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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

On Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps


I'll hereby express some of my personal opinions on how audio amps work. Don't confuse these with proper theory, which is far beyond my grasp. I've never studied this field, it's only a hobby. I've written this text, because I've found out, that my intuitive explanations are often helpful to people who *do* study the theory at school.

Internal structure of op-amps and power amps


Most contemporary power amplifiers are conceptually quite similar to general op-amps, i.e. they posess two inputs (inverting and non-inverting) and one output. The difference with power amps is, that their final stages are estimated for higher output currents and, because maximum power dissipated in a given load is proportional to square of voltage, the power amps usually have to stand higher power supply voltages. Sometimes it may be difficult to distinguish the inverting signal input in an amp built of discrete devices, because we only need one explicit input for signal (the non-inverting one), and so the inverting input remains embedded in the schematic - but in most power amps it is identifiable if you follow the resistive divider in the negative feedback and if you're able to recognize the differential input stage. All op-amps, including the monolithic ones, consist of several individual transistors. There are about two or three main stages to an op-amp.

The first of them is a differential input stage, which basically has the task of deriving the difference between the two inputs and usually doesn't have a high amplification just by itself. Then there's a voltage amplification stage, which accounts for most of the op-amp's voltage amplification. The third stage is an optional current booster on the output, which increases the op-amps load capacity. Some older small-signal op-amps completely lack this stage, most contemporary genaral-purpose op-amps have one, and it's rather hypertrophic with all power amps. Before I try to further explain each of these three blocks, I should explain some basic ideas of transistor amplifiers. First of all, there are two basic ways of using a transistor as an amplifier.
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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

The first one, called the 'common emitter mode' is used mainly for voltage amplification, although it gives some current amplification too.

The base is driven by variable current and the collector is connected in series with a resistor, thus creating a variable voltage divider. If you want to drive the base with a voltage-based signal source, you have to bias it with a pull-up resistor to Ucc and AC-couple it with a cap to the previous stage. In order to achieve the best linearity, SNR and amplification, you have to use particular values of resistors with respect to the transistor's nominal current amplification and noise specifications. You also have to take care not to overdrive the amplifier. The amplification parameter (Beta, Hfe) may be quite variable even within a batch of single type transistors, so that you may have to allow for individual setting of the bias current in each piece of equipment, or tolerate distortion. For the reasons spelled above, this way of using discrete transistors as linear amplifying devices hasn't been employed for several years or decades already. Transistor structures in today's linear ICs are to great extent self-biasing and easier to use in mass production than stand-alone discrete transistors. The C.E.M. principle however remains in use within the monolithic ICs. The second essential way of using a transistor is the Common Collector Mode (sometimes called simply a 'source follower', which is however a broader category).

It has a high current amplification and is therefore usually used as a plain current booster. Its voltage amplifiation is theoretically equal to one, in practise it's less than one. In some cases, there needn't even be a resistor in series with the base. As a demonstration, this way it should be possible to drive a small voltage light bulb (connected instead of the load resistor) with a TTL gate. (The TTL output alone wouldn't make it). It is not advisable to use C.C.M. with inductive loads - the circuit might oscillate or even blow out. Both C.E.M. and C.C.M. can be used for switching purposes. In this case, with C.E.M. there's no need to bias the transistor into linear mode. Now that I've taken a quick glance at the function of a transistor, I can proceed to the main building blocks of most op-amp and power amp schematics. The constant current source is a good example.

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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

There's a voltage stabilizer in the base of the transistor. Thus, the resistor in series with the transistor's emitter simply doesn't allow the I(ce) to rise over a certain limit, which is theoretically given by the Ohm's law (I=U/ R). As a result, the collector has a pretty flat U/I curve - at least much flatter than linear, even flatter than logarithmic - it's convergent to the theoretical limit for infinite collector voltage.

The constant current source acts as a high value resistor, connected to a high voltage. Such properties are useful for setting bias current in final stages of the amp, and also for voltage amplification. Imagine a C.E.M type of circuit, with a constant current source instead of the collector resistor.

