POWER AMPLIFIER

PROF. MILI SARKAR

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING &MANAGEMENT
 Introduction

•Power Amplifier is meant to raise the power level of the input signal .
•To get the large power at the output , it is necessary that the input signal voltage is
large.
•A power amplifier actually draws power from dc supply connected to the output circuit
and converts it into useful ac signal power.
•The ac power at the output terminal is controlled by Input AC signal.
•Here power transistors are used instead of normal transistor.
Difference of power and normal transistor

1) The base is made thicker to handle large current.

Here ᵝ is smaller.
2) Here the collector area is also large and heat sinks
are used for improving the het dissipation.
3) The emitter and base layers are also heavily doped
to reduce input resistance. As a result less input
power is required.
Difference of power Amplifier and voltage
amplifier
DIFFERENT TYPES OF POWER AMPLIFIER
 CLASS A POWER AMPLIFIER
⮚ Class A power amplifier is a type of power amplifier where
the output transistor is ON full time and the output current
flows for the entire cycle of the input wave form,
⮚ They have high fidelity and are totally immune to crossover
distortion.
CIRCUIT OF CLASS A POWER APLIFIER

• The coupling transformer provides good impedance matching between the output
and load and it is the main reason behind the improved efficiency.

•Impedance matching can be attained by selecting the number of turns of the

primary so that its net impedance is equal to the transistors output impedance and
selecting the number of turns of the secondary so that its net impedance is equal to
the loudspeakers input impedance.
 EFFICIENCY CALCULATION OF CLASS A
POWER AMPLIFIER
• The r.m.s. Collector voltage is given as: Vce=Vm/√2
• The r.m.s. Collector current is given as:Ice=Im/ √2
• The r.m.s. Power delivered to the load (Pac) is therefore given
as: Vm.Im/2=Vcc.Ic/2
• The average power drawn from the supply (Pdc) is given by:
Vcc.Ic
• Therefore the efficiency of a Transformer-coupled Class A
amplifier is given as
[(Vcc.Ic/2)/ Vcc.Ic]X100%=50%
 Transformer coupled Class A power
Amplifier
Advantages
• No loss of signal power in the collector resistors.
• Excellent impedance matching is achieved.
• Gain is high.
• DC isolation is provided.
Disadvantages
• Low frequency signals are less amplified comparatively.
• Hum noise is introduced by transformers.
• Transformers are bulky and costly.
 Pros and cons of Class A PA
Advantages of Class A power amplifier.
• Class A design is the simplest.
• High fidelity because input signal will be exactly reproduced at the output.
• Since the active device is on full time, no time is required for the turn on
and this improves high frequency response.
• Since the active device conducts for the entire cycle of the input signal,
there will be no cross over distortion.
• Disadvantages of Class A power amplifier.
• Main disadvantage is poor efficiency.
• Steps for improving efficiency like transformer coupling etc affects the
frequency response.
• Powerful Class A power amplifiers are costly and bulky due to the large
power supply and heat sink.
 Class B power amplifier

⮚ Class B amplifier is a type of power amplifier where

the active device (transistor) conducts only for one
half cycle of the input signal.
⮚ Since the active device is switched off for half the
input cycle, the active device dissipates less power
and hence the efficiency is improved.
⮚ Class B amplifier uses push pull cofiguration.
⮚ But it has a drawback that it suffers from the
problem of crossover distortion.
Class B Push Pull Amplifier circuit

▪The operation of the push-pull amplifiers is in such a way that it makes the
signal to split into the form of out of phase that is 180 degree.
▪ Transistors are biased at the cut-off.
▪ Push-pull amplifiers use two “complementary” or matching transistors,
one being an NPN-type and the other being a PNP-type with both power
transistors receiving the same input signal together.
 Class B Push-pull Transformer Coupled Amplifier Circuit

▪ The circuit above shows a standard Class B Amplifier circuit that uses a balanced
center-tapped input transformer, which splits the incoming waveform signal into two
equal halves and which are 180o out of phase with each other.
▪Here, the load current is shared between the two power transistor devices as it
decreases in one device and increases in the other throughout the signal cycle reducing
the output voltage and current to zero.
▪N
Class B Output Characteristics Curves

Fig. Cross over distortion.

Power Efficiency of Class B Push-Pull Amplifier
 Pros and Cons of Class B PA
Advantages:

• The advantages of Complementary symmetry push pull class B amplifier

are as follows.
• As there is no need of center tapped transformers, the weight and cost are
reduced.
• Equal and opposite input signal voltages are not required.
Disadvantages:

• The disadvantages of Complementary symmetry push pull class B amplifier

are as follows.
• It is difficult to get a pair of transistors (NPN and PNP) that have similar
characteristics.
• We require both positive and negative supply voltages.
Class AB Amplifier

• The Class AB Amplifier circuit is a compromise

between the Class A and the Class B
configurations.
• This very small diode biasing voltage causes both
transistors to slightly conduct even when no
input signal is present.
• A small collector current will flow when there is
no input signal but it is much less than that for
the Class A amplifier configuration. This means
then that the transistor will be “ON” for more
than half a cycle of the waveform but much less
than a full cycle giving a conduction angle of
between 180o to 360o or 50% to 100% of the
input signal depending upon the amount of
additional biasing used. The amount of diode
biasing voltage present at the base terminal of
the transistor can be increased in multiples by
adding additional diodes in series.
Implemntations of Class AB
Class C power amplifier
⮚ Class C power amplifier is a type
of amplifier where the active
element (transistor) conduct for
less than one half cycle of the
input signal.
⮚ The reduced conduction angle improves
the efficiency to a great extend but
causes a lot of distortion.
⮚ The most common application of the
Class C amplifier is the RF (radio
frequency) circuits like RF oscillator, RF
amplifier etc where there are additional
tuned circuits for retrieving the original
input signal
Class C power amplifier circuit diagram

• Biasing resistor Rb pulls the

base of Q1 further downwards
and the Q-point will be set
some way below the cut-off
point in the DC load line.
• Inductor L1 and capacitor C1
forms a tank circuit which aids
in the extraction of the
required signal from the
pulsed output of the transistor
 Advantages of Class C power amplifier
Applications of Class C
• High efficiency. power amplifier
• Excellent in RF applications.
• Lowest physical size for a given power
output. • RF oscillators.
Disadvantages of Class C power • RF amplifier.
amplifier. • FM transmitters.
• Lowest linearity.
• Not suitable in audio applications. • Booster amplifiers.
• Creates a lot of RF interference.
• It is difficult to obtain ideal inductors
• High frequency
and coupling transformers. repeaters.
• Reduced dynamic range.
• Tuned amplifiers etc.
 What we have learned?

• Power amplifier introduction

• Class A PA
• Class B PA
• Class AB PA
• Class C PA

THANK YOU