Chapter 3:

General Concepts of an
Amplifier
CO1 - Describe the concept of solid state devices, general
amplifier and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs).

CO2 - Solve the circuit problems related to diode, two port

network and BJTs.

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 3.1 Concept of an amplifier
 Amplifier is a device that has 2 terminals, i.e. input and output
terminals
 Function: to amplify either a dc or an ac signal.
2 types of sources connected to amplifier – DC voltage source
and AC source as input signal
 Amplifier consists of one or more active devices such as BJT.

Figure 1.0: Block diagram of amplifier

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 3.1.1 Gain of an amplifier
 Gain is the ratio of the output signal to the input
signal

Gain = output signal/input signal

 There are three types of gain i.e:

Current Gain (Ai) = Io/Ii

Voltage Gain (Av) = Vo/Vi
Power Gain (Ap) = Po/Pi
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3.1.2 Ideal Properties of amplifier
1. Input resistance is high (infinity)
2. Output resistance is low (zero)
3. Gain is high (infinity)
4. Bandwidth is high (infinity)

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3.1.3 Gain in Decibels (dB)
 dB is the ratio between 2 signal power, voltage or current levels.

Voltage gain, Av(dB) = 20log(Vo/Vi)

Current gain, Ai(dB) = 20log(Io/Ii)

Power gain, Ap(dB) = 10log(Po/Pi)

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3.1.4 Input and Output Impedance
 Input terminal,
Vi = VsZi/(Zi+Rs) = Vs(1/(1+Rs/Zi) if Zi>>Rs, Vi =Vs.
So ideally Zi = infinity

 Output terminal,
Vo = AVNLVi (ZL/(ZL+Zo))
Ideal amplifier Zo is approaching zero.

 Hence if ZL is zero, Av = Vo/Vi is maximum

Zi

Figure 2.0: Amplifier as 2 port-

system
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3.1.5 Gain in Amplifier ( 2 port systems)
 Avs = Vo/Vs = VoVi/ViVs

Avs =

Figure 2.0: Amplifier as 2 port-

system
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3.1.6 Cascaded Amplifier

Overall voltage gain of amplifier;

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 Example 1
For the cascaded amplifier in Figure Q1, determine the
followings:
Voltage gain at each stage of the amplifier
Total voltage gain, AVT
Overall gain, Avs in dB
Rs
100R

AVNL2 = 40
AVNL1 = 20
Zi2 =2k0 RL
Vs Zi1 =6k8
ZO2=10k 1k0
ZO1=620R

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3.1.7 Frequency Response Curve
• Ideally amplifier must provide the same amplification
for all frequencies.

•Mid-band range gain;

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3.1.7 Frequency Response Curve cont.
 The frequency response of an amplifier refers to the
frequency range in which the amplifier will operate with
negligible effects from capacitors and capacitance in devices.
This range of frequencies can be called the midrange.
 At frequencies above and below the midrange, capacitance and
any inductance will affect the gain of the amplifier.
 At low frequencies the coupling and bypass capacitors lower the
gain.
 At high frequencies stray capacitances associated with the active
device lower the gain.
 Also, cascading amplifiers limits the gain at high and low
frequencies.

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3.1.7 Frequency Response Curve cont.
 The mid-range gain is a constant gain that occurs for
the range of frequency between lower and upper
critical frequencies.

 The bandwidth is defined by the difference between

lower and upper cutoff frequencies (midrange
frequency).

