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Chapter Six

Multistage Amplifiers

Introduction:
Two or more amplifiers can be connected in a cascaded arrangement with the output of one
amplifier driving the input of the next. Each amplifier in a cascaded arrangement is known as a
stage. The basic purpose of a multistage arrangement is to increase the overall voltage gain.

Cascading transistor amplifiers

When the amplification provided by a single stage amplifier is not sufficient for a particular
purpose or when the input and output impedance is not of the correct magnitude for the required
application then two or more amplifiers are connected in cascade as shown below.

Fig 3.14: Cascading transistor amplifiers

Here the output of amplifier 1 is connected as the input of amplifier 2.
Example: The gain of a single amplifier is not sufficient to amplify a signal from a weak source
such as microphone to a level which is suitable for the operation of another circuit as loud
speaker. In such cases, amplifiers are used.
When amplifiers are cascaded, individual amplifiers provides required amplification and input
and output provide impedance matching.
Decibel (dB)
It is convenient to represent the gain of an amplifier on a log scale instead of a linear scale. The
unit of this log scale is called decibel.
Power gain =log (Pout /Pin) bel
Power gain in dB =10 log10 (Pout /Pin) dB
Voltage gain =20log10( Vout /Vin ) dB
Current gain = 20log10(Iout / Iin ) dB

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Note: For a multistage amplifier if AV1, AV2, and AV3 are the voltage gains of amplifier
1,2, and 3 respectively then the overall voltage gain AV = AV1 x AV2 x AV3.
If it is expressed in dB the AV(dB) = AV1(dB) + AV2(dB) +AV3(dB)
Similarly for four or more stages.

Single stage RC coupled Amplifier

Fig 3.15: single stage RC-coupled amplifier

Figure above shows a practical circuit of a single stage RC coupled amplifier.The different
circuit components and their functions are as described below.
A. Input capacitor(Cin)- This capacitor is used to couple the input signal to the base of the
transistor if it is not used, the signal source resistance RS gets in parallel with R2 thus changing
the bias. The capacitor Cin blocks any d.c. component present in the signal and passes only a.c.
signal for amplification.
B. Biasing circuit –The resistances R1, R2 and RE forms the biasing and stabilization circuit for
the CE amplifier. It sets the proper operating point for the amplifier.
C. Emitter bypass capacitor (CE)-This capacitor is connected in parallel with the emitter
resistance RE to provide low reactance path to the amplified a.c. signal. If it is not used, the
amplified a.c. signal passing through RE will cause voltage drop across itthereby reducing the
output voltage of the amplifier.
D. Coupling capacitor(Cc)- This capacitor couples the output of the amplifier to the load or to
the next stage of the amplifier. If it is not used, the biasing conditions of the next stage will
change due to the parallel effect of collector resistor RC.

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i.e. RC will come in parallel with the resistance R1 of the biasing network of the next stage thus
changing the biasing conditions of the next stage amplifier.

Multistage voltage gain

The overall voltage gain, Av of cascaded amplifiers as shown below, is the product of the

individual voltage gains.

Fig.1 cascaded amplifiers where each triangular symbol represents a separate amplifier

Voltage gain expressed in Decibels

Amplifier voltage gain is often expressed in decibels (dB) as follows:

This is particularly useful in multistage systems because the overall voltage gain in dB is the
sum of the individual voltage gains in dB.

Multistage Amplifier Analysis

For the purpose of illustration, we will use the two stage capacitive coupled amplifiers in fig 2.
Notice both stages are identical common emitter amplifier with the output of the first stage
capacitive coupled to the input of the second stage.

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Capacitive coupling prevents the DC bias of one stage from affecting that of the other but allows
the AC-signal to pass without attenuation because XC = 0Ω at the frequency of operation.

Figure 2 A two stage Common emitter amplifier

DC voltages in the capacitive coupled multi stage amplifier
Since both stages in fig 2 are identical, the voltages for Q1 and Q2 are the same.

KVL (BE loop)

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The base voltage is calculated as

The emitter voltage is:

The emitter current is

The collector current is

The collector voltage is

Loading effect

In determining the voltage gain of the first stage, you must consider the loading effect of the
second stage. Because the coupling capacitor C3 effectively appears as a short at the signal

frequency, the total input resistance of the second stage presents an ac-load to the first stage.

Using the 𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒 model for the transistor, assuming 𝑟𝑜 ≅∞,

Voltage gain of the second stage

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Voltage gain of the first stage

Input resistance from the second stage

Thus, the total ac-collector resistance of the first stage is:

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Overall voltage gain

The overall voltage gain can be expressed in dB.

Direct coupled Multistage Amplifiers:

A basic two-stage, direct coupled amplifier is shown in fig.3. Notice that there are no coupling or
bypass capacitors in this circuit.

The dc collector voltage of the first stage provides the base bias voltage for the second stage.
Because of direct coupling, this type of amplifier has a better low frequency response than the
capacitive coupled type in which the reactance of coupling and bypass capacitors at very low
frequency may become excessive.

The increased reactance of capacitors at lower frequencies produces gain reduction in capacitive
coupled amplifiers

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Fig.3.A basic two-stage direct coupled amplifier.

The advantage of direct coupled amplifiers is that small changes in the dc bias voltages from
temperature effects or power supply variation are amplified by the succeeding stages, which can
result in a significant drift in the dc levels throughout the circuit.
Example: - for the direct coupled amplifier shown, determine all dc voltages for both stages and
over all ac voltage gain.

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DC analysis

KVL around BE loop of Q1

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KVL around CE loop of Q1,

KVL around BE loop of Q2,

KVL around CE loop of Q2,

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Voltage gain Of the 1st stage

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MULTISTAGE FREQUENCY EFFECTS

For a second transistor stage connected directly to the output of a first stage, there will be a
significant change in the overall frequency response. For each additional stage the upper cutoff
frequency will be determined primarily by that stage having the lowest- cutoff frequency. The
low-frequency cutoff is primarily determined by that stag having the highest low-frequency
cutoff frequency. Obviously, therefore, one poorly designed stage can offset an otherwise well-
designed cascaded system.

The effect of increasing the number of stages can be clearly demonstrated by considering the
situations indicated in Figure below. In each case, the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of each
of the cascaded stages are identical. For a single stage, the cutoff frequencies are f1 and f2 as
indicated. For two identical stages in cascade, the drop-off rate in the high- and low-frequency
regions has increased to 40dB/decade, 60dB/decade for three stages and so forth.

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For the low-frequency region,

But, for identical stages,

Hence,

At the cut-off frequency,

Similarly, the higher cut-off frequency is calculated as

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