Comparison of Different Types of Coupled Amplifiers

S.No Particular R-C Coupled Amplifier Transformer Coupled Direct Coupled Amplifier
Amplifier
1. Frequency Excellent Poor best
Response
2. Cost Less More Least
3. Space and Weight Less More Least
4. Impedance Not good Excellent Good
matching
5. Applications Voltage amplification Power amplification Amplifying very low
frequencies

RC COUPLING
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Rc Coupling is the most Commonly used Coupling Between the two stages of a cascaded or multistage
amplifier because it is cheaper in cost and Very compact circuit and provides excellent frequency
response.

Eg:- Rc Coupled Amplifier

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IMPEDENCE COUPLING OR TRANSFORMER COUPLING

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Impedence Coupling results in more efficient amplification because no signal power is wasted in Inductor
L.
Such Coupling has the drawback of being larger, Heavier and Costlier than the RC COUPLING. Impedence
Coupling is rarely used beyond audio range.

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DIRECT COUPLING
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Direct coupling is essential for Very low frequency applications Such as photoelectric current.
It has got advantages of Simple and Very cheap circuit arrangement, outstanding ability to amplify low
frequency signals.

The Drawbacks of Direct Coupling includes Poor Temperature stability and unsuitability for amplification
of high frequency signals.

Direct coupled amplifiers are used When the load is Directly in series with the Output terminal of the
active circuit element.

What is Transformer Coupled Amplifier and Its

Working
The major characteristics of the signal are voltage and frequency. If the signal has a sufficient range of voltage, then
we can transmit information up to a distance and it is used for communication purposes. Here the interesting concept
is “amplifier”. An amplifier amplifies the voltage or increases the voltage value. The designing of amplifiers can be
done in several ways. Few of them are transistors based amplifiers; resistor & capacitors based amplifiers,
transformer-based amplifiers, etc. To drive more output then multistage amplifiers are introduced. In these multistage-
amplifiers, the cascading of amplifiers can be done through capacitors, transformers, inductors, etc. The issues
with RC coupled amplifiers are it has the low voltage gain, power gain, low input impedance, and high output
impedance. Due to these drawbacks, the transformer-coupled amplifier is used. Coupling the transformers in
cascading way at one stage, the input impedance will be high and output impedance will below. By the end of this
article, we can understand the terms like what is a transformer-coupled amplifier, its circuit diagram, working,
applications, advantages & disadvantages.
What is Transformer Coupled Amplifier?
This amplifier comes under the category of the multi-stage amplifier. In this type of amplifier one stage of the amplifier
is connected to the second stage of amplifiers by coupling the “transformer”. Because we can achieve impedance
equality through the transformers. The impedances of the two stages can be equaled if any stage has low or high
impedance value by transformers. So, the voltage gain and power gain also increases. These amplifiers are
preferable when the load is small and used for power amplification purposes.

“The reason behind preferring the transformers in amplifiers is, they provide equal impedance (impedance matching
with load can be possible) through primary, secondary windings of the two transformers which are using in the
amplifier”.

P1, P2, and B1, B2 are the primary and secondary windings of the transformers. The primary coil and secondary coil
impedance are related to B2 = B1*(P2/P1)^2. According to this formula, the two transformers coil impedances are
related to each other.

Transformer Coupled Amplifier Circuit Diagram

The above diagram shows the circuit diagram of the transformer-coupled amplifier. In the circuit diagram, one stage
output is connected as an input to the second stage amplifier through a coupling transformer. In the RC coupling
amplifier, cascading of the first & second stage amplifier can be done through a coupling capacitor. The coupling
transformer is T1 & it’s primary and secondary windings are P1 and P2. Similarly, secondary transformer T2 having
the primary windings p1 and secondary windings are indicated by p2.
 transformer
-coupled amplifier

 R1 & R2 resistors provide the biasing and stabilization for the circuit.

