Electronic Devices and Circuits

(EL-324)
LABORATORY MANUAL
FALL 2016

(LAB# 09)
Designing a Common Emitter Amplifier
Engr. Muhammad Sajjad

Student Name: ___________________________

Roll No: _____________ Section: ___________

Date performed: _____________________, 2016

Manual Submission Date: ______________, 2016

_______________________________
LAB ENGINEER SIGNATURE & DATE

MARKS AWARDED: /10

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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COMPUTER AND EMERGING SCIENCES, ISLAMABAD

Prepared by: Engr. Naveed Iqbal Version: 2.0

Last Edited by: Engr. Muhammad Sajjad Updated: FALL 2016
Verified by: Dr. Durdana Habib
Electronic Devices National University Roll No: __________

Lab #
& Circuits
(EL-324)
of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Islamabad FALL 2016
09
_________________________________________________________________________________

LAB: 09 Designing a Common Emitter Ampilifer

Objectives of the Exercise:
 Introduction to Common – Emitter BJT Amplifier configuration.
 Introduction to different design parameters which contribute towards the design characteristics.
 Analysis of Amplifier circuit with the help of these parameters.

Equipment Required:
 BJT (2N2222)
 Capacitors
 Resistors
 Signal Generator
 Multimeter
 CRO
 Probes
 Jumper Wires
 Wire Stripper

Theory:
Amplifiers:
Transducers provide signals that are said to be “weak,” that is, in the microvolt (μV) or millivolt (mV)
range and possessing little energy. Such signals are too small for reliable processing, and processing is
much easier if the signal magnitude is made larger. The functional block that accomplishes this task is
the signal amplifier.
Care must be exercised in the amplification of a signal, so that the information contained in the signal
is not changed and no new information is introduced. Thus when we feed the signal to an amplifier,
we want the output signal of the amplifier to be an exact replica of that at the input, except of course
for having larger magnitude. Any change in waveform is considered to be distortion and is obviously
undesirable.

Amplifier Gain:
An amplifier that preserves the details of the signal waveform is characterized by the relationship:
Vo(t) = Av X Vi(t)
Where Vi and Vo are the input and output signals, respectively, and A is a constant representing the
magnitude of amplification, known as amplifier gain.

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Islamabad FALL 2016
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BJT Characteristic Curve and Regions of Operation:

Modes Of Operation:
The operational mode of the BJT depends on how the junctions between the regions are biased. Since
there are two junctions, the emitter-base junction (EBJ) and the collector-base junction (CBJ), and
each of these junctions may be either forward- or reverse-biased, there are four possible modes of
operation.
Application:
The preamplifier in the home stereo system is an example of a voltage amplifier. The power
amplifier may provide only a modest amount of voltage gain but substantial current gain. Thus while
absorbing little power from the input signal source to which it is connected, often a preamplifier, it
delivers large amounts of power to its load. An example is found in the power amplifier of the home
stereo system, whose purpose is to provide sufficient power to drive the loudspeaker, which is the
amplifier load.

Common Emitter Amplifier:

The diagram below shows the basic Common-Emitter amplifier configuration.

Fig 10.1: Common Emitter Amplifier

DC Analysis:
To analyze the the amplifier in the above figure, first of all the bias values must be determined. To do
this a DC equivalent circuit must be developed. This could be easily achieved by replacing the

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coupling and bypass capacitors by open circuit. The resultant circuit is shown below.

Fig 10.2: DC Analysis of Common Emitter Amplifier

The dc input resistance at the base of a transistor is given by the formula

RIN(base) = VIN/IIN = βDC*IB*RE / IB
RIN(base) = βDC*RE
In DC analsys, we calculate all DC voltages and currents.

AC Analysis:
To construct an AC equivalent circuit, following points are to be kept in mind.
 The capacitors in the circuit are replaced by effective shorts. This is because their values are
selected so that XC = 0ohms.
 AC Ground: The dc source in the circuit is replaced by ground. We assume that the source has an
internal resistance of approximately 0 Ohms so that no AC voltage is developed across the source
terminals.

