Mutah University

Electrical Engineering Department

Electronics lab

Experiment 5: The Common Emitter Amplifier

Objectives:

After performing this experiment, you should be able to:

• Determine the voltage gain of a common-emitter (CE) amplifier.

• Explain the role of coupling and bypass capacitors in a CE amplifier.
• Demonstrate the effect that a load has on the voltage gain of a CE amplifier.

Equipment :

1- Oscilloscope. 2- Function Generator (FG) or Signal Generator.

3- Digital Multi-meter (DMM). 4- Bread-board.
5. DC power supply 6- Resistor (68k,27k,1.2k,560)
7. Capacitors of 2(10μ F),100µF. 7. 2N3904 NPN Transistor
Background:
the base-emitter junction must be forward biased, and the base-collector junction must be reverse-
biased. The purpose of bias circuits is to establish and maintain the proper DC operating conditions for
the transistor. There are several ways to apply DC bias. The simplest method, called base bias or fixed
bias, is frequently unsatisfactory due to manufacturing variations between transistors and sensitivity to
temperature changes. Base bias is recognized by a single resistor connected from VCC to the transistor
base. A much more widely used bias circuit is called voltage-divider bias. Voltage-divider bias is not
as sensitive to transistor variations and temperature changes. Voltage-divider bias is shown in Fig.1(a).
(adding two DC supplies to the circuit) will clip the output signal to and respectively. The output signals
from the types of clipping circuits are shown in Fig.1.
To analyze any amplifier, start with the DC parameters. The steps to solve for the DC parameters for
the CE amplifier with voltage-divider bias illustrated in Fig. 1(a) are:
Mentally remove capacitors from the circuit since they appear open to DC. This causes the load
resistor, RL , to be removed. Solve for the base voltage, Vb, by applying the voltage divider rule to R1
and R2 , as illustrated in Fig. 1(b).

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 Subtract the 0.7 V forward-bias drop across the base-emitter diode from VB to obtain the emitter
voltage, V ,as illustrated in Figure 1(c). E
The DC current in the emitter circuit is found by applying Ohm’s law to R E The emitter current, I is
approximately equal to the collector current, IE,IC The transistor appears to be a current source of
approximately IE into the collector circuit, as shown in Figure 1(d). The AC parameters for the
amplifier can now be analyzed. The AC equivalent circuit is shown in Figure 2. The capacitors appear
to be an AC short. For this reason, the AC equivalent circuit does not contain RE . Using the
superposition theorem, VCC is replaced with a short, placing it at AC ground. The analysis steps are:
Replace all capacitors with a short and place VCC at AC ground. Compute the AC resistance of the
emitter,r , from the equation:

Compute the amplifier’s voltage gain. Voltage gain is the ratio of the output voltage divided by the
input voltage. The input voltage is across the AC emitter resistance to ground which, in this case, is r e
.The output voltage is taken across the AC resistance from collector to ground which, in this case, is
RC . For the circuit in Fig.2, the output voltage divided by the input voltage can be written:
With RE bypassed:

With RE unbypassed:
Compute the total input resistance seen by the AC signal:

With RE bypassed:

With RE unbypassed:

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Compute the total input resistance seen by the AC signal: (Assuming ro =∞)

Compute the voltage gain from the source to the load:

Fig.2: AC Equivalent Circuit of CE Amplifier.

- Procedure:
1- Part 1: DC Measurements
2- Measure and record the values of the resistors.
3- Construct the amplifier shown in Fig.3. The signal generator should be turned off. Measure
and record the DC voltages listed in Table 1.
4- Using the measured resistances and the value of ß determined in step (2), compute the DC
parameters listed in Table 1 for the CE amplifier shown in Figure 3. Your measured and
computed values should agree within 10%. (Show your calculations)

Fig.3: CE Amplifier

2- AC Measurements
1- Compute the AC parameters listed in Table 2 (show your calculation). The AC base voltage,νb
, represents the signal input to the amplifier,V . Multiply the Vin input signal by the computed
voltage gain to obtain the output signal.
2- Disconnect the load resistance RL . Turn on the signal generator and adjust VS for a 0.1 V sine
wave at 1.0 kHz. Measure the peak-to peak values of the input and output waveforms, and

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 record these values in Table 2. Use the measured signal voltages to calculate the voltage gain
of the amplifier.
3- Carefully sketch the input and output waveforms showing the phase shift between them.
4- Restore the circuit to its original configuration shown in Figure 3. Set R L to 1kΩ , and measure
the peak-to peak value of the output waveform. Record your measured and calculated values.
Use this measured voltage to calculate the voltage gain from the input to the load VL Vin .
Record it in Table 2.
5- Using the basic laws of voltage division, you can easily determine the input impedance of this
amplifier as follows:
a. Insert a 47 kΩ potentiometer between the signal generator and the input coupling
capacitor.
b. Adjust the potentiometer until Vout drops to one-half the value noted prior to insert the
potentiometer.
c. Power down, and remove the pot from the circuit without disturbing its setting.
d. Measure the adjusted resistance of the potentiometer, and record this value in Table 2.
This value equals the input impedance of the amplifier.
6- Remove C2 from the circuit. Measure the AC signal voltage at the transistor’s base, emitter,
and collector. Measure the voltage gain of the amplifier.
7- With C2 open (RE unbypassed): repeat steps (5) and (6). Compare the result values with the
calculated values obtained from step (4).
8- To measure the output resistance Rout of the CE Amplifier connect a 1 KΩ potentiometer
connected between the output coupling capacitor and ground. Adjust the potentiometer until
Vout drops to one-half the previous value.
9- Remove the potentiometer and measure its resistance. By the voltage divider role, the
resistance of the potentiometer equals the output resistance of the amplifier.

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 Mutah University

Electrical Engineering Department

Electronics lab

Experiment 4: Clipper and Clamper

Group Number:………………………

Student Name ID

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1- Table.1: DC Parameters of CE Amplifier

DC Computed Measured
Parameter Value Value
VB
VE
IE

VC
VCE
β
2- Sketch the output waveform of fig.3

3- Table.2: AC Parameters of CE Amplifier

Computed Measured
AC Parameter Value Value
RE byp. RE unbyp. RE byp. RE unbyp.
Vb = Vin
re
AV
Vc=Vout
Rin
VL V in

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1- 1-Is the amplifier shown in Fig.3 midpoint biased? Support your answer using values from
Step (3).
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2- Refer to the waveforms that you drew from Figure 3. Explain why the output signal is 180° out
of phase with the input.
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3- Refer to Table 2: How close are your calculated value of AC parameters to the measured value?
Explain any discrepancies.
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4- Refer to Step (7): What happened to the voltage gain of the circuit when the load resistance
was connected? Explain why you think this happened.

5- Refer to Step (9): What happened to the voltage gain of the circuit when the bypass capacitor
was removed? Explain why you think this happened.