 Cin isolates DC and allows only AC components from the input signal to the circuit.
 The emitter capacitor provides a low reactance path to the signal and offers stability to the circuit.
 The first stage of output is connected as an input to the second stage through secondary windings (p2) of
the primary transformer.
Transformer Coupled Amplifier Working
The working and operation of the transformer-coupled amplifier will be discussed in this segment. Here, the input
signal is applied to the base of the first transistor. If the input signal has any DC signal then the components can be
eliminated by the input capacitor Cin. When the signal is applied to the transistor then it amplifies & forwards to the
collector terminal. Here this amplified output connected as an input to the second stage of the transformer-coupled
amplifier through secondary windings (p2) of the coupling transformer.

Then, this amplified voltage is applied to the base terminal of the second transistor of the secondary stage of the
transformer-coupled amplifier. The transformer has the property of impedance matching. By this property, low
resistance of one stage can be reflected as high load resistance to the previous stage. Therefore the voltage at
primary windings can be forwarded according to the ratio of secondary windings of the transformer.

Frequency Response of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

The frequency response of an amplifier allows us to analyze the output gain and phase response for a particular
frequency or over a wide range of frequencies. The frequency response of any electronic circuit indicates the gain
i.e., how much of output we are getting for an input signal. Here, the frequency response of the transformer-coupled
amplifier is shown in the following figure.
 frequency response-of-transformer-
coupled-amplifier

It offers low-frequency response characteristics than the RC coupled amplifier. And also transformer-coupled
amplifier offers constant gain over a small range of frequencies. At low frequencies, due to the reactance of the
primary transformer p1, the gain is decreased. At higher frequencies, the capacitance between the turns of the
transformer will act as a condenser and this reduces the output voltage and this leads to decrement in gain.

Transformer Coupled Amplifier Applications

 Mostly applicable in systems where to match the impedance levels.

 Applicable in circuits for transferring the maximum power to the output devices like speakers.
 For power amplification purposes these transfer coupled amplifiers are preferable
 Advantages
The advantages of a transformer-coupled amplifier are
 It Provides a higher gain than the RC coupled amplifier. It offers 10 to 20 times higher gain value than the
RC coupled amplifier.
 The biggest advantage is it has the feature of impedance matching that can be done by the turn’s ratio of the
transformer. So, one stage lower impedance can be adjusted with a high impedance of the next stage amplifier.
 The collector resistor and base resistor don’t have any power loss.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of a transformer-coupled amplifier are
 It offers poor frequency responses than the RC coupled amplifier, so gain varies according to the
frequencies.
 In this technique, the coupling can be done by using transformers. So looks bulky and expensive for audio
frequencies.
 There will be frequency distortions in the speech signal, audio signal, music, etc.
The transformer coupled amplifier gives high gain and amplifies the input signal. But to get more output than these
types of amplifiers then we can use the power amplifiers. The power amplifiers are preferable to deliver more power
to the load like speakers. And the power amplifier’s input amplitude range is higher than the voltage amplifiers. And
also in power amplifiers, the collector current is very high (greater than 100mA).

The power amplifiers are classified as

 Audio power amplifier

 Class A power amplifier
 Class B power amplifier
 Class AB power amplifier
 Class C power amplifier
All these different types of power amplifiers are categorized based on the mode of operation and flow status of the
collector current according to the conduction angle of the input signal. Class A power is simple to design and
transistor is in ON condition for the complete input cycle. So, it offers a high-frequency response. But one of the
drawbacks is its poor efficiency. This can be overcome by coupling a transformer to the class A power amplifier. Then
it’s called a transformer-coupled class A power amplifier. The below circuit diagram shows the transformer-coupled
class A amplifier.
You can get more information about the transformer-coupled class A amplifier on.

Thus, this is all about the transformer-coupled amplifier. These are useful to increase the voltage level and power
amplifiers are useful to drive more power to the load. And this can be increased by various coupling techniques like
implementing the coupling capacitor, the transformer between one stage amplifier to the next stage amplifier. If the
coupling can be done through the transformer then we can achieve the impedance matching between inputs to an
output. And we can get more efficiency than remain coupling techniques.
 

We have observed that the main drawback of RC coupled amplifier is that the effective load resistance gets reduced. This is
because, the input impedance of an amplifier is low, while its output impedance is high.

When they are coupled to make a multistage amplifier, the high output impedance of one stage comes in parallel with the low input
impedance of next stage. Hence, effective load resistance is decreased. This problem can be overcome by a  transformer
coupled amplifier.

