘Move’ will disconnect the component from any existing wires, whereas ‘Drag’ will keep existing
connections intact. To delete a component or wire, use the ‘Delete’ (F5) command and then select the
item that you want to delete. The ‘Cut’ button or pressing the ‘delete’ key give the same result. To
copy a component or wire use the ‘Duplicate’ (F6) command or the ‘Copy’ button and then select the
item that you want to copy.

Assigning values to the components

Now you have entered the complete schematic. The next step is to assign values to the components.
Click on a component with the right mouse button and a dialog will appear that allows you to edit
relevant parameters. For the diode, you need to specify the typ. Select ‘pick new diode’ and choose
1N4148, which you have in your protobox and which is the most commonly used diode. For the
resistors you can specify the resistance value (choose e.g. 1000Ω). We will come back to the value of

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Cin and the voltage sources later. For now you can use e.g. Cin = 200nF, Vin = 0V and VDC = 5V. Finally, it
is useful to give a name to each component (right-click the labels) and to frequently used nodes (via
‘label net’ (F4), you may leave ‘port type’ equal to ‘none’). The circuit should now look similar to Figure
2. In this case, the name ‘out’ was given to the node that defines the voltage over RL.

OP-analysis
Next, we are going to verify whether the calculated DC-values of assignment 1.1 are correct. Therefore,
we perform a .OP analysis. Select the ‘Spice Analysis’ command from the ‘Edit’ menu, which will show
the dialog of Figure 3, select the right-most tab and press ok to insert the text .OP in the circuit. Now
you can start the simulation by selecting the ‘Run’ command from the ‘Simulate’ menu or by clicking
the ‘Run’ button. A new window appears with the calculated voltages and currents. You can simply
close this window: the information shown in it will also appear in the status bar at the bottom of the
main window when you place the mouse over a node or component.

Figure 2: The antenna switch circuit entered in LTspice.

Figure 3: Selecting a simulation type in LTspice.

Assignment 1.4. Perform an OP-analysis and compare the simulated values with the calculated
values of assignment 1.1. Compare, verify, falsify against your calculated values.

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DC analysis
Next, you can do a DC sweep to see what happens for various values of VDC. Right-clicking the
simulation command allows you to change the .OP analysis into a .DC-analysis. In the antenna switch
circuit the value of VDC can change from –5 V to +5 V, so you may select a sweep between these values
with a step size of, for example, 0.05 V.

Assignment 1.5. Use this DC-sweep to show that the current through the diode depends exponentially
on the voltage over the diode in the forward-region. This takes some manipulation of the graphical
output, but this is exactly the purpose of this assignment.

AC-analysis
In assignment 1.2, you have calculated the frequency dependent transmission of the antenna switch.
Using this, you can decide which value to use for Cin.

Assignment 1.6. Using the manual calculations, dimension Cin such that the antenna switch works
properly. Do this by putting the cut-off frequency at least a factor 2 below the signal frequency. Derive
the signal attenuated for this case.

To check whether your calculation is correct, you can perform a .AC simulation. Go to the advanced
properties of Vin and give this source an arbitrary AC value of 1 (leave all other fields in the dialog
empty). This AC-amplitude only applies for the AC-analysis. Obviously, you also need to change the
simulation to AC-analysis. Remember that the frequency axis in a Bode plot has a logarithmic scale and
select a number of points per octave or decade. For the frequency values you can use the usual
prefixes, like 1k for 1 kHz, but note that 1m means 1 milli-Hz. If you want 1 MHz you need to type
1meg.

Assignment 1.7. Perform an AC-analysis to determine whether the transfer you calculated is correct.
Explain any differences.

TRAN-analysis
Finally, if everything seems to be correct, you can do a transient (time domain) simulation, which will
include the non-linear behavior of the diode.

Assignment 1.8. Change the property of Vin to a SINE source; motivate your choice for the amplitude.
Make VDC of the type PULSE. Finally, use the .TRAN analysis to show the switching behavior of the
circuit. Compare the simulation outcome with your derived/calculated behavior and explain any
differences detailed.

