LM380 Power Audio Amplifier

LM380 Power Audio Amplifier

National Semiconductor Application Note 69 December 1972

INTRODUCTION The LM380 is a power audio amplifier intended for consumer applications It features an internally fixed gain of 50 (34 dB) and an output which automatically centers itself at one-half of the supply voltage A unique input stage allows inputs to be ground referenced or AC coupled as required The output stage of the LM380 is protected with both short circuit current limiting and thermal shutdown circuitry All of these internally provided features result in a minimum external parts count integrated circuit for audio applications This paper describes the circuit operation of the LM380 its power handling capability methods of volume and tone control distortion and various application circuits such as a bridge amplifier a power supply splitter and a high input impedance audio amplifier CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION Figure 1 shows a simplified circuit schematic of the LM380 The input stage is a PNP emitter-follower driving a PNP differential pair with a slave current-source load The PNP

input is chosen to reference the input to ground thus enabling the input transducer to be directly coupled The output is biased to half the supply voltage by resistor ratio R1 R2 Negative DC feedback through resistor R2 balances the differential stage with the output at half supply since R1 e 2 R2 (Figure 1 ) The second stage is a common emitter voltage gain amplifier with a current-source load Internal compensation is provided by the pole-splitting capacitor C Pole-splitting compensation is used to preserve wide power bandwidth (100 kHz at 2W 8X) The output is a quasi-complementary pair emitter-follower The amplifier gain is internally fixed to 34 dB or 50 This is accomplished by the internal feedback network R2 R3 The gain is twice that of the ratio R2 R3 due to the slave currentsource which provides the full differential gain of the input stage

TABLE I Electrical Characteristics (Note 1) Parameter Power Output (rms) Gain Output Voltage Swing Input Resistance Total Harmonic Distortion Power Supply Rejection Supply Voltage Range Bandwidth Quiescent Output Voltage Quiescent Supply Current Short Circuit Current
Note 2 Rejection ratio referred to output Note 3 With device Pins 3 4 5 10 11 12 soldered into a Note 5 Cbypass e 0 47 mF on Pin 1 Note 6 Pins 3 4 5 10 11 12 at 50 C derates 25 C W above 50 C case epoxy glass board with 2 ounce copper foil with a minimum surface of six square inches Note 4 If oscillation exists under some load conditions add a 2 7X resistor and 0 1 mF series network from Pin 8 to ground

Conditions 8X loads 3% T H D (Notes 3 4) 8X load Po e 1W (Notes 4 5) Cbypass e 5 mF e 120 Hz (Note 2)

Min 25 40

Typ 50 14 150k 02 38

Max 60

Units Wrms V V Vp-p X % dB V Hz V mA A

8 Po e 2W RL e 8X 8 100k 9 7 13

22 10 25

Note 1 VS e 18V TA e 25 C unless otherwise specified

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C1995 National Semiconductor Corporation

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RRD-B30M115 Printed in U S A

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FIGURE 1 GENERAL OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS The output current of the LM380 is rated at 1 3A peak The 14 pin dual-in-line package is rated at 35 C W when soldered into a printed circuit board with 6 square inches of 2 ounce copper foil (Figure 2 ) Since the device junction temperature is limited to 150 C via the thermal shutdown circuitry the package will support 3 watts dissipation at 50 C ambient or 3 7 watts at 25 C ambient Figure 2 shows the maximum package dissipation versus ambient temperature for various amounts of heat sinking

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FIGURE 3b Device Dissipation vs Output Power 8X Load

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FIGURE 2 Device Dissipation vs Ambient Temperature

Figures 3a b and c show device dissipation versus output power for various supply voltages and loads

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FIGURE 3c Device Dissipation vs Output Power 16X Load

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FIGURE 3a Device Dissipation vs Output Power 4X Load 2

The maximum device dissipation is obtained from Figure 2 for the heat sink and ambient temperature conditions under which the device will be operating With this maximum allowed dissipation Figures 3a b and c show the maximum power supply allowed (to stay within dissipation limits) and the output power delivered into 4 8 or 16X loads The three percent total-harmonic distortion line is approximately the on-set of clipping

source impedance for the integrator Figure 6 shows supply decoupling versus frequency for various bypass capacitors BIASING The simplified schematic of Figure 1 shows that the LM380 is internally biased with the 150 kX resistance to ground This enables input transducers which are referenced to ground to be direct-coupled to either the inverting or non-inverting inputs of the amplifier The unused input may be either 1) left floating 2) returned to ground through a resistor or capacitor or 3) shorted to ground In most applications where the non-inverting input is used the inverting input is left floating When the inverting input is used and the non-inverting input is left floating the amplifier may be found to be sensitive to board layout since stray coupling to the floating input is positive feedback This can be avoided by employing one of three alternatives 1) AC grounding the unused input with a small capacitor This is preferred when using high source impedance transducer 2) Returning the unused input to ground through a resistor This is preferred when using moderate to low DC source impedance transducers and when output offset from half supply voltage is critical The resistor is made equal to the resistance of the input transducer thus maintaining balance in the input differential amplifier and minimizing output offset 3) Shorting the unused input to ground This is used with low DC source impedance transducers or when output offset voltage is noncritical OSCILLATION The normal power supply decoupling precautions should be taken when installing the LM380 If VS is more than 2 to 3 from the power supply filter capacitor it should be decoupled with a 0 1 mF disc ceramic capacitor at the VS terminal of the IC The RC and CC shown as dotted line components on Figure 7 and throughout this paper suppresses a 5 to 10 MHz

