EXPERIMENT # 7 and 8

High Frequency Response and Amplifier Bandwidth Determination

OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this experiment is to observe the high frequency response of an
amplifier and determine the bandwidth of a common emitter amplifier.

Some Circuit Notes:

1) The transistor is a general purpose NPN transistor (C1383 / C945 / C 828), or
equivalent.
2) Assume Beta = 300, VBE = 0.7 V, C
o
=2.5 pF

Theory:

The Frequency Response of an amplifier is presented in a form of a graph that shows
output amplitude (or, more often, voltage gain) plotted versus frequency. Typical plot of
the voltage gain of an amplifier versus frequency is shown in figure 1. The gain is null at
zero frequency, then rises as frequency increases, level off for further increases in
frequency, and then begins to drop again at high frequencies. The frequency response of
an amplifier can be divided into three frequency regions.



The frequency response begins with the lower frequency region designated between 0 Hz
and lower cutoff frequency. At lower cutoff frequency, f
L
the gain is equal to 0.707 A
mid
.
A
mid
is a constant midband gain obtained from the midband frequency region. The third,
the upper frequency region covers frequency between upper cutoff frequency and above.
Similarly, at upper cutoff frequency, f
H
, the gain is equal to 0.707 A
mid
. After the upper
cutoff frequency, the gain decreases with frequency increases and dies off eventually


Lab Measurements

In-lab circuit measurements:

1. Connect the circuit of Figure 2.
2. Measure all the DC parameters and note them with calculated values in table 1.
3. Now apply the AC signal and calculate the maximum gain of the circuit.

Set the frequency range at 10 kHz and rotate the frequency dial from 0 to 360
degree (a complete rotation) and observe the maximum output that is constant
for a wide range of frequency. This is the maximum output of the circuit and
calculates the maximum gain of the circuit (A
vmax
) and note down in table 1.

Now start with 50Hz frequency and note the value of V
o
at different
frequencies (50Hz, 100Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz, 5kHz, 10kHz, 50kHz, 10MHz) and
note down in table. Note all necessary readings to cover frequency band
between 50 Hz and 10 MHz. Make sure the input voltage is always constant at
all frequency settings.


4. Also find the lower cutoff frequency f
l
and higher cutoff frequency f
H
where the
output is 70.7% of V
omax
and calculate the bandwidth.


Observation:

Parameters Calculated Values Measured Values

V
B

V
E

V
C

I
C

I
B


V
CE

A
Vmax

f
hi

f
ho
-
Table 1



Measured Cutoff frequency: f
hi =
____
Calculated Cutoff frequency f
hi=
____
Bandwidth BW= f
H
- f
L
= ______








COMMENTS AND RESULTS:

Draw the graph on a graph paper between frequency and A
v
(db).




Fig-2
Frequency
(Hz)
V
o
A
v
A
v
(db)
=20log Av











Frequency
(Hz)
V
o
A
v
A
v
(db)
=20log Av














Questions:
1. What are the calculated values of f
L
, A
mid
and f
H
for the common-
emitter amplifier? Compare these values with the cutoff frequencies
obtained from the measured values.

2. Which capacitor affects on the lower cutoff frequency and the upper
cutoff frequency of the amplifier circuit?

3. Obtain the empirical function to describe the measured frequency
response of the amplifier circuit?

4. Discuss your observation on the observed and the measured frequency
response.

5. What is the effect of base biasing resistor values on low and high
frequency response.

6. What is the role of resonance condition in determining the frequency
response.

7. How would you describe the frequency passing and rejection in the
amplifier.

8. How would you determine frequency response of multistage amplifier.

1.