POWER AMPLIFIERS

Chapter 04
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Outline
 Power Amplifiers
 Classes of Amplifiers
 Class A Power Amplifiers
 Class AB Push-Pull Power Amplifiers
 Class C Power Amplifiers
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Power Amplifiers
 A multistage amplifier may be required to deliver a
large amount of power to a passive load. This power
may be in the form of a large current delivered to a
relatively small load resistance such as an audio
speaker, or may be in the form of a large voltage
delivered to a relatively large load resistance such as
in a switching power supply.
 Two important functions of the output stage are to
provide a low output resistance so that it can deliver
the signal power to the load without loss of gain and to
maintain linearity in the output signal.
 A low output resistance implies the use of emitter-
follower circuit configurations.
 A measure of the linearity of the output signal is the
total harmonic distortion (THD) which can be found by
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Power Transistors

Where is the fundamental signal and is the harmonic

signals.
 Dealing with the power amplifier, one important
thing must be considered is the transistor limitations.
 The limitations involve: maximum rated current (on
the order of amperes), maximum rated voltage (on
the order of 100 V), and maximum rated power (on
the order of watts or tens of watts)
 The power dissipated in a transistor increases its
internal temperature above the ambient
temperature. If the device or junction temperature
becomes too high, the transistor may suffer
permanent damage.
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Power Transistors

 Special precautions must be taken in packaging

power transistors and in providing heat sinks so
that heat can be conducted from the transistor.

Two packaging schemes: (a) and (b) for power transistors and
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Classes of Amplifiers
 Some power amplifiers are classified according
to the percent of time the output transistors are
conducting, or “turned on.” Four of the principal
classifications are: class A, class B, class AB, and
class C.

Collector current versus time characteristics: (a) class-A

amplifier, (b) class-B
amplifier, (c) class-AB amplifier, and (d) class-C amplifier
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Classes of Amplifiers
 In class-A operation, an output transistor is biased at
a quiescent current and conducts for the entire cycle
of the input signal.
 For class-B operation, an output transistor conducts
for only one-half of each sine wave input cycle.
 In class-AB operation, an output transistor is biased
at a small quiescent current and conducts for slightly
more than half a cycle.
 In contrast, in class-C operation an output transistor
conducts for less than half a cycle.
 These four types of power amplifiers use the output
transistors as a current source.
 For a standard class-A amplifiers, no inductors or
transformers are used
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 The small-signal amplifiers considered in
previous chapter were all biased for class-A
operation.
 The Q-point is assumed to be in the center of the
load line, so that .

(a) Common-emitter amplifier, (b) dc load line, and

(c) instantaneous power dissipation versus time in the transistor
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 If a sinusoidal input signal is applied, sinusoidal
variations are induced in the collector current and
collector–emitter voltage.
 The instantaneous power dissipation in the
transistor, neglecting the base current, is

 For a sinusoidal input signal, the collector

current and collector-emitter voltage can be
written

 If we consider the absolute possible variations,

then and .
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 Therefore, the instantaneous power dissipation in
the transistor,

 Since the maximum power dissipation

corresponds to the quiescent value, the transistor
must be capable of handling a continuous power
dissipation of when the input signal is zero.
 The power conversion efficiency is defined as

where is the average ac power delivered to the

load and is the average power supplied by the
power source(s).
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 For the standard class-A amplifier and sinusoidal
input signals, the average ac power delivered to
the load is

 The average power supplied by the source is

 The maximum attainable conversion efficiency is

therefore
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 We must keep in mind that the maximum possible
conversion efficiency may change when a load is
connected to the output of the amplifier. This efficiency is
relatively low; therefore, standard class-A amplifiers are
normally not used when signal powers greater than
approximately 1 W are required.
 We must also emphasize that in practice, a maximum
signal voltage of and a maximum signal current of are
not possible. The output signal voltage must be limited
to smaller values in order to avoid transistor saturation
and cutoff, and the resulting nonlinear distortion. The
calculation for the maximum possible efficiency also
neglects power dissipation in the bias circuitry.
Consequently, the realistic maximum conversion
efficiency in a standard class-A amplifier is on the order
of 20 percent or less.
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 The standard class-A amplifier was analyzed
previously, and the maximum possible power
conversion efficiency was found to be 25 percent.
This conversion efficiency can be increased with
the use of inductors and transformers.
Inductively Coupled Amplifier

(a) Inductively coupled class-A amplifier and (b) dc and

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Class A Power Amplifiers

 Delivering a large power to a load generally requires
both a large voltage and a high current.
 In a common-emitter circuit, this requirement can be
met by replacing the collector resistor with an inductor,
as shown above.
 The inductor is a short circuit to a dc current, but acts
as an open circuit to an ac signal operating at a
sufficiently high frequency. The entire ac current is
therefore coupled to the load.
 Assume that at the lowest signal frequency, the
resistance of the inductor is negligible, and that the
emitter resistor value is small.
 The quiescent collector–emitter voltage is then
approximately

