AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL OF TRANSISTOR AMPLIIERS* t

- Woo F. Chow and Arthur P. Stern

General Electric Company
Syracuse, New York

SUMMARY
Due to the dependence of transistor small signal parameters on the
dc operating point, the gain of a transistor amplifier is function of the
emitter current Ie and of the collector voltage Vc. An analysis of the
variation of the series-parallel transistor parameters hij with the operat-
ing point shows that the gain decreases with decreasing Ie or decreasing
Vc in the region of small values of Ie and Vc. The appreciable control
power necessary to vary Ie or Vc (of possibly several amplifying stages)
can be obtained advantageously by operating the controlled stages as dc
amplifiers of the control signal and employing transistor detectors. Auto-
matic gain control systems applicable to linear amplifiers and converters
using Ie and Vc control have been developed, and their performance is de-
scribed in this paper. Some problems arising in-transistor AGC systems
are distortion, detuning and bandwidth variation.

INTRODUCTION
The possibility of controlling the gain of amplifiers is of consider-
able importance in marar electronic systems.. Methods of gain control in
vacuum tube amplifiers are well known to the reader. Individual automatic
gain control circuits using transistors have been described previously by
Blecher,1 Barton,2 Stern and Raper.3 Blecher discusses circuits using the
common base configuration, The other two papers describe broadcast re-
ceivers employing AGC.
The purpose of this paper is to review the fundamental principles of
transistor gain control in general, including novel considerations and
circuits. The investigations leading to this paper were mainly concerned
with the gain control of amplifiers designed to operate in the 100 kc to
2 mc frequency range, but it is believed that the conclusions can be gene-
ralized to include amplifiers designed for different frequencies.
TRANSISTOR BEHAVIOR AND THE-DC OPERATING POINT
The behavior of the transistor, considered as an active -inear ele-
menrt, can be represented by one of six sets of two linear equations or,
if preferred, by correspoKing equivalent circuits. Using the series-
parallel representation, one ean write:
e* h3l il + h12 e2 (1)
2 uh21 ith22 2
'Presented at the :E-RETMA. Radio Fall Meeting, October 18-20, 1954,
Syracuse, New York.
tartts of this paper will be incorporated in a thesis to be presented
to the Electrical Engineering Departnent of Syracuse University.

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 -2~~~~~~~~~'
f~~~~~~
e 4-l
2 L
leG eji TRANSISTORle
tSrL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fig. 1 ' Schematic representation of a transistor amplifier.

The
signal parameters hij var7 with frequency4 and are, of small
course, different transistor configurations. If the tran- different for
sistor (Fig. 1) is fed by a source having a source impedance ZG (ZG = rG
+ j zo) and feeds a load admnittance;yL (nL gL + J b1,), the power gain G
of the transistor can be expressed as:
Gm -4 rG gL 1h2l12 (2)

(h1 + zG)(h22 + YL) 1h2 h212

The gain G of Eq. (2) is defined as the ratio of the power delivered to
the load to the available power of the conected to the input ter- source

minals9 of the transistor.

Gain control of the transistor is possible due to the fact that the
parameters hij depend on the dc operating point, i.e., on dc emitter cur-
rent (Ie) and collector voltage (Vc). Because hij is frequency dependent
(R)
and complex (hij hIQ + j hj ) and the functions hji a F(Ie, Vc) are
rather involved, a general analytic treatment of the gain as function of
the dc operating point using Eq. (2) is hardly practical, especially at
higher frequencies. The dependence of G on Ie and Vc can, however, be de-
scribed qualitatively observing the experimental behavior of hj as
of Ie
Vc.
In the following discussion, hij ,b designates the h-parameters of the
cammon base transistor
eitter circuit.
configuration,*whereas hijE. refers to the common

Effect of the Euitter Current

In common base ,configuration. h2l,b w - a. In the range of small
values of the emitter current Ie (Ie'300 va), a decreases with decreas-
ing Ie5 (Fig. 2). At high frequencies, this decrease of a may be very
pronounced: a- decreases because the low frequency value of ca decreases
and also because the a-cutoff frequency decreases.

