PP Fixed Bias circuit design and calculator | atrad-audio.co.nz https://atrad-audio.co.nz/index.php/2018/12/17/pp-fixed-bias-circuit-design-and...

December 17, 2018 Tech

The push-pull design for output stages has persisted since times of antiquity. It was one of the very ear-
liest circuit designs, and has persisted until the present day, with modern solid-state linear amplifiers
still overwhelmingly using it.

With tubes, a typical topology is given by the circuit below. (Click to magnify). The anode (plate) volt-
age on either side comes through the primary of the output transformer.
This design uses a pentode tube, which has a screen grid. This is attached to taps on the output trans-
former to run in Ultra-Linear mode, increasing e�iciency and reducing distortion.

In this design, the cathodes are tied to ground through a very low value shunt resistor. The resistor is
simply there to provide a small voltage drop from which the current through the tube can be mea-
sured. It plays no other role in the circuit, other than being a fuse if the tube red-plates.

Values of one ohm or ten ohms are typical of this arrangement.

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Typical implementation of a Fixed-bias, ultralinear Push-Pull output stage with a

pair of pentode tubes (EL84 / 6BQ5)

Because the cathode is at (or very close to) ground potential, this requires the control grid to have a
negative DC bias voltage applied to it, to regulate the flow of current through the tube.

If there was no negative bias applied to the tube, it would go into full conduction, the plate would glow
red hot, fireworks will happen and that would be Bad, mmkay?
So we need to contrive to feed a constant negative voltage into the grid, along with the signal, to
achieve the desired regulation.

The voltage required depends on several factors… as a very rough rule-of-thumb, take the screen
voltage and divide it by the tubeʼs mu (gain) to get the maximum negative bias voltage likely to
be needed

Looking at the circuit above… An EL84 has a mu of 20 and in this implementation the screen voltage is

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350 (in Ultra linear we take the screen voltage as the same as the anode/plate voltage), which gives us
17.5 volts. Multiply by -1 since weʼre dealing with negative volts. So weʼre likely to need around -17.5
volts.In this case, our adjustment range is from -12.5 to -21.5 volts.

How to set up the bias adjustment resistor values

The bias voltage needs to be adjustable. Both tubes need to be drawing the same current, otherwise
the net current through the transformer will not be zero, which will lead to magnetisation of the trans-
former core. This is a most undesirable situation and le� unchecked, it will cause quantum fluctuations
in the space-time continuum. Well ok maybe not that bad, but the transformer will saturate unevenly
and distort the sound.

The usual approach is to use a voltage divider network with a potentiometer, as above.
Couple of points about this design.

1. The more negative the voltage goes, the lower the current through the tube
2. In this implementation, if the potentiometer fails, it will fail safe. The most common mode of
failure with potentiometers is the wiper li�ing o� the track. If this happens, e�ectively the volt-
age at the grid of the tube will go full negative, reducing the current through the tube to (al-
most) zero. This is far more desirable than the voltage reaching zero and the tube immediately
red-plating.
3. Expanding on (2) – please donʼt ever build this circuit with just the pot wiper connected to the
grid. When the pot fails (and it will, eventually) itʼll likely take the tube with it.
4. If youʼre going to build this circuit, itʼs intuitive to set it up so that clockwise rotation of the
pot increases the current through the tube (ie brings the biasing voltage closer to zero)

The next question is – what value resistors will be needed? This is where some trial and error in the cal-
culations is needed. Using Ohmsʼ law, these are the variables:

▪ The desired bias voltage adjustment range

▪ The input negative voltage from the power supply

From there, you can calculate the values for the resistors and potentiometer to give you the range you
need.

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This is where a spreadsheet can be mighty useful.

This is a screenshot from a spreadsheet I made that can help with this calculation. You can download
this Excel worksheet here.

Put in the numbers in the red. Experiment with the values for R1 and R3 and the potentiometer, until
you get the desired voltage range in the “Output V” column.

The “Build-Out R” represents the load seen by the preceding driver or phase-splitter stage, so watch
the maximum “Rg-k” from the tubeʼs datasheet isnʼt exceeded. In the case of an EL84, that value is
300K. (In the datasheet there will be a specification for this, and itʼs di�rent depending on the mode of
use of the tube. So look for the “two tubes, class AB” which is in most pentode/tetrode datasheets)

The columns of this spreadsheet:

▪ Step – the setting on the potentiometer

▪ Total R – the total resistance from the bias voltage to ground
▪ Output V – the negative voltage as fed to the control grid
▪ P(R1) – the amount of power dissipated by R1
▪ P(R3) – power dissipated by R3
▪ P(Pot) – the power dissipated by the potentiometer
▪ Pot pwr % – the power dissipated by the pot expressed as a percentage of the potʼs total power
rating AND the amount of track being used to conduct.