In theory, such a circuit would have an infinite voltage amplification. Even in practice, the amplification is so high that it's only possible to bias such a circuit into linear mode with a negative feedback. Another important cornerstone of all op-amps is a differential amplifier. In practical schematics, it can be usually easily identified as two transistors in the input area placed face-to-face close to each other, with their emitters inconnected (either directly, or over small resistors). There are a few other devices around: two pullup resistors in the transistors' collectors, and a single pull-down resistor from the interconnected emitters to

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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

ground. Most practical differential amps however use a constant current source instead of the emitter pulldown resistor.

The main purpose of a differential amplifier is to aggregate the two inputs of an op-amp (inverting and noninverting) into a single signal, which is passed to the next stages for further amplification. In fact, the two inputs are the bases of the two transistors to a differential stage. The output signal is drawn from the collector of only one of these transistors. As a result, one of the inputs is inverting, and the other one is non-inverting. The precise amplification of either input and the whole stage is to great extent unimportant, as we only need the differential stage to compare the inputs to each other. The amplification can be provided by the following stages (again, its precise value is unimportant, it only has to be real high) and the feedback takes care of the rest, so that in practice, the two inputs will always be real close to each other and will mostly function as a comparator. The negative feedback will struggle to keep them precisely balanced. At this point, let's take a look at some oversimplified schematics. The simpliest true op-amp schematic I've ever seen consisted of six transistors. The following four drawings show a simple op-amp with four different "third" stages. (never tried to build this, it probably wouldn't work just like this) In the first schematic, there's no current booster at all.

It only consists of the differential input (with a constant current source in the emitters) and a single voltage gain stage (featuring a single transistor in the C.E.M.). The second schematic already contains an additional current booster, using a single transistor in the C.C.M.

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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

The maximum load is determined by the pulldown resistor. (BTW.: Looks like Pure A Class, am I right? Any audiophiles around here? :) The third schematic contains a push-pull (complementary) current booster stage, even with a non-zero bias current.

The final stage in fact consists of two constant current sources standing back-to-back. The only difference from regular CCS's is, that the ground of the two voltage references isn't tied to the output, but floating, so that the CCS's are controllable by the output of the voltage gain stage. This sort of current booster stages is quite common in small-signal op-amps. The fourth schematic shows another type of a push-pull current booster arrangement.

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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

The bias current can be set by the trimpot in base of the transistor titled "T". This sort of current boosters is used in power amps and so the transistor "T" is sometimes thermocoupled to the very last output transistors to prevent the bias current from growing with temperature. Note that in the last two examples, the resistor "R" is often replaced by another constant current source to increase amplification, linearity and efficiency of the whole. For an example of a truly working op-amp, take a glance at this schematic. This one is a bit more complicated than most others, because it's 'fully-complementary'. If you want to take a look at some practical op-amp schematics, go to the Philips Semiconductors' search page and type in "op-amp" as a keyword. There's also an application note by Philips Semiconductors on op-amp theory. (BTW: Philips seem to have a neat appnote on virtually everything.)

Feedbacks and system stability


The main op-amp concept closely resembles the general principle of error-driven control systems. You drive the positive input with a refferential signal and you drive the negative input with an output signal of the system. If there's an instantaneous difference between the input refference and the output, the differential input of the control system evaluates it as an error between the actual output state and the state desired, and moves the output in an opposite direction than is the one of the error. With general control systems, this interpretation applies for various classes of input and output signals, and system designs. With op-amps and audio amps, the situation is quite simple: all the signals are contiguous voltages, variable in time. Note that, although in the whole theory we only operate with three 'signals' (+in, in, out), we always end up needing a fourth signal to refference the rest to - this signal is the Ground. This is because the voltage, processed by real op-amps, is a difference of potentials. Gimme a fixed point in the universe and I'll move the earth. (Anyone remembers who said that?) Even though in some cases we don't need the ground on the input, we always need something to connect the output load to. In my example given above, we need the ground both on the input and on the output. An ideal op-amp amplifies the difference between the two inputs with an infinite amplification ratio and with a zero response time. You can picture an op-amp as a comparator: if the (-)in is higher than the (+)in, the
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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

