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Experiment 1: Two stage transistor amplifier

1

OBJECTIVE: To design and study a two stage transistor amplifier circuit.

EQUIPMENTS:

• npn BJTs (BC 548)

• Resistors
• Capacitors
• DC power supply
• Signal Generator
• Trainer Board
• Oscilloscope
• DMM
• Wires
THEORY:

An electrical signal can be amplified by using a device which allows a small current or voltage to control
the flow of a much larger current from a dc power source. Transistors are the basic device providing
control of this kind. There are two general types of transistors, bipolar and field-effect. Very roughly, the
difference between these two types is that for bipolar devices an input current controls the large current
flow through the device, while for field-effect transistors an input voltage provides the control. In this
experiment we will build a two-stage amplifier using two bipolar transistors.

The BJT consists of three semiconductor regions. A terminal is connected to each of the three
semiconductor regions of the transistor, with the terminal labeled emitter(E), base(B), and collector(C).

The transistor consists of two pn junctions, the emitter-base junction (EBJ) and the collector base
junctions(CBJ). Depending on the bias condition (forward or reverse) of each of these juctions, different
modes of operation of the BJT are obtained.

Charge carriers of both polarities- that is, electrons and holes- participate in the current-conduction
process in a bipolar transistor, which is the reason for the name bipolar.

The active mode, which is also called forward active mode, is the one used if the transistor is to operate
as an amplifier. Switching applications (e.g., logic circuits)utillize both the cutoff mode and the
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saturation mode. The reverse active (or inverse active)mode has very limited application but is
conceptually important. 2
BJT Modes of Operation

Mode EBJ CBJ

Cutoff Reverse Reverse
Active Forward Reverse
Reverse Active Reverse Forward
Saturation Forward Forward

Transistor Operation

A transistor in a circuit will be in one of thee conditions.

1. Cut off (no collector current), useful for switch operation.

2. In the active region (some collector current, more than a few tenths of a volt above the emitter),
useful for amplifier applications
3. In saturation (collector a few tenths of a volt above emitter), large current useful for "switch on"
applications.
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AMPLIFICATION is the process of increasing the strength of a signal.

3
An AMPLIFIER is the device that provides amplification without appreciably altering the original signal.

The BASIC TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER amplifies by producing a large change in collector current for a
small change in base current. This action results in voltage amplification because the load resistor placed
in series with the collector reacts to these large changes in collector current which, in turn, results in large
variations in the output voltage.

Bipolar transistor amplifiers must be properly biased to operate correctly. In circuits made with individual
devices (discrete circuits), biasing networks consisting of resistors are commonly employed. Much more
elaborate biasing arrangements are used in integrated circuits, for example, bandgap voltage
references and current mirrors.
The operating point of a device, also known as bias point, quiescent point, or Q-point, is the point on the
output characteristics that shows the DC collector–emitter voltage (Vce) and the collector current (Ic) with
no input signal applied.

DC Biasing Circuits

• The ac operation of an amplifier depends on the initial dc values of IB, IC, and VCE.
• By varying IB around an initial dc value, IC and VCE are made to vary around their initial dc values.
• DC biasing is a static operation since it deals with setting a fixed (steady) level of current
(through the device) with a desired fixed voltage drop across the device.

+VCC

RC
RB
v out

v in vce
ib

ic
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Purpose of the DC biasing circuit

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• To turn the device “ON”
• To place it in operation in the region of its characteristic where the device operates most linearly,
i.e. to set up the initial dc values of IB, IC, and VCE

Q-Point (Static Operation Point)

• When a transistor does not have an ac input, it will have specific dc values of IC and VCE.

• These values correspond to a specific point on the dc load line. This point is called the Q-point.

• The letter Q corresponds to the word (Latent) quiescent, meaning at rest.

• A quiescent amplifier is one that has no ac signal applied and therefore has constant dc values of
IC and VCE.

• The intersection of the dc bias value of IB with the dc load line determines the Q-point.

• It is desirable to have the Q-point centered on the load line. Why? When a circuit is designed to
have a centered Q-point, the amplifier is said to be midpoint biased.

• Midpoint biasing allows optimum ac operation of the amplifier.

DC Biasing + AC signal

• When an ac signal is applied to the base of the transistor, IC and VCE will both vary around their
Q-point values.

• When the Q-point is centered, IC and VCE can both make the maximum possible transitions
above and below their initial dc values.
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• When the Q-point is above the center on the load line, the input signal may cause the transistor
to saturate. When this happens, a part of the output signal will be clipped off.

• When the Q-point is below midpoint on the load line, the input signal may cause the transistor to
cutoff. This can also cause a portion of the output signal to be clipped

Types of bias circuit for amplifiers

Five common biasing circuits used with bipolar transistor amplifiers:

1. Fixed bias
2. Collector-to-base bias
3. Fixed bias with emitter resistor
4. Voltage divider bias
5. Emitter bias
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Voltage divider biasing

The voltage divider is formed using external resistors R1 and R2. The voltage across R2 forward biases 6
the emitter junction. By proper selection of resistors R1 and R2, the operating point of the transistor can be
made independent of β. In this circuit, the voltage divider holds the base voltage fixed independent of
base current provided the divider current is large compared to the base current. However, even with a
fixed base voltage, collector current varies with temperature (for example) so an emitter resistor is added
to stabilize the Q-point.