 The ac collector current is

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Class A Power Amplifiers

 To obtain the maximum symmetrical output-signal
swing, which will in turn produce the maximum
power, we want

For this condition, the ac load line intersects the axis

at .
 The use of an inductor or storage device results in
an output ac voltage swing that is larger than . The
polarity of the induced voltage across the inductor
may be such that the voltage adds to , producing an
output voltage that is larger than .
 The absolute maximum amplitude of the signal
current in the load is ; therefore, the maximum
possible average signal power delivered to the load is
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 If we neglect the power dissipation in the bias
resistors and , the average power supplied by the
source is

 The maximum possible power conversion

efficiency is then

Transformer-Coupled Common-Emitter
Amplifier
 If we neglect any resistance in the transformer
and assume that is small, the quiescent collector–
emitter voltage is
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 Assuming an ideal transformer, the currents and
voltages are related by and where is the ratio of
primary to secondary turns, or simply the turns
ratio. Dividing voltages by currents, we find

(a) Transformer-coupled common-emitter amplifier and (b)

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Class A Power Amplifiers

 The load resistance is . We can define a
transformed load resistance as

 The turns ratio is designed to produce the

maximum symmetrical swing in the output current
and voltage; therefore,

 The maximum average power delivered to the load

is equal to the maximum average power delivered
to the primary of the ideal transformer, as follows

where and are the maximum possible amplitudes of

the sinusoidal signals.
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Class A Power Amplifiers

 If we neglect the power dissipation in the bias
resistors and , the average power supplied by the
source is

 The maximum possible power conversion efficiency is

again

Transformer-Coupled Emitter-Follower Amplifier

(a) Transformer-coupled emitter-follower amplifier and (b)

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Class A Power Amplifiers

 The transformed load resistance is again

 The average power delivered to the load is

where is the peak amplitude of the sinusoidal output

voltage
 The maximum peak amplitude of the emitter voltage
is , so that the maximum peak amplitude of the output
signal is

 The maximum average output signal power is therefore

 The maximum power conversion efficiency for this

circuit is also 50 percent
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
Idealized Class-B Operation
 An idealized class-B output stage consists of a
complementary pair of electronic devices as
shown below

(a) Idealized class-B output stage with complementary pair, A and B,

of electronic devices; (b) device A turns on for , supplying current to
the load; (c) device B turns on for , sinking current from the load; (d)
ideal voltage transfer characteristics
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 When , both devices are off, the bias currents are
zero, and .
 For , device A turns on and supplies current to the
load as shown in figure (b).
 For , device B turns on and sinks current from the
load as shown in figure (c).
 The ideal voltage gain is unity.
Approximate Class-B Circuit
 When the input voltage is , both transistors are cut-
off and the output voltage is
 If becomes positive and is greater than , then
turns on and operates as an emitter follower. The
load current is positive and is supplied through ,
and the B–E junction of is reverse biased.
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers

Basic
complementary
push-pull output
 If becomes negative bystage
more than , then turns on and
operates as an emitter follower. Transistor is a sink for
the load current, which means that is negative.
 This circuit is called a complementary push–pull output
stage. Transistor conducts during the positive half of the
input cycle, and conducts during the negative half-cycle.
The transistors do not both conduct at the same time.
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers

−𝑉 𝐵𝐸
+𝑉 𝐵𝐸

Voltage transfer Crossover distortion of basic

characteristics of basic complementary push–pull
 From voltage characteristic
complementary push–pull curve, there is a range of
output stage
input voltage around zero volts where both transistors
output stage
are cut off and is zero. This portion of the curve is called
the dead band.
 For a sinusoidal input voltage, the output voltage is not
a perfect sinusoidal signal, which means that crossover
distortion is produced by the dead band region.
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 Crossover distortion can be virtually eliminated
by biasing both and with a small quiescent
collector current when is zero.
Idealized Power Efficiency
 From the effective load line of
The ideal class-B output stage,
the Q-point is at zero collector
current, or at cutoff for both
transistors. The quiescent power
dissipation in each transistor is
then zero.