Realisation, compare simulations, measurements: bonus

Assignment 1.9. Build and measure all relevant properties of the antenna-switch. All relevant
properties are the things you have already simulated: the DC- and AC-voltages in the circuit for both
values of VDC; please stay inside the input voltage range of the AD2. It may be useful to decouple the
output signal (i.e. block the DC voltage and pass the AC voltage) using e.g. a CR high pass filter at the
output.

Assignment 1.10. Discuss the results and explain any differences between the manual calculations, the
simulations and the measurement results. An explanation in the style of “the differences are caused
by inaccuracies of our model” is not sufficient. Which inaccuracies do you mean exactly? Which model

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parameters are not close enough to reality? Why do these cause those specific differences? Prove this
by, for example, measuring the non-ideal components.

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Lab 2. Common-emitter amplifier
In this assignment you will make a simple amplifier around one bipolar transistor. The circuit is called
a common-emitter amplifier because the base serves as the input, the collector as the output, and the
emitter is common to both input and output.

Figure 6: Basic common-emitter circuit.

To be used as a more or less linear amplifier, we need to bias the transistor as explained in chapter 3
of the reader.

Assignment 2.1. Build the circuit of Figure 6 with a BC550 BJT and adjust the base-emitter voltage VBE
such that the collector current is equal to 1 mA. How stable is this bias current? How much does it
change with changes in temperature and /or VBE? Can you explain this?

One technique to make the circuit more stable is to introduce a negative feedback such that an
increase of IC automatically results in a decrease of VBE. An easy way to do this is by inserting a resistor
in series with the emitter; so-called emitter degeneration. Figure 7 shows an example circuit. Now we
can start dimensioning this circuit by first choosing the voltage across the resistor RE. Then we also
know the approximate voltage at the base, because VBE will be around 0.65 V. We can now choose
suitable values for RB1 and RB2. We need to be able to superimpose an AC signal at the base and we
also do not want to dissipate much power in these resistors, so large values are preferred. However,
we do not want any influence from the base current of the transistor, so there is an upper limit to the
resistance values that we can choose.

Figure 7: Circuit with emitter degeneration.

Assignment 2.2. Dimension the resistors in Figure 7 such that IC = 1 mA and VRE = 1V. Choose your own
supply voltage, e.g. 9 V if you want to use a battery, or 5 V if you want to use the power supply from
the AD2.

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Assignment 2.3. Build the circuit using the calculated values. If the exact values are not available,
select values that best match your calculations. Test how sensitive the circuit is to disturbances, e.g.
variations in temperature or power supply voltage. Explain the result and try to compare this with
simulation results.

We will now adjust the circuit so that we can use it as an amplifier as shown in Figure 8. We connect
an AC input voltage to the base of the transistor through a coupling capacitor Cin. The AC voltage will
result in changes in IC, which are converted into a voltage by inserting a collector resistor RC and an
output coupling capacitor Cout.

Note that we also insert a capacitor CE. Without this capacitor, voltage variations at the base of the
transistor will appear mainly across RE and UBE will change very little. In that case you can still make an
amplifier, but the amplification factor is rather limited and approximately equal to the ratio between
RC and RE. Capacitor CE will keep the voltage across RE constant if we make sure that its impedance at
the signal frequency is relatively small. As a result, the input voltage will directly influence the base-
emitter voltage and result in large changes in IC. Of course, in this way we do introduce additional
frequency dependence.

Figure 8: Common-emitter amplifier circuit.

Assignment 2.4. Explain why we can replace the current meter in Figure 7 by a resistor without any
significant change in IC, although the voltage drop may reduce the collector-emitter voltage by several
volts.

Suppose we want an amplification factor from vin to vout equal to 30. We will now figure out how large
the resistor RC should be to get this amplification factor. For the transistor we already know that the
relation between VBE and IC can be approximated by (see reader, chapter 2):

𝐼! = 𝐼!" 𝑒 #$!" ⁄%&

So, a small change vbe in VBE will give the following change in IC:

𝜕𝑖! 𝑞 𝑞𝐼!
𝑖( = % ( ∙ 𝑣01 = 𝐼!" 𝑒 #$!"⁄%& ∙ 𝑣01 = ∙𝑣
𝜕𝑣)* +# ,-./ 𝑘𝑇 𝑘𝑇 01

Assignment 2.5. Use this result to calculate the value of collector resistor RC that is needed to obtain
the voltage gain of 30. Assume that the capacitors can be considered short-circuits.

