1. NATIONAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Amafel Bldg. Aguinaldo Highway Dasmariñas City, Cavite
Assignment # 1
Classes of Amplifier
Valladolid, Charles Edison September 01, 2011
Electronics 3/BSECE 41A1 Score:
Engr. Grace Ramones
Instructor

2. CLASS-A
Class-A amplifiers are the simplest in design, and can be the most distortion-free of all
amplifier classes. In class-A, the output devices are biased on all the time with a current
large enough to produce the largest output signal. Some class-A amplifiers may employ
both a positive and negative device in a push-pull arrangement to increase output
power, but both devices still are biased on and conduct all the time. Class-A amplifiers
are generally considered to be the most accurate of all classes in low to moderate
power ranges and are useful for applications such as preamp stages; however, they
create tremendous amounts of heat due to their very low efficiency, making them
impractical for high-power amplification. Other amplifier classes have been developed
over time to overcome the class-A efficiency problem
Many class A amplifiers use the same transistor(s) to reproduce both the top and
bottom halves of the audio waveform. In this configuration, the output transistor(s)
always has current flowing through it, even if it has no audio signal (the output transistors
never 'turn off'). The current flowing through it is D.C. A pure class 'A' amplifier is very
inefficient and generally runs very hot even when there is no audio output. The current
flowing through the output transistor(s) (with no audio signal) may be as much as the
current which will be driven through the speaker load at FULL audio output power.
Many people believe class 'A' amps to sound better than other configurations (and this
may have been true at some point in time) but a well designed amplifier won't have
any 'sound' and even the most critical 'ear' would be hard-pressed to tell one design
from another.
NOTE: Some class A amplifiers use complimentary (separate transistors for positive and
negative halves of the waveform) transistors for their output stage.
Class A Amplifier
The most commonly used type of power amplifier configuration is the Class A Amplifier.
The Class A amplifier is the most common and simplest form of power amplifier that uses
the switching transistor in the standard common emitter circuit configuration as seen
previously. The transistor is always biased "ON" so that it conducts during one complete
cycle of the input signal waveform producing minimum distortion and maximum
amplitude to the output. This means then that the Class A Amplifier configuration is the
ideal operating mode, because there can be no crossover or switch-off distortion to the
output waveform even during the negative half of the cycle. Class A power amplifier
output stages may use a single power transistor or pairs of transistors connected
together to share the high load current. Consider the Class A amplifier circuit below.

3. Single-ended Amplifier Circuit
This is the simplest type of Class A power amplifier circuit. It uses a single-ended transistor
for its output stage with the resistive load connected directly to the Collector terminal.
When the transistor switches "ON" it sinks the output current through the Collector
resulting in an inevitable voltage drop across the Emitter resistance thereby limiting the
negative output capability. The efficiency of this type of circuit is very low (less than
30%) and delivers small power outputs for a large drain on the DC power supply. A Class
A amplifier stage passes the same load current even when no input signal is applied so
large heatsinks are needed for the output transistors.
However, another simple way to increase the current handling capacity of the circuit
while at the same time obtain a greater power gain is to replace the single output
transistor with a Darlington Transistor. These types of devices are basically two transistors
within a single package, one small "pilot" transistor and another larger "switching"
transistor. The big advantage of these devices are that the input impedance is suitably
large while the output impedance is relatively low, thereby reducing the power loss and
therefore the heat within the switching device.