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FIGURE 4 Total Harmonic Distortion vs Frequency Figure 4 shows total harmonic distortion versus frequency for various output levels while Figure 5 shows the power bandwidth of the LM380

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FIGURE 5 Output Voltage Gain vs Frequency Power supply decoupling is achieved through the AC divider formed by R1 (Figure 1) and an external bypass capacitor Resistor R1 is split into two 25 kX halves providing a high

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For Stability With High Current Loads

FIGURE 7 Minimum Component Configuration small amplitude oscillation which can occur during the negative swing into a load which draws high current The oscillation is of course at too high of a frequency to pass through a speaker but it should be guarded against when operating in an RF sensitive environment

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FIGURE 6 Supply Decoupling vs Frequency

APPLICATIONS With the internal biasing and compensation of the LM380 the simplest and most basic circuit configuration requires only an output coupling capacitor as seen in Figure 7 An application of this basic configuration is the phonograph amplifier where the addition of volume and tone controls is required Figure 8 shows the LM380 with a voltage divider volume control and high frequency roll-off tone control

This circuit has a distinct advantage over the circuit of Figure 7 when transducers of high source impedance are used in that the full input impedance of the amplifier is realized It also has an advantage with transducers of low source impedance since the signal attenuation of the input voltage divider is eliminated The transfer function of the circuit of Figure 10 is given by VOUT e 50 VIN 150k k2RV j2qfc1 150k a 1 k1RT a k2RV a j2qfc1 k1RTk2RV a (2) 0 s k1 s 1 0 s k2 s 1

1b

K
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Figure 11 shows the response of the circuit of Figure 10

For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 8 Phono Amp When maximum input impedance is required or the signal attenuation of the voltage divider volume control is undesirable a common mode volume control may be used as seen in Figure 9

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For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 9 Common Mode Volume Control With this volume control the source loading impedance is only the input impedance of the amplifier when in the fullvolume position This reduces to one-half the amplifier input impedance at the zero volume position Equation 1 describes the output voltage as a function of the potentiometer setting VOUT e 50 VIN

FIGURE 11 Tone Control Response Most phonograph applications require frequency response shaping to provide the RIAA equalization characteristic When recording the low frequencies are attenuated to prevent large undulations from destroying the record groove walls (Bass tones have higher energy content than high frequency tones) Conversely the high frequencies are emphasized to achieve greater signal-to-noise ratio Therefore when played back the phono amplifier should have the inverse frequency response as shown in Figure 12

1

150 c 103 k1RV a 150 c 103 0 sk1 s 1

(1)

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For Stability with High Current Loads Audio Tape Potentiometer (10% of RT at 50% Rotation)

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FIGURE 10 Common Mode Volume and Tone Control This common mode volume control can be combined with a common mode tone control as seen in Figure 10

FIGURE 12 RIAA Playback Equalization This response is achieved with the circuit of Figure 13 The mid-band gain between frequencies f2 and f3 Figure 12 is established by the ratio of R1 to the input resistance of the amplifier (150 kX)

Mid-band Gain e

R1 a 150 kX 150 kX

(3)

factor of four over the single amplifier However in most cases the package dissipation will be the first parameter limiting power delivered to the load When this is the case the power capability of the bridge will be only twice that of

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For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 13 RIAA Phono Amplifier Capacitor C1 sets the corner frequency f2 where R1 e XC1 1 C1 e (4) 2qf2R1 Capacitor C2 establishes the corner frequency f3 where XC2 equals the impedance of the inverting input This is normally 150 kX However in the circuit of Figure 13 negative feedback reduces the impedance at the inverting input as Ze Zo 1 a Aob (5)

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FIGURE 15A 8X Load the single amplifier Figures 15A and B show output power versus device package dissipation for both 8 and 16X loads in the bridge configuration The 3% and 10% harmonic

Where Zo e impedance at node 6 without external feedback (150 kX) Ao e gain without external feedback (50) Ao b A Ao A e closed loop gain with external feedback A Therefore 1 1 e C2 e Zo 150k 2qf3 2qf3 1 a Ao b 1 a 50b b
e feedback transfer function b e

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(6)

BRIDGE AMPLIFIER Where more power is desired than can be provided with one amplifier two amps may be used in the bridge configuration shown in Figure 14