 Cutoff/critical frequency is frequency at which the

gain has dropped by: 0.5 power OR 0.707 voltage OR
-3dB less than at midrange
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3.1.8 Phase relationship in amplifier

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3.2 Classification of amplifier operation
 Linear amplifier are classified according to their mode of operation as
stated below;

1. Based on its input

• Large-signal amplifier
• Small-signal amplifier

2. Based on its output

• Voltage amplifier
• Power amplifier

3. Based on its frequency response

• Intermediate-frequency (IF) amplifier
• Radio-frequency (RF) amplifier
• Audio frequency (AF) amplifier

4. Based on its biasing conditions

• Class – A
• Class – B
• Class – AB
• Class - C Miza Halim 14
 3.2.1 Class A

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 3.2.2 Class B

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 3.2.4 Class C

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 3.2.5 Amplifier Distortion
 A good amplifier should not only produce an enlarged version at the output,
but provide a faithful reproduction of the input waveform. However output
of the amplifier is prone to distortion such as amplitude distortion or
harmonic distortion which results from the non-linearity of the active device
used for amplification.
1) Harmonic Distortion
 Caused by the semiconductor device. As a result not all portion of input
signal is amplified.

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 distortion, in electronics, undesired change in an electric signal waveform as it
passes from the input to the output of some system or device.
 In an audio system, distortion results in poor reproduction of recorded or
transmitted sound.
 In passing through an electronic device, the amplitude of an input signal may be
changed.
 For example, any voltage that is applied to an amplifier may be increased by a
factor of 10.
 Amplitude distortion occurs when this factor is not the same for all input voltages.
 Frequency distortion occurs when the amplitudes of the different frequency
components of an input signal are changed by a factor that is not the same for all
frequencies.
 Phase distortion occurs when there is a phase shift between a system's output- and
its input-signal components. It occurs because the time of propagation through a
system can vary with frequency.
 Intermodulation distortion, also known as cross modulation, results from the
mixing of signals in a non-linear system; the output will contain the sums and
differences of the input signals' harmonics. Some kinds of distortion are
subjectively more objectionable than others.
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 3.2.5 Amplifier Distortion cont.
2. Frequency Distortion
 Over the range of frequencies at which it is to be used, an amplifier should
ideally provide the same amplification for all frequencies. However frequency
distortion occurs at extremely low and high frequencies range. This loss of gain
is usually due to capacitor and active components in the amplifier itself.

3. Phase-shift Distortion (Phase Distortion)

 Different frequency components of the signal are delayed by different amounts
of time.
 Eg. Smeared image on
Mizatelevision.
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 3.3 Noise
 Noise – unwanted output signal (current or voltage) in addition to the
desired signal.
 Eg. “hissing” in loudspeaker, “snow” superimposed on TV picture.
 Signal- to-noise ratio (SNR) is the ratio of the wanted signal power to the
unwanted noise power.
 Noise Quantities;

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 3.3.1 Noise Quantities
 Noise Figure is the ratio input SNR and the output SNR

Where Si, Ni, So and No are in Watt unit.

 If the signal and noise are in Volt or current units

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 Example 2
The input of an audio amplifier consists of 120μV signal and
12μV noise. The internal noise of the amplifier is 100μV and
the gain is 40dB. For this amplifier, determine:
i. The signal-to-noise (SNR) in dB
ii. The noise figure (NF) in dB.

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 3.3.2 Type of Noise
1. External noise is the noise created outside the receiver. Example of
external noise are:

* Atmospheric noise
~ Come from natural sources of disturbance (about30MHz). Eg. Lightning

• Extraterrestrial noise (20 – 120M)

~ A noise/ radio disturbance caused by natural phenomena outside the
earth's atmosphere. Example:
~ Solar noise which comes from the sun radiation and produce frequency
spectrum which include frequency used for communication.
~ Cosmic noise which is from the stars and radiate noise in same manner
of the sun and also our galaxy.

* Industrial noise (1 – 600MHz)

~ produced by industry, automobile and aircraft.

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 3.3.2 Type of Noise cont.
2. Internal Noise is created by any active or passive component in receiver.
Example:
* Thermal noise
~ Generated in resistance. It is due to the rapid and random motion of
molecules, atoms and electrons.
* Short noise
~ Exist in amplifying devices (or active device). I t caused by random variations
in the arrival of electron (holes) at the output electrode of an amplifying
device.

* Transit-time noise
~ Produced if the time taken by an electron to travel (e.g. emitter to collector
of transistor) become comparable to the period of the signal being amplified)

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