output is -(infinity). If the (-)in is lower than the (+)in, the output is +(infinity). An upward motion of the (+) in causes the output to climb high and vice versa. An upward motion of the (-)in causes the output to go low and vice versa. Or maybe I'd better say 'flip low'/'flip hi' as long as we work with ideal devices. I've got no idea of how the theory deals with all these infinities, and in fact I don't care, as no ideal devices really exist. Practical op-amps amplify the difference between their two inputs with a pretty high amplification within a reasonable response time. Their input and output voltage range is limited by the power supply rails. If you connect the (-)in to the output and drive the (+)in with a reasonable signal, the output will exactly follow the (+)in, because this way the feedback tells the op-amp to minimize deviations between the given input and the output. Now imagine what happens, if you connect the (-)in to the middle point of a resistive voltage divider (e.g. a trimpot), that's connected between the op-amp's output and ground. This sort of a feedback network tells the op-amp to minimize error between the input signal (+in to GND) and the 'output signal (output to GND) divided by the ratio of the two resistors in the feedback'. This way you can do all sorts of things with the negative feedback, like setting it to various amplifications or making it frequency dependent by including capacitors (or coils). You can even make the op-amp oscillate, which often happens as an unintended by-product of a miscalculated feedback experiment. Negative feedbacks are usually used in self-stabilizing circuits. Positive feedbacks, on the other hand, are destabilizing. You can achieve one by involving the (+)in in a feedback network. Such feedbacks are often used to introduce hysterisis in flip-flop circuits and comparators. Introduction of frequency dependent devices into feedbacks makes quite a mess about the topic. These devices not only cause the amplification to be frequency dependent, but also introduce phase shifts. Thus, in some cases, the border between a positive and a negative feedback becomes rather fuzzy. Or I'd better say that in such cases we have to work with all sorts of feedbacks within a single theory, that would allow us to make some conclusions. Due to my limited education in electronics and math, I only know a little bit in this field, but I'll try to explain it. There's a concept called the Nyquist's criterion, concerning system stability (in this case meaning convergence in time). It applies for control systems in general, not only op-amps and their linear feedback networks. Imagine a control system with a feedback (an audio amp is a good example of a negative feedback system). The Nyquist's criterion applies for the loop as a whole, i.e. in our example the external feedback network AND the amp itself. Both the external network and the internal devices of the amp introduce phase shifts (in case of the amp I rather percieve it as a response time or delay). The overall phase shift is a sum of partial shifts of the loop components. The overall amplification around the loop is a multiplicative product of partial amplifications (i.e. the gain in dB is a sum of partial gains). The criterion says, that the feedback system is stable, if at all frequencies, where the overall phase shift equals an integer multiple of 360 degrees, the overall amplification is lower than one. I can say it the other way around, too: if you can find a frequency, where the phase shift is an integer multiple of 360 degrees, and the amplification is equal to or greater than one, the loop won't be stable. Unstability may either mean, that the output will wander off into one of the limits forever, or that the system will oscillate. A positive DC feedback is an example of the former, an oscillating system with a complicated frequency-dependant feedback is an instance of the latter. In op-amp systems with a negative feedback, the 'negativeness' itself presents a 180 degrees phase shift. In this example, please forget about the (+) input - it's just a DC biasing reference. Since it's impractical to take care of each individual integer multiple of 360 degrees separately, another approach is usually taken. Imagine the loop as an ideal amplifier and a series of low-pass filters (first-order RC integrators). The "ideal amplifier" stands for the overall gain, and the low-pass filters represent the frequency dependent damping and phase shift. Now we've got 180 degrees in either direction to start with. There's no problem with the negative 180 degrees. There's however quite a puzzle with the positive direction. The easiest way to avoid the
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Internal Structure of Op-amps and Audio Power Amps

Nyquist's frontier is to add another low-pass filter into the already existing series. This low-pass filter must reduce the overall gain to such extent, that at 180 degrees it's lower than one. This compensation is usually introduced by a local capacitor feedback across the stage that accounts for most DC amplification. The trouble is, that this additional compensational filter stage eats another 90 degrees, so that we've only got 90 degrees left for the remaining stages. Also, within 90 degrees, this additional filter stage has got quite a limited steepness. As a result, in order to stabilize our amplifier, we either have to use pretty fast active devices, or we have to cut open-loop amplification at higher frequencies, thus increasing distortion. The graph is either drawn in the gain/frequency domain, or in the Z-plane. The former is often used with audio amps, while the latter is used with general control systems. I'm not quite familiar with the latter, so I'll use the former. It suits us best, anyway.

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