ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS

LARGE-SIGNAL CLASS A AMPLIFIER

Ian Assom_112478862 | EE2007 | March 25, 2014

INTRODUCTION In this lab, we explore the theory behind a class A amplifier which is one of the most commonly used type of power amplifier configuration. to build our Class A amplifier, we used a 2N3904 transistor in the standard Common Emitter circuit , having the transistor biased ON to aloud it to conducts during one complete cycle of the input signal i.e the amplifier is biased such that the it operates in the linear region of the transistor collector characteristic curve. In other to meet the objectives of the laboratory which are: determine both the DC and AC load line and locate the operating point of common emitter amplifier (CEA) Q, then centered it on the AC load line in the case of a large signal Determine the maximum AC peak to peak output voltage before clipping occurs and compared the measured value with the expected value measure the large signal voltage gain of the class A C.E.A Measured the maximum undistorted output power for class A amplifier and determine the amplifier efficiency.

We build, simulate, and analyze via multisim a model of the large signal class A amplifier, then we implement the model on bread board using real components and the oscilloscope to analyze the output signal, finally we compare our results obtained in the lab with the simulated ones. Materials: One 2N3904 bipolar transistor. One DC power supply. Capacitors (two 10uF, one 470uF). One digital multimeter. One function generator. One oscilloscope. Resistor (15, 85 , two 300 , 2K , 10K ).

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MULTISM MODEL IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS

A-DC Analysis Figure [1] below show the circuit diagram of our large signal class A amplifier multisim model:

Figure 1: Large Signal Class A Amplifier, DC Analysis After examine the circuit connection and instrument setting we run the analysis, then we recorded the steady state value of the base voltage (Vb), the emitter Voltage (Ve) and the collector voltage (Vc) using the multimeter and measurement probes. Results and Calculations

Vb Ve Vc

3.11V 2.36V 13V

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For the large-signal class A amplifier shown in figure 1 the dc collector emitter voltage (Vce) can be calculated as follow:

Similarly the dc collector current(Ic) can be determine by calculating the current in the collector resistor (Rc). Therefore

Hence the following circuit load line can be deduced. The DC and AC load line drawing are shown on the attached drawing graph paper. B-AC analysis We implemented the circuit diagram shown in figure [1], to complete the AC analysis of the large signal class A amplifier was

Figure 2 Large Signal Class A Amplifier

The AC collector resistance rc is equal to the parallel equivalent of the collector resistor (Rc) and the load resistor (Rl). Therefore

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)( )

AC Load line It has a slope of -1/rc and passes through the DC load line operating point. The AC load line also cut the horizontal axis of the output characteristic curve plot at Vce equal (VceQ)+ (IcQ)*(rc) as illustrated in figure [3], where VceQ is the collector emitter voltage at the Q-point. Results In other to determine the maximum AC peak-to-peak output voltage swing before peak clipping occurs, we run the simulation and keep increasing the amplitude of the input signal on the function until the output signal started to be clipped, then we recorded both maximum output voltage and input voltage at which the observed transition was about to occurs. Below are figures from the mutisin scope showing the clipping process.

Figure 4: clipped output signal A seen in the above picture, as we increased the amplitude of the input signal (blue curve) from 400mA to about 500mA, the output voltage (red curve) get clipped at it maximum positive peak voltage.
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To get rid of the clipping we slightly reduced the input signal to about 440mA, then we measured the associated peak-to-peak value of the both input and output signal.

Figure 7 undistorted AC peak-to-peak output

Vinpp-p UNDISTORTED AC SIGNAL 0.88V

Voutp-p 7.34V

We then used these value to find the amplifier gain. Amplifier Gain (AV) The amplifier gain is measured by dividing the the AC undistorted pea-to-peak output voltage by the peak-to-peak input voltage.