In a transformer-coupled amplifier, the stages of amplifier are coupled using a transformer. Let us go into the constructional and
operational details of a transformer coupled amplifier.

Construction of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

The amplifier circuit in which, the previous stage is connected to the next stage using a coupling transformer, is called as
Transformer coupled amplifier.

The coupling transformer T1 is used to feed the output of 1 st stage to the input of 2 nd stage. The collector load is replaced by the
primary winding of the transformer. The secondary winding is connected between the potential divider and the base of 2 nd stage,
which provides the input to the 2nd stage. Instead of coupling capacitor like in RC coupled amplifier, a transformer is used for
coupling any two stages, in the transformer coupled amplifier circuit.

The figure below shows the circuit diagram of transformer coupled amplifier.

The potential divider network R 1 and R2 and the resistor Re together form the biasing and stabilization network. The emitter by-pass
capacitor Ce offers a low reactance path to the signal. The resistor R L is used as a load impedance. The input capacitor C in present
at the initial stage of the amplifier couples AC signal to the base of the transistor. The capacitor C C is the coupling capacitor that
connects two stages and prevents DC interference between the stages and controls the shift of operating point.
Operation of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

When an AC signal is applied to the input of the base of the first transistor then it gets amplified by the transistor and appears at
the collector to which the primary of the transformer is connected.

The transformer which is used as a coupling device in this circuit has the property of impedance changing, which means the low
resistance of a stage (or load) can be reflected as a high load resistance to the previous stage. Hence the voltage at the primary is
transferred according to the turns ratio of the secondary winding of the transformer.

This transformer coupling provides good impedance matching between the stages of amplifier. The transformer coupled amplifier
is generally used for power amplification.

Frequency Response of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

The figure below shows the frequency response of a transformer coupled amplifier. The gain of the amplifier is constant only for a
small range of frequencies. The output voltage is equal to the collector current multiplied by the reactance of primary.

At low frequencies, the reactance of primary begins to fall, resulting in decreased gain. At high frequencies, the capacitance
between turns of windings acts as a bypass condenser to reduce the output voltage and hence gain.

So, the amplification of audio signals will not be proportionate and some distortion will also get introduced, which is called
as Frequency distortion.

Advantages of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

The following are the advantages of a transformer coupled amplifier −

 An excellent impedance matching is provided.

 Gain achieved is higher.

 There will be no power loss in collector and base resistors.

 Efficient in operation.

Disadvantages of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

The following are the disadvantages of a transformer coupled amplifier −

 Though the gain is high, it varies considerably with frequency. Hence a poor frequency response.

 Frequency distortion is higher.

  Transformers tend to produce hum noise.

 Transformers are bulky and costly.

Applications
The following are the applications of a transformer coupled amplifier −

 Mostly used for impedance matching purposes.

 Used for Power amplification.

 Used in applications where maximum power transfer is needed.

Coupling in Amplifier, Types, Application, Advantages

 Analog Electronics, Electronics

In simple words, Coupling in Amplifier means the method of connecting multiple stages of amplifier in a cascade. If the gain of a single amplifier is low

or insufficient to drive the load then we need to use multiple stages in a cascade.

But we cannot directly connect the output of one stage to the input of the next stage. If we connect two stages directly, the DC biasing of the amplifier

will be affected and noise will occur.

Need of Coupling in Amplifier

1. Coupling in an amplifier is needed to connect multiple successive stages in a cascade.

2. Proper amplifier coupling is needed to avoid effect in DC biasing when multiple amplifier stages are connected.

3. Coupling is needed to increase the overall gain of the amplifier.

4. Coupling is needed to reduce noise when multiple amplifier stages are connected.

5. Proper coupling is needed to reduce the wastage of power.

Read Also: Can a step-up transformer be used as an amplifier?

Different Types of Amplifier Coupling

There are different types of coupling that can be used to connect multiple amplifier stages according to gain, frequency level, distortion, application

requirements. Here different types of amplifier coupling are explained with application and advantages.

Direct Coupling in Amplifier

When the output of an amplifier stage is directly connected to the input of the next stage then it is called Direct Coupling. In the Direct Coupling

technique, no coupling device(such as a resistor, capacitor, inductor) is used.

