Dept.

of Electrical Engineering Electrical Engineering Program

Faculty of Engineering Course: Electronics Circuits 1
Communications and Electronics Section 3rd Year Second semester
Assiut University

Driving 8-Ω Audio Specker Using

Class A Power Amplifier

Name: Mohamed Ahmed Soliman

Introduction
• A power amplifier is simply an amplifier with a high-power output stage.
• The most challenging requirement in the design of an output stage is for it to deliver the
required amount of power to the load in an efficient manner. This implies that the power
dissipated in the output-stage transistors must be as low as possible

Class A Power Amplifier

• To achieve high linearity and gain, the output stage of a class A amplifier is biased “ON”
(conducting) all the time. Then for an amplifier to be classified as “Class A” the zero-
signal idle current in the output stage must be equal to or greater than the maximum load
current (usually a loudspeaker) required to produce the largest output signal.
• As a class A amplifier operates in the linear portion of its characteristic curves, the single
output device conducts through a full 360 degrees of the output waveform. Then the class
A amplifier is equivalent to a current source.

• Since a class A amplifier operates in the linear region, the transistors base (or gate) DC
biasing voltage should by chosen properly to ensure correct operation and low distortion.
However, as the output device is “ON” at all times, it is constantly carrying current,
which represents a continuous loss of power in the amplifier.
 • Due to this continuous loss of power class A amplifiers create tremendous amounts of
heat adding to their very low efficiency at around 30%, making them impractical for
high-power amplifications. Also due to the high idling current of the amplifier, the power
supply must be sized accordingly and be well filtered to avoid any amplifier hum and
noise.

Advantages of Class A Amplifier

• It has high fidelity because of the output exact replica of an input signal.
• It has improved high-frequency response because the active device is ON full time, i.e.
no time is required to turn on the device.
• There is no crossover distortion because the active device conducts for the entire cycle of
the input signal.
• The single ended configuration can be easily & practically realized in class A amp.

Disadvantages of Class A Amplifier

• Due to the large power supply and heat sink, class A amplifier is costly and bulky.
• It has Poor Efficiency.
• Due to the transformer coupling frequency response is not as good.

Applications of Class A Amplifier

• The Class A Amplifier more suitable for outdoor musical systems since the
transistor reproduces the entire audio waveform without ever cutting off. As a
result, the sound is very clear and more linear, that is, it contains much lower levels
of distortion.
• They are usually very large, heavy and they produce nearly 4-5 watts of heat
energy per a watt of output. Therefore, they run very hot and need lots of
ventilation. So, they are not at all ideal for a car and rarely acceptable in a home.
Load Electrical Specifications
• Impedance: 8Ω
• Input power: 0.5W
 Circuit diagram by modeling speaker by 8-ohm load.
Note: Due to the difference between the diode model and the transistor model in the spice
simulator, so I used diode-connected transistor(Q3) with the same model of Q1 and Q2, so the
current is mirrored appropriately.

Hand Analysis
• By modeling speaker with 8-Ohm load, from the previous specs, we can conclude
the maximum input peak voltage, such that: Pw = (VA)2 /(2*RL) = 0.5W, since RL
= 8Ω, so VA ≈ 2.82V.
• Input DC = VBE1 which will be extracted from simulator when applying 0.6A
current therefor the output DC level = 0V and could apply ±𝑉𝑐𝑐 = ±3.3𝑉 , So,
output swing is a bit less than supply range to guarantee proper operation and also
maximize efficiency as much as possible.
• To achieve the output largest signal swing, current should be calculated from this
formula,
𝑉𝐴
𝐼=
𝑅𝐿
• VA = 2.82, so, I = 0.3525A.
𝑉𝑐𝑐−𝑉𝐷
• To achieve this, R should be equal to , and for VD = 0.8V approximately,
𝐼
So, R = 7.09Ω.
 • Supply power PS = 2*VCC*I = 2.3265W. Load Power PL = 0.497W
• Efficiency 𝜂 = 21.36%

Simulation Results

• Using LTSpice as a simulator, performing transient analysis for 2ms and sinusoidal
input of 2.82V amplitude and 1kHz.
• We varied the resistor R2 value to guarantee that 352.5mA is delivered, since
voltage drop on diode VD when we ran simulation wasn’t 0.8V as calculated in
hand analysis, so the new resistor value that I used in simulation is 6.67Ω.

Vin (green curve) and Vout (blue curve) vs time.

• We notice that we have maximum output swing since maximum allowable swing
determined from that
|Vmin| = Vmax = VCC - VCEsat ≈ 3.1V. So, allowable swing = 6.2V.
and Vout DC component is 0V.
• VBE1 = 0.925V, which will be the DC offset of the input to guarantee that
Vout DC = 0V.
 Emitter current of Q2 and Q3 which are equal.

• We note that the current is mirrored correctly since IE2 = IE3 = 352.5mA.
• Note that I draw -IE (not IE) because LTSpice draw the current entering the node by
default, and we need to measure current leaving the emitter, not entering it.

Emitter current of Q1.

• PS = 2.3264W PL = 0.49W
• Efficiency 𝜂 = 21.06%.
Comparison between hand analysis and simulation results

Parameters Analytical Results Simulation Results Error%

VA 2.82V 2.8V 0.7%
I 352.5mA 352.48mA 0.0056%
η 21.36% 21.06% 1.4%