The expected gain is given by:

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Where Re is the unbypassed emitter resistance and re=25mV/Ie. So we have:

Hence the Gain is: it follows that our measured gain was 10.7% below the expected value this mainly due to the error associates with when time at which we consider that the were no longer any output peak clipping. A point to note is that this voltage gain changed as the unbypassed emitter resistance changes C- Centralization of the Q point To prevent the clipping output of the large signal input we need to center the Qpoint. This was done by solving for the new value of RE in the following. ( ) ( ( ( ) ( ) ( ) ) ) ( ( ( )( ) ) ( ) ( ) )

We inserted this new value of RE in our Model. But strangely the clipping did not occurs at the same time on both positive and negative. Hence we play around the value of RE until the clipping appear at both peak. This was achieved for a value of RE=34. The new output AC voltage is shown in figure [7].

Figure 7: clipping on both negative and positive peak of the output voltage

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Therefore for RE=34 the operating point should ideally be centered. The corresponding new DC values for Icq and Vceq are given by: ( ( ) ) ( )

Based on the new centered Q-point and AV load line , the maximun AC peak-topeak voltage before clipping ocurs is VOUT= 8.2V slightly greater than the previous one. D- POWER CALCULATIONS The amplifier output power (PO) is calculated as follows: . (Where Vopp is the peak-to-peak output voltage) Similarly the power supply by the DC voltage source (PS) is given by:

Finally our class A amplifier circuit efficiency () would be equal to: ( ) ( )

This is a very load efficiency for a class A amplifier IILABORATOTY ANALYSIS

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We build the actual circuit of the large signal Class A Amplifier on a bread board then we performed all the previous analysis and measurements. The table below recaps all the value we obtained in the lab.

IN LAB RESULTS Dc base voltage (Vb) 3.48V DC emitter voltage (Ve) 2.78V DC collector voltage (vc) 11.04V Common emitter_colleter voltage (Vce) 8.26V DC collector current (Ic) 29.7mA Collector resistor (rc) 150.5 ohm Input peak-to-peak voltage 960mV Output peak-to-peak voltage 7.84V Amplifier Gain (Av) 8.1667 Expected Amplifier Gain 10.2 RE (to center the Q-point) 57.9 ohm Max undistorted peak-to-peak input voltage 0.98V Max undistorted peak to peak output voltage 7.2V Amplifier output power( PO) 0.029W Power supplied (PS) 2.1W Efficiency 1.3%

As seen on the table there were some minor differences within the base, emitter and collector voltage measured in the lab and their values obtained with the multism simulated model. This could be explained by the errors tolerance associate with components used to build the circuit (resistor, capacitor and transistor) and the measurement equipment (multimeter,etc).Hence those value affected our subsequent calculation such as the expected gain. Secondly, to center the Q-point we used the provide equation from the lab hand out in other to solve for the new emitter resistance (RE) which indeed gave us 57.9 ohm. But when we

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replaced the resistor RE of our circuit with the new one, the clipping of both positive and negative peak to peak output voltage did not occurs in other words our Q-points was not centered as expected from theory, so we needed to bring the RE value down to about [25-30] ohm to have centered Q-point. A possible explanation of this observation would be either a limitation on the formulas used to find resistor the value of RE to center Q, or a failure in one of the component used to build the circuit. Finally the large signal class A amplifier was still very low compare to the 25% expected from theory for maximum efficiency. CONCLUSION In summary, the primary task of this laboratory which was to implement and simulate a large signal Class A amplifier using Multisim then compare the results with the in Lab built circuit was well archived. However despite minor differences, both in lab and simulated circuits gave us close results. We were then able to Draw the DC load line, AC load line and locate the Q point of the 2N3904 transistor common emitter class A amplifier. Since this amplifier is conducting at full sine wave that is why it consumes a lot of power, as a results the power efficiency is very low 2.8% in our case. Also as the input signal increases, if the Q-point is not centered there would be clipping in the output voltage .T0 center the quiescent point, emitter resistance hould be adjusted. Plots

AC & DC LOAD LINE FOR NON -CENTERED Q (RE=85 )

Linear (ic) 0.1 0.08 0.06 IC (A) 0.04 0.02 0 0 -0.02 5 10 VCE (V) 15 20 25 Linear (AC load line)

Q-point

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AC & DC LOAD LINE FOR CENTERED Q (RE=34 )

Linear (ic) 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05 IC (A) 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0 -0.01 5 10 VCE (V) 15 20 25 Linear (AC load line)

Q-point

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