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Assignment 2.6. Realize the circuit using capacitor values of 10 uF and measure the voltage gain for an
input voltage amplitude of 10mV1. Is the result what you expected? Motivate, explain differences.

Assignment 2.7. Investigate the frequency dependence of the circuit. How does the voltage gain
depend on frequency? Compare measurements with simulation results, discuss the results.

Assignment 2.8. Investigate the distortion introduced by the circuit using the Dynamic Signal Analyzer
from the AD2. Does the distortion depend on the signal amplitude? Describe and explain your results.

Assignment 2.9. What can you do to reduce the distortion? Optimize the circuit for minimum
distortion at a signal frequency of 1 kHz, input signal amplitude of 10 mV and voltage gain of 30.

1
You may need an extra resistor across the output terminals to get a zero DC voltage at the output: the input
impedance of the AD2 is usually too high ohmic to accomplish this.

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Lab 3. Measurement of small-signal parameters
In this assignment we will measure the small-signal output impedance of a common drain circuit. This
circuit is usually called a source follower (in case of a bipolar transistor it is called an emitter follower).

A source follower can be used as a so-called voltage buffer because it does not load the source very
much due to its high input impedance and it can drive other loads because of its low output impedance.
Figure 9 shows the schematic of a source follower.

Figure 9: A source follower circuit.

Assignment 3.1. Dimension the resistors in the source follower circuit of Figure 9 such that the drain
current is 1 mA for a BS170 mosfet. To allow for a maximum output voltage swing, it is advantageous
to choose the voltage at the source node of the transistor slightly smaller than half the supply voltage.
Assume a supply voltage of 5 V, 9 V or …, depending on what you plan to use during measurements.
The component-to-component spread in discrete MOS transistors is quite large, so you can use the
nominal Vth for now, but realize this might prove incorrect once you build the circuit.

Assignment 3.2. Derive an approximate expression for the small signal transfer of the circuit of Figure
9. You can assume that the capacitors behave as short circuits at the signal frequency. Furthermore,
assume that the signal source has zero impedance and that there is no load at the output.

Assignment 3.3. Verify the DC biasing and the AC signal transfer using LTspice simulations.

Assignment 3.4. Build the source follower circuit and measure the DC biasing and AC signal transfer.
Compare the results with your expectations, report and motivate differences.

The amount of power that a circuit can transfer into a load is dependent on the ratio between the
internal resistance of the circuit (i.e. the output impedance) and the load resistance. You can easily see
that in Figure 10.

Figure 10: An amplifier with output impedance Ro.

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The output voltage will not be significantly influenced as long as the load resistance RL is much larger
than the output resistance Ro. If RL becomes smaller the output voltage will decrease. Therefore it is
important that the output resistance of a circuit is small enough to drive the load. Instead of an explicit
load resistor, the load can also be the input resistance of another circuit.

Measurement of the output impedance

There are basically two methods for measuring output impedance. The first method is illustrated in
Figure 11. First, the open-circuit output voltage is measured, i.e. the output voltage without any load
connected to the circuit. Next, the output is loaded by a resistor until a significant change in AC output
voltage is observed. Then, Ro can be calculated from the two measured output voltage levels and the
value of RL. It is most convenient to use a variable resistor as load and adjust it until the AC output
voltage is exactly half of the original value.

Figure 11: Measurement of output impedance by changing the load.

The second method is illustrated in Figure 12. In this case an independent external voltage source
vo,extern is connected to the output of the circuit and the current is measured. Note that in this case the
input signal vi has to be zero. A similar option is to connect an independent external current source
io,extern and measure the resulting voltage.

Before starting your measurements, please note the following:

• The measurements involve changes in voltage and current which are superimposed on DC
voltages and currents. You need to use coupling capacitors to separate the signals from the
DC values.
• In the analyses we assume the amplifier to be linear, which is only a good approximation if
the signals are sufficiently small.

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 Figure 12: Measurement of output impedance by forcing a voltage or current.

Assignment 3.5. Derive an expression for the output resistance of the source follower in Figure 9 for
the situation that the internal impedance of the signal source RG=0. Assume that, at the signal
frequency, the capacitors behave as short-circuits.

