F. Y. B.

Tech Academic Year 2023-24

Subject: Basics of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Semester: I
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Experiment No: 6
Name of the Experiment: Measurement of transistor amplifier gain in CE configuration

Performed on: -----------------------------------------------

Submitted on: -----------------------------------------------

Aim: Measurement of transistor amplifier gain in Common Emitter (CE) configuration

Prerequisite:
 Working of transistor and its CE characteristics
 Transistor as an amplifier

Objective:
 To measure the input and output voltages and observe the waveforms at the input and
output terminals of a single stage common emitter amplifier circuit
 To calculate voltage gain of the amplifier

Components and equipment required:

Transistor BC547, resistors, capacitors, function generator, connecting probes and CRO
etc.

Theory:
Data sheet specification of transistor BC547:
The transistor is a three terminal device which consists of two P-N junctions. Its main
utility lies in the ability to amplify weak signals. Some passive components like resistors,
capacitors and biasing supply are connected to transistor to form a circuit called as
amplifier. Thus, amplifier is an electronic circuit which is capable of amplifying or
increasing the level of signals.
The BC547 is an NPN epitaxial silicon transistor. The BC547 transistor is a general-
purpose transistor available in small plastic packages. It is used in general-purpose
switching and amplification applications. Fig. 4.1 indicates symbol and pin out diagram
of BC 547. Data sheet specifications of BC 547 are given in Table 4.1. The information
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 provided by the data sheet is useful to analyse or design a transistor circuit. In this
experiment, a transistor is used in small signal audio amplifier and hence following are
important set of data obtained from the datasheet:
1. Maximum allowable collector-base voltage, 2. Current gain β

Fig 4.1: Pin out of BC 547

TABLE 4.1: Data sheet specifications

Working of Common Emitter Amplifier:

As transistor has three terminals, one of the terminals is made common between input and
output side and three configurations viz. CE, CB and CC are possible. Out of these, CE

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configuration is widely used for amplifier circuit. This configuration provides high voltage gain
and current gain as compared to other configurations. All types of transistor amplifiers operate
using AC signal inputs which alternate between a positive value and a negative value so some
way of "pre-setting" the amplifier circuit to operate between these two maximum or peak
values is required. This is achieved using a process known as biasing. Biasing is very important
in amplifier design as it establishes the correct operating point of the transistor amplifier ready
to receive signals, thereby reducing any distortion to the output signal. Transistor should be
biased in active region when used as an amplifier. Emitter-base junction is forward biased
and collector-base junction is reverse biased. The single stage common emitter amplifier
circuit shown in Fig. 4.2 uses what is commonly called ‘Voltage Divider Biasing’. This type of
biasing arrangement uses two resistors as a potential divider network across the supply with
their centre point supplying the required base bias voltage to the transistor. Voltage divider
biasing is commonly used in the design of bipolar transistor amplifier circuits. This method of
biasing the transistor greatly reduces the effects of variation in transistor parameters. The
quiescent base voltage (Vb) is determined by the potential divider network formed by the two
resistors, R1, R2 and the power supply voltage Vcc as shown in Fig. 4.2. The voltage level
generated at the junction of resistors R1 and R2 holds the base voltage (Vb) constant at a value
below the supply voltage. Then the potential divider network used in the common emitter
amplifier circuit divides the input signal in proportion to the resistance. This bias reference
voltage can be easily calculated using the simple voltage divider formula below:
V CC R2
V B=
(R1 + R2 )
(4.1)
∆ IC
β= (4.2)
∆ IB

Fig 4.2: Circuit diagram of CE Amplifier

The supply voltage, (VCC) also determines the maximum Collector current, IC when the
transistor is switched fully ‘ON’ (saturation), VCE = 0. The Base current IB for the transistor
is found from the collector current, IC and the DC current gain beta, β of the transistor. β is

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sometimes referred to as hFE which is the transistors forward current gain in the common
emitter configuration. It has no units as it is a fixed ratio of the two currents, IC and IB. So a
small change in the base current will cause a large change in the collector current. As the
base-emitter junction is forward-biased, there will be difference of 0.7 V between the base
and emitter.

Coupling Capacitors:

In Common Emitter Amplifier circuits, capacitors CC1 and CC2 are used as coupling
capacitors to separate the AC signals from the DC biasing voltage. This ensures that the
bias condition set up for the circuit operate correctly is not affected by an additional
amplifier stages, as the capacitors will only pass AC signals and block any DC
component. The output AC signal is then superimposed on the biasing of the following
stages. The emitter bypass capacitor, CE is connected between the emitter and ground of
the transistor circuit. This capacitor is an open circuit component for DC bias meaning
that the biasing currents and voltages are not affected by the addition of the capacitor
maintaining a good Q-point stability. However, this bypass capacitor short circuits the
emitter resistor a thigh frequency signals and only RL plus a very small internal resistance
acts as the transistors load increasing the voltage gain to its maximum.

Amplification Process:

When a sinusoidal input signal is applied at the input terminals of the circuit during positive
half cycle, the forward bias of base emitter junction (Vbe) is increased resulting in an
increase in the base current (Ib), as a result collector current Ic increases due to which the
output voltage Vce decreases. Thus in a CE amplifier a positive going input signal is
converted to a negative going output signal i.e, a 180° phase shift is introduced between the
input and output and is an amplified version of input signal.

Voltage Amplifier Gain:

Voltage Gain (Av) = Output Voltage / Input Voltage = Vout / Vin (4.3)

Procedure:
1. Set up the circuit as per the circuit diagram shown in Fig. 4.2.
2. Apply the supply voltage, VCC = 10 V.
3. Apply ac input signal of 2V or in mVolts, 100 Hz frequency at the input of the
amplifier from function generator.
4. Observe the output signal on the CRO and calculate Vout.
V
5. Calculate the gain of the amplifier using the relation Gain = out .
V¿
6. Record the readings in the observation table by varying Vin from 2V to 5V.
7. Draw the input and output voltage waveforms.

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 Input (Vin) Output (Vout) Gain (Vout/Vin)

Observation Table:

Conclusion:
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Note: Students are advised to perform all required calculations and write
the post-lab questions on separate sheets, which should be included along
with this write-up.

Post Lab Questions:

1. Which are the different operating regions of a transistor?
2. What is Voltage Amplification?
3. Why the output signal in a CE amplifier is 180°out of phase with the input?
4. What are the characteristics of a CE amplifier that make it suitable for
amplification?
5. What is β for a CE configuration?

Additional links for more information:

 http://www.buildcircuit.com/darklight-sensor-using-transistor/

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