Amplifier input and output

Impedance

Prepared by
Engr Sarfaraz Khan Turk
Lecturer IBET LUMHS Jamshoro
 Input Impedance of an Amplifier

• Input Impedance, Zin or Input Resistance as it is

also called, is an important parameter in the design
of a transistor amplifier and as such allows
amplifiers to be characterized according to their
effective input and output impedances as well as
their power and current ratings.
 Input Impedance of an Amplifier (cont)

• An amplifiers impedance value is particularly important

for analysis especially when cascading individual
amplifier stages together one after another to minimise
distortion of the signal.
• The input impedance of an amplifier is the input
impedance “seen” by the source driving the input of the
amplifier. If it is too low, it can have an adverse loading
effect on the previous stage and possibly affecting the
frequency response and output signal level of that
stage. But in most applications, common emitter and
common collector amplifier circuits generally have high
input impedances.
 Input Impedance of an Amplifier (cont)

• Some types of amplifier designs, such as the

common collector amplifier circuit automatically
have high input impedance and low output
impedance by the very nature of their design.
Amplifiers can have high input impedance, low
output impedance, and virtually any arbitrary gain,
but were an amplifiers input impedance is lower
than desired, the output impedance of the
previous stage can be adjusted to compensate or if
this is not possible then buffer amplifier stages
may be needed.
 Av,Ai,Ap of an Amplifier
• In addition to voltage amplification ( Av ), an
amplifier circuit must also have current amplification
( Ai ). Power amplification ( Ap ) can also be expected
from an amplifier circuit. But as well as having these
three important characteristics, an amplifier circuit
must also have other characteristics like high input
impedance ( Zin ), low output impedance ( Zout ) and
some degree of bandwidth, ( Bw ). Either way, the
“perfect” amplifier will have infinite input
impedance and zero output impedance.
 Input and Output Impedance

• In many ways, an amplifier can be thought of as a type of

“black box” which has two input terminals and two output
terminals as shown. This idea provides a simple h-
parameter model of the transistor that we can use to find
the DC set point and operating parameters of an amplifier.
In reality one of the terminals is common between the
input and output representing ground or zero volts.
• When looking from the outside in, these terminals have an input
impedance, Zin and an output impedance, Zout. The input and
output impedance of an amplifier is the ratio of voltage to current
flowing in or out of these terminals. The input impedance may
depend upon the source supply feeding the amplifier while the
output impedance may also vary according to the load impedance,
RL across the output terminals.
• The input signals being amplified are usually alternating currents
(AC) with the amplifier circuit representing a load Z to the source.
The input impedance of an amplifier can be tens of ohms, (Ω’s) to a
few thousand ohms, (kΩ’s) for bipolar based transistor circuits up to
millions of ohms, (MΩ’s) for FET based transistor circuits.
• When a signal source and load are connected to an amplifier, the
corresponding electrical properties of the amplifier circuit can be
modelled as shown.
 Output and Input Impedance Model

• Where, VS is the signal voltage, RS is the internal resistance of the signal

source, and RL is the load resistance connected across the output. We can
expand this idea further by looking at how the amplifier is connected to the
source and load.
• When an amplifier is connected to a signal source, the source “sees” the
input impedance, Zin of the amplifier as a load. Likewise, the input voltage,
Vin is what the amplifier sees across the input impedance, Zin. Then the
amplifiers input can be modelled as a simple voltage divider circuit as shown.
 Amplifier Input Circuit Model

• The same idea applies for the output impedance of the

amplifier. When a load resistance, RL is connected to the
output of the amplifier, the amplifier becomes the source
feeding the load. Therefore, the output voltage and
impedance automatically becomes the source voltage
and source impedance for the load as shown.
 Amplifier Output Circuit Model

• Then we can see that the input and output characteristics of

an amplifier can both be modelled as a simple voltage divider
network. The amplifier itself can be connected in Common
Emitter (emitter grounded), Common Collector (emitter
follower) or in Common Base configurations. In this tutorial
we will look at the bipolar transistor connected in a common
emitter configuration seen previously.