Effective load line of the ideal class-B

output stage
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 The output voltage for this idealized class-B
output stage can be written

where the maximum possible value of is

 The collector current

 The collector-emitter voltage

 The instantaneous power dissipation in is

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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers

 The average power dissipation is therefore

Average power dissipation

in each transistor versus
peak output voltage for
class-B output stage
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 The average power dissipation in transistor is
exactly the same as that for , because of
symmetry.
 The maximum average power dissipation by
setting the derivative of with respect to equal to
zero, producing

which occurs when

 The average power delivered to the load is

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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 Since the current supplied by each power supply
is half a sine wave, the average current is . The
average power supplied by each source is
therefore

 The total average power supplied by the two

sources is

 The conversion efficiency is

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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 The maximum possible efficiency, which occurs
when

 This maximum efficiency value is substantially

larger than that of the standard class-A amplifier.
 The maximum possible average power that can
be delivered to the load is

 The actual conversion efficiency obtained in

practice is less than the maximum value because
of other circuit losses, and because the peak
output voltage must remain less than to avoid
transistor saturation.
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
As the output voltage amplitude increases, output
signal distortion also increases. To limit this
distortion to an acceptable level, the peak output
voltage is usually limited to several volts below .
 The maximum transistor power dissipation occurs
when . At this peak output voltage, the conversion
efficiency of the class-B amplifier is,

Class-AB Operation
 Crossover distortion can be virtually eliminated by
applying a small quiescent bias on each output
transistor, for a zero input signal. This is called a
class-AB output stage and is shown schematically
as follows
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 The quiescent collector currents in each
transistor are given by

 As increases, the voltage at the base of

increases and increases. Transistor operates as
an emitter follower,
supplying the load current to .
 The output voltage is given by

 The collector current of (neglecting base

currents) is

Bipolar class-AB
output stage
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 Since must increase to supply the load current,
increases. Assuming remains constant, as
increases, decreases resulting in a decrease in .
 As goes negative, the voltage at the base of
decreases and decreases. Transistor operates as
an emitter follower, sinking current from the load.
As increases, increases, causing a decrease in
and .
 If and do not change significantly, then the
voltage gain, or the slope of the transfer curve, is
essentially unity.
 Each transistor conducts for more than one-half
cycle, which is the definition of class-AB operation.
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers

Characteristics of a class-AB output stage: (a) voltage

transfer curve, (b) sinusoidal input signal, (c)
collector currents, and (d) output current
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Class B and AB Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers
 There is a relationship between and . We know
that

which can be written

Thus,

The product of and is a constant; therefore, if

increases, decreases, but does not go to zero.
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Class C Power Amplifiers

 For class-C operation, the transistor has a reverse-
biased B–E voltage at the Q-point.
 Note that the collector current is not negative, but is
zero at the quiescent point.
 The transistor conducts only when the input signal
becomes sufficiently positive during its positive half-
cycle. The transistor therefore conducts for less than a
half-cycle, which defines class-C operation.

Effective ac load line of a class-C

amplifier
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Class C Power Amplifiers

 Class-C amplifiers are capable of providing large
amounts of power, with con-version efficiencies
larger than 78.5 percent. These amplifiers are
normally used for radio-frequency (RF) circuits,
with tuned RLC loads that are commonly used in
radio and television transmitters. The RLC circuits
convert drive current pulses into sinusoidal
signals.
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Exercises
1. The common-emitter circuit in Figure 1 is
biased at . The maximum transistor power is
rated at . The other parameters of the transistor
are and . (a) Determine and such that the
transistor is biased at the maximum power
point. (b) For , determine the average power
dissipated in the transistor.
2. A simplified class-AB output stage with BJTs is
shown in Figure 2. The circuit parameters are ,
and . For each transistor, . (a) Determine the
value of that produces when . What is the
power dissipated in each transistor? (b) For ,
determine , , , and . What is the power
dissipated in , , and ?
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Exercises

Figure 1 Figure 2
Figure
3
3. Consider the class-AB output stage in Figure 3.
The diodes and transistors are matched, with
parameters , and . (a) Determine R1 such that
the minimum current in the diodes is 25 mA
when . Find and for this condition. (b) Using
the results of part (a), determine the diode and
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Exercises
4. Consider the transformer-coupled common-emitter
circuit shown in Figure 4 with parameters , , , , and .
The transistor parameters are and . (a) Determine the
quiescent value . (b) Determine the turns ratio a such
that the maximum power is delivered to the load. (c)
Determine the maximum power that can be delivered
to the load if the voltage is to remain in the range . (d)
Using the results of part (c) and neglecting currents in
the bias resistors, find the conversion efficiency.
5. The parameters for the transformer-coupled common-
emitter circuit in Figure 4 are and . The signal power
delivered to the load is 2W. Determine: (a) the rms
voltage across the load; (b) the rms voltage across the
transformer primary; and (c) the primary and
secondary currents. (d) If , what is the conversion
efficiency?
 41

Exercises

Figure Figure
4 5
 42

Exercises
6. Consider the transformer-coupled emitter
follower in Figure 5. Assume an ideal
transformer. The transistor parameters are
and . (a) Design the circuit to provide a current
gain at .(b) If the magnitude of the signal
emitter current is limited to to prevent
distortion, determine the power delivered to the
load, and the conversion efficiency.