From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amplifier

Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is specified (since the amplifier’s input imped-
any device that changes, usually increases, ance will often be much higher than the
the amplitude of a signal. The "signal" is usu- source impedance, and the load impedance
ally voltage or current. The relationship of higher than the amplifier’s output
the input to the output of an amplifier — usu- impedance).
ally expressed as a function of the input fre- • Example: an audio amplifier with a gain
quency — is called the transfer function of given as 20dB will have a voltage gain of
the amplifier, and the magnitude of the trans- ten (but a power gain of 100 would only
fer function is termed the gain. occur in the unlikely event the input and
In popular use, the term usually refers to output impedances were identical).
an electronic amplifier, often as in audio ap-
plications to operate a loudspeaker that is be- Bandwidth
ing used in a PA system to make the human The bandwidth (BW) of an amplifier is the
voice louder or play recorded music. Amplifi- range of frequencies for which the amplifier
ers may be classified by the input (source) gives "satisfactory performance". The "satis-
they are designed to amplify (such as a guitar factory performance" may be different for dif-
amplifier to perform with an electric guitar), ferent applications. However, a common and
or named for the device they are intended to well-accepted metric are the half power
drive (such as a headphone amplifier), or by points (i.e. frequency where the power goes
the frequency range of the signals (Audio, IF, down by half its peak value) on the power vs.
RF and VHF amplifiers for example), or frequency curve. Therefore bandwidth can be
grouped by whether they invert the signal defined as the difference between the lower
(inverting amplifiers and non-inverting ampli- and upper half power points. This is there-
fiers, or by the types of device used in the fore also known as the −3 dB bandwidth.
amplification (valve or tube amplifiers, FET Bandwidths (otherwise called "frequency re-
amplifiers, etc.). sponses") for other response tolerances are
A related device that emphasizes conver- sometimes quoted (−1 dB, −6 dB etc.) or
sion of signals of one type to another (for ex- "plus of minus 1dB" (roughly the sound level
ample, a light signal in photons to a DC sig- difference people usually can detect).
nal in amperes) is a transducer, a trans- A full-range audio amplifier will be essen-
former, or a sensor. However, none of these tially flat between 20 Hz to about 20 kHz (the
amplify power. range of normal human hearing). In minimal-
ist amplifier design, the amp’s usable fre-
Figures of merit quency response needs to extend consider-
ably beyond this (one or more octaves either
The quality of an amplifier can be character- side) and typically a good minimalist amplifi-
ized by a number of specifications, listed er will have −3 dB points < 10 and > 65 kHz.
below. Professional touring amplifiers often have in-
put and/or output filtering to sharply limit
Gain frequency response beyond 20 Hz-20 kHz;
The gain of an amplifier is the ratio of output too much of the amplifier’s potential output
to input power or amplitude, and is usually power would otherwise be wasted on infra-
measured in decibels. (When measured in sonic and ultrasonic frequencies, and the
decibels it is logarithmically related to the danger of AM radio interference would in-
power ratio: G(dB)=10 log(Pout /(Pin)). RF crease. Modern switching amplifiers need
amplifiers are often specified in terms of the steep low pass filtering at the output to get
maximum power gain obtainable, while the rid of high frequency switching noise and
voltage gain of audio amplifiers and instru- harmonics.
mentation amplifiers will be more often

1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amplifier

Efficiency Noise
Efficiency is a measure of how much of the This is a measure of how much noise is intro-
input power is usefully applied to the amplifi- duced in the amplification process. Noise is
er’s output. Class A amplifiers are very ineffi- an undesirable but inevitable product of the
cient, in the range of 10–20% with a max effi- electronic devices and components. The met-
ciency of 25%. Class B amplifiers have a very ric for noise performance of a circuit is Noise
high efficiency but are impractical because of Factor. Noise Factor is the ratio of input sig-
high levels of distortion (See: Crossover dis- nal to that of the output signal.
tortion). In practical design, the result of a
tradeoff is the class AB design. Modern Class Output dynamic range
AB amps are commonly between 35–55% effi- Output dynamic range is the range, usually
cient with a theoretical maximum of 78.5%. given in dB, between the smallest and largest
Commercially available Class D switching useful output levels. The lowest useful level
amplifiers have reported efficiencies as high is limited by output noise, while the largest is
as 90%. Amplifiers of Class C-F are usually limited most often by distortion. The ratio of
known to be very high efficiency amplifiers. these two is quoted as the amplifier dynamic
The efficiency of the amplifier limits the range. More precisely, if S = maximal al-
amount of total power output that is usefully lowed signal power and N = noise power, the
available. Note that more efficient amplifiers dynamic range DR is DR = (S + N ) /N.[1]
run much cooler, and often do not need any
cooling fans even in multi-kilowatt designs. Slew rate
The reason for this is that the loss of effi-
Slew rate is the maximum rate of change of
ciency produces heat as a by-product of the
output variable, usually quoted in volts per
energy lost during the conversion of power.
second (or microsecond). Many amplifiers
In more efficient amplifiers there is less loss
are ultimately slew rate limited (typically by
of energy so in turn less heat.
the impedance of a drive current having to
overcome capacitive effects at some point in
Linearity the circuit), which may limit the full power
An ideal amplifier would be a totally linear bandwidth to frequencies well below the
device, but real amplifiers are only linear amplifier’s small-signal frequency response.
within certain practical limits. When the sig-
nal drive to the amplifier is increased, the Rise time
output also increases until a point is reached
The rise time, tr, of an amplifier is the time
where some part of the amplifier becomes
taken for the output to change from 10% to
saturated and cannot produce any more out-
90% of its final level when driven by a step
put; this is called clipping, and results in
input. For a Gaussian response system (or a
distortion.
simple RC roll off), the rise time is approxim-
Some amplifiers are designed to handle
ated by:
this in a controlled way which causes a re-
tr * BW = 0.35, where tr is rise time in
duction in gain to take place instead of ex-
seconds and BW is bandwidth in Hz.
cessive distortion; the result is a compression
effect, which (if the amplifier is an audio
amplifier) will sound much less unpleasant to
Settling time and ringing
the ear. For these amplifiers, the 1 dB com- Time taken for output to settle to within a
pression point is defined as the input power certain percentage of the final value (say
(or output power) where the gain is 1 dB less 0.1%). This is called the settle time, and is
than the small signal gain. usually specified for oscilloscope vertical
Linearization is an emergent field, and amplifiers and high accuracy measurement
there are many techniques, such as feedfor- systems. Ringing refers to an output that
ward, predistortion, postdistortion, EER, cycles above and below its final value, lead-
LINC, CALLUM, cartesian feedback, etc., in ing to a delay in reaching final value quanti-
order to avoid the undesired effects of the fied by the settling time above.
non-linearities.