Assignment 3.6. When measuring the output resistance in the actual circuit, what do you need to do
with the supply voltage VCC? Just leave it on, switch it off, or short-circuit it? Explain your answer.

Assignment 3.7. Design a measurement setup to measure the output impedance. Use simulations to
verify the design. Keep in mind that the output resistance of the circuit is relatively small, and also
keep in mind that the output impedance of the signal source will, in reality, not be zero.

Assignment 3.8. Do and report the measurements. Compare your results with the expectations.

Bonus assignment. Do your measurement results depend on the signal amplitudes? Investigate this
and give an explanation.

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Organization of the projects
After the introductory labs you will start with the project, which consists of two parts. Again, you need
to keep track of your progress in a journal, but you do not need to hand it in unless we specifically ask
for it (which will happen if the manuscript/paper is judged insufficient or unclear, if you have to explain
what you did so-far, if you have any question, …). Your work will mainly be graded based on knowledge,
creativity and level of ambition: a well understood poorly performing product result will get much
better grades than a perfectly working but ill understood (or even copied) design.
In the first part of the project, Project I, you will design, build, measure and demo an analog power
amplifier to amplify the audio signal from an iPod or notebook so that it can be played on a 4 Ohm
loudspeaker. There are a few constraints, like a maximum power supply voltage of 10V and an input
voltage lower than 100mV effective. The aim is to deliver maximum power to the loudspeaker with
the lowest distortion.
In the second part of the project you will extend the system with an ~100MHz FM transmitter and
receiver so that the audio signal from the iPod or notebook can be transmitted wirelessly to the
amplifier. You will have to design, build and measure the FM transmitter yourself. For the FM-receiver
we may provide COTS modules that can be controlled using an Arduino, but for characterization
purposed you can use a software defined radio, e.g. the ADALM Pluto (on loan).

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Project I: Audio power amplifier
In this first part of the project you will design and build an audio power amplifier to amplify the audio
signal from an iPod or notebook so that it can be played on a 4 Ohm loudspeaker. There are a few
constraints, like a maximum power supply voltage of 10V and an input voltage level of 100mV RMS.
The aim is to deliver maximum power to the loudspeaker while keeping the distortion at an acceptable
level.
In this project you are free to plan your own time, but we do ask that you make a planning and division
of tasks between the group members. Especially this last one is important for the peer assessment
of/by your group members. Keep a journal; we may ask for it if there are questions or if we need
clarifications.

Deliverables
In the first part of the amplifier project, your group has to:

1 Provide a 3-minutes elevator pitch (recorded this year) for stakeholders,

a. describing what your approach will be for the audio amplifier, and what the
highlights will be. This pitch preferably includes simulation results.
b. If your work is inspired by literature, references must be included and differences
with respect to literature must be highlighted and it must be clear that you do
understand what you’re presenting
c. You need to get an OK from the stakeholder (a teacher or a PhD-TA) before
actually be allowed to build
d. You are not allowed to deviate from this presented approach, unless there is a
very good motivation for it. In that case, the stakeholders have to OK the
deviation.
At the end of the amplifier project, your group has to:

2 Write a 4-page manuscript on the amplifier; the manuscript must include:

a. A short introduction
b. A description of a few highlights of the amplifier
c. Experimental proof of performance (measurements)
d. A conclusion
e. References
The manuscript and its submission must follow the guidelines on Canvas.

3 Review and grade 4 manuscripts of other groups. Review instructions are on Canvas
4 Make and upload a 3-minute presentation, with max 30s extra demo time added.
Your grade will primarily be based on the 4-page paper, the peer reviews given by your group and
the peer group assessments. Also the other deliverables play a role; see Canvas for details.

Amplifier Specification
The amplifier should have the following specs and boundary conditions:

• Drives a 4Ω loudspeaker.
• Bandwidth at least 20 Hz – 20 kHz.

