Lecture 8

Power Amplifier (Class A)

• Induction of Power Amplifier

• Power and Efficiency
• Amplifier Classification
• Basic Class A Amplifier
• Transformer Coupled Class A Amplifier

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 1

 Introduction
• Power amplifiers are used to deliver a relatively high amount of
power, usually to a low resistance load.
• Typical load values range from 300W (for transmission antennas)
to 8W (for audio speaker).
• Although these load values do not cover every possibility, they
do illustrate the fact that power amplifiers usually drive low-
resistance loads.
• Typical output power rating of a power amplifier will be 1W or
higher.
• Ideal power amplifier will deliver 100% of the power it draws
from the supply to load. In practice, this can never occur.
• The reason for this is the fact that the components in the
amplifier will all dissipate some of the power that is being
drawn form the supply.
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 2
 Amplifier Power Dissipation
VCC
The total amount of power I CC
being dissipated by the
amplifier, Ptot , is
Ptot = P1 + P2 + PC + PT + PE I1
I CQ
P1 = I12R1 R1 RC PC = I2CQR C
The difference between this
total value and the total power
being drawn from the supply is PT = I2TQ R T
the power that actually goes to
the load – i.e. output power. I EQ
P2 = I22R2 R2 RE PE = I2EQ R E

 Amplifier Efficiency h I2

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 3

 Amplifier Efficiency h
• A figure of merit for the power amplifier is its efficiency, h .
• Efficiency ( h ) of an amplifier is defined as the ratio of ac
output power (power delivered to load) to dc input power .
• By formula :
ac output power Po (ac)
h  100%   100%
dc input power Pi (dc)
• As we will see, certain amplifier configurations have much
higher efficiency ratings than others.
• This is primary consideration when deciding which type of
power amplifier to use for a specific application.

•  Amplifier Classifications
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 4
 Amplifier Classifications
• Power amplifiers are classified according to the percent of
time that collector current is nonzero.
• The amount the output signal varies over one cycle of
operation for a full cycle of input signal.

vin Av vout Class-A

vin Av vout Class-B

vin Av vout Class-C

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 5
 Efficiency Ratings
• The maximum theoretical efficiency
ratings of class-A, B, and C amplifiers are:
Amplifier Maximum Theoretical
Efficiency, hmax
Class A 25%
Class B 78.5%
Class C 99%

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 6

 Class A Amplifier
vin Av vout

• output waveform  same shape  input waveform + 

phase shift.

• The collector current is nonzero 100% of the time.

 inefficient, since even with zero input signal, ICQ is
nonzero
(i.e. transistor dissipates power in the rest, or quiescent,
condition)

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 7

 Basic Operation
Common-emitter (voltage-divider) configuration (RC-coupled amplifier)
+VCC

I CC

I CQ RC
I1
R1

RL

v in R2
RE

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 8

Typical Characteristic Curves
for Class-A Operation

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 9

 Typical Characteristic

• Previous figure shows an example of a

sinusoidal input and the resulting collector
current at the output.
• The current, ICQ , is usually set to be in the
center of the ac load line. Why?
(DC and AC analyses  discussed in previous sessions)

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 10

 DC Input Power +VCC

The total dc power, Pi(dc) , that an I CC

amplifier draws from the power I CQ RC

supply : I1
R1

Pi (dc)  VCC I CC RL

I CC  I CQ  I 1
v in R2
I CC  I CQ ( I CQ  I 1 ) RE

Pi (dc)  VCC I CQ
Note that this equation is valid for most amplifier power analyses.
We can rewrite for the above equation for the ideal amplifier as
Pi (dc)  2VCEQ I CQ
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 11
 AC Output Power
AC output (or load) power, Po(ac) ic

vo
vo ( rms )
2

Po ( ac)  ic ( rms ) vo ( rms ) 

RL vin vce
rC RC//RL

Above equations can be used to R1//R2

calculate the maximum possible
value of ac load power. HOW??

Disadvantage of using class-A amplifiers is the fact that their

efficiency ratings are so low, hmax  25% .
Why?? A majority of the power that is drawn from the supply by a
class-A amplifier is used up by the amplifier itself.
 Class-B Amplifier
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 12
 IC(sat) = VCC/(RC+RE) IC(sat) = ICQ + (VCEQ/rC)

DC Load Line ac load line

IC
IC
(mA)
VCE(off) = VCC
VCE(off) = VCEQ + ICQrC

VCE VCE

ac load line  VCEQ  I CQ  1 VPP2

Po (ac)      VCEQ I CQ 
IC Q - point  2  2  2 8 RL
dc load line 1
Po ( ac) VCEQ I CQ
h  100%  2  100%  25%
Pi ( dc) 2VCEQ I CQ

VCE

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 13

Limitation

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 14

 Example +VCC = 20V

Calculate the input power [Pi(dc)], output power [Po(ac)],

and efficiency [h] of the amplifier circuit for an input RB IC
RC
20
voltage that results in a base current of 10mA peak. 1k
Vo

VCC  VBE 20V  0.7V   25

IBQ    19.3mA
RB 1k
Vi
ICQ  I B  25(19.3mA)  482.5mA  0.48 A
VCEQ  VCC  ICRC  20V  (0.48 A)(20)  10.4V
V 20V
I c ( sat)  CC   1000mA  1A
RC 20
VCE ( cu to ff )  VCC  20V
IC ( p ea k)  Ib ( p ea k)  25(10mA peak )  250mA peak

Po ( ac) 
I C2 ( peak)
RC 
250  10 A)
3 2

(20)  0.625W
2 2
Pi ( dc)  VCC I CQ  (20V )(0.48 A)  9.6W
Po ( ac)
h  100%  6.5%
Pi ( dc)
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 15
Transformer-Coupled Class-A Amplifier
+VCC
A transformer-coupled class-A amplifier
uses a transformer to couple the output N1:N2
signal from the amplifier to the load. RL
Z1
R1
The relationship between the primary
Z2 = RL
and secondary values of voltage, current
and impedance are summarized as:
N 1 V1 I 2
 
N 2 V2 I 1 Input R2
 N1
2
 RE
Z Z
   1  1
 N2  Z 2 RL

N1, N 2 = the number of turns in the primary and secondary

V1 , V 2 = the primary and secondary voltages
I1, I 2 = the primary and secondary currents
Z1, Z2 = the primary and seconadary impedance ( Z2 = RL )
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 16
Transformer-Coupled Class-A Amplifier

• An important characteristic of the transformer

is the ability to produce a counter emf, or kick
emf.
• When an inductor experiences a rapid change in
supply voltage, it will produce a voltage with a
polarity that is opposite to the original voltage
polarity.
• The counter emf is caused by the
electromagnetic field that surrounds the inductor.
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 17
 Counter emf
SW1 + -

+ +
10V 10V 10V 10V
- -

- +

This counter emf will be present only for an instant.

As the field collapses into the inductor the voltage
decreases in value until it eventually reaches 0V.

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 18

 DC Operating Characteristics
The dc biasing of a transformer-coupled class-A amplifier is very similar to any
other class-A amplifier with one important exception :
 the value of VCEQ is designed to be as close as possible to VCC.
+VCC
The dc load line is very close to being a vertical line N1:N2

indicating that VCEQ will be approximately equal to R1

Z1 RL

VCC for all the values of IC. Z2 = RL

The nearly vertical load line of the transformer-

coupled amplifier is caused by the extremely low dc Input R2
RE
resistance of the transformer primary.
VCEQ = VCC – ICQ(RC + RE)
The value of RL is ignored in the dc analysis of the
transformer-coupled class-A amplifier. The reason for DC load line

this is the fact that transformer provides dc isolation I C

between the primary and secondary. Since the load

resistance is in the secondary of the transformer it IB = 0mA

dose not affect the dc analysis of the primary circuitry.

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 19VCE
 AC Operating Characteristics
+VCC
1. Determine the maximum possible change in VCE
N1:N2

•Since VCE cannot change by an amount Z1 RL

R1
greater than (VCEQ – 0V), vce = VCEQ. Z2 = RL

2. Determine the corresponding change in IC

•Find the value of Z1 for the transformer: Z1 = Input R2
RE
(N1/N2)2Z2 and ic = vce / Z1
3. Plot a line that passes through the Q-point and IC

the value of IC(max). IC(max) = ??

DC load line
•IC(max) = ICQ + ic
4. Locate the two points where the load line passes Q-point
through the lies representing the minimum and
ac load line
maximum values of IB. These two points are then
used to find the maximum and minimum values of IB = 0mA
VCE
IC and VCE ~ VCEQ ~ VCC ~ 2VCC
EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 20
 +VCC
N1:N2

Z1 RL
R1
IC
Z2 = RL
IC(max) = ??

DC load line

Input R2
RE

ICQ Q-point

ac load line
ic
IB = 0mA
VCE
Z1 vo ~ VCEQ ~ VCC ~ 2VCC
vin vce

R1//R2

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 21

Maximum load power and efficiency

The Power Supply for the amplifier : PS = VCCICC

Maximum peak-to-peak voltage across the primary of the transformer
is approximately equal to the difference between the values of VCE(max)
and VCE(min) : VPP = VCE(max) – V-CE(min)
N1 : N2
Maximum possible peak-to-peak load voltage
RL
is found by V(P-P)max = (N2 / N1)V PP VPP V(P-P) max

The actual efficiency rating of a transformer-coupled class-A amplifier

will generally be less than 40%.

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 22

 There are several reasons for the
difference between the practical and
theoretical efficiency ratings for the
amplifier :
1. The derivation of the h = 50% value assumes
that VCEQ = VCC . In practice, VCEQ will
always be some value that is less the VCC .
2. The transformer is subject to various power
losses. Among these losses are couple loss
and hysteresis loss. These transformer power
losses are not considered in the derivation of
the h = 50% value.

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 23

• One of the primary advantages of using the
transformer-coupled class-A amplifier is the
increased efficiency over the RC-coupled class-A
circuit.
• Another advantage is the fact that the
transformer-coupled amplifier is easily converted
into a type of amplifier that is used extensively in
communications :- the tuned amplifier.
• A tuned amplifier is a circuit that is designed to
have a specific value of power gain over a specific
range of frequency.

EE3110 Power Amplifier (Class A) 24