Ihll,b increases considerably with decreasing Ie (Fig. 3). The

change of"h22 bI is relatively snall (Fig. 4), although its conductive
component, g22 b, varies considerabl;y with Ie (Fig. 5). SimilarlyJ, the
change of h12 is not too strong and can be disregarded in the first
approximation. The net effect of a reduction of Ie is to decrease the

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 10

0 I0
.01 .03 .1 3 3

m
Emitter Current (ma)

Fig. 2 - jh2ij as function of the emitter current.

WC

.0

01 .03 .1 .3 3 lo

Emilter current (ma) and collector voltage (v)

Fig. 3 - hlL,bI as function of emitter current and
collector voltage.
I

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 E
6s
1*

Na
N

l0

Emitter current (ma) and collector voltage (v)

Fig. 4 - 1/h22 b| as function of emitter current
andcoilector voltage,
1000

v
E

.0

| <9
Cx

.03 .1 .3 I 3

Emitter current(ma)and collector voltage(v)

Fig. 5 g22 b as function of em.itter current and

col1lector voltage,
-j

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numerator and to increase the denominator of Eq. (2); as h2l decreases,
Ihlll increases and this is compensated only partially by the variatibns of
of 922 and h12. Consequently, the gain decreases if Ie is reduced.
It may be mentioned here that in absence of a control voltage (at very
small signal levels), tuned amplifiers will be operated frequentlyr in
"matched" condition. In this case, one can often state as a roagh roxi-
mation that h22 and YL are conjugate complex. The imaginary cmipone
of h22 does not vary as strongly with Ie as the real component g22. This
must be taken into consideration when evaluating the variation of G with Ie.
In common emitter configuration, hij ,e is approximately equal to
hij b
1 ..a (this is not true for h12,) and, therefore, the variation of the
h-I with Ie is qualitatively similar to that of+ the hij
-
,b In common
em3{ter configuration, h12 h21<(hll + ZG)(h22 YL) and the change in
h12 can be neglected. Cf course, h2l a is even more susceptible
to changes of Ie than h2l,b -cX(Fig. 2). Consequently, with the emitter
grounded, the gain decreases, if Ie is decreased.
Effect of the Collector Voltage
In common base configuration for very small values of the collector
voltage Vc (Vc < .2 v), h2l,b * -"cdecreases if Ve is decreased (Fig. 6).
jh22b and its conductive component 922_b increase with decreasing Vc
(Figs. z and 5). The 10 1.0
change of h1l,bf with NPN 87-14-13
changing Vc is negligi-
ble (Fig. 3). The net ___
result of the variation 8 .9 ______
OiL thIe hi~ withi Ve the
is
again to iecrease |t ll
numerator and to in- 6 K
crease the denominator
of (2) if Vc is de- 21,l
creased. ConsequentUly, 4 .7 /
the gain decreases with
decreasing collector f=Imc
voltage. The behavior Ie=1M0
of the gain is similar 2 .6 7_._.
in common emitter con-
figurati-on. Again,
hl £, is more suscep- o _
tibie to variations of .01 .03 .3 i
Vc th an Vchh21,b (Fig. 6).
thanlb (Fig. ) l_%1 __R
Collector voltage (v)
The above descrip- Fig. 6 - |h21| as function of the collector
tion of the effect of ash
the dc operating point voltage.
on the gain shows that two distinct and independent mechanisms are avail-
able for controlling the gain of transistor ampDlifiers: -1) Emitter Cur-
rent or Te - Control; 2) Collector Voltage or Ve - Control. The actual

