Frequency response of amplifiers

Unit - III
Lecture -1
 Unit III - Contents

• Frequency response of amplifiers

• Differential Amplifiers

• CMRR

• Differential amplifiers with active load

• Two stage amplifiers

 Frequency Response

• Input signal to an amplifier can always be expressed as the sum of sinusoidal

signals

• Important characterization of an amplifier is in terms of its response to input

sinusoids of different frequencies

• Such a characterization of amplifier performance is known as the amplifier

frequency response

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 Measuring the Amplifier Frequency Response
• Linear voltage amplifier fed at its input with a sine-wave signal of amplitude Vi and
frequency 

• Whenever a sine-wave signal is applied to a linear circuit, the resulting output is sinusoidal
with the same frequency as the input

• Sine wave is the only signal that does not change shape as it passes through a linear circuit

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Fig. Measuring the frequency response of amplifiers
• Output sinusoid will in general have a different amplitude and will be shifted in
phase relative to the input

• Ratio of the amplitude of the output sinusoid (V0) to the amplitude of the
input sinusoid (Vi) is the magnitude of the amplifier gain (or transmission) at
the test frequency 

• Also, the angle  is the phase of the amplifier transmission at the test frequency 

• If we denote the amplifier transmission, or transfer function as it is more

commonly known, by T(), then

𝒐

𝒊

  
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• Response of the amplifier to a sinusoid of frequency  is completely described by
|T()| and  

• To obtain the complete frequency response of the amplifier, simply change the
frequency of the input sinusoid and measure the new value for |T| and 

• End result will be a table and/or graph of gain magnitude [|T()|] versus frequency and
a table and/or graph of phase angle [  versus frequency

• These two plots together constitute the frequency response of the amplifier

• Magnitude or amplitude response • Phase response

• To express the magnitude of transmission in decibels and thus plot 20 log |T()| versus
frequency
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 Amplifier Bandwidth
• Gain is almost constant over a wide frequency range, roughly between 1 and 2

• Signals whose frequencies are below 1 or above 2 will experience lower gain, with the
gain decreasing as we move farther away from 1 and 2

• Band of frequencies over which the gain of the amplifier is almost constant, to within
a certain number of decibels (usually 3 dB), is called the amplifier bandwidth

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Fig. Typical magnitude response of an amplifier
• Normally the amplifier is designed so that its bandwidth coincides with the
spectrum of the signals it is required to amplify

• If this were not the case, the amplifier would distort the frequency spectrum of
the input signal, with different components of the input signal being amplified by
different amounts

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 Evaluating the frequency response of amplifiers

• To evaluate the frequency response of an amplifier

• Analyze the amplifier equivalent circuit model, taking into account all
reactive components

• Circuit analysis proceeds in the usual fashion but with inductances and
capacitances represented by their reactances

• Inductance L has a reactance or impedance jL

• Capacitance C has a reactance or impedance 1/ jC or, equivalently, a susceptance

or admittance jC
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• Thus in a frequency-domain analysis we deal with impedances and/or admittances

• The result of the analysis is the amplifier transfer function T():

𝐕 𝐨 ( )

𝐕𝐢 ()

where Vi() and Vo() denote the input and output signals, respectively

• T() is generally a complex function whose magnitude |T()| gives the

magnitude of transmission or the magnitude response of the amplifier

• Phase of T() gives the phase response of the amplifier

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• In the analysis of a circuit to determine its frequency response
• Algebraic manipulations can be considerably simplified by using the complex frequency
variable s

• In terms of s,
• Impedance of an inductance L is sL • Impedance of a capacitance C is 1/sC

• Replacing the reactive elements with their impedances and performing standard circuit
𝐕𝐨(s)
analysis, we obtain the transfer function T(s) as
𝐕𝐢 (𝐬)

• Replace s by j to determine the transfer function for physical frequencies, T(j). Note that
T(j) is the same function we called T() above

[Additional j is included in order to emphasize that T(j) is obtained from T(s) by replacing s with
j] 3/24/2021 11
 Single-Time-Constant Networks
• In analyzing amplifier circuits to determine their frequency response, one is
greatly aided by knowledge of the frequency response characteristics of single-
time-constant (STC) networks

• An STC network is one that is composed of, or can be reduced to, one reactive
component (inductance or capacitance) and one resistance

• An STC network formed of an inductance L and a resistance R has a time constant

 = L/R

• The time constant  of an STC network composed of a capacitance C and a

resistance R is given by  = CR
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 Fig. Two examples of STC networks: (a) a low-pass network and (b) a high-pass network

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 STC-Classification

• Most STC networks can be classified into two categories,

• Low pass (LP) • High pass (HP)

with each of the two categories displaying distinctly different signal responses.

• STC network shown in Fig. (a) is of the low-pass type and that in Fig. (b) is of the high-
pass type

• Fig. (a) – Low pass filter, it passes low-frequency sine-wave inputs with little or no
attenuation (at =0, the transmission is unity) and attenuates high-frequency input
sinusoids

• Fig. (b) – High pass filter, its transmission is unity at  =  and decreases as  is reduced,
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reaching 0 for =0 14
Fig. (a)Magnitude and (b) phase response of STC Fig. (a)Magnitude and (b) phase response of STC
15
networks of the low-pass type networks of the high-pass type