Merits:

 Only one dc supply is necessary.

 Operating point is almost independent of β variation.
 Operating point stabilized against shift in temperature.

Voltage divider with AC bypass capacitor

The standard voltage divider circuit discussed above faces a drawback - AC feedback caused by resistor
RE reduces the gain. This can be avoided by placing a capacitor (C E) in parallel with RE, as shown in
circuit diagram.
This capacitor is usually chosen to have a low enough reactance at the signal frequencies of interest such
that RE is essentially shorted at AC, thus grounding the emitter. Feedback is therefore only present at DC
to stabilize the operating point, in which case any AC advantages of feedback are lost.
This idea can also be used to shunt only a portion of RE, thereby retaining some AC feedback.
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Bypass Capacitor
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What value should the bypass capacitor be? That depends on the lowest frequency to be amplified. For
radio frequencies Cbypass would be small for an audio amplifier extending down to 20Hz it will be large.
A “rule of thumb” for the bypass capacitor is that the reactance should be 1/10 of the emitter resistance or
less. The capacitor should be designed to accommodate the lowest frequency being amplified. The
capacitor for an audio amplifier covering 20Hz to 20kHz would be:

Note that the internal emitter resistance REE is not bypassed by the bypass capacitor.
For AC amplifiers, a bypass capacitor in parallel with RE improves AC gain. Set XC≤0.10RE for lowest
frequency.

Summary:

+VCC

 The voltage – divider (or potentiometer) bias circuit is

by far the most commonly used.
 RB1, RB2
RC  voltage-divider to set the value of VB , IB
R1

RL  C3
 to short circuit ac signals to ground, while not
vin effect the DC operating (or biasing) of a circuit
(RE  stabilizes the ac signals)
R2
 Bypass Capacitor

RE
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DC and AC Equivalent Circuits

+VCC 8

+VCC

IC RC
RC
R1
R1
v out rC
vin vce
C1 C2
v in
R1//R2
R2 R2
IE

RE C3
RE
rC = RC//RL
DC Analysis
Figure a: Bias circuit Figure b: DC equivalent circuit Figure c: AC equivalent circuit

- To analyze the amplifier in Figure above, we have to do 2 types of analyses.

o DC analysis to establish the DC bias i.e. Q-point.
o AC analysis to establish the voltage gain, input resistance and output resistance.
- DC analysis starts by developing the DC equivalent circuit of the amplifier.
- This is done by removing all components that depend on AC signal like capacitor (as they act as open
circuit in DC).
- The DC equivalent circuit of Figure a is shown in Figure b.
- Notice all capacitors are removed along with RL (C3 is open).
- All the DC values like VB, VC, VE and IE can be found through the equations given in chapter 4.5
(Boylestad ). Use approximate analysis. Also see example 5.5.

AC Analysis

- AC analysis also requires the development of AC equivalent circuit.

- This is done by:
o The capacitors C1, C2 and C3 are replaced by short circuit.
o DC source is replaced by 0V.
- Figure c shows the AC equivalent circuit.
- Note that RE is also removed as it is bypassed through capacitor C2.
- See Chapter 5.9, Example 5.5, 5.18 (Boylestad).
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Multi-stage amplifiers
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Multi-stage amplifiers often make use of capacitive coupling between stages to eliminate problems with
the bias from one stage affecting the bias of another.

While it is possible to directly couple each stage to the next (via a resistor rather than a capacitor), this
makes the whole amplifier very sensitive to variations in the DC bias voltage of the first stage, since that
DC voltage will be amplified along with the AC signal until the last stage. In other words, the biasing of the
first stage will affect the biasing of the second stage, and so on. However, if the stages are capacitively
coupled shown in the above illustration, the biasing of one stage has no effect on the biasing of the next,
because DC voltage is blocked from passing on to the next stage.

MULTISTAGE AMPLIFIERS

- Two or more amplifiers can be connected in a cascaded arrangement.

- The output of the first becomes the input of the second.

- Each amplifier is known as a stage.

- The main function of multistage amplifiers is to increase the overall voltage gain.

Multistage Voltage Gain

- The overall voltage gain of cascaded amplifiers is the product of the individual voltage gains.

Av = Av1 *Av2*Av3*…Avn

Where n is the number of stages.

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

Av(dB)=20log Av

Capacitively-Coupled Multistage Amplifier

- Each stage in capacitively-coupled multistage amplifier is connected with a coupling capacitor.

- Figure below shows a 2-stage amplifier where both stages are connected through coupling capacitor C 3.

Figure: Two stage BJT amplifier

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Figure: AC equivalent of single stage

Voltage gain of the First Stage

-To determine the voltage gain of the first stage, we need to understand that the bias resistors of the
second stage R5 and R6 appear as load to the first stage.

- Also the input resistance to the base of Q2, Rin(base2) will also be considered as load to the first stage.