Fig 10.3: AC Analysis of Common Emitter Amplifier

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Conditions for stabilized voltage source biasing:

 Emitter resistance, Re, is needed.
 Base voltage source will have finite resistance, RB.
 (1+β)Rₑ needs to be much larger than RB.
 Small Rb - relative to Rs - will attenuate input signal.
 Larger Re permits larger Rb, but results in lower gain.
 Gain = -RC/Rₑ for Rₑ >> rₑ.
 Split Re with bypassing increases gain.
 Requires large bypass capacitor.
 Limiting case - entire RE bypassed: Gain = - gmRC

Conflicting Bias and Gain Issues:

Biasing
 If RB is small relative to (1+β)Rₑ, VB and Rₑ determine Iₑ and, approximately, IC. Stable bias
=> Rₑ large and high gain => Rₑ small.

Gain
 We want gain magnitude RC/Rₑ to be “large.” This implies a ”small” Rₑ.

Gain-bias interaction
 We want Rb to be large relative to RS, while still small relative to (i.e. choose RB ≥ 10RS and
(1+β)Rₑ ≥ 10 RB)
 We want Vc = Vcc – IcRc to be roughly at mid-point between the VCC and the emitter bias voltage,
or “1/3, 1/3, 1/3” rule.
 ReC determines bias and gain.
Design Steps:

Design Step 1 (Choose Rb and Re)

 Choose an Rb >> 10RS
 (1+β)Rₑ must be ≥ 10RB
 In this case, consider Rs = 50 Ω

Design Step 2 (Set Rc)

 For a gain of about -10, calculate Rc from formula of gain.
Av = V (in) / V (out)
Formula for gain of common emitter amplifier in teRMS of Rc and Re is
Av = V (in) / V (out) = -Rc / Re

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Islamabad FALL 2016
09
_________________________________________________________________________________

Design Step 3 (Set bias point neglecting Ib)

 For Vsig-max = 0.1 V pk, we have plenty of room choose the collector drop conservatively to
allow for bias point changes with temperature so use
V(Rc) ≈ Vcc / 3
 Calculate Ic from following equation
Ic = V(Rc) / Rc
 By ignoring Ib, calculate Vb from following equation
Vb=IcRe + 0.7

Design Step 4 (Set R 1 and R2)

 As

Rb = R1 // R2 = ( R1XR2 ) / (R1 + R2) (Eq : A)

As Rb is already known, so by using voltage division rule we have
Vb = ( R1 X Vcc ) / ( R1 + R2)
Vb / Vcc = R1 / ( R1 + R2) (Eq : B)

By comparing Eq A and B evaluate R1 and R2

Design Step 5 (set Cb )

 Calculate the value of Cb using following formula
Cb ≥ 10 / ( 2 X Π X fmin X RB )

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Electronic Devices National University Roll No: __________

Lab #
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(EL-324)
of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Islamabad FALL 2016
09
_________________________________________________________________________________

LAB TASKS
Task 1:

 Design common emitter amplifier using the design procedure discussed above. The amplifier
should be able to provide the gain of -10.
 For verification, apply 0.1 Vpeak sinusoidal signal.
 In the space provided, show the DC and AC analysis of your circuit along with the equivalent
circuits.
DC Analysis

AC Analysis

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Lab #
& Circuits
(EL-324)
of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Islamabad FALL 2016
09
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Task 2:

Calculate
1) Input resistance

2) Output resistance

3) Voltage gain

4) Current Gain

5) Power gain

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Electronic Devices National University Roll No: __________

Lab #
& Circuits
(EL-324)
of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Islamabad FALL 2016
09
_________________________________________________________________________________

Task 3:
Sketch the observed input and output waveform.

Task 4:
By carefully reading the manual, deduce any other way to enhance the gain.

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Electronic Devices National University Roll No: __________

Lab #
& Circuits
(EL-324)
of Computer and Emerging Sciences
Islamabad FALL 2016
09
_________________________________________________________________________________

Student's feedback: Purpose of feedback is to know the strengths and weaknesses of the
system for future improvements. This feedback is for the 'current lab session'. Circle your
choice:

[-3 = Extremely Poor, -2 = Very Poor, -1 = Poor, 0 = Average, 1 = Good, 2 = Very Good, 3 =
Excellent]:
The following table should describe your experience with:
S# Field Rating Describe your experience in words
1 Overall Session -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
2 Lab Instructor -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
3 Lab Staff -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
4 Equipment -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
5 Atmosphere -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

Any other valuable feedback:

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Student's Signature: _________________________________

AWARDED

Correctness

Conclusion
Originality
of results

Initiative
Neatness
MARKS

Attitude

TOTAL

TOTAL 10 10 10 20 20 30 100

EARNED

Lab Instructor's
Comments:_________________________________________________________________
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Lab Instructor's Signature: ________________________

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