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 • Voltage gain > 30x
• Input resistance > 50kW
• Largest possible output power.
• Lowest possible distortion.
• Works at 10V supply voltage.
• Only discrete transistors, no IC’s.
• Design in accordance with the theory in the module so far. This excludes most designs you
find in literature, as these use multi-stage feedback which you will not be able to properly
explain (yet).
• Compatible with the Module 3 interface connector (for the on-site demo – not applicable in
2020-2021):

Realization
For the project, extra components are available:

Your audio amplifier most likely includes high power components that run hot. Also, the power
transistors that are available have thick wires that can bend the connectors in the breadboard which
results in poor contacts when using regular components. For both reasons you should solder your
amplifier on perfboard. Some components are already in your protokit; others may be ordered (by
you or by us – pls check in time).

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Project II: Wireless audio link
In the second part of the project, you will extend the audio amplifier with an FM transmitter and
receiver so that the audio signal from the iPod or notebook can be transmitted wirelessly to the
amplifier. You will have to design and build the FM transmitter yourself. That is, you need to build an
oscillator to generate a carrier frequency somewhere between 87.5 and 108 MHz. This carrier wave
needs to be modulated in frequency so that a regular FM receiver can be used to receive the signal.
For the receiver we may provide TEA5767 modules that only need a (clean!) power supply and antenna
and that can be controlled using an Arduino. For off-site characterization purposes you may need a
software defined radio such as the ADALM-Pluto. We have a number of them to lend.

In this project you will experience that designing a circuit for high frequencies can be troublesome.
Even the smallest parasitic capacitance or inductance can significantly influence the operation of the
circuit. Therefore, you need to take parasitic components into account, use short wires for
connections, decouple power supplies, use a central ground node, proper shielding, etc. In general,
mounting the circuit above a solid copper plate seems to work best. It is not advised to use a
breadboard, at least not for the radio frequency (RF) part of the circuit.

In this project we expect that you know exactly why and how your circuit works. That is, you should be
able to explain the role of every component in the circuit. Being able to explain how the circuit works
is much more important than obtaining the best possible specifications.

In the first part of the wireless audio link project, your group has to:

1 Provide a 3-minutes elevator pitch (recorded this year) for stakeholders,

a. describing what your approach will be for the wireless audio link, with an
emphasis on the FM transmitter, and what the highlights will be. This pitch
preferably includes simulation results.
b. If your work is inspired by literature, references must be included and differences
with respect to literature must be highlighted and it must be clear that you do
understand what you’re presenting
c. You need to get an OK from the stakeholder before actually be allowed to build
d. You are not allowed to deviate from this presented approach, unless there is a
very good motivation for it. In that case, the stakeholders have to OK the
deviation.
Also, at the end of the FM transmitter project, your group has to:

2 Write a 4-page manuscript on the wireless link; the manuscript must include:
a. A short introduction
b. A description of a few highlights of the wireless audio link
c. Experimental proof of performance (measurements)
d. A conclusion
e. References

The manuscript and its submission must follow the guidelines on Canvas.

3 Review and grade 4 manuscripts of other groups.

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 Review instructions are on Canvas
5 Make and upload a 3-minute presentation, with max 30s extra demo time added.

Your grade will primarily be based on the 4-page paper, the peer reviews given by your group
and the peer group assessments. Also other deliverables play a role; see Canvas for details.

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Some random pointers
We want to conclude this manual with a list of some aspects and helpful hints that you should
consider in the design (in random order):

• As before, you are free to plan your own time, but we do ask that you make a planning and
division of tasks between the group members.
• How do you design the transmitter? What kind of layout do you use? Why this one, and not
another one? Motivate the choices with reasoning, calculations and simulations.
• How do you design the antenna? What kind of impedance do you expect? Is it correct? How
do you get a real impedance?
• The transmitter is easily designed using a resistor as a load; this resistor must, however, be
equal to the load that the antenna poses. Hence, the designs of the transmitter and antenna
are closely related to each other.
• Pay attention to the resonance loop that determines the oscillation frequency. Ensure that it
is physically as small as possible and far away from interference sources (e.g. coupling
capacitors).
• The antenna can be characterized using a miniVNA (on loan)
• When using coupling capacitors, carefully estimate what you need (value wise, size wise)
• Take parasitic inductances into account
• Have a critical attitude towards your work. If a measurement does not correspond to
calculations: why is this the case? Give an explanation. Provide some solid evidence for your
explanation whenever that’s available. Do not provide baloney explanations.

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