EXPERIMENT 17

TUNED AMPLIFIER AND OSCILLATOR

OBJECTIVE

To study the characteristics of a tuned circuit, a class C amplifier, and an rf oscillator.

PROCEDURE

1) Connect the circuit shown in Fig. 1, and apply a sinesoidal signal of about 0.5 volt p-p

to the base of the transistor at a frequency of about 455 kHz. What is the voltage gain of the

circuit? How large is the dc component of the voltage across the collector resistor compared to

the rf signal? Note that in some sense the dc is "wasted", since it does not contribute to the

signal. On the other hand the distortion is low.

2) Bypass the emitter with a 0.02 µF capacitor, as shown in Fig. 2. What does the

collector waveform look like now? Note that the total dc is the same as before. The effect of the

capacitor is to cause the transistor to turn on only near the peak voltage of each cycle of the

input. This chops up the signal, so that its amplitude is much greater, and therefore the distortion

is also much greater. The dc is not "wasted." This is called class C operation, as compared to

the relatively nondistorting class A operation above. (Class B is in between.)

3) Bypass the 10 kΩ resistor in the collector circuit with a 0.01 µF capacitor, add the

tuned circuit as shown in Fig. 3, and remove the 0.02 µF capacitor bypassing the emitter. Vary

the frequency of the signal generator until a maximum in signal strength is obtained across the

tuned circuit. Careful - the range of frequencies over which there is a good response is quite

narrow and easy to miss. The quality factor Q, is given by

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 fresonance
Q= (17 − 1)
∆f

What is your value of Q? Plot the frequency response of the circuit. What is the voltage

gain at resonance? How does it compare with the voltage gain obtained in part 1?

4) The tuned circuit contains an internal capacitor, often about 150 pF, in parallel with an

inductor. The resonance frequency should be close to 455 kHz, the design value of an

intermediate frequency in an ordinary AM radio. Compute the value of the inductor using

1 1
fresonance = (17 − 2)
2π LC

Put a 33 kΩ resistor across the tuned circuit. This will reduce the Q, so that the response

will be lower at the resonance frequency, but will extend over a wider bandwidth. By what

factor is the peak response reduced? By what factor is ∆f increased? What is the new Q?

5) Remove the 33 kΩ resistor and replace the 0.02 µF capacitor bypassing the emitter.

This increases the gain of the system tremendously. What does the voltage on the collector look

like? Reduce the input voltage until you obtain a good sine wave, but without reducing the

amplitude of the output signal. What is the input voltage required for full amplitude? What

happened to the distortion that the bypass capacitor caused in part 2? Why?

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 6) The tuned circuit is actually part of a transformer since a secondary coil is wound

around the inductor. Transformers usually consist of two (or more) coils of wire wound around

an iron (for audio frequencies) or ferrite (for radio frequencies) core. In an ideal transformer,

when an ac voltage is applied to the "primary" winding, the voltage that appears across the

"secondary" winding is multiplied by the turns ratio:

Vprimary Number of turns primary

= (17 − 3)
Vsecondary Number of turnssecondary

Transformers can be used to "step up" an ac voltage if there are many more turns on the

secondary than on the primary, although the current available is reduced by the same turns ratio.

Alternatively, stepping down the voltage increases the current at the secondary by the turns ratio.

One consequence of this is that the impedance levels are proportional to the square of the turns

ratio.

Transformers are sometimes convenient for changing the dc level of an ac signal, since

the primary and secondary windings can be electrically isolated. However, applying a dc voltage

across a winding is often a bad idea, since the dc current is limited only by the resistance of the

winding and the transformer could burn out.

Connect one end of the secondary to ground. Measure the voltage on the other end using

the second scope probe. * What is the turns ratio? Disconnect the input from the signal

generator, and instead connect the point on the secondary where you just measured the voltage to

the base of the transistor (Fig. 4). Note that the sense of the coil must be correct to obtain

positive feedback and oscillation. What is the peak to peak voltage of the signal obtained on the

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collector, with the circuit connected as an oscillator? Compare this to the supply voltage on the

collector. How small a resistor R (Fig. 4) can you use as a load on the secondary of the

transformer and still get full amplitude oscillation?

7) Design a circuit that oscillates at a frequency of 250 kHz. One way you can do this is

to change the frequency of the tuned circuit by adding another capacitor across the primary of the

transformer. Compute how large this capacitor should be, and compare it to your experimentally

observed value. Could you also change the resonance frequency by putting a capacitor across
the secondary of the transformer? How large would this capacitor be?

PSPICE ASSIGNMENT

Use PSPICE to design a circuit consisting of a parallel combination of a capacitor,

inductor, and a resistor. One end of this circuit is at ground, and the other is driven by a current

source. You may use the collector output of a transistor as the current source, if you wish.

Choose values for the components so that the circuit has the same Q and the same resonance

frequency as the circuit you measured in part 3. Use PSPICE to plot the frequency response of

the circuit from 400 to 500 kHz. What component values did you use? What's the effect on the

response of an additional 33 kΩ resistor, as you used in part 4?

* This is tricky. If you removed the first scope probe from the primary you would also remove the probe's
capacitance, which would detune the circuit and might greatly reduce the response.

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Figures
15 V 15 V

10 k 10 k

Output Output

Input Input

0.02 F
10 k 10 k

-5 V -5 V

Fig 1 Fig 2

15 V 15 V

10 k 10 k
0.01 F 0.01 F

33 k

Output

Input

R
0.02 F 0.02 F
10 k 10 k

-5 V -5 V

Fig 3 Fig 4

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