- This creates a loading effect for the amplifier of the first stage (therefore will reduce gain of first stage).

- Q1 of the first stage sees R3, R5, R6 and Rin(base2) all in parallel as shown in Figure above.

- So the ac collector resistance of the first stage is

RC1=R3||R5|| R6|| Rin(base2)

- The voltage gain of first stage is therefore given as Av1=RC1/re

Voltage gain of the Second Stage

- As the second stage has no load resistance so the gain is Av2=R7/re

Overall Voltage Gain

- The overall voltage gain in the amplifier will be Av= Av1 Av2
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Capacitor Types
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1) Capacitors can be used to control timing, filtering, and smoothing out power supplies.

2) Three major types of capacitors are ceramic, electrolytic, and tantalum

3) Ceramic capacitors are small in size and value, ranging from a few Pico Farads to 1 µF. Not polarized,
so either end can go to ground. Value is given by a mystical code somewhat like that of resistors.

4) Electrolytic capacitors look like small cylinders and range in value from 1 µF to several Farads. Very
inaccurate and change in value as the electrolytic ages. Polarized, cathode must go to ground. Cathode
is marked with a minus sign on case. Value is usually written on case.

5) Tantalum capacitors are similar in size to ceramic but can hold more charge, up to several hundred µF.
Accurate and stable, but relatively expensive. Usually Polarized, anode is marked with a plus sign.

Electrolytic capacitors are ‘polarised’ which means they have a positive and negative lead and must be
positioned in a circuit the right way round (the positive lead must go to the positive side of the circuit).
They also have a much higher capacitance than non-electrolytic capacitors.

Non-electrolytic capacitors usually have a lower capacitance. They are not polarised (do not have a
positive and negative lead) and can be placed anyway round in a circuit. They are normally used to
smooth a current in a circuit.
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13

Look carefully at the photographs of the two types of capacitors. Can you work out which one
is electrolytic and which is non-electrolytic?

REFERENCE:

• Chapter 4.5, 5.9, Example 5.5, Chapter 5.19, Example 5.18 from Electronic
Devices and Circuit Theory by Boylestad and Nashelsky

• http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-npn-and-pnp/

• http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060921000219AAzCugW

• http://www.tpub.com/neets/book7/25c.htm

• http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/trans2.html#c4

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_transistor_biasing#Voltage_divider_biasing

• http://www.tpub.com/neets/book7/25k.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_amplifier#Class_A

• http://www.ecelab.com/amplifier-classes.htm

• http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=SSE1302

• http://www.technologystudent.com/elec1/capac1.htm
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CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:
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10Vdc

R1 Rc1 R3 Rc2
C3
18k 3.3k 3.3k
18k
Q2 10uF
C2
Q1
C1
10uF

10uF

R2 Re1 Ce1 R4 Re2 Ce2

4.7k 1k 20uF 4.7k 1k 20uF

20~40mVac

DATA:

R=10k

C1= C2= C3=10 µF

CE1=CE2= 20 µF

R1=R3=18 KΩ

R2=R4=4.7 KΩ

RC1=RC2=3.3 KΩ

RE1=RE2= 1 KΩ
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CALCULATION:
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Theoretical: [Refer to Example 5.18 of Boylestad]

Av1 =

Av2 =

Av = Av1 * Av2=

Practical:

Av1 =

Av2 =

Av = Av1 * Av2 =

PROCEDURE:

1. Figure out the order of the transistor leads (C,B,E)

2. Recall that putting identical capacitors in parallel increases the capacitance by

two fold. So, put two 10 µF capacitor pairs in parallel to form the 20 µF capacitors
as in CE1 and CE2. Capacitors used in this circuit are electrolytic. Hence they have
to be placed in the circuit according to their polarity. Construct the rest of the
circuit according to the diagram.

3. Connect DC biasing voltage from the trainer board. Using the DMM set it to
10~12 V.
4. Connect a signal generator to the ac input. Also connect Oscilloscope Channel 1
to input and Channel 2 to output. Take a 1 KHz, 20~40 mv peak to peak
sinusoidal signal as input.
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5. Observe the corresponding output amplitude and phase. Measure its peak to
peak amplitude. Calculate gain of the first stage, second stage and the overall 16
gain.

6. Calculate gain of the first stage, second stage and the overall gain theoretically.

7. Find out the percentage of error.

QUESTIONS:

1. Between BJT and FET which is voltage controlled and which is current
controlled? Which one is better to handle?

2. What is the reason behind the name ‘’Bipolar” in BJT?

3. There are two basic usages of BJT. What are they? Which occurs in what mode?

4. The circuit you constructed in the lab was a two stage amplifier. Why a second
stage is added?

5. Identify biasing resistors, bypass capacitor, coupling capacitor in the circuit

diagram. What is the purpose of biasing?

6. In the voltage divider biasing circuit what is the purpose of the bypass capacitor
and coupling capacitor?

7. How do you design the bypass capacitor?

8. Do DC analyses (approximate method) for each stage of the amplifier

implemented in the Lab. Find VB, VE, VC, IE.

9. What is the difference in amplification by PNP and NPN?

10. What is the relation between the polarity of input and output signal?