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About Pot pwr %

In the specifications for the potentiometer, there will be a power rating. However that power rating is
across the entire length of the track. If the pot is set to half-position (assuming itʼs a linear taper which
in this design it is) then the power handling drops to half. So, this Pot pwr % column shows how much
power the pot is dissipating as a percentage of its maximum taking the wiper position into consider-
ation.

Using the circuit

Putting all this together, itʼs easy to see how it works. Adjust the potentiometer for maximum negative
voltage (wiper closest to the le�, in this schematic). Power on the circuit and let it stabilize. Measure
the voltage across the cathode resistor. Then adjust the potentiometer until the desired current is flow-
ing through the tube.

What is the desired current through the tube?

Glad you asked. This depends on the tube itself, and the B+ voltage, and your preference regarding
bias.

As a rule of thumb, biasing at around 70% of maximum is the sweet spot with most types when using
this conifguration. If you bias low, thatʼs called “cold” biasing. It means the current through the tube
will be low, and the sound may take on a thin, glassy, brittle aesthetic, and the distortion will increase.
Bias too hot and youʼll shorten the life of the tubes for no real benefit. 70% is the goldilocks zone.
So. Look at the tubeʼs datasheet. For an EL84 we see the maximum plate dissipation is 12 watts.

▪ 70% of 12 watts is 8.4 watts

▪ B+ is 350 Volts
▪ So, using Ohms Law:

we solve for I at 24mA

Across 10 ohms (cathode resistor) our 24mA will give 0.24V

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So we want to see 0.24V across the cathode resistor. Adjust the potentiometer until thatʼs the value
shown. Then repeat for the other tube in the circuit, then do a final check that theyʼre both the same
(or as close as you can get)

Please feel free to use my spreadsheet – I developed it to assist in choosing the resistor network values,
and also to ensure the power rating of the potentiometer wasnʼt being inadvertently exceeded at any
setting.

6 thoughts on “PP Fixed Bias circuit design and

calculator”

April 6, 2020 at 06:51

Very halpfull, thanks for your job.

But why 10 Ohm resistor on 0,24V is as big as 1W power?
Mark

April 6, 2020 at 13:17

1W is not strictly necessary; 0.25W could be used. The resistor plays an

important role as a fuse in the event of a bias failure. In that case, the tube
would conduct as much power as the PSU could throw at it, red-plating in
ATRAD
Audio the process. In this case the 10R resistor could be expected to overheat and
eventually fail.

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September 7, 2022 at 17:32

Thank you so much for this…..exactly what I was looking for !

steve

September 8, 2022 at 00:05

Cool – glad it helped you. A�er having built EL84 amps using both Fixed and
Cathode bias, Iʼm convinced that fixed bias is the way to get the absolute
maximum performance out of them. So long as you donʼt mind the extra
ATRAD
Audio components needed.

November 8, 2022 at 10:05

I have an old 1973 Traynor combo guitar amp that is using 410V for the 2x
EL84 B+. This is a design mistake I know but it would be nice if your Excel
JA sheet allowed di�erent B+ supplies even if bogus b/c abuse of the EL84
was somewhat common early on. .?

November 8, 2022 at 11:19

Hi – if you look at the section on the page “What is the desired current
through the tube?” then you can put di�erent values in as required.
for 410 volts, assuming you are aiming for a plate dissipation of
ATRAD
Audio around 9W, then I = P/V so I = 9/410 or in other words around 22mA.

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As a rough rule-of-thumb, take the screen voltage and divide it by the

tubeʼs mu to get the approximate neg voltage needed. You havenʼt
said whether your amp is ultralinear (unlikely) or pentode (likely) and
I donʼt have a schematic for that amp, so youʼd need to work out what
your screen voltage might be. But, assuming itʼs also 410 volts, the u
for an EL84 is 19 according to the datasheet, so youʼre likely to want
about -22 volts on the control grid. So set your desired voltage range
on the spreadsheet from -25 to -15 and that should get you into the
approximate range you need.
Good luck!

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