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 dependence of the gain on the operating point is shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
The transistor used was a typical G-E experimental rate-grown n-p-n and
the measurements were made at 500 kc. The curves show that considerable
control action occurs in the range of very small values of Ie and Vc.
The decrease in gain with decreasing Ie or Vc is somewhat more pronounced
in common emitter than in common base configuration. A gain, reduction by
30 db can be easily achieved using either gain control method.
The gain does not vary appreciably at values of Ie exceeding 500 pa
and at values of Vc exceeding 1 v. This enables the design of amplifiers
with "delayed" AGC. By- selecting an appropriate "no signal" operating
point, any reasonable delay characteristic can be obtained using either
gain control principle.
METHODS OF GAIN CONTROL
The discussion of the previous chapter has established that by sub-
fitting Ie or Vc to considerable variation, the amplifier gain can assume
a large range of values. The practical problem remaining to be solved is:
methods must be found permitting the variation of Ie or Vc economically,
with a minimum expenditure of control power.
The following consideration illustrates the problem: Figs. 7 and 8
show that for adequate gain in the presence of small signals, 'e must be
of the order of 500 pa and Vc at least 1 v. Wth increasing signal level,
the gain must be reduced. In the case of Ie-control, Ie must be decreased
to 20 pa or less, whereas if Vc-control is used, Vc must be reduced to 30
mv or less. If Ie or Vc are controlled directly, the dc control power re-
qui.red to achieve this reduction of Ie or Vc is quite considerable.
The necessary dc control power is not always available from ordinary
detectors serving as sources of AGC power; consequently, in some cases'
(especially with a diode detector), if direct control Of Ie or Vc is de-
sired, an additional dc amplifier must be inserted in the feedback loop to
deliver this control power (Fig. 9) unless detection is performed at very
high level. Control power can, however, be saved and the control power re-
qu3irements on the detector (or any other control source) reduced by using
the controlled transistor amplifier simultaneously as a dc amplifier of the
control signal.
An example for the case of Ie-control is shown in Fig. lOA. Ie is
varied indirectly by applying an appropriate control potential to the base.
The transistor shown is n-p-n and, consequently, with increasing signal
level, a decreasing positive voltage is required as AGC source. This will
result in a decrease of Ie. (For a p-n-p transistor, a decreasing negative
voltage is needed.) The transistor -amplifies the dc control signal and
moderate variations of the base current will result in appreciable varia-
tions of I'e
A similar procedure can be applied in case of Vc-control (Fig. lOB).
The AGC voltage is applied to the base. With increasing signal level, the
AGC voltage acts to increase the emitter current Ie and the collector cur-
rent Ic of the controlled stage. Due to the increased voltage drop de-
veloped by Ie across the resistor R inserted in the collector lead, Vc

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 .0
(D

l0
Emitter current (ma)
Fig. 7 - Transistor gain as function of the emitter current.

c
.0
0

.01 03 .1 .3 I 3 10
Collector voltage(v)
Fig. 8 - Transistor gain as function of the collector voltage.

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 RF Input
RF~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audio

AGC SIGNAL

Fig. 9 - AGC system with additional amplifier in feedback loop.

NPN

SIGNAL SIGNAL
INPUT
VAGC

FifFg. lOA -
l-control of tuned amplifier with AGC voltage
applied to base.

SIGNAL (
INPUT

VAGC c

Fig. lOB - Indirect Vc-control of tuned amplifier with AGC

voltage applied to base.
L -i

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decreases and results in a reduction of gain. The controlled stage being
n-p-nf, an increasig positive control voltage is needed to reduce the gain
(increasing negative for p-n-p transistor).
THE DETECTOR
The control voltage (with required polarity and sense of variation)
can be obtained in many different ways. Diode detectors produce positive
or negative control voltages increasing with increasing signal level and,
by using appropriate
biasing arrangements, ItE
control voltages de- l
creasing with increas-
iing signal level canNPAu'
be easily produced. AM otui
Mod ulcated
In many cases L

(e.g., in broadcast Signpll

receivers), transistor input
detectors can be used.
A possible arrangement A
is shown in Fig. 11.
A positive voltage in-
creasing with increas- __

appear atAl the poten- Fig. 11 - Example of transistor detector

tial at B will be de- cicuit.
creasing with increasing signal level. Both points can be used as con-
trol signal sources. (With p-n-p detectors, the control voltage will,
of cburse, be negative.)