FIGURE 15B 16X Load distortion contours double back due to the thermal limiting of the LM380 Different amounts of heat sinking will change the point at which the distortion contours bend The quiescent output voltage of the LM380 is specified at 9 g 1 volts with an 18 volt supply Therefore under the worst case condition it is possible to have two volts DC across the load

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For Stability with High Current Loads

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FIGURE 14 Bridge Configuration This provides twice the voltage swing across the load for a given supply thereby increasing the power capability by a

For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 16 Quiescent Balance Control With an 8X speaker this 0 25A which may be excessive Three alternatives are available 1) care can be taken to match the quiescent voltages 2) a non-polar capacitor may be placed in series with the load 3) the offset balance control of Figure 16 may be used

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For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 17 Voltage Divider Input

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For Stability with High Current Loads

FIGURE 18 Intercom The circuits of Figures 14 and 16 employ the common mode volume control as shown before However any of the various input connection schemes discussed previously may be used Figure 17 shows the bridge configuration with the voltage divider input As discussed in the Biasing section the undriven input may be AC or DC grounded If VS is an appreciable distance from the power supply (l3 ) filter capacitor it should be decoupled with a 1 mF tantaulum capacitor INTERCOM The circuit of Figure 18 provides a minimum component intercom With switch S1 in the talk position the speaker of the master station acts as the microphone with the aid of step-up transformer T1 A turns ratio of 25 and a device gain of 50 allows a maximum loop gain of 1250 RV provides a common mode volume control Switching S1 to the listen position reverses the role of the master and remote speakers LOW COST DUAL SUPPLY The circuit shown in Figure 19 demonstrates a minimum parts count method of symmetrically splitting a supply voltage Unlike the normal R C and power zener diode tech-

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FIGURE 19 Dual Supply nique the LM380 circuit does not require a high standby current and power dissipation to maintain regulation With a 20 volt input voltage ( g 10 volt output) the circuit exhibits a change in output voltage of approximately 2% per 100 mA of unbalanced load change Any balanced load change will reflect only the regulation of the source voltage VIN The theoretical plus and minus output tracking ability is 100% since the device will provide an output voltage at one-half of the instantaneous supply voltage in the absence of a capacitor on the bypass terminal The actual error in

tracking will be directly proportional to the unbalance in the quiescent output voltage An optional potentiometer may be placed at pin 1 as shown in Figure 19 to null output offset The unbalanced current output for the circuit of Figure 18 is limited by the power dissipation of the package In the case of sustained unbalanced excess loads the device will go into thermal limiting as the temperature sensing circuit begins to function For instantaneous high current loads or short circuits the device limits the output current to approximately 1 3 amperes until thermal shut-down takes over or until the fault is removed HIGH INPUT IMPEDANCE CIRCUIT The junction FET isolation circuit shown in Figure 20 raises the input impedance to 22 MX for low frequency input signals The gate to drain capacitance (2 pF maximum for the KE4221 shown) of the FET limits the input impedance as frequency increases

BOOSTED GAIN USING POSITIVE FEEDBACK For applications requiring gains higher than the internally set gain of 50 it is possible to apply positive feedback around the LM380 for closed loopgains of up to 300 Figure 21 shows a practical example of an LM380 in a gain of 200 circuit

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FIGURE 21 Boosted Gain of 200 Using Positive Feedback The equation describing the closed loop gain is (12) AV(0) R1 1a R2 where AV(0) is complex at high frequencies but is nominally the 40 to 60 specified on the data sheet for the pass band of the amplifier If 1 a R1 R2 approaches the value of AV(0) the denominator of equation 12 approaches zero the closed loop gain increases toward infinity and the circuit oscillates This is the reason for limiting the closed loop gain values to 300 or less Figure 22 shows the loaded and unloaded bode plot for the circuit shown in Figure 21 1b AVCL e
b AV(0)

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FIGURE 20 At 20 kHz the reactance of this capacitor is approximately b j4 MX giving a net input impedance magnitude of 3 9 MX The values chosen for R1 R2 and C1 provide an overall circuit gain of at least 45 for the complete range of parameters specified for the KE4221 When using another FET device the relevant design equations are as follows

AV e

R1 R1 a 1 gm

(50)

(7)
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gm e gm0

 

VGS 1b Vp

J J

(8) (9) (10)

VGS e IDSR1 IDS e IDSS VGS 2 1b VP

FIGURE 22 Boosted Gain Bode Plot The 24 pF capacitor C2 shown on Figure 21 was added to give an overdamped square wave response under full load conditions It causes a high frequency roll-off of 1 (13) 2qR2C2 The circuit of Figure 21 will have a very long (1000 sec) turn on time if RL is not present but only a 0 01 second turn on time with an 8X load f2 e

The maximum value of R2 is determined by the product of the gate reverse leakage IGSS and R2 This voltage should be 10 to 100 times smaller than VP The output impedance of the FET source follower is 1 (11) gm so that the determining resistance for the interstage RC time constant is the input resistance of the LM380 Ro e

LM380 Power Audio Amplifier

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