NAME: Oluwatimilehin Lokulo-Sodipe

MATRIC NO: 20120812614

DATE: 30/11/2022
 THE DARLINGTON PAIR CIRCUIT
A Darlington Transistor configuration, also known as a “Darlington pair” or “super-alpha

circuit” is a high-power semiconductor device with individual current and voltage ratings

many times higher than a conventional small signal junction transistor. It consists of two

NPN or PNP transistors connected together so that the emitter current of the first transistor

Q1 becomes the base current of the second transistor Q2. Then transistor Q1 is connected as

an emitter follower and Q2 as a common emitter amplifier as shown below. The Darlington

pair exhibits a higher voltage between the input base and the output emitter than a single

transistor[1]. As there are two base-emitter junctions the turn-on voltage for the overall

Darlington Pair is twice that of a single transistor. For silicon transistors, this means that for

current to flow in the output of the collector-emitter circuit, the input base must be about 1.2

to 1.4 volts above the output emitter. For a germanium Darlington pair, the voltage would be

about 0.5 volts. The experiment’s purpose is to demonstrate the characteristics and measure

the current gain of the Darlington pair.

Figure 1
APPARATUS

· DC power supply - (0 to 10V)

· Multi-meter
· Sinusoidal Signal generator

· Resistors – 100, 2.7K

· 15 V capacitors— 0.1 μ F ,

· Transistors— NPN- BC546 or BC547

· Jumper wires

· Bread Board.

METHOD:
1.1. The circuit in the figure above was constructed, leaving the oscilloscope
unconnected.

1.2. The power supply was switched on and VCC was adjusted to 12 V.

1.3. The signal generator was connected and the frequency was set to 1 kHz, and the
signal amplitude to the minimum set point.

1.4. The base current, Q1 was measured and recorded as I B1 in the laboratory record
sheet by breaking the circuit at point ‘c’.

1.5. Q2 was removed and points ‘a’ and ‘b’ were connected. I E1/IEQ1 was measured
and recorded and the current gain for Q1 was established.

1.6. Q2 was reconnected, and Q1 was removed. I EQ2 was measured by connecting
point b to c and calculating the current gain for Q2 (recall that I E1 = IB2 for the
Darlington pair) Q1 was replaced as in the figure above and the Darlington
emitter current was measured and recorded as IE2/IED.

1.7. Channel 1 of the oscilloscope was connected to point ‘d’ and channel 2 to
point ‘b’ and the signal amplitude was adjusted to 0.5V
 1.8. The input and output waveforms were observed, and record the peak input and
output voltage levels were recorded. Channel 2 was moved to point ‘a’ and the
input and output waveforms were also observed.

RESULTS:
Transistor IB IE β Ai
Q1 7μ A 60mA 8571 11,429
Q2 60mA 80mA 1.33

Transistor Vi Vo Av
Q1 499mV 475mV 0.95
Q2 519mV 565mV 1.089
Figure 1-Waveforms for transistor 1.
Figure 2-Input Values for Transistor Q1
Figure2-Output values for Transistor Q1
Figure 3-Waveform for Transistor Q2
Figure 5-Input Values for transistor Q2
 Figure 6-Output Values for transistor Q2

DISCUSSION:

For part one of the lab experiment, the different points in the circuit of the Darlington pair

were measured and analysed, and some of the values such as the beta current gain values

were found using the corresponding formulas. The input and output voltages were quite close

and the phase inversion of the Darlington circuit was approximately 0 degrees. The output in

this case was found to be slightly de-amplified for the first transistor. The second transistor

had slight amplification, regardless both are approximately 1[2]. This tallies with emitter
follower circuits. The current gain of Darlington pair amplifiers tends to be high; this is

because the current gain is the product of the two transistors’ beta values[3, p. 305,308]. The

circuits overall current gain is the emitter current of Q2 divided by the input current of input

current of Q1. This would give a current gain of 11,428. This value is very similar to the

calculated value. The error percentage was 0.26%, validifying the current gain formula.

The Darlington pair usually has one of the transistors acting as a slave to the other

(the master). The slave transistor or triggering transistor emitter is connected to the base of

the master transistor. The slave transistor output emitter current is used for deriving high at

the base of the master transistor[4].

The gain for transistor Q2 is uncharacteristically low. The value correlates more with a

transistor that is inverted (the collector is acting as the emitter) in comparison with a

transistor in the active region. The transistor was double-checked to make sure it was aligned

correctly. Further research was conducted, and this behaviour could not be explained either

by the nature of the circuit or the nature of the transistor used. This led to the conclusion that

the transistor had broken down and was no longer functioning properly. No other transistors

were available to test this hypothesis.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, a Darlington transistor configuration, also known as a "Darlington pair" or

"super-alpha circuit," is made up of two interconnected NPN or PNP transistors in such a way

that the emitter current of the first transistor becomes the base current of the second

transistor. These two transistors are each entitled to their own gain, which is frequently

temperature dependent. This means that as the gains of the two transistors increase, the

current overall gain is given by the gain of the first transistor multiplied by the gain of the
second transistor. In other words, a pair of bipolar transistors combined to form a single

Darlington transistor pair can be a single transistor with a very high value and, as a result, a

high input resistance. Darlington pairs are often known for having very high input impedance

and low output impedance which is caused by the high value for gain β being the product of

the two transistors.

REFERENCES:

[1] J. Bandele, ‘Two-Port Systems, Cascaded Systems and Darlington Pair.’ 2022.

[2] J. Bandale, ‘3b - Small Signal Analysis of BJTs’, 2022.

[3] R. Boylestad and L. Nashelsky, ‘Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory’, 2006.

[4] A. Bhatt, ‘Darlington Pair’, Engineers Garage.

https://www.engineersgarage.com/darlington-pair/ (accessed Dec. 05, 2022).

APPENDIX:

Appx 1.0: DATASHEET FOR TRANSISTOR USED.

Appx 2.0: Beta theoretical calculation

IE 60 mA
β1=
1
= =8,571
IB 1
7 μA

IE 80 mA
β2=
2
= =1⋅33
IE 1
60 mA

Appx 2.1: Experimental Beta calculation

I ED 80 mA
Ai = = =1142 9
I B 1 7 μA

Appx 3.0 Current gain calculations

Ai=β1β2= 8,571X1.33=11,399
Appx 4.0- IEQ value

IEQ2=0.542mA.