4. CLASS-B
A class 'B' amplifier uses two transistors (or two groups of transistors). One transistor (or
group of transistors) is used to reproduce the top half of the waveform. A second
transistor (or group of transistors) is used to reproduce the bottom half of the waveform.
In a class 'B' amplifier, there is typically no idle/bias current flowing through the output
transistors when there is no audio. In most cases, if the amplifier has no bias
potentiometers and it's not a class D amplifier, it's a class 'B' amplifier.
Class B Push-pull Transformer Amplifier Circuit
The circuit above shows a standard Class B Amplifier circuit that uses a balanced
centre-tapped input transformer, which splits the incoming waveform signal into two
equal halves and which are 180o out of phase with each other. Another centre-tapped
transformer on the output is used to recombined the two signals providing the
increased power to the load. The transistors used for this type of transformer push-pull
amplifier circuit are both NPN transistors with their emitter terminals connected together.
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. The result is that both halves of the
output waveform now swings from zero to twice the quiescent current thereby reducing
dissipation. This has the effect of almost doubling the efficiency of the amplifier to
around 70%.
Assuming that no input signal is present, then each transistor carries the normal
quiescent collector current, the value of which is determined by the base bias which is
at the cut-off point. If the transformer is accurately centre tapped, then the two
collector currents will flow in opposite directions (ideal condition) and there will be no
magnetization of the transformer core, thus minimizing the possibility of distortion. When
a signal is present across the secondary of the driver transformer T1, the transistor base
inputs are in "anti-phase" to each other as shown, thus if TR1 base goes positive driving
the transistor into heavy conduction, its collector current will increase but at the same
time the base current of TR2 will go negative further into cut-off and the collector
current of this transistor decreases by an equal amount and vice versa. Hence negative
halves are amplified by one transistor and positive halves by the other transistor giving

5. this push-pull effect. Unlike the DC condition, these AC currents areADDITIVE resulting in
the two output half-cycles being combined to reform the sine-wave in the output
transformers primary winding which then appears across the load.
Class B Amplifier operation has zero DC bias as the transistors are biased at the cut-off,
so each transistor only conducts when the input signal is greater than the base-
emitter voltage. Therefore, at zero input there is zero output and no power is being
consumed. This then means that the actual Q-point of a Class B amplifier is on
the Vce part of the load line as shown below.
Class B Output Characteristics Curves
The Class B Amplifier has the big advantage over their Class A amplifier cousins in that
no current flows through the transistors when they are in their quiescent state (ie, with no
input signal), therefore no power is dissipated in the output transistors or transformer
when there is no signal present unlike Class A amplifier stages that require significant
base bias thereby dissipating lots of heat - even with no input signal present. So the
overall conversion efficiency ( η ) of the amplifier is greater than that of the equivalent
Class A with efficiencies reaching as high as 70% possible resulting in nearly all modern
types of push-pull amplifiers operated in this Class B mode.

6. CLASS-AB
Class 'AB' amplifiers use two groups of transistors like class 'B' amplifiers. In most respects,
class 'AB' and class 'B' amplifiers are very similar. As we said earlier, a class 'A' amplifier is
very inefficient. This is not good for a car audio amplifier. Some people believe that
class 'B' amplifier can never produce clean audio because their output transistors aren't
biased 'on'. A class 'AB' amplifier is generally considered to be the best compromise. A
class 'AB' amplifier is a class 'B' amplifier which has a small amount of 'bias' current
flowing through the output transistors at all times. This eliminates virtually all of the
crossover distortion that's possible with class 'B' amplifiers. The bias current is flowing
because the output transistors are always conducting current (even without an audio
signal). This differs from a pure class 'A' amplifier in the amount of current flow. A pure
class 'A' amplifier typically has an enormous amount of current flowing through its
output transistors with NO audio signal. A pure class 'B' amplifier has NO current flowing
through its outputs with no audio signal. A class 'AB' amplifier is much more efficient
than the class 'A' but without the possible distortion of the class 'B'. MANY of the car
audio amplifiers which claim to be a class 'A' amplifier are just a high bias class 'AB'
design. These amplifiers are only class 'A' at very low power output levels. At higher
power levels, one of the output transistors will switch off while the other output transistor
is conducting. I don't want you to think that I am telling you that there are no class 'A'
amplifiers. There are a few high quality mobile amplifiers which are a true class 'A'
design.
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. An input signal waveform will cause the
transistors to operate as normal in their active region thereby eliminating any crossover
distortion present in pure Class B amplifier designs. 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
180 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.

7. Push-pull amplifiers
One use of phase splitters is to provide input signals to a single-stage amplifier that uses
two transistors. These transistors are configured in such a way that the two outputs, 180º
out of phase witheach other, combine. This allows more gain than one transistor could
supply by itself. This "push-pull"amplifier is used where high power output and good
fidelity are needed: receiver output stages, public caddress amplifiers, and AM
modulators, for example.
Transformerless Class B Push-Pull Amplifier