2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amplifier

Overshoot
In response to a step input, the overshoot is
the amount the output exceeds its final,
steady-state value.

Stability factor
Stability is a major concern in RF and mi-
crowave amplifiers. The degree of an amplifi-
ers stability can be quantified by a so-called
stability factor. There are several different
stability factors, such as the Stern stability
factor and the Linvil stability factor, which The glow from four "Electro Harmonix KT88"
specify a condition that must be met for the brand power tubes lights up the inside of a
absolute stability of an amplifier in terms of Traynor YBA-200 guitar amplifier
its two-port parameters.
power output at microwave frequencies than
Electronic amplifiers solid-state devices (p. 59).[2]

There are many types of electronic amplifi- Transistor amplifiers

ers, commonly used in radio and television
The essential role of this active element is to
transmitters and receivers, high-fidelity ("hi-
magnify an input signal to yield a signific-
fi") stereo equipment, microcomputers and
antly larger output signal. The amount of
other electronic digital equipment, and guitar
magnification (the "forward gain") is determ-
and other instrument amplifiers. Critical
ined by the external circuit design as well as
components include active devices, such as
the active device.
vacuum tubes or transistors. A brief introduc-
Many common active devices in transistor
tion to the many types of electronic amplifier
amplifiers are bipolar junction transistors
follows.
(BJTs) and metal oxide semiconductor field-
effect transistors (MOSFETs).
Power amplifier Applications are numerous, some common
The term "power amplifier" is a relative term examples are audio amplifiers in a home ste-
with respect to the amount of power de- reo or PA system, RF high power generation
livered to the load and/or sourced by the sup- for semiconductor equipment, to RF and Mi-
ply circuit. In general a power amplifier is crowave applications such as radio
designated as the last amplifier in a transmis- transmitters.
sion chain (the output stage) and is the amp- Transistor-based amplifier can be realized
lifier stage that typically requires most atten- using various configurations: for example
tion to power efficiency. Efficiency considera- with a bipolar junction transistor we can real-
tions lead to various classes of power amplifi- ize common base, common collector or com-
er: see power amplifier classes. mon emitter amplifier; using a MOSFET we
can realize common gate, common source or
Vacuum tube (valve) amplifiers common drain amplifier. Each configuration
According to Symons, while semiconductor has different characteristic (gain,
amplifiers have largely displaced valve ampli- impedance...).
fiers for low power applications, valve ampli-
fiers are much more cost effective in high Operational amplifiers (op-
power applications such as "radar, counter- amps)
measures equipment, or communications
An operational amplifier is an amplifier cir-
equipment" (p. 56). Many microwave amplifi-
cuit with very high open loop gain and differ-
ers are specially designed valves, such as the
ential inputs which employs external feed-
klystron, gyrotron, traveling wave tube, and
back for control of its transfer function or
crossed-field amplifier, and these microwave
gain. Although the term is today commonly
valves provide much greater single-device
applied to integrated circuits, the original

