EGE217:Electronics1

Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail

January 2009

ELECTRONICS 1

CHAPTER 6: SMALL SIGNAL BIPOLAR

AMPLIFIERS

Introduction

After a transistor has been biased with the Q point near the middle of
the load line, we can couple a small ac voltage into the base. This will
produce an ac collector voltage. The ac collector voltage looks like the
ac base voltage, except that it is a lot bigger. In other words, the ac
collector voltage is an amplified version of the ac base voltage.

The invention of amplifying devices, was crucial to the evolution of

electronics, without amplification, there would be no tv, no radio, no
computers.

Objective
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. explain the small signal amplifier operation.

2. Differentiate base bias amplifier, emitter biased amplifier and
collector biased amplifier;
3. Understand the operation of multistage amplifier.

6.1 Common Emitter Amplifier

6.1.1 The dc circuit
Figure below shows a base biased circuit.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009
Figure 1

The dc base voltage is 0.7V. Because 30V is much greater than 0.7V,
the base current is approximately 30V divided by 1M or I B ≈ 30 µA .

With a current gain of 100, the collector current is:

I C = 3mA

And the collector voltage is 15V. So, the Q point is located at 3mA and
15V.

6.1.2 Amplifying Circuit

Figure below shows how to add components to build an amplifier.

Figure 2

First a coupling capacitor is used between an ac source and the base.

Since the coupling capacitor is open to direct current, the same dc
base current exists with or without the capacitor and ac source.

Another coupling capacitor is used between the collector and the load
resistor of 100K. Since this capacitor is open to direct current, the dc
collector voltage is the same with or without the capacitor and load
resistor. The key idea is that the coupling capacitor prevent the ac
source and load resistance from changing the Q point.

In this figure also you can see that the ac source is 100µV. Since the
coupling capacitor is assumed shorted for ac, all the ac source voltage
appears between the base and the ground. This ac voltage produces
an ac base current that is added to the existing dc base current. So,
the total base current will have a dc component and an ac component.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

See figure below:

Figure 3

Notice that in last figure, the collector voltage is inverted (180 degrees
out of phase) with the input voltage. This is because on the positive
half cycle, of ac base current, the collector current increases,
producing more voltages across the collector resistor. This means that
there is less voltage between the collector and ground. Similarly on
negative half cycle, the collector current decreases. Since there is less
voltage across the collector resistor, the collector voltage increases.

6.1.3 Voltage waveforms

Figure below shows the waveforms for a base biased amplifier.

Figure 4

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

The ac source voltage is a small sinusoidal voltage. This is coupled

into the base, where it is superimposed on the dc component of +0.7V.
The variation in base voltage produces sinusoidal variations in the
base current, collector current and collector voltage. The total
collector voltage is an inverted sine wave, superimposed on the dc
collector voltage of +15V.

Notice the action of the output coupling capacitor. Since it is open to

direct current, it blocks the dc component of collector voltage. Since it
is shorted to alternating current, it couples the ac collector voltage to
the load resistor. This is why the load voltage is a pure ac signal with
an average value of zero.

Voltage Gain

The voltage gain is:

Vout
A=
Vin

Disadvantage:

The base biased amplifier has an unstable Q point.

Example:

The ac load voltage is 50mV, and the ac input voltage is 100uV, the
voltage gain is:

6.2 Emitter-Biased Amplifier

6.2.1 Bypass capacitor
A bypass capacitor is similar to a coupling capacitor because it
appears open to direct current and shorted to alternating current. But
it is not used to couple a signal between two points. Instead, it is used
to create an ac ground.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

6.2.2 VDB Amplifier

Figure below shows a voltage divider biased (VDB amplifier).

Figure 5

To calculate the dc voltages and currents, mentally open all

capacitors. Then the transistor circuit simplifies to the VDB circuit
analyzed in previous chapter.

Note the bypass capacitor. Without this capacitor, the ac base current
would be much smaller. But, with this bypass capacitor, we can get a
much larger voltage gain

Note the ac source voltage of 100μV, which is coupled into the base.
Because of the bypass capacitor, all of this ac voltage appears across
the base emitter diode. The ac base current then produces an
amplified ac collector voltage.

6.3 Small Signal Operation

Figure below shows the graph of current vs voltage for the base
emitter diode.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

Figure 6

When an ac voltage is coupled into the base of a transistor, an ac

voltage appears across the base emitter diode. This produces the
sinusoidal variation in VBE.

