UNIT-II

MULTISTAGE AMPLIFIERS

INTRODUCTION
If the voltage or power gain obtained from a
single stage small signal amplifier is not
sufficient for a practical application , we go

for more than one stage of amplification to

achieve required voltage and power gain.

Such an amplifier is called a multistage

amplifier

INTRODUCTION
In multistage amplifiers, the output of one
stage is fed as the input to the next as shown
in figure below

INTRODUCTION
A multistage amplifier using two or more
single stage common emitter amplifier is
called as cascaded amplifiers
A multistage amplifier with CE as the first
stage and CB as the second stage is called as
cascode amplifier.
Such cascade and cascode connections are
also possible in FET amplifiers

Comparison of various multistage configurations

Use of coupling schemes

When amplifiers are cascaded, it is necessary
to use a coupling network between the output
of one amplifier and the input of the following
amplifier. This type of coupling is called as
inter stage coupling
These coupling networks serves the following
It transfers the ac output of one stage to the input
of the next stage
It isolates the dc conditions of one stage to the
next stage
It also provides impedance matching

Different coupling schemes

Resistance Capacitance coupling
or
Capacitive Coupling
Direct Coupling
Transformer Coupling

Capacitive Coupling

Note that there is a single dc source (VCC), as well as

the signal ground, common to both stages.

Direct Coupling

Direct coupling is just what it sounds like two

amplifier stages are direct coupled if the output
of the first stage is connected to the input of the
second without the use of capacitors.

Transformer Coupling

N1 gives the number of turns in the primary coil and N2

is the number of turns in the secondary coil. The turns
ratio may be expressed as N1:N2 as shown in the figure,
a:1 (where a=N1/N2), or 1:a (where a=N2/N1).

Frequency response
The voltage gain and phase shift of the gain
depend on the frequency range over which
the amplifier operate
In general the entire frequency range can be
divided into three ranges
Mid frequency range
Low frequency range
High frequency range

Mid -Frequency range

In this frequency range the voltage gain is
practically constant and is not affected by the
changes of the capacitances in the circuit
The reactance Xc=1/WCc of the coupling
capacitor in series between the amplifying
stages is very small so that it can be neglected
Therefore the voltage gain may be considered
as Aom=1

Low frequency range

In this frequency range , the circuit behaves
like the simple high pass
circuit as shown in figure
From the circuit

Low frequency range

Where
Therefore the magnitude of the voltage gain
at low frequency response is

And the phase angle is

At f=fL,

High frequency range

Above the mid band
frequency, the transistor
behaves like the simple low
pass circuit as shown in figure
From the circuit,

High frequency range

Therefore
Let
we get
Therefore the magnitude of the voltage gain is

and phase is
.

Frequency response

Analysis of cascaded RC coupled BJT

amplifiers