3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amplifier

operational amplifier design was implemen- Klystrons

ted with valves. Very similar to TWT amplifiers, but more
powerful and with a specific frequency
Fully differential amplifiers "sweet spot". They generally are also much
(FDA) heavier than TWT amplifiers, and are
A fully differential amplifier is a solid state in- therefore ill-suited for light-weight mobile ap-
tegrated circuit amplifier which employs ex- plications. Klystrons are tunable, offering se-
ternal feedback for control of its transfer lective output within their specified fre-
function or gain. It is similar to the operation- quency range.
al amplifier but it also has differential output
pins. Musical instrument (audio)
amplifiers
Video amplifiers An audio amplifier is usually used to amplify
These deal with video signals and have vary- signals such as music or speech.
ing bandwidths depending on whether the
video signal is for SDTV, EDTV, HDTV 720p
or 1080i/p etc.. The specification of the band-
Other amplifier types
width itself depends on what kind of filter is
used and which point (-1 dB or -3 dB for ex- Carbon microphone
ample) the bandwidth is measured. Certain One of the first devices used to amplify sig-
requirements for step response and over- nals was the carbon microphone (effectively
shoot are necessary in order for acceptable a sound-controlled variable resistor). By
TV images to be presented. channeling a large electric current through
the compressed carbon granules in the mi-
Oscilloscope vertical amplifiers crophone, a small sound signal could produce
These are used to deal with video signals to a much larger electric signal. The carbon mi-
drive an oscilloscope display tube and can crophone was extremely important in early
have bandwidths of about 500 MHz. The spe- telecommunications; analog telephones in
cifications on step response, rise time, over- fact work without the use of any other ampli-
shoot and aberrations can make the design of fier. Before the invention of electronic ampli-
these amplifiers extremely difficult. One of fiers, mechanically coupled carbon micro-
the pioneers in high bandwidth vertical amp- phones were also used as amplifiers in tele-
lifiers was the Tektronix company. phone repeaters for long distance service.

Distributed amplifiers Magnetic amplifier

These use transmission lines to temporally A magnetic amplifier is a transformer-like
split the signal and amplify each portion sep- device that makes use of the saturation of
arately in order to achieve higher bandwidth magnetic materials to produce amplification.
than can be obtained from a single amplify- It is a non-electronic electrical amplifier with
ing device. The outputs of each stage are no moving parts. The bandwidth of magnetic
combined in the output transmission line. amplifiers extends to the hundreds of
This type of amplifier was commonly used on kilohertz.
oscilloscopes as the final vertical amplifier.
The transmission lines were often housed in- Rotating electrical machinery
side the display tube glass envelope.
amplifier
Microwave amplifiers A Ward Leonard control is a rotating machine
like an electrical generator that provides
Travelling wave tube (TWT) amplification of electrical signals by the con-
amplifiers version of mechanical energy to electrical en-
Used for high power amplification at low mi- ergy. Changes in generator field current res-
crowave frequencies. They typically can amp- ult in larger changes in the output current of
lify across a broad spectrum of frequencies; the generator, providing gain. This class of
however, they are usually not as tunable as device was used for smooth control of large
klystrons.

4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Amplifier

motors, primarily for elevators and naval Miscellaneous types

guns.
• There are also mechanical amplifiers, such
Field modulation of a very high speed AC
as the automotive servo used in braking.
generator was also used for some early AM
• Relays can be included under the above
radio transmissions.[3] See Alexanderson
definition of amplifiers, although their
alternator.
transfer function is not linear (that is, they
are either open or closed).
Johnsen-Rahbek effect amplifier • Also purely mechanical manifestations of
The earliest form of audio power amplifier such digital amplifiers can be built (for
was Edison’s "electromotograph" loud-speak- theoretical, didactical purposes, or for
ing telephone, which used a wetted rotating entertainment), see e.g. domino computer.
chalk cylinder in contact with a stationary • Another type of amplifier is the fluidic
contact. The friction between cylinder and amplifier, based on the fluidic triode.
contact varied with the current, providing
gain. Edison discovered this effect in 1874,
but the theory behind the Johnsen-Rahbek ef- See also
fect was not understood until the semicon- • Attenuator (electronics)
ductor era. • Electronic amplifier
• Negative feedback amplifier
Mechanical amplifiers • Instrument amplifier
Mechanical amplifiers were used in the pre- • Low noise amplifier
electronic era in specialized applications. • Preamplifier
Early autopilot units designed by Elmer Am- • Step response
brose Sperry incorporated a mechanical amp-
lifier using belts wrapped around rotating
drums; a slight increase in the tension of the
References
belt caused the drum to move the belt. A [1] Verhoeven CJM, van Staveren A, Monna
paired, opposing set of such drives made up a GLE, Kouwenhoven MHL and Yildiz E
single amplifier. This amplified small gyro er- (2003). Structured electronic design:
rors into signals large enough to move air- negative feedback amplifiers. Boston/
craft control surfaces. A similar mechanism Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. pp. 10.
was used in the Vannevar Bush differential ISBN 1-4020-7590-1. http://worldcat.org/
analyzer. isbn/1-4020-7590-1.
[2] Robert S. Symons (1998). "Tubes: Still
Optical amplifiers vital after all these years". IEEE
Spectrum 35 (4): 52–63. doi:10.1109/
Optical amplifiers amplify light through the
6.666962.
process of stimulated emission. See Laser
[3] OTB - Below 535, A Historical Review of
and Maser.
Continuous Wave Radio Frequency
Power Generators

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplifier"

Categories: Amplifiers

This page was last modified on 18 May 2009, at 12:57 (UTC). All text is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a
registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-
deductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers