ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT DESIGN-II LAB

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier

Name of Student: ……………………………………

Registration No.: ……………………………………..

Date of Experiment: …………………………………

Submitted To: ………………………………………...

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier Page 1

Objectives:
 To measure DC and AC voltages in Darlington amplifier.
 To obtain the measured and calculated values of voltage gain (Av), Input impedance (Zi),
Output impedance (Zo) of Darlington amplifier.
Equipment Required:
 DMM
 Oscilloscope
 Function Generator
 DC Power Supply: +12V (fixed);
 Resistors: 18-Ω [Qty = 1]; 15-kΩ [Qty = 1]; 56-kΩ [Qty = 1];
 Power Resistor: 22-Ω /5W [Qty =1];
 Capacitors: 10-uF [Qty = 2];
 Transistor: TIP122 (NPN-Darlington) [Qty = 1];
 Connecting wires

Theory:
A Darlington connection is a pair of BJT transistors in a single IC Package (Q D) with

effective beta βD equal to the product of two individual transistor betas (βD = β1 * β2).
Darlington transistor has very large current gain. In Emitter-follower configuration, it
provides voltage gain nearly equal to 1. The emitter-follower is often used as an interface
between a circuit with a high output resistance and a low-resistance load. In such an
application, the emitter-follower is called a buffer. An emitter-follower constructed with
Darlington pair can be used as an interface between an amplifier (like common-emitter) and
the speaker. The circuit diagram of the Darlington emitter-follower configuration is given in
Figure 4.1.
 The input impedance of Darlington Emitter follower is calculated as:

Zi = RB || βDRE …………… (4.1)

 The output impedance of Darlington Emitter follower can be calculated as:

Zo = re …..….…… (4.2)

 The voltage gain of a Darlington Emitter follower is nearly equal to 1.

RE
AV ¿ ≅1 ……...…… (4.3)
R E+ re

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier Page 2

Procedure:
Darlington Emitter-follower DC bias:

Figure 4.1: Darlington Emitter-follower Configuration

a. Record the theoretical value of βD from the datasheet of TIP-122.

βD (calculated) = _________

b. For the circuit of Figure 4.1, find out the following parameters using DC analysis.
IB (calculated) =__________

IC (calculated) = βD * IB =__________

IE (calculated) ≅ IC (calculated) =__________

26 mV
re (calculated)¿ I ( mA ) =_________
E
c. Measure the values of resistors using DMM.
RB (measured) =___________

RE (measured) =___________

d. Construct the circuit of Figure 4.1 on the breadboard and record the following
measurements.

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier Page 3

 VRB (measured) =___________

VRE (measured) =___________

V RB ( measured)
IB (measured) = = ___________
R B (measured )

V ℜ (measured )
IE (measured) = = ___________
RE (measured)

26 mV
re (measured)¿ I ( mA ) =__________
E

IC (measured) ≅ IE (measured) =__________

Measurements of βD and AV:

a. Find out measured value of transistor’s beta (βD) at this Q-point using measured value of
currents.

I c (measured )
βD (measured) = =___________
I B (measured )

b. Calculate the theoretical value of voltage gain (AV) using equation 4.3.

Av (calculated) =___________

c. Apply an input signal Vsig = 20mV(p-p) at f =1-kHz. Measure the resulting AC output
voltage Vo (p-p) using output channel 2 of the oscilloscope. At the same time, measure the

input signal Vsig using output channel 1 of the oscilloscope.

Vo (p-p) =__________
Vsig (p-p) =__________
d. Record the calculated value of AC voltage gain.
Vo
Av =
V sig

Av (measured) =__________

Waveforms Sketching:
 Sketch the waveforms of Vsig and Vo on the graph paper given in Figure 4.2.

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier Page 4

 Figure 4.2
Input and Output Impedance:
a. Calculate the theoretical values of input and output impedance (Zi and Zo) using equation
4.1 and 4.2.
Zi (calculated) = _________
Zo (calculated) = _________
b. To measure Zi , insert an input measurement resistor Rx = 15-kΩ as shown in Figure 4.3.
Before inserting an input measurement resistor Rx, measure its resistance using DMM.
Rx (measured) =_________
c. Apply input signal Vsig = 20mV(p-p) with f = 1-kHz. Observe the output waveform on the
oscilloscope and ensure that no distortion is there in the output signal (adjust input
amplitude if necessary). Record the measured value of Vi.

Figure 4.3
Vi (p-p) (measured) =__________
d. Measure and record the value of V sig using oscilloscope under these conditions.
Vsig (p-p) (measured) =__________

Experiment No. 4: Darlington Amplifier Page 5

 Since,
Zi
V i= ¿V
( Z i + R x ) sig

Vi
Zi = ¿R
(V sig −V i ) X

Zi (measured) =__________
e. Compare the calculated and measured values of Zi and comment.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
f. Now disconnect the input measurement resistor Rx form the input side. Apply input signal
Vsig = 20mV(p-p) and measure no-load output voltage Vo.
Vo (p-p) (unloaded) [measured] =__________
g. Now connect the load resistor RL = 18-Ω as shown in Figure 4.4. Before connecting the
load resistor, measure its resistance using DMM.
RL (measured) =__________
h. Measure V L(p− p )(loaded).

Figure 4.4
VL (p-p) (loaded) [measured] =__________
i. The output impedance can be obtained from:
RL
V L=
( Z ¿ ¿ o+ R L ) V o ¿
This can be written as:
V o−V L
Z o= ¿ RL
VL
Z o(measured) =_________
j. Compare the calculated and measured values of Z oand comment.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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