Here, you can see in the below figure a three-stage direct-coupled amplifier is shown. Here, the output of the Transistor 1 is directly connected to the

input of the transistor 2 and the output of the transistor 2 is directly connected to the input of the transistor 3.
Here, you can also see the first transistor is NPN and the second transistor is PNP, again the third transistor is NPN. This is because the variations in

one transistor will cancel the variations in others. If the same transistor is used then gain will decrease, distortion came.

Read Also: Actual Difference Between Oscillator and Amplifier

Direct Coupled Amplifier Applications

1. Direct Coupled Amplifiers are used for low-frequency applications, such as sensors, transducers, etc.

2. Direct Coupled Amplifiers are used to amplify DC signals also.

3. They are used for low current applications such as Buzzer, Tonner, etc.
Advantages of Direct Coupled Amplifier

1. It does not use any coupling elements that's why the circuit is very simple and easy to make.

2. This circuit is very low-cost.

3. This circuit can amplify both the AC and DC signals.

Disadvantages of Direct Coupled Amplifier

1. It is suitable for low-frequency applications only.

2. It is suitable for low-current applications only.

3. It has a very low bandwidth.

4. The Q-point is not stable due to temperature variations.

Read Also: [Actual] Difference Between Power Amplifier and Voltage Amplifier

RC Coupling in Amplifier

In the below figure, you can see a Two-stage RC Coupled amplifier is shown. Here you can see, there are two transistors are connected. The output of

the first transistor is connected to the input of the second transistor through a capacitor Cc which is called a coupling capacitor.
Here, you can also see a capacitor Ce is connected in parallel with resistor Re, this is the bypass capacitor used to provide the low reactance path for

unwanted noise signal. The resistance RL is used as a load Impedance. So as the stages of the amplifier are connected with coupling devices resistor

and capacitor that's why it is called RC Coupled Amplifier.

Read Also: [BEST] Applications, Advantages, Disadvantages of Differential Amplifier

RC Coupled Amplifier Applications

1. RC coupled amplifiers are used for RF signal, Audio signal amplifying purpose.
2. RC coupled amplifiers are used for preamplification of signals which generated from microphone, audio devices, and signal transmission and

distribution system.

3. These amplifiers are used in Radio and TV communication systems as a small-signal amplifier.

4. RC coupled amplifier is used as voltage amplifiers.

Advantages of RC Coupled Amplifier

1. It is suitable for high-frequency applications.

2. Its Q-factor is stable and has a smooth bandwidth.

3. It provides constant gain over a wide frequency range.

4. As it uses cheaper coupling devices such as resistors, capacitors, it is low-cost and economical.

Disadvantages of RC Coupled Amplifier

1. The main disadvantage is it has very poor impedance matching characteristics.

2. Due to the effective load resistance, it provides low voltage and power gain.

3. It is not suitable for Low-frequency applications.

4. These amplifiers become noisy with increasing their age.

 Read Also: [BEST] Advantages, Applications of FDM or Frequency Division Multiplexing

Transformer Coupling in Amplifier

When the output of the amplifier stage is connected to the input of the next stage through a transformer, then it is called a transformer-coupled

amplifier. The transformer used to couple two stages is called a coupling transformer.

Here, you can see in the below figure, a two-stage transformer-coupled amplifier is shown.
Here, you can see the collector load of the first transformer is replaced by the primary winding of the transformer. The secondary of the transformer is

connected between the potential divider and the base of the next transistor.

Read Also: [Main] Differences Between AM and FM in Communication

Transformer Coupled Amplifier Applications

1. Transformer Coupling in amplifier is mainly used for impedance matching.

2. Transformer coupled amplifiers are used as power amplifiers to drive high power speaker load.

3. Transformer coupling is used in high power audio amplifiers.

Advantages of Transformer Coupled Amplifier

1. It provides a very high gain.

2. It provides a very good impedance matching property.

3. These amplifiers have high efficiency and low losses.

Disadvantages of Transformer Coupling Amplifier

1. These amplifiers have poor frequency response, the gain decreases with an increase in frequency.
2. These amplifiers are costly because of using the transformer as a coupling device.

3. Humming noise occurs in the transformer.

 RC and LC oscillator