AGC CIRCUITS
Making use of the principles described in the previous paragraphs,
many more or less different AGC circuits can be designed. Blecherl and
Barton2 have described circuits based on Ie control. Stern and Raper3 use
Ve control in a broadcast receiver. A Vc.-controlled circuit is shown in
Fig. 12. The diagram represents a two-stage IF amplifier followed by a
transistor detector. The first IF stage is Vc-controlled. The gain con-
trol characteristic of this amplifier is shown in.Fig. 13.
Fig. lh shows a number of other possible circuits. Diagram lh repre-
sents an Ie-controlled system, the perfonnance of which is comparable to
the one of Fig. 12. The circuit of Fig. lhB operates in a similar manner,
but uses a p-n-p amplifier and an n-p-n detector. In the arrangement of
Fig. 14C, the collector voltage of the amplifier stage is controlled di-
rectly by the AGO voltage. Obviously, many other variations are possible.
The methods described can be applied to control the gain of several
stages simultaneously. Desirable differential delays between the AGC action
of different stages can be easily achieved, as a glance at Figs. 7 and 8
will show, by either operating the controlled stages at different quiescent
("no signal") operating points or by designing different feedback networks

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 st IF 2 nd F D etector

mh

Fig. 12 - Two stage IF amplifier followed by detector with

Vc type AGC.

0-

0
.4

4.
Cr

.05 .15 .5 1.5 5 15 50 ISO 500

Input voltage (mv)

Fig. 13 - AOC characteristics of IF amplifiers.

(Q Two stages, one controlled.

(2) Three stages, two controlled.

10

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 fAMP DETECTOR

AUDIO
OUTPUT

-'- -
FNPN AUDIO
4 W > ~~~~~OU
TPU T
INTER MEDIATE
S-TAGES

PNP AUDIO
OUTPUT

AGC

Fig. 1i~ - AGO circuits.

11

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for the controlled stages, or by deriving the control signal for one con-
trolled stage from another controlled stage.
Fig. 13 also shows the gain characteristic of a Vc-controlled IF ampli-
fier, two stages of which were controlled. The circuit was that of Fig. 12
with an additional controlled IF stage preceding the IF amplifier.
DISTORTION AND BANDWIDTH
Both principles of gain control (Ie and VC) involve the reduction of
the sigl handling c ability of the controlled stage at high signal levels
(i.e., at reduced gain). eI-control is achieved by decreasing Ie in pres-
ence of strong signals and, therefore, at small values of Ie, the permis-
sible input current swing is reduced. If, on the other hand, the gain is
decreased in the presence of strong signals by reducing Vc, the output vol-
tage swing of the controlled stage is strongly limited.
Consequently, in amplitude modulated systems, the controlled stage
must be a low-level stage to prevent distortion (or, even worse, the sup-
pression) of the modulation envelope. (This does not apply, of course, to
frequency modulated systems; high level stages can be controlled in FM.)
In broadcast receivers, for instance, this limitation implies that AGC must
not be applied to the last IF stage, and if more than one stage is con-
trolled, suitable staggering of delays will be necessary. Controlled stages
should be designed to handle only a fraction of one piw of signal power. By
careful design, adequate performance with tolerable distortion can be
obtained.
Fig. 15 shows the distortion measured at the detector output of the
amplifier shown in Fig. 12. High distortion at very low input signal levels
is due to detector nonlinearity. The distortion is minimum at intermediate
input levels and increases at high input levels as a result of AGC.
AGC also affects the bandwidth of the controlled tuned amplifier. As
mentioned previously, input aid output impedances of transistors increase
with decreasing Ie, the effect on the irput impedance being more important.
Consequently, automatic gain control will modify the bandwidth cE the tuned
6

4-

0)

--I I I I
.05 .15 .5 1.5 5 5 50 150 500
Input voltoge (mV)
Fig. 15 - Harmonic distortion as function of input voltage.

12

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 Xo IP 3

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Fig. 16 - Audio response of controlled IX' amplifier-detector.