6.3.1 Instantaneous Operating Point

When the voltage increases to its positive peak, the instantaneous
operating point moves from Q to the upper point.

When the sine wave decreases to its negative peak, the instantaneous
operating point moves from Q to the lower point.

The total base-emitter voltage is an ac voltage centered on a dc

voltage. The size of the ac voltage determines how far the
instantaneous point moves away from the Q point. Large ac base
voltages produce large variations whereas small ac base voltages
produce small variations.

6.3.2 Distortion
The ac voltage on the base produces the ac emitter current as shown
in Figure above. This ac emitter current has the same frequency as
the ac base voltage. The ac emitter current is not a perfect replica of
the ac base voltage because of the curvature of the graph. Since the
graph is curved upward, the positive half cycle of ac emitter current is
stretched and the negative half cycle is compressed. This stretching
and compressing of alternate half cycle is called distortion. It is
undesirable in high fidelity amplifiers because it can change the
sound of voice and music.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009
One way to reduce distortion is by keeping the ac base voltage small.
When we reduce the peak value of the base voltage, you reduce the
movement of the instantaneous operating point. The smaller the swing
or variation, the less the curvature of the graph. If the signal is small
enough, the graph appears to be linear.

Why is this important? Because there is negligible distortion for a

small signal. When the signal is small, the changes in emitter current
are almost directly proportional to the changes in ac base voltage
because the graph is almost linear.

6.4 AC Resistance of the Emitter Diode

Figure below shows a graph of current vs voltage for the emitter diode.
When a small ac voltage is across the emitter diode it produces the ac
emitter current shown. The size of this ac emitter current depends on
the location of the Q point. Because of the curvature, we get more
peak to peak ac emitter current when the Q point is higher up the
curve.

Figure 7

The total emitter current, has a dc component and an ac component:

I E = I EQ + i e

And the total base emitter voltage:

V BE = V BEQ + v be

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EGE217:Electronics1
Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009
The sinusoidal variation in VBE produces a sinusoidal variation in IE.
The peak to peak value of ac emitter current, depends on the location
of Q. A fixed ac base-emitter voltage produces more ac emitter current
as the Q point is biased higher up the curve. (The ac resistance of the
emitter diode decreases when the dc emitter current increases).

The ac resistance of the emitter diode is defined as:

v be
re ' =
ie

(Note that the resistance is actually inside the transistor).

25mV
re ' =
IE

This value is important because it determines the voltage gain. The

smaller it is, the higher the voltage gain.

6.5 Two Transistor Models

To analyze the ac operation of a transistor amplifier, we need an ac
equivalent circuit for a transistor. In other words, we need a model for
the transistor that simulates how it behaves when an ac signal is
present. There are two types of models which are

•T models and
• π Model
We can use either one in analysing an amplifier.

6.5.1 T Model

The emitter diode acts like an ac resistance r’e , and the collector
diode acts like a current source ic. When analysing a transistor
amplifier, we can replace each transistor by a T model. Then we can
calculate value of ac quantities like voltage gain which will be explain
later in this chapter.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

Figure 8

6.5.2 π Model

When an ac input signal drives a transistor amplifier, an ac base

emitter voltage vbe is across the emitter diode, as shown:

Figure 9

Looking into the base of the transistor, the ac voltage source sees an
input impedance zin(base).

6.6 Analysing an Amplifier

To analyse amplifiers, we can calculate the effect of the dc sources (dc
equivalent circuit) and then the effect of ac sources (ac equivalent
circuit).

The ideas in getting the ac equivalent circuit is :

1. Short all coupling and bypass capacitors

2. Visualise all dc supply voltages as ac grounds.
3. Replace the transistor by its π or T model
4. Draw the ac equivalent circuit

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

Example

6.7 Voltage Gain

Voltage gain is defined as the ac output voltage divided by the ac
input voltage. Consider the π model below:

Figure 11
Thus, we can write:

v in = ib β re '

In the collector circuit, the current source pumps an ac current ic through the parallel
connection of Rc and RL.

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Lecturer: Siti Hamimah Sh. Ismail
January 2009

Tutorial 5

1. For the network shown below, draw the ac equivalent circuit and find:

i) re
ii) Input impedance, Zi
iii) Output impedance, Zo,
iv) Voltage gain, A.
+10V

10K 2.7K

β = 100

2.2K RL=10K
50mV 1K

2. Explain using the graph of emitter current vs. base-emitter voltage, how we can
reduce the distortion in amplifier.

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