(:9 Response for 500 iV IF input.
©2 Response for 5mV IF input.
(]Y Response for 200mV IF input.
circuits associated with the controlled stage. If Ie-control is used, the
impedances increase with increasing signal level. This tends to increase
the effective Q, anld decreases the bapidwidth. The effect is undesirable,
but can be eliminated with proper over-all design;.the selectivity must be
determined by the tuned circuits not adJoining the controlled stages. The
control of a radio frequency stage, however, where a reasonable compromise
between IF rejection and minimm bandwidth is desirable, presents a di~ffi-
cult problem.
In case of Vc-control (usiLng the principle illustrated in Fig. 10),
decr.ease of Vc is achieved indirectlys by increasing 'e with increasinlg sig-
nal level. Both decrease of Vc and increase of Te tend to reduce the tran-
sistor impedances andl increase the bandwidth. The broadening of the reso-
nance curve can be used advantageously; the available audio bandlwidth can
be increased at strong signal levels. This permits good use of the radiated
bandwidth of 2 >~i~ where selectivity against adjoining consider-
ablyr weaker channels is of less imporvtance.
Fig. 16 shlows the audio bandwidth at the detector as a function of the
signal level for the ampli5fier of FEig. 12. This phenomenon of "automatic
tone control" is quite desirable in somne broadcast receivrers. The effect,
if undesirable in particular applications, can again be avoided byr appro-
priate design, the circvits not associated with the controlled stage anld
the detector determining the over-all selectivty.
Variation of the operating point to achieve gain control also affects
the reactive comxponents of transistor input and output impedances. The
change of the reactive components has different sense ad magnitude depend-
ing on the configuration used. The result is a slight detuning of the

13

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 16

40ft
._
cx

c
0
n

0 100 200 300 400 (p A)

( ) Emitter current
0 400 800 1200 1600 (mV)
( ) Oscillator voltage
Fig. 17 - Conversion gain as function of emitter current and
oscillator voltage.

-U ouput

i
I _ I _________ I
_____ _
I'
Fig. 18 - Single transistor oscillator-converter with inductive
tuning and AGC.
i

14

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interstage coupling networks. This effect is of negligible importance in
many applications (e.g., broadcast receivers), but may be undesirable in
certain narrow band circuits. The center frequency (and also the bandwidth)
can be kept constant by using stabilizing resistances, but this m-ethod is
not very efficient; the stage gain is considerably reduced.
GAIN CONTROL OF CONVERTERS
Converter stages have special properties distinguishing them from
linear amplifiers and special techniques can be used to control their gain.
Conventional Ie- or Ve-control will also be effective in the case of con-
verters. The gain of converters,6having a maxm at a certain value of
Ie (Fig. 17), the gain can be reduced not only by decreasing Ie, but also
by increasing it beyond the maximm. This method of control is not as effi-
cient as the conventional one but has the advantage of reducing distortion.
A further possibility of moderate gain control exists due to the dependence
of the converter gain on the injected oscillator voltage (Fig. 17).
It is possible to perform with a single junction transistor both fanc-
tions of oscillation and conversion simultaneously (Fig. 18). Such a tran-
sistor circuit has optimum gain at a ceitain value of Ie. Increasing or
decreasing of Ie will result in reduction of gain and both mnethods can be
used to obtain efficient automatic gain control.
CONCLUSION
Automatic gain control of transistor amplifiers is possible due to
the dependence of the gain on the dc operating point. AGC circuits with
satisfactory performance have been built using either collector voltage or
,emitter current control.
ACKNO'WIEDXMENT
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Mr. John A. A. Raper,
who has designed part of the circuits and has done part of the experimental
work leading to this paper.
REFERENCES
1. Blecher, F. H., "Automatic gain control of junction transistor ampli-
fiers," Proc. N.E.C., Vol. 9, pp. 731-737; 1953.
2. Barton, L. E., "An experimental transistor personal broadcast receiver,"
Proc. IRE, Vol. 42, pp. 1062-1066; July, 1954.
3. Stern, A. P., and Raper, J. A. A., "Transistor AM broadcast receivers,"
Cony. Record of the IRE, Part 7, pp. 8-14; 1954.
4. Pritchard, R. L., "Frequency variations of junction transistor para-
meters,t" Proc. IRE, Vol. 42, pp. 786-799; May, 1954.
5. Webster, W. M., "On the variation of junction-transistor current-
amplification factor with emitter current," Proc. IRE, Vol. 42,
pp. 914-920; June, 1954.
6. Zawels, J., "The transistor as a mixer," Proc. IRE, Vol. 42, pp